Dane Bramage

Has anyone ever heard of this?

All I can say is... WTF?

http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/trepan/

You will forgive me if I'm a little sceptical. Case in point... he laid of the caffeine and THC immediately after the surgery and started to enjoy a better sense of well-being and consciousness, which he attributed to the trepanation. But then, after starting the smoke pot and take in caffeine again, the benefits of the trepanation coincidentally wore off.

Coincidence? I think not.

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Halx

Why don't you warn the people and tell them what it is before you make them click on a link? Some people don't have strong stomachs.

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maleficent

Ummm- not clickin' the link now.. nope not me..

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Dane Bramage

Oops... sorry. Didn't think it was really that graphic, or else I would have warned people.

Basically, Trepanation is the act of having a hole surically created in the skull to allow more blood to flow to the brain. This is supposed to bring a hightened state of awareness and bliss.

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Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules — and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress.
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MageB420666

I think taking cocaine might give you the same effects with less of a health risk than letting someone with no surgical knowledge or training drill through your skull with power drill.

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CSflim

It's from the old-school theories of "medicine" which tells you that illness is due a result of evil spirits in your body. Drilling a hole in your head is the obvious solution to that problem.

This rates right up there with homeopathy and astrology on my bullshit-o-meter, with the added extra point that trepantation is positively dangerous, in unskilled hands it can cause brain damage (well duh! you are drilling into someones head) and can leave a wound open to infection.

Interesting and non-judgemental article on Salon:
http://www.salon.com/health/feature/...ion/print.html

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Glava

This guy is a dumbass. No, I can't be open-minded about drilling holes in the skulls of living human beings for reasons other than legitimate brain surgery.

Irishsean

So here I am, with a half chewed piece of Tuna sushi in my mouth, its been there for the last 4 minutes since I clicked on that link. Debating whether to swallow it now as I don't feel so good. Thats really nasty...

StickODynomite

I personally didn't think it was graphic at all. But anyway, I think trepanation is a buncha Bull. There are other ways to achieve a hightened state of awarenes and bilss.

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Irishsean

Getting your girlfriend and a couple buddies to pop a hole in your skull with a powerdrill? That is so disgusting.

Lasereth

That wasn't graphic! It looks like stitches on a wound. Oh no! I guess some people have weaker stomachs than others.

I'm glad he admitted it was a crock of shit. Else I would have had to put on my Disbelief Detective outfit and call the bullshit police!

-Lasereth

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Irishsean

It wasn't the pictures I thought was bad, it was the descriptionof having a couple friends drill into your brain in your bedroom.

KellyC

ok....I saw that and I'm about to eat dinner in 10 minutes...great.

Meditation also supposedly help highten one's senses, I guess this dude didn't think of it. It'd be a lot easier and less messy...

*Note to self: read other comments first before blindly clicking linky. ewww*

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livewirerc

Good stuff! I'm always a big advocate of home surgery.

Jason

guthmund

I've seen much more gross...

I don't see any problem with people drilling holes in their heads for whatever reason. I'm also a big advocate of home surgery and in all honesty, whatever keeps these guys out of the already too contaminated gene pool....well, hoo-ray, I say.

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pig

To throw a bit of a different flavor out there, this stuff and related procedures do have *some* medical/scientific corroboration, at least from what I've heard. In short, there is a theory that the limiting factor in the mental capacity of the humain brain is the size of the head that can fit through the birth canal. Thus some people seek to expand their cranial cavities, if you will, by either removing portions of their skulls, or by drilling holes and releiving pressure on their brains - thus allowing their brains to theoretically expand.

I seem to recall a few other factoids about this stuff, but I'm trying to remember if I'm making them up on the spot or not. Maybe I'll go dig around and see if I can verify.

I say whatever floats your boat - the placebo effect is still an effect.

EDIT I just re-read that post, and I can see how someone might think that I'm supporting this crap. No, I think these people are insane. I'm just saying that I do know of some people with some education and some knowledge that would support this stuff

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Dane Bramage

You are right, Pigglet, as far as there being some evidence to support this. The guy says that there have been studies done that "seemed to be quite lengthy, quite detailed, thought out and researched, and very intelligent." Unfortunately, he doesn't give any support to this claim.

He did get something out of it in the beginning. But it would seem to me that drilling a hole in your skull would produce a lot of endorphins and perhaps that is what raised his awareness. Huge ammounts of natural opiates pumping through your blood can have that effect on a person. Perhaps it is true, but his consumption of pot has curbed the effects.

One never knows.

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Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules — and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress.
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NoSoup

Wow...

Man, I bet that room covered with plastic and that drill bit purchased at Home Depot were the most sanitary, germ free conditions out there - far better than hospital grade.

Can you imagine being that friend. Who could you possibly accept the responsiblity of drilling a hole into one of your good friends head with a power drill in a spare bedroom mocked up as an operating room? I love how he so calmly states "We were afraid we hit XXX" ........ Dude, when drilling into your head, that likely is the worst fear you can probably have.

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Redlemon

I just wanted to note how funny I find it that a user with the name Dane Bramage is asking about trepanation.

Dane Bramage

Yeah... I was wondering how long it was gonna take someone to point that out

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Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules — and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress.
Kurt Vonnegut - Sirens of Titan

bacon_masta

interesting procedure, but i can't honestly say that i believe it would work. expanding one's cranial cavity WOULD increase blood flow to the brain, but i think it is more likely that mild brain damage would be incurred, causing someone to think that they had achieved a form of enlightenment or increased perception when in reality they had just been dummed down a bit.

mosha

I wouldn't trust anyone to have a skilled enough hand to know whn to STOP! If you even have to conider this as being an option in your life, you might as well put the drill straight through your head.

livewirerc

Though I haven't ever drilled a hole in a friends head I've split tongues, subincised penises, scalpelled large (1/2"+) holes in ears, noses, lips and penises, and assisted on several complicated procedures including massive cutting or tissue removal projects, transscrotals, and several small implants. It's just something we do. You'd also be suprised how sterile a lot of these procedures are. All the tools I use are medical grade stainless steel (316L or 316lvm), and are all autoclaved before being used. I also use sterilized gloves and sterile fields when performing a procedure so that nothing contaminating comes into contact with the subject or the procedure (or me, for that matter). Hell, shamans have been performing this procedure for millions of years with sharpened stones for tools, I think a stainless drill bit and a fully covered operating station are big steps up. Maybe it's stuff that's best left up to medical professionals and all, but it's still fun.

It is tough being in that position though. Once during a subincision the subject of the procedure started bleeding heavily. The penis is a very vascular area and so cutting splitting the underside of it from head to base can sometimes have that effect. We were able to get the bleeding under control and the subincision healed quickly and perfectly but that was a scary few minutes.

P.S. Like I said the main things I've done are subincisions. Though not as complicated as a trepanation they're pretty interesting as well. If you want to read an interview from the same site (BMEZine) about subincisions, check J's interview out (Link NSFW):

http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/j2/index.html

Jason

ubertuber

I read an article in Discover magazine about 6 or 7 years back about trepanation. I'm pretty sure that they said there is evidence that trepanation has been practiced from something like 4,000 years. Interestingly, even that long ago the procedure existed, and people (at least sometimes) survived. I think that they could tell from the state of the hole in the skull that the patient had lived for at least several years beyond the surgery. Even when I read this article (almost a decade ago) there was talk about a bunch of people that were bringing this practice back - by doing it at home like this guy...

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Grancey

Not going to click. I couldn't even read all of the posts. I can't even watch the gory stuff in movies, and the movie stuff is not real.

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