Together with my cousin, we went to this one-of-a-kind exhibit called Myth of the Human Body in Taguig City, Philippines. The exhibit is located at Neobabylon Bldg, 9 Bayani Road, Taguig City. The exhibit is about the method of preserving the human body by the process of plastination. The display showcases the works of Dr. Gunther von Hagens who invented this method for about 2 decades ago. Be warned that exhibit are all real specimens of the dead, which may be disturbing to some others especially children at young age.
It was Dec 5, Monday, when we visit the exhibit. The afternoon was misty, and no other visitors lining at the ticket booth. We got our tickets for P350 each. At the ticket booth, it was clear that we are not allowed to take pictures of the exhibit, mainly because of the controversies surrounding this particular work of Dr. Hagens.
Upon entering the exhibit room, we were approached by the attendant if we want to have a guided tour, or we can roam freely around as long as we want. My cousin and I decided for the second option so we can have more time at every specimen.. after all, there are explanation posted on the backdraft of every specimen that we can read on.
There was an eerie feeling when we started our tour. We were the only visitor that day, the museum was very quiet which adds to a more creepy feeling being the only two of us and all the dead bodies. As we go along stairs-by-stairs, there was an element of surprise and excitement as we don't know what to expect on the next hall of the exhibit. There were a lot of human body parts, every organ, every muscles, every components of the human body is there, sliced, cutted-through, stripped by skin, and dissected. You will just wonder how many dead bodies were processed to have that huge collections. What disturbed me most was the development of an embryo, from it's 1st week up to its 10th month, the samples are estimated to about 30 specimens all in human's early stage of development. The display were all both disturbing and fascinating, one that fascinates me most was the "Red Man", it was a full bodied structure of a human nerves, looking through it makes you realize that we are wired by tiny-delicate nerves all throughout our entire body. I was a bit skeptical about it because I can't figure out how they could extract those from a real body without destroying those tiny-delicate nerves. That is the only display I think is not real, but that's for me, remember we don't have guides to ask about it.
Generally the whole exhibit was an extraordinary presentation of the "Human Body", knowing what it is, and how it works. This is a very rare occasion wherein you can't afford to let it pass. When this exhibit ends on April 2012, it may not come back here again in a long time and you have to go to other countries where this exhibit will be shown next. Though this exhibit may give you a temporary loss of appetite, creepy feeling, and nightmares to some, but it's all worth it. The knowledge you get from this exhibit would definitely make you think before you do harm on your body.
As the end of the exhibit reads:
Those bodies were (not-all) donated by ex-con in China. Some of those may be voluntarily donated willingly, all in the name of "Science"
