Relieve Stress, Lethargy, or Depression by Drilling a Hole in Your Head

Trepanation, or the drilling of a hole in the skull, is one of the oldest surgical procedures, some trepanned skulls even dating back to 3000 B.C. (Traversi). Some believe that by cutting, or drilling a hole in one's head, the blood levels in the brain will increase and make them smarter. Mr. Bart Hughes is someone who embraces this theory. I refer to him as Mr. because he is not a true medical doctor. He did not finish his medical training because he failed the finals at the Dutch University he was attending.

Mr. Hughes theory is that the enemy of clear thinking is gravity. He claims that after we supposedly evolved from apes and started standing upright that we no longer were able to get as much blood in our brains as we need for the clearest thinking. This theory is, to me, just plain stupid and ignorant because we did not evolve from apes even within the theory of evolution. It is also stupid from an evolutionary standpoint because if evolution were how we became human, which I believe is completely ridiculous and preposterous, and if standing upright were a detriment to the success of a creature, meaning that it impeded the survivability of the species, then that trait would be selected out of existence due to the fact that it would make the upright ape much less likely to survive when compared with the non-upright apes.

According to Mr. Hughes, we will be able to achieve the "proper" level of consciousness by increasing blood volume in the capillaries of our brain - a "permanent high" if you will. Temporarily constricting of the blood vessels in the neck can be achieved by quick changes in temperature such as jumping from a hot tub into a cold bath or by taking LSD which leads to an increase in blood retained in the brain. Unfortunately for Mr. Hughes these effects are only a temporary enlightenment and do not last long enough. His daunting theory suggests that we bore a hole in our head in order to release the tension or pressure caused by our fused, adult skull. His only evidences, as far as I can tell, are that you can see the pulse through the gap in a baby's skull and that some ancient skulls have a hole cut into them. This gap/hole supposedly allows more blood flow.

Therefore, since babies learn faster than adults it must be due to the higher amount of blood in their brains from the gap so if we recreate the gap then we will increase the amount of blood in our capillaries increasing our learning capacity. There is absolutely no evidence that the ancient skulls with the holes were any better off than those without holes and in many cases the creation of the hole lead to the death of the person being operated on.

Due to the lack of any verifiable evidence that trepanation is beneficial to my health and due to the obvious health risks involved both during the procedure and afterwards, I have decided to decline any offers. No thank you!

Sources

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f02/web1/ctraversi.html

"A hole in the Head: Screwy Science" by Dr. Joe Schwarcz