What happens to someone's soul when they become a zombie?

[Frostbyte666]

Depends on the world your basing it on, as someone mentioned darksiders the zombies have souls. Romero's have flashes of memory the 1 I'm interested in would be resident evil zombies. You have those infected by the virus and slowly become zombies, would they retain their soul though it would be 'locked' away? then you have those infected killing others who then become zombies. That second lot are killed so you could say the soul has left the mortal coil, but then the body gets up and moves about. so what happens in that case? Also I must stop there because I'm beginning to confuse myself.

 

[Gatx]

It depends on a lot of factors really. First and foremost is the rules surrounding the zombie: classic Romero zombies are technically just corpses with something causing the body to "function." In Max Brooks' description of his virus zombies, its the virus that's controlling the body.

Now with new fangled "living" zombies like the infected from 28 Days Later, the virus is also controlling the body, or at least influencing its behavior, but the infected is still alive, which might mean that it still has a "soul" if you assume there is one.

Zombies are real (but not human zombies... yet), it's the soul that's not

Actually if you're talking about the various fungi, viruses, etc. that affect animal behavior to encourage its propagation then there's one called toxoplasma gondii that infects rats. Whereas a normal rat would run from a cat, one infected with this will just stand still because the parasite reproduces in cat stomachs. Toxoplasma gondii actually can infect humans and there's a fair chance YOU could be infected with it RIGHT NOW, especially if you're a cat owner. Currently effects on humans are unknown but speculated ones are lowered reaction times and reckless behavior, which actually might put it more in line with that awful M. Night Shyamalan movie than a zombie.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Also, I find it weird that you would bring religion into a topic about zombies. Just saying.

Spoiler: Come on, let's be honest. Religion and zombies are inexorably intertwined.

OT: It depends. Are your zombies corpses that have been reanimated with a hunger for human flesh or still living humans that have been infected by, say, the [footnote]NERD[/footnote]RAGE virus? Or are they another form of zombie entirely?

In my humble and totally-well-informed opinion, a reanimated corpse would not have a soul. However, the Rage zombies would[footnote]assuming souls exist, which is another proposition entirely that i have no time to argue for or against[/footnote] have a soul but would be no more responseable for their actions than a person who has been mind-controlled.

 

[kouriichi]

Well, it depends on they type of "zombie".

First you have your generic "Zeds". Mindless rotting bodies that have risen from the dead. Slow, shambling, silly, skulkers looking to suck snacks from said someone's with souls. ((thats alot of S's)) Basically, theyre dead. No soul. The soul left the body when they died. ((Old Horror movie zombies, or Possibly Dead Rising games. Not sure it kills and then animates corpses or infects, but i believe animates, thus being "Zeds".))

Then you have your "Infected". Fast with fleet feet moving in flurries causing fear! These "Zombies" are technically live. They have more brain function then a "Zed", thus allowing them to do more things. Running, jumping, fast crawling and partial climbing. They have souls, because they never really died. Basically mind control. ((L4D, or newer RE games.))

And last but not least of the major categories, "Magic Zombies". Im tired of rhyming so im just gonna say it straight forward. These are the LEAST LIKELY form of zombie, because magic is even more unlikely then Zombies. They are soulless, but bound to the body by a soul. Think of it like this. You sleep on a spring bed. You are not sleeping on springs, but on a padding, held to the springs. Just as the zombie is soulless, but bound by one. When you kill the zombie, you remove the binding of the soul, and thus, set the soul free. ((Diablo or Dark Souls))

And theres my beliefs on zombies and the different main breeds.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I always just assumed the word 'soul' was used to describe a person's consciousness. I assume one a person it dead, they're dead for good (or reincarnated as someone else with no biological memory of their past lives). Once a body comes back as a zombie it's just a husk filled with whatever the hell reanimated them.

I assume Black Magic/ Necromancy would bring a person's soul back into their rotting body where the soul wouldn't have control due to a lack of or, severe damage too their brain. As for radiation or, chemical reanimation, the soul would still be in the after-life (or an oblivious living thing) while the body jerks awake and mistakes the first person they see for a walking piece of jerky.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Hmmm, an infection I would guess the soul would be there but reanimated bodies would be empty.

 

[Zhadramekel]

I'd say the soul remains in the body but is almost entirely suppressed.

 

[Emperor Nat]

Working under the assumption that the soul is a real thing, I'd say that it depends on the type of zombie.

Or working under the assumption that a zombie is a real thing...

Anyway, that all depends on who's writing the story. For the most part, it seems that zombies are soulless, just like they're mindless. But there are exceptions from many different zombie stories.

One example is from the book "Breathers: A Zombie's Lament" where zombies are concious and have the same personalities as they did in life. Thinking religiously, they still have their souls.

Because it's fiction, this^

For instance I write fantasy stories, which involve undead. In the case of the traditional zombie (dead bloke, bit rotten, Necromancer-raised) the person's soul is called back into their body and they are forced to watch helplessly from inside their own head as they do whatever the Necromancer tells them.

This means that they have the potential to regain control following the Necromancer's death, but it's more likely that they'll either go feral or just collapse and die.

But in a zombie infection story? I'd assume the zombies are walking meat with basic instincts.

 

[lRookiel]

Well, firstly the thingymajigg goes with the kajigger, then the doo hickey keflangles the dicky hoo by extracting the wubble from the dakka which creates a soul.

The soul is then snatchified by the catcher of souls AKA the heart-a-majigger, then preserved by the zombies craving for flesh :3

 

[Hoplon]

Ah hahahahahahahahahaha, it thinks it has a soul! that's classic.

Seriously, nothing, classical zombies and souls don't exist.

Vodon/Voodoo zombi are people in a fugue sate, they aren't dead.

 

[Torrasque]

Well, seeing as how zombies are the reanimated dead, their bodies are empty shells filled with rotting organs and such.
So they have stopped living, are dead, and that means their soul goes wherever it is supposed to go when normal death occurs.
How the person is infected or what that infection details, is completely irrelevant. That is of course assuming they are zombies and not infected as most zombies are depicted these days /facepalm...

 

[matts]

There is no such thing as a soul.
Problem solved

 

[Scarim Coral]

Don't know, maybe the soul get corrupt when that person become a zombie or simply get stuck like trap in a lifeless shell.