DURING MY RECENT VISIT, in the month of August, to the Natural History Museum based at San Diego, I was fascinated to see a show of the human body that created sensation in my mind. I have never seen such an exhibition in my life. I had heard about the exhibition and felt an indomitable desire to view it. It is an exhibition alright, but that is not just the end of it. It is the beginning of a thought process which awakens your sensitivity and touches your soul. It forces you to think and question your mind. That is exactly what happened to me ! There were active corpses all around you, but you do not find it bizarre. Rather, you are fascinated. You become awestruck.

The exhibits of ‘Body Worlds’ are real corpses of human beings. These are real human bodies who were once alive and are now dead, but reborn as exhibits in real form, with flesh and nerves. These are, of course, skinless human bodies. The body has been kept alive, almost alive, through the process of plastination invented by the scientist Gunther von Hagens. The exhibits created by him are the first public anatomical exhibitions of real human plastinates. They have been on display worldwide for ten years and so far, more than 28 million visitors have viewed the exhibits at venues in cities across Asia, Europe, the United States and Canada.

This exhibition has not been displayed in India, nay, in Asia- save Japan -so far. It is a rare technology invented by the German scientist which preserves the body. It is not mummified.

These are corpses in action. The body has been plasticined on the real human skeleton. It comes alive right in front of the viewers’ eyes. The corpse looks at you on the face, expressing tremendous beauty of physical prowess, strength of mind and philosophy of human misery and happiness. In a mummy, the body is seen only lying down, as if in sleep. Here, the body is vertical and it stares at you. It does not evoke any sense of fear. The actions of the corpses made me awestruck. The bodies bring out the sense of adventure and the secrets of human power through the action of muscles and nerves.It was fascinating to view a human body without skin, but full of muscles and veins. Beautiful bodies that tingle your mind.

You could see a body’s muscle reaction when an exhibit was playing baseball. Another body was laughing. You would be able to see the powerful facial muscles when the exhibit laughed. There was a lady in a reclining pose, with her belly open and a baby in her womb. The growing baby in the womb, with its head down, was almost ready to be born. Viewing this kind of corpse in action provides you with a sensation of your own birth.

The satisfaction of the would be mother was evident on her facial muscles. The persona of a sportsman, a mother, a happy person makes you introspective. It is not only a technical marvel, but also an exhibition of art, as well as an anatomical and physiological study of human beings. You do not just see it . You marvel at it.

The exceptional success of the exhibits is to a great extent due to its educational value. They are structured in such a way that visitors experience as much as they would when reading a three-dimensional textbook: The anatomy as the foundation of the body is laid out in a viewer – friendly format. Visitors learn about the body’s functions; they also realise how highly sophisticated and beautiful, and yet how fragile the human body is. There are not many female bodies.

Due to the huge success of the Body Worlds exhibition, I am told that many plagiarists have sought to exploit the Body Worlds phenomena by appropriating the plastination process invented and patented by Dr Gunther von Hagens, and offering inferior imitation products. However, Dr von Hagens believes that Body Worlds alone resonates with the public, “because it fills the longing for the authentic in a time of practically unlimited reproducibility.”

I was told by the specialist guide at the exhibition hall that Dr. Gunther von Hagens was the world’s leading anatomist, the inventor of plastination (the method of specimen preservation that makes anatomical display possible), and the originator of Body Worlds or Koerperwelten (its German title), the first of its kind in anatomical exhibition. Dr. von Hagens invented plastination at the University of Heidelberg in 1977, developed the use of plastinated specimens for medical education and preservation, and established the International Society for Plastination. More than 400 universities in 40 countries utilise Dr. Gunther von Hagens’ preservation technique in their curriculum. I am a humble student of Economics and did not understand the intricacy of the chemistry of plastination. But I felt the wonderful sensation the exhits conveyed. I surely recommend all my readers to view this exhibition if they get the chance. It is a modern marvel of scientific exploration of the human body and a work of art, too. This particular exhibition would continue till November, 2009 at the Natural History Museum of San Diego. Anybody visting the USA can make an effort to visit the exhibition. It should be noted that the bodies recreated by the scientist were obtained through donation of bodies by families. The exhibition stems from a unique Body Donation Programme established in Heidelberg, Germany in 1983, later managed by the Institute for Plastination established in 1993. But there are many people who have not liked this marvel for they felt that after death, a body’s place is in a tomb or the incinerator. The body has no role without vital breath or prana and should be allowed to be respectfully kept buried or burnt. The scientific world did not believe that and the result was the beautiful Body Worlds.

Currently, the institute for plastination has a donor roster of 9,200 individuals, which includes nearly 9000 Europeans and 800 North Americans. Since 1995, more than 25 million people worldwide have visited Gunther von Hagens’ Body Worlds exhibitions. I asked the specialist guide as to what is plastination.

He replied that the process of plastination was invented in 1977. Plastination is the groundbreaking method of halting decomposition and preserving anatomical specimens for scientific and medical education. Plastination is the process of extracting all bodily fluids and soluble fat from specimens, replacing them through vacuum forced impregnation with reactive resins and elastomers, and then curing them with light, heat, or certain gases, which give the specimens rigidity and permanence.

The corpses pause in action in the exhibition and look alive.

Why were these corpses made to be in action? The brief reply was that the poses and actions of the plastinates have been carefully thought out and serve an educational purpose. Each plastinate is posed to illustrate different anatomical features. For instance, the athletic poses illustrate the use of muscle systems while playing sports. The poses allow the visitors to relate the plastinate to his or her own body. The primary goal of the exhibition is health education. The exhibition is targetted at the lay audience to help them know their own body , how it functions, where different organs are located and what are their functions. Every individual is unique. Human beings reveal their individuality not only through the visible exterior, but also through the interior of their bodies. Each body is distinctly different from any other. The body’s positon, size, shape and structure of skelton, muscles nerves and organs determine our “ interior face”, added the guide.

Can this information not be conveyed through models of clay?

Absolutely impossible, the guide replied. In that case, it would be a simplified version of the real thing. The authenticity of the specifmen not only fascinates, but enables the observer to experience the marvel of the real human body.

I returned from the San Diego exhibition hall marvelling at human ingenuity. Perhaps, I thought, that is why the exhibition is dedicated to the “individual interior face”. It is sad that no photgraphs are allowed to be taken in the exhibition. Maybe a few can view these marvellous bodies in action on the internet, if possible.

Gautum Prasad Baroowah