WEBVTT - Heartbeat in the Brain, Hole in the Skull 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.400 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:15.960 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:21.000 you know, summer's here and with summer comesfation drilling holes 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:25.280 in your skull to uh improve your mindset, to treat 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:28.120 the traumatic injuries, that sort of thing. Yeah, people often 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:32.279 think summer pools swimming, but what about creating pool in 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.919 your forehead? Indeed, Yeah, So we are going to rerun 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.559 this episode because we have a special uh hole in 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.919 our hearts, hole in our brains for this um for 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:46.320 this episode, and we hope you enjoy. And also wanted 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:48.839 to mention that if you don't know about the stud 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:54.600 it's called the NIB dot com. Uh. Emmy Dennis, a cartoonist, 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.600 has a great little bit on trepi Nation here is. 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:00.320 She even recreates one of these trepre Nations posts that 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:04.320 we talk about. Well, I'll make sure to include a 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.640 link to that on the landing page of this episode, 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:08.560 as well as a link to a new Forbes article 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.360 that came out. It has to do with three a 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:15.200 trepan skulls from the Copacabana Peninsula. And the Kitty Kaka 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:19.280 Basin of Olivia and these days back somewhere between BC 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:23.400 and A thousand, uh see, so it's pretty interesting stuff. 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:25.720 Will also include a link to the video we did 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.640 because there's a there's some particular footage that we mentioned 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.319 in the episode and you might be thinking, oh, I'd 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.120 really love to see that. You might think you would 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.560 love to see that, and if you would, then check 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.480 out the video. I'll include the link on the landing page. Indeed, 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.840 this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind does in 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:59.000 fact deal with the brain, the physical aspect of the mind, 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:04.480 and some rather radical things that have and can be 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.160 done to it, like drilling a hole in it, yes, 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.400 or particularly drilling a hole in the skull to create 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:12.560 a pathway to the brain. Yes, that kind of a 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.600 cranial release point. Yeah. I mean, we are talking about 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:20.120 trepid nation, which is something that has been performed since 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:24.040 prehistoric times, and we'll get more into that, but it's 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.200 pretty much mostly associated with which doctors. But we're going 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.680 to talk about it today in a medical sense, historical sense, 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.360 and what it may or may not have to do 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.760 with Alzheimer's. Yes, um, I do want to just go 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:40.200 ahead and get this out of the way right now, 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:42.720 and we'll probably touch on this some more. But no 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.280 matter what you hear in this episode, do not drill 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.320 a hole in your skull or the skulls of anyone 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.320 you know. Um, it's a bad idea best left to 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:56.160 professionals that you know. We we have caution you guys 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.360 a lot before. We've talked about like you get stung 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.880 by uh jelly fish, do not pee on yourself for others, 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.160 because it's not gonna work. It might actually make things worse. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.600 But we are super serious when we talk about trepen nation. Um, 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:09.480 and we're kind of laughing about it right now. But 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.960 as we will go into later, people have performed self 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.560 trepennations before and we'll talk about the reasons for that. 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.680 But again, this is something that is uh, it's just 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:22.800 not something that you do. I mean, it's brain surgery, 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:27.200 right exactly. And uh, in a sense, the the oldest 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.560 form of brain surgery now when we're talking about about 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:34.640 trepid nation. Essentially, this is the surgical removal of bone segments, 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.520 often circular, but sometimes it will be a square. It varies, 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.240 but but you see a lot of circles from the 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.240 skull in order to treat the symptoms of real or 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:51.160 imagine brain maladies. It was practiced by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Romans, Greeks, 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:56.440 and the early Mesoamerican civilizations. The earliest example that has 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:58.880 been found of a skull with trepen nation marks goes 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.560 back to the beginning of the Neolithic period some ten 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:05.240 thousand years ago, and the procedure is still performed today, 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:10.360 both for medical and non medical reasons. Yeah, today doctors 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:15.080 tend to call it a craniotomy instead of trepidation, just 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:17.919 because trepination is kind of a for many good reasons, 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.520 kind of a stigmatized term, because it does just bring 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:23.000 to mind drilling a hole through the skull and uh, 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:25.279 as as we'll discussed, there's a lot of baggage that 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.200 comes with that. A lot of that baggage it does 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:29.599 not deserve, but some of it it does. Yeah, and 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.640 when doctors do it today, it's because there's been some 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.159 sort of head trauma and uh, some sort of injury 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.200 that now only a sort of trepination would help to 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.560 reduce swelling in the build up of blood and other 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.640 fluids which can kill brain cells. Yeah, we're talking about 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:50.360 epidural or subdural hematomas here. Uh. And and also portions 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:52.719 of the skull will be reviewed, will be removed in 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.440 order to access parts of the brain. And in those cases, 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.640 of course we're taking this brain flap off in your 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.480 replacing it with a titanium plate, uh, screwing it on, 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:06.359 or using some of the forum to to fix it 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.520 back in position. Yeah, And then again these are our 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:13.560 medical reasons for undergoing this procedure. Non medical, there there 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.200 are quite a few reasons, it turns out, through history, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.440 and one could be a kind of symbolic trepanning, in 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.080 which you know, there's not there is a little bit 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:24.600 of a hole made in the head, that it's more 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.640 of a symbolic thing, a sort of third eye that 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.640 mystics might say that you know, would help to expand 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.320 your consciousness. Um, I do know that. Archaeologist Bob Arnott says, 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.320 and this isn't a new scientist article the skull doctors 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:41.680 that some holes were made after death as part of 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.320 a burial right or to allow removal of the brain 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.839 before mommification. And he says that in some societies people 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.880 actually wore bone ambulance little discs that were cut out 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.960 from the skull of a leader or a great warrior. 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.000 So it's kind of like the the whole symbolic transaction 0:05:58.040 --> 0:05:59.839 that happens there. If you have a little bit of 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:04.240 warrior or leader, perhaps you possess some of their power. Yeah, 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:11.279 and undoubted, undoubtedly trepid nation was used to treat various headaches, epilepsy, 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.760 mental disorders. There's even in the most basic forms of 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.320 trepid nation, with like the least medical ideas, there's still 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.880 this notion that there is an essential link between what's 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.719 going on inside the skull and the human condition and 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.960 your experience of reality, and that you can somehow adjustice, 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.599 tap into it, treat it by breaking down the barrier 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.080 between the world and the brain. Um and in this 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.680 you do see some of these ideas there in many 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:44.800 cases misapplied, but undoubtedly there have been holes drilled in 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.919 heads to release spirits, demons, etcetera. Yeah, the spirit and 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:52.320 demons things is something that that seems as though the 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.880 Western world has applied to what they might have deemed 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.400 as a primitive culture. Yeah, I think it's it's from 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:03.080 what I've read, is definitely overstated, but it's difficult for 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.359 anyone to say, no one ever drilled a hole in 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:10.120 the head to release the spirit or demon. But but 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:12.320 it is, it is over applied, and we'll get into 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:14.280 the details on that. It kind of gets, you know, treprenation, 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.160 gets into that weird territory that cannibalism gets into, where 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.520 there's so much myth and it's freighted with with so 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:23.720 much morality that it's sometimes hard to suess out the 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.880 truth from fiction. Over a historical amount of time, Yeah, 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:32.080 because certainly, especially really you know, Western European culture in 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:36.320 the over the last a few centuries, really into the 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:40.720 ideas of primitive, primitive people's or people who were deemed 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.720 as primitive eating each other and eating foreigners. Uh, certainly 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.040 into the idea of of some sort of a primitive 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:50.000 witch doctor just uh, you know, treating some sort of 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:53.680 malady by saying, oh, must free ghost from skull with 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.280 hammered you know, because it's just it's it's a demeaning ideas. 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:04.400 It limits those individuals to most primitive modes of human behavior. Yeah. 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.280 But then we have seen this in in Westerners for 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.720 a long time, this idea that you know, a Western 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.440 must be much more sophisticated. So therefore it must be 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:14.560 that they felt as though they were possessed by demon 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.200 and they had to let it out. But according to 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.880 Dr John Verano, who looked at something like ten years 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:26.720 of schools that we're in museums and private collections in 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:28.200 the U s and prow and he came to the 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:32.280 conclusion that there's plenty of evidence for advanced surgical skills 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.600 among the prehistoric people of the Andies. So that's for 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.000 one um. And if you start to look at this 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.960 a little bit more, then you you will stumble across 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:46.680 someone called Ephraim George Squire, who back in eighteen sixty 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:50.080 three already knew this. He already suspected this um, but 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:54.480 he actually had a different hypothesis of why this was, 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.240 and it didn't have anything to do with demons um. 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.000 He was an American diplomat and he was journeying across 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.760 Peru when he met Senora Zanito, who had in her 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:08.800 possession a skull with a perfectly square uh cut in it. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.400 And what he notices that it had healing scar marks 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.800 and it had new bone growth, which would indicate the 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:19.600 person whoever inhabited that school before survived the trepid nation. Yeah, 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.680 they were healing, They were going on with their lives 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:27.080 despite and maybe even because of this hole. That's right. 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:28.680 This if you want to look more into this to 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.640 this specific example, it is from the mental fALS article headcase, 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:38.040 and it goes into detailing trepid nation in various ways. 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.160 And Squire, who is a rather interesting individual on his own, 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.800 I mean, a self taught archaeologist that was sent by 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:47.280 Abraham Lincoln to South America to deal with the guano, 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.080 the guana guano business, the guano problem, and then he 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:55.960 ends up immersed in this issue of of these skulls 0:09:56.000 --> 0:10:00.160 in ancient neurosurgery. And and and at the time, you know, 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.880 we were talking about Western ideals and not what primitives, 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:09.040 primitive so called primitive societies did and do. Um. This 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:12.880 was a time where certainly that western white Westerners we 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:17.440 were like to view themselves as this superior species, almost 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.000 certainly a superior race, and everybody uh else was just 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:25.080 kind of piddling about. So the idea that ancient ancient 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:29.959 Meso Americans had advanced neurosurgery was kind of was a 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.520 radical idea, and in some sense it's a dangerous idea 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.960 to those who wanted to hold onto these these notions 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.120 of Western superiority. That's right, because we'll talk more about 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.560 this in a little bit. But you know, nineteenth century, 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:46.640 they're not having a lot of success with the procedure itself, 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.040 and it had been largely abandoned by this time. So 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.600 to think that a civilization, um, you know, five thousand 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.320 years ago, seven thousand years ago, could have carried this 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:01.160 out successfully seemed to fly in the face of logic. 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:06.280 And what Squire did is he presented, um, this this skult. 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:08.840 Paul Broca, who was a French or was a French 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.120 neurosurgeon and also the person for whom Broca's area in 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:16.199 the brain is named for, and he corroborated Squire's discovery 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:21.319 and said, yes, this is intentional. This looks like neurosurgery. Um. 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:26.240 But Broca thought it was done for primitive reasons, again 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:31.240 releasing the demons the ghost of the mind. And Squire said, no, 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.560 I don't think so. And he was the first, I 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:37.960 believe at that time, to come out and say I 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:43.280 think that it has more to do with perhaps combat. Yes. Um. 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.079 I should also point out that Broke also thought that 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.560 it was done almost exclusively on children. Yeah, this is 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:53.080 which he collaborated by saying, they look, I used a 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:57.080 glass instrument to to to gouge holes in the corpses 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.200 of children and adult dead adults, and I found that 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.680 it was far the far faster procedure with the child. 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.360 And therefore he concluded that it was used exclusively on children, 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:11.600 which was his experience with his instruments. Right. So it's 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:15.320 not a great way to sort of test out that hypothesis, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.800 but that's what he came to. Um. In the meantime, 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.000 you have things like inc and pots that are showing 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:26.640 up depicting trepen nation, further evidence that this was happening. Um, 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.360 you have a survey of ancient inc and skulls showing 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:34.040 that more males than females had trepennation holes, probably because 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.920 most warriors were men. And in addition, the majority of 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.480 man made holes in the skull would occur on the 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.280 left side of the school. And the idea is that 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.360 right handed assailants, of which we know there are more of, Um, 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:52.240 those the blows of those assailants would land on the 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.160 left side of the school. We're talking about from a 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:58.320 club sword, a slingshot, Um, so that's sort of more 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:02.600 evidence that in this case, in the Incan's case, this 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.440 kind of trepidation was more of an e er procedure. Really, right, 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.360 you have individuals who sustained massive damage to the head. 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:13.400 They've essentially sustained brain trauma, and so the surgical procedure 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.440 of the day was to try to relieve that pressure. Yes, 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:18.760 so let's let's give it a look, see and try 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:22.200 to imagine what this might be. You're an Incan warrior. Yeah, 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.040 I'm just stumbled in from the battlefield. I took a 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.560 club blow to the head. I'm in pain, I'm bleeding. 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.200 What can you do for me? Doc? Ah, Well, I 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:33.080 see that you might have some shards of your own 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.040 skull in your brain. We've got to pick this out. 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:40.640 Let's clamp your head between minknees, pour some coconut juice 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.199 on your scalp, and then we've got some freshly cut 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.680 leaves that we can just put on this wound to 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:49.920 dull the pain. Oh, okay, that would be coca leaves. 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.040 Coco leaves exactly. And maybe you want to even have 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.480 a little bit of our homemade alcohol because things are 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:57.640 going to get I might need that crazy. Maybe some 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.040 tobacco as well, even yes, some tobacco. I'm going to 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.960 take the sharp object. It could be perhaps a tooth 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.800 from the animal. Good. Good, sounds good. Okay, I'm gonna 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.600 cut into your skull and I'm gonna groove it around 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:13.840 and around this fracture you have deeper into your skull 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.080 and uh, you have a little bit more of those 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.640 cocoa leaves, by the way, and then you're going to 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:23.280 feel this kind of sucking feeling when this plug of 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.040 bone comes off of your brain, so rather your skull, 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.200 because it's kind of like my brain is sealed in 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.680 a in a tupperware, right, and you have just drilled 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.360 through that type of ware with your animal tooth. Yes, 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.040 but it's not over yet because I have these Greek 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:42.400 forceps that I've fashioned out of bamboo, and now I'm 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:44.800 just gonna kind of pick around the wound, wash it 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:46.640 out with a little bit more coconut milk, and take 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.880 out any other sort of splinters because you know you 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:53.600 don't want that. And I'm gonna dress it with leaves, 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.680 a plaster of pepper, lime and beetlenut. Excellent. Now, is 0:14:57.680 --> 0:14:59.240 there any way you could you could sew things up 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:01.520 there as well. Oh yeah, that's a good point. That's 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:03.840 we should really sew you up with some bat bones 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.720 and banana fibers. Good, good before putting that dressing on. 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.400 Thanks for reminding me, because that could have been really bad. Yeah, 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:11.000 I would have had to come back and you know, 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.040 and then that's two visits and I don't know how 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.160 my incot insurance covers those, uh, those postop visits. Also 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.400 count yourself lucky because if this were happening in the future, 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.000 in like the nineteenth century, you might be toast because 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.720 you know that coconut juice super good for keeping bacteria out, 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.000 and it turns out that that's a real killer. Yeah, 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:30.920 this is this touches on the really one of the 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.120 really interesting parts about it, especially when you're looking at 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.040 it from Squire's point of view in his time, because again, 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:40.960 Western society had pretty much abandoned trepid nation. Because despite 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:45.320 improving tools, you know, moving from more primitive instruments to 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:49.360 two instruments of metal and devices and clamps and whatnot 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.080 to put on top of the head like you see 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.520 in the woodcuts. Um, despite all these advancements, there was 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.840 still pretty high mortality rate for individuals sustaining any kind 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.760 of nursery on up into to uh the eighteen seventies 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.400 when a survey found that it's many as seventy of 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:10.840 neurosurgical patients died now mostly from infect mostly from infection 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.360 because there's one thing to to dig around in there, 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:15.800 but then everything has to heal and and it's very 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:19.280 susceptible to infection. Now you compare this to New Guinea 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:23.120 tribes and uh, you see just thirty percent of those 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.000 patients died. So obviously there's something here to keeping the 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.160 wound infection free. And you think about this too, even 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:34.960 like with childbirth fatalities, once things were sterilized and a 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.080 good practice was put into place that really got people 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:42.320 over the hump of of the actual procedure itself and 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.600 you know, help them to heal and And here's a 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.480 great example of Wow, I um survived this Trepi nation, 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.960 but now I might pass away from an infected wound. Yeah. 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.040 So it's kind of a champion of the little man 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.800 in a sense, because the squire ended up end up 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:03.200 being the victor in this uh in this argument was indicated. Yeah, 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.840 this self taught archaeologist won over the esteemed French neurologists 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.159 broke up. So kind of like that, and it's a 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:14.120 champion for these the so called primitive societies that were 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:18.160 looked down on. H Suddenly people had to realize, Hey, 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:22.240 the ancient Incans, they knew what they were doing indeed, 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:24.280 and they were doing it in a way that was 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:28.479 more successful than they're more modern counterparts. All Right, we're 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.240 gonna take a quick break. Uh So when we get back, 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:33.880 we're going to talk about Amanda Fielding, who is best 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:45.200 known for performing her own trep nation. Alright, we're back, 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.200 and you know, it's easy to think at this point 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.000 in the podcast, well, all right, we've discussed some of 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.040 the ideas about wine. People would drill a hole in 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.800 the head wine tref nation was practiced wine wine is 0:17:57.840 --> 0:17:59.960 still practiced today, and you might think, well, case club, 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.320 we've sort of we've sort of figured it out. There 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.280 are a few cases in which we need to apply 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.760 this procedure in order to deal with some sort of 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.680 injury to the to the skull in some sort of 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.160 brain trauma or some sort of neurosurgery that requires access 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:19.439 to the brain. There couldn't be any wacky or pseudo 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:24.520 scientific or controversial reason to drill a hole in your head. Well, miss, 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.920 you decided to drill a hole in your head. Maybe 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:35.159 you're trying to widen your consciousness. Yes, is that the 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.399 wacky reason? I think so? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, the 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:42.400 idea of performing trepination generally on yourself because it's hard 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.320 to find somebody to do it for you if your 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:49.040 whole goal is to expand human consciousness. Yeah, if it's 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.320 not an emergency medical situation, most likely the person the 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:54.760 surgeon is not going to perform, right. That person agreeing 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:57.359 to do it is probably not an actual doctor, and 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.600 you're probably not in a hospital. Yeah, you should check 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:04.239 references and look around. But yeah, I mean we are 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:09.080 talking about Amanda fil Fielding, who documented her own trepid 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.560 nation and this is a nineteen seventy film called Heartbeat 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:15.480 in the Brain. She is now seventy one years old 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:17.879 and is the director of the Beckley Foundation, a trust 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.439 that for over a decade has been carrying out research 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.240 into consciousness, including the use of LSD and other psychoactive substances. 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:28.000 She also ran for British Parliament twice on the platform 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:33.119 of trepid nation and these great posters but she has 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.359 that shows her with a bird on her shoulder looking 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:39.800 out in the distance, and then it says trepa nation 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.160 for the national health. You know, that's an interesting way 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:46.800 to sell trepid nation, just with sort of an abstract 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.800 bird like because I can easily imagine, and not to 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.520 poke fun at or anything, but I can imagine her 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.439 bringing up this. This is being her number one focus 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.520 point for the campaign, and in her campaign people saying, well, 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:03.639 we need to present that in a way that's a 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:08.040 little maybe a little less on the nose. Uh, maybe 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:10.560 no images of anyone actually drilling into their head if 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.119 we're saying more just a bird staring off in the distance. 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.520 I feel like she took both tacks though, because I 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.000 think there's another one around him, which it's the sort 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.960 of iconic image from the documentary which her head is 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.399 wrapped up and looking in the mirror. She look in 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.280 the mirror and there's some blood going down her face. Um, 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.000 so maybe she was testing out, you know, a b 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:34.200 situations there that she was advocating trepidation. She was saying, 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:37.240 we would be better off if we if we all 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:39.880 did this. Before we go into the wise of why 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:41.520 she did it, let's talk about how she did it, 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.040 because again she's filming herself. She's in the mirror. She 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.240 said in an interview with Vice magazine. I was obviously 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.080 very cautious and prepared myself very carefully. I used an 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.840 electric drill with a flat bottom and a foot pedal 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:56.719 and tested the drill head on the membranes of my 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.800 hands to see if it would damage the skin. The 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.280 old thing was carefully prepared. But more than anything, I 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:06.440 prepared myself psychologically. It's the last thing you want to do. 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.240 After I'd performed the procedure, I wrapped up my head 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:12.920 with a scarf, had a stake to replace iron from 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:16.320 the lost blood. I think almost a point by the way, 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:20.760 and and went to a party. It doesn't set you 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.320 back at all. It doesn't incapacity incapacitate you. It is 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.679 just a half hour operation. But in no way am 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:30.160 I advocating the idea of self trepnation. It should always 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.800 be carried out by members of a medical profession. So, 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:36.520 and that's key here again. If anyone reads this and 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:39.280 here's this and thinks I want to that sounds interesting, 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.440 I'd like to give that a go. The the world's 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:45.880 foremost trepennation advocate says, do not do this at home, 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:48.359 and only that. She says that, yes, she had a 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.640 change in dream pattern. She says her dreams became less anxious, 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.200 But she says, could all of that be described as 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:58.040 a placebo? There is, of course that possibility, and I 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:01.879 am very conscious of that. So she acknowledges, Yeah, I 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:04.160 drolled a hole in my head. I felt better for it. 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.400 But you know what, I'm aware of the placebo effect 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.199 and this could perhaps be just a psychological state for me. 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:13.040 So let's talk about why she did this to herself. Well, 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.600 for starters, she was the pupil of Bart Hugos, a 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:18.320 Dutchman who in the nineteen sixty five carried out his 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:23.000 own self trepi nation in order to expand his consciousness 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.960 and uh and was a huge advocate of it himself, 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:29.640 claiming that it was a way to essentially be high 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.040 all the time. Yeah, and it's side note too, he 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:37.239 named his daughter Maria Juana marijuana. Well I read that 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:39.680 that's he was actually kicked out of medical school because 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:42.639 he was a huge marijuana advocate. Yes, yeah, so I 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:44.560 just thought there's an interesting side note since we just 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:47.040 did an episode on names and how they have these 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:51.480 sort of self fulfilling prophecies sometimes. Anyway, I digress, Yeah, 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:54.440 a very interesting character. He came up with a concept 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.720 called brain blood volume, and this is this idea that 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:02.720 trepanning allows the full heart beat to express itself. And 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:05.439