Shrink Exercise: Giant Vegetable Hugging

Hugging a giant vegetable initiates a light-hearted feeling of pleasure and relaxation, as well as the experience of being in the presence of a messenger from the future when the human species has become a lot smaller and the world is again a place of unprecedented abundance. The challenge is making the mental switch where we do not understand the giant vegetable as large but ourselves as small. This can be achieved by repeating a certain sentence such as: This is not a large vegetable, I am a small person. This not a large vegetable. I am a small person. This is not a large vegetable. I am a small person. Suspend disbelief until reality has started to change.

The Incredible Shrinking Man wants to ignite an imagination that will ultimately physically shrink the human species. There are already a number of things people could do to become smaller. If we were to eat differently, feel attracted to smaller partners, or would embrace a number of endocrinological or genetic possibilities the human species would start to shrink. Unfortunately, at the moment, we are not so inclined as a species. In fact we celebrate that we continue to grow taller. Although tallness may in many cases be the result of affluence, being tall itself is not only not great for health but has numerous other undesirable consequences. In a world with dwindling resources, mass species extinctions and increased population, shrink exercises are both symbolic as well as real acts to inspire an alternative desire.