Body Worlds

Okay, it's not that you HAVE TO go see this. But I strongly encourage you: If any of the "Body Worlds" exhibits come to your area, or within maybe 300 miles of your area (that may be an exaggeration)... Go see it!

I finally got to go to OMSI in Portland to see Body Worlds 3. Turns out it was the next-to-last day of the exhibit. The public response had been so great that starting midnight Friday morning, they kept the exhibit open 24-hours-a-day!

Well, they won't let you take any pics in the exhibit (can you think of a synonym for "exhibit" so I don't have to keep using it?).

So, I picked these up from the internet. But time is running short. So I'll come back to this later today (I hope).

One of the pleasant surprises came when I saw one of the figures (their term is "plastinates") kneeling at a cross. In the commentary, we learned that one of the leading forces in opening up the art/science of human anatomy was the Roman Catholic church. I felt surprised because my mortuary instructor was so anti-church etc., that the only version we heard was the harassment against DaVinci for the dissections he performed and how he had to do them at night and in secret. But this exhibitor said the church officially sanctioned human dissections and one pope (unnamed to us) centuries ago even donated his body for dissection. In fact 2 or 3 times the organizer of the display--von Hagens his name--expressed gratitude to the RC church for encouraging the study of the human body. He even went so far as to say that the Christian faith is the only context in which this kind of study has been allowed, much less encouraged.

Well, back to my encouraging you to take it in: It's not really as "gruesome" as I expected. There is NO blood. And any "guts" have been cleaned up and prepared for public viewing. So, once again: If the exhibit comes any where near where you are, I strongly encourage you to take it in--if you have any interest in how this marvelous creation works.

ttfn