Death by voodoo, or how one can die from sheer fear of a curse. Science knows such cases.

The feeling of threat can kill us. This is evidenced by examples collected a hundred years ago among traditional living tribes, as well as contemporary ones from highly developed countries. Death by voodoo is not a myth.

Voodoo Museum New Orleans — Voodoo Dolls — [Photo: Claudia Brooke, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

Haitians believe that local shamans have means, so-called “zombie powder”, with which they can turn a person into a “living dead”, a mindless slave. Is it true? It turns out that just the fear of zombification is dangerous for the human body. Self-fulfilling prophecies have their own truth.

How does a curse cast by a shaman work?

The husband of the religious studies specialist, Prof. Elizabeth McAlister, recalled that when he was young, walking with his friends along a rural road in Haiti, they passed a freshly buried man from their village accompanied by two men chasing him. Soon after, his friends fell ill, got a high fever, lasting for several days. They were convinced that it was the result of poisons spread by witches, passing by with the living dead.