WARNING!

There are certain herbs and plants traditionally associated with witchcraft but which today would NEVER be used or administered for consumption because of their extremely poisonous nature. Because, however, witches did once use them in their magickal arts, they should rightfully be mentioned in this series. Witches classify those herbs and plants that produce death as “baneful” or “fell.” Modern herbalists will list them as poisonous and will warn against using them or, in some instances, even having contact with them.

Many other fears that are associated with these plants are directly related to their genuine magickal powers. They are not to be toyed with or handled casually precisely because they are so dangerous and powerful. None but the most experienced and knowledgeable practitioner of witchcraft or herbalist should have contact with the plants and herbs listed in this article; they are not to be used to produce a state of intoxication (a “high”) or as an escape from reality.

The plants discussed herein represent many of the darkest products of Nature; they are sure routes to the realm of sickness, inertia, coma, and death, and anyone who procures such plants or herbs without sufficient preparation and education is putting him- or herself in gravest danger.

This is not an over-dramatization. Haunted America Tours, the author, researchers, editors, staff, and all associated websites (hereinafter “we”) value the safety and health of each and every one of you. As such, we caution that any and all information contained herein is for the purpose of information, entertainment, and educational research ONLY.

The reader is strongly cautioned against procurement or use of any of the natural materials and/or by-products detailed below and that such procurement and/or use is purely a matter of choice and is done so at the reader’s OWN RISK, in which instance we are held harmless.

Zombie Origins
There are several possible origins for the word "zombie." These include jumbie, the West Indian term for "ghost," and nzambi, the Kongo word meaning "spirit of a dead person."

Zombies and Haitian Law
A law that seems to condemn zombie creation went into effect in Haiti in 1835 [ref]. Article 246 of the Haitian Penal Code classifies the administration of a substance that creates a prolonged period of lethargy without causing death as attempted murder. If the substance causes the appearance of death and results in the burial of the victim, the act is classified as murder.

Dr. Wade Davis has chronicled his studies of Haitian zombies
in "The Serpent and the Rainbow" and "The Passage of Darkness."

According to the tenets of Voodoo, a dead person can be revived by a bokor or Voodoo sorcerer. Zombies remain under the control of the bokor since they have no will of their own. "Zombi" is also another name of the Voodoo snake god Damballah Wedo, of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the Kongo word nzambi, which means "god". There also exists within the voudon tradition the zombi astral which is a human soul that is captured by a bokor and used to enhance the bokor's power.

In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston encountered the case of Felicia Felix-Mentor, who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. Hurston pursued rumors that the affected persons were given powerful drugs, but she was unable to locate individuals willing to offer much information. She wrote:

"What is more, if science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than gestures of ceremony."

Several decades later, Wade Davis, a Canadian ethnobotanist, presented a pharmacological case for zombies in two books, The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis traveled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by two special powders being entered into the blood stream (usually via a wound). The first, coup de poudre (French: 'powder strike'), induced a 'death-like' state because of tetrodotoxin (TTX), its key ingredient. Tetrodotoxin is the same lethal toxin found in the Japanese delicacy fugu, or pufferfish. At near-lethal doses (LD50= 5-8µg/kg)[5], it can leave a person in a state of near-death for several days, while the person continues to be conscious. The second powder, composed of dissociatives like datura, put the person in a zombie-like state where they seem to have no will of their own. Davis also popularized the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice. There remains considerable skepticism about Davis's claims,[6] although there is wide belief among the Haitian people of the existence of the "zombie drug". The Voodoon religion being somewhat secretive in its practices and codes, it can be very difficult for a foreign scientist to validate or invalidate such claims.

Others have discussed the contribution of the victim's own belief system, possibly leading to compliance with the attacker's will, causing psychogenic ("quasi-hysterical") amnesia, catatonia, or other psychological disorders, which are later misinterpreted as a return from the dead. Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing further highlighted the link between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in the context of schizophrenia and other mental illness, suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the psychological aspects of zombification.

The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988 American horror film, directed by Wes Craven and starring Bill Pullman. The film is very loosely based on a non-fiction book by ethnobotanist Wade Davis, dealing with his experiences in Haiti as he investigates the story of Clairvius Narcisse, allegedly poisoned, buried alive, and given an herbal brew whose effects mimicked zombification.

Clairvius Narcisse was a Haitian man said to have been turned into a living zombie with the use of a combination of drugs. His case attracted considerable interest and some scientific investigation at the time.

ALSO SEE: Clairvius Narcisse: REAL VOODOO ZOMBIE Clairvius Narcisse whose name rings through HAITI, forever associated with the epithet OF The Zombie, Here, then, is the REAL story of Clairvius Narcisse, ...
www.hauntedamericatours.com/zombie/Zombies.php

According to reports, Clairvius was poisoned with a mixture of various natural poisons to simulate death. The instigator of the poisoning was alleged to be his brother, with whom he had quarreled over land.[1] After his "death" and subsequent burial on May 2, 1962, his body was recovered and he was given a paste made from datura which at certain doses has a hallucinogenic effect and can cause memory loss. His new 'master', a bokor (sorcerer), then forced him, alongside many other zombie slaves, to work on a sugar plantation until the master's death in 1964. When the bokor died, and regular doses of the hallucinogen ceased, he eventually regained sanity (unlike many others who had suffered brain damage from being buried alive) and returned to his family after some time, though only after finding his brother had died.

ALSO SEE : VIOLETTE WITH EYES TO DIE FOR! Among these tales one of the most tragically gruesome is that of Little Violette whose name rings through infamy, forever associated with the epithet “The Zombie Child.”

Also See: The Real Reverend's Zombie - Many locals, perhaps hundreds, of all classes and races (even in antebellum days) knew of grand Voodoo Zombie rituals often held at the so-called "Wishing Spot" on the bayou St. John. This is where the blood of roosters was was poured into the black Bayou to feed the spirits. And many so called witness said real Zombies were made.

Hells Bells

Datura is a genus of 12-15 species of vespertine flowering plants belonging to the family Solanaceae. Their exact natural distribution is uncertain, due to extensive cultivation and naturalization throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the globe, but is most likely restricted to the Americas, from the United States south through Mexico (where the highest species diversity occurs) to the mid-latitudes of South America. Some species are reported by some authorities to be native to China, but this is not accepted by the Flora of China, where the three species present are treated as introductions from the Americas. It also grows naturally throughout India and most of Australia. According to the old ayurvedic medicinal system (at least since 2000 BC) in India, this plant has versatile uses in medicinal preparations.

AC/DC - Hells Bells Lyrics

I'm rolling thunder, pouring rain
I'm coming on like a hurricane
My lightning's flashing across the sky
You're only young but you're gonna die
I won't take no prisoners won't spare no lives
Nobody's putting up a fight
I got my bell I'm gonna take you to hell
I'm gonna get ya, satan get ya

Hells bells
Hells bells, you got me ringing
Hells bells, my temperature's high
Hells bells

I'll give you black sensations up and down your spine
If you're into evil, you're a friend of mine
See the white light flashing as I split the night
Cos if good's on the left then I'm sticking to the right
I won't take no prisoners won't spare no lives
Nobody's puttin' up a fight
I got my bell I'm gonna take you to hell
I'm gonna get ya satan get ya

Hells bells
Hells bells, you got me ringing
Hells bells, my temperature's high
Hells bells

Hells bells, satan's coming to you
Hells bells, he's ringing them now
Those hells bells, the temperature's high
Hells bells, across the sky
Hells bells, they're taking you down
Hells bells, they're dragging you down
Hells bells, gonna split the night
Hells bells, there's no way to fight
Hells bells

DATURA. Also called Angel’s Trumpet and Jimson Weed. A poisonous plant producing long, trumpet-shaped blooms that induce a narcotic effect. When administered or ingested in large doses, coma and death result. Extremely poisonous.

Datura is a woody-stalked, leafy herb growing up to 2 meters. It produces spiney seed pods and large white or purple trumpet-shaped flowers that face upward. Most parts of the plant contain atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine. It has a long history of use both in S. America and Europe and is known for causing delirious states and poisonings in uninformed users. Common names include jimson weed, Hell's Bells, Devil's weed, Devil's cucumber, thorn-apple (from the spiny fruit), pricklyburr (similarly), and somewhat paradoxically, both angel's trumpet and devil's trumpet,(from their large trumpet-shaped flowers), or as Nathaniel Hawthorne refers to it in the the Scarlet Letter apple-Peru. The word Datura comes from Hindi dhatura (thorn apple); record of this name dates back only to 1662 (OED). The Hindi derives this word from Sanskrit vedic literature that dates to long before 2000 BC.

They are large, vigorous annual plants or short-lived perennial plants, growing to 1-3 m tall. The leaves are alternate, 10-20 cm long and 5-18 cm broad, with a lobed or toothed margin. The flowers are erect or spreading (not pendulous), trumpet-shaped, 5-20 cm long and 4-12 cm broad at the mouth; color varies from white to yellow, pink, and pale purple. The fruit is a spiny capsule 4-10 cm long and 2-6 cm broad, splitting open when ripe to release the numerous seeds.

Datura species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Hypercompe indecisa.

Species
Datura bernhardii
Datura ceratocaula
Datura discolor - Desert Thorn-apple
Datura ferox
Datura inoxia or Datura innoxia - Angel's Trumpet
Datura kymatocarpa
Datura lanosa
Datura leichhardtii (syn. D. pruinosa) - Leichhardt's Datura
Datura metel
Datura quercifolia - Oak-leaf Thorn-apple
Datura reburra
Datura suaveolens - Known in Costa Rica as "Reina de la noche" (Night's Queen)
Datura stramonium (syn. D. inermis) - Jimsonweed, Thorn-apple
Datura wrightii - Sacred datura, Sacred Thorn-apple
Some species formerly included in Datura are now classified in the separate genus Brugmansia; this genus differs in being woody, making shrubs or small trees, and in having pendulous flowers. Other related genera include Hyoscyamus and Atropa. its also used by sadhus as prayer flower for lord shiva

Datura stramonium is also called jimsonweed. This name comes from the town of Jamestown, Virginia. Various versions of the story exist, but in the most common version, British soldiers sent to quell Bacon's Rebellion of 1676 were accidentally served this unfamiliar plant as food, causing many to be incapacitated for 11 days. Datura wrightii, also called sacred datura or western jimsonweed, has similar effects.

Chaitanya Charitamrita, a 16th century biography of the saint Caitanya who was known for his fervent religious ecstasies, describes an incident (2.18.165, 183) where Muslim soldiers, unable to comprehend his state of trance, apprehend four of his companions on suspicion of their poisoning him with dhutura with an aim to loot his possessions. Upon regaining consciousness, Caitanya attributes his trance episode to epilepsy.

Datura stramonium, known by the common names jimson weed, gypsum weed, ditch weed, stink weed, loco weed,Korean morning glory, Jamestown weed, thorn apple, angel's trumpet, devil's trumpet, devil's snare, devil's seed, mad hatter, crazy tea, malpitte, the Devil's balls and, along with datura metel, zombie cucumber is a common weed in the Nightshade Family. It contains tropane alkaloids that are sometimes used as a hallucinogen. The active ingredients are atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine which are classified as deliriants, or anticholinergics. Due to extremely high risk of overdose, many deaths and hospitalizations are reported from recreational use.

Datura stramonium also called dhatura is an erect annual plant, on average 30 to 150 cm (1-5 feet) tall with erect, forking and purple stems. The leaves are large, 7 to 20 cm (3-8 in) long and have irregular teeth similar to those of oak leaves. The flowers are one of the most distinctive characteristics of Datura stramonium: they are trumpet-shaped, white to purple, and 2-7 in. (5-12.5 cm) long. The flowers, with the same fragrance as Mirabilis jalapa, open and close at irregular intervals during the evening, earning the plant the nickname moonflower. The fruit are walnut-sized, egg-shaped, and covered in prickles, they split into four chambers, each with a few kidney-shaped seeds. All parts of the plant emit a foul odor when crushed or bruised.

Datura stramonium is native to either India or Central America. It was used as a mystical sacrament in both possible places of origin. The Native Americans have used this plant in sacred ceremonies. In some tribes datura was involved in the ceremonies of manhood. The sadhus of Hinduism also used datura as a spiritual tool, smoking it with cannabis in their traditional chillums.

In the United States it is called jimson weed, gypsum weed, angel trumpet, hells bells or more rarely Jamestown weed; it got this name from the town of Jamestown, Virginia, where British soldiers were secretly or accidentally drugged with it, while attempting to suppress Bacon's Rebellion. They spent several days chasing feathers, making monkey faces, generally acting like lunatics, and indeed failed at their mission:

Some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebellion of Bacon (1676); and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows [grimaces] at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.

In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves- though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after 11 days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed. – Robert Beverly, The History and Present State of Virginia, 1705

There was a time when stramonium, a drug obtained from the leaves and seeds of Datura stramonium, was used medicinally (Herbalgram). The alkaloid was known as daturine. From the seeds was made extractum stramonii. The tinctura stramonii was made from the leaves. Stramonium was used to relax the smooth muscle of the bronchial tubes, and thus it was used to treat an asthmatic's bronchial spasm. Cigarettes were made of stramonium leaves which could be smoked; or the tincture was taken internally. Frequently the leaves were powdered together with equal quantities of the leaves of Cannabis and Lobelia mixed with potassium nitrate, and were burned in an open dish. The preparation was reported to give off dense fumes which afforded great relief to the asthmatic paroxysm. Around the turn of the century numerous patent "cures" for asthma contained these ingredients in varying proportions. Daturine was also used to treat acute mania as hyoscyamine was said to produce sleep. Because of the dangers of tropane poisoning, datura is not used medicinally today, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined it to be unfit for human consumption. However, atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine are FDA approved drugs that are used everyday for a variety of conditions.

The Zombie Drug

The Zombie Drug is the term that has come to denote scopolamine. The zombie drug gets its name for its ability to cause retrograde amnesia in victims of rape, theft, and crime. The zombie drug is thought to inhibit its victim's ability to voice free will.

Also known as Scopolamine
Ultimate truth serum
Turns victims into "zombies"

Burundanga has been around since before the discovery of the New World. Its active ingredient, scopolamine, is found in a plant from the nightshade family known as borrachera (drunken binge), which grows in the high Andes.

Exerpt from Wall Street Journal Article, July 3, 1995

Dateline Bogota, Colombia
If you thought cocaine was bad news, wait until you hear about Burandanga.
Burundanga is a kind of voodoo powder obtained from a Colombian local
plant of the nightshade family, a shrub called barrachera, or "drunken
binge". Used for hundreds of years by Natie Americans in religious ceremonies,
the powder when ingested causes victims to lose their will and memory, sometimes
for days. (This drug is also known as Nightshade or "CIA drugs).
When refined the powder yields scopolamine, a well-know drug with
legitimate uses as a sedative and to combat motion sickness. (Mengele of
Nazi fame also had and experimented with scopolamine as a truth serum).
But in Colombia, the drug's most avid fans are street criminals. Crooks
mix the powder with sedatives and feed the Burundanga cocktail to unsuspecting
victims whom they then proceed to rob - or worse.

Doctors here estimate that Colombian hustlers slip the odorless,
colorless and soluble Burundanga (pronounced boor-oon-DAN-ga) in food or
drink to about 500 unwitting victims in the city each month. About half of
the city's total emergency room admissions for poison are Burundanga
victims.

FOR PART TWO CLICK:
http://www.vbs.tv/player.php?bctid=11...

"It is a very serious problem," says Fernando Botero, Colombia's defense
minister. Adds Camilo Uribe, the doctor who runs the city's formost toxicology
clinic and who is in charge of toxicology for all of Bogota's public hospitals.
"It's epidemic".

It seems that everyone in Bogota knows someone who has been victimized by
the drug, Burundanguiado, as the say in Spanish. In one common scenario, a
person will be offered a soda or drink laced with the substance. The next
the person remembers is waking up miles away, extremely groggy and with no
memory of what happened. People soon discover that they have handed over
jewelry, money, car keys, and sometimes have even made multiple bank with-
drawals for the benefit of their assailants. Because Burundanga is often
given at seedy bars or houses of prostitution, many victims are reluctant
to come forward.

"The victim can't say no; he has no will and becomes very open to
suggestion. It's like CHEMICAL HYPNOTISM," says Dr. Uribe. "From the
moment it's given, the victim remembers absolutely nothing of what happened."
He adds, "From a criminal point of view, it's got a lot of advantages".
Architect David Neneses says he was Burundanguiado twice in one week
last December. Mr. Meneses' first encounter with Burundanga took place on a
Friday night when he stopped at a pharmacy to buy antacid. Two well-dressed
men approached hes car. Teh last thing Mr. Menses remembers is one of the
men unwrapping a piece of candy. "I woke up the next day at noon at my
house." he says. He had no memory of how he got there, though the doorman in
his building told Mr. Menseses he saw him com in at 7 a.m. looking nervous
and confused.

On Monday, Mr. Meneses checked with his bank, where he was told that
his ATM card made 13 withdrawals for a total of about $700 on that lost
Friday night. Concerned that he might have unwittingly been involved in
criminal activity, or that his car had been used, Mr. Meneses went to the
local prosecutors office where he made a sworn statement saying he wasn't
respon- sible for anything that had happened during the hours he was under
the influence of the drug.

Three days later, the luckless Mr. Meneses noticed that he had a flat
tire. Two men on the street approached him and offered to change it. "I
remember they gave me something to drink, which I can't imagine why I
drank." he says. Police found him asleep in his car six hours later. He had
been robbed of his radio and about $125.

These days, Mr. Meneses is careful to drive with the windows rolled up.
He doesn't venture out much at night anymore. "Burundanga is a very dangerous
weapon in the hands of the underworld" he says.
Not all cases of Burundanga involve theft or robbery. Sometimes victims
have been used as mules to carry cocaine, says Dr. Uribe's brother Manuel, a
neurologist practicing at the clinic. In one incident, says Manuel Uribe, a
well-known Colombian diplomat disappered shortly after leaving a function in
Bogota, only to reappear in Chile under arrest for cocaine smuggling. Medical
tests showed he had been under the influence of Burundanga, and no charges
were filed.
Camilo Uribe said that in a minority of cases Burundanga is used to lure
young women who are then abused sexually. When they are found days later,
they have no memory of what has happened to them. "You see that a lot with
university coeds." he says.
Camilo Uribe is often called by companies and embassies to talk about the
perils of Burundanga. One diplomatic mission that takes the problem very
seriously is the U.S. Embassy. Its orientation manual warns freshman
diplomats never to visit bars or nightclubs alone. "Druggings in group
situations are far less common" the manual says, adding that food and drinks
should never be left unattended. At the Colombian unit of Dow Chemical Co.
(now there's an organization that knows about drugs!) security officials
periodically tell employees how to avoid getting Burundanguiado "There have
been many cases." says Oswaldo Parra, the company's legal officer. "It's a
very common practice in Colombia."
Curiosly, just next door in Ecuador, where the plant is grown commercially
for medical purposes, its criminal use is unknown. Instead, the plant is the
subject of poetry and myth. If one sleeps under the plant in Ecuador, he
will be able to tell the future, legends say.
Here, however, Pedro Gomez Silva, a forensic chemical expert, tells police
cadets that for fear of Burundanga, Colombians shouldn't accept food, drinks
or cigarettes from strangers, nor buy them from street vendors.
What's more, to be on the safe side, Colombians shouldn't help when asked
for directions or the time of day. And forget sidewalk romances. The way things
go with Burundanga, flirting with a stranger could lead to a really lost
weekend.

End article.

NOTE. THIS SUBSTANCE CAN BE GIVEN BY LIQUID, CIGARETTE OR INHALANT. IT IS
TASTELESS AND ODERLESS AND CAN GIVEN WITH A DRUG THAT MAKES THE VICTIM
TEMPORARILY BLIIND. THE VICTIM UNDER THIS DRUG, WITH AN EXPERIENCED OPERATOR, WILL TELL THE TRUTH TO ANY QUESTION ASKED. THE VICTIM MAY HAVE NO MEMORY OF THE EVENT, OR MAY REMEMBER THE EVENT AS A DREAM. MEMORIES OF EVENTS WHILE ON THIS DRUG MAY COME INTO CONCIOUSNESS MANY YEARS LATER. THE CIA/FBI/NSA AND MOST POLICE DEPARTMENTS KNOW ABOUT THESE DRUGS. THIS DRUG IS USED BY SECURITY FORCES TO "MAKE PEOPLE FORGET" OTHER EVENTS. VICTIMS OF THIS DRUG OFTEN REPORT DISTORTED VISION, ESPECIALLY THINGS BEING MADE WIDE AND SMALL, OR THE GIVER'S HEAD STARTING TO STRETCH.

References
^ a b http://science.howstuffworks.com/zombie.htm
^ a b http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/zombie
^ http://www.wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?zombie
^ Gallaher, Tim (1997). Zora Neale Hurston, American Author
^ tetrodotoxin
^ http://news.softpedia.com/news/to-Turn-Zombie-44339.shtml
^ Michael Page and Robert Ingpen : Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were: Creatures, Places, and People, 1987. ISBN 0-14-010008-3
^ Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, transl. with intro. (1985,1989). The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. ISBN 0-8047-1711-7. Glossary, Appendices, Appendix (Chapter XII=Tablet XII). A line-by-line translation (Chapters I-XI).}}
^ Chalmers, David. 1995. "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness", Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 200-219
^ Shopping Spree of the Dead!. Retrieved on 2007-02-26.
^ Donaldson, Bob, and Roberts, Larry. A walk with zombies, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. October 30, 2006.