Random Stereotype-Shattering Facts About the Voodoo Religion (15 items)

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  (#2) The Truth About Zombies

  Thanks to Hollywood, the most popular myth associated with Voodoo is a priestess or priest's ability to call forth a zombie to do their bidding. Depending on which arm of Voodoo you follow, the concept of the zombie changes wildly. In West Africa, the "zombi" is a creature without a soul, self-awareness, or intelligence. In Haiti, a zombie is a person who has been "bewitched" through a neurotoxic powder and used to work on plantations or do odd jobs.

  That might sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but in the early 2000s, a rash of crimes committed with the drug scopolamine, a powder that renders its users zombie-like and completely open to suggestion, broke out across Colombia and reinforced the idea of the Haitian zombie. 
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  (#9) They're Serious About Their Death Rituals

  In Voodoo lore, the soul is split into two parts, the gros-bon-ange and the ti-bon-ange. The gros-bon-ange reflects the part of the cosmic energy that turns into life force and the ti-bon-ange reflects the person's knowledge and experience and it shapes the type of person you become. Unfortunately, this part of the soul is also the most malleable to sorcery, and it can cause the most trouble after death. If the ritual of the nine nights isn't performed correctly to make sure that the ti-bon-ange stays buried, it's believed that it walks the earth to "cause misfortune" to others. 
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  (#8) Singing Is an Important Part of Voodoo

  One of the important parts of any Voodoo ritual is the inclusion of singing. Because slavery made it impossible for families to pass down a written document of rituals, or even a family history, songs worked as a way to not only give an oral history but also as a way to ritualize their everyday way of life and build their sense of community. 
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  (#14) Voodoo Is About Community

  The most important role of a modern-day Voodoo "church" is that of keeping their community together and thriving. After Hurricane Katrina, about 350 members of New Orleans' Voodoo community came together, crossing the once-monumental barrier of Haitian and New Orleans Voodoo, in order to help rebuild their city. In African Voodoo communities, the priest or priestess is known to act as not only a religious leader but as someone who can aid in solving familial disputes and as a local doctor. 
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  (#15) There's a Universal Soul That Lives Outside the Body

  Perhaps one of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of voodoo is their concept of the "universal soul." Practitioners of voodoo believe that while dreaming, or in an act of possession, their spirit will leave their body and make contact with the universal energy inherent in all life. Rather than being put off by the idea of possession or a roaming soul, this ability to make contact with the spirit world is considered to be a blessing. 
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  (#5) You'll Never Memorize All the Loas

  Because practitioners of Voodoo can't deal with Bondye directly, they have to chat with a vast collection of demigods, or "les lois" (which translates to "the laws" in English), who are responsible for a specific domain or part of life. For example, if you are a farmer, you would give praise and offerings to the spirit of agriculture, Azacca.

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