Paranormal Pastimes In New Orleans

You may go for the Mardi Grais or maybe not, but when you are in New Orleans there are many things of interest in the Paranormal field.
I was going through some old videos and remembered the gracious use granted of some vacation photos by a fellow Etsy Artist used i my Voodoo posts last year.Viola, then came an interesting article about Haunted New Orleans so thought together they would make a nice post as Mardi Grais approaches..
Voodoo In New Orleans


"Haunted New Orleans by Sarah Amandolare


New Orleans is a haven for fun-loving revelers, but beneath the surface of this colorful coastal city lay ghosts and spirits—perhaps more than in any other city in the United States. We’ve narrowed down New Orleans’ plethora of scary places to six, including a hauntingly beautiful cemetery, an alleyway with a past and a bar beloved by Tennessee Williams.
The Haunts of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
The oldest cemetery in New Orleans is also the most haunted. St. Louis No. 1 “is a grand European mixture of ornate marble tombs, crumbling memorials and narrow, winding footpaths,” according to Haunted America Tours. But that’s not all. Because of high water levels in New Orleans, which made underground burials difficult, St. Louis No. 1 (there’s also a No. 2) is home to many above-ground tombs and mausoleums. Stroll the “maze-like” grounds and you’re likely to hear sad cries from within the crypts, and see misty ghosts roaming about. Marie Laveau, known as the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, is the most feared ghost in the cemetery, often appearing to visitors as a black cat with red eyes....
Full aericle http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/feature-articles/2008/october/Haunted-New-Orleans.html

The Science Of Voodoo

This interesting article is worth reading..Here are some parts of it with a link to the site at the bottom of the page.

"Late one night in a small Alabama cemetery, Vance Vanders had a run-in with the local witch doctor, who wafted a bottle of unpleasant-smelling liquid in front of his face, and told him he was about to die and that no one could save him.

Back home, Vanders took to his bed and began to deteriorate. Some weeks later, emaciated and near death, he was admitted to the local hospital, where doctors were unable to find a cause for his symptoms or slow his decline. Only then did his wife tell one of the doctors, Drayton Doherty, of the hex.

Doherty thought long and hard. The next morning, he called Vanders's family to his bedside. He told them that the previous night he had lured the witch doctor back to the cemetery, where he had choked him against a tree until he explained how the curse worked. The medicine man had, he said, rubbed lizard eggs into Vanders's stomach, which had hatched inside his body. One reptile remained, which was eating Vanders from the inside out.
reat ceremony

Doherty then summoned a nurse who had, by prior arrangement, filled a large syringe with a powerful emetic. With great ceremony, he inspected the instrument and injected its contents into Vanders' arm. A few minutes later, Vanders began to gag and vomit uncontrollably. In the midst of it all, unnoticed by everyone in the room, Doherty produced his pièce de résistance - a green lizard he had stashed in his black bag. "Look what has come out of you Vance," he cried. "The voodoo curse is lifted."

Vanders did a double take, lurched backwards to the head of the bed, then drifted into a deep sleep. When he woke next day he was alert and ravenous. He quickly regained his strength and was discharged a week later.

The facts of this case from 80 years ago were corroborated by four medical professionals. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about it is that Vanders survived. There are numerous documented instances from many parts of the globe of people dying after being cursed.

With no medical records and no autopsy results, there's no way to be sure exactly how these people met their end. The common thread in these cases, however, is that a respected figure puts a curse on someone, perhaps by chanting or pointing a bone at them. Soon afterwards, the victim dies, apparently of natural causes.


You might think this sort of thing is increasingly rare, and limited to remote tribes. But according to Clifton Meador, a doctor at Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, who has documented cases like Vanders, the curse has taken on a new form.

Take Sam Shoeman, who was diagnosed with end-stage liver cancer in the 1970s and given just months to live. Shoeman duly died in the allotted time frame - yet the autopsy revealed that his doctors had got it wrong. The tumour was tiny and had not spread. "He didn't die from cancer, but from believing he was dying of cancer," says Meador. "If everyone treats you as if you are dying, you buy into it. Everything in your whole being becomes about dying."
He didn't die from cancer but from believing he was dying of cancer

Cases such as Shoeman's may be extreme examples of a far more widespread phenomenon. Many patients who suffer harmful side effects, for instance, may do so only because they have been told to expect them. What's more, people who believe they have a high risk of certain diseases are more likely to get them than people with the same risk factors who believe they have a low risk. It seems modern witch doctors wear white coats and carry stethoscopes."

It goes on to give some examples how a mistaken diagnosis lrd to death and somr other facts about the process,
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227081.100-the-science-of-voodoo-when-mind-attacks-body.html

Zombies

Zombies: Truth & Legends

In a recent discussion:
"Author Dr. Bob Curran explored beliefs, folklore, and truths regarding zombies, the frightening manifestation of the dead returning. Ancient cultures, such as the Viking, Egyptian, and Celtic all believed in the idea that the dead could return from time to time, in physical form. During Medieval England, certain days were set aside for visitations from the "blessed dead"-- who were said to return to warn, advise and enjoy physical activity, he added. It wasn't until Victorian England that the idea of ghosts as apparitions rather than solid forms took hold, he explained.

The condition of catalepsy, where living people were sometimes mistaken for dead, may have accounted for some cases of zombie-ism, Curran noted. The expansion of the medical profession in the late 1700s created the need for grave-robbers or "Resurrectionists," and they sometimes delivered bodies which actually were still alive-- contributing to the zombie lore, he commented.

In the Caribbean, and later in such US cities as New Orleans and Charleston, the slave trade brought in the practice of voodoo, which combined elements of African religion with French and Spanish Catholicism, said Curran. He also touched on the Jewish legend of the golem, a zombie-like creature said to be made out of clay, and the "living mummies" of Japan, a group of Buddhists who slowed their bodies down through diet."

Dr Curran has investigated and written on a number of fascinating subjects.Some of his books:

Lost Lands, Forgotten Realms
The Truth About the Leprechaun
Celtic Lore and Legend
Encyclopedia of the Undead
Vampires: A Field Guide To The Creatures That Stalk The Night
Walking with the Green Man
Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead Ireland, not far from the famous Giant's Causeway.


ZOMBABIE bymonsterbuckles
More Zombies at etsy on the video.