Find out how the body looks like on the inside and

surprise yourself about how the different bodily

functions works. See with your own eyes what the
consequences are of a coronary, a stroke, cancer or
someone who smokes. Discover how prostheses such as
artificial joints or artificial valves work. Learn what the
consequences are of an unhealthy or healthy life style.
Compare a smokers long to a non smokers long or
compare a body of someone who had overweight with a
body of an athlete. The anatomist Gunther von Hagens
who is all behind this exhibition will give you a tour into
your own body.

Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life.

The exhibition Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life is going to open for the first
time in Holland. On the 23th of September 2010 the doors are going to
open for the first time in Holland in the Las Palmas 2 in Rotterdam on the
Wilhelminakade. Gunther von Hagens is the man who is all behind this
exhibition. There are more than 200 plastinated human bodies and organs.
In the exhibition of Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life the human body is the
main point. The different stages in life are shown, from the birth up and till
death. Babies who didn’t make it into this life are shown. There was a
Siamese twin, a baby with a hydrocephalus (water head) and a baby who didn’t
developed a skull, which of course died in the uterus.
The influence of the environment and the personal lifestyle such as
smoking what effect your longs badly and the person who smokes a lot
have a higher possibility to get Alzheimer quicker that people who don’t
smoke. The aging process will also be shown. Learn the secrets of people
who lived till 100 years old and discover how you could influence the aging
process.

Gunther von Hagens.

Gunther von Hagens is born in Poland on the 10th of January in 1945, his
nickname in Germany is Dr. Tod what means Dr. Death. He is born as
Gunther Gerhard Liebchen and is a German anatomist. He started his
study in 1965 in medicine in Jena which lies in East-Germany. He got a lot
of fame by inventing the plastination technique. With this technique he set
up an exhibition of human bodies and human body parts.

Gunther von Hagens got a lot of fame

in Holland and in the United Stated
with his TV
program Anatomy for beginners, what
started in the year 2005. Gunther von
Hagens did this together with
pathology professor John Lee they
dissected a number of cadavers and
discussing the structure and function of many of the body parts. They also
anatomize human bodies in front of the camera. In 2006 they started a
new program entitled Autopsy: Life and Death, in which Gunther von
Hagens and John Lee discussed the common fatal diseases such as
circulatory issues, cancer, poisoning from organ failure and ageing, they
look to these things through dissection. Their third program came in 2007
entitled Autopsy: Emergency Room, showing what happens when the body
is injured. Gunther von Hagens next to his
work.
Plastination.

The bodies and organs go through a process of plastination. The method

of plastination was invented in 1977 by doctors, scientist and anatomist
Gunther von Hagens. They developed this technique at the University of
Heidelberg’s Institute of Anatomy and have been improving the process
ever since. The process is invited to preserve the body for educational and
learning purposes. It’s not a very difficult process but it takes
approximately a whole year to complete one body.

Location.

Body Worlds travels all around the world to all different countries all over
the world. And right now Body Worlds & The Cycle of life is held in
Rotterdam in Las Palmas II. It’s a good
location and it’s easy to come there
with public transport. Worldwide
already thirty million people have
visited the exhibition Body Worlds. So
it’s definitely a popular place to go.

Body donation.

Body Worlds is de only anatomist

exhibition in the whole world who has
a donor program. Donors are people
who have written on their testament
that after the die they give Gunther von Hagens permission to put their
body up in this exhibition for educative purposes. All plastination from the
whole body and most of the specimens are from the people who donate
their body. Some specimens that have something special came from an
old anatomic collection from morphological institutions. Worldwide there
are about eleven thousand donors who want to put up their body after
their die for plastination and for the exhibition. Approximately thirty
donors live in Holland. Dead man walking out of his own skin.

My experience.

On Thursday the 30th of December 2010 at 12:30 pm, I went with my

mom, sister and my brother-in-law to Body World & The Cycle of life. My
mom and I had planned a time to meet with my sister and brother-in-law
in front of Las Palmas where the exhibition was held. There was only one
problem. We hadn’t made any reservations on our tickets so we had a
chance to not get one. When we arrived the tickets where finished and we
had to wait till 5 o’clock to go in, that was what they said. But after all we
still got 4 tickets. I was a bit nervous of the idea that those were ones
living people.

As soon as you walked through the entree the cycle of a baby’s life is the
first thing that you see. First there is a little egg what grows and grows
eventually into a fetus. What looks a lot like a reptile! When you walk
further you see plastinated bodies of grown up people. Athletic people who
have had a knee, elbow, shoulder and jaw transplant. Longs who have
been through a couple years of smoking. A stomach from somebody with
hair around it! That person has eaten too much hair what eventually got
stuck all around that persons stomach. Most times this happens by cats,
that’s the reason why they spit up hairballs. At the end there was
something in a private spot behind a black curtain, there were two couples
who were making love to each other.

Attraction.

Since the opening in September 2010 more than 150.000 people visited
the exhibition Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life. In whole the world
approximately 30 million people have seen this exhibition. It attracts all
different kind of people, young and old, fat and skinny, athletic and lazy.
Such a big crowd is attracted to the exhibition that the Las Palmas 2 doors
are staying longer open, first the doors were open until the 23th of January
2011 but now the exhibition is closing a week later. If you still want to see
it you should be quick, the doors are closing for the next couple of weeks,
the defiantly date is on the 2e of February 2011.

Advantages and disadvantages.

The good thing about the exhibition is that it’s very interesting. It’s a good
learning experience and you see what you shouldn’t do with your life.
Such as smoking, which takes away 7 years of your life span and there is a
higher risk of getting Alzheimer. It’s also much more interesting to see the
plastinated bodies and organs with your own eyes instead of on a picture
on the internet because then you have a better image in your head and
you will remember it better.

The disadvantage was that the plastinated bodies where in a glass box,
except for three of them. But my sister also went to Body World in New
York, there all the bodies were out of the glass box. When they are out of
it it’s much nicer because it looks like it’s normal to watch to the body of a
dead person. The other thing is that it’s also very busy which causes for a
waiting line to look at the plastinated organs and to read the information.
I’m not a person who likes people that walk to slow or do things to slow so
my patience was there very low. It’s also a disappointment that it’s not
allowed to make any pictures, it is normal the same rule is in a museum
but I just wanted some picture for in my photo album.

Sometimes it was just too much information about the different types of
sicknesses. If somebody in your family has a sickness what could have a
serious ending, you could get very worried.

I give my respect to the people who voluntary give their body up for
plastination to be put up in Body Worlds. I wouldn’t do it, I don’t think that
I would find any peace but that’s up to the person self. The anatomist
Gunther von Hagens did a great job by inventing plastination and
plastinated these bodies very good! Everybody should go to Body World to
take a look, it could be that Gunther von Hagens isn’t coming back with his
bodies till over 10 years maybe it’s a one in a life time experience.