Inn of the Wandering Dragon

This past weekend the boyfriend and I went and checked out Body Worlds. For those of you who have never heard of this before, you can check out the link here. It is an anatomical exhibit of the human body using real human bodies. Ever wonder what your nervous system looks like? How about your spleen? For that matter, what about your entire network of blood vessels and arteries? Using plastination, scientists looking for more effective ways of preserving bodies for the purpose of education and research have been able to create an exhibit that allows you to view just about any body system in all of it's complexity. The bodies are posed in a realistic manner which serves to drive home just how amazing our bodies really are. This is not just a mannequin, this is us.

The show is very popular and draws crowds wherever it goes, which is why you need to pre-order tickets for a specific entry time. You can spend as time in there as you want, but you can only enter at a specific time. This way they can moderate the flow into the exhibit and hopefully you are not so crowded. I was a little apprehensive as we first went in. There is a somewhat narrow hallway with display cases of samples starting with the skeletal system and gradually adding in the muscles and tendons. It works well to ease people into what awaits in the next room but the hallway was very crowded and I seriously worried the whole exhibit would be this crammed. Fortunately the show consists of a series of larger rooms so people could spread out and everyone could get a good look at the specimens. We picked up the audio wands for some extra input and I'm glad we did. Not only did we hear more info not always printed on the signs, we also heard pieces of an interview with the scientist behind all of this, Gunther von Hagens. This offered some in depth points of view that I quite appreciated.

This show is only in town for another week so if you get a chance to go see it - go for it! I promise it is not going to be like anything else you have attended. By the way, all of the bodies in the show are there because people felt this is an excellent way to inform and enlighten, and as such, willed their own bodies to the program. Just think of it as a really big version of organ donation.