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Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained Season four, episode eight, Death's Pale Flag,

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Speaker 1: Part two. Stepping off the plane, Davis was hit instantly

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Speaker 1: by the humidity and thick, warm air, a startling contrast

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Speaker 1: to the dry coolness of Boston. With only a few

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Speaker 1: weeks to get to the bottom of the zombie phenomenon,

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Speaker 1: he swiftly made his way to the hotel in Porto

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Speaker 1: Prance before making a phone call to the residence of

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Speaker 1: his first contact, Max Beauvoir. The forty five year old

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Speaker 1: Beauvoir was born in Haiti and later educated in the

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Speaker 1: United States and France, where he studied chemistry, eventually settling

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Speaker 1: in Massachusetts to work as a chemical engineer. The death

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Speaker 1: of his father, however, led him back to his home land,

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Speaker 1: where in nineteen seventy three he trained to become a

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Speaker 1: voodoo priest, also known as a houngen. The next year,

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Speaker 1: Bauvois established a temple in his home, which had since

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Speaker 1: become known for the elaborate foodoo ceremonies he conducted there.

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Speaker 1: Pulling up to Bouvoir's home, Davis was greeted by the

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Speaker 1: man himself, dressed sharply in a white linen shirt, having

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Speaker 1: been expecting the young ethnobotanist, Bauvois showed Davis around his

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Speaker 1: house before offering him a seat in the garden to

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Speaker 1: discuss the matter at hand. Beauvois was entreged by Davis

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Speaker 1: in Kline's assumption that it was some kind of potion

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Speaker 1: or poison that enabled the zombie state of which they

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Speaker 1: had heard so much. You don't agree, asked Davis. Bauvois

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Speaker 1: smiled to himself in response and looked off into the

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Speaker 1: palm trees that surrounded his garden. If you're trying to

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Speaker 1: find a poison, mister Davis, you will be a long

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Speaker 1: time looking for it. As Bouvois went on to explain,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't a poison that created the zombie state, it

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Speaker 1: was the magic of the bocor the voodoo sorcerer that

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Speaker 1: created it. Bauvois laughed at the look of surprise on

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Speaker 1: Davis's face and invited him to a ceremony he was

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Speaker 1: conducting in his home that night. Perhaps then he thought

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Speaker 1: Davis might get a better idea of just what exactly

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Speaker 1: he was dealing with. Later that night, after arriving at

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Speaker 1: Bouvoir's home, Davis was whizzed through to a dark, tortulit

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Speaker 1: courtyard crammed full of people from every corner of the earth,

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Speaker 1: from simple tourists to academics, and even some French sailors

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Speaker 1: who had newly arrived at the local port. All had

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Speaker 1: come to the ceremony for which beau Noir had become

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Speaker 1: increasingly infamous. Davis was led toward a table at the

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Speaker 1: back at which Boboir was sitting, nodding to his guest

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Speaker 1: to take a seat. Davis was just about to speak

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Speaker 1: when the frantic shaking of a rattle was heard from

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Speaker 1: the other side of the courtyard. Moments later, a hounds

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Speaker 1: dis appeared a female initiate of the temple, followed by

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Speaker 1: a mambo, a voodoo and priestess, and together they began

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Speaker 1: an elaborate ritual to invoke the voodoo spirits. Moments later,

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Speaker 1: Bauoir himself got up to join them, holding his own

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Speaker 1: rattle aloft. He proceeded to deliver a prayer, shaking the

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Speaker 1: rattle as he read. An ominous dumping of drums soon

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Speaker 1: followed as more initiates joined the throng, who seemed to

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Speaker 1: quickly become taken over by the rhythm. Until finally one

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Speaker 1: of them appeared to become possessed by a spirit. Davis

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Speaker 1: watched an astonishment as she tore across the courtyard, lifting

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Speaker 1: men into the air, chewing down on glass tumblers, and

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Speaker 1: at one point tearing the head off a live dove

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Speaker 1: with her bare teeth. The ceremony continued throughout the night,

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Speaker 1: becoming increasingly chaotic, before finally ending with one supposedly possessed

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Speaker 1: an isship taking a hot coal from an open fire

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Speaker 1: and keeping it in her mouth for over three minutes.

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Speaker 1: Davis left soon after, utterly perplexed by what he had seen.

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Speaker 1: Though he had little doubt that Bovoirs shows were greatly

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Speaker 1: hammed up for the tourists who paid good money to

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Speaker 1: see them, what he couldn't deny was that he had

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Speaker 1: just seen a woman holding a burning piece of coal

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Speaker 1: in her mouth for three minutes without injury. The following morning,

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Speaker 1: Davis rose early, his thoughts still consumed by the events

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Speaker 1: of the previous night, having spoken to Bovoir, only to

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Speaker 1: be left with more questions than he had before. It

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Speaker 1: was time to pay a visit to the Bocor Marcel Pierre.

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Speaker 1: Back in the early fifties, the BBC had been making

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Speaker 1: a documentary about Haitian culture and had managed to convince

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Speaker 1: Pierre to provide them with some voodoo poison. It was

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Speaker 1: this poison that doctor Klein had tested on rhesus monkeys,

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Speaker 1: finding it to have severe paralyzing properties, which he also

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Speaker 1: believed to be the most likely source of the zombie myth.

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Speaker 1: Traveling with Bouvoir's daughter Rachel as an interpreter, Davis made

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Speaker 1: his way out of the docks at porto' prance and

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Speaker 1: headed north into the countryside. After two hours, traveling through

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Speaker 1: thick green cane fields and scrub lands, they arrived at

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Speaker 1: the small coastal town of Saint Mark. As a local bacorp,

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Speaker 1: Marcel Pierre was well known for offering a range of

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Speaker 1: different services provided the price was right, though it wasn't

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Speaker 1: one he was especially open about. It was believed that

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Speaker 1: creating zombies was just one such service. Arriving at his

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Speaker 1: house just after midday, Rachel explained to Pierre that Davis

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Speaker 1: was a very discreet and influential man from New York

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Speaker 1: who was hoping to procure his services. Having convinced Pierre

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Speaker 1: that he was legitimate and that he was willing to

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Speaker 1: pay any price, The bocorp eventually agreed to let the

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Speaker 1: pair into his home. As Davis explained, he was interested

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Speaker 1: specifically in the potion used to make a zombie and

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Speaker 1: wondered if it might be possible to see an example

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Speaker 1: of it. Pierre paused for a moment, then beckoned for

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Speaker 1: the pair to follow him, leading them through his house

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Speaker 1: and into his makeshift temple come apothecary at the back

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Speaker 1: of it. The room was small and almost completely unlit,

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Speaker 1: at the center of which stood an altar covered in

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Speaker 1: lots of different artifacts. Strange things were littered about the place,

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Speaker 1: including bright colored powders in jars, an abundance of feathers,

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Speaker 1: and a variety of doll's heads, as well as three skulls,

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Speaker 1: one being a dog and the other two human. Picking

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Speaker 1: up a small bottle containing some kind of oil, he

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Speaker 1: poured it onto his hands and other exposed body parts,

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Speaker 1: asking the others to do the same. Then he plucked

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Speaker 1: a small white bottle from a shelf, wrapped a cloth

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Speaker 1: around his mouth and nose, then showed them the light

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Speaker 1: brown powder inside it. Returning to the front of the house,

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Speaker 1: Pierre gave his price for the full service, as well

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Speaker 1: as making the potion and then the zombie. Davis agreed

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Speaker 1: to the price on one condition that he be allowed

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Speaker 1: to watch Pierre putting the potion together. Though reluctant at first,

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Speaker 1: Pierre nodded back in agreement. Having arrived early at Pierre's

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Speaker 1: home the next day, Davis and Rachel Beauvoir were taken

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Speaker 1: to a local cemetery. However, since Davis had no formal

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Speaker 1: permission to be there, two local military guards prevented the

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Speaker 1: group from entering. Unsure what they were doing there in

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Speaker 1: the first place, Pierre explained that the first ingredient they

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Speaker 1: needed was a sample of human bone. It wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: a problem, however, since he had plenty to go around

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Speaker 1: back at his home. For the rest of the day,

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Speaker 1: the three traveled about the local countryside, procuring the various

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Speaker 1: items needed to make the zombie potion. Having bought various

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Speaker 1: multicolored talks from a local chemist and gathered some leaves

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Speaker 1: from a vacant field, the three of them eventually returned

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Speaker 1: to Pierre's temple. There, Davis watched carefully as Pierre measured

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Speaker 1: out the ingredients, grinding them down in a pestle and

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Speaker 1: mortar before topping it all off with some shavings of

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Speaker 1: human skull. A short time later, he handed the ethnobotanist

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Speaker 1: a small jar of dark green powder. Returning to Max

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Speaker 1: Bovoir's house later that day, the houndund confirmed what Davis

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Speaker 1: already knew. The powder was completely useless. It was a

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Speaker 1: scam concocted by Pierre for gullible Westerners looking for the

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Speaker 1: apparent zombie potion. Having thought a little more on doctor

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Speaker 1: Klein's theory that some kind of natural, possibly plant based

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Speaker 1: substance was responsible for the zombie effect, Davis wondered if

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Speaker 1: it had something to do with the datura plant, a

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Speaker 1: plant well known to be psychoactive that was commonly used

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Speaker 1: in West Africa as a stupefying poison. Davis also knew

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Speaker 1: that the effects of datura could be neutralized by the calabarbane,

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Speaker 1: which might explain how the apparent zombies were first created

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Speaker 1: and then supposedly resurrected. Despite spending the next few days

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Speaker 1: searching high and low for any sign of those plants,

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Speaker 1: Davis found little evidence for them. Having spent almost a

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Speaker 1: week by now in Haiti, Davis felt no closer to

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Speaker 1: finding what he came for it was time to get

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Speaker 1: in touch with the last of doctor Clent's contacts, the

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Speaker 1: psychiatrist and his former student, Lamarque dor June. Since studying undeclined,

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Speaker 1: Doyjune had risen to become Haiti's leading psychiatrist and often

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Speaker 1: found his Western medical training clashing with Haitian culture, and

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Speaker 1: rarely more so than on the topic of zombies. Like

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Speaker 1: most Haitians, as a child, doy June had been equally

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Speaker 1: terrified and fascinated by the stories of the brain dead

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Speaker 1: creatures stalking the land. However, he had never once believed

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Speaker 1: it to be anything other than just old folk tales.

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Speaker 1: All that changed when he enrolled at McGill University. It

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Speaker 1: was at McGill, under the guidance of controversial psychiatrist Professor

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Speaker 1: Ewan Cameron, that many of the CIA's mk Ultra trials

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Speaker 1: were conducted. Project mk Ultra was the code name given

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Speaker 1: to a program of experiments undertaken by the United States

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Speaker 1: highly secretive Central Intelligence Agency. Though the CIA have now

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Speaker 1: admitted to the existence of the program, there is doubtless

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Speaker 1: much about it that we will never know. What is known, however,

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Speaker 1: was that the project was a mind control program. Utilizing

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Speaker 1: the use of psychotropic drugs, often using large quantities of

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Speaker 1: LSD to conduct brainwashing experiments. These experiments were conducted largely

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Speaker 1: on human test subjects, and Doyoune is thought to be

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Speaker 1: one of the many researchers who participated in the program.

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Speaker 1: What Doyoune observed during these experiments reminded him precisely of

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Speaker 1: the accounts he had heard of zombies since he was

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Speaker 1: a child. It was only then that he realized the

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Speaker 1: stories might not be completely bogars after all. Though he

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Speaker 1: had little time for the supernatural. Like client, Doyjune believed

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Speaker 1: it could well be possible that some kind of agent

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Speaker 1: was being used to dramatically slow a victim's metabolism to

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Speaker 1: make them appear dead. The victim could then even be

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Speaker 1: buried for a few hours before somehow being reawakened later on.

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Speaker 1: Doyune's best guess was that it had something to do

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Speaker 1: with what locals referred to as the zombie cucumber. Davis

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Speaker 1: recognized this immediately as another term for the datura plant.

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Speaker 1: Despite Doyune and Kline's theory, Davis was beginning to wonder

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Speaker 1: if the whole zombie phenomena wasn't just a myth after all.

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Speaker 1: At that Doyjune left the room, reappearing moments later with

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Speaker 1: two of his current patients suggesting that they might be

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Speaker 1: the best people to talk about it. One was a

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Speaker 1: middle aged woman whom Doyune introduced as Femt. The other

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Speaker 1: Davis recognized instantly from the polaroid he had been given

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Speaker 1: back in doctor Kleine's apartment. It was none other than

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Speaker 1: Clervius nar Cease. That afternoon, Davis sat quietly as Clervius

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Speaker 1: tried his best to explain just what exactly had happened

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Speaker 1: to him. Are you always taking care of your family?

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Speaker 1: Do you often take care of others and not yourself?

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Speaker 1: Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make

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Speaker 1: Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash

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Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com

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Speaker 1: slash Unexplained podcast. Back in April nineteen sixty two, Clavius

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Speaker 1: had rarely been sick in all his life when one

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Speaker 1: morning he felt suddenly weak and nauseous, and by the

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Speaker 1: afternoon he was struggling to breathe. Realizing he was in

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Speaker 1: serious trouble, he arranged a lift to the nearest hospital.

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Speaker 1: On arrival, by which time he was now coughing up blood.

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Speaker 1: He was rushed through to a bed and immediately examined

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Speaker 1: Clavius was admitted straight away and treated for a pulmonary

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Speaker 1: edema and hypertension. As his condition got worse over the

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Speaker 1: were drifting continually in and out of a dream, until

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Speaker 1: finally he found that he could no longer move at all.

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Speaker 1: At some point, though he couldn't see or feel anything,

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Speaker 1: he was able to hear the doctors rushing about his

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Speaker 1: bed before coming to a stop. Suddenly. Then he heard

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Speaker 1: a voice pronouncing him dead. Next he heard the sound

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Speaker 1: of someone weeping, recognizing it as his youngest sister, who

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Speaker 1: had been sat at his bedside the whole time. Clavius

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Speaker 1: had vague recollections of being lifted and placed into a box,

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Speaker 1: then feeling something tugging at his face. He later discovered

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Speaker 1: this to have been a nail driven into the coffin

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Speaker 1: lid and all the way through his cheek. Soon after

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Speaker 1: that was a peculiar sensation of floating down, followed by

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Speaker 1: hearing the clattering of what he later realized with shovel

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Speaker 1: loads of dirt raining down on top of him. At

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Speaker 1: some point, Clervius became aware that he was no longer underground.

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Speaker 1: Pulled up into fresh air, he was beaten and bundled

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Speaker 1: into a vehicle, then driven to a plantation thirty miles

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Speaker 1: to the north of where he had been buried. Clervius

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Speaker 1: then claimed he toiled away for years as a slave

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Speaker 1: on the plantation from sunset to sunrise, surviving only on

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Speaker 1: just one meal a day alongside a host of other

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Speaker 1: zombies just like himself. Though he missed his home and

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Speaker 1: family desperately, he seemed incapable of making any decisions for himself.

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Speaker 1: It was like he had been suspended in a permanent nightmare.

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Speaker 1: It wouldn't be until ten years later that Clervius finally

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Speaker 1: managed to escape after one of the captives killed the

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Speaker 1: bacor who was running the plantation. With their master gone,

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Speaker 1: the captives and their various lethargic states slowly dispersed and

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Speaker 1: eventually found their ways home. As his senses slowly came

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Speaker 1: back to him, Clervius realized that it was most likely

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Speaker 1: his brother, who he had fallen out with over a

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Speaker 1: land dispute, that had been responsible for turning him into

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Speaker 1: a zombie. It wasn't until he found out his brother

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Speaker 1: had died that Clavius was finally able to return home.

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Speaker 1: It was clear to Davis that Clervius and fem T,

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Speaker 1: whose own story was equally harrowing, were not making any

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Speaker 1: of it up. Having relayed his findings to Max Bove,

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Speaker 1: only to again be frustrated by the Houngund's unwillingness to

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Speaker 1: divulge more information, Davis decided to pay Marcel Pierre another visit.

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Speaker 1: Finding Pierre at a local bar that he owned in

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Speaker 1: Saint Mark, Davis accused him of making a bogus potion

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Speaker 1: for him and questioned whether he was a real boucour

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Speaker 1: at all. Angered by the slight, Pierre offered Davis another

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Speaker 1: vial of the apparent potion, challenging him to apply it

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Speaker 1: to himself if he really thought he was a charlatan.

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Speaker 1: Davis Duie obliged, pouring the powder onto his arm, only

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Speaker 1: to pull it away at the last minute without Pierre noticing.

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Speaker 1: Impressed by Davis's show of courage, Pierre relented and agreed

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Speaker 1: to show him how it was really made. Shortly after midnight,

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Speaker 1: just to the north of Saint Mark, with the rumble

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Speaker 1: of thunder coming from somewhere within the dark, thick clouds above, Davis, Pierre,

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Speaker 1: and three of his helpers made their way to a

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Speaker 1: nearby cemetery as lightning flashed intermittently in the sky above.

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Speaker 1: One of the helpers, Shone, brought a spade down into

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Speaker 1: the earth and proceeded to shovel away at it until Finally,

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Speaker 1: a small coffin was revealed, having been buried there only

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Speaker 1: a month or so before. Inside it lay the decomposed

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Speaker 1: body of a small child, still wearing the bonnet and

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Speaker 1: dress she had been buried in three days later. Now

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Speaker 1: back in Pierre's temple, Davis watched as Jean crushed the

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Speaker 1: skull of the dead infant and placed the pieces in

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Speaker 1: a jar. Davis returned again later that night as Pierre

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Speaker 1: prepared a grille, which was then lit on fire, pouring

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Speaker 1: alcohol over his skin. Pierre then set that alight too,

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Speaker 1: and instructed the others to do the same. Johan placed

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Speaker 1: the jar of skull pieces on the ground next to

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Speaker 1: the grill, while Pierre pulled a sack down from a

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Speaker 1: nearby table and removed from it two freshly killed lizards

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Speaker 1: and a large dead toad which had been flattened and dried.

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Speaker 1: Wrapped around its leg appeared to be some kind of

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Speaker 1: dried sea snake, all of which was placed on top

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Speaker 1: of the grill. Added to which were two types of fish,

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Speaker 1: of which Davis recognized one as a puffer fish. The

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Speaker 1: bones of the child's skull were then placed over the

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Speaker 1: hot coals and roasted until they turned black as the

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Speaker 1: various elements cooked. John took a human tibia from the

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Speaker 1: side and grated it into a cup before adding it

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Speaker 1: to a large pescelin mortar along with the pieces of

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Speaker 1: all the cooked ingredients. Finally, some plants were added to

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Speaker 1: the mix, a species of albitsia known as chachar in Haiti,

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Speaker 1: and the other being one known locally as the itching

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Speaker 1: p As Jeanne pounded at the mixture, Pierre, who never

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Speaker 1: once touched it, lay back in the shade and shouted

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Speaker 1: out instructions. With the mixture almost ready, he began to

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Speaker 1: sing until the process was complete. Having carefully noted down

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Speaker 1: everything he'd seen, Davis was satisfied he had everything he

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Speaker 1: needed to take back Decline, with the exception of one thing.

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Speaker 1: If this was the potion that induced the deathlike state,

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Speaker 1: what did Pierre use as the antidote to bring the

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Speaker 1: victims out of it and keep them zombified? But Pierre

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Speaker 1: was confused. The only antidote he made was to stop

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Speaker 1: people falling victim to the poison, such as what they

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Speaker 1: had rubbed on themselves before they put the ingredients together.

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Speaker 1: There was no antidote, as Pierre went on to explain,

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Speaker 1: After the poison was administered and the victim had appeared

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Speaker 1: to have died, the bacoorp merely entered the cemetery and

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Speaker 1: called out to the victim's name. It was their power

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Speaker 1: alone that resurrected the victims and turned them into zombies.

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Speaker 1: Realizing he had now got all he could from Pierre,

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Speaker 1: Davis thanked him for the potion and returned to his hotel.

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Speaker 1: A few days later, he was back at Harvard, clutching

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Speaker 1: the violet powder, which he hoped might finally give them

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Speaker 1: some answers. After detailing everything he discovered to doctor Kline,

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Speaker 1: the pair set about trying to isolate what ingredients might

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Speaker 1: be responsible for manifesting the zombie symptoms. The itching pea

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00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:55,200
Speaker 1: plant was known to have psychoactive seeds, which were also

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Speaker 1: used in Columbia to treat cholera and parasites. The other

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00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:03,399
Speaker 1: Alpitsia lebeck, was known to have been used as a

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Speaker 1: fish poison by some tribes in West Africa, but more significantly,

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Speaker 1: it could also interfere with respiration. The lizards and the

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Speaker 1: sea snake, which turned out to be a worm, had

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Speaker 1: no apparent psychoactive properties. The toad, however, which was identified

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Speaker 1: as a Buffo Marinus was highly venomous. Its secretions not

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Speaker 1: only contained powerful heart stimulants that could have been responsible

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Speaker 1: for Clavius's hypertension, but was also potentially hallucinogenic, none of

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Speaker 1: which was particularly revelatory to Davis and Kline. Certainly, there

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Speaker 1: was nothing there that could account for the extraordinary experience

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Speaker 1: detailed by Clavius and other apparent sufferers of zombification. But

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Speaker 1: then they discovered something else. It had been almost a

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Speaker 1: week since Davis sent the fish off to be analyzed,

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Speaker 1: but it was well worth the weight. Though one of

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Speaker 1: them was completely irrelevant, the other, which was indeed a

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00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:11,200
Speaker 1: puffer fish, was found to contain high levels of tetrodotoxin,

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Speaker 1: a highly effective nerve toxin. In fact, according to the

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Speaker 1: analyst who had picked it up, if you're looking for

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00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:24,120
Speaker 1: something to induce paralysis in a human, there was nothing stronger.

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Speaker 1: Though Davis hadn't thought about it at the time. There

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Speaker 1: existed a vast number of accounts of puffer fish poisoning,

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Speaker 1: with most coming from Japan, where the fish, known there

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Speaker 1: as fugu, is considered a high delicacy. In preparing fugu,

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Speaker 1: chefs are supposed to remove most of its poison to

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Speaker 1: make it non lethal, while leaving just enough to create

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Speaker 1: a mild sense of euphoria when eating it, It doesn't

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Speaker 1: always go to Tetrodotoxin is thought to be one hundred

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Speaker 1: and sixty thousand times stronger than cocaine, while a single

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Speaker 1: pinhead sized dose of it is five hundred times stronger

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Speaker 1: than cyanide. Victims of FuGO poisoning, at least those who

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Speaker 1: are fortunate enough to survive it, will remain completely paralyzed

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Speaker 1: for hours, unable to speak or move, despite being conscious

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Speaker 1: the entire time. Furthermore, some individuals having entered such a

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Speaker 1: state are known to have been certified dead, even being

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Speaker 1: nailed into coffins, before suddenly seeming to miraculously revive. Davis

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Speaker 1: was ecstatic. It seemed finally they had solved the mystery

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Speaker 1: of how someone might appear dead only to be later resurrected.

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Speaker 1: Davis speculated that the poison could be easily rubbed onto

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Speaker 1: a victim's skin, leading to feelings of nausea and difficulty

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Speaker 1: in breathing within hours. Within six hours, a victim's metabolism

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Speaker 1: could be so significantly lowered that their vital signs become

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Speaker 1: indistinguishable from death. There was only one problem. None of

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Speaker 1: this explained how an individual, having been poisoned was then

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Speaker 1: turned into an apparent zombie. Though Davis had his theories,

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Speaker 1: he would ultimately never discover the answer. Despite having countless

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Speaker 1: opportunities to witness the apparent resurrection ceremony, there was always

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Speaker 1: the possibility he would merely have been witnessing an expensive

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Speaker 1: contric or worse, that by requesting to see it, he

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Speaker 1: would then be responsible for turning someone into a zombie.

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Speaker 1: A few years after returning from his first trip to Haiti,

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Speaker 1: Wade Davis detailed the full account of his experiences there

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Speaker 1: in his book The Serpent and the Rainbow, which was

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Speaker 1: also used as the basis Wes Craven's fictional horror film

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Speaker 1: of the same name. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained

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Speaker 1: no matter how large or small, are massively appreciated. All

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Speaker 1: elements of Unexplained are produced by me, Richard McClain Smith.

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