Fiction? I Dont think so ...

Dreams ... the basis for the inventive spirit of the human race ... easily provoked by the preternatural we stand to deny that which is seemingly impossible ... only to raise to another level ... okey coming to the point

If you watch quite a bit of sci-fi movies esp. those where space travel is prevalent, then at some point you would have encountered about putting a human into stasis until the long journey is complete ... I know many of my friends who misconstrue such imagination and empathize it with the bollywood masalas ... *shirk* ... but regardless of you believing in it or not this is becoming a reality

the roots of this comes from necromancy behind iron curtains for long ... as it is slowly uncovered the mystics turn out to be nothing more than manifestations of science for fiendish practices ... "that which people do not understand" is often associated with god and his endowments ...

"A zombie is a dead person that is brought back to life through means of Voodoo, destroying the mental processes of this person through the process." ... at the ulterior ... and for game buff's oooohh yeah they are waiting for you to fire at em all over DOOM :) ... those are the ones ... but quite different looks from the real zombies (who r not bereft of their body fluids and life)

Zombies have been a part and parcel of Haiti's culture ... the voodoo practitioners are known to bring people back from the grave ... and it is known that the victims always experienced death as in poisoning and such ... usually the voodoo practitioners themselves poison the victim for their later resurrection of the individual ... this is easily understood by the natives as miraculous and such ... but how is it possible to bring a dead person alive?

the east gives some clues to this ... the puffer fish ... which hosts a nerve poison for defense and is a risky delicacy as well ... the liver and blood of it having high concentrations ... usually removed before consumption ... in small dozes it completely paralyzes the human body ... and at certain dozes makes the body to seem medically dead ... a little overdose and it kills

Can u imagine being in a body, sensing things around ... but not being able to move or say anything ... people around you promulgating your death and burying you, while you were still alive...

this is how zombies are made ... in Haiti the witch doctors usually break the graves within bout 12 hours of the burial ... after which the victim is likely to die in the coffin ... i.e. if the victim did survive the toxin ... the chances of bringing back a person is 1 in 60 ... a pungent combination of ammonia and another substance used as the antidote ... n its quite obvious as to why those people show mental decline (having been exposed to the toxins)

all these stories apart it makes one wonder ... is it possible to put the human body in stasis for long periods? well if a groud squirrel can hibernate for 6 months, almost stopping its metabolism (with almost non-existent heart beats) ... what would it take for the human body to do it ... we are not designed for it naturally ... but would anything such as this toxin and otherwise help achieve it? ... I believe it is only a matter of time and need

Disclaimer: the information I express here are based on a BBC documentary and the accuracy is unwarranted, subject to the authors interpretation, perception and opinions :) ... these are not recommendations or preaching but just an informal discourse ... btw this is not my profession ... just that I can't keep myself idle ;)