How To Adopt A Relative Child From Jamaica

a british man who wanted to "take a holidayfrom being human" is sharing his experiences after spending time in the swiss alps-livingas a goat. thomas thwaites, a graphic artist from london,used specially made prosthetic limbs to enable him to walk on all fours and even underwentexperimental neurological changes to make himself more goat-like.

How To Adopt A Relative Child From Jamaica, the goal was to see how the experience ofbeing human could be transformed. "i was kind of at a low ebb… depressed,a bit annoyed with all complexities of being a human and trying to make money," he toldafp, explaining why he embarked on the project. inspiration struck when the 34 year old waslooking after a relative's dog which looked

"joyful, just happy being in the world," hesaid. "i thought, 'wouldn't that be a lovely feeling… i want to be an animal for a bit,i want to take a holiday from being a human being.'" in a project supported by the wellcome trust,a global health foundation based in london, thwaites spent nine months exploring the potentialof becoming a goat, or as near to it as humanly possible. he looked at getting a fake stomach that wouldhelp him digest grass, but had to abandon the idea after being advised of likely healthproblems. eager for insights into goats' non-vocal behaviour,he even underwent experiments which temporarily

blocked his power of speech. the technique, called transcranial magneticstimulation, entails holding an electromagnet close to a person's skull to disrupt neuronactivity in the speech centre of the brain. thwaites even dissected a goat at london'sroyal veterinary college before finally getting a taste of real goat life on a farm in theswiss alps. living among the animals for three days, hetrotted around on artificial limbs designed to mimic the movement of a goat. but life on all fours was not easy, he found. "the main difficulty is taking weight throughyour arms for an extended period of time…

we are not built to do that," he said. "i found it so much easier going up as a goatthan down… so i found myself high on the mountain in the middle of the herd and thenthis kind of event happened, where everyone goes silent. it was like that bit in a bar,in a western (movie) or something." thwaites hopes the project will fuel discussionabout the challenges of adopting a different perspective on life. a book about his experiences- "goat man: howi took a holiday from being human"-will be published in april 2016. thwaites had originally thought he would liketo try life as an elephant.

but he rejected the idea after deciding thatthey were too similar to humans as they "can get depressed and go mad."