Can Trepanation Increase Consciousness?

[Vast]

Trepanation is the oldest surgical procedure practiced by mankind. The earliest evidence of trepanation dates back 10,000 years. At no time had evidence been found that brain surgery was the intention of this procedure.

www.trepan.com

Trepanation, also known as trephinning or trepanning is a form of surgery where a hole is cut into the skull leaving the membrane around the brain. Modern trepanation movements exist, hinging on the belief that the procedure increases blood volume carried to the brain, suggesting that capalaries in the brain operate on a higher metabolism which belivers argue results in a higher state of consciousness

From Wikipedia

Trepanation is supposed to raise your level of consciousness. Make you enlightened? Expand your mind? Has anyone here had this done? Or know anything about it? If it actually has that affect?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I have seen a bit on this and yes, there is evidence to support some of the claims - though I'm not sure how much or how convincing it really may be. I have seen a PBS show that discussed one particular example. It seems that patients who are surgically trepanned as a result of brain surgery do report similar results...I think almost exclusively within the context of depression and a sense of well being. I didn't read your links yet, but if not there, case studies do exist. I would think they must be on the net somewhere. If nothing pops up here I will try to find something later.

Edit: I just can't decide how best to cure my depression: Trenpanning, Prozac...Trepanning, Prozac...its is tough call!

I saw an interview with one person who trepanned himself using a hand drill and a 1/4" bit. Can you imagine!?

Edit: I keep thinking that this might have been a she. I remember the statement that he or she was surprised by the amount of blood and how this became a bit of a problem. Blood was spewed all over the walls and ceiling.

 

[(Q)]

I don't know much about trepanning, but I did find this:

Dr. William Landau, a neurologist in St. Louis, sums it up this way: "There is no scientific basis for this at all. It's quackery."

Dr. Robert Daroff's response is even more concise. "Horse****," he says. "Absolute, unequivocal bull****." Daroff is a professor of neurology at University Hospitals of Cleveland and editor in chief emeritus of the journal Neurology. "This is a crackpot notion that's not worthy of my time. And not only that -- it's dangerous.
So there's no benefit to having a hole for the hole's sake? The proof, for Dr. Bruce Kaufman, is in the neurological pudding. "Organized neurosurgery would approach it from a scientific basis. Are there case reports to show that this is a beneficial procedure? Not that I'm aware of."
Kaufman, an associate professor of neurological surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, says that over the past couple of decades neurosurgeons have experimented with a therapeutic procedure similar to trepanation. They tried making holes in the skull to treat slit ventrical syndrome, a brain malady brought on when shunts inserted to drain excess fluid end up robbing the brain of its natural buffer. "The brain is stuck in this tight little box," Kaufman says. "We tried bilateral decompression to give the brain more room." Bottom line? "It didn't work. The procedure was abandoned."
Giving the trepanners momentary benefit of the doubt, Kaufman says, "Let's assume there's something to their theory. You create a hole in the skull. The scalp scars down to the tissue that covers the brain. This tissue is called the dura, and it has the consistency, basically, of a shirt." So, after trepanation, the only thing protecting your brain is a shirt? "It's dangerous," Kaufman says.

salon.com | April 29, 1999

 

[BoulderHead]

I suppose I'd break down and do it (if the alternaive was forced membership in the Castrators of Russia secret society).

 

[Ivan Seeking]

No doubt. You are unique enough already!

 

[zoobyshoe]

Here is the story of the woman who did it to herself:

BBC News | HEALTH | Woman carries out DIY surgery
Address:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/651892.stm

Depression is highly responsive to the placebo effect. If this precedure has worked for anyone I would suspect the placebo effect first.

 

[username]

Trepanation is supposed to raise your level of consciousness. Make you enlightened? Expand your mind?

Notr sure about ure mind but I guess there is a possibility of expanding ure brain!

I have a relative recently who under went brain surgery after a series of accidents, which for most purposes was trepanation, remarkable recovery even sharper than before, but I would not attach any significance to it.