Bodies, the exhibit

I went to see the Bodies exhibit on Monday and left with a feeling of disappointment and strangeness of the whole thing.

It is a very fascinating thing these people have done, preserving these bodies in a very specialized way that leaves them structurally sound, plasticised and very bizarre looking. It was like being in a cadaver class without the smell of formaldehyde and no instructor to tell you what you are looking at.

It was well worth the price if you are at all interested in the working of the human body and have not studied how the different systems of the body work. It is also amazing to see how we fit together and and the size of our organs. (I didn't realize kidneys were so small.)

The best part was all these random facts hung up on the walls. Short little tidbits like children are born with 300 bones and adults have 206 (they fuse in the childhood and into later teen years) and that children grow more in the springtime. Also women have a bigger brain than men. And smoking one pack of cigarettes decreases your life by 2 hours and 20 minutes.

It is not so worth it if you have a medical degree or massage training or anything where you have had to learn all the systems and muscles. I'm not unhappy I went, I learned a lot about muscle relationship and size and texture and shape, size of organs. I also picked up several new facts about the function of organs and got to look at them so when I do my sessions I can bring this visual into the process.

The bodies were bizarre and I wish there had been more posed in dynamic ways instead of all the organs and stuff they had. My favorite part was the section on the arteries and veins, amazing how they extracted these and so beautiful to look at. A lot like coral. (with our the fish) The silicone process created this weird muscle texture and by the end I felt like I was looking at psychotic Barbie dolls.

This is well worth the attention of the general public and should be recommended to anyone who is interested in the function of their body, so all my clients will hear about it. Most people should be ok with everything, the exhibit is very well done and very well put together, I don't see how anyone could get squimish. If you can look at anatomy photos you will be able to handel this no problem.

Here is a link to an article in the Seattle Times if interested. The exhibit ends soon.