Talk:Trepanning
Trepanation is one of those bizarre cults that most people don't know about. I think it may be related to the "amputee" cult, where people want their arms or legs cut off to feel "whole", which in turn may be a neuropsychological disorder possibly caused by somatosensory deprivation. The yet more wide-spread acts of self-injury may also be related. This is just what I think, though; it's not too hard to debunk the trepans since they present no evidence, but I'd be interested in any analysis of why they do it. --Eloquence
somatosensory deprivation? -- Tarquin
- Lack of physical contact (in a broader sense including sexual contact) and movement, known to cause various disorders and to be a causal factor in aggressive/violent behavior. See http://www.violence.de.
- So does this tie in with the increasing fad in Western society for body modification? -- Tarquin
- Many people into BM simply think it looks beautiful, so their behavior is probably motivated by the good old evolutionary mate-seeking module (how concepts of beauty are formed is, of course, a tricky question). This is probably not the case for those who are "piercing addicts" and need to have a new BM every week to feel "whole", similarly, the trepanation people need to have a new hole in their skull every few months (I kid you not). Repetitive, obsessive-compulsive behavioral patterns may have an identifiable pathogenesis, although little seems to be done to study the subject except for the usual rhetoric by psychologists and the Prozac prescriptions by psychiatrists ... --Eloquence
Addresses?
"It addresses health problems that relate to abnormal intracranial pressure." Doesn't 'addresses' imply that this is a proven fact? I don't believe this is proven, some people believe(d) this, right? --Dyss 23:46, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)
-This is the reasoning that some people continue to practice Trepanation. They feel that brain pressure or even a mental disorder can be relieved, perhaps explaining the ancient belief that it released harmful spirits. Of course, very few professional studies have been done on the subject, considering the practice is illegal. The only supporting claims are of those who have volunteered themselves, claiming a natural "child-like" high. 68.116.240.66
Read:
"Capillaries are minute blood vessels, which form the interface between arteries and organs. It is from the capillaries that the cells of any organ - including the brain - take food, and into them that they discard their waste. The brain's food is glucose, which is combusted in its cells through being combined with oxygen. This exchange of nutrients and waste products, and in particular the oxidation of glucose, is the very basis of brain metabolism. When the capillary content of the brain is increased, there is an enlarged area of contact between blood and brain cells, resulting in an enhanced rate of exchange of nutrients and waste products. This is true of any organ. In order to accelerate its function, extra blood is directed to it thereby increasing its capillary volume. Since consciousness is brain metabolism above a certain level, with an acceleration of brain metabolism there is a corresponding expansion of consciousness."
"The medium through which metabolism takes place is blood. However, in the central nervous system, the home of the brain, blood is not alone; there are two fluids: blood and brain-water (cerebrospinal fluid or CSF). The water is the fluid in which the brain floats, but from which it derives no nourishment. It is lighter than blood and is produced continuously in the brain itself. Most importantly, the ratio between these two fluid volumes, blood and CSF, can be altered - the volume of one can increase at the expense of the other. Hence, the total volume of blood in the brain capillaries can be increased, but only if a corresponding amount of brain-water is forced out of the cranial cavity. Expelling the brain-water, however, is made difficult by a number of factors. First, as CSF is produced continuously in the brain itself, it has a 'squatter's' advantage over blood, which reaches the brain through arteries, passes into capillaries and leaves through veins. Second, capillary walls, despite being exceedingly thin and permeable, actually resist expansion. There is a lack of elasticity in these vessel walls, which means that in order for them to accommodate an increase in blood they have to be 'blown up'. Third and most significantly, since the fluids are of different weights, gravity 'changes sides' depending on the position of the head relative to the heart. In man's position, with the head held high above the heart, gravity favours brain-water as it is the lighter of the two fluids. These difficulties can be overcome, however, by allowing a natural pressure increase to be created in the brain cavity: a pressure which squeezes out a certain amount of brain-water, forcing it out of the cranium via the sheaths of the nerve channels running down either side of the spine. In essence then, the question of enhancing brain metabolism and expanding consciousness is one of creating sufficient intracranial pressure to push out cerebrospinal fluid, thereby increasing capillary volume."
"So how is this pressure created in the brain cavity and why describe it as 'natural'? The answer to both questions derives from the same organ: the heart. In order for the blood to gain territory inside the cranium, the pushing power of the heart must be harnessed. The body's blood circulation is driven by the heart, and the variable pressure in this circulatory system can be measured, at different points during the cardiac cycle or heartbeat, as blood pressure readings. The contraction of the heart and point of maximum pressure is called the systole, and is read as systolic pressure; the relaxation of the heart and pressure trough, which lasts much longer, is called the diastole, and is read as diastolic pressure. When the heart contracts, it pumps successive surges of blood into the already filled arterial system. As fluids are incompressible, the artery walls have to expand rhythmically to accommodate the extra blood (and this can be felt as a pulse). The consequent distension travels like a wave along the arteries, becomes a ripple in the small arteries and dies out in the capillaries. The crest of the pulse wave represents the systolic pressure, the low point represents the diastolic pressure. Importantly, the pressure of the pulse expressed in the artery walls creates a similar pressure in the surrounding tissue or organs of the body, which expand momentarily (i.e. pulsate) against the elastic membranes surrounding them. As far as the central nervous system is concerned, the force of this expansion causes the brain tissue to exert a similar force on its membranes, which must then move outwards. The systolic or full pulse pressure created by allowing this force to be freely expressed acts itself out on both the brain capillaries (blowing them up with blood), and the lake of CSF (expelling a quantity of it). A brain registering a pulsation strong enough to make its force felt in the capillaries is therefore one that has more blood to feed off, i.e. more glucose to burn and convert into energy."
"At this point a problem arises. The previous description of how the heart's pushing power provides enough pressure to maintain a healthy volume of blood in the brain's capillaries, applies only to the young. It does not hold true for the vast majority of adults. The story of why not and what to do about why not, is the story of pulsating brains, adulthood and trepanation. As noted earlier, for full pulsation to take place, the brain - like any other organ - needs to be able to expand freely in response to the successive surges of blood against the artery walls. For this expansion to occur, there must be some 'give' in the membranes surrounding the organ. In other words, full pulsation requires expansion to be against an elastic surface. However, as the child becomes an adult, an important change takes place here."
"The central nervous system lies within a bag made of three layers of strong elastic membrane. The bag and its contents are protected from the outside world by the skull and spinal column, which completely surround them. 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. The brain membranes are deprived of enough elasticity to allow the full pulse-wave to enter the cranium. The systolic pressure is lost in the small arteries of the brain, resulting in a shrinking of capillary volume and an expansion of cerebrospinal fluid. This loss of capillary volume causes a reduction in metabolic activity since the area of contact between brain cells and blood is reduced. In order to direct the diminished volume of blood to those brain centres most essential for survival, the arteries leading to other centres are constricted; thus, with the onset of adulthood, the mechanism of repression, first formed in childhood, becomes an essential tool of survival. The field of consciousness is reduced, as less brain centres are able to function simultaneously. The animal is now truly adult: the levels of brain blood volume and brain metabolism have reached their lowest norms."
"This drop in intracranial pressure is common to all animals that have cranial sutures that calcify at the end of growth. The only exceptions to this rule are those that have some accidental expansion hole in the skull and are therefore unaffected by its sealing. It does not matter where the expansion window is, nor its size, so long as it gives the membranes surrounding the brain the possibility of accommodating the full pulse-wave. Those of us not lucky enough to have an accidental or unintended hole in the skull can still enjoy the benefits that a hole brings through the ancient practice of trepanation. Trepanation, which nowadays is painless and extremely quick, was first practised about 10,000 years ago. From those ancient times onwards, it has been performed around the world as an initiation into the higher or priestly castes, and as a treatment for such things as migraine, epilepsy, depression and insanity; it was usually given a superstitious explanation, such as letting 'light in' or 'demons out'. In many cultures the hole created in the skull was called the 'third eye', as seen, for example, in depictions of the Hindu god Shiva). Quite simply, trepanation reverses the drop in intracranial pressure by 'uncorking' the cranium. A small piece of bone is removed from the skull by a surgical drill known as a trepan; the membranes surrounding the brain are left intact as the operation is performed solely on the bone. 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. This vital increase in capillary volume should not be confused with the fractional increase in the volume of the cranial cavity caused by the trepanation hole - the hole merely allows the brain's arteries and membranes to expand fully on the heartbeat once again. It is the restoration of the pre-adult level of intracranial pressure, given back by the hole, which causes the all-important shift in the ratio of the fluid volumes. It has been estimated that the increase in capillary volume made by trepanation is around 30cc, which is approximately one third of the estimated total possible increase. The reason why trepanation only augments the blood volume by one third of the maximum increase possible, is because it only introduces pressure during a fraction of the heart cycle, i.e. during the systole. By the 'third eye', a person derives as much benefit as the force of the heart can give during the brief systolic period: a basic economy necessary for comfortable living. Since holes in the skull do not seal, (even the small ones of modern-day trepanning) the youthful pressure level, once recovered, lasts forever. Thus, 'cranial rejuvenation' offers increased contact between brain cells and 'brain food', an accelerated exchange of nutrients and waste, which will last until death. And so, by permanently restoring brain metabolism to its youthful level, trepanation offers the best of both worlds: the energy and buoyancy of the young are added to the experience and wisdom that come with age.
[It is necessary to point out that during the last three decades there has been no study of the mechanism outlined above by the medical community. However, interest is finally being shown, and hopefully independent verification is now in sight.] "
"Why had she felt such a need to have this operation? She told me that in her twenties she had started to feel very low. She holds the theory that the human brain really starts to suffer seriously from lack of ‘bloodvolume’ when the skull bones finally close at the age of 18. ‘People start to suffer from mania and various other mental illnesses, when they have never suffered from them before.’"
"the human brain is locked away, contained in a hermetically sealed skull and this greatly limits its functions and our perception of the world. According to Huges, the ideal state is that of the child, for children are not born with a hard, sealed skull. Only gradually and over a long period of time, do bony tissues fuse the plates of the skull together. For a while they float freely. As Huges suggests, it is actually very simple to return this ideal state and ¡liberate the brain. It is sufficient to drill a little hole in the skull with a diameter of about 6mm. And that is what he did."
"In prison, having checked the mechanism by perceiving the cerebrospinal fluid in the back outside the central nervous system (after using the pressed-up method described in the scroll,) I thought about making a hole at the base of the spine to let the fluid out, and while thinking about holes I realised that pressure was necessary to squeeze the cerebrospinal fluid out of the system. Then, having concluded upon the nil pressure inside the adult skull (in most people the skull seals between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two,) I saw that any hole in the bony surrounding of the system would give the pressure back. But after a time I realised a hole in the spine would heal over so it had to be in the skull, where holes stay open."
"According to Huges, increasing the quantity of blood in the cranium will create a permanent high. "We are all living under the yoke of gravity’s drag," he declared during a 1966 interview in the Transatlantic Review. "Gravity is the enemy. The adult is its victim. Society is its disease." Huges, who is the author of Trepanation: The Cure for Psychosis," claimed the devolution of humankind was caused by the adoption of the upright stance - the price paid for bipedal motion and the opposable thumb was loss of blood to the brain, The brain is nourished by oxygen and sugar, both supplied by blood. By reducing the amount of blood received, the brain, according to this doctrine, becomes nutrient-deficient and its range of consciousness is proportionally diminished. Youngsters, until around the age of 18, are not so deprived, reasons Huges; babies are born with their skulls unsealed, so the blood flows directly from their hears to their brains, allowing for a creativity that most sealed-skull adults lack. Short of standing on one’s head around the clock, taking successive hot and cold showers, or continuously dropping acid, Huges maintains that creating an opening in one’s skull is the only way to forever defy the limiting forces of nature."
""The purpose of having a hole in your head," says Feilding, "is to allow the membranes that surround the brain to expand, which occurs on the heartbeat. In order to have adequate pulsation in the brain, it must be against an expandable surface. The extra pulse from the hole exerts pressure on the fluid in the brain, which is a lake of cerebral spinal fluid, until some of it is pressed out and replaced by blood. This forms a new ratio between the two fluid volumes, whereby you have permanently more blood and less cerebral spinal fluid so that there’s a restoration to the level of childhood."
Feilding believes the heightened consciousness resulting from trepanation - the subtly felt high that, she asserts, we are all seeking on some level (i.e., from driving fast, getting drunk, having obsessive romances, and so on) - is a "freebie" life advantage not to be missed. "There’s a relaxing," she says, "and at the same time an increasing of energy. It remains the same brain, the same intelligence and personality. You just have it functioning at a slightly higher level."
"It is essential that everyone knows how to restore blood to their brain," says Feilding.
Does it matter where the hole is?
No. As far as restoring full pulsation in the brain arteries goes, it can be anywhere in the cranial cavity or spinal column. However, holes in the spinal column close whereas holes in the cranium don't. Certain areas of the cranium are preferable to others, as there are fewer blood vessels and less muscle. Even the losing of eyesight creates a suitable expansion window after the optical nerves have atrophied.
Is it only people with mental health problems who stand to benefit from trepanation?
No. Any adult with a hermetically sealed skull stands to gain from the increase in brain blood volume brought about by restoring the full pulse pressure. Who'd say no to a bit more brain metabolism? Nevertheless, the worse the mental problem, the more there is to gain from lifting the floor of the neurosis. Mental health is mainly a question of blood being able to circulate freely around the various centres of the brain. Neurosis is the result of the chronic constriction of brain arteries, which creates an imbalance. The pattern of constriction/repression is imprinted by trauma. When adulthood comes with its need for tighter control of the blood supply, the pre-laid pattern of constriction facilitates the process of repression and directs the now limited supply of blood to those centres most essential for survival by constricting the arteries leading to other areas. Free circulation of blood is thus impeded as areas of the brain become 'blocked off'. After trepanation, brain blood is no longer in such short supply and there can be a loosening of chronic constriction. Some of those centres formerly repressed from function and giving rise to neurotic behaviour can now be eased back within the reach of consciousness. As for psychosis, the various components of personality that were webbed together during childhood split apart. Connections are broken … associations lost … control lost. These lost connections can best be 're-associated' by first re-creating the level of brain blood volume that was there when they were originally established. This is what trepanation does ……… By lifting the psyche up to the level it was at when the patterns of conditioned-reflex behaviour were first installed, re-conditioning is facilitated. That is the nub. It is easier to implant, or learn, when there are more active cells to implant upon. The extent to which the cells can be active depends on the energy supply - the blood: more blood….. more energy…..more experience/ learning potential. And so, the use of sound healing techniques stands a better chance of success with a pulsating brain than with a brain where the cells are close to starvation rations.
If we were supposed to have a hole in our skulls, don't you think that evolution would have provided us with one?
On the face of it, the argument seems convincing, but this is largely due to a misunderstanding of evolutionary time. We as a species have not been around very long in terms of evolution. Our own genus - Homo - is still in its infancy, in fact. The first hominids appeared just 2-3 million years ago. Even if you go back the complete 10-15 million years since our earliest ancestors first came down from the trees, compare it with the 150 million years of the bird, and you can still see quite clearly our status as newcomers. It took millions of years of spontaneous hunting in order to arrive, through natural selection for tool-making ability, at the introduction of even the most basic pebble-tool culture. This development brought with it selection pressure for such physical changes as visual acuity, greater hand-eye co-ordination and increased dexterity (e.g. more slender fingers and an opposing thumb). We now dominate the planet and are no longer in direct competition with other species. It is therefore hard to envisage a development in behaviour that would bring about a new phase of selection pressure for changes to the human skull, even if such altered skulls do result in enhanced brain metabolism. Furthermore, any evolutionary drive towards favouring a hole in the head wouldn't even stretch back as far as human ancestry, but rather only as far back as the point when we first stood upright some 4-5 million years ago. Standing upright increased the field of view and freed up two limbs. These considerable advantages far outweighed the disadvantage of making the blood travel uphill in order to get from the heart to the head, significant though this factor was. In fact, gravity plays a much greater role in impoverishing brain metabolism and consciousness than the sealing of the skull at the end of growth. While man was on four legs and the head was below the heart, the force of gravity and the force of the pumping heart were both pushing in the same direction. At that time, a hole in the adult skull would have had little or no effect. In other words, it was only when man stood upright that gravity was brought into play as a factor that actively hindered the blood's progress towards the capillaries of the brain. From that point on, man has been suffering from a 'double loss' of capillary content - one due to the combination of gravity and the upright position, the other due to the sealing of the skull at the end of growth. It is the seriousness of this double loss that has given the 'third eye' the chance to improve matters by negating the second of the losses. Time alone will tell whether natural selection will end up favouring a hole in the head, or whether through intellectual intervention, we as a species will choose to correct the disadvantage by creating the hole bring about a new phase of selection pressure for changes to the human skull, even if such altered skulls do result in enhanced brain metabolism. Furthermore, any evolutionary drive towards favouring a hole in the head would only stretch back as far as the point when our ancestors first stood upright some 4-5 million years ago. Standing upright increased the field of view and freed up two limbs. These considerable advantages far outweighed the disadvantage of making the blood travel uphill in order to get from the heart to the head, significant though this factor was. In fact, gravity plays a much greater role in impoverishing brain metabolism and consciousness than the sealing of the skull at the end of growth. While the ape was on four legs and the head was below the heart, the force of gravity and the force of the pumping heart were both pushing in the same direction. At that time, a hole in the adult skull would have had little or no effect. In other words, it was only when man stood upright that gravity was brought into play as a factor that actively hindered the blood's progress towards the capillaries of the brain. From that point on, man has been suffering from a 'double loss' of capillary content - one due to the combination of gravity and the upright position, the other due to the sealing of the skull at the end of growth. It is the seriousness of this double loss that has given the 'third eye' the chance to improve matters by negating the second of the losses. Time alone will tell whether natural selection will end up favouring a hole in the head, or whether through intellectual intervention, we as a species will choose to correct the disadvantage by creating the hole ourselves.
The concept of relieving cranial pressure to enhance blood flow to the brain is an entirely convincing argument in itself. Indeed, expansion of the brain's blood vessels is a primary way through which many so called 'Smart Drugs' work. But is there really any body of medical evidence conducted by neurologists outside the trepanning community to support the claim that trepanning is a sound medical practice ? If it is, then why did the practice die out in the first place?
Indeed the connection between certain drugs, (including some of the so called ‘smart drugs’)and an increase in the volume of blood in the brain is as yet untested. That is what the Foundation to Further Consciousness wishes to research. I think trepanation also increases the blood supply to the brain cells…strangely, the overall changes in the blood supply to the brain is a largely ignored field. It is known other organs perform better when more blood is directed to them, but for some reasons no one considers the possibility that the brain is the same. If it can be shown that our master organ can be made to perform better by having more blood supplied to the brain cells, that is a great leap forward. The only problem then is which technique is the best to reach this heightened state of brain metabolism. The headstand is an obvious technique but it’s a pain in the neck. What is needed is a non-toxic substance which constricts the veins a little, so brain metabolism is accelerated to the level where awareness sparkles, but not to the level where the control of behaviour becomes an issue. Whatever technique is used to get more blood in the brain is always temporary as gravity always has the final say (blood being heavier than cerebrospinal fluid). Trepanation is the only permanent way to lift the brain metabolism as what it does is to restore the systolic pressure to the brain arteries which alters the ratio between blood and cerebrospinal fluid in favour of blood….the floor of your consciousness is a little higher for the rest of your life.
Trepanation in popular culture
Is the incident in π (film) really trepanation? It seemed to me like Max was destroying the portion of his brain that knew anything about math. Trepanation only drills through the skull. — Chris Capoccia T⁄C 19:17, August 19, 2005 (UTC)
Looks like the pop culture section is gone from this article now, if that's what you were referring to... if you're looking for pop culture references, then I'll point you towards the TV show Dead Like Me, where the reaper Mason killed himself in a botched attempt at self-trepanation.