.jpg){kind=small}
INTRODUCTION
In 1988, Wes Craven directed and released one of my favorite horror movies of all time—The Serpent and the Rainbow, starring Bill Pullman in the lead role. The movie centers on a Harvard anthropologist, Dennis Alan, who is approached by a pharmaceutical company interested in a drug that is claimed to create zombies. The company sends Dr. Alan to Haiti, where he hears a local legend about a man named Christophe recently walked into town---seven years after dying and being buried in the local cemetery. I first saw the movie on network television when I was 8 or 9 years old, and there is one scene where Dr. Alan is buried alive that, to this day, still creeps me out. The film is a horror classic and to me, at least, perfectly encapsulates horror in the 80’s.
But did you know, The Serpent and the Rainbow, is a loose adaptation of a real-life horror story? In 1980, in the city of L’Estere, a man claiming to be Clairvius Narcisse walked into town and appeared to family members and local villagers.
But here’s the thing: Clairvius Narcisse had died and been buried in 1962—18 years before his alleged reappearance. And the story he told is the stuff of literal nightmares and horror movies—he claimed to have been zombified by a local bokor priest.
In this episode of The Red Treehouse, we’re going to explore the mystifying and scary story of Clairvius Narcisse. Did he really die and come back as a zombie? Or is there a more natural explanation?
I’ll share the story. You decide for yourself.
I’m your host, Will. Welcome to The Red Treehouse.
CLAIRVIUS NARCISSE, THE “ZOMBIE MAN”
According to Webster’s Dictionary, a zombie is “a will-less and speechless human held to have died and been supernaturally reanimated. According to Wikipedia, a zombie is “a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse.” And according to Brittanica, a zombie is “a dead person who is able to move because of magic according to some religions and in stories, movies, etc.” Each of these definitions have at least two things in common:
A zombie is a dead person.
A zombie is a dead person who has been reanimated, or brought back to life, by some magical or supernatural occurrence.
Something interesting: when we think of zombies, we often think of disease-infected, flesh-eating reanimated corpses. And I have no doubt, for many of us, our understanding of zombies is more informed by Hollywood than real-life, more fiction than fact.
George Romero kicked off the zombie craze with 1968’s horror classic, Night of the Living Dead. And in the nearly 60 years since its release, zombie movies and television shows have become a staple in the genre. At the height of the zombie-craze in the early to mid-2010s, I remember joking about preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse, and though they were interesting and funny conversations, I knew there were no such things as zombies.
Except, perhaps, in the case of Clairvius Narcisse, a Haitian man born in 1922 in L’Estere. In 1962, when he was 40 years old, Clairvius was admitted to the Schweitzer Hospital with life-threatening symptoms: a high fever, extreme fatigue, and coughing up blood. One article stated, “Narcisse had been sick for some time, complaining of fever, body aches, and general malaise, but just recently he had begun coughing up blood. His condition deteriorated rapidly. Attending physicians noted that Narcisse suffered from digestive disorders, pulmonary edema, hypothermia, respiratory difficulties, and hypotension. His sister Angelina would later recall that his lips turned blue, or cyanotic, and that he reported tingling sensations, or paraethesias, all over his body.” A short time after he was admitted, on May 2, 1962, Clairvius was declared dead by two doctors. He was then placed in cold storage for at least one day and eventually buried.
Prior to his burial, Clairvius’ body was identified by his older sister, who “affixed her thumbprint to the death certificate.”
For us, this is where our story ends.
But for Clairvius, this is where his story begins.
Nearly 20 years later, in 1980, Angelina Narcisse was walking through a local marketplace, when she was approached by a man—there was something familiar about him, like someone she’d seen before but maybe couldn’t place. The man claimed to be Clairvius Narcisse—and he identified himself by using a nickname which only the members of his family would be familiar with. One article stated, “He confirmed his identity to his sister, Angelina Narcisse, and other villagers by using a childhood nickname and sharing intimate information about their family that only a family member would know.”
Clairvius, it seemed, had risen from the dead.
And he had a dark story to tell—far darker than any flesh-eating zombie tale.
According to Clairvius, he wasn’t dead despite the pronouncement. In fact, prior to going to the hospital, he felt like his skin was on fire and had insects crawling beneath it. He recalled hearing his family members weeping and sobbing at his death, and feeling the white sheet placed over his face. Despite his awareness of everything going on around him, Clairvius was unable to move or speak. He was, in a very real sense, the living dead. The horror intensified, as he was placed in cold storage at the hospital morgue. He felt the intense cold wash over his body—still unable to move or speak.
Then, he remained lucid as his body was placed in a coffin and nailed shut. In fact, Clairvius claimed to have a scar from one of the nails being driven through his face as the coffin was being sealed. No doubt he felt the pain—still unable to move, speak, or cry out. Then, he felt the casket being lowered into the ground—and heard dirt hitting the coffin. He claimed he was “paralyzed by a Vodou priest to make him appear dead and had been conscious but immobile during his burial.”
Clairvius Narcisse was buried alive.
Then, after what seemed like an eternity, Clairvius Narcisse was exhumed and raised from the dead. One article stated, “The bokor priest had then exhumed him, drugged him, enslaved him and forced him to work on a sugar plantation. He alleged that he had been made to consume a paste which effectively rendered him unable to think for himself and caused memory loss.” After his exhumation, Clairvius was beaten by the Bokor and forced to work for several years. According to Clairvius, several other zombies worked sunup to sundown; and though he was aware of everything going on, he was unable to do anything about it. For nearly two years, Clairvius “passed his time there in a dream-like state, devoid of will or volition, with events unfolding before him as if in slow motion.”
Consider for a moment, the story Clairvius is telling: that somehow he was drugged by a Bokor—and the drug was so powerful it fooled medical doctors and family members into thinking he was dead when he really wasn’t. Imagine the horror of his experience—the sights, sounds, smells, and awareness that he was dead when he really wasn’t. Only to have his torture prolonged with being raised from the dead with enslavement and endless hard labor.
Clairvius also claimed he remembered his family and longed to be with them but was powerless to escape the grip of the Bokor. Then, one day, one of the zombies working alongside Clairvius was beaten for insubordination—which was not unusual. Except this time the zombie-worker fought back and killed the Bokor, which allowed Clairvius and the others to escape. For nearly 16 years, Clairvius roamed the countryside, afraid to return home because he suspected his brother was complicit in his zombification. Only after his brother died, did Clairvius feel comfortable enough to return home, where he shocked his sister—and the world—with his bizarre tale of being undead.
Two years after his reappearance, in 1982, Clairvius’ extraordinary case drew the attention of two researchers: Dr. Nathan Kline, a renowned psychopharmacologist who helped establish Haiti’s first psychiatric facility; and Dr. Lamarque Douyon, the facility’s director. The two were faced with a dilemma—dig up the grave of the man claiming to be Clairvius Narcisse or take him at his word that he’d truly been zombified. They were initially concerned about fraud, but ultimately felt this was a non-starter because if the man claiming to be Clairvius Narcisse was a phony, he’d likely have no trouble digging up the grave of the real Clairvius and removing the body.
Dr. Kline and Dr. Douyon decided to proceed with caution and worked closely with Clairvius’ family to develop a series of questions—the answers to which only the real Clairvius would know. Sure enough, the man claiming to be Clairvius answered each one correctly—and it seemed Clairvius was who he said he was.
For us, it seems like this would be the end of the story; but, if anything, it only brought more unanswered questions. Arguably the most important was “how did Clairvius Narcisse become a zombie?”
Based on Clairvius’ testimony of being drugged by a local Bokor, researchers quickly reasoned he’d been given a near-lethal dose of a potent drug which “reduced the heartrate and ventilation to imperceptible levels while allowing the victim to be brought back from the brink of death.” However, for many of the Haitian locals, they believed zombies were created, not by drugs, but by “a bokor’s sorcery. According to local lore, a bokor captures a victim’s part of the soul directly connected to an individual, to create a zombie.” Many Haitians feared their loved ones—or themselves—being turned into zombies after death. In fact, one article stated relatives resorted to extreme measures to prevent this by “strangling or shooting the corpses of loved ones before burial, to prevent their being called back as zombies.”
After confirming Clairvius Narcisse was, in fact, raised from the dead—and convinced his zombification was pharmacological—Dr. Kline commissioned a late-20s Harvard graduate, Wade Davis, to travel to Haiti to discover the secret of the zombie powder. During his research, Davis learned local Bokor’s used “complex powders, made from dried and ground plants and animals, in their rituals.” In all, Davis collected eight samples of the supposed zombie powder throughout Haiti—and he discovered that while each powder was similar, none were identical. In fact, all but one had four common ingredients:
A marine toad, also known as the cane toad which has poison glands in its skin. The cane toad is considered highly toxic to humans and animals.
A hyla tree frog, which produces poisonous skin secretions that while generally not toxic, cause significant irritation to the eyes, nose, and lips.
Puffer fish, which produces a potent—and deadly—neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tetrodotoxin “interferes with the transmission of signals from nerves to muscles by blocking sodium channels. This results in rapid weakening and paralysis of muscles, including those of the respiratory tract, which can lead to respiratory arrest and death.”
Human remains.
The powders contained other plant and animal ingredients—and some included ground glass. Davis was especially interested in the use of Tetrodotoxin, as the paralyzing effect of the drug prevents individuals from reacting to external stimuli—and keeps victims lucid until just before death. Based on his research and Clairvius’ testimony, Dr. Davis was confident Clairvius Narcisse had been poisoned with the Tetrodotoxin-based zombie powder prior to being buried alive. He theorized the powder had been applied to Clairvius’ skin which caused irritation. As Clairvius scratched, inevitably it created small breaks in his skin—allowing the tetrodotoxin to enter his bloodstream and have its effect.
Something interesting: Clairvius was poisoned with a near-fatal dose of tetrodotoxin—which created a host of scary and debilitating symptoms. Then, he was buried alive—effectively cutting off his oxygen supply to almost nothing. It is possible—even likely—Clairvius suffered some degree of brain damage from the combination of the two. And it’s possible this contributed to his “cloudy” feeling while working on the plantation after his exhumation. Something else: Clairvius claimed he and the other zombies were fed a salt-free diet while enslaved—which can lead to muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, dizziness; and in extreme cases, shock, coma, and death. After the death of the controlling Bokor, some reports indicated Clairvius was given salt, which broke his stupor and helped with his escape.
By the time Wade Davis returned to the United States, zombie powder in hand, it seemed he would receive a sort-of hero’s welcome. Except his research and discovery was shrouded in controversy. Other researchers expressed concern over Davis’ ethics “since he observed the desecration of graves when gathering ingredients for the powder.” Questions were raised about the experiments and whether they were controlled or compromised. Some of the powder samples had little to no tetrodotoxin. Further experiments conducted had no effect on rats. And several alleged zombies were shown to be cases of mistaken identity.
In 1985, Wade Davis published The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic. The book, in part, challenges Western portrayal of voodoo as a religion based in superstition. He argues, in part, voodoo is a complex religion that is central to Haitian identity. In 1988, a fictionalized film adaptation of Davis’ book was released to audiences worldwide. The controversy surrounding Davis’ research and findings persist to this day.
Clairvius Narcisse died—this time for real—in 1994 at the age of 72.
CONCLUSION
I mentioned at the start The Serpent and the Rainbow is one of my favorite horror movies of all-time. But, truly, the story of Clairvius Narcisse is infinitely darker and scarier than the film. And for me, at least, the possibility that a person can be poisoned to the brink of death—and then pronounced dead and buried—only to be brought back, is the stuff of literal nightmares. I won’t comment on voodoo as a religious or spiritual practice as it’s outside of my depth of knowledge; but as I researched, I kept thinking, “how often does this happen, is it more common than we realize, and why does this happen?”
To this day, the zombie case of Clairvius Narcisse remains the topic of intense disagreement—in no small part due to Dr. Davis’ research and conclusions. Despite this, we know for certain Clairvius Narcisse was declared dead and buried in 1962; and in 1980, he reappeared from the grave and lived another 14 years. What happened between his death and resurrection is still unknown.
As we close this episode of The Red Treehouse, we’re left with these lingering questions: Did Clairvius Narcisse really die and come back as a zombie? Or is there a more natural explanation?
I’ve shared the story. Now you decide for yourself.
I’m your host, Will. Thanks for joining me in The Red Treehouse.
SOURCES
Comments