News about the zombie apocalypse is everywhere! It is a subject of discussion all across the Internet and in real life. People are preparing themselves for the first wave and paying close attention to the news for the pending outbreak. On a more serious note, this list looks at some of the many conspiracy theories that have arisen over the years with regards to zombies and the zombie apocalypse.

10 Nazi Medical Experiments





It is no secret that Nazis, with their modern, “perverted science,” as Churchill phrased it, feature prominently in conspiracy theory origins. It is also no secret that Josef Mengele devised some awesomely grotesque, despicable experiments carried out on Jewish guinea pigs. He repeatedly broke children’s limbs in the same place to see how long it would take before the bone simply would not heal. He performed irradiation of victims, then vivisections without anesthesia to study organ damage. He also liked to harm identical twins, to study whether one felt the other’s pain.

Conspiracy theorists – taking into account these surgeries, as well as Hitler’s and Himmler’s fascination with the occult and the supernatural – have concluded that there was a cooperative intent on creating zombies out of the captured Jews, Gypsies, et al. The conspiracy theorists believe that the Nazis intended to kill their bodies and most of their minds, leaving only the base functions of the cerebellum intact. Such people would serve two purposes; namely obeying the Nazis’ every order without hesitation, and showing the world the apparent inferiority of all non-Aryans. What the Nazis didn’t finish, it is understood the U. S. government will, drawing on Nazi research.

9 Dulce Base, New Mexico





Mentioned in detail on a previous list, the Dulce Base is held by conspiracy theorists to be a secret underground medical research facility operated in part by aliens, whom the government allows to do what they want in exchange for advanced technology. Their research involves creating animal hybrids, like the minotaur and the centaur, by sewing dead animal carcasses together and then resurrecting them.

This subset of the theory contends that the aliens are also manufacturing human zombies, like Frankenstein’s monster, and that the government is, unbeknownst to the aliens, researching methods for growing either bacteria or a virus that can infect ordinary living humans and turn them into “the walking dead,” as it were. The infectious agent ties in with several other entries on this list.



8 The U. S. Air Force’s “Gay Bomb”





This is no joke. In 1994, the Air Force, possibly in conjunction with the CIA, spent $100,000 of taxpayer money researching the feasibility of using homosexuality as a weapon. Their concept was to aerosol female sex pheromones over an enemy army, which might cause the soldiers to lose control of their libidos and have sex with each other. The U. S. military would then be able to overrun them more easily.

When this hit the Internet, the Air Force was ridiculed, but before you join in the banter – consider the principle behind this fact. Theorists are of the opinion that this idiotic “gay bomb” proposal was desperately idiotic, as in meant to distract the public from even more taxes funding some other top-secret research program. If the U. S. military is willing to investigate the psychoactive effects of human sex pheromones, it is no longer a giant leap to the investigation of infectious, psychoactive bacteria or viruses designed to kill every part of a person except the cerebellar functions. And if word of this investigation leaked, the Air Force could always act the part of the idiots they would once again appear to be.

7 Weaponized Rabies





In the same vein as #8, theorists strongly contend that rabies is the virus whose effects on the central nervous system most closely match the popular concept of the zombie. In fact, 97% of the world’s human rabies infections occur via dog bites. It has been all but eradicated in most countries with modern medicine. But the government has stockpiled every disease that has ever existed in varying amounts. This is defended as studying disease mutations to prepare for the worst.

But if we have rabies vaccine stockpiles, why do we bother keeping the disease? There is only one known strain of rabies virus, and it kills by only one method, inflammation of the brain (encephalitis). It is 100% fatal without treatment, and in the lead-up to death, causes the victim to go insane. Violent acts may or may not occur, but the person is no longer himself. He is something else.

If it were possible to keep such a person alive, his brain damage would be irreversible and almost total. Only the cerebellum would remain unscathed. If the cerebellum is inflamed, the person dies. Thus, theorists claim, the very existence of stockpiles of this virus proves the government’s intent to weaponize it, and the result can only be the complete “zombification” of human beings.



6 Recall of Troops from Abroad





This is an ancillary theory to the imminent outbreak of the zombie virus. The government’s official explanation for the recall of all American military personnel from hostile countries is the de facto end of war on terrorism. “We got Bin Laden,” they say. “Why stay any longer? The war’s over. We win.”

Well, the war is not even close to over. Splinter cell terrorism is global and al-Qaeda, for one, still has its leaders, primarily al-Zawahiri. With Hamas and Iran as open, growing threats to Israel, the U. S. strangely appears to be abandoning its Jewish ally. The real reason for our military’s sudden return to full strength at home is, of course, hush-hush. It has to do with the government’s knowledge of an infectious agent capable of killing and then reviving humans as mindless cannibals. The troops are abandoning foreign terrorism and being brought back in anticipation of the agent escaping into an urban environment.

5 Government Ammunition Purchases





Earlier this year, the Social Security Administration touched off a media firestorm when they were discovered to be buying well over 200,000 rounds of hollow-point and hydra-shok pistol ammunition in a single purchase. The SSA has its own, self-governed police force, paid to protect the SSA offices and personnel. Millions of citizens, especially those over 65 years old, demanded to know why. It appeared that the SSA was preparing for a major incident of self-defense, but their official explanation was that their police force required ammunition to practice at gun ranges, that the order had nothing to do with anticipating any impending disaster.

The public didn’t buy this answer, remarking that ammunition for target practice is almost always full metal jacket, which is much cheaper. Hollow point ammunition is about $1 per round. Hydra-shok rounds are hollow points with extra barbs inside, and are extremely expensive, averaging about $80 for a box of 50. The two rounds are designed for extra stopping power, and are wasted on paper targets.

Conspiracy theorists, of course, make the next giant leap, claiming that emails were leaked to the SSA from another department of the government concerning an imminent danger of civil unrest. This will be precipitated by the collapse of the nation’s infrastructure due to a compromise in the security of a military research program on infectious diseases classified above top-secret. It is understood that many departments of the government are making such preparations and that the SSA is the only one that has been caught doing so.



4 Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy





The most well known type of this viral disease is nicknamed “Mad Cow Disease.” There are thousands of strains of encephalopathy, and many of them can be transmitted to humans. Humans are very rarely infected – about 1 in a million per year – but the disease is 100% fatal and there is no known cure, vaccine, or treatment. This is where conspiracy theorists shout, “Military value.”

Their claim is that the military has long been hard at work researching methods by which to infect enemy soldiers with any of a number of these encephalopathies. They all operate in the same way, deteriorating the tissue of the brain by eating tiny holes through it. The brain eventually looks like swiss cheese, and the person’s mental state consequently degenerates into dementia and quite frequently aggressive violence. If the infection eats through the centers of the brain that control ethics, the person no longer acts like himself, but like a monster. The last part of the brain to be invaded is invariably the cerebellum, thus maintaining life for as long as possible.

And what does human-to-human transmission require? Only a bite.

3 Stem-cell Research





Stem-cell research is a great idea. In a nutshell, stem cells can divide into any specialized cells and can automatically propagate more cells. Thus, they could, in theory, be used to cure incurable diseases, such as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, cerebral palsy, maybe even HIV; and most famously, they can be used to regrow nerve tissue, enabling quadriplegics to walk again. The latter is a reality since 2003, when a simple injection healed a Korean paraplegic; within 3 weeks, she was standing and walking for the first time in 19 years.

But conspiracy theorists are quick to argue that thanks to stem cells, the leap to the undead is just a baby step, given the medical establishment’s official boast of immortality by the 2030s. Theorists claim that stem cells are the final step in realizing the horror fantasy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In her novel, the only two details missing from the operation to resurrect a dead body are how to reconnect nerve tissue, and how to counteract brain death. A defibrillator can only revive a person if the brain’s cells are still alive. To this end, the government is actively researching the value of stem cells in reanimating dead brains.

If stem cells are injected into one, they can assume the form and operations of neurons, most importantly those of the cerebellum, which controls all involuntary functions of the body. Only the centers for walking and balance would be revived, enabling brain life while providing only a single effective target; such a resurrected corpse could be shot in the heart and keep attacking. And if stem cells can be used to cure incurable diseases, theorists maintain that they can just as easily be used to create infectious diseases.





2 Haitian Zombie Powder





Here is a true story of a zombie, Clairvius Narcisse. He was born in Haiti in 1922. Details of his death or current whereabouts are not widely known, but on 2 May 1962, he was found unresponsive in his home and presumed dead, buried, but exhumed by unknown parties as punishment for breaking a Haitian code of honor.

He was administered regular doses of jimson weed, which causes extreme hallucinations and a form of hypnosis, under which influence the user will obey any order. Narcisse was enslaved on a sugar plantation until the owner and the witchdoctor controlling Narcisse died, after which he was given no more doses of the poison. He eventually regained his health, and reunited with his family.

This is all fact. But no one is certain whether there is any combination of drugs which can render someone dead in all aspects except brain death. The general opinion is that a minute amount of bufotoxin and tetrodotoxin, derived from the cane toad and the pufferfish, respectively, halted all Narcisse’s bodily functions except consciousness in his cerebellum.

Conspiracy theorists take this a step further, claiming that the government thought that these toxins in combination with jimson weed would be a great idea for a weapon, went on to fully develop such a weapon, and stockpiled huge reserves of it for the purpose of biological warfare.

1 The Miami Face-eating Attack





On 26 May 2012, Rudy Eugene, a 31-year-old high school graduate with entrepreneurial ambitions, attacked Ronald Edward Poppo, a 65-year-old homeless man, at random on an on-ramp of MacArthur Causeway, under an elevated train. Eugene was seen by hundreds of witnesses and security cameras crossing the bridge, west to east, in his car, where at the east end, it broke down. He began walking back across the bridge around 12:00 PM, taking 2 hours to walk the 3-mile span. The attack began at just before 2:00 PM.

Without provocation, Eugene, having stripped himself completely naked while walking the bridge, tossed away his Bible and assaulted Poppo, who was lying on the cement. Eugene gouged out both of his eyes and stripped off his pants, then choked him into unconsciousness. He then ate Poppo’s face, from the beard to the hairline, including one eye and his nose. This assault lasted 18 minutes and was filmed via security camera from the Miami Herald Building, and posted on the Internet. A summoned police officer shouted at Eugene to stop, who growled in response and resumed. The officer shot him once in the upper back with a .40 S&W hollow point, a very powerful pistol round. This had no effect, so the officer shot him 4 more times, killing him.

The official autopsy listed marijuana as the only drug in hs bloodstream, but his actions are inconsistent with marijuana’s effects. The popular term “bath salts” was taken up by media around the world as the culprit. “Bath salts” is slang for cathinones, which are psychoactive stimulants similar to methamphetamines. They are more powerful than LSD, and can cause a person to become instantly insane and superhuman, albeit at the expense of destroying the mind and a large portion of the body with only one use.

But the autopsy found no such drugs in Eugene’s system, and then the story rather quickly faded into obscurity. Conspiracy theorists argue that the government immediately covered it up, because the government has created a drug or virus which will cause violent, cannibalistic behavior in anyone, no matter how responsible and self-controlled. This is the singular event that has, for most conspiracy theorists, cinched the zombie apocalypse as entirely real and very near.

The fact that Eugene’s friends and family all testified that he was thoroughly even-tempered and sociable is a central tenet of the theory. An infectious agent was either accidentally released into Eugene’s body, or deliberately tested on him. All evidence of it was either untraceable, or erased from the autopsy. Although he was not “undead,” and Poppo has not yet shown symptoms of infection, this was just Stage I of a drug or virus currently under development as a weapon to create zombies.