Ebook Download The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis
Are you actually a follower of this The Serpent And The Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey Into The Secret Societies Of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, And Magic, By Wade Davis If that's so, why do not you take this book now? Be the first individual that like as well as lead this book The Serpent And The Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey Into The Secret Societies Of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, And Magic, By Wade Davis, so you can get the reason as well as messages from this publication. Don't bother to be confused where to get it. As the various other, we discuss the connect to check out and also download and install the soft file ebook The Serpent And The Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey Into The Secret Societies Of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, And Magic, By Wade Davis So, you could not carry the printed publication The Serpent And The Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey Into The Secret Societies Of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, And Magic, By Wade Davis almost everywhere.
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis
Ebook Download The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis
Having spare time? Now is your time to start your old pastime, analysis. Reading should be a practice as well as hobby, not only as the obligation. The book that you can check out regularly is The Serpent And The Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey Into The Secret Societies Of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, And Magic, By Wade Davis This is just what makes lots of people really feel completely satisfied for reading more and also much more. When you feel that reading is a behavior, you will not really feel careless to do it. You will certainly not feel additionally that it will certainly be so boring.
It's not surprisingly when entering this site to get guide. One of the preferred books currently is the The Serpent And The Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey Into The Secret Societies Of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, And Magic, By Wade Davis You might be puzzled due to the fact that you can't discover guide in the book shop around your city. Commonly, the popular publication will certainly be sold swiftly. When you have discovered the shop to purchase guide, it will certainly be so hurt when you run out of it. This is why, looking for this prominent publication in this website will certainly give you benefit. You will certainly not lack this publication.
Even there are different publications to choose; you might really feel so tough to pick which one that is extremely proper for you. Nonetheless, when you still really feel baffled, take the The Serpent And The Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey Into The Secret Societies Of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, And Magic, By Wade Davis as your referral to review currently. The soft data will certainly concern with the exact same things with the print data. We provide this book is just for you that intend to try reading. Even you have no analysis habit; it can be starter means to like analysis.
Featuring some experiences to locate the excellent book will not make you failed in choosing other publication to review. As this publication, you could not be sorry for and feel uncertainty to pick it as your reading product. This The Serpent And The Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey Into The Secret Societies Of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, And Magic, By Wade Davis has verified that it has good material, great result, good chance, and good condition. The writer has actually created this book with very outstanding material to read by everybody. This is just what makes the people prepare to read this publication.
Review
"Exotic and far-reaching . . . a corker of a read, just the way Indiana Jones would tell it." -- The Wall Street Journal"Zombis do come back from the dead, and Wade Davis knows how." -- Washington Post Book World"An account solving one of the most puzzling biological mysteries of all time." -- Omni
Read more
Product details
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Touchstone; Reissue edition (August 5, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0684839296
ISBN-13: 978-0684839295
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.6 out of 5 stars
203 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#125,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Wade Davis (b. 1953) is a Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author, and photographer who is Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, and had also been sponsored by the Harvard Botanical Museum; he has written many books about his travels, such as One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest,The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World,Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures, etc. A movie version of this book was also released---which had little to do with Davis’s actual book, however.He began the first chapter of this 1985 book, “My first meeting with the man who would sent me on my quest for a Haitian zombie poison occurred on a damp miserable winter’s day in late February 1974… having decided to go to the Amazon, there was only one man to see. Professor Richard Evans Schultes was an almost mythic figure on the [Harvard] campus at that time… both within and without the Department of Anthropology. (Pg. 15-16) “Schultes asked me if I would be able to leave within a fortnight for the Caribbean country of Haiti.†(Pg. 22)He met several other scientists, and was told, “We understand from Professor Schultes that you are attracted to unusual places. We propose to send you to the frontier of death. If what we are about to tell you is true, as we believe it is, it means that there are men and women dwelling in the continuous present, where the past is dead and the future consists of fear and impossible desires… Kline… presented to me … a death certificate of one Clairvius Narcisse… ‘Our problem,’ Kline explained, ‘is that this Narcisse is now very much alive… He and his family claim he was the victim of a voodoo cult and that immediately following his burial he was taken from his grave as a zombie… The living dead… Voodooists believe that their sorcerers have the power to raise innocent individuals from their graces to sell them as slaves.†(Pg. 24-26)Another pointed out. “If certain brain cells are without oxygen for even a few seconds they die and can never recover their function… the individual may lose personality… and yet survive as a vegetable because the vital centers are intact… Precisely the Haitian definition of a zombi… A body without character, without will… There must be a material explanation, and we think it was a drug… I did meet an old voodoo priest who assured me that the poison was sprinkled across the threshold of the intended victim’s doorway and absorbed through the skin of the feet. He claimed that at the resurrection ceremony the victim was administered a second drug as an antidote.†(Pg. 29-30)Davis adds, “I found his excitement contagious. Yes, it was completely conceivable that a drug might exist which, if administered in proper dosage, would lower the metabolic state of the victim to such a level that he would be considered dead. In fact, however, the victim would remain alive, and an antidote properly administered could then restore him at the appropriate time. The medical potential of such a drug would be enormous.†(Pg. 30) He was told, “What we want from you, Mr. Davis, is the formula of the poison.†(Pg. 31)He traveled to Haiti, and met a psychiatrist named Lamarque Douyon, who had been working with Clairvius Narcisse, who told him, “Zombis cannot be the living dead… Death is not merely the loss of bodily function, it is the material decay of the cells and tissues. One does not wake up the dead. However, those who have been drugged may revive.†(Pg. 58-59) Later, he adds, “It didn’t take me long to realize that the original hunch … had proved correct: the zombie poison included one of the most toxic substances known from nature… In English we know these as blowfish or puffer fish… many of which had tetrodoxin in their skin, liver, ovaries, and intestines.†(Pg. 117-118)He observes, “Tetrodoxin induces a state of profound paralysis, marked by complete immobility during which the border between life and death is not at all certain, even to trained physicians. I need hardly express the significance of this in terms of the zombie investigation. It became quite clear that tetrodoxin was capable of pharmacologically inducing a physical state that might actually allow an individual to be buried alive.†(Pg. 123)He summarizes, “The investigation had come full circle. Ironically, the plant I had originally suspected… was instrumental in actually creating and maintaining the zombi state… datura promised to amplify those mental processes a thousand times. … Administered to an individual who has already suffered the effects of the tetrodoxin, who has already passed through the ground, the devastating psychological effects are difficult to imagine. For it is in the course of that intoxication that the zombie is baptized with a new name, and led away to be socialized into a new existence.†(Pg. 166)He explains, “For the vodounist, then zombis are created by sorcery, and it is the belief in the magic that makes the relatives of the dead concerned. For good reasons, they go to great efforts to ensure that the dead are truly dead, or at least protected from such a horrible fate. This is why the body may be killed again, with a knife through the heart or by decapitation.†(Pg. 185)He notes, “In the end, this solution to this aspect of the zombi mystery had a certain elegance. For the vodounist the creation of a zombie is essentially a magical process… Rubbed into a wound or inhaled, the poison kills the corps cadaver slowly, efficiently, and discreetly. The poison contains tetrodoxin, which acts to lower dramatically the metabolic rate of the victim almost to the point of clinical death. Pronounced dead by attending physicians, and considered materially dead by family members … the victim is in fact buried alive… The widespread belief in the reality of zombis in Haiti… is based on those cases in which the victim receives the correct dose of the poison, wakes up in the coffin, and is taken from the grave… The victim, affected by the drug, traumatized by the set and setting of the total experience, is bound and led before a cross to be baptized with a new name. After the baptism… he or she is made to eat a paste containing a strong dose of a potent psychoactive drug… which brings on a state of disorientation and amnesia. During the course of that intoxication, the zombie is taken away into the night.†(Pg. 187)He concludes, “I had arrived in Haiti to investigate zombis. A poison had been found and identified… that was chemically capable of maintaining a person so poisoned in a zombie state. Yet as a Western scientists … I had found myself swept into a complex worldview utterly different from my own and one that left me demonstrating less the chemical basis of a popular belief than the psychological and cultural foundations of a chemical event. Perhaps more significantly, the research had suggested that there was a logical purpose to zombification that was consistent with the heritage of the people. To be sure, I had failed to document a zombie as it was taken from the cemetery, but this was no longer something I deliberately sought out.†(Pg. 265)Of course, the book also includes the fascinating story of Davis’s explorations and adventures. I found this a fascinating and informative book, that will interest students of cultural anthropology, comparative religion, psychopharmacology, etc.
First off forget anything you saw in the film, which bears little resemblance to the book. THE SERPENT & THE RAINBOW is a fascinating anthropological study that reads like fiction; easily capable of holding a reader's interest from start to finish.It is the early 1980's and Harvard educated ethnobotantist (one who scientifically studies the relationship between people and plants) Wade Davis is sent to Haiti to investigate the validity of two reported cases of zombification. The theory being the reanimated state is created through the action of then unidentified toxins found in a mysterious mixture called "zombie powder". Dr. Davis's financial backers believe the powder may be of some pharmacological interest.Wade Davis does indeed obtain the mysterious powder; several forms of it in fact and analysis in the States prove the substances to contain the active ingredients tetrodotoxin from pufferfish and another potent toxin from dried tree frogs. Davis hypothesizes the powder when applied to broken or abraded skin causes an extreme reaction culminating in a death-like state. The victim, fully conscious but completely paralyzed, is then mistakenly diagnosed as dead, buried alive, and left in the grave for hours to days with nothing but the darkness and his or her own thoughts as company.This is just the beginning of what can only be described as an absolutely horrific fate. The victim is later dug up, viciously beaten and subjected to frightening rituals designed to convince the victim that he or she is now a soulless zombie. To further this belief the victim is feed a paste containing tropane alkaloids from the Datura stramonium plant which causes delirium, confusion, and memory loss. The pliant zombie is then sold to one of the large farms on the island and is usually never seen or heard from again.Sounds pretty frightening doesn't it? Well it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what according to the author was going on in Haiti at the time of the book's writing. By this point obtaining the powder and getting a positive chemical analysis completed wasn't enough for the good doctor. He wanted to understand WHY zombies were being created in the first place, and WHO was making the decision to create them. The author wanted to understand the magic of Haitian Vodou.What follows is an odyssey into the secret Vodou societies who controlled the countryside, and to a certain extent the capital of Port-au-Prince. It is the societies who "own the night" enforcing a system of folk justice with zombification as the ultimate punishment. Victims are rarely if ever innocent, chosen specifically for their difficult temperament and moral degeneracy. That the author was able to penetrate so deeply into the inner machinations of the societies and their relationship with government officials, and lived to write the tale, is absolutely amazing to this reader.So what conclusions can be drawn from this classic work on Haitin Vodou? At the very least THE SERPENT & THE RAINBOW raises interesting questions about magical ethics and the role of magical practitioners in their communities. It also describes the rarest type of government to ever exist in the Americas: the thaumacracy (a society governed by the belief in magic and the power of its practitioners). This in my opinion makes the book an essential read for all modern day pagans and not just vodouists. Besides, for sheer pleasure reading it is a really good book.
Dr. Davis' One River carries the reader on an unforgettable journey through the twentieth-century Amazonian rainforest. Providing an intimate glimpse into the travels of the legendary ethnobotanist Richard Shultes and his graduate students, Davis weaves a fascinating history of mentor and student, lured collectively to the Amazonian wilderness to explore its plants and people. A remarkable storyteller, Davis illuminates the incredible reality of these indigenous peoples and their extensive ecological relationships with an understanding of science and appreciation for mysticism that few others are able to offer.
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis PDF
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis EPub
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis Doc
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis iBooks
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis rtf
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis Mobipocket
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis Kindle
