ZOMBIES [7d]
The Kingdom of Kongo. 1482. Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão is the first European to sail up the Congo River into the heart of this ancient African nation. Despite the dense rain forest on both sides of the river, Cão spends months exploring this unknown land and meeting its inhabitants. After he reports his discoveries back home, the king of Portugal dispatches waves of missionaries to the region. The goal is to convert tribesman from their ancient religion of Vodun to Catholicism.
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“You have to remember, this isn’t too long after the Crusades. So, Europe had already sort of went from right from the Crusades into Colonialism, and one of the big projects was not just to get land and money and slaves, although that was it, but also to gain souls, converts for the Catholic Church.” – Tok Thompson, Ph.D. (Prof. of Anthropology, USC) |
Over the next century, European missionaries have great success turning the Kingdom of Kongo into a Catholic land. Their belief that a sky god created the Earth and its inhabitants is changed to the Catholic origin story. But the locals hold on to some of their beliefs, including the concept, which is also held by the ancient Egyptians, that people have more than one soul.
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“We have what’s called the ‘big soul’ and the ‘little soul.’ And one of them is responsible for what we normally think of as our personality, what makes you, you, what makes me, me. But the other one is more of a basic sort of soul that animates us, that gets the flesh moving.” – Tok Thompson, Ph.D. (Prof. of Anthropology, USC) |
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“They speak of us as each having a lesser angel and a greater angel. At the time of death, the lesser angel stays with the body. It doesn’t know what to do. But the greater angel leaves the body.” – William Henry (Author / Investigative Mythologist), |
As missionaries convert much of the population to Christianity, traditional bokors or witch doctors are forced to perform some Vodun ceremonies in secret. European missionaries hear astounding stories that these witch doctors use ancient rituals and traditional knowledge to raise the dead, creating automatons that are later dubbed “zombies.”
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“The idea of the zombies is that they actually have only one of these two souls. They’ve passed on, they’ve died and they’ve been resurrected. But only with the soul that animates us. So, they’re lacking in that personality and in that personal feelings and things.” – Tok Thompson, Ph.D. (Prof. of Anthropology, USC) |
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“With zombie-ism, it is then only the physical body is resurrected in a sense and the personalities, that part of the soul, has completely disappeared.” – David Childress (Author, Technology of the Gods) |
Could these stories have been true? And if so, might this be proof that both the Egyptians and the tribes of the Congo were correct in their belief that our consciousness is divided into separate parts? But how could witch doctors, who lived hundreds of years ago, with no access to modern technology have been able to breathe life into the dead, reviving just the part of the soul responsible for animating the flesh?
Ancient Astronaut Theorists point out that African myths suggest voodoo magic originated with the sky gods and their emissaries to Earth, known as Orishas or Loas.
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“The topic of the Orishas is very interesting to me, because they are looked upon as these divine messengers, messengers of knowledge. And the stories are very clear that the Orishas arrived from the sky. And what I find interesting is that in many of the old carvings that we can find in wood, for example they’re depicted in sitting in these weird craft, that look like a craft, and that they all seem to feature these elongated skulls.” – Giorgio A. Tsoukalos |
Is it possible that these African sky gods were actually extraterrestrials that not only taught the natives the secrets of the soul, but also showed them how to resurrect the dead? And could this be the origin of our modern-day stories of zombies?
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“Perhaps, through the centuries, these original teachings of these celestial beings were lost. Sorcerers and magicians in Africa and elsewhere began mimicking or trying to copy what the originals had done and had a limited degree of success. They were able to create zombies. But the source is clear. These teachings originally came from celestial beings.” – William Henry (Author / Investigative Mythologist), |
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“Maybe some of the extraterrestrials had an accident, so the extraterrestrials helped him like a doctor would do today and the natives watched it. They couldn’t understand what was going on in medicine and they copied it.” – Erich von Däniken (Author, Chariots of the Gods?) |
Were African witch doctors mimicking the technology of their sky gods when they tried to bring the dead back to life? And if so, are there stories in which both parts of the soul have been successfully resurrected? Ancient Astronaut Theorists believe further evidence can be found by exploring ancient Hindu beliefs in which the conscious self can be reborn in a new body.
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References:
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[4] History™. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.3 – Aliens Among Us. [Episode Description]. Retrieved: November 14, 2014, from http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/season-7.
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| [7] History™. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.6 – Alien Resurrections. [Episode Description]. Retrieved: December 5, 2014, from http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/season-7.
[7a] Prometheus Entertainment. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.6 – Alien Resurrections. [DVD Footage: Introduction]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [7b] Prometheus Entertainment. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.6 – Alien Resurrections. [DVD Footage: Near Death Experiences]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [7c] Prometheus Entertainment. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.6 – Alien Resurrections. [DVD Footage: Egyptian Mummies]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [7d] Prometheus Entertainment. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.6 – Alien Resurrections. [DVD Footage: Zombies]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [7e] Prometheus Entertainment. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.6 – Alien Resurrections. [DVD Footage: Reincarnation]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [7f] Prometheus Entertainment. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.6 – Alien Resurrections. [DVD Footage: The Eucharist]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [7g] Prometheus Entertainment. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.6 – Alien Resurrections. [DVD Footage: Modern Medicine]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. |
[8] History™. (2014). Ancient Aliens: 7.7 – Alien Messages. [Episode Description]. Retrieved: December 19, 2014, from http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/season-7.
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[10] History™. (2015). Ancient Aliens: 7.9 – Aliens & the Civil War. [Episode Description]. Retrieved: April 10, 2015, from http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/season-7.
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[12] History™. (2015). Ancient Aliens: 7.11 – The Vanishings. [Episode Description]. Retrieved: April 24, 2015, from http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/season-7.
[13] History™. (2015). Ancient Aliens: 7.12 – The Alien Agenda. [Episode Description]. Retrieved: May 1, 2015, from http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/season-7.
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