It is one of the oldest medical procedures known to the human race. Our ancestors used to drill holes in the skull to expel demons – now the technique is making a comeback as a cure for dementia. The practice of making a hole in the skull has been around since the Stone Age — archaeologists have found trepanned skulls dating back to 3000 B.C.
Trepanation is the ancient practice of drilling a hole in the skull. Amanda Feilding, Countess of Wemyss and March, is an English drug policy reformer, lobbyist and research coordinator. The onslaught of Peter Halvorson's website ITAG, the International Trepanning Advocacy Group, its message that trepanation, an unorthodox medical practice, truly has medical value, sparked controversy from doctors across the board.Whenever a novel procedure especially with inconclusive studies and research that claims it can benefit the patient in some way surfaces, people become skeptical of it. Headaches after head injury often do feel like “a pounding” and “pressure” inside the head and thus the idea that a hole in the skull would relieve them is not necessarily magical or bizarre. In 1970, when she was 27, she had made a film of herself drilling a hole in her head. He became convinced by Huges philosophy, and started documenting the life of the med school-dropout, eventually resulting in the book,“Bore Hole”, and the only interview of Bart Huges. And if you think it’s a bygone practice, think again.
In 1998 she founded the Foundation to Further Consciousness, later renamed to the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust which initiates, directs and supports neuroscientific and clinical research into the effects of psychoactive substances on the brain and cognition. It was practised in places as diverse as Ancient Greece, North and South America, Africa, Polynesia and the Far East. It’s called trepanation and it literally means drilling a hole in your head. ... Like a hole in the head: The return of trepanation. The earliest clear evidence of trepanation dates to approximately 7,000 years ago. Furthermore, epidural bleeding does sometimes accompany head injury, and in these cases trephining might have actually reduced intracranial pressure. The Trepanation of Joseph Mellen Joseph Mellen met Bart Huges in 1965 in Ibiza, Spain.