40,000 year-old Cro-Magnon remains have been discovered with holes in the skulls, although it is unclear if this was done for beneficial purposes. A trepanned skull that was carbon dated at around 5,000 BC was found in France, and archeologists have uncovered numerous examples of trepanation in the excavation of 2,500 year-old pre-columbian Mesoamerican remains. The Incas and other Andean cultures didn’t shy away from head-holing either, with some examples of trepanation among these ancient peoples dating back over 4,000 years. The ancient Egyptians engaged in trepanation (wherein the brain or the dura matter is not penetrated) as well, and even brain surgery, itself, over 3,000 years ago. There is also evidence — such as signs of healing in the bone — that some recipients of such archaic surgeries actually survived!

All over the world, trepanation has been heralded and employed throughout history — from the aforementioned ancient eras to the dark ages of medieval times — as an aid or cure for numerous maladies. From epileptic seizures, migraines, and mental disorders to plain old fashioned “letting the demons out”, trepanation was just what the doctor ordered. Why, the father of medicine, Hippocrates, himself, gave instructions on how to perform the procedure in his aphorisms, “On Injuries of the Head” in 400 B.C that were employed for centuries to come. Even today, Trepanation is still occasionally administered by medical professionals for the treatment of epidural and subdural hematomas, or in order to access the brain for certain kinds of neurosurgical procedures.

In the past, Trepanation was also utilized for mystical purposes, and this tradition continues to this day among several African Tribes, particularly in Kenya and other Sub-Saharan countries, who regularly perform ceremonial trepanations. And it is this psychospiritual aspect of trepanation that seems to attract its modern, non-African enthusiasts as well.

Dutchman “Dr.” Bart Hughes, is the irrefutable father of modern trepanation. Hughes isn’t a real doctor, although at one point he wanted to be. He was thrown out of medical school for advocating marijuana usage and failing his exams, and never actually practiced medicine. Unless you count the hole he drilled in his own head.

Hughes experimented heavily with LSD and other drugs during the heyday of the 1960’s counterculture movement, and exhibited the sort of raw charisma of more notable drug gurus like Timothy Leary and Terrence McKenna. After a man named Titi in Ibiza taught him how he could get “high” by standing on his head for long periods of time, Hughes became convinced that the key to truly expanding one’s consciousness involved increasing blood volume to brain. His “new” theory was also based largely on the studies concerning brain blood volume conducted by the noted scientist, Louis Sokoloff, currently the Chief of Laboratory of Cerebral Metabolism at the National Institute of Health (it should be noted, however, Sokoloff is not a trepanation advocate).

Hughes believed gravity to be man’s biggest enemy, forcing the heart to pump blood upwards into the brain. With a hole in the skull, he posited, the brain could pulsate freely, and would thus be exposed to a greater amount of blood flow as pressure on the organ was diminished. This in turn, would alter the ratio of blood to cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, resulting in a greater supply of oxygen, and therefore, in his opinion, in an advanced state of brain function.

He believed it was possible through trepanation to replicate the higher consciousness of our formative years (you know, the whole “soft spot” on a baby’s head thing?). So, in 1962, after being turned down by several practicing doctors, Hughes went ahead and trepanned himself with an electric drill. He drilled a hole through the middle of his forehead (the location of the “third eye” according to legions of mystics), taking special care not to enter the brain and lobotomize himself. Well, according to Hughes, the procedure worked wonders, and resulted in an increased awareness of the world around him (of course, he did also take some mescaline right afterward). Hughes further claimed that his self-trepanation lead to a heightened clarity in his thought processes, more vivid dreaming, and best of all, to a permanent high.

Well, apparently El Barto managed to convince a few others of his genius. One of his disciples, Joseph Mellen (whose gellin’ like a felon), would be the next to put a hole through his skull in London in 1965. Mellen, using a trepan (a surgical saw with a corkscrew-like crank), actually didn’t get it right until the third time around, and the second time almost killed him according to doctors. He had passed out, and was rushed to the hospital where the doctors told him he had literally been a quarter inch from death. However, when at last he achieved success, it was in the very same spot that the doctors had said would kill him. To think, doctors telling people not to put holes in their heads, and they don’t even know what they’re talking about.

Mellen’s partner, Amanda Feilding, also became a convert to the trepanation sensation. Her self-trepanation with a drill was actually filmed by Mellen, and was later released as a documentary under the title “Heartbeat In The Brain.” Feilding would also go on to twice make a bid for English Parliament, running each time on the platform of free trepanations for all. She claims that she just wanted to get the word out about trepanation, and never expected to win. In her 1978 campaign, she did, however, receive 40 votes!

Another student of Hughes, Peter Halvorson, who was trepanned, himself, in 1973, currently heads the International Trepanation Advocacy Group, or ITAG – an organization that is, in their own words “dedicated to accumulating the largest knowledge base of information about trepanation ever before assembled.” ITAG has also provided the information and access to underground medical practitioners for the 15 volunteers who have been trepanned via the group since its inception in 1998. These volunteers are all part of ITAG’s continuing study into the effects of trepanation. ITAG requires volunteers to pay for their own surgeries, MRIs and medical costs. Their website, www.trepan.com, includes a promotional film which I, personally, found more than a little creepy. It views like a propaganda film from some sci-fi cult, and is something you really gotta see.

Whether they’re all a bunch of nut jobs, or there’s really something to all this trepanation stuff remains to be seen. At the very least, however, the volunteers that have been electively trepanned through ITAG have all underwent professional surgeries in sterile environments. The same can not be said, unfortunately, for some do-it-yourselfers, who took it upon themselves to conduct their own home trepanations. Idiotic people have attempted their own trepanations with everything from power drills to nail guns, although miraculously, it seems that no one has died while performing a home trepanation – Yet. Of course, if they had, how would you know what their intention had been unless they told someone? They would probably just be considered suicides. Hell, there could be rotting corpses with Black and Decker drills in their dead, bloated hands at this very moment, still undiscovered by a world who didn’t care; a copy of Hugh’s text, “Homo Sapiens Correctus” on their bookshelves.

Hughes, who is still alive, believes that the next step in human evolution will be the trepanned, and therefore “enlightened” individual, a species he refers to by the aforementioned title of Homo Sapiens Correctus. Hughs claims that this new “race” will eventually develop super-clairvoyant powers. The fact that we are able to drill holes into our own heads seems to be proof enough to Hughes that this is our natural destiny. By that logic, however, we should also be consuming our own feces and lighting our genitalia on fire.

Naturally, the majority of the medical community is greatly opposed to trepanation. The risks for infections (such as sepsis), strokes, generalized meningitis, abscess, epilepsy, and brain damage are far too great. Not to mention, that whole possibility of killing yourself thing. In addition, orthodox medical practitioners assert that the brain receives ample oxygenation already, and that there is no proof for the alleged benefits touted by the champions of trepanation. In fact, according to Dr. Barbara Hastings, of the American Academy of Neurology, there is no possible way that trepanation can even work. She has been quoted as saying “To do something that crude to yourself is bizarre! Essentially what they’re doing is altering the bony structure, and if they’re good at it, they don’t touch the dura. They’re not doing anything that would affect the brain, just the skull. They don’t even enter the compartment that has cerebral spinal fluid in it. What they’re saying is happening is not anatomically possible.”

So, if you’re thinking of having yourself trepanned, a procedure that John Lennon, himself, once considered, you’ll have to ask yourself something: Who do I trust more? a) some hippie “visionary” or b) the established medical community, including respected neurosurgeons? If after weighing the risks (and possible bull crap), your answer is still a), then good luck, and happy drilling! But if all goes horribly wrong and you manage to splatter blood and brain matter all over your shithole apartment, don’t come complaining to me. That is, if you can still talk at all.