Body Worlds
Our local science museum is hosting an exhibition of Gunther von Hagen's Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies. You can go to their website to see pictures and learn more, but the gist of it is fairly simple. Donated human bodies have been made into plastic in a process they call "plastination," then displayed with cavities or parts laid open for inspection. It sounds gruesome, but the use of these bodies is not different in principle from the real skeleton that hung in my high school anatomy class or the cadavers my dad examined in med school. They have just found a way to preserve more of the body and have made the study more widely accessible.
That is not to say that it will not make you squirm. This is not a wax museum, nor is it one of those "Visible Man" models you assembled as a kid. These are bodies that lived and loved, bodies with personal histories of knowing and being known. We could never look at them objectively. But we could not take our eyes off them, because they were absolutely amazing.
An exposed arm showed off every muscle and tendon. An open abdominal cavity revealed the size, location, and texture of various organs I had previously known only by name. Nerves were bigger than I had expected, the pancreas smaller. I knew the muscles would look like meat, but they really looked like meat. And I think I know faces pretty well, but I always forget about the sinuses just behind them.
Picture a ball of cotton, stretched out just a bit so it starts to become transparent. Color it red, and that's what your blood vessels look like when they are preserved all by themselves.
After spending an hour and a half walking through the exhibition, I saw my own body differently. It did not feel separate from me, but I was less able to take its functions for granted. I saw faces differently--like Clark Kent exercising flashes of X-Ray vision. I felt a greater appreciation for breath and movement, perhaps because the "plastinates" were so obviously frozen in place. And I think I saw more clearly the glory of God, the One who created human bodies, animates them by the Spirit, and is determined to receive glory by their very existence. "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created!" (Rev. 4:11).
Bob
That is not to say that it will not make you squirm. This is not a wax museum, nor is it one of those "Visible Man" models you assembled as a kid. These are bodies that lived and loved, bodies with personal histories of knowing and being known. We could never look at them objectively. But we could not take our eyes off them, because they were absolutely amazing.
An exposed arm showed off every muscle and tendon. An open abdominal cavity revealed the size, location, and texture of various organs I had previously known only by name. Nerves were bigger than I had expected, the pancreas smaller. I knew the muscles would look like meat, but they really looked like meat. And I think I know faces pretty well, but I always forget about the sinuses just behind them.
Picture a ball of cotton, stretched out just a bit so it starts to become transparent. Color it red, and that's what your blood vessels look like when they are preserved all by themselves.
After spending an hour and a half walking through the exhibition, I saw my own body differently. It did not feel separate from me, but I was less able to take its functions for granted. I saw faces differently--like Clark Kent exercising flashes of X-Ray vision. I felt a greater appreciation for breath and movement, perhaps because the "plastinates" were so obviously frozen in place. And I think I saw more clearly the glory of God, the One who created human bodies, animates them by the Spirit, and is determined to receive glory by their very existence. "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created!" (Rev. 4:11).
Bob
posted by Joni and Bob at 1:06 PM
1 Comments:
I am so happy to read your comments on the science exhibit that uses human bodies. I did some soul searching to question whether it was consistent with my Christian beliefs to attend, but determined that the souls had left the bodies and only the shell was on display. The "shells" had been given willingly and it would appear that they will give anyone studying anatomy a tremendous advantage. Thank you.
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