# Trepination - for God's sake talk about it! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2001, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866 "2001-03-21T15:13:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/1 "2001-03-21T15:13:31Z")
hi, I’m jarbabyj and I’m addicted to The Learning Channel. _Hi jarbaby_ Last night on Wierd World, they talked about medical hoaxes and alternative medicine (psychic surgery, crystals, source healing)…but what got me all riled up was Trepination. Drilling a hole in the skull (or several apparently) to achieve a higher consciousness and personal awareness. They featured a woman who performed A HOME TREPINATION WITH NO ANESTHETIC AND FILMED IT. READ THAT AGAIN…I implore you. Listen, I have no beef if people honestly believe that they’re achieving some religious experience. I can’t prove that they are either way… My beefs (or questions) are…aren’t these people making their skull weaker and more vulnerable to injury by drilling holes into it? Aren’t they submitting themselves to extreme danger of drilling into their brain? What about infection? I mean how did this woman know when to stop drilling? How did she know she wouldn’t have a muscle spasm and kill herself? And frankly, this is an opinion question…I have a very high threshold of pain, very high, I can put up with a TON of stuff…but how are these people just sitting still in a chair, having their heads cut open and MOTORIZED DRILLS stuck into their skulls? Websites on trepaning are usually (I’ve found) all pro, new-agey, mystical…except for [this one](http://www.trepan.com) which features a history of the process and the tools used. Still, no one seems to be warning people that this process is nutso! Isn’t it nutso? jarbaby ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/2 "2001-03-21T15:26:03Z")
My WAG with regard to the pain side of things: the only pain will be felt from the nerves in the skin on the skull as the brain itself cannot be ‘felt’ in that sense, and I don’t think you can ‘feel’ bone. In my experience, head cuts without severe impact don’t hurt that much, even when copious amounts of blood seem to gush out (god bless rugby). Warning: this could be bollocks due to head trauma. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/3 "2001-03-21T15:46:02Z")
Think of it as evolution in action. We’ll either breed these people out of the gene pool, or end up as a race of people who need to get holes drilled in their heads. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/4 "2001-03-21T16:00:41Z")
I hope this practice becomes more well known and popular. In the long run it would probably raise the average intelligence of the species if this became a fad. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/5 "2001-03-21T17:01:31Z")
Skeptic’s Dictionary. [http://skepdic.com/trepanation.html](http://skepdic.com/trepanation.html) > [@](#): > > . Huges has yet to command a large following of trepanners, but he has managed to attract a few supporters with holes in their heads. One of his most illustrious pupils was Amanda Fielding from Oxford, England, who not only lived through the filming of her self-surgery but also became a candidate for Parliament. She received 40 votes from the people of Chelsea in 1978 where she ran on the promise of free trepanation from the National Health Service. Evidently this is the woman you saw, whose video, “A Hole in the Head” is available at [http://www.trepan.com](http://www.trepan.com) Quackwatch has it listed under their “Index of Questionable Treatments”, with a link to the Skeptic’s Dictionary page. The basic theory. [http://www.trepanation.com](http://www.trepanation.com)./master3a.htm :rolleyes: It’s an astounding amount of glurge. I’d be interested in having some of our Doper medicos take a gander and give us their opinion. But, for the sake of your keyboards, not with food in your mouth. _Splort_ alert… Suffice it to say that: As we all know, if you have decreased blood flow to your brain, you get dizzy, right? So if you improve blood flow to your brain, you ought to have improved consciousness, right? Now, since _homo sapiens_ walks upright, of course the blood doesn’t flow properly to our brains, because gravity pulls it downward. So you want to increase the amount of blood in your brain. However, there is also another fluid in your brain, called “cerebro-spinal fluid”. It takes up valuable space that could be occupied by blood. If you could push some of the “brain water” out, then you could get more blood in, and you’d have increased consciousness. If you can create increased pressure on the cranium, this will squeeze the brain water out, and it will go down the sheaths of the nerve channels running down your spine. And then more blood will rush into your brain to take up the space that was formerly occupied by brain water. So the best and most natural way to increase the pressure in the cranium is to get the heart to beat harder and force more blood into your brain capillaries. This pulsating power, however, is at its strongest in infants. We know this because infants have that “soft spot” on the tops of their heads, and the infant’s heart is actually pulsating hard enough that you can actually see the capillaries pulsating. However, as soon as the soft spot grows over, the power of the heart to push more blood into the brain is diminished. [_you think I’m making this up, don’t you? See for yourself._] > [@](#): > > During infancy and youth the brain membranes can expand elastically because of holes in the not-yet-fully-formed skull and a strong pulse-wave can therefore be expressed in the brain cavity. In the baby’s fontanel one can feel the membranes expand with every contraction of the heart. Although the fontanels soon close, the skull is still in separate pieces, allowing the full pulse pressure to continue exerting its force on the lake of brain-water. In the teens, the pieces of skull gradually grow together, which begins to inhibit pulsation. By the end of growth, they finally interlock, and a hermetically sealed skull is the result. > \ > By creating an expansion window, trepanation restores the youthful level of intracranial pressure. It takes approximately four hours after the creation of the hole for the change to be completed. During this time, there is a blowing up of the capillaries, droplet by droplet, and a simultaneous squeezing out of the brain-water, until the point at which the force of the full pulse pressure equals the resistance of the brain-water to being squeezed out. After that, the force acts itself out by expelling the CSF produced during the rest of the cardiac cycle. The total volume of blood in the capillaries has been increased. Truly awesome. I am assuming that people who hear about this and who take a Black & Decker to their skulls end up not with Greater Enlightenment, but with a tour of their local hospital. The [trepanation.com](http://trepanation.com) website (whose Q & A page, incidentally, where they promise– > [@](#): > > Visit our questions and answers page! You will find a selection of queries raised over the years at conferences in interviews, via e-mails, etc. We have done our best to give clear answers and offer helpful suggestions. –gives a Page Not Found), has a huge disclaimer at the bottom of their “Operation” page [http://www.trepanation.com](http://www.trepanation.com)./master4.htm . “WARNING! The Trepanation Trust does not recommend the practice of self-trepanation”. And if you haven’t had enough yet, there’s this: > [@](#): > > The next problem to be overcome is to design a machine which can test whether or not a person already has full pulsation- ‘the pulsometre’. Only then, can one avoid the danger of the 4th eye syndrom, i.e. someone getting trepanned who already has an expansion window in their skull (either congenitally or by accident), and so notices no difference, which is both expensive and deconditioning. > > The Pulsometre is a machine, yet to be designed, which will pick up by ultrasound or by some other non-invasive technique, whether a skull is hermetically sealed or whether there is an expansion window in it. > > It will enable a person to test whether they already have full pulsation in the arteries of the brain, thereby doing away with the danger of making a “fourth eye”, i.e. someone getting trepanned who already has a hole in their skull. Hee. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/6 "2001-03-21T17:08:39Z")
And P.S. [http://www.trepan.com](http://www.trepan.com) may have a history of the process and a description of the tools involved, but it’s still a nutso website. [http://www.trepan.com/modern\_period/mechanism\_of\_bbv/](http://www.trepan.com/modern_period/mechanism_of_bbv/) > [@](#): > > Ape, Hairless Talking > Homo sapiens erectus, man cooks the calcium and vitamin C out of the food and walks upright against the pull of gravity causing the brainbloodvolume to decrease and the consciousness to diminish. > Homo sapiens hyponoideus, the adult, after the cranial sutures seal brain pulsation is no longer possible, the pulse pressure in the brainhas ceased to exist. The brainbloodvolume is further diminished; the consciousness is restricted to the ego. > Homo sapiens triocularis, the “third eyer”, those who have always had expansion in the cranial cavity, congenital, by accident or operation. > Homo sapiens correctus, the trepanned adult, the “unicorn”, the pulsation is restored after trepanation of the skull. > > \ > > Taboo > wiping out of forbidden consciousness contents by constriction of the arteries leading to the areas concerned. Forbidden information can be acquired nevertheless by increasing the brainbloodvolume, on the knees and elbows with head lowered, while involving the entire ego in the engramming process by 10-fold repetition of reading, speaking, listening, writing and typing ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/7 "2001-03-21T17:17:11Z")
**Duck** , perhaps one of the reasons I can’t find anything is because I’m spelling it wrong! is it trepination or trepAnation? I see that you have the A spelling, but when I search the I spelling I get hundreds of sites. I conclude that it’s nutso. In my humble opinion, it’s nutso from both a spiritual AND physical standpoint…but like I’ve said before… I A N A D jarbaby ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/8 "2001-03-21T20:21:06Z")
Get thee to a [dictionary,](http://www.m-w.com) **baby**! A _trephine_ is “a surgical instrument for cutting out circular sections (as of bone or corneal tissue),” and the _trephine_ is also a transitive verb. However, _trepan_ is “to use a trephine on (the skull).” Google gives 2710 hits for “trep_a_nation” and only 23 for “trep_i_nation.” Plus, one for “trep_i_n_i_tion,” but that’s from the lyrics for a song called “Raining Brains” by some kind of a metal band (I think.) Given that these are people who _drill holes in their skulls_ they have admirable spelling skills. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/9 "2001-03-21T20:24:03Z")
jarbaby, I’ve seen two (apparently equally correct) spellings: “trephination” and “trepanation”. Both appear in Webster’s Online. As a spiritual/psych practice, I consider it absolutely, positively, \ “Hey, you–Outta the gene pool NOW!” nuts. This is a whole new level of nutso–before this thread, I had no idea that anyone would even consider doing this to themselves. Ick. As a medical procedure for the treatment of subdural hematoma, it appears to have some value. \ A friend of mine in college dated a neurosurgeon (very briefly). One fine evening, she was out to dinner with him when he received an emergency page–some poor fellow had been in a car accident and required his immediate attentions. My friend had no way home, so she accompanied him to the hospital. For reasons best described as “morbid curiosity”, she scrubbed, gowned, and followed him into the OR as well. Soon after, she was mistaken for an intern, handed a rather nasty-looking instrument, and instructed to drill a hole in the fellow’s head to relieve the pressure. She claims that she was sorely tempted, but declined (I personally doubt that she would have hesitated to drill away). The guy survived, despite losing some gray matter to suction (“There goes seventh grade…”). That was her last date with the neurosurgeon. \ ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/10 "2001-03-21T23:00:10Z")
The Inca used to practice trepination and they would replace the cut out bone with gold. I think that it would be cool to have a small square cut out of my skull and covered with some clear plastic. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/11 "2001-03-21T23:01:28Z")
Please God. Let this not turn into a squicking discussion. I promise to go to church. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/12 "2001-03-22T04:58:19Z")
I would, except my 3/8"-drive, variable-speed Craftsman slipped and I put a 1/4" hole in my speech center. Ooops. BTW, I have a patent-pending B&D 1/4" from, what? about 1927? that was my grandfather’s and it still works fine except I had to replace the plug about thirty years ago. Wish B&D stuff still worked so well. But the speed is too high to trepann without burning bone. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/13 "2001-03-22T06:20:05Z")
It’s frightening to think there are people in this world who would actually be better off if they joined a nice normal cult like the Scientologists or the Moonies. They’re already stupid, they’d be broke, but at least they would be discouraged from playing with power tools. ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/14 "2001-03-22T11:54:33Z")
Is there a nice, convenient, home trepanation kit? Not some cheap-o Ronco job, or Craftsman. Something good and dependable, like, say…Black and Decker. Yeah, Black and Decker, good tools, even if they do make irons and toasters now. See, I have these voices in my head, I think they’re evil spirits or something. They give me these awful headaches at times, and a Home Trepanation Kit would be just the thing. I saw the Trepanation Episode of Hysteria!, you know the kid’s cartoon “we make fun of history…la la la…” And if I pop a hole in my skull they could just float out, and… [sub]shut up.[/sub] shut up. Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!! Ow! ow-ow-ow-ow-owwie-ow-ow… [sub]must vacuum the dogs.dusty.dusty.have some choclate cake.hello Chuck Woolery…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![dylan\_73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/15 "2001-03-22T15:34:11Z")
Personally, I need trepination like I need a hole in… Never mind 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trepination-for-gods-sake-talk-about-it/58866/16 "2001-03-22T15:47:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dylan\_73 \* > Personally, I need trepination like I need a hole in… > > Never mind 🙂 that’s exactly how I feel about Mad Cow disease 😃 **Podkayne** , I apologize for the spelling error. To be honest, I couldn’t remember the spelling from the night before…and the first spelling I entered into google was trepination…and when results came up, I figured it was correct. I should have researched further and I apologize again. jarbaby