Posts Tagged ‘ Dina Rae ’

A guest post by Dina Rae (visit his blog) author of Bad Juju.

Does Haiti Have Demonic Roots or Just an Undeserved Bad Reputation?

Haiti and her people have been called Satanists, devil worshipers, demons, and other disparaging names since its independence.  The impoverished country’s history has unfortunately kept the politically incorrect reputation alive.  Why?  What could have happened over two hundred years ago that is still the subject of real life horror stories?

To begin with, Haiti has one of the most intriguing independence stories that I ever read about.  Yes, the U.S. had a bloody, gory revolution, but nothing as colorful as Haiti’s legendary pact with the devil.  It all started with Dutty Boukman, a Jamaican born houngan (Voodoo priest) in 1791.  Back then Haiti was called St. Domingue.  One fateful night in August, Boukman performed a ceremony that changed the course of history in Haiti forever.  He sacrificed a pig, drank its blood, and then all of the loas (spirits) supposedly descended from the Cosmos and possessed all who was in attendance.  Legend states a pact was made with the dark side to end slavery and free them from their oppressors.  Pat Robertson, a leading evangelist, went even further stating it was a pact made with Satan.  Boukman was decapitated a few months later by the French who ran the country.  By the way, Boukman means dirty or man of the book. 

The rest of the story has quite an apocalyptic ending.  Other uprisings occurred years later, but things got really weird once Napoleon got involved.  Fifty thousand French troops mysteriously died of yellow fever.  With France out of the way, Haiti was born in 1804.  Voodoo never went away, but disguised itself under the Catholic religion.  Some of their darker practices were used in the plot of Bad Juju.

A guest post by Dina Rae (visit his blog) author of Bad Juju.

Do You Know Your Zombies?

With the so-called zombie apocalypse approaching, one must be educated about the different kinds of zombies before prepping for defense.  First, there is the most common and believable-the human that turns into a zombie because of mental collapse, disease, infection, and/or radiation.  They stagger around dazed and confused and cause panic to others.  Then there is the man-made monster kind or the kind Hollywood and horror authors like me tend to capitalize on.

Zombie interest continues to fascinate the world.  Jeffrey Dahmer drilled holes then poured acid down his victim’s heads in hopes of creating his own zombie.  His madness didn’t work.  Can man make his own zombie?  Are these monsters real?

According to Wade Davis, author of The Serpent of the Rainbow, zombies are real.  They are a product of the Voodoo religion.  He was originally hired by a pharmaceutical company to find out about the drugs Voduists used in their death rituals.  He believed that datura also known as zombie’s cucumber was a plant that could medically make one who ingested it appear to be dead for a certain length of time.  Sounds like the stuff Juliet used to fake her death.  Could Shakespeare known about the magical zombie-making plant?

Datura or sometimes Cimora, a close relative of Datura’s, eventually wears off but leaves the victim in a state of confusion, highly susceptible to the art of persuasion.  Presto!  A zombie slave is at the captor’s disposal.  Mr. Davis didn’t just find his datura flower, but witnessed zombie phenomena as he immersed himself within the Haitian culture. Read more »