Instant Alert: This man turned himself into a goat for nearly a week — here's what it was like

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   UNSUBSCRIBE   |   VIEW ONLINE   This man turned himself into a goat for nearly a week — here's what it was like by Lydia Ramsey on May 2, 2016, 1:33 PM Advertisement When life gets unbearably stressful, most of us opt for a vacation that relieves us of the worries of day-to-day life. Thomas Thwaites, a UK-based designer, decided to take that a step further and take a break from being a human entirely. He became a goat. Seriously. With the help of a team of researchers and the financial support of London-based biomedical research group Wellcome Trust, Thwaites built himself a suit to achieve goat status and cross the Alps. For Thwaites, the project wasn't just a physical adventure. It was a psychological one, too. "I started thinking of the project as kind of this investigation into what present-day science and technology could do to help me achieve what I think is this ancient human desire of becoming more like an animal," Thwaites told Business Insider. Here's what the experiment was like: NEXT: Archaeologists may have discovered a Viking settlement in North America — here's what it looks like CHECK OUT: Here's the biggest obstacle to wiping out one of the deadliest mosquito-borne diseases This is Thomas Thwaites. He's a designer. You might know him from his TED talk about building a toaster from scratch. Last year, he decided he wanted to take a break from being a human. Watch that TED talk here.  At first, Thwaites wanted to try being an elephant. Its size, he thought, would make it easier to transition from a two-legged person to four legged animal. But he changed his plan after speaking with a shaman who said he'd connect better to his environment if he chose to become a goat. Next, Thwaites went about discovering how to be a goat: First, he spoke to goat behavioral experts to find out how and what goats think. After finding out that activity in several parts of his human brain essentially distinguish him from a goat, he met with a neuroscientist at University College London to try and hack a system for temporarily shutting those parts off, particularly the Broca's area, which is related to speech. Much to Thwaites' dismay, the technology to turn off a person's ability to understand language — Thwaites' ultimate goal — isn't quite there yet. So Thwaites decided to focus his energy on the physical aspects of becoming a goat. See the rest of the story at Business Insider   Share the latest business news with your network: Email sent to:   |   Manage your email preferences   |   Unsubscribe Terms of Service   |   Privacy Policy Business Insider. 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011