Spice up your Jamaica vacation- explore its Voodoo!

 Want a real thrilling Jamaican vacation? Experience Voodoo, also called Obeah! You can find it in various corners of the island, but you won't hear much about it because it is not something that is done out in the open.

The Obeah man supposedly has the power to marshal evil spirits to bring good or bad fortune. If you want to explore Jamaican Voodoo, you can by simply asking someone working your hotel desk.

Yes, voodoo is practiced in Jamaica. For hundreds of years Jamaicans have been prevented by law from practicing Obeah, a belief system with similarities to Haiti's Voodoo. Now, Voodoo practitioners believe they have a chance to overturn the law.

In the PENUMBRA DATABASE spy thriller, a Voodoo priest makes ancient brews. In reality, these concoctions are of interest to toxicologists, for they are used for both healing and poisoning.

Yes, modern medicine has studied these voodoo intoxications, and many of our contemporary medicines are derived from the same ingredients. Voodoo remedies come from plants, as do most prescription drugs.

BTW, the Voodoo priest in the spy thriller slowly boils poisons that he extracts from both plant and animal tissues, including the puffer fish which contains tetrodotoxins, potent neurotoxins fully capable of pharmacologically inducing one into a zombie state. Yes, he turns a major villain in the spy novel into a zombie!

It’s amazing, but modern medicine is studying the most lethal Voodoo poisons which appear to induce catalepsy. Although tetrodotoxin was singled out as the probable active ingredient, further analyses of such poisons unidentified neurotoxicants in various other Caribbean fish besides the puffer fish… and amphibians, too.

If you vacation in Jamaica, ask your hotel's desk clerk about a Voodoo tour. Just don't come back a zombie!!

     Here's a snippet from the PENUMBRA DATABASE spy thriller, where a Voodoo priest makes a brew which will make his enemy into a zombie:

     It was a large, single room with tall ceilings protected by layers of thatch palm. The walls and floor were made of bamboo and wicker. A hammock suspended from a large beam and several stools were positioned by a workbench that lined one entire wall.

     Damballah sat at a stool and beckoned Oppressor to join him. “Come, sit and watch. I am making a special powdered cocktail that I will give to Tougas for the offering. You will see its effects… maybe you can use it for your line of work. Dat Tougas, he sounds like one canaille type of guy.”

            Oppressor took out a notepad and pen to take notes. “Thanks, I can’t wait to learn from ya. Always perfectin’ my trade. By the way, I dig your accent. I’m from Louisiana and you sound just like the Cajuns there. You don’t look totally Haitian, either.”

            “Very observant you are. My great grandparents are from southern Louisiana and their parents were French settlers in Canada. Da English drove everybody out dat didn’t want to give up da Catholic religion during da ‘Great Expulsion,’ so dey fled Canada and settled in southern Louisiana. From dere, my parents left and came to Haiti, and heah I be.”

            Damballah took three soup can tins out of a bamboo cupboard and sat them on the workbench next to a digital scale. “Watch carefully. Dese three cans full be full of powder from plant, land animals and ocean creatures.”

            He picked up a blue measuring spoon and scooped out a grey-colored portion from the first can and put it on the scale. “Dis is ocean creatures, mostly fish…couvillion. Equal parts of powder from da pufferfish, porcupinefish and triggerfish. Dey all contain da potent neurotoxin the American doctors call tetrodotoxin.”

            “What will that do to Bolan Tougas?”

            “It stop da nerves from firing, make him immobile…ya know, paralyzed… but he will remain aware of everything.”

            He took a scoop from the second can. “Dis is da land animals I learn about from my father. He taught me all I know about Voodoo. Before age six, I learned da chants and how to enter the trance. The vodun, the spirit came into my body from my father when da FRAPH squad killed him. Dat’s why we about to offer Tougas as a sacrifice…the Voodoo spirits inside me will want that.”

            Damballah measured out exactly 4.87 ounces of the blue-green powder from the second can onto the digital scale. “Dis mixture contains newts, poison frogs, some human remains, a special breed of toad we have in our jungle, and land crabs. I raise da crabs in a pen outside and feed dem a special diet dat makes dem toxic, full of cardiac cardenolides, which are capable of stopping the heart from beating, but I put in just da right amount to slow it down.”

            Oppressor took copious amounts of notes. Stuff like this turned him on. “What do you feed the crabs to do all that?”

            “Dis is a best-kept secret dat nobody knows about…jimsonweed. It grow all ova the place. I collect the leaves and seeds. Dey contain an important alkaloid dat causes hallucinations. Bolan Tougas will grow delirious, pie-ahd as my Cajun ancestors used to say…drunk. He won’t know what planet he be on. He’ll see spiritual visions and have plenty of paranoid delusions.”

                                                               ~

     This video shows a tourist couple searching for a Voodoo/Obeah magic man. They ventured into Jamaican Voodoo shops that sold items used in Voodoo ceremonies, then met a Voodoo priest. Enjoy!

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), enjoys the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Florida Keys, and writes the Corey Pearson- CIA spymaster series.