Amputation on request, devotees and wannabes

Many years ago I discovered the world of devotees and wannabes. A devotee, a wannabe? 

On this planet, there are devotees. The original word for them is acrotomophilia. Coming from the Greek. A devotee or admirer is someone attracted to disabilities and especially to amputees. Worldwide 1 on 500 people is one.

Near that there is the group of wannabes; People who want to become disabled by wish and especially being an amputee. Around 1 on 30.000 people have this attraction. Also coming from the Greek apotemnophilia, or even those days named BIID. 

Many devotees do everything to get in touch with amputees. Many wannabes try to find a surgeon to get rid of the limb or limbs that don't belong to them. 

A few illegal ways right now exist. 

One is Mexico where a surgeon asks $ 20.000 for each limb and then we have the 'promotion' in the Philippines what is 50 procent cheaper and $ 10.000 for removing a limb.

Many wannabes don't have that amount and try it in their own way. Many tried and did it with dry ice or even with injecting local anaesthetics, to do it by themselves. 

For sure the most famous wannabe was George Boyer who shot in his own leg and came out for it. He lived in Florida, USA.

Then there was the case John Ronald Brown, a surgeon who performed an illegal amputation on a 79 yo wannabe patient, named Philip Bondy. The morning after surgery, Bondy was found dead at the hotel. The body was found by Dr. Gregg M. Furth, a psychologist and also a wannabe.

Not to forget the case of Dr Smith in Scotland who performed some amputations on wannabes. Smith worked together with the documentary Horizon from the BBC and 2 psychiatrists who screened first the wannabes. 

My book Amputation on request about those subjects are available at lulu, amazon, Barnes and Noble,...

There is an A5, pocket and eBook version.

Maybe for the amputee who did became one in a normal way, it will be pretty hard to understand why a devotee find them attractive, or why someone want to be as you. More and more and during many years of investigation, the phenomenon became more in the daylight. 

Some wannabes compare it with transgenders and the feeling of being not complete in the actual body. 

God, give me a call,... If you exist

Even as an amputee you can be very religious. At least, what I was as a two legged child. 

My grandmother told me that God really existed so I went with her to the churches and even went there every day, when I started to serve the church as a priest helper and even started to sing for them. 

There came even a day that in the weekends I went over to the sisters and helped to work in their garden.

When I asked a day to the priest or God exist and how he knows he became very upset and told me: 'Or you believe or not'

I stopped church and discovered that watching old black and white movies are far more interesting then church visits. 

Life went on till my sister killed herself 14 days after my brother died from cancer.

Where was God now? My whole family gone, dead... On a few years only. Mother, father, uncle, all... 

When I traveled to Brazil and have seen a child around the age of 7, dead on a piece of carton, it was clear for me that there is no God. 

Good that there exist science and not a fairytale book wherein a creature open the sea and then saying that God allowed that his son was nailed on the cross.

Nice father. Daddy can not find a free woman and decided to grab Mary who wasn't single. I have two children but I will not nail them. 

Amazing dumb is what people can be to believe in this all. Did they have seen God or one of his family members? 

Jesus the survivor of the world? He was married with the prostitute Maria Magdalena and had two children; And that is real proven history. 

The church, cathedral's worldwide filled with gold, but meanwhile millions of people die from hungry. If there is a God, he don't need gold and ornaments.

If the real creator exist and his son is the survivor... Why millions suffer right now thanks to a Corona virus? And that is only one example of this planets suffers. 

And do we forget the holly inquisition? 

As an amputee even living in the slumber of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, -I helped about 10 street children daily. Even that my girlfriend told me that I couldn't safe the whole planet. 

My answer was that it is better to help 10 instead of no one and better then a God that prefer to let them die from hungry.

How many times don't we hear about the many pedophile priests as in Belgium, or even corrupt priests in my city of birth that recently kept thousands of Euro's behind.

I prefer to believe in reality and the things you see and have proofs of existence.

We can believe in everything we want. Even the Aliens came to earth. Freedom of religion and speech. I keep it with my religion and that is no religion. 

An amputee around the world

As an amputee without legs and one arm I found it amazing to 'provocate' myself, to say it in that way, -or should I need to say: Discovering how far I can go as a half person?

My first travel was to Brazil and I ended up in a paradise called Santos in the state of Sao Paulo. That was years ago, but by still renting an apartment in Belgium; My country of origin, I wasn't in the possibility to stay financially.

My second travel was a friend from USA Florida who invited me. Once in America for a vacation of 3 weeks and after the big discovery how wheelchair it is over there, I decided to go through the whole process of immigration and staid for two years.

After that I discovered for a short time Sri Lanka to end up for many years in Brazil.

When I was once over there without money, a blocked bank card and staying 14 days on the airport sleeping at the terminal, was in one way a goosebump, realizing that not everyone without legs do those things. At that time there was no any fun about it. Afterwards I had a good feeling that I did it. 

After Brazil I decided to try out Portugal, where I was for 2 years. 

I missed speaking so much Portuguese and I guess that was the main reason why I was ready for Portugal

Right now I am in the Philippines, but that is another long story.

I published a book about it and it is called 'Around the world without legs and one arm'. 

Available at lulu, amazon, barnes and nobles, ...

It is the story from since I left Europe, till my return there. I guess a book good to push people with a disability in the direction of doing more with your life and showing yourself and others that you can do everything and that being like me is not an excuse to get out of the door and do some things that you and others thought it wasn't able to do. 

Being an amputee isn't so bad as some people think. Stay thinking positively is the message.