A man drilled a hole into his own skull so that he could remain constantly high.
Joe Mellen, former member of the Swinging Sixties acid revolution, devised a plan to ensure that he could be indefinitely tripping through an archaic process known as trepanation.
Mellen broke through his skull not once or twice but thrice with a hand-held drill.
Joe Mellen learned about the ancient process known as trepanation from a Dutch academic named Bart Huges in the 1960s.
Trepanation or trepanning is considered to be one of the oldest surgical procedures known to humanity.
He told the VICE, “At that time, I was broke, and I certainly couldn’t afford an electric drill, so I bought a hand trepan from a surgical instrument shop.”
He said, “It was difficult. It was like trying to uncork a bottle of wine from the inside.”
He recalled, “I was tripping on acid. I thought that it was the only way I could get through doing it, but it didn’t work.”
Talking about the second attempt about a year later, Mellen said, “There was kind of a ‘schlurping’ sound as I took the trepan out and what sounded like bubbles. I think I went through a tiny bit, but I don’t think it was enough.”
The third and final attempt was done in 1970, according to Times Now.
“It took half an hour all in all, including clearing up afterwards. I was feeling great because I’d done it, but then I noticed after about an hour I started to feel a lightness, like a weight had been lifted off me,” Mellen said.
He continued, “I did it in the evening and went to bed at 11 pm feeling good, and I could still feel it when I woke up the next morning. And then I realised, ‘This is it. It’s done’.”
Mellen detailed the story of how he “drilled a hole in my head to get permanently high” in his book Bore Hole.
