Cannibalism is a surprisingly popular topic, so we ve covered it several times. Well, if there
was ever a lighter side of cannibalism angle, this one may just be it. If you can think of a
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People usually eat other people because it s a better alternative than starving to death.
Sometimes it might be an activity to foster group cohesion.
And there are those that simply enjoy the taste.
Some of the paths that end in cannibalism surprisingly don t involve war or famine.
There are people who simply want to be eaten. It is a burning desire they yearn to fulfill.
Others are simply curious and want to know what humans taste like, but they aren t interested
in killing to find out. So, they eat their own body parts. Sometimes the curious are
treated to the taste of human flesh by consuming discarded meat from a friend.
We won t be showing you graphic images. But the descriptions you hear will be rather gross.
If you don t like that sort of thing then come back next week
to learn about something entirely different. If you are still here, then it s time to learn
even more about the history of cannibalism. --------------------------------------
Love of Devouring It probably isn t surprising to
learn that most people who want to be eaten suffer from a psychological disorder.
The disorder is referred to as vorarephilia. Those who suffer from this condition usually want
to eat other people. The reason they want to eat another human is because the act provides a form
of sexual gratification. Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the more well-known examples of this condition.
In extremely rare cases a person with this condition may instead have
an overwhelming urge to be consumed. In 2014 a man named Stephen walked into
a psychiatric hospital in Toronto. He appeared shy at first. But after
being interviewed he confessed that he had a strong desire to be consumed by a large,
dominant woman and then defecated by her. This fetish is among the rarest in the world.
Stephen s psychologist wasn t even sure what questions to ask next given the strange
nature of the confession. But the questions continued, and Stephen continued answering.
The psychologists who examined Stephen thought that this strange need to be eaten might arise
from an underlying desire to avoid loneliness. They also suspect he wanted to return to the
safety of the womb. But that isn t possible. So, the next best thing is being eaten.
Most people who suffer from this condition deal with it by roleplaying.
They usually have no desire to die nor do they want to kill anyone.
For most people who experience vorarephilia it is expressed as a strong sexual desire.
There is no effective treatment for the condition. People that have it must learn
to manage it. In extreme cases drugs can be prescribed to lower the sex drive.
Despite the medical community s best efforts sometimes the urge to consume human flesh
is so strong it cannot be ignored. The Cannibal Cafe
Armin Meiwes was born in Germany on December 1, 1961. When he was eight his father abandoned
the family. Armin would later explain that after the family split, he became lonely.
During his early adolescence he became obsessed with the fairytale Hansel and Gretel.
A desire to eat people developed shortly thereafter and never faded away.
In 2001 Armin joined a website called The Cannibal Cafe . It provided a community where
people who had a cannibalism fetish could meet each other. The website is no longer available
for reasons that will soon be obvious. Armin decided to use The Cannibal Cafe
to find someone who was willing to be eaten. He made the following post:
"looking for a normally-built 18- to 25-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed."
Several people responded to the message. Most of them decided not to follow through
with becoming a meal. Bernd Brandes was not like the others. He was an engineer
from Berlin who desperately wanted to be eaten. And he responded to Armin s advertisement.
The two met at Armin s apartment about a week later.
The encounter was filmed but we don t have access to it. You will instead have to enjoy
our interpretation of the events. Brandes arrived at Armin s apartment fully
determined to offer himself as a meal. Brandes took twenty sleeping pills and a bottle of cough
syrup. Presumably, he wanted something to mask the pain for what would come next.
Brandes wanted his penis removed. Then he wanted Armin to cook it so that both men could enjoy it.
Removing the appendage turned out to be a greater ordeal than either had anticipated.
First Armin tried to bite it off, but that proved to be far too difficult.
So, he instead used a knife. Unsurprisingly Brandes began bleeding profusely.
While bleeding Brandes tried to eat a raw piece of the severed penis. He was unable to
do so because it was too chewy. Plus, the rapid blood loss was a great appetite suppressant.
Armin fried the severed body part in a pan with wine and garlic.
Unfortunately, he wasn t a particularly good cook. The meat was too well done and tasted horrible.
Armin tried to give some to Brandes again, but Brandes was too weak to eat. Armin tried
to eat it himself but found it disgusting. He gave up and fed what was left to the dog.
Armin ran a bath for Brandes then placed him into it. The blood continued to flow causing Brandes to
become weaker and weaker. Armin retreated to another room to read a Star Trek book.
He returned about every fifteen minutes to see how Brandes was doing.
After several trips Brandes was still alive.
Armin decided it was time to finish the job and stabbed him in the throat with a knife.
Satisfied that his new friend was finally dead, Armin then placed the body on a meat hook.
The corpse was butchered and stored in the freezer under pizza boxes.
Over the course of ten months Armin consumed at least forty-four pounds of human meat.
When supplies ran low, he began posting new advertisements on the The Cannibal
Cafe in search of another victim. A visitor to the site then reported him to authorities.
They arrested Armin in December 2002.
In 2004 Armin was convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to a little over eight
years in prison. But during an interview he admitted to killing Brandes because
it provided sexual satisfaction. Under German law this meant he was guilty of murder.
Armin Meiwes was put on trial again in 2005 and was convicted of murder.
He was sentenced to life in prison. While in prison Armin became a vegetarian.
I Eat Myself Gwen van der Zwan is from the Netherlands.
She also enjoys blood sausage. And Gwen was also curious how it might taste if it used human blood
instead of pig blood. Unlike Armin Meiwes she didn t want to kill anybody to find out.
So, she figured out how to insert a needle into her own arm.
She drained blood into a bag and then used it to make her own blood sausage.
The blood was mixed with lentils, tomato puree, soy sauce, and herbs.
One of her friends came over to enjoy the meal as well. They ate it with a
side salad. Both agreed that it had too much soy sauce. Otherwise, it was delicious.
In June of 2018, a man on reddit shared a story of cannibalism.
Unlike most of what s posted on reddit this was supposedly confirmed to be true by Vice.
The anonymous man was in a motorcycle accident in 2016. His foot was badly mangled and crushed.
Doctors amputated the foot but let him take it home. It was stored in a freezer.
One day he cut some flesh from the foot and let it marinate overnight. The next day the meat was
sauteed with onions, peppers, and lime juice. It was served at a brunch with his ten closest
friends. The cooked severed foot was offered to the guests in the form of tacos.
The man who cooked his own foot had the following opinion on the experience:
"I taste like buffalo. But chewier. Super beefy and a little fat. We weren't looking
to go all Hannibal and get gourmet - just to make it so no one gagged."
Although it might seem disgusting in most places it isn t illegal to eat your own body parts.
It is a safe and moral way to experience the taste of human flesh.
The only problem is you have to permanently sacrifice a body part to enjoy the experience,
unless you re willing to settle for blood sausage.
Placentas The placenta is an organ that forms in all
mammals during pregnancy. It is responsible for exchanging nutrients and waste with the embryo,
and it also produces hormones. Not long after the mother gives birth the placenta is expelled.
Most animals on Earth that create a placenta also eat the organ when it is ejected.
The only exceptions are aquatic animals,
camels, and humans. Most people are so disgusted by the thought of eating placenta that it hasn t
been recorded as a normal behavior by any culture anywhere in the world.
In the 1970s, some people decided that attitude needed an adjustment. Perhaps, they thought, human
placenta had culinary potential. Of course, people in the 1970s believed many questionable things.
The scientific term which describes the act of a mother eating her placenta is post-partum
human maternal placentophagy. Research into the women who do this today has revealed that most of
them are married, heterosexual, middle or upper class, and live in the northern hemisphere.
Most of these women also claimed that consuming the placenta provided numerous health benefits
and increased their well-being. The reason for this claim is that the
placenta contains pregnancy hormones that stop being produced after giving birth.
So many of the mothers think that eating placenta can replace those hormones and
stop post-partum depression. There is no evidence to support these claims.
Also, by most accounts the placenta is disgusting and not at all pleasant to consume. To get around
this most people that choose to ingest it use the process of encapsulation. The placenta is steamed
or dehydrated. Then it is ground into a powder and placed into capsules that are then swallowed.
Those with stronger stomachs sometimes mix it with fruit and create a smoothie.
Most medical researchers think that consuming placenta isn t causing any harm. Mostly they worry
that engaging in the process could mask other mental health issues that need to be treated.
Everyone involved can agree on one thing at least. It isn t very tasty.
------------------------------- Whether it s mental illness, curiosity,
or a stubborn belief in the miracle of birth, the desire to eat human meat is strong.
Whatever else can be said about humanity, as long as two people remain
at least one of them will have something to eat.
What do you think about the stories of cannibalism we shared today? Are
these people sick and disgusting? Or are you perhaps wanting to make your own tacos now?
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