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Threaded Responses [ bottom ]
 | meredith [email] said at 11:34 AM 02-08-2005:
Ha ha! Awww. Happy Mardi Gras, Happy! |
 | nathan [email] said at 12:11 PM 02-08-2005:
Thanks, Ed - that cat is nasty |
 | ericanm [email] said at 12:18 PM 02-08-2005:
thank you ed!
when christian and i were in la we went to the museum of jurassic technology and there was an abundance of taxidermy and i got upset and cried. this phobia is real, dudes! i don't even like pictures they freak me out! |
 | shelly [email] said at 12:25 PM 02-08-2005:
that place is awesome. have you seen the book about it? |
ALi B said at 3:32 PM 06-23-2006:
The same thing happens to me! i dont know why but taxidermy FREAKS me out! its so irrational... i need help:O |
LIZ said at 11:26 PM 01-07-2008:
I know this phobia is real! I have suffered from it since I was 3. I do not have any other phobias just a taxidermy phobia. I have been doing this type of exposure therapy on myself, and it really does help. I started with pictures on the internet of the taxidermy animal that I fear the most, the dreaded Buffalo. At first these pictures freaked me out, now they do not bother me. I have pretty much gotten over all the other taxidermy animals that bothered me. My goal is to enter into a place with a lot of taxidermy animals and carry on a conversation with my friends and family as if nothing ever occured. |
 | brandon [email] said at 12:20 AM 01-08-2008:
Liz, don't take offense at what I'm about to say. But, that's pretty light-weight. Liz. I too have overcome phobias. And the truth is a phobia is not conquered until you have confronted all of your senses with it.
I challenge you to enter a hall of taxidermy and touch the taxidermied animals. Pet one, as you would a cat or a friendly dog. Sniff it. Taste it. Then send us pictures.
Finally, and this is truly for the really committed. You won't be over your phobia until you, and I want you to take me seriously here, allow one to see you naked. That's how I over come my fear of spider-filled pumpkins. |
LIZ said at 12:55 AM 01-08-2008:
You do not understand, I have beat this phobia before. The hard way. There is this famous house near our home that has dozens of animal heads in it, two being my biggest fear: the buffalo head. The door you have to walk under is the one with a buffalo head above it. Last month I walked under that door and looked straight up at that Buffalo head. And last time I went out west these animal trophies were in every shop out there and after a couple of days I was fine. I also have animal trophies in my own home, how about you? |
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| brandon [email] said at 1:01 AM 01-08-2008:
But... do you touch them? |
LIZ said at 1:04 AM 01-08-2008:
Yes I have. And I got a chance to touch a mounted buffalo in the west a couple of years ago. I'm hoping that I will be able to do it again, it will help alleviate my fear. |
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| brandon [email] said at 1:11 AM 01-08-2008:
Have you... smelled them? |
LIZ said at 1:26 AM 01-08-2008:
The only smell I experienced was very musky. You know old mounted animal fur. And before you even ask I have no intention of tasting it. But that has nothing to do with my phobia, it has to do with sanitation. |
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| brandon [email] said at 1:52 AM 01-08-2008:
Yes, I too have had an similar experience sniffing the formaldehyde-laden pelts of musty, dead animals. You have my respect, LIZ who overcame your fear of Taxidermy. You have my admiration. |
LIZ said at 12:43 PM 01-08-2008:
Here is the thing. When I go into a new place and see a buffalo head, I am startled for about 3 seconds before my common sense kicks in. Will this never go away. Maybe this time when I go out west the park ranger will let me hug it, that should take care of what is left of my buffalo taxidermy phobia. |
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| brandon [email] said at 1:11 PM 01-08-2008:
You don't want to hug a live buffalo. They way hundreds of pounds and they're ornery. A man was killed by a buffalo just last year, just for looking at it wrong. It's a fact! I didn't overcome my fear of taxidermied animals until one night, when I said to myself - I'M TIRED OF BEING AFRAID - so I slipped into some thin, almost sheer cotton underclothes, and snuck out to my grandpa's shed, where I found all manner of taxidermied animals: owls, nutria, a wombat imported from elsewhere, a black bear. I took that black bear and I laid it down on the ground. Tonight, I told the black bear, I'm going to wrestle you like Jacob wrestled the Angel. At first it was like embracing someone's hairy grandmother. But, I that night, with that bear, I overcame years of oppression and fear. |
LIZ said at 2:52 PM 01-08-2008:
The buffalo I was referring to was not a live buffalo but a taxidermy one. Were it a live one, I would not consider that a phobia, to me that would be a rationalized fear. |
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| brandon [email] said at 3:20 PM 01-08-2008:
So in other words it's not life that you fear, but the imitation of life. I too recognize in my fears the fear that I too am a hollowed out skin, completely lacking in heart. Life itself may be capricious and unfathomable, but the mystery buttresses the uncertainty. With stuffed things, we find that without the mystery, we are confronted with our own mortality, our own frailty, our own ability to be molded and manipulated by others, and ultimately, our own emptiness. I see that your waters run deep, Liz. Beneath the ground of appearances, deep waters mingle. Our thoughts have mingled. Though I do not know you. I know you, Liz. Thank you for sharing your story. You have given me strength and lent me courage to understand my own fear of the taxidermy. |
LIZ said at 7:22 PM 01-10-2008:
I am not petrified anymore but I do have some level of discomfort around them. When I see one that I did not know was there I am shocked for a few seconds and then I am OK. I wanted to know from someone who had beat this fear, if that feeling ever goes away. I hate feeling powerless. |
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| brandon [email] said at 10:23 PM 01-10-2008:
Liz, where I'm from they have a saying: you can stab a man for having scars where you already stabbed him. Your phobia, like my alcoholism, will always be there. It's something that needs to be managed. Having fears and phobias is part of being human. According to this study, everybody has on average, 3-4, separate, distinct, measurable phobias. Perhaps it's not your phobia that's really the problem, perhaps it's your irrational need to always be in control - to actually be "inhuman" in the sense that no one else on the planet has the capability to yokes one's self into a state of complete powerfulness at all times. The phobia is a gift. A gift from God. Not the phobia itself, that would be blaspheming him. No. It's your chance to develop your character, to develop your courage, to develop your mastery of yourself, and to say: "God, I'm not perfect! But you are, and you can give me the strength to control this! Because I am your beautiful and unique child!" Liz, you sound like a great kid, but what you're talking about is divinity. You ought to let go, and let God. |
LIZ said at 8:34 PM 01-11-2008:
I have been a Christian since Junior High School, that is how I got this far with my phobia. |
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| brandon [email] said at 10:57 PM 01-11-2008:
I was born again as when I rejected the Catholic idolatry of my family and pledged myself to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I was 9 years old. But, I've always had a strong walk with the Lord. That's not to say that my faith hasn't been tested or that I've had doubts and trials - I have. But, I've been blessed with the good sense to know that when things are at their darkest, the Lord Jesus Christ is there to lead me back from the deepest pits of hell. If you don't mind, I'd like to say a little prayer for you here:
Lord, Jesus Christ. Supreme ruler of Heaven - and Earth. Eternal King of all things seen and unseen, Above and Below, Past and Future. Dear Lord, Great Lord, we most humbly pray that you grant LIZ the power to confront her phobia and reject the overweening fear that is Satan, the worm's work. By your mighty power, give her authority over the handling of snakes, the taking of poison, the presence of taxidermy, the most important of all the love of all that is righteousness. May your holy influence and pervenient grace instill trust in Your holy judgment, a receptive heart to your dear guidance, and all Holy tendencies in every situation. Continue to turn her heart toward your eternally generous and sacred being and deeds. By the spirit of your most holy paraclete, and in your son Christ Jesus' name, we pray. |
 | rick [email] said at 12:27 PM 02-08-2005:
There is a man in Germany who injects some sort of substance (acrylic?) into flesh that preserves it. He put on a show in Heidelburg while I was there that had humans in various stages of dissection and a skinned human running next to a skinned horse. |
 | myriam [email] said at 12:31 PM 02-08-2005:
It toured around america this year--I think it was called the Body Museum or something? I almost went to see it in LA but I couldn't find anyone to take me and I was carless. It sounds utterly fascinating. |
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| rick [email] said at 12:33 PM 02-08-2005:
He also, I think, gave a human dissection that was open to the public. |
 | christian [email] said at 12:37 PM 02-08-2005:
yeah bodyworks in LA. we were gonna go to this too but we ran out of time/got lazy/tired on the one day we had a chance to see it. |
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