From ancient honey-preserved human confections to European royalty dining on powdered skulls, we explore the disturbing world of medicinal cannibalism where the dead became dinner in the name of healing.

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ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.
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IN THIS EPISODE: Of all the instances of cannibalism found in human history, no one quite practiced it like some in China used to. In these cases, cannibalism came in the form of eating mellified flesh for medicinal purposes. In 16th century China, mellification was a way for elderly people nearing the end of their lives to donate their body to science. The idea, originally derived from an Arabic recipe, was that they could turn their bodies into medicine that would be ingested by their descendants to alleviate ailments like broken bones. The process of mellification was a gruesome one. In short, it consisted of very slowly turning one’s body into a mummified human candy bar. And that’s not even the worst part — for mellification to be the most effective, the process started while the person was still alive.

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Lead-In
00:01:10.417 = Show Open
00:02:28.924 = And Mellified Man For Dessert
00:04:27.887 = Honey, I’m Dead
00:09:57.010 = Sugar-Glazed Grandpa
00:16:02.121 = Better Health Through Cannibalism
00:27:31.137 = Self-Mummification
00:30:39.753 = Corpse Medicine
00:39:58.915 = Show Close

SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“And Mellified Man for Dessert” by Katie Serena: https://tinyurl.com/rjwv5cw
“Honey, I’m Dead” by Paul Salopek: https://tinyurl.com/wz23h9d
“Sugar-Glazed Grandpa” by Brent Swancer: https://tinyurl.com/w2mqzyp
“Self-Mummification” from Stranger Remains: https://tinyurl.com/w795gxp
“Better Health Through Cannibalism” by Natalie Zarrelli: https://tinyurl.com/tsqhqbl
“Corpse Medicine” by Maria Dolan: https://tinyurl.com/y6spcbcb
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Originally aired: September, 2020
EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/CorpseMedicine