Anybody been to Haiti?

Its not Satanic, grow up. Go read the original book by Wade Davis if you want to know what voudoun is about, and what the true story was of what happened.

I know of a few people who went to my church, and they went to Haiti as a mission trip. They subtly some of the weird crap that happened (things go missing, voices at night, blood at odd places). But my favorite story they told me was of this old guy who would walk by the house they stayed at, and would stare at it for a while. Soon, they found out from some the locals that he had died. Keith, one of the missionaries, swore, days later, he saw the same man walk by their house one day. That really creeped me out. They told me that voodoo (vodun) was basically Satanic, and the work of Satan was not fiction. Vodun in Haiti is kind of like a local secret, as almost all the townspeople are a part of some kind of voodoo, but NO ONE talks about it outisde of the rituals.

1. Vodoun in Haiti is not some huge secret. It is shunned by the middle class, whose members are predominately Protestant. However, Haiti, being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, doesn't have a very large middle class.

2. Animal sacrifice is involved in Vodoun rituals. However, animal sacrifice plays a role in most religions. Christianity is centered around a <i>human</i> sacrifice and a symbolic act of cannibalism. Something to consider.

3. There are multiple branches in Vodoun, but the two primary ones are rite Rada and Rite Petwo. Rada involves more peaceful ancestral spirits, Petwo more concerned with sorcerery. However, Houngans deal with both and consider maintaining a balance between the two forces important. Bokors don't even deal primarily with the major lwa, either Rada or Petwo, but rely on "power points" or "bought spirits" which are not honored in any traditional hounfor (temple). Houngans, the actual priests of the religion, are primarily concerned with healing both physical and social ills. That the houngans deal with the more violent Petwo, in addition to the Rada, is not something a Christian fundamentalist should find odd if he is familiar with his Old Testament. While in the desert, the Hebrews sacrificed to both Yahweh and Azazel.

4. Lastly, Vodounists consider themselves Christians. They serve a high god called Bondye, who they identify with the Yahweh of the Bible.
I know that a fundamentalist would consider Vodoun satanic because almost <i>everything</i> is satanic in the eyes of a fundamentalist. However, Vodoun
not only played a huge role in liberating Haiti from slavery, but also in aiding its practitioners in dealing with lives that are stricken with poverty and sickness. By and large, Vodoun is a positive force that has done far more good than ill. Fellows like Papa and Baby Doc misused and abused it for political gain, but religion has always been susceptible to such abuses.

-I1KIs

Umm guys... please stay on topic... we are talking about a dumb horror movie here, how did this degrade into an all-out religion war?

Actually, voodoo is the product of Loki Laufeyjarson. That nutty trickster! Loki has been doing a frame job on Satan because, hey, that's just the crazy sort of stunt he loves.

No, what I really meant to say was that voodoo is a fiction propagated by SPs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressive_Person) in a bloody-minded effort to cheese off Ron.

Truly, it is merely a part of Tawhiri-matea's plan to punish humans for forgetting the painful separation of his parents, the earth and the sky.

I'm only joking. Of COURSE voodoo is the work of Satan. All hail Satan. How are you doing for chicken blood, Lord Satan? Still good? You just let me know.

Amazingly, it only takes the mere mention of a mission trip to start a whole theological debate between *beep* antichristians and people who should know better than to argue with them. Here is a tip to all of you... GIVE UP! I know, arguing is the new American past time, but give us all a break and shut up for five minutes. Go outside. Be with your family. Read an old book. Feel better? If not, commit suicide... You degenerate politician.

My name is Jim, but most people call me... Jim.

Since few people bothered to actually answer this post (other than the person with the tolerance link and the person with the "1000 eyes"), here's my take on it. This is based on my having lived in Haiti at the time the movie was made and having been there on 5 trips. I speak Haitian Creole and once met a Voudo priest who claimed to be on his way to remove a zombi that was bothering people somewhere in the area.

Anyway (appologies in advance for spelling errors, I'm rushed):

1. Is Voudu the work of Satan? I dunno, depends on your definition. Do Haitians worship Satan through Voudu? They don't think so, but if you think they do because they don't believe what you believe, then it's all definitional and tautological so there's no real debating it.

2. Is it "real"? This is a belief system, so it is not clear to me what you mean by real. Can people really be turned into Zombis? I doubt it. I think the more likely reason for the lore of a zombi is a person with severe psychological trauma or mental illness. For instance, have you ever been to a facility that houses the insane? Some of the folks I recall meeting when doing volunteer work as a teen for confirmation class at the local "county home" would seem to be zombified to me if I wasn't aware of modern medical research. People with extreme, albeit somewhat rare, forms of schziophrnia (which itself is not that rare), might also fit a zombi description. I forget of Davis' book dealt with this hypothesis or not, but the book didn't seem 100% on the up and up when I read it, but that was years ago.

3. Who believes it? Sometimes I think christian missionaries believe it more than the local believers do! Your churchmates really believe they saw a ghost or walking dead? Maybe it's time for them to take science or rational thinking 101. Yes, people can believe what they want, but you can't have your own facts. In other words, if you think there is an afterlife or that people can be zombified, that's fine. But if you are going to tell me there's proof of it, then you need to put up or shut up. ;-) I've encountered many Haitians who claim to know or to have seen this or that voudu curse carried out, but they substance behind almost all of them as flimsy as an internet rumor about Bill Gates giving out money via the email.

4. People talk about it outside the rituals all the time. Understandably, some may not talk about it with "blan" (foreigners). Also, there are various levels of committment to the religion. Many non-believers still believe in some of the non-core tenents of the religion, e.g. superstitions about curses or charms (sounds like your church goers might fit into this category!)

I just recently returned from Port Au Prince on a trip sponsored by a humanitarian group, and I did visit one of the actual filming locations used in the film. The scene of the religious pilgrimmage up the mountain, where all of the natives are carrying candles, was filmed at San Souci palace in the northern part of haiti, near the city of Cap Haitian. Also, scenes were shot at the International Airport in Port Au Prince.