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Impolite Society: Exploring the Weird, Taboo & Macabre
There are so many things we've been told we can't talk about in polite society. The things your mom told you never to ask about: Sex. Money. Poop. Death. The things that make normal people uncomfortable.
But if you're curious about the truth behind our deepest societal taboos, we're your gals. We dig into the history, science, and straight up weird truths behind these off-limits topics and give you the answers you never knew you needed.
Impolite Society: Exploring the Weird, Taboo & Macabre
Drilling a Hole in the Skull: The Crazy History of 1960s Trepanation
In this episode of Impolite Society, Laura and Rachel explore the bizarre 1960s counterculture practice of trepanation, where individuals drilled holes in their heads to achieve heightened consciousness. We discuss the historical roots, key figures like Bart Hughes, and the modern revival attempts by groups advocating for it. Blending humor with research, we delve into the motivations behind self-trepanation, the supposed benefits, and the disturbing accounts of DIY procedures. This episode is a wild ride into one of the most extreme and peculiar fads of the past century.
Sources:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3640229/
https://www.scielo.br/j/anp/a/rsfbjBsF9RFVgMz3DwzsnkC/?lang=en
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/hole-in-the-head-trepanation/
https://cvltnation.com/head-lure-trepanation/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1FHTJo4Bcg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJRA6EejY0U
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1173790/ pub: 2000
https://www.rcfp.org/abc-ordered-hand-over-unedited-head-drilling-tapes/
https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/28/turner.php
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/features/trepan.htm
https://www.thesantaclara.org/blog/trepanation
https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-english-countess-revolutionizing-psychedelic-drugs-research/
https://lundissimo.info/docs/trep/luck_hole.html
https://apocalypse-confidential.com/2022/07/30/through-the-blind-hole/
https://web.archive.org/web/20050407083517fw_/http://www.trepan.com/
https://news.bme.com/wp-conten
Got your own thoughts? Text them to Impolite Society!
Text Rachel and Laura or email us at rude@impolitesocietypodcast.com. Visit our website for info about the show and your hosts.
The 1960s was a time of free love, psychedelic music, expanding consciousness, and drilling holes in your skull to get high. Yep, you heard that right. Today we're exploring the practice of trepanation, where tripped out hippies believed that creating a hole in their skull could elevate their minds to whole new heights. We'll uncover the big players, their made up science, and the cult like following of those who dare to drill for a higher state of being. That's what you're in for today on Impolite Society. Welcome back to Impolite Society. I am hard headed Laura.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:And I am full skulled Rachel, I got it all. No holes. Well, except for the eyes and the nose and the mouth. I guess the spinal column.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:All the regular holes.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:All the standard issued holes. There and everywhere.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So I want to ask you a question, Rachel, because I remember you mentioning you were also a fan of the old Showtime show, Dead Like Me. Do you remember Mason, the British kind of tripped out dude from the 60s?
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I do like this show. I rediscovered it on Amazon recently. And I watched the first two episodes, bawled my eyes out at the pilot. That's not
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:The pilot is the best.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:That's not fair. Why don't do that to me, please? Was Mason in that or was that a different cute white guy that they then replaced? I feel like they switched cute white guys
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:don't think they did, but it It's been a while since I watched the full series, but I know he's in at least the first couple of episodes. Do you remember how he died?
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:No, I actually don't but I remember he was like crushable.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yes, yes, he was. No, he was adorable. Okay, so let me remind you, the Grim Reaper Mason, played by Callum Blue, the show, he died in 1966 in his attempt to achieve a permanent high by drilling a hole in his head with a power drill.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Now, you would think I would remember that. So,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:It's in like episode 3 or 4 because I
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Well, Amazon only gives you two episodes for free. I don't understand where, why they did that, but.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So this show dead like me It was the first time and honestly Possibly the only time I had ever heard of such a thing and this show aired back in like what? 2002 or whatever, but that image has always stuck with me in the back of my brain thinking What the fuck was that all about? Is that a real thing? Did people drill a hole in their head in the 60s to get high? ladies and gentlemen, this is why we have this podcast. So I have an excuse to look into the internet archives, look into the back of my brain and pull this thing out from 2002 and find out what the fuck is this all about and report it back to my friend Rachel.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:And this one is definitely A sleeper, because I would never have thought of this topic, I, like, no idea, had no idea about it, and it's very interesting. It's fascinating. Where, uh, it, I, it's wild! This is. insane! Well, I don't know how the guys in the dollop haven't done this yet, because I
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I know, right? Um,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:amateurs, and they're like, I forgot their names, but like, you guys would eat it up.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:yeah, definitely ripe for some improv for sure.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah, we don't have those skills, we have internet research skills,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yes.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:and vague audio editing skills.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So, the short answer to my burning question from 2002 is that yes, this is a real thing that people did in the 1960s, and well. Well, before then it's called tree panning or also trepanation or tree fenation. Sometimes they make a P H and F sound. I don't know why maybe British to Dutch to whatever translation. I don't know, but it is a surgical procedure where a hole is drilled into the patient's skull and it is legitimately one of the oldest surgeries that are known to man.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:My head is literally hurting already. As soon as you said drill a hole into your head, the pain that I feel, like, the headache is starting. I should have taken an Advil. Before we started recording. Cause I viscerally feel this.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:oh, but I say drilled, but this procedure has been taking place long before we had power drills or even hand drills, like the little like twisty twisty ones. So in ancient cases, the hole was scraped into the skull. And I just want you to let that settle over you and kind of marinate for a moment. Ancient human. Letting someone scrape the bone of their skull away from their brain with no anesthesia, or at least not any good ones, right? Because herbal medicine can only take ancient man so high.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah, my head is definitely hurting after thinking of that. Oh my gosh, that's insane. Seriously, what is wrong with us as a species? Like, what? As if life wasn't hard enough for prehistoric humans, right? Threat of death, starvation, you're like, you can die any second. But, you know, let's just scrape our fucking skulls away. Why not, you know?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Expose some brain matter, it's great.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:That will only help, surely. But okay, so but that was my first that's my gut reaction gut reaction now that I'm thinking about it more I'm like humans have always been Somewhat logical right like cause and effect, right? Even if that logic doesn't translate so the they didn't just do this really unless this is like some kind of torture System, but I don't think it is There had to have been a reason they were doing it, right?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yes. Absolutely. So, skeletons having these holes, they've come up all over the globe, all across human history, oldest ones up to about, uh, 6, 000 B. C., roundabout. And the reasons for trepanation are speculative, because, you know, anthropologists, yeah, we can only figure out so much. And it's also going to vary according to culture. So it could have been for spiritual reasons, like opening a third eye, it could have been primitive care for head wounds. And as we get into the Middle Ages, the reasons they, they speculate, and honestly, from some legitimate writings, as well as some, um, some art that done at the time, that the reasons may have been to let out some evil spirits or madness, or as simple as to cure some migraines.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:You know, that's what I've heard, right? And I guess back then migraines could have been considered evil spirits, but any frame of reference I had for drilling holes in your head was from the lens of like, Oh, we think that they did this to relieve migraines that people had chronic migraines, which my husband has really bad migraines. Luckily they've slowed down a lot as he ages, but from how I've seen him react, I'm sure if you had those all the time or every day. You might be willing to let somebody scrape your skull away because those are no fun.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:And they do come across like a pulsation, right, or like very specific, like in a very localized area. So it, it does kind of track, right?
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:My husband has been getting them since he was like a little baby before he could articulate what was happening and he
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:it's poor parrots, that's what I think
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:His mom was like, I never got to go anywhere because I was always at home with the vomiting child. Um, But how he articulated it before we had the language was he said, my head goes beep, beep, beep. And that broke my heart.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:that is sad.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Because my husband, flawed human, we all are, but him as a toddler,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Beep,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I would just, I was just like, oh, that poor baby. Nowadays, I'm like, come on, Papa Advil, you know,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:get over it. Move
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:in the room. Be like, you can get over this. We have children to take care of. But, you know, thinking of him as a child, I'm like, oh my gosh, life is cruel.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:that is,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:And we don't know why. Still don't to
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:it's still don't. Yeah. We still have no idea what fucking causes migraines, but Dan, my, your husband might've been in good company back in the day because they were actually really good at tripping a tree panning, trip, tree panning.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Trepanig. I like Trepanig. I think that's
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:It's tree panning, I believe.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh my God. I read it all as Trepanig. I feel like that sounds smarter.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So, the, the skulls that have been found with this process done, they have soft edges in the bone holes. So, it indicates to anthropologists that the wounds had healed and the person had actually lived for a good amount of time after the procedure.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:But at what cost?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Well, we'll get into that. Okay. What the, the cost of this could potentially be. the secret to this kind of procedure and surviving it successfully is actually to not touch the brain. They want to get into the Makes sense. They want to get to the skull only. So if the dura mater is punctured, that is the most outside layer of your meninges that covers the brain. So, you know, your brain is like it's not just floating around your skull. There's like a sack basically around your brain.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Mine is floating because it's like full of fluid in there and the brain is like, help!
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Well, it is floating, but it's a floating in the, in this sack. And if you puncture that sack, the dura mater. You, you'd be done for because there's infection, your cerebrospinal fluid is all leaking out and shit, and it's no good. So the idea is to only go through the skull and stopping before you get to the brain and it's meninges.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:that sounds like a very minimal margin of error. you Might say it was the world's first game of operation. Quite literally.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Bah! Bah!
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:of that sound, you just get sprayed in the face with cerebral spinal fluid.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:And a lot of blood. Cause there's a lot of blood geysers in the research of this episode.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:No.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So, uh, but this is not all just ancient history. We still do trepanning today. We don't call it trepanation though. Doctors might crack open a skull for a living patient of Many, many reasons.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:And like, outside of brain surgery, right? Like, this is just breaking the skull for breaking the skull's sake. Cause like, getting into the brain, like, to take out a tumor or a clot or something.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:that's part of it. That, that is exactly part of it. So that the, start with the trepanation and then move into the brain if you're doing some sort of tumor ex, excisation, what do you,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh, so that means my father in law has had a trepanation.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah, if, if they got into his skull, absolutely, they opened it and they, they cracked in there.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Now he's got a cow skull.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Um, one of the common surgeries to do this process, again, under another name, is a craniotomy. And this is where a hole is drilled in the skull to relieve pressure and swelling on the brain after some kind of head trauma. You know, swelling.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Like a TBI.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Exactly! Yeah, back to
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Laura always has a theme to her episodes. Like you could follow.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:fixation.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:can follow her train of thought. At least we've moved from genitals and buttholes.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I've moved on to something new, the brain.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I like it.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So the, the key difference is that in a craniotomy or these modern procedures, like your father in law, um, is that if a piece of skull is removed, Which is called a bone flap, FYI, and it is replaced as soon as possible. So once the healing has begun, the swelling has gone down, it's replaced so that the skull can mend itself, either with that own piece of bone flap it took out or apparently a cow skull. And truly, I could do a whole other episode on ancient tree panning but I'm trying to focus, I'm trying to zero in on
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:the topic at hand, which is. A very specific reason for doing it.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:exactly. And in the 1960s, trepanation got a whole new purpose, which was getting high, man.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I, I cannot believe it. I cannot believe it. That one
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:It does boggle your mind, right? It's the 1960s, you know, beatniks, counterculture, sexual revolution on the way. What a fucking trippy ass time to be alive. Like the whole, I feel like the whole of human society is just like, Whomp!
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:turned upside down. But with all that sexual liberation, can we not be sure that they weren't just looking for another hole, man? Like, for other reasons?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Truly, you can't rule it out at
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh god, that made my head hurt even more. The idea of like,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Ah!
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:uh, uh. Now that's a different kind of podcast. That is a true crime podcast and you do not get that shit here.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:It's like Jeffrey Dahmer shit. Okay!
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:We're not doing that.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Nope.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:We're just doing the classy kind of brain, like skull mutilation where the person lives, ideally.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:All right. So let me introduce you to the grand pooba of the modern trepanation movement, Mr. Bart Hughes, or Hugus. It depends on, he's Dutch, so I'm just going to say Hughes throughout, but I've heard it pronounced both ways.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I barred the Hugus. We want to date. Oh, you want to date me? Like you want another hole in your head? That can be arranged.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So, Bart Hughes, he was born 1934 in Amsterdam, his father was a doctor. And so naturally Bart went to medical school, just like the old man at the old university of Amsterdam, but this is the sixties baby, because turn on, tune in, drop out. All the rage. He started smoking a lot of pot and doing acid. And in fact, he named his daughter born around this time, uh, as Maria Joana and decided to jet set around the world.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:That's a literal hate crime.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:What? Naming his daughter Maria Joana.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yes.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Apparently it got him kicked out of the University of Amsterdam. But I call bullshit on that because he also failed one of his exams. So I think that's why it got kicked him out. But he blames naming his child Marijuana.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:think they care what you name your kid.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:In college. Maybe they're like, don't have a kid while you're in college. But that's
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Well, he's like grad school, you know, like doctor, like kind of
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Well who, I imagine it wasn't his wife that he was knocking up at this point.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:There's a lot of revisionist history going on as you'll see kind of throughout
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Well, he can't think, he has a hole in his head.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So Bart, or Mr, Mr. Huge,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Mr.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:sorry,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I, yeah, Huge Bart.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:he, he went to travel the world and I'm sure that he would say that he was finding himself, right? Finding the truth of the universe and all that hippie shit that people say. But this isn't in polite society. Let's talk a little plainly. This is the judgment zone. I am owning it. This is a rich kid who is now an adult taking his fucking trust fund and going on vacation and getting high. He went to fucking Ibiza for God's sakes. Time is a, it's a flat circle. Things never change.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Hey, hey, Ibiza is the central hub of enlightenment in the Old World, did you know? I heard that the Catholic Church was considering setting up their headquarters there before they landed on Vatican City. But then they thought, oh, it already has the name, so we might as well do it there.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:don't think that's historically accurate. So
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Does accuracy matter in this day and age?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Whatever you say is true is true!
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:If you believe it, it's your reality.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:that's 100%.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:is reality.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:That's 100 percent what Barney would say.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I'm getting in the mindset. Or like the missing mindset.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:a missing skull set. So, in Ibiza, Bart met a bunch of other trust fund dropouts who are getting high. And Bart had a revelation that getting high wasn't really about drugs. Don't don't get them wrong. I mean drugs are pretty cool. It was about blood in the brain brain blood volume more blood equals more high Or more expanded consciousness.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:so this is kind of like that we only use 20 percent of our brain in any given moment type situation.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:exactly. Because let's not be pedestrian and say, we like doing drugs because it's fun. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. His goal's so much loftier. He wants to expand human consciousness. Open everyone's eyes. Third eye and change the world, man!
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh, I don't think I need a third eye. I've, I've seen enough. Honestly, I see enough.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Well, Bart would say you already have your third eye opened, actually. If you're like a more enlightened soul already, you probably don't need trepanation, trepanation because you are already enlightened.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I'm an enlightened soul.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Apparently, it, eh, it's variant. I'll talk about that in a minute. Okay.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:soul. I'm not light. This is a
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Nothing light over here.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:You're right.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So Hughes, he was an academic after all. So he wrote his. His own thesis, but on a scroll. So he's not writing on a typewriter like some kind of square. He wrote it out and like, you know, like big dramatic lettering, like very creative writing scroll.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Like a monk.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yes. Uh huh. And his hypothesis was on quote the fall of man that by evolving to walk on two legs We greatly impacted the blood flow to our brains in a negative way.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So he's saying that, that horse girl's right? That girl who gallops around on all fours like a horse? And does jumps and shit? She's, she's the ideal specimen of humanity.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:He would fucking love her a hundred percent
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:God damn.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:because gravity was the enemy to higher
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:things.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah, the tits and the brain. So we would be a whole new species with this problem corrected. We would be homeo sapiens. And there was also a bunch of other shit that he espoused at this time, that this time about sugar and metabolism and how to avoid a bad trip with LSD. You need to eat a pound of sugar. I didn't look too far into that one, but you know, take it for what
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So like the opposite of modern thinking about sugar. Co co co co co. But no, that, that's a pretty wild take because yeah, you know, bipedalism, that's really been a detriment to our species. That's why we're doing so poorly overall, especially compared to our closest biological relatives, the great apes. Like they're crushing it
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:That's.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:and we're falling behind.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:You're getting into the hubris of this kind of way of thinking of the rich entitled
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:insane. Ha ha ha ha.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So he also theorized that children and babies, they are so full of wonder, curiosity, imagination. It's all because they have plenty of blood in their brains. So because our skulls aren't fully fused until around 20 to 25 years old, depending on the person, uh, the fontanelles and other. open sutures in children's skulls allow the brain to pulsate with every heartbeat.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So that's why kids can see ghosts. They're coming into their brains through the holes.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:That
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:That's canon to me now.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:That, that's the kind of thing that Bart would absolutely agree with because they have this expanded consciousness. They can like see other planes and other dimensions because of
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:eye open. I'm good. I don't need a hole.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:You're good. You're just like John Lennon. We'll get to that. So
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:think I am. That's the man in me. Ha ha ha ha! That's
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:the idea is that there is a static pressure of cerebrospinal fluid and blood that it doesn't increase or decrease with any heartbeat. You know, like you pump in blood into your vessels in your brain and then cerebrospinal fluid kind of comes out and like there's a homeostasis. But with kids, or those with a hole in their head, the pressure changes with each beat. So when more blood can come into the vessels in your brain, more cerebrospinal fluid can kind of be pushed out of the way through this hole. So it's basically, it comes down to like relieving pressure. Just like if you have a concussion, then the doctors need to do a craniotomy. But this is just for everyday living. With every beat, you get more.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Which is, like, just a thing about the nature of children, right? They have all this extra space in their brain for blood, but the more I'm around children, the tighter my skull seems to fit. It's like it shrinks. And they just s s s s suck that out of you. Ah,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:think Bart would say that maybe you are not third eye open then at that point.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I kid, I kid. But, I mean, he's a rich dude. Who left his child. He doesn't know what it's like to be around a toddler all
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:He does not. He does not. He went to fucking Ibiza. So, Bart tried standing on his head to get more blood to the
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:start. Fair start.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah, that was hard work. Rich kids, they don't like hard work. He thought the next best thing would be opening a hole in his skull so that his brain can expand, fill with more blood, and live in this permanent state of childlike wonder.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Okay. So he made a couple big jumps there. Right? Like I could think of like top of my head, at least four different things to try before cutting a hole in your head. I'm not going to list it. Oh,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:want them. I want them. I want to hear your top four ideas against drilling a hole in your head to get more blood in your brain.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:all the time. My head lay down. Two, we don't be like a baby? Crawl everywhere.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Sounds
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Down the street of Ibiza. Crawl. Um, sleep like a bat, perhaps?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Oh, you can get one of those things where
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Inverters? Yeah, be a bat. Be a vampire.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Be
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Vampire brat. Brat.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Brat. No, no, that's not right.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Ha ha ha. Last one. Do cardio. Get your blood pumping. Get more blood to your brain. Right? Cardio moves your blood. Obviously. I mean, is that a picture of him you have in the notes? Yeah, that man doesn't work out.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:He's just like a, just giant, string bean.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah, he does not lift, bro.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah. He does not lift. He does not lift. So Bart's biggest obstacle was finding a doctor. That would do this procedure for him, and shocker, he did not get any takers, even in the 60s, so he decided to do it himself. And in 1965, he gathered an electric drill, a surgical knife, and a syringe full of local anesthetic, and bro got to work.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:And hopefully he also had like a mirror or something because I'm like thinking about the logistics of this. Unless that third eye is very specifically placed. Like I can't see my head.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:He did. He did do it in front of the, the mirror. And in fact, that picture that you're looking at, that is him in front of a mirror.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Is that him doing it?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yes.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Weird.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:We'll post that somewhere,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I thought he was air bl I thought he was airbrushing paint onto him.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Nope, that is legitimately him drilling a hole into his head. I think it's a dentist drill.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:and he just went straight for the top. Wow.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:it took 45 minutes. But Bart was now the first homeosapien correctus in the modern age. He said that about four hours after the procedure, the feeling came rushing in. He is as light as a feather. He feels 14 again. Had no hang ups or no neuroses.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:14? Like that's his ideal age?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Apparently.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:That's a bold take. That's bold.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:feel like 14 is a little bit too old, but then again, this is the 60s like kids grew up like a little bit slower Yeah, so like maybe think like 10.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:10. Okay, like I could do 10, like 8 maybe I would say is the ideal. 8 seems like a good age.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Well, he publicly unveiled his new evolved state. It was in some kind of public event. I wasn't quite clear on it. It seemed like it was some sort of street performance. There was no
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:the show. What an asshole.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:There was no, there was no press there, there was no pictures of it, in any case that anybody could find. Um, but where he unwound his bandages to reveal the whole and reveal to society what he had done.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:like a superhero movie playing where the supervillain comes in and is like, LOOK AT ME NOW! And everyone's like, AHHHHHH!
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:One of the articles I read, this is the most joker thing I've ever seen in my entire life. And fun fact, actually, in each like row of the bandage that he undid, it said, ha, ha, ha in psychedelic colors.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh, so he's just mentally ill.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:one might think,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I mean, if you didn't guess it so far, the ha ha has really sealed the deal. Like, maybe his dad should have just paid attention to him.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:so, Bart Hughes, he was involuntarily committed for a few days after this. So apparently somebody got word of it.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:They're like, eugh.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah, but eventually they, they did in fact, let him go. he was not invited back to his university in Amsterdam. And in fact, he was banned from entering the UK. Ever again.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I mean, that seems kind of harsh. Like, it's not a contagious disease.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:This is like, like, Cold War shit, right? Like, hippies and communism and, like, all this kind of shit of, like, we don't want these, like, counterculture people
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:These weirdos. Get out of here, ya weirdos!
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Precisely. So, our enlightened man does what he does best. He goes back to Ibiza to party with some other drugged out rich kids.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I mean, who wouldn't? If they could.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Precisely. And he starts talking about tree panning a lot. He even tried to convince, John Lennon, uh, of the Beatles about this process, though he did tell John Lennon, like I said, that he didn't think that he needed it. John Lennon needed it because he was so creative and open minded and He was probably already living in a state of expanded consciousness. Yeah, like maybe his skull didn't fully fuse when he was, you know, when he was 25 or whatever. But, John Lennon did consider it, and he talked to Paul McCartney about it, and asked if he wanted to try it with him, but, Paul declined, and eventually, so did John,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Well, that's good, I guess.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:but Hughes did get another convert eventually, a gentleman of the name of Joseph Mellon. So Mellon, he was a member of British nobility. He attended Eaton and Oxford college. And I imagine he probably had a great big trust fund or whatever the nobility version of a trust fund in the 60s. I don't know. He had money. So Mellon and Hughes, they made quite the dynamic duo. They made it their mission to tell the world about tree panning. And they imagined a whole new world made in their image with every ill of society cured. But before they did that, of course, Mellon had to take the plunge as well. And Mellon attempted to self trapan. Count them four times.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:god.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:First, he used a hand trepan, like the ones that were used in the Middle Ages, which is basically like a corkscrew. Like, yeah, imagine like a wine corkscrew. Yeah, it didn't work. But also he was high on LSD and didn't quite have the stick to it ness to do it.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah, I just like poked his head once and I was
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Second time he managed to get a helper, but he fainted from the blood loss and it is a lot of, a lot of blood guys because head wounds bleed like a son of a bitch. the third time they thought they had done it because he felt pain. And heard the gurgle of blood and cerebrospinal fluid from the hole. Just like imagine popping a cork of champagne, right? Like, and then you feel the whoosh,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:And it, but it just like drizzles and like runs down their face.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:yep. Uh, but no, actually, turns out he had not completely broken through. And he was not fully. Turpaned until 1970, how he survived in such a homeo sapien fashion while surrounded by such geniuses, I'll never know. but you can't build an expanded consciousness society with only two people, Rachel.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Of course not. But like, man, I want to be so rich that I'm so bored that the only thing I can think of to do is drill a hole in my head. Like, they had, literally they could do anything and that's what they chose to do. Wild.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I think it's the drugs. Honestly, I do. I think it's the LSD. And I think it's like the whole like counterculture movement and like all this thing about how we're not living to our full potential and life could be something totally different. And it's just like this Zeke Geist, right? Like it all rolls together into this storm of insanity.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:baby. Trying to sell you a better life. He's like, I could fix it all. If you give me money and let me drill your head. Okay. But how are they going to grow this? How are they going to get more people?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So. Our little cult clearly needed a third. It was getting to be quite the sausage party, at least, at
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:well, how are you going to breed more holy head babies
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So they added a woman to the gang. Uh, Amanda Felding. She started out dating Hughes. Then she began a relationship with Mellon. I have to imagine that these guys all fucked a lot,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:and together? And yeah.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:This is the 60s, they're not into traditional anything, let alone traditional relationships. So you know this was like, one big like, you know, thruple and all this
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:mean, there was probably more people involved.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Oh, on numerous occasions, definitely. So, Felding, she was from Britain and she is in fact, Countess Amanda Felding, and she is related to the Habsburgs.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh, we remember them.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Maybe she's in Britain a little bit. We could count that on her.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Girl never stood a
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So, Felding was the helper that assisted Mellon with his initial cork popping party. And it was her turn to take the plunge.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:As a member of the Habsburg clan, may I suggest, if you're interested in removing bone, perhaps, perhaps start with the jaw, chin area. Like, chisel that off before you start on your skull. Just a
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:she actually, I mean, I've seen videos and pictures of her. She does not have the crazy, so she must be like, you know, several removed.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:got some good genes in there.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:she's, she's, she's solid,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Well, not in her skull.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:but it really does take a woman to get things done. Right. Doesn't it? Because she did it perfectly the first try. I mean, it might help that she had two other people to learn from during this time, but you know, here nor there. But best of all, she and Mellon filmed it. They made a short movie about this whole process,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:No.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:and the movie is about what you'd expect it to be. It's about a woman standing in front of a mirror, taping her hair back, putting on a shower cap, and a, you know, sterilizing all of her shit, drilling into her own Head, blood, everywhere. Cause as we said, head wounds bleed like a bitch. You can't view the whole thing. You can only view clips of it online. It's never been fully released.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:That's probably for the best.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Amanda, who is now older and wiser, she does not think that auto trepanation is a good idea anymore. She doesn't kind of want it going out as a self guide, and also the few people that she showed it to in a showing passed out, which I believe, there was a lot of blub, a lot of blood.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So, okay. Where do they, where does this, so many questions. Where does it go? Where is the hole?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Think third eye. Like, so like right underneath your hairline or like right at your
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So it's just, they drill right there. Whatever reason I was thinking it was like at the back of the
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:No, not in the back. It's, it's more in the front, like top of the forehead. All these
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:soft spot where the babies have that soft spot, they're just like reopening
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:No, the soft spot is like right on the top. Like this is like right here. So they're auto trepending. They're doing it themselves. So they have to be able to see it right in the
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I was thinking it was like up there, I
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:No, it's, it's like right center forehead. So again, like think right where your hairline is, or if you want to shave back a little bit, like right, right there. So it's, it's definitely in the forehead region.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:then what happens, it's done. You did it. You have a hole in your head. What do you just do? How do you go back to life?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So they cut and then fold it back. The, like the, skin flap. So think about it in the sense that actually this is not a hugely painful procedure because your skin And the, the, the muscles attaching your skull to your muscles, you know, that allow your forehead to move and all this different kinds of stuff that has feeling. Your skull has no nerve endings as well as your brain. And then like the meninges, which hopefully you're not touching, has no nerve endings. So by injecting the local anesthesia,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:just for the skin.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:that's just for the skin and the muscle, as long as you get enough. And for me who had my, uh, lipoma removed from my neck with again, only local anesthesia, you can, you can withstand it, right? So you put that anesthesia in, you cut the flap, fold it down, and then you start the drilling process. And then once you're done, once you've broken through, you flip it up and just kind of put a big old bandaid on it and it heals.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:But isn't there like an indentation or
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yes, there will be and in the videos
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I'm sure wearing a hat hurts, too. Like, that can't be comfortable.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:well it depends on where it hits I guess depends on where the hat hits, but if you guys really want to get deep
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:And like what if you hit your head on something?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Oh, no, that's legitimate, because like, if you have a skull injury, your skull is, basically, it's, it's, has less, integrity.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Shock absorption?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:know, your skull can crack more easily, because it's got a fucking hole in it. Like, it can't absorb the same kind of pressure, so there, there is definitely a danger involved in it.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh my god.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Structural integrity is, uh, degraded by this whole
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So if somebody walked in with one of these, you could see, you could tell.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:You'd have to look for it in, in the videos that I watched. If you guys wanna dive deep into the research, which you know, I did for this fucking episode. The, the, the links are fucking fascinating, especially the YouTube, documentaries. This is like from the late eighties. Um, and you can see these people that they're interviewing, they have like this little dent
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh, so it's small. I don't know why I'm imagining
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Oh no, yeah. No, no, no, no. It's small. It's like a, like maybe an inch if that like hole.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So then, does it close up? Do they have to re up it, or whatever, after a
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:No, it won't close. It won't close on its own. Your bone will not regrow it. No.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh, I thought that the, that's what was a sign of like, the people lived it, survived it in the past, was that there was, like, bone
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:the edges that were softer, right? So, the, it wasn't just like straight drill so they knew that they had died on the table. Like, there's a certain amount of wear that's gonna happen if you live, you know, with your, your skull being partially
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Why did I think that it was like, healed? That was information I misunderstood.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:No, that's good. It's good to have questions on this one because it is a very like, I've been doing, I've done at least eight hours of research on this topic. So please
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:This is like the wildest one. I'm
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:one. I am. I'm fucking obsessed. So.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:were they all doing this to themselves? Why did I not get somebody else to do it?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Because they couldn't, they couldn't get a legitimate surgeon to do this for them.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:No, I'm talking about, well, I guess if the guy fucked it up three times, and then you were like, hmm, maybe you shouldn't do my head. But like, the fact that, like, why would you just not let one of the other two guys drill your head? Why
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I think for Amanda, it was more of a performance art thing, you know, like she filmed the whole thing and did the, the whole like voiceover and all that kind of thing. And one thing about this movie that was not expected was the inclusion of her bird. In many of these shots, so Birdie was her beloved pet and it was a pigeon and I, do mean very literally that it was beloved. She and Birdie had, uh, according to her, a passionate love affair in which they communicated telepathically. And just so you know, this was before the hole in the head. it's just her regular. High life or just regular crazy. Who's to say?
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah, this person needed some help.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I think so. Yeah. She's, she's kind of changed things up in her life, at least a little bit. Felding was quite the advocate for a trepanation and she went on to run for parliament twice as a supporter for the key issues that were gripping the British people, like the lack of government funded holists in your heads.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Aww.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Her platform was trepanation for the national health. And shocker, no one bit. And her attempts at government had failed, but she Since then, has founded what seems to be a semi credible foundation, the, the Backley Foundation, which studies the beneficial uses of psychoactive substances, like some of those, these more recent research about shrooms and ketamine and,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:The Mormon moms.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:for, for depression and those kinds of things for mental health. this is the kind of work that, that she doesn't lives in and so good for her using her, you know, nobility and money to do those things. And. Her love of trepanation isn't exactly a secret. I mean, she, she did make a movie about it and she does sometimes do interviews about it, but she does kind of downplay it. So it's not a part of her quote brand. It's not a part of her foundation and their research at the Beckley Foundation. So despite her hole in the head, she does seem to have some sense at this point and is trying to keep her foundation legitimate. By not advocating for this kind of procedure.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:And she has bangs, so nobody would know she's got a hole in her head.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yes, that's it. It, she does have a little bit of bang if I'm not remembering incorrectly. Yeah.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah, to cover up the hole in her head, I'd imagine. This makes it a little bit more palatable. Because I looked up that guy and it made me viscerally ill a little
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:You saw the little depression
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:that's, that's not something I would want to look at day in, day out, personally.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:and he's bald. So it's like extra, you know, prominent.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:his fault, I guess.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:no, the bald isn't his fault. The hole in head a hundred percent is fault.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yep. Actually, like, I want you to commit to it. I admire him. I don't want to look at him, but I admire him. Like, covering it up with bangs. Boo. Like, cut a hole. Cut a little hole. Yeah, pin it back. You, you drilled a hole in your head, lady. Own it.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So Mellon and Felding, they had two children together in their relationship. They did, uh, they, they were married and eventually they separated on good terms. They were remarried then to separate new spouses and wouldn't you know it, those two new spouses got trip ends as well. So what a lovely little cult they have grown.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I Do they have, like, some magical genitals that they're working with? Because I swear to God, I can't even get my husband to watch the same show that I want to watch. Like, and they're convincing these people to go drill holes in their heads.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Some people are just, they just want to be led. You know what I mean? I don't
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:They're fodder for cults.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:truly. And around this time, Hughes, he found another little priest in Peter Halverston. Peter was another rich kid, but plot twist, this one's an American. He dropped out of the University of Cincinnati in 1968. He went globetrotting, eventually got chummy with Hughes in Amsterdam, who I imagine was a little bit depressed because his, you know, love of his life ran off with Melon and had a bunch of kids and drilled her own hole in their head and said, I don't need you anymore.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So Hughes, he recommended Halverston find a doctor to have the procedure done. He would not help him do it himself, maybe because of potential legal issues or because Hughes was kind of done with the whole thing at this point. I don't know. And if you take away anything from this episode, guys, seriously, let it be. That you need a buddy to drill a hole in your head.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:system. Tried and true.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:but Halverson, he said fuck it. I got some detailed instructions from a surgeon he met somewhere who told him how to do it and he got to work on himself and in a 1972 hotel
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:hotel room That's disrespectful.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Rich kids, man. They don't give a fuck. And so he knew that he had succeeded when he felt that gurgle and pop from his brain.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I mean, straight to jail for that surgeon. Who gave him the means to do
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:It was the
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:He should lose his
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:whole new time. I'm sure it was under the table, unofficial. Nobody got, nobody got a co paid for this
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah. but the first do no harm,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Uh, That's a question. Is it harming or is it expanding consciousness?
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:mean, when brain fluid is flying,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Well, brain fluid shouldn't be flying. It's, it's, it's the change in pressure of your brain fluid that they're feeling. So you take out that bit of skull and your brain fluid can kind of like rush forward into that area and
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:he
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:he felt it happen. And he also, I, was it him or Melon that when they, he, Took, uh, when they finally succeeded and got through and took it out like there was like a geyser of blood that came out And he's like, oh fuck like I went into my brain But it wasn't it was you know, just the it was the arteries and veins and such that are Through your forehead and skull,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:to your brain. Oh God.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yep. So Halverson, he eventually founded the international trepanation advocacy group at some point. It was hard to nail down the dates here. This is where I was getting deep into it. Like the internet archives, all that kind of shit. 1997, gathered his own followers on the, the new invention known as the internet. And the group's website, trepan. com, now defunct. Had to go to the internetarchives. com to see it. Highly, highly recommend. I mean, pure 1998 website nonsense. Do you remember visitor counters, Rachel?
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Uh, remember, we have one on impolitesocietypodcast. com.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:No, we do not, you
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:day we wanna hit the triple
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:ha, ha.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:kidding. We don't. And I'm sure we have,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So the site leads with Third eye innocent and open wide. For the first time on this planet, you are free to have maximum fulfillment. It is no longer necessary to follow a path and search for your true greatness. Also, let me just call out the ridiculousness of that statement. You no longer have to follow a path and search for, like, answers. Fuck that. Just drill a fucking hole in your heads.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:It's also very sparse I was I thought there'd be
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Oh, you got to click into it. You have to go into the site there's a video intro if you want to see that. And then you have to like click around. It's not like a navigation like we have nowadays. It's very antiquated.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:oh and now it's playing sounds
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah, it's a trip, right? I definitely recommend it. Listener, if you have some free
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:We'll link it in the show notes I have to turn it off because of the music sorry, it's like overpowering
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah, but the site, it's super culty. It's got a lot of triangles, acronyms, yes, the I's, the third I, a lot of vague promises, and this culty facet seems to come from Bart Hughes himself, which is, you know, again, the grandfather of all this bullshit, the first guy. And as Bart got older, he became a bit of a hermit. He didn't even have a phone and when people came to him to ask about trepanation, because this is kind of like a thing, right? It's like
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Well, if you're, yeah, if you're going to Trepanation, like, you gotta go to the OG man himself.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Exactly. He would not even speak to people unless he memorized his scroll, his thesis, right, on the fall of man. If these people could recite it, write it out by memory, repeat it ten times to him while on their knees.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Who's got time for that? That's
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:does. And
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:nuts.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:But Halverston seemed to have taken these culty kind of weird ideas, espoused them on his site. Definitely a guy, in my opinion, that is trying to create his own little soliciting money from people to fund his. research.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:wow.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So he promised people that Trepanning would increase people's youthfulness, creativity, and even their testosterone levels.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Why am I not surprised? It all comes back to boners. Every
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I thought, I thought, the same thing. I was like, what a dude thing to do. We gotta talk about boners somewhere in
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah, it just makes your penis harder. And harder more often.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:And, and then he also said, of course it was safe, guys. It's the oldest surgery in the world, so it can't be bad for you or dangerous.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I mean, they amputated people's legs with bone saws in the Wild West. Like, just because they did it a long time ago doesn't make it a good idea. It was the best they had.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So, Halverson went on a press tour of sorts for his little movement. Yes. He managed to get on the Howard Stearns show in 1998, and the TV version of Ripley's Believe It or Not, and he even got a 2020 special.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:They'd just be giving those out, apparently.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:And apparently this all did work to some degree. The website. He was actively recruiting people for a pilot study to be done in Mexico and he got 15 people to actually do it. Some idiots
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:a considerable amount of people.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I know, right? Some idiots who heard about it on Howard Stern or whatever else, I don't know. They paid Peter money, they went to Mexico, they fuckin had their Skulls drilled into and I found a really old article from a college newspaper. It was pretty buried Where they interviewed the people who had this done and oh my god, it is bleak People who have been on psych holds Schizophrenics some guy who was spending his money buying Eternal Youth Water, one guy who clearly had a massive man crush on Halverston, like was this little bitch and like wanted to be exactly like him. And then the spouses of these crazies, and it's just, oh, it was so sad.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Well, did the youth water work? Is this guy still kicking it?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I mean, it was 1999, so maybe, I don't know. I don't know. It's hard to find enough shit on these people, this website is
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I've, yeah. Uh, Hey, we're all looking for something to believe in, though. Right? We're just all looking for something to believe in.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:But turns out this publicity was actually a bad idea because this attention, it got Peter Halvorson into some legal hot water, um, drilling into the skulls of crazy people is bound to get one in trouble,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:One would hope.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:and in 2000, Halvorson was arrested in the U. S. for practicing medicine without a license when one of the parents of his victims, uh, I'm sorry, I mean patients, raised hell after their daughter traveled from England to the U. S. to have her hole drilled into by this totally not a doctor kind of guy. And the court gave him three years of probation.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Probation. That does not seem like a lot.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I, I know, right, like at first I was thinking, like, really, fucking, that's it, that's it, that's all you're going to give this guy? Um, but then I thought there, I don't know, are there some deeper questions here about the freedoms of society, right? If you're willing to pay some rando to drill a hole in your head, is that your right? I don't know.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I mean, if you, can you willingly offer up your body for a cannibal to kill and eat?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:That's a great question. So the popularity of this website and the pilot study in Mexico, DIY tutorials popping up on the internet, um, considered dangerous enough for the British medical journal to issue a formal warning in the year 2000, that people not drill a hole in their head.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Oh, thank fucking God that the British Medical Journal put that out because I wouldn't have known not to drill a hole in my head if they had not given a warning. Thank you.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:And super well read, right? The British Medical Journal, like everyone's
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I mean, that's just where I browse. Every morning I open my phone and I go to the British Medical Journal for life advice. Who doesn't?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So the International Trepanation Advocacy Group website was eventually taken offline in 2018. Whether that's through a lack of interest or being shut down, I genuinely don't know. there isn't much out there about this movement right now, nowadays. A lot of new articles being written. There were a few from Vice in the late 20 teens, which clearly one of the writers went down the rabbit hole on this, like I
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:They're like, guys, you gotta check out this insane shit, man.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:totally. But all this kind of makes me think that this is insanity might be due for a comeback sometime soon, right? with a lot of depressed, desperate people out here who don't trust the medical community, don't feel like they're being heard. I'm sure there are a lot of people who are willing to take this bait. And I don't know what Peter Halvorsen is up to nowadays. I can't find any recent articles about him, but I do know that Bart Hughes, the creator of all this nonsense, he did die in 2004 from alcoholism and related health issues.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Sounds like he needed more holes. Holes somewhere. More holes.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Apparently his consciousness, uh, was not as expanded as he thought. But after all, He fell to all the same bullshit as the rest of us whole headed rubes, right?
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Right?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So what do doctors think about this? You know, like real doctors with medical degrees. Do they think there's any validity in their saying about, you know, blood brain volume and pumping blood, blah, blah, blah. No, no, they do not. It's all nonsense made up by one convincing hippie in the sixties. Someone so convincing, That the placebo effect is in full swing with all these people, right? So if you think you are going to experience this intense high, you are going to feel it. I mean, think back on that first time you ever drank any alcohol. I know me. I had two swigs of a beer in my sophomore year and I was like, I'm so drunk, man. So imagine if you had taken these insane leaps to get to this point, of course you are going to feel elation. You're going to feel whatever effect you think you're going to feel.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So I can thank myself high, man. That's the ultimate drug, man. Your brain. The human brain.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:That's, uh,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:That's my third eye opening up right there.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:It's already open, Rachel, I can tell
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:It's wide open. It sees everything. It's in the back of my head, though. That's how I watch my kids. I say, Hey! Get that out of your
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha!
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Hey! Don't kick your sister!
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Because, I mean, if you've gotten this insane surgery done and you didn't think it would make a difference, what the fuck would you think of yourself, right? You put yourself at risk for infections, skull fractures, death, all this for nothing, for something that wasn't scientifically proven. So really, in the end, the brain is doing what it does best, ego protection, baby. That holy noggin is just protecting you from the most awful truths of itself.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I mean, that just sums up the human condition, man. That's why I tell people, don't sweat the decisions. Don't sweat the choices you'll make. Because your good buddy, your brain, is just gonna smooth it all over. It's gonna tell you, you've made the right choice. I was gonna say, this is how it was meant to be.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:That is exactly right.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So just do what you want.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah, don't think too hard unless you're going to drill a hole in your brain and then maybe think real hard about it
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:dissidence. Well, they seemed happy with it, so do it.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah. Yeah, maybe there was that also linked in the show notes. Please don't drill. He'll drill a hole in your head. People. This
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Well, if you are gonna drill a hole in your head based off one podcast you listened to, like that's on you.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:But there is a, uh, blog entry from like 2000 that I dug up somewhere and the guy is talking about how he did it all himself by himself and did all these things and he's like, it's so great. It's so great. It's so great. And then after a month he's like, yeah, it's not great. I totally faked myself out about it and I was like, well, I guess good for you that you
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:This Yeah. Was so, it was like it was bad or he was just like, it's no different.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:It's no different.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Aw.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah, I know. It was, it
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:It's kind of like getting a puppy.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:it's kind of a trip again. I recommend going through the source notes on this one, guys. It's, it's fun. All right. So before we wrap up, because we're fucking long, this was just, this was a trip in, in the best way, not in an LSD
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:like a hole in your head trip.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I, feel enlightened. Childlike
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:to, I'm just going to, dip my, my toe into a little bit of philosophizing here about retaining the lightness of curiosity of childhood, right? That these people seem to be longing for. And my overwhelming thought was, yeah, it's great, but we can't all stay kids forever. I mean, eventually our brains, they need to mature. They literally need to solidify. It's in like clothes. In a way, uh, our thinking or belief, like we have to eventually land on something, be open to change, but also keep some of those things as core. And I, I was just thinking as I was doing this research is maybe the future of our society isn't the movie idiocracy as I had always thought, just adults getting dumber, dumber, dumber, until we're all the blind, leaving the blind. And maybe. It will be a world full of adult children who've refused to grow up, refused to make choices, and who are just herded and governed by those of us who have decided to grow up.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:See, I'm with you up until that point because I feel like what growing up is to do with survival, right? It's when You have to actually, like, function in the world. And I go back to domestication, where domestication is keeping animals in
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:about that all the fucking
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:type state. And I think about it a lot with my, my dumb dogs. Is I like, they're so, they throw their bodies around for like a morsel of food.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:A molecule! A molecule! Marker food!
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:When are they, I ask them all the time, when are you all gonna wise up? Because a wolf pack would not tolerate this kind of nonsense. Like, think about wising up, you're seven. Like, come on. And it's just like, that's they don't have to. But, the people who have life hard are the ones who are forced to then mature. So, theirs aren't really the ones who are governing. And like, telling us what to do. But I do think that we are drastically accelerating towards domestication for humans, which is why we have these new stages of life called childhood, called adolescence, teenagers, young adulthood. Now people are rejecting the idea of being an adult until they're 30, right? And so then eventually they'll be like, I'm just a 40 year old teenager, right? And it's just like, we'll never grow up.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yeah. And that's, that's the future that this whole thing made me think of and it made me sad.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I mean, it's fun to be a kid, but like, I don't know, am I grown up? Who knows?
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:I think you're pretty grown up.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I don't want to drill a hole in my head if that's any indication,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:That's the litmus test. In which case,
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:it makes sense because these are the, when you think of like that domestication angle, like these are the rich kids. They don't have to fight for survival. They don't have to make choices and like boom, bam, boom,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:They got too much fuckin time on their hands. They're navel gazing all the
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:So that's why it's like, I, yeah, it's more about, they have the luxury of not having to grow up and, like, wanting to recapture that.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Yep. All right, that's it. That's my trip for the week. This one was a fuckin blast. Fucking doozy. I had a ton of fun on this one. Write me your questions. Cause I feel like I didn't, this was long as is, and I'm open to more questions and more talking about this because I did a lot of research.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:mean, I still have several, but, you know, I'll email them to you, and you get back to me in three to five business days,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Root at ImpoliteSocietyPodcast. com.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Or text us, there's a link in the show notes.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:yeah. Text us your quick questions.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Quick questions and we'll answer them on another show. Maybe we can incorporate some kind of call and response into the chats.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:Oh, yeah, in the society chats. I got it now, took me a second.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:Yeah. They're new. We're learning. But
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:a chat?
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:A chat, a chat, a chat, a cahat, but check those out. And you know what gives us a sense of euphoria more than a hole in the brain? When you rate and review us on your podcasting app of choice, that is how we grow our cult of people who have holy brains or holy entire whole brains, entire,
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:thou. That was one thing I saw in one of the articles I read. And I was like, that's
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:that's kind of, that's there, uh, holier than thou. Colts, and if you really want to help do that, be sure to recommend this podcast to somebody who you think needs a little bit more brain or a little bit less brain, because this topic is all about that. We also are on YouTube, which if you're listening there, shout out, God bless that discoverability feature. So if you're listening on YouTube, thank you for joining us. If you prefer YouTube, for joining us. Get rid of Spotify, get rid of Podcast Addict, and find us there. We'll be back in two weeks with another rude topic. And until then, stay curious.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:And keep marching to the beat of your own drum.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:And also, let us know if you think that the next alternative health treatment from the Alex Jones crowd is going to be a hole in your head. Because I'm telling you, I think it's due for a comeback.
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:they're nobody's gonna be brave enough for that. We can't be that uncomfortable.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:People are going to do it. I
squadcaster-4a47_2_01-03-2025_214735:I don't think so. My favorite part of this episode is when you said, you're like John Lennon. And I said, yes, it's like off the top of my head. I'm like, yeah, I am like John Lennon. I'm a visionary and mind of a generation.
laura_2_01-03-2025_214737:So he promised people that trep trepanning, trepanning, trepanning, I can't, fucking all this research, I can't even fucking say it.