No! Don't do it!

I just logged in to my email to find this worrying comment on my post about trepanation:

I have been very interested in this procedure for quite some time and I am curious to find someone that has had the procedure done. I am a Reiki Master I work with stones and crystals as a form of intigrated [sic] healing and also African D'jembe for Shamanic sound therapy. I find the information that I am reading very pertanant [sic] to my work and have given very serious thought to having it done but can't seem to find out more about it from someone that has had it done.

Namaste,

Kevin

I am not a physician, so I don't normally offer medical advice, but in this case I feel it would be irresponsible of me not to do so, because I wouldn't want something I wrote to inspire someone to do such an insane thing.

Kevin, I strongly urge you not to drill a hole in your head. If you want to reach a higher level of consciousness, please consider other methods first. If you have a health problem, please consult a doctor who practices conventional, evidence-based medicine.

If, however, you decide to ignore this advice and go ahead with the procedure, here's a beautiful 19th century trepanning brace that is available for purchase.

More like this

The operation of Trepan, from Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery: Trepan, Hernia, Amputation, Aneurism and Lithotomy, by Charles Bell, 1815. (John Martin Rare Book Room at the University of Iowa's Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.) Trepanation, or trephination (both derived from…
I've discussed the evolution of "integrative" medicine on many occasions. To make the long story discussed over many posts short, medicine based on prescientific and/or unscientific ideas was once, appropriately, referred to as quackery, and those practicing it, appropriately, as quacks or…
Khaaaaan! No, wait a minute. I mean: Nooooooo! No place is safe from the invasion of quackademic medicine. No place. As you will soon see. As you know, I've documented the infiltration of pseudoscientific and outright antiscientific woo into institutions that really should know better, namely…
I've complained on multiple occasions about the infiltration of non-evidence-based "medicine" (a.k.a. woo) into every level of medicine in the U.S.. Worst of all, it's infiltrating medical education in a big way, starting with the pro-woo activism of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA…

You could always point the guy to BME.

Everything you need is at Home Depot. Channel your crystals for details...

Wasn't this in Ghostbusters?

Outeast, that's exactly what it made me think of.

Venkman: Egon, this reminds me of the time you tried to drill a hole in your head.

Spengler: That would of worked if you hadn't stopped me.

This guy needs a hole in his head like a hole in the head.

Meow. =^.^=

By themadlolscientist (not verified) on 18 Jun 2008 #permalink

I advise that this new-age nut read this diary of a trepanation. The guy who undergoes the procedure later comes to regret it and conclude that any sense of heightened awareness comes from placebo effect and is short-lived.

So, if the heightened awareness comes from the placebo effect, then we can just pretend to drill a hole in his head to give him the desired effect...