The Walking Dead one day comes to pass. “Technical assistance,” stated Khan, would be provided at a city, state, and even international level when, or if, a “zombie infestation” began. Control of the spread of infection would be achieved by quickly placing those affected into quarantine and isolation. Attempts to find a cure for the zombie virus would be paramount, explained the admiral. He also revealed that much time would be spent on determining how the outbreak began, what caused it, and how best to combat the “cycle of transmission” that led to the situation in which zombies were overrunning the landscape. Clearly, then, the CDC has given a great deal of thought to what might happen when the zombies attack and the world is in turmoil and upheaval.
It must be noted that the CDC’s zombie-themed material is presented in slightly tongue in cheek fashion: it even has a non-profit partner called the CDC Foundation that sells “Zombie Task Force” t-shirts. The profits go toward disaster-relief programs. Despite the curious and undeniably surreal humor in all of this, one is inevitably forced to muse upon a potentially alarming possibility: does the CDC secretly know something that the rest of us don’t know? Is its staff aware that, one day, possibly in the very near future, a genuine zombie outbreak may very well occur? If so, is the CDC trying to subtly warn us to be prepared, maybe in a fashion that does not overly alarm us? At least, it won’t alarm us until the dead rise up and start attacking the living.
If, one day, the recently deceased really do surface from the grave and go on a virus-spreading, homicidal killing spree, you would be wise to check out the location of your nearest CDC center. It may very well prove to be the best place in which to hide out when the lights go off, the electricity shuts down, and the news suddenly stops broadcasting.
Chamani, Miriam
Priestess Miriam Chamani gives Consultations and African Bone Readings both in person and via the telephone. She specializes in Voodoo Weddings, Damballah for Healing, and Erzulie for Love. Priestess Miriam designs Voodoo Dolls and Kits tailored to each person’s needs and desires.
Priestess Miriam was born and raised in Mississippi, where she experienced the power of mysterious spiritual forces beginning in early childhood. Around 1975, the power of the spirit called strongly to Priestess Miriam, leading her to many spiritual orders and ultimately to a seat at the Angel All Nations Spiritual Church. There she increased her knowledge of spirit and explored metaphysical concepts and teachings.
In 1990, Priestess Miriam and her late husband, Oswan Chamani, settled in New Orleans, where they founded the Voodoo Spiritual Temple, the only temple of its kind in the city at that time. The Temple is located next to Congo Square, and its rituals are directly connected to those performed on Congo Square by Marie Laveau and Doctor John. It is the only formally established Spiritual Temple with a focus on traditional West African spiritual and herbal healing practices currently existing in New Orleans.
Upon the death of her husband, Voodoo Priest Oswan Chamani, on March 6, 1995, Miriam Chamani continued her husband’s Belizan Vodou and herbalism traditions in addition to her own spiritualist practices, and she pursues many of the inclusive trends of Black Christian Spiritualism, seeking to serve all peoples, regardless of race or belief.
Visit Priestess Miriam Chamani’s website at http://www.Voodoospiritualtemple.org/
Chinese Zombies
If you think that the concept of the jerky, slow-moving dead is a relatively modern one, then it is very much a case of time to think again. Within Chinese culture and folklore, tales of such abominations date back centuries. In China, the zombie is known as the jiang-shi. And it is just about as deadly and terrifying as its Haitian and western counterparts. Jiang-shi translates into English as “stiff corpse.” And there is a very good reason for that: the movements and gait of the Chinese undead are not at all dissimilar to the zombies of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.
In China, the jiang-shi is a creature with a seemingly never-ending case of rigor mortis. Most people are familiar with the concept of this post-death condition: when a person dies, the body significantly stiffens. This is due to a now-permanent lack of oxygen, which prevents the body from producing adenosine triphosphate, a molecule significantly involved in the regulation of the human metabolism. As the metabolic system finally comes to an irreversible halt, the process of rigor mortis quickly begins. Many people, however, are unaware that rigor mortis is not a permanent condition. While it typically sets in just a few hours after death, within a day or so, its effects have completely vanished and the body is as supple in death as it was in life. For the jiangshi, however, rigor mortis never, ever goes away, something which ensures the creature retains a stiff, robotic gait at all times, just like Romero’s infamous ghouls.
Notably, the jiang-shi has another zombie parallel: like its cinematic counterpart, the jiang-shi feeds on humans. Whereas the walking and running undead need human flesh to fuel their bodies, the jiang-shi is fuelled by the very essence of what makes us human: the soul. Chinese tradition tells of the soul being the container of a powerful energy, one that the average jiang-shi craves, and that is known as Qi. The average zombie may be quite content to eat its prey while they are still alive and fighting for their lives, but the jiang-shi is first required to slaughter its victim before the act of Qi-devouring can begin in earnest.
In the same way that there are two kinds of zombies—the Haitian, mind-controlled type and the rabid, infected kind most often seen in movies—so too there are two groups of jiang-shi. One is a freshly dead person who reanimates extremely quickly, perhaps even within mere minutes of death. The other is an individual who rises from the grave months, or even years after they have passed away, but who displays no inward or outward evidence of decomposition.
As for how and why a person may become a jiang-shi, the reasons are as many as they are varied: being buried prematurely, dabbling in the black arts, and, rather interestingly, getting hit by lightning can all result in transformation from a regular human to a jiang-shi. On this latter point of lightning, electricity has played a significant role in the resurrection of the dead in the world of fiction, and most notably in Mary Shelley’s classic novel of 1818, Frankenstein. There is another way of transforming into a jiang-shi, too, one which zombie aficionados will definitely be able to relate to: when a person is killed and their Qi is taken, the victim also becomes a jiang-shi. What this demonstrates is that the jiang-shi’s act of stealing energy is very much the equivalent of the zombie delivering an infectious bite.
And, just like most zombies of movies, novels, and television shows, most jiangshis don’t look good in the slightest. Although the jiang-shi typically appears relatively normal when it first reanimates—in the sense that decomposition is not in evidence—things soon change, and not for the better. The walking, jerky corpse of the jiang-shi begins to degrade significantly, the rank odor of the dead becomes all-dominating, and the flesh begins to hang, turning an unhealthy-looking lime color as it does so.
Killing a jiang-shi can be just as difficult as putting down a cinematic zombie. A bullet to the body of a zombie may briefly slow it down. But only a head-shot is going to guarantee the monster stays down permanently. It’s very much the same with the jiang-shi: the trick is in knowing what actually works best. The jiang-shi cannot abide vinegar, which acts as the equivalent of a deadly poison. While actually managing to pour significant amounts of vinegar into the mouth of a ferocious jiang-shi may prove to be
