Zombification. Comparative Anthropology Experience.

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"Zombification has always seemed to me the most terrible of destinies"
Wade davis

JAMES BOND​

Naked Bond went out into the corridor and tore open several packages. A little later, in a white shirt and navy blue trousers, he walked into the living room, pulled a chair up to the writing table by the window, and opened the Travel Tree by Patrick Lay Fermor.

This amazing book was recommended to him by M.

“The guy who wrote it knows what he's talking about,” he said, “and don't forget that what he's writing about took place in Haiti in 1950. This is not medieval black magic rubbish. This is practiced every day. "

Bond got to the middle of the Haiti section.

“The next step,” he read, “is to appeal to the sinister spirits of the voodoo pantheon - such as Don Pedro, Kitta, Mondong, Bacalu and Zandor - to harm the famous Congolese practice of turning people into zombies and their further use as slaves, for harmful curses and the destruction of enemies. The effect of the spell, the external form of which can be the image of the intended victim, a miniature coffin or a toad, is often enhanced by the simultaneous use of poison. Father Cosmus supplements this list with beliefs according to which people with certain powers turn into snakes, some "Lu-Garu" can fly at night in the form of vampire bats and suck baby blood, and someone else is able to shrink himself to tiny sizes and roll in the countryside in gourd-gourds. An impressive list of criminally mystical secret societies with nightmarish names - "Makandal" (named after the Haitian hero-poisoner), "Zobop" (whose members practice robbery) "Mazanza", "Kaporelata" and "Winbinding". These, he said, are mysterious sects whose gods demand - instead of a rooster, dove, dog or pig, which is part of normal voodoo rituals - the sacrifice of a "hornless goat." The expression "hornless goat", of course, means a person ... " which is part of normal voodoo rituals - the sacrifice of a "hornless goat." The expression "hornless goat", of course, means a person ... " which is part of normal voodoo rituals - the sacrifice of a "hornless goat." The expression "hornless goat", of course, means a person ... "

Bond turned the pages, and random passages formed in his imagination into an unusual picture of dark religion with horrific rituals ...

The hero of Ian Fleming's novel Live and Let Die has yet to face off against Mr. Big, a huge gray-haired zombie working for the Smersh and the Interior Ministry, whose contacts he hosts at the voodoo temple in downtown Harlem. where he comes to take a break from business and speak Russian.

Let's note the strange connection between secret Haitian cults and Stalinist counterintelligence that arose in the consciousness - or subconsciousness - of the famous English writer, and as James Bond opens a fresh pack of Chesterfield and straightens a 25-gauge Beretta in a shoulder suede holster, fast forward to Haiti. to find out if the words about "dark religion" are right.

VOODOO​

In 1982, ethnobotanist Wade Davis traveled to Haiti. The purpose of his trip was to study reports of cases of zombification - magical murder with the subsequent resurrection of the victim and use it as a labor force. Davis succeeded in what none of the scientists who had dealt with this problem before him succeeded - he revealed the secret of zombification, giving it a convincing natural scientific explanation.

Another result of his research was the wonderful book The Serpent and the Rainbow, in which he described his adventures. In order to get answers to his questions, Davis had to study local cults and almost join one of the secret societies, in which he was helped by a wise sorcerer-priest, with whom he managed to establish contact. (People magazine notes the similarity of Davis's work to the early books of Carlos Castaneda: it does exist, but it is somewhat parody, this book is good in its own way.)

The phenomenon of zombification, usually associated with the voodoo religion, does not occupy a central place in it and exists, as it were, on its periphery, serving as one of its practical confirmations - the very "criterion of truth" that is so lacking in many other teachings.

Voodoo can really be called a religion if you remember that the term "religion" itself comes from the Latin word for "connection". This belief system is not limited to some kind of separate cult, but rather a complex mystical vision of the world that “binds” together man, nature and the supernatural - that is, supernatural forces that lie outside of the familiar reality. In archaic societies, the culture of which is Voodoo, the sacred and the magical are closely intertwined with everyday life, so an attempt to give a more or less complete description of such religious systems ultimately leads to a description of the entire way of life. We will limit ourselves to only the most general overview and the details necessary for our topic.

The spiritual culture of Haiti, with its Voodoo as its core, emerged as an amalgam of the beliefs of many African regions (who for a long time supplied slaves for the island's French planters) and European influences - including Catholicism. The formation of such an unusual alloy was facilitated by the unique history of the country, which for a hundred years was the only independent "black" republic, apart from Liberia. The official religion of the island's elite was Catholicism, but its influence was practically not felt outside the cities. And if city life was close to European in spirit, the rich black women of Port-au-Prince sported Parisian toilets, spoke French with their educated and thin husbands and sent their children to study abroad (in a word, tropical St. Petersburg, inhabited by blacks), - then rural communities, where folk culture was born, they remained fragments of Africa, transferred to the shores of another continent. The historical homeland gradually became a myth, and the descendants of people from various tribes turned in their own minds into “ti guinin” - “Children of Guinea”, another version of the promised country, where the soul was carried away after death.

It was against this cultural background that a new religion emerged. Of course, not new - there are no new religions - but a very interesting and unusual mixture of elements of the old. Many ethnologists trace the connections of voodoo traditions with other, often very distant cultures. For example, the Ghede ceremony is close to the ritual of the revival of Osiris, as reflected in the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. But what makes Voodoo stand out is more curious.

First of all - the deep democratism of this religion, one might say, nationality. If in Catholicism the priest is a “mediator” between believers and the Almighty, then in voodooism deities are available to anyone, and spiritual reality is not just accessible - it literally descends on a person when a spirit enters his body. What other religions call "possession," in Voodoo, is a practical goal achieved through various rituals. As the inhabitants of Haiti say about this: "A Catholic goes to church to talk about God, a voodooist dances in the courtyard of the temple to become a god."

The role of the priest - the Ungan - is not only to explain spiritual reality, divination and ceremonies, but also to preserve ethical and social norms, to transfer knowledge. The diversity of his functions makes him the de facto leader of the community.

The existence of zombies does not seem to the inhabitants of the island something strange or especially interesting, it is something not entirely clear, but familiar from childhood, like, say, the domestic concept of "drummer" - everyone knows that they were somewhere, someone even I saw it, but it rarely occurs to anyone to suddenly pick up and start talking about this topic.

HOMO VODOUN​

The concept of a human being in Voodoo is the basis of all magical procedures, and the rituals performed by the bokor (sorcerer), strictly subordinate to the idea of real human nature, may seem exotic improvisation only to a representative of another culture. To a voodooist, they are as accurate as the actions of a surgeon.

From the point of view of Voodoo, a person is several bodies superimposed on each other, of which only one is available to ordinary perception - the physical, expressively called corps cadavre . The next - n'ame - is something like an energetic duplicate of the body that allows it to function, "the spirit of the flesh." It is not individual and after death slowly flows out of the body, passing to the organisms living in the soil - this process completely takes 18 months. What is called the soul, according to voodoo ideas, consists of two components, called ti bon ange and gros bon ange- "kind little angel" and "big kind angel". The “big good angel”, like the “spirit of the flesh”, is purely energetic, but more subtle, and after death immediately returns to the endless energy reservoir that feeds all living things. The "good little angel" is an individualized part of the soul, the source of everything personal. He is able to easily detach from the body and come back. This happens during dreams, intense fright, or during "possession" - when he is temporarily replaced by loa (external spirits). It is the "good little angel" that is the target of magical operations and the object of magical protection (in some cases, the Ungan can put it in a special earthen jug, Kanari , from where it continues to animate the body).

As a rule, after sixteen successful incarnations, the "good little angel" merges into Jah - the cosmic breath that encompasses the entire universe.

The last spiritual component - z'etoile - is in heaven and is connected not with the human body, but with his destiny, it is a personal "star", allegorically represented as a gourd-gourd, containing hopes and "orders" for a future life, automatically formed by actions and the thoughts of the individual - in a word, what is called karma in India with amazing accuracy.

POISONS AND PROCEDURES​

Researchers of voodoo have long assumed the existence of a special poison, "zombie powder" - but it was not known what was in it. Back in 1938, the American ethnographer Zora Hurston, who was studying this problem and saw one zombie woman, tried to give a natural scientific explanation of zombification.

“We concluded (we are talking about her conversation with the doctor of the hospital where the zombie woman was kept) that this is not about raising the dead, but about the appearance of death caused by a special drug, the effects of which are known to a limited circle of people. Apparently, some secret was taken out of Africa and passed down from generation to generation. People know how drugs and antidotes work. It is clear that he destroys the part of the brain that is in charge of speech and willpower. The victim can move and do something, but is unable to formulate a thought. Two doctors wanted to reveal this secret, but they could not. "

Meanwhile, the Haitians themselves have never denied the existence of a special "zombie poison" - moreover, it is even mentioned in the local criminal code, and for a certain amount of money it is quite possible to order a portion of the drug from one of the many sorcerers. Another thing is that the composition made by him for sale is unlikely to work. In addition, from the point of view of the sorcerers themselves, powders are not at all the main weapon of their magical arsenal.

The main types of harmful effects they use are easy to classify.

Firstly, it is coup l'aire - "air strike", the way in which various spells are sent that can cause unhappiness and illness. A spiritually strong person can resist their action and overcome it; by mistake, the spell may fall on someone else. Due to lack of space, we do not describe the technology of this procedure, which slightly differs from domestic counterparts.

Secondly, it is coupe n'ame - "blow to the soul", a magical way by which the "good little angel" is kidnapped.

Thirdly, it is coupe poudre - "blow with powder", the use of a powder that can cause illness or death. It is this third method that is used in zombification - more precisely, when obtaining the so-called zombi cadavre , a zombie of a physical body.

The composition of the powder varies from sorcerer to sorcerer, it may include ingredients with such unusual names as "cut-water", "break-wings", etc. An obligatory component is human remains - as a rule, well-rubbed bones of the skull. In addition, various types of lizards, toads, fish and plants are used.

Wade Davis was able to obtain samples of this "zombie powder" and a complete set of its components, which, among other things, included the well-known hallucinogenic toad bufo marinus and the fish sphoeroides testudineus and diodon hystrix. The samples were handed over to him for analysis in one of the American laboratories. Interestingly, James Bond also appears in his story about the research results - this time from the novel From Russia with love.

So, Wade Davis comes to the laboratory, where the samples brought from Haiti were transferred, and turns to the specialist who performed the analysis:

- So what do they contain?

“Oh my God, I thought you were a drug expert. It looks like you are not very familiar with literature.

I must have looked embarrassed.

- "James Bond". The last scene in From Russia with Love, one of the greatest moments in ichthyotoxicology. English agent zero-zero seven, completely helpless, paralyzed and unconscious from a tiny wound from a hidden knife.

He got up and looked around his bookshelf - somehow he managed to maintain an academic look, even when he pulled a paperback book from the thickness of unknown scientific journals.

- I remember that she was somewhere here. Yeah, there you go.

He quoted:

“A shoe with a tiny metal tongue flashed. Bond felt a sharp pain in his right calf ... Numbness crept through his body ... It became hard to breathe ... Bond slowly turned on his heels and fell to the floor the color of red wine. "

The book returned to the shelf.

“Agent zero-zero-seven never stood a chance,” he said bitterly. “And Fleming is smart as hell. You have to read the next book to understand what the matter is. The blade was poisoned with tetrodotoxin. This is written in the first chapter of "Doctor No".

- And what is it?

“Nerve toxin,” he replied. - And there is nothing stronger.

FUGU​

So, thanks to the efforts of Wade Davis, the secret of "zombie powder" was finally revealed - the active part of this drug is tetrodotoxin, a powerful poison that blocks the transmission of nerve impulses by "locking" cells for sodium ions. This substance is found in many animals, including the puffer fish, a close relative of the fish used to make the powder. Fugu in Japan is considered a delicacy - cooked in a special way, it is quite edible. Yet every year there are hundreds of fatal cases - and the puffer continues to be cooked. But not because it is extremely tasty and gives a vivid and fresh memory of a risky adventure, as the authors of several publications that have flashed in the domestic press, who have tried fugu in Japanese restaurants, write.

The fact is that in small concentrations, tetrodotoxin acts as a drug, causing euphoria and pleasant physical sensations, and the task of the cook (it is extremely difficult to obtain a license to cook fugu) is not to completely remove tetrodotoxin, but to lower its concentration to the required level.

When the cook is still mistaken, the following happens to the poisoned - first there is a tingling sensation in the hands and feet, then the whole body becomes numb and paralyzed, the eyes acquire a glassy shine. Death comes (this is how Mitsugora Bando VIII, an artist of the Kabuki theater who was declared a living national treasure by the Japanese government, died in 1975), or the appearance of death, which sometimes misleads the most experienced doctors. Despite the almost complete cessation of all vital functions, the poisoned person continues to be aware of what is happening.

Here is a description of a case of fugu poisoning made by a Japanese specialist:

“One resident of Yamaguchi poisoned fugu in Osaka. It was decided that he was dead and his body was sent to the crematorium in Sennichi. When the body was pulled from the cart, the man came to his senses, got up and went home ... He remembered everything that happened to him. "

It is difficult to say whether the victim continued his gastronomic exploration in the field of fugu dishes. The Japanese say the following about this: “Those who eat fugu are stupid. But those who don't eat fugu are also stupid. "

MENTAL BACKGROUND​

The discovery of Wade Davis explains the physical side of zombification - the powder rubbed into the body causes a kind of trance, outwardly almost indistinguishable from death, on the night after the funeral, the grave of the zombified is unearthed, and he is brought to his senses using a special procedure. But the point here is not only in the poison and, perhaps, not so much in it, as in the psychological mechanism, which is so widespread that it even received a special name from anthropologists - "voodoo-death".

A chemical poison will have exactly the same effect on a representative of any culture. But each culture forms its own "mental background", its own set of expectations and reactions, more or less common for all its representatives, which determines not only the social behavior of people, but also their mental and physical state. Moreover, this "psychic background" does not exist somewhere outside people, but exclusively in their consciousness.

For example, a Western anthropologist, engaged in field work in the Australian desert, and the natives crowding around him, despite their spatial proximity, are in completely different worlds. This can be explained with a simple example. Australian Aboriginal sorcerers carry with them the bones of giant lizards, which act as a magic wand. As soon as the sorcerer pronounces the death sentence and point this rod at one of his fellow tribesmen, he falls ill and dies. Here is an anthropological description of the action of such a "death command":

“The stunned aborigine looks at the fatal pointer, raising his hands, as if to stop the deadly substance that in his imagination enters the body. His cheeks turn pale, and his eyes become glassy, his face is terribly distorted ... he tries to scream, but the usual scream gets stuck in his throat, and foam comes out of his mouth. His body begins to shudder, he backs away and falls to the ground, writhing as if in mortal agony. After a while, he becomes very calm and crawls away to his shelter. From that moment on, he falls ill and withers, refuses food and does not participate in the life of the tribe. "

But if a sorcerer tries to do the same with some of the Europeans, even with the same anthropologist, he is unlikely to succeed. The European simply will not understand the significance of what is happening - he will see in front of him a short, naked man waving an animal bone and muttering some words. If it were otherwise, Australian sorcerers would have ruled the world for a long time.

All known cases of zombification are of the same nature. If a European (or a person of any other culture) is exposed to the "zombie powder", then only tetrodotoxin will act on him, and he will either die or fall into a deep coma for a while. But it is precisely the "zombie powder" that will affect the villager of Haiti, and, noticing that he is lying in a coffin and does not breathe, he will understand that one of the enemies sold him to the sorcerer, who separated his " little good angel "from using a magic trap.

Magic exists, it is extremely effective - but only in its own dimension. For it to act on a person, the existence of a "psychic background" is necessary, which makes it possible. A set of expectations is needed that allows one to redirect psychic energy in a certain way - to redirect it, because magical influences are based not on powerful external influences, but on the control of the victim's internal processes, on the launch of mental mechanisms formed by culture and existing only within its framework.

This "mental background" is gradually changing - as if someone reconfigures our "receivers" from one radio station to another. We have long ceased to see water and gobies, but we learned to see flying saucers, before miracles were done by sorcerers - now some suspicious "psychics" are doing this, but it's not so much about them as our unconscious readiness or conscious unwillingness to participate in their rituals based on the use of their own created "mental" background.

Having almost uprooted religion (which in its time supplanted magic with the same intransigence), we learned with joyful amazement that some "healers" could take care of our souls and bodies. And the more we believe in it, the more we are ready for it, the more of them there will be. But an Australian aborigine who got to a session of such a "healer" would hardly have realized the significance of the situation - most likely, he would have seen a short, dressed man mumbling some words and making strange passes with his hands.

HOMO SOVIET​

Australian Aborigines are very easy to manage. But until recently it was a little more difficult to manage us. Let's try to go back a quarter of a century and see the principles of the formation of a now half-forgotten "mental background" through the eyes of an anthropologist.

Magic has haunted us since childhood. First, we are decorated with a small pentagram of red plastic with a portrait of the curly-haired patron saint of all the little ones. At the same time, we get the first of the magical names - "october", and we learn that "they did not call us that in vain - in honor of the victory of October". It is interesting that the first magical initiation is carried out at the same age only, perhaps, among the Indians of Hivaro (eastern Ecuador), when a child is treated to a special composition called maikua and sent in search of his soul.

This first initiation (meaning the reception in October) does not carry anything threatening and is a game of the future. The second initiation is already more difficult - grown-up children are taught the rudiments of the ritual ("salute", "honest pioneer") and symbolism - a new badge (a flaming pentagram made of metal alloy) and an unequal triangle of red matter (its ends symbolize the father, son and older brother) are given, which is tied in a knot near the throat center and provides a sympathetic connection with the Red Banner (therefore, the badge is simply handed over, and the tie seems to be trusted, and although it is freely sold for seventy kopecks along with socks and soap, it becomes a sacred object and requires special relationship). The second magical status is given - "pioneer", and the fear of losing it is introduced into consciousness for the first time. Exclusion from the pioneers is a practically uncommon procedure, but the very mention of it gives rise to the fear of being a pariah in a child's soul. This fear begins to be used by the administrative and pedagogical staff for the purpose of "education" and control:

- Well, who smokes in the toilet? Who there wants to part with a tie on the advice of a squad?

And, from somewhere above, beating down to the ground, rushes menacingly mysterious:

- Be ready !!!

- Always ready! - we repeat, giving ourselves what telehypnotists would later call an attitude. And this happens in childhood, when the psyche is extremely receptive. Then, when we grow up, it turns out that we are really ready for a lot.

The third mass initiation is admission to the Komsomol, combined in time with puberty. By this time, participation in numerous and subtle magical procedures prepares us for the next, very important stage - the interiorization of external structures.

Even as “pioneers,” we internally reproduced rituals in which we were forced to participate - for example, giving each other “honest pioneer”. Casting this spell was a reliable guarantee of the truthfulness of the information - something like this in the criminal environment, "give a grudge", only a "giver" and breaking a word loses a tooth, and one who gives an "honest pioneer" and violates it finds himself alone with an angry "pioneer conscience" - a social function interiorized by magic.

Interiorization is a long process, culminating in the formation of the so-called "internal party committee", which successfully replaces the external one for various officials, editors, etc. The work of the internal party committee takes place either in the form of visualization - a person, pondering a situation requiring a solution, imagines something like a meeting at which his choice is discussed (or visualizes the boss and his reaction), or, at a deeper stage, in the form of physical sensations - sucking under spoon, rush of blood to the head, etc. (“Semyon, I feel in my gut - he is not ours!”) Interiorization turns the observer into a participant.

The new magical status of a Komsomol member is already a serious thing. It does not bring tangible benefits, but it can bring tangible trouble. At this stage, the symbolism moves from the individual level to the group level: various "triangles" and "fives" appear (this is how the magic curators of production units and deputy secretaries of a large Komsomol organization are called). The same applies to the ritual - it does not die away, but refines and becomes esoteric, that is, transmitted directly. Komsomol workers determine the styles of their antennae and suits, relying not on some texts or instructions, but guided by instinct. The same instinct determines their mannerisms and vocabulary. It is impossible to formulate the set of rules by which they are guided - nevertheless,

Here, for the first time, a purely voodoo phenomenon appears - the constantly practiced "obsession". Imagine several young people walking down the hall, discussing the last football game, women and life in general. They are all quite friendly towards each other. But then they reach a sign with the inscription "Komsomol Committee", open the door, go inside and sit down.

The personal file of the Komsomol member Sidorov, who was just Vasily three minutes ago, is being discussed. Everything changes - the expression of faces, the manner of speaking, even the timbre of the voice. Moreover, people who do not utter their own thoughts in a voice other than their own are chilled by genuine sincerity - they are not at all cunning, just their "little kind angels" are temporarily replaced by "party bodies."

Above we talked about the concept of the soul in Voodoo. But the Soviet person, in addition to the physical, had several thin bodies, as it were, superimposed on each other: everyday, industrial, party, military, international and deputy. With the death of the physical body, they disintegrated, with the exception of the production body: after death, a Soviet person lived for some time as M. - L. taught. philosophy, in the fruits of their deeds.

The party body began to form in kindergarten, was strengthened in the process of magical initiations and was an internalized party-state paradigm. It also existed among the majority of non-party people - it was this component of the soul that was glorified by the slogan "Long live Soviet people - the builder of communism!"

Here is an example of a group obsession with party bodies that completely supplant everything human (it is taken from the book by E. Bonner "Postscript"):

“I was traveling by day train ... In the compartment, besides me, there were two more middle-aged women and one man. One of the women asked: "... Are you Sakharov's wife?" - "Yes, I am the wife of Academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov." Then the man intervened: “What an academician he is. It was necessary to drive him for a long time. And you in general ... "What" in general "- he did not say.

Then one of the women said that she was a Soviet teacher and could not go with me in the same compartment. (We know that after the arrival of the spirit, he calls himself, while the voice and manners of the medium change. - VP) The other and the men began to say something similar. Someone called the conductor. Everyone was already talking loudly, shouting. The conductor said that since I have a ticket, she cannot kick me out. The scream intensified, people from other compartments began to approach and turn on, they tightly blocked the corridor of the carriage, demanded that the train stop and to throw me out. They shouted something about the war and about the Jews ... We squeezed past people, and I directly felt the physical vibes of hatred ... "

What is happening at the Komsomol meeting is practically no different from being possessed by the spirit - the participants in the same way provide their bodies to a certain force that is not their normal “I”, the only difference is that here we are dealing with a group obsession with a system. The point of the once proclaimed "education of the new man" is to make this obsession individual and permanent.

The next stage of initiation is the party. What is happening in the Komsomol is only preparation for it, the Komsomol members play the game in the same way as the pioneers play the Komsomol, and the October team play the pioneers. The intensity of the processes taking place in the party can be judged by the well-known anecdote about the Cannes horror film festival, where different "Jaws" and "Mechanical Oranges" concede all the prizes to the Soviet tape "Loss of Party Card" ... Here the phenomenon of "voodoo-death" (numerous heart attacks caused by completely intangible party penalties) is fully manifested, and various "air strikes" ( coupe l'air ) operate - with and without entry.

The Algonquin tribe (northeastern North America) uses Datura (locally called Visokan) in initiation rituals. Teenagers are locked in special long buildings, where for two or three weeks they eat exclusively dope, leaving there, they no longer remember what it is like to be children, but they know that they have become adults. But they hardly understand that what happened to them is an initiation with the ritual use of a psychotropic - only we understand this. The Indians simply grow up and transform from boys into hunters and warriors, the “psychic background” of their culture makes the initiation procedure a natural and necessary process. In the same way, we are not aware of our gradual drawing into the gear mechanism of magic, and we recall not the stages of deformation of our consciousness, but the May wind, pulling at the ends of a freshly ironed tie, or the pale face of a Komsomol functionary who is interested in the name of his favorite literary hero when he is “passing through” the district committee. We look at magic from the inside, we are all there together, and we no longer remember what it is like to be somewhere else.

LEXIC SCHIZOPHRENIA​

In cultures far from each other, the same laws operate, cultures are reflected in each other, reveal their community - and we begin to understand what is really happening to us. Otherwise, we may simply not feel it - as we do not hear the hum of the refrigerator until the moment it turns off. ("The music died down - or rather, it became noticeable that she was playing.")

But culture is reflected in itself. All noticeable deviations of the "mental background" are immediately fixed by the tongue, like a camera. We live in the midst of words and what they can express. The dictionary of any language is at the same time a complete catalog of phenomena accessible to the perception of this culture - when the vocabulary changes, our world changes, and vice versa.

Let's try to write off the mechanics of this process very briefly. The language contains "units of meaning" (the term of Carlos Castaneda), used as a building material for the creation of a lexical apparatus corresponding to the culture of mental activity. These "units of meaning" already exist - they were formed in distant antiquity and, as a rule, correspond to the roots of words. The vocabulary corresponding to the new "mental background" arises as a result of the processing of existing semantic units and the formation of their new combinations.

The complete uncontrollability of this process makes it an amazingly accurate mirror of the real nature of the new state of consciousness. At the same time, this new consciousness itself is formed by the emerging lexical structure, which gives it the already mentioned "attitude".

Any word that somehow connects units of meaning is subconsciously analyzed. There is an internal splitting of words, each of which becomes an elementary hypnotic command. This is also characteristic of well-established lexical constructions, but the bond energy of semantic units (it can be compared with the energy of a chemical bond) that exists in them just supports what is called the national mentality, forming associative rows common to all native speakers.

There can be two perversions here - either constructions that can be called "binary lexical weapons" (destructive and schizophrenic combination of separately harmless semantic units), or "non-words" - chaotic and unusual combinations of letters and sounds, perforating the previous " mental background ", at the same time replacing its elements (the virus does the same with the cell). Therefore, the carriers of the new "mental background" seem to infect others with it, spreading schizolexics: it is important for them not to "reorganize the Rabkrin" or "mobilize the electorate", but to influence someone else's psyche by making as many holes as possible in it.

Let's see what pills our soul swallowed every day.

Paradise-so-devil. Paradise-and-with-regiment. Gor-and-with-regiment (or, if you leave ancient Egypt alone, burn-with-regiment). Ob-com (is the bell ringing?). Paradise-com. Gor-kom. Edge-com. The famous Hindu-tri-Ali-za-zatsiya. (Some kind of Indian-Pakistani conflict, where there are three Muslims for one Indian.) Party organizer (does it sell a ferry?). Primary school (apparently, the daughter of some singer and Peer Gynt).

We walked through the streets, from the walls of which MOSGORSOVET, TsPKTBTEKSTILPROM, MINSREDNETYAZHMASH, MOSGORTRANS (!), French mokrushniks ZhEK, REU and DEZ, carnivorous PZhRO and pantagruelistically - fecal demon RJU he was known that he is known that he is known that he is is "and could appear to the people during the captivity of the mind (plenum).

These are not some exceptions, but simply the first thing that comes to mind. Anyone can check the prevalence of lexical schizophrenia by remembering the names of their places of work and study (tech-ni-kum, peteu, MIIGAIK). And this is only an echo of the lexical Chernobyl of the first years of Soviet power.

All these ancient Tatar-Martian terms give rise to the feeling of some kind of inexorable superhuman strength - nothing human can be called that. If we recall the Haitian terminology, this is a "lexical blow" that overtook anyone who at least occasionally looked up at the multi-colored signs of Soviet institutions. However, the demonic names looked at us from the hatch covers under our feet.

There is also schizophrenia of phrases ( Comrade Commander and other oxymorons) and sentences (almost any slogan on the rooftops - "Glory to the KPSS!", "Take everything from life!" Newspaper Izvestia, newspaper Kommersant, newspaper Zavtra.

Now let's remember Zora Hurston: "It is clear that he (zombie powder) destroys that part of the brain that is in charge of speech and willpower." (Magical initiations lead to the replacement of free will with numerous "so it is necessary" - complexes.)

Of course, in any culture there are a number of oxymorons and "nonwords" - as bacteria and viruses are present in every organism. But apart from our culture, not a single one is based on oxymorons, except perhaps Zen Buddhism. (By the way, the goal in both cases is the same thing - the destruction of the old mental order, but in one case they are looking for inspiration, in the other - they cause a forced "darkening": going forward and backward, we make the same movements.)

We have quoted the names of Haitian criminal-mystical societies and the names of local evil spirits that frightened Patrick Lay Fermor. This nightmare, which is, however, rather musical to our ear, is functional - it is one of the many elements that create a "mental background" that makes zombification possible. Fear of the incomprehensible and the feeling of the presence of some evil and powerful force, at any moment capable of absorbing everyone - its indispensable conditions, that "door" through which the "blow to the soul" passes, whoever directs it - Kitt with Mondog, kegebe with murom or effective managers with their PR directors .

ZOMBILIZATION​

When talking about their zombified acquaintances, Haitians use a very characteristic idiom: "go through the ground" or "go underground." We already know that the physiological aspect of zombification is explained by the use of tetrodotoxin, but we did not talk about how the Voodoo culture interprets this procedure.

From a voodoo point of view, zombification requires two conditions: an unnatural death and a magical ceremony in the graveyard. The magical power of the bokor causes the “death” of the victim, they bury it (losers-zombies die at the same time from suffocation), and dig it out the next night. A person who has already received a severe mental trauma is beaten, tied up, put in front of a cross to give him a new name, and then beaten again. After baptism, he is forced to take a large dose of dope (the Haitian name of the latter - "zombie cucumber" - is apparently connected with the shape of the root). Datura causes disorientation and amnesia in the victim. Then the zombified person is taken away somewhere in the night.

Now let us recall how in the thirties the arrest of an "enemy of the people" (a typical example of a negative magical status) took place. A man comes home from work, dines with the bleating of the radio, and goes to bed. And suddenly, in the middle of the night - they always came at night - a gang of some operatives, envoys of the Enkavede regional department (Paradise from affairs?) Burst into his dwelling. Presentation of a warrant, a few harsh phrases, a short search, escorting. This procedure differs from the Haitian procedure mainly by the fact that at night they take away before they beat them (beat during interrogation) and give a new name (something like Ш-5842) - however, as in Haiti, many die before being zombified ...

Another powerful zombifier is military service. After zombilization, a person is shaved, changed and given the official status of a "private". At the same time, he receives the unofficial, but much more significant for the future, the status of "salaga". "Salaga" is subjected to frequent night beatings by old-timers, washing their linen, performing humiliating operations such as cleaning the toilet floor with a toothbrush. Then he teaches the intermediate status of "scoop" and "grandfather" (at this stage he begins to take part in the rituals of zombification of recruits, external attributes are a strongly curved belt buckle and "accordion" boots). The last stage - “demobilization” - immediately precedes disombilization. It is interesting that formal (political studies,

One of the former chiefs of the USSR, in the interval between two strokes, said: "The army is a great school of life." Now it is already difficult to know what exactly he meant by life. But the fact that the army in a symbolic form assimilates the basic principles of the functioning of a zombie society is beyond doubt.

The zombification mechanism manifests itself many times in our lives and in a milder form. There is even a copy of the Haitian idiom - "go underground." Joining the Komsomol, we “passed” the district committee, signing the testimonial, we “passed” various fives and triangles, and now, squeezing C-Vi in trembling hands, we “pass” the interview. Microzombification repeated many times gives zombies that are not inferior to the best foreign samples obtained as a result of a single procedure.

BULLDOZER​

It is impossible to find an exact cultural duplicate of our society. More or less successful parallels can be drawn with the Inca empire, with the ancient Sumerian states and, in general, with any archaic culture. But our socio-magical structure is too eclectic for any of these analogies to be complete. It may seem (some really think) that in the twenties some kind of secret commission was working, which selected the most irrational rituals from the magical heritage of the past, giving them a new form. But, apparently, everything was simpler.

Imagine a small village on a hill - some of the houses are already very old, others, on the contrary, are built according to the most recent projects, and most are somewhere between the first and the second. Side by side stand a half-abandoned church and an unfinished club. In some windows a kerosene lamp is blinking, in others the electricity is on, somewhere a balalaika is playing barely audibly, which is covered by radio music from a pillar. In a word, ordinary life, remnants of the new and the old, intertwined in the most bizarre way.

Now imagine a bulldozer driver who, after reading some brochures, decided to sweep away all this backwardness and build a new village on a completely smooth site. On a damp October (April, August) night, he gets into a bulldozer and in several steps cuts off the entire upper part of the hill with the village and residents. And so, when the bulldozer is spinning in the mud, leveling the future construction site, something completely unexpected happens: the car suddenly falls into an underground void - some half-rotten logs, human and horse skeletons, shards and pieces of rust appear around ... The bulldozer was in the grave. Neither the bulldozer driver nor the authors of the brochures that inspired him took into account that when they swept away everything that, in their opinion, was outdated, what was underneath, that is,

The human psyche also has many cultural layers. If you cut off the upper layer of mental culture, declaring it to be a set of prejudices, delusions, class alien or economically ineffective points of view, a dark unconscious with remnants of previously existing mental formations will be exposed. Everything is successively, yesterday is invested in today, like a nesting doll in a nesting doll, and whoever tries to remove shavings from the present, in order to then paint it for the future, as a result, will fall into a very distant past ...

This is exactly what happens over and over again. The mental pit dug in souls with the aim of building a "new man" in place of an unsuitable old one leads to the revival of a huge number of archaic psycho-forms and their remnants, belonging to different ways of seeing the world and eras , and these antiquities, slightly powdered with linguistic borrowings and neologisms, occupy place of the destroyed picture of the world. It is difficult to see anything new in the Soviet state slavery, the complete devaluation of human life, the resurrection of the "kurultai" as the supreme authority (as the Tatar-Mongols called the "congress" - at one of such kurultays a decision was made to raid Russia) ... In the same way, it is difficult to see the novelty in the zombie resurrection of the thieving Muscovy, offended by "

"GREAT GOATS" AND "GRAY PIGS"​

In everything we must look for an economic basis, Marxism taught us. Let's try to consider zombification as a social process.

The secret societies of Haiti, despite their secrecy, control almost the entire territory of the island. Their names, changing from one part of the country to another, include the names already familiar to us: Zobop, Bizango, Makandal, "Gray Pigs", etc. , Vanya, into gray pigs ... ") and initiation. Societies are strictly hierarchical, they accept men and women. There are membership cards, secret passwords, uniforms, and rituals: special dances performed by a chorus of songs (" break it down and then ... "), special drum beats and other metrosexuality. The most important role, according to the Haitian anthropologist Michel Laguerre, is assigned to rituals designed to" rally the ranks "of the secret society - these are gatherings,section module. However, sometimes it all ends with just a bath orgy with girls from the near Moscow region.

According to Michel Laguerre, secret societies are a powerful quasi-political force in voodoo culture. Their origins date back to the days of the struggle for independence; after the victory of the revolution, they retained their secrecy and influence. It is like a parallel structure of power, about which it is only known that it exists.

Now back to the zombification. In the eyes of Haiti's urban intelligentsia, zombification is a criminal activity that should be exposed and eliminated as soon as possible. But from the point of view of a rural voodooist, zombification is a social regulator, since only violators of established norms are subjected to it, and only by the verdict of secret societies. The latter control the preparation of poisons, their application and the procedure itself. And what happens to the zombies can be judged by the story of one of them, given in the book of Davis.

“Narcissus said that he refused to sell his part of the inheritance, and his brother, in a fit of anger, organized his zombification. Immediately after his resurrection from the grave, he was beaten, tied up and taken by a group of people to the north of the country, where he worked as a slave along with other zombies for two years. In the end, the owner of the zombies was killed, and they, freed from the force that held them, scattered ...

Together with many other zombies, he worked in the field from dawn to dusk, stopping only for a meal once a day. The food was ordinary, except that salt was strictly forbidden. He realized what had happened to him, remembered the loss of his family, friends and his land, remembered the desire to return. But his life was like a strange dream - events, perceptions and objects interacted on their own and completely out of his control. In fact, there was no power over what was happening. The decisions made no sense and conscious action was impossible. "

There are many descriptions of the mental state of the prisoners in the camp - they are very similar. Many of the zombified were members of the Writers' Union, so the zombies are described from the outside and from the inside. For a zombie voodooist, a cadaver (a zombie of a physical body) is all the constituents of a person, except for the "good little angel." The classic definition of a zombie is "a body without character and will." This is an ideal worker who does not even need a daily glass of vodka and an hour of playing the accordion.

Imagine that some of the secret societies of Haiti, for example, the "Gray Pigs", would suddenly come to power and notice that the rest of the island's population barbarously violates the rituals and norms of social behavior adopted by the "gray pigs", and also lives for an unknown reason ...

Apparently, the result would be a massive transformation of the population into “hornless goats. The next step would be to move towards the highest phase of zombification - the treatment of the entire population, starting from infancy. At the same time, the procedures used would become softer, invisible and extended over time. One of the zombifiers would be culture - there would be zombie realism and, as it were, half-forbidden zombie postmodernism, zombie philosophy, zombie economics and zombie mythology. Newspapers, radio and television would become mass disinformation media and be used to form a constricted awareness that makes zombie possible.

The only weakness of this system is that, due to the general zombification, zombies will sooner or later also be in power. From this moment, confusion, chaos and stagnation begin - with the departure of the Master, the magical force that maintains the state described by Narcissus disappears. For veterans of zombification, this will cause nostalgia for the hand that once guided them and "order", others may return to their "good little angels", and they will again become people.

Zombies can only be freed after the death of the sorcerer. But, as you know, a cunning sorcerer can not only hide his death for a long time, but also pretend that he never existed in the world at all.

Author: V. Pelevin