Bodies The Exhibition

Not sure why the shut the bodies exhibit down. We would take our students on class trips there, and we thought it was fascinating to be honest. The details were incredible. Yes you had to pay your respects to the dead and if you were loud, you were asked to leave the museum. I hope they bring them back!

I'm somewhere in between A-Ok and being a fan.
Three years ago I stood in line for the Bodies Exhibit- not really knowing...at all...what I was getting myself into.

I was torn by being utterly fascinated and completely disgusted in humanity all at the same time...at the same place. There were rumors( or tru-mors...who knows) about the bodies coming from a prisoner of war camp somewhere in Asia and that was very unsettling..but at the same time I was seeing things I'd never seen up close. It felt wrong walking around bodies placed in football-throwing position, or as if they were running and wondering if they were placed there against their will...literally.

If you're one with a weak stomach, they've got a sign before entering into the last room that warns the weak-stomached and gives them the opportunity to exit before entering the room.

It's a pretty intense experience...not sure if I'd recommend it as a must-see though.

The bodies in this exhibit are those of some hapless Chinese people. There is bad karma surrounding it and the circumstances of how the exhibit producers acquired the cadavers.

That said, the exhibit is a chance to see, well, human bodies. They are preserved via some sort of polymer treatment, so I still found myself wondering if this is what bodies actually look like. I should have read more of the fine print. In any case, you can see, for example, the muscles separated out, the digestive system, the circulatory system, etc. Even though you have probably seen pictures in a textbook, it is something else to see these models made from actual people.

The Bodies exhibit would be especially useful to pre-meds, or to parents who want to plant a little seed in their kids' heads. Who knows, maybe it will grow. It is also good for anyone to see so that they have a more concrete idea of what is going on inside of us, and an appreciation of it.

I would not pay the sticker price for the exhibit. There are a million discount ways-- when we were on line, the people in front of us had Goldstar tickets; I had a Groupon. This was a couple of years ago. The exhibit is currently closed, a year after Hurricane Sandy. However there is a Bodies: Pulse exhibition in Times Square.

Wow, A lot of mixed reviews from Yelpers. If you want to spend a nice Saturday with your family in NYC, stop by the bodies exhibit.

I thought the tour was outstanding. If you have kids and they aren't too squeamish, come on down. Also, if your not offended by dead bodies being used as props for playing baseball and seeing different muscle groups, come on down. For all others, go get an ice cream cone and walk the cobbled streets.

They show you bodies as well as organs that you can touch! Also:

You're able to see an enlarged heart of an obese person as well as a heart of a person with a low BMI.

They also show you the lungs and brain of a smoker, its motivation enough to throw your $10 pack of cigs away.

We had a good time, it was pricey but how can you price out fun?

I've recently lost a significant amount of weight [just don't tell anyone --- I'm trying to fly underneath the radar about it as much as I possibly can], and decided to visit Bodies on my day off for some extra motivation. There's nothing like comparing "healthy" and "unhealthy" anatomy to get you back on track.

The exhibit is broken up into the nine different "systems" of the body, with a room dedicated to each one. There are individual body parts to highlight specific organs/structures/parts, and entire bodies that display the entire system in action. My personal favorite is the circulatory system...the preservation methods make everything look SO cool.

The fetal development room makes me a little angry. The fetuses are located in jars that have a magnifying factor to them. But, nowhere does it indicate this...which means that people walk in there thinking that fetuses are significantly larger than they actually are based on their gestational age. This, along with the anti-choice language used to describe fetal development, makes me feel very uncomfortable. Subtle anti-choice tones make me squeamish.

The gift shop is a total let down. I'm not generally one to lay down money in gift shops, but few things excite me more than the human body...so I was PUMPED. Um, why is it the size of my fist? And, why is there nothing good here? I walked out with a keychain of a knee joint and the biggest frown on my face. I was expecting heart paraphernalia, brains, the whole nine. But all they had were some mugs and random other crap with the Bodies logo on it. I mean, I'm fine with them branding or whatever, but at least put your logo on things that are neat!

Minus a star for there being "ambiguity" in regards to the origin of the bodies. Nothing says sketch-fest like not being direct about all of these bodies that you are making millions of dollars on.

Minus a star for this exhibit being SO expensive. $30.00? Really?! Full disclosure: this was my third visit to Bodies. The first two times I came, I was totally THAT tourist, and didn't even think twice about dropping that much money to visit. But after living here a few years, I refuse to pay that kind of money to go to a museum. The only reason why I went this time around was because I scored a Groupon for $15.00.

I'm not a biology person. In. The. Least. When my roommate is watching ER or Grey's, I have to leave the room because I cannot watch those operation scenes. Yet, I was strangely drawn to this exhibit and am happy to say that I LOVED it.

To the people who complain about the price, I would argue that it is well worth the $28. That's about the price of a student rush Broadway ticket to see a show that lasts 2 hours - if you really savor your time and take everything in at Bodies, it will easily take 1.5 - 2 hours as it did for me. Also, keep in mind the tremendous amount of work that goes into this type of exhibit. I can't imagine the cost that goes into creating - and maintaining - this exhibit. As for a wait, I went on a Monday afternoon and did not have to wait in line. However, I can see how there would be a wait on a weekend.

Anyway, onto the actual BODIES. My friend (a personal trainer) was psyched to see everything from a scientific perspective. I was just interested to learn. Such a remarkable job is done of explaining EVERYTHING - from the smallest joint on display to entire cross-sections of bodies. (There is an audio guide available, too, about $6 I think, for those who want extended explanations). The displays that receive the most attention are the complete people posing in various forms (throwing a football, conducting a symphony, the skeleton of a boy holding onto it's own muscle structure - woah).

The displays of cancerous organs and body parts were freaky - definitely inspired me to want to live a healthy life!!! In the room where they show a smoker's lung, there is a big glass cube for throwing out cigarettes (it looked pretty full - I wonder how many people who walk through actually throw theirs out, or if they were just collected by the exhibit people to try to motivate, and how often that cube gets emptied out. Hm).

The second to last exhibit is of fetuses who, for medical reasons, were terminated at various points of the pregnancy cycle. At first, I thought I would want to bypass that part (there is an option to do that for those who feel uncomfortable), but I'm glad I saw it. It was sad, for sure, to see little babies whose lives had to come to a premature end, but it was so amazing to see the cycle and growth. A baby's heart starts to beat at 5 weeks - wow.

For most people, we only ever get to read about the human body in school textbooks, and what we see in those pictures serves as the basis of our understanding of how the human body works and what we look like under our flesh. This exhibit does a marvelous (and respectful) job of showing the intricacies and beauty of our inner workings. I recommend this to everyone.

I had a New York overnight a few years ago and I decided to go to the Bodies Exhibit.
I agree with the New York Times that it's not a freak show and not for the squeamish.
The exhibition consist of real body specimens and body parts. The exhibit shows whole persons, as well as isolated systems- skeletal, muscular, nervous, reproductive etc. which are displayed in theatrically darkened rooms. They also show healthy body parts comparing them to lungs blackened by smoking,There's also a brain damaged by stroke and other body parts with diseases caused by poor diet and hygene.
It is kinda gross because the flesh look like shaved ham.
I was curious why the specimens have Asian features and then I learned that the bodies were taken from the Dalien Medical School in Northern China.
There has been controversy over the source because the school gets unclaimed and unidentified bodies. Some have said that they were bodies of Chinese prisoners.
Although it was very educational and has helped inspire me to take care of my vehicle of expression. I don't know if we are being disrespectful to the people that owned those bodies. I feel they should have had a proper burial even the bodies were unclaimed.

Tip: Don't eat before the exhibit or you might lose your lunch!

The best way to visually learn and discover our body.

Fetuses and diseased organs can be tough to digest, so keep that in mind.

There are lots of coupon opportunities to avoid the steep $28 admission ticket. Do some research before paying the full amount.

So disappointed that this closed, wanted to take my kids here. I guess when i go to Las Vegas, i'll take them then.
This was a fascinating place.

First I'll start by saying if you are not in the medical field (or school) or have a genuine interest in human anatomy, you will probably not like this place.

If you walk through the exhibits fast you'll be done with the entire Bodies display in 15 mins. It's very small for the price but I'm assuming the high price helps pay for the, presumably, costly preservation process to display the parts. I'm not particularly interested in anatomy however my wife is in college for nursing so she simply could not be pulled away from the display cases. As a nursing student she really enjoyed the exhibits and I enjoyed learning from her as my personal guide.

Overall, the exhibits in my opinion were high quality exhibits though I still think admission is a bit steep. So unless you have that genuine interest in anatomy, you could end up being completely disappointed in this place.