Trepanation. The Way To Higher Consciousness? Essay, Research Paper
Throughout the history of the human race, mankind has been locked in a
constant struggle with its own limitations and imperfections. Bound by norms and
social stratification, civilization has molded itself into a conformist society. The
same society that looks upon radical medicinal practices and alternative ways of
thinking with disdain. One medical custom met with great opposition from most
cultures is that of trepanation. Elaborated in this text will be the history, truths and
falsehoods, popular views, and clinical documentation of the practice of
trepanation and reasons behind the use of this type of surgery.
Trepanation is one of the earliest surgical operations known. There is
ample evidence to show that it was practiced by primitive man in prehistoric times.
The scraping of a hole in the cranium by ancient man was probably carried out
with the intention of relieving pains in the head or curing epilepsy, and at the same
time providing an exit for an evil spirit to escape from. Recently, archaeologists
have discovered a 7,000-year-old burial site at Ensisheim, in the French region of
Alsace. At this site is the earliest evidence of trepanation. The burial contains the
well-preserved skeleton of a man, who died at roughly 50 years of age, as well as
an arrowhead and an adze typically dated to 5100-4900 BC, a date corroborated
by a radiocarbon sample from the bone. Two trepanations had been carried out on
this man. One toward the front of the skull, measuring 2.6 by 2.4 inches, had
healed completely. The second had only partially healed, probably because of its
enormous size(3.7 by 3.6inches). The larger trepanation appears to have been
produced by intersecting incisions, and the smaller one may have been made in the
same way. The long-term healing evident from the bone indicates the operations
were successful. (Walker, 2-8)
In the western hemisphere, trepanning was practiced at an early period by
the ancient Incas of Peru, who performed it with great dexterity. Scientists have
found that 5 to 6 percent of the ancient skulls excavated in Peru show that
trepanning was resorted to for therapeutic reasons. The Incas preferred square
openings, and the operation is still practiced by native medicine men among some
tribes in South America in much the same manner as it was carried out in ancient
times. The patient’s head was held tightly between the surgeon’s knees; the patient
reclining and the doctor sitting. An incision was then made in the scalp and a
section of bone, approximately an inch square, removed from the skull. The
instrument employed was a sharp piece of flint or hardened copper with a rough
edge, which was used by rubbing the edge backwards and forwards along the
bone. (Thompson 23)
In western civilization we find that trepanning was practiced freely in the
time of Hippocrates (c. 400 B.C.). The instruments employed by the early Greek
surgeons varied, and included the trerbra, or drill, chiefly used for making a circle
of holes around the depressed bone, which was operated by a thong around the
centre or on a cross beam. For the same purpose, the trepanon, operated by a bow,
like a drill, was sometimes employed to make the perforations, and the interspaces
between each hole were broken up by the scalpel so that the roundel of bone could
be removed. (Haeger, 14-15)
The first innovation in what we now know as the modern trepan was
introduced towards the end of the 16th century, when in 1575 Matthia Barvatio
invented a mechanical instrument which was operated by a cog wheel turned by
the hand. This was connected with another wheel, which when rotated actuated a
circular saw which cut into the bone. This device ultimately turned out to be too
heavy and clumsly to be used skillfully. (Haeger, 16)
Towards the close of the 19th century, there was a return to some of the
earlier types of instruments. In 1889, the trepan was introduced as a mechanical
rotatory trephine. Mechanical drill-stocks also came to be used with drills or
trephines. Several years later, the trepan was introduced with a crutch shaped
handle, but since that time no marked change appears to have been made in this
instrument employed on the cranium. (Haeger, 17)
In today’s context, most trepanations are carried out for the sake of attaining
a higher level of consciousness. For the most part, a Dutch medical scientist
named Bart Huges can be cited for the resurgence of trepanation in modern
society. In 1962, the physiology underlying consciousness was brought to light by
Huges. The breakthrough in understanding concerned the fact that the level of
consciousness is dependent on the total quantity of blood in the capillaries of the
brain; when that quantity is increased, the result is accelerated brain metabolism
and therefore an enhanced level of neurological functioning. However, three basic
factors – the force of gravity, the relative density of blood compared to water, and
the imprisonment of the brain in a case of bone – cause a problem for man in his
upright position. This problem is a shortage of blood in the brain capillaries which
necessitates permanent repression from function of most of the brain, symptoms of
which appear throughout human behavior. The solution is to increase the brain’s
blood volume. This can be brought about by trepanation; an adult’s ‘brain-blood
floor’ can be raised permanently to the level it was at during childhood and youth
when cranial sutures had not permanently closed yet. (Hughes, 42-50)
Methods of enhancing consciousness are as old as man. What is new is the
explanation of how they work; i.e. the description of the physiological mechanism
behind the experience. The question as to whether the brain pulsates when the
skull is completely closed and fully ossified, as it is known to do in open skulls, is
one of the fundamental problems in the study of cerebral blood circulation. This
question is of prime importance because those who have been trepanned state that
the pulsing of blood to the brain from the circulatory system is critical for attaining
a higher consciousness. (Sokoloff, 66)
Brain pulsation is clearly visible in the infant child. The soft tissue on the
top of the head known as the fontanel rises and falls with the beating heart. This
expansion and contraction on the heartbeat does not threaten the infant’s good
heal
bone. The visual evidence that the heart beat still reaches into the brain vanishes
before our eyes. Still the infant’s good health is unaffected. But does the heart
pulsation (also known as cardiac rhythm) continue to exist inside the skull even if
it can’t be seen? This is an important question scientists have posed.
The first views on the causes of cerebral pulsations may be found in the
works of Galen (131-201 A.D.) whose observations were based on observations in
animals. He suggested that brain pulsations were directly related to the respiratory
rhythm, and were due to seepage of air into the cerebral ventricles through the
cribriform plate. He also considered brain pulsations to be possible because of the
existence of a vacuum between the cerebrum and the dura. (Michell, 53)
Later, Vesalius (1600) wrote on the movements of the brain in new-born
babies and adults who had sustained cranial injuries and on animals whose skulls
were opened in vivisection studies. The brain movements were ascribed to the
pulsations of the arterial branches of the dura. It was thus thought that these brain
movements were due to its swelling following the increased blood content
following each pulse wave. (Michell, 57-58)
After the discovery of the cerebrospinal fluid in which the brain substance
bathes, however, the problem of the existence or absence of brain pulsations was
approached in an entirely different light (Contugno, 1864; Magendie, 1825). It
then became clear that the space between the surface of the brain and the dura
mater which formerly was thought to be filled with compressible air, was actually
filled by the incompressible cerebrospinal fluid. A review of the work of different
investigators published during the past century shows that some of them were able
to solve the problem as to whether brain pulsations exist in the closed skull cavity,
as long ago assumed by Galen. Such a process was possible only when one
assumed the existence in the brain of a space filled with air, allowing for
alterations of the cerebral volume. When the cerebrospinal fluid was discovered, it
was recognized that the cranial cavity was completely filled and the point of view
that cerebral pulsations in the hermetically closed skull were not possible also
appeared in the literature. Because of this finding, Muller (1839) and Bourguignon
(1839) were of the opinion that cerebral pulsations did not exist. An attempt to
support this view experimentally was made by Pelehtan. Into the skull of a dog he
inserted a glass tube and recognized that the cranial cavity was completely filled
with fluid and cerebral pulsations would not be possible. (Hughes, 78-85)
Brain pulsation, or intracranial pulse pressure, has largely been ignored as a
subject for investigation by the medical establishment in Western Europe and
America. The primary investigators in modern times have been Russian. Most
important amongst them is B.N. Klosovskii, who is otherwise recognized
internationally for his methods of studying blood circulation in the brain. In the
mid 1950’s he developed methods of tissue staining that allowed the arteries and
the veins of the brain to be clearly distinguishable. The vascular bed was then for
the first time clearly mapped. His main work, Blood Circulation In The Brain, was
translated from the Russian in 1963 and published under an agreement with U.S.
Public Health Service. The last several chapters of Klosovskii’s text deal with the
ideas of brain pulsation and his belief that there is no pulsing in a closed skull.
(Colton)
Klosovskii, however, is not without critics. Other Russian investigators
dispute his findings. In their work Hemodynamics of Cerebral Circulation, also
published by the U.S. Public Health Service, Moskalenko and Naumenko take up
the case against Klosovskii. Using impedance electroplethysmography, an entirely
different method than Klosovskii’s direct observation through a “transparent
window,” they find that there is a “pulse wave” in the hermetically sealed skull.
Their measurements indicate that this pulse is in the order of 1-2mm of water.
Cardiac rhythm, pulse pressure, or pulsation is normally measured in mm. of
Mercury (mm.Hg) not mm. of water. The difference in order of magnitude here is
one to thirteen. (Thirteen mm of water equals one mm of mercury). They conclude,
“in the hermetical cavity of the cranium, the pulse wave is transmitted indirectly
from the arterial system into the veins and in doing so bypasses the capillary bed.”
The “pulse wave” that they had measured in the closed skull is in no way
equivalent to the presence of “pulse pressure” that Klosovskii observes on the
cerebral surface in the open skull. (Michell, 97-98)
In a 1960 review titled Soviet Investigations in the Field of the Vascular
Supply of the Brain, the noted American brain physiologist, Ernst Simonson,
disputes those investigators using impedance plethysmography. He says, “The
viewpoints are in need of confirmation, as it is rather difficult to imagine that
alterations of intracerebral pressure of only 1 to 2 mm. water column can lead to
blood being expressed from the cerebral veins, no matter how thin-walled these
may be.” (Hughes, 111-119)
Many people in today’s society consider trepanation to be a kind of blood-
letting. An operation done in the hopes it will make a person better, but rather
winds up hurting the sick worse. For thousands of years, a select few in society
have stood up for practices they believed would better their life. In the case of
trepanation, maybe those who open their skull should not be looked down upon as
crazy. These select few, in their own eyes, have seen all the proof they need to
consider this operation as a viable way of making their life more fulfilled.
Reviewing the information that has been published, as well as the testing of new
theories by scientists and physicians, will hopefully answer the question of whether
or not the human race is being retained from achieving a higher state of being.
However, even if it is proven that a hermetically-closed skull does in fact pulse,
many would agree it would not stop the act of trepanation. People who decide to
carry out the process of opening their skull would still stand with the notion that
increasing one’s brain blood volume is the only way to increase a persons state of
being.