European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 10, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Daily Magazine up photo Wade Davis flew to Haiti to investigate researcher probes the mysteries of voodoo begin Delguercio United press International Wade a Harvard University Bot any was asked by his adviser three years ago to Fly to Haiti and investigate whether there was any truth to the voodoo myth of after a series of expeditions Over he re turned to Cambridge with the Materi Al for a nonfiction Book said to read like a spy novel and the secret formula for creating 1 left knowing nothing about the country and arrived with Only my said i was extremely i opened a Pandora Box that consumed three years of the Blu eyed Canadian is currently in seclusion on a Virginia farm recovering from his working on the to be published in the fall by Simon and called the Serpent and the and finishing his the first thing he discovered was that voodoo and zombies were very different from the Way they have been portrayed in the voodoo is a sophisticated Reli Gion with african it is practice by the vast major Ity of haitians As Well As people on other Caribbean islands and in it has a system of a system of education and a system of Law and it appears that this Zombie thing May be linked to the whole system of social said whose Virginia log Cabin is filled with voodoo Indian headbands and zombies Are not people who have risen from the they Are people who have been Given a drug that mimics paralysing them and reducing their heart and breathing rates to almost yet they remain was sent to Haiti by the Harvard botanical the worlds Foremost institution for the study of psychoactive most of which Are made from As a graduate student at the he was an expert on plan derived up photo haitian dancers perform voodoo ritual to drive out evil april 1985 if there was any basis to the experts it probably had something to do with a drug made from in Davis had worked in the past with natives of the Amazon Jungle and the indians of Northern Cana his native while working As a As it turned the Active ingredient in the secret formula for creation of zombies was a called which is taken from Puffer fish and is 500 times More powerful than its the most powerful no protein Poison in the Davis a drop that can rest on the head of a pin is enough to he keeps a 2inch vial of the formula with it looks like dry Black the formula also contains parts of sea tarantulas and human basically a Potpourri of weird said the formula is thought to be ground into the skin of intended they begin to feel nauseous and have difficulty then they begin to get a pin Sand Needles feeling in their which progresses to their whole they become paralysed and their blood pressure drops very their lips turn Blue for Lack of the process takes about six the first medically documented Case of a Zombie was a victim named Clervius who was pronounced dead in 1962 by an american doctor living in Narcisse was but in 1982 he returned to his Hometown his fingerprints were checked by Scotland Yard and matched those of the dead Davis Narcisse told haitian psychiatrist Lamarque Douyon facts about his family that Only the dead Man could have the victim said he remembers being pronounced remembers hearing his sister crying at his funeral and remembers being that a voodoo priest dug him up from his grave and put him on a he said he but did not return to his Hometown for 20 years because he feared his who he said had him made into a Zombie in the first after being dug the victim would be Given another which was thought to be an but Davis realized that if the victim survived the initial no antidote would be the second drug May have been one that induces amnesia and making the victim dependent on the people who drugged for who place High value on their Independence and free becoming a Zombie can be a Fate worse than Davis said people Are not made into zombies for just any they Are accused of breaking Strick voodoo secret similar to groups in Western hold tribunals to determine a persons guilt or if found the court that the formula be rubbed on their the biggest Challenge was separating spiritual beliefs from pharmacological said once the Case of Clervius Narcisse was researchers contacted Richard Evans director of the botanical Schultes in turn assigned Davis to the he asked me if i was doing anything important during the next month or and i so he told me to get on the next plane to said my assignment was to go Down there and get hold of the drug and see if in fact it had anything interesting in in a series of that is what i Davis published his findings in journal of a Swiss science journal concerned with the study of ancient when news of the report appeared recently in Hai Tian voodoo priests they said they did not believe outsiders could have gotten hold of the Well guarded they have a Long Way to one voodoo priest Davis said he posed As a representative of the mafia in order to obtain the Tetrad toxin is a Well known being found in the Puffer fish commonly eaten by the chinese and in special chefs Are licensed to prepare the they remove enough Poison to make it non yet enough remains to make diners they feel euphoria and tingling up and Down their spines and in their said because of it 100 people die each Davis Hopes his Book and the publicity from his discovery will do More than simply generate an interest in it will Force people to look at themselves carefully before judging something they dont he in interested in promoting the wonder of cultural and biological this is a wonderful Way of doing it shows that Many things make sense within a partic ular the stars and stripes Page 13