Change Your Brain Every Day - The Neuroscience of Voodoo Dolls, Vampires & Zombies

Episode Date: June 14, 2017

In this special episode of the Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen take a fun look at the neuroscience behind some of the ghost stories in American folklore and mythology. Tales of vampires, zombies, and voodoo dolls have become deeply embedded in our culture, populating our books, movies, and TV shows. It’s all fiction, or course, but the real-life origins behind these legends just might surprise you.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Well, today is going to be really interesting. We're going to talk about the neuroscience of voodoo dolls, zombies, and vampires. And it's not what you think. So this is really funny because I've always been fascinated and curious why our society is fascinated and curious

with all of this American folklore. And I've never understood why all of our television shows are going toward this. So we went on a trip to New Orleans and it started to become clear to me. And this is fascinating. But before we do that, I want to read one thing really quickly because we got like sort of overloaded and bombarded with all these amazing testimonials. So before we actually talk about things that suck blood, let's talk about life giving testimonial at the moment because it was really fun this weekend, right? We got all these great, great stories. So Jackie wrote into us and she said, hi there. I'd like to say a big

thank you to you and Daniel. You've made such a positive difference to me and my family. I think the front cover of your book should say, change your brain, save your life. Your work with spec scans is incredible. Will there ever be a chance to have spec done in England at some time in the future, or do people have to come to America? Thanks again. I'm so grateful to you. XOXO. Yeah. Well, at the moment, they have to come to America to at least get the work done.

Although we're doing it in Canada. We do. There's a place in Canada doing it. I have another testimonial. We've talked about Mike Weaver, the former world heavyweight boxing champion who came to Amen Clinics. And I just got a great testimonial. Now, I mean, he's a world heavyweight boxing champion. He fought Larry Holmes and many other people. And after being on our program, he said he's feeling good. He's lost weight because he has more energy to work out

his focus is better and he's excited about seeing his follow-up scan so that goes with the whole message of our work you're not stuck with the brain you have you can make it better and scientists around the world are proving it way beyond us. It's really exciting. So what's the deal with voodoo dolls, vampires? Well, it's really fascinating, right? Like I always wondered, I know there's one story from Romania, right? So the Countess of Bathory who believed that if she drank the blood of young women,

she would stay young. And so part of it comes from, you know, some of these, she was actually a serial killer. She did not live forever. And so some of these crazy stories get blown up and they turn into American folklore. Now, I just have to interrupt you for one second, because what's actually happening in science is it's not the blood, it's the feces. So they're actually doing fecal transplants. No lie. Right. The that from healthy younger people and older people. And they're finding experimentally, at least in animals, that that works. So transferring bodily material. But so you bring up a good point, OK, Because the reason that it works is because your gut is

not healthy. You need that good bacteria. So think about this. The Countess of Bathory lived in a place with no sunshine. There's a good chance she had, in fact, there's some evidence she was clearly suffering from mental illness, right? What she saw in the mirror was not what other people were seeing. So she had some dysmorphia going on, but there's a very good chance she was also suffering from nutritional deficiency so this is where i get interested it's not because i believe in vampires or anything like that i wonder what's going on in the minds of people people that suck the life out of you right no they actually there are other people who do believe in this so but what i wonder there's

is what's happening different types of vampires but i wonder what's happening in their types of vampires. But I wonder what's happening in their bodies and minds that even drives them to this or why we become fascinated with these stories. And when we were in New Orleans, we discovered that there's actually a story behind it where that their fascination people in New Orleans are fascinated. They're obsessed, actually, with their ghosts, vampires, zombies and their voodoo. Right. So and there's but there's a reason there's an actual real story as to how it got started and it's really kind of crazy right the casket girls right 1728 so not enough women in new orleans in fact the guys sent here were mostly prisoners and slaves were sent here. Right. Right.

Indentured servants. And so not enough women. And so they made a deal with France and they brought over. We were French. Louisiana was French owned at the time. Right. They made a deal and they got 100 women. And the voyage was supposed to take two months.

But the reason they called them the casquette girls was because they took these women, and they took them and put all of their belongings into these rectangular boxes, and they called the boxes casquettes. Okay, Q-U-E-T-T-E, right? So they called them the casquette girls, but the voyage took double the time it was supposed to take.

Right. It was like five months. And they got scurvy, which is a vitamin C deficiency. And when they came, they had bleeding gums. And their joints were swollen. And so they were hunched over. They were in a lot of pain. They were very pale.

Their eyes were bulging. And they were limping and walking with limp. And they were very sensitive to sunlight. So they didn't want to come out during the day. Right. So the men wanted nothing to do with these women. They were freaked out by him in fact. So they had these bleeding gums or mouths that were bleeding. And so no one would come near them. So the only people that would take them in were the nuns. What was the Ursuline nuns? Took them into the convent and they were they healed them they brought them back and they did what nuns often do in convents they

turned it into a hospital and they were nursing these women and they were sensitive to sunlight so they only opened the shutters at night okay so you see where this is going right so rumors started people started talking oh they're vampires. Oh, they're vampires. The blood, the, the sensitivity to daylight, all of this stuff. They started, rumors started going around and you know how that goes. I mean, it started, especially in a time where there wasn't a lot else to do. Well, imagine if it was social media then. Right. So they started saying that these women were vampires and the nurse, the nuns just really

stayed out of it and healed the women, but they didn't do anything to stop the rumors. And that's what happened. So when the women were healed, they didn't want anything to do with the men because they had been treated so poorly when they got off the boats. Now they want nothing to do with these people, right? They're freaked out by them. So the nuns sneak them out at night to take them away from New Orleans so they can marry people in surrounding towns where they don't know the story. And so they, so now all the girls disappear. They just disappear. But the caskets are left in the attic. So. And so they think that's where the vampires are imprisoned. Right. So they now call it a vampire prison. Now it's...

But you see how interesting, right? These are just ordinary girls who got sick, had a nutritional deficiency, and it becomes one of America's biggest folklores of how vampires came to New Orleans. And I just think that that's really fascinating. Well, and voodoo dolls was also something, you know, we think of them as evil. But they didn't start that way. There's actually a scientific study that we talk about sometimes on the show where scientists gave couples voodoo dolls. And then they measured their blood sugar right before bedtime.

And the people had the lowest blood sugars, had twice the number of pins in the dolls because the researcher said, we want you to express your feelings about your partner with the pins in the dolls. Right. And but but that's actually not why they made dolls. And the dolls, you almost think about it like statues to your ancestors or statues or dolls to the saints that people would pray to. And here in the voodoo religion, and I was shocked that there is a practicing group in the world. A very large practicing group. There was 3% to 6% of the population actually practiced voodoo religion, which I thought was interesting. But the dolls, it was much more like acupuncture and acupressure that they would make dolls to people who were important to them, their ancestors or someone who might be sick. And they were putting pressure on the dolls to release energy. But interesting, the way that voodoo even came to the United States was because they brought these West African people here to be slaves.

Horrifying. But they brought them here, and that was their practicing religion at the time. It was not actually an evil religion. What happened was there are always evil people who capitalized on this ability to practice magic. They knew that it sold, okay? They were called hoodoo witch doctors or hoodoo magicians, and so, but the voodoo was a religion brought here at the time. Whatever your feelings are about that, that was their religion. Okay. That's what they practiced. And the way they got it to fly under the radar and not be caught was because they had to be baptized or, you know,

christened or whatever you want to call it Catholic. And so in order to do that, they basically agreed that they would call it Catholicism. They just made the parallel. So where Catholics were praying to saints, they were praying to their ancestors. Where Catholics would carve, you know, would make statues and crosses, they would do the dolls to their ancestors. And so they made those comparisons. And it also came through Haiti. Right.

Those parallels. Where there was that combination of Catholicism and the African religions. I mean, it's just fascinating. But as in anything, as you said, you can turn good into evil. Well, and a lot of it had to do with money. So when the hoodoo, not voodoo, hoodoo magicians decided to take voodoo and sell it, they could capitalize on it. This was one of the most interesting parts. Now we're going to get into zombies. So another neuro, neuro brain science, right? This is really fascinating to me. I was

like sort of blown away by this. So talk about how these hoodoo magicians actually started to create real life, like real zombies. Right. So you could actually put a contract out on someone. You didn't like. You could pay the hoodoo priest to take someone out and they would get together a concoction a poison it was blowfish powder so it was made from blowfish so you know like even in japan like it's a game almost is like can you eat this without dying or going into a neurotoxic coma right and so they would take these people put them into a neurotoxic coma with the blowfish And what they did is they put it in their shoes or they would blow it in their face.

And then they would go in a coma. People would think they were dead. And they put them in the crypts, right? They put them in the crypts. For three days. But they knew that over time they would wake up. So three days later they would usually come to. What would happen is they would have anoxia or a lack of oxygen to their brain.

And we've seen on spec scans what that does. It just devastates. So think of a near drowning, right? A near drowning. It devastates brain function. Or if you've had a heart attack and you're unconscious for 10 minutes and then they bring you back. I've actually seen scans before and after. It's devastating. Would that be similar to the sort of effects of stroke when someone is paralyzed?

Right, or cerebral palsy, which again is a lack of oxygen or a lack of blood flow. So they end up with this paralysis in limbs. Right. So they can't speak. They're slurred. The utterances are odd. They have trouble with their limbs. And so if you just think of zombies.

Right. So they start dragging, say, a foot. And they can't talk. And they're limping and dragging their limbs. And their maybe upper extremities are paralyzed or spastic where they're holding them tight. So they're very, very tight. And they, yeah, so their joints are sort of contorted. And so the walking dead is really a great example.

Well, that's what they called them because they would put them in the crypt, take them out three days later. And now people feared the hoodoo priest, but they also thought of these people as zombies. Correct. Fascinating. All from blowfish so so there are many neuroscience explanations uh for voodoo and zombies and vampires see i'm a very skeptical person i don't believe i don't i tend to not just believe that things are i don't you know i just don't like buy into oh wow that's crazy that's magic like i just don't, I tend to not just believe that things are, I don't, you know, I just don't like buy into, oh wow, that's crazy. That's magic.

Like I just don't buy it. I always think there's an explanation to it. And so that's why I was so fascinated and excited to learn this. Cause I'm like, I knew it. I knew there was a reason behind it. Like I knew they were. But you're also a deeply spiritual person. Yeah.

You believe you're here for a reason. Purpose. That your behavior matters. Absolutely. You believe you're here for a reason. Purpose. That your behavior matters. Absolutely. And both you and I. I do believe in good and evil. I do believe in good and evil. Love helping people.

So we hope you found this as interesting as we did. There are some takeaways, though. Yes. You want to make sure you get vitamin C so you don't get scurvy. Stay away from blowfish. Drinking blood probably is a really bad thing for you. But get your numbers checked. Get your probiotics to make sure that your gut is properly populated.

There's also one more thing just to throw in there. So there's this disorder called, is it pica? Is that pica where people eat? So when you crave odd things or you crave dirt or clay or things like that, you want to chew on it or blood, there's probably a good reason for that. You're probably lacking some nutritional, you know, you've got some nutritional deficiency, so get your numbers checked, right? So that's one of the big takeaways I took away from New Orleans. You're listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Stay with us.

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