I Need An Article About Trepanation Like I Need A Hole In My Head

"This time I was not in any doubt. The drill head went at least an inch deep through the hole. A great gush of blood followed my withdrawal of the drill. In the mirror, I could see the blood in the hole rising and falling with the pulsation of the brain."
-- Joe Mellen, Bore Hole

Want to combine mystic weirdness, disturbing medical treatments, bizarre cultlike behavior, and power tools? Hey, who doesn't? Well, it's as easy as drilling a hole in your own head, a millennia-old practice known as trepanation (or trephination). Make those players think twice about infiltrating the shadowy sect or accessing the Akashic Records or gaining psychic powers beyond imagination -- hand their characters the power drill and let the sun shine in.

"What you're trying to regain
Is blood belonging to your brain --
Will you know before you're dead
That paradise is in your head?
You was robbed -- so you made belief
It's gravity -- we've caught the thief
All your prayers won't save your soul
Adult you need a hole."
-- Joe Mellen, "The Great Brain Robbery"

Joe Mellen is just one of the more prolific followers of the Dutch Father of Modern Trepanation, "Dr." Bart Hughes. Hughes, one of the great medical crackpots of our day, realized in 1962 that the reason people were so unhappy is that, by walking upright, we let too much of the blood flow out of our brain! When we're infants, our soft little skulls let the . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.

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Article publication date: August 27, 1999

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