Bore Hole by Joe Mellen

by Joseph Mellen

"Why did I drill a hole in my skull?" This book answers that question. It takes a bit of time to explain. It covers my childhood and growing up in the pre-sixties world. Then I drop out, turn on and begin a whole new life. I take mescalin in 1964. At last, I’ve got there. This is it. LSD is no more than a rumour at the time, then it becomes a reality when I meet Bart Huges in Ibiza in 1965. Bart was the guy who drilled a hole in his head. I’d heard about that. Was he crazy, or what? No, actually he was the sanest person I’d ever met. I became his disciple. I describe my own trepanation in 1970, which involved overcoming a few obstacles, and my continued attempts to brings Bart’s discoveries to the attention of the world, and review my subsequent life in an attempt to form a judgement on the value of the operation from my position in the year 2009."

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Science

Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Lenny D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those books that I saw in an article, bought on impulse, and read immediately to clear off my desk. My initial curiosity was piqued by the fact that a human being could a) drill a hole in his own head and b) live. Quite well, from the sounds of it. Mellen is almost five decades into his auto-trepanation experiment and still enjoying sentience. I had to know more.

As it turns out, yes, it is possible to penetrate about an inch into your skull and not kill yourself. Unfortunately, the book is largely uninterested with the gore, and the actual process, of trepanation. Mellen doesn't include a diagram or instruction sequence where he describes how his operation was undertaken. His writing, limpid and airy elsewhere, stayed that way during the part where he casually drilled a fucking hole in his head with a hand screw. I wanted more of a report of the operation. I wanted to know how he dealt with the pain. Instead, he describes simply cutting a flap of skin and getting down to a-drillin.'

Of course, blood and guts are not what he's here for. He didn't write a book to be lurid and exploit his crazy operation. The text, in other words, does not live up to Amanda Feilding's medieval cover illustration. He wrote it to proselytize the supposed genius of his friend, onetime mentor, and later estranged guru Bart Hughes.

The theory that Hughes invented was essentially that increasing blood flow to the brain was the key to enlightenment. The idea was this: one externality that resulted from man evolving into his upright position was that the brain got further from the heart and gravity pulled blood out of the brain. Since blood flow is essential to the functioning of every organ, if one could only get more "brainbloodvolume" into the skull, one got high. LSD achieved this: it constricted the capillaries in the brain and kept the blood floating around in there or something. Standing on one's head achieved this. Another way to achieve it was to relieve pressure on the fluid in the brain by drilling a hole in the skull. That way, the heartbeat could express itself more freely, as happens in the fontanels of a child, whose skull hasn't sutured together solidly yet.

Read the book if you want more detail than that, but to avoid rehashing a lot of witch-doctor babble, it's all bullshit. It has to be. I doubt that LSD is pharmacologically identical to standing on your head. He makes no mention of the chemicals in hallucinogens, as far as I remember. It's all just a matter of vasoconstriction. I'm no doctor, but neurology has to be a lot more complicated than how much glucose your body sends to your brain's capillaries. The theory is a waste of time to ponder.

The bankrupt medical explanations don't make the book bad by any means. It is useful as a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a real, drugged-out 60s eccentric. That was my chief takeaway. You know, you read a book about The Beatles or Keith Richards and you're dipped into a totally foreign (to a millennial) world of crazy, wonderful characters living in anarchy. Everything seems like one big carnival. And you wonder what it was like for those people to be so wigged out. This book is a dispatch from that fringe. I don't think Joe Mellen was clinically insane, but his theory is stupid enough to at least betray a lack of critical faculty.

That's why I read Bore Hole somewhat lamenting the loss of cultural innocence. This book is about a time when being a run-of-the-mill stoner was a novel enough identity to convince a guy that he wasn't just indulging chemical pleasures, but actually approaching ontological breakthroughs. I mean based on experience I'm totally on board with the idea that drugs can unveil one's noosphere and even reality's mechanisms. But from those experiences, I know that the underlying disquiet that disposes every psychedelic discovery is the immutability of our physical form. The totality of our entrapment. Within these mortal containers, we're subject to the materials we are made of and the materials we put inside ourselves. Drugs may lead to a state of mind in which the lens gets ripped off, so to speak, but they're also knowable and predictable as chemicals. Mellen and Hughes equate LSD with trepanation with a return to childhood, contravening nature; it's kind of a "return to purity" type thing. And that's just bullshit. Drugs are chemicals that act on our brains. Actually it's funny that he sought a regression to childish thinking given how naive his adult thinking was.

A far more compelling mystical explanation of LSD comes from an anecdote I heard about Ram Dass. Supposedly he once gave acid to an Indian guru to see if he, too, could make something of the incredible revelations Ram had seen. The guru experienced no effect. He took another dose, and still nothing. Eventually the guru concluded that he had no use for LSD; that the universe reveals itself to every culture through an avatar it feels comfortable with, and that for our materialist culture that messenger is a chemical. Since he had already seen what the drug had to show, he felt no effect.

Compared to a genuinely interesting explanation like that (not to mention plausible, as far as these things go) this book didn't measure up. It was peculiar, but not convincing. I found it to be a raw primary source: a first-person account that would have to be combined with a more explanatory text in order to convey a full story. A text like that would have described the history of trepanation; the ordeal of manual auto-trepanation; whether there were any contemporaneous ill effects from eating ton after ton of shitty processed sugar. (Seriously, this dude is constantly consuming sugar. Reminded me of the John Travolta movie Michael. Mellen does say that later in life he developed Type II diabetes, but he calls it a congenital illness. No attribution goes to the fact that he ate processed sugar many times a day for years. Goes to show what kind of medical brilliance you're dealing with.) Mostly, it would involve what the people around him could have possibly thought of this crazy guy and his crazy crew.

As I picked up Bore Hole, I was intrigued to see the back cover say that some called this book a brilliant, humanistic vision, while others "denounced" it as a cautionary tragedy of drug use. I was curious how such a soaring concept could be at the same time a sad, self-unaware dud. After reading it, I see both sides. This story is about vigorous and passionate devotion to life, but also to an idea that holds no water. His life is wild and free, but at some point you're just zonked out on acid all the time. Sure enough, the theory he expounds is exactly what you'd expect a couple of fried brains to dream up.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Q. What is life about?
A. The oxidation of glucose.

[Ren · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone fascinated by altered states of consciousness, psychology and also psychedelic drugs and the movement surrounding them, I was of course intrigued by the subject matter of this book. While it does raise a couple of interesting points regarding human physiology and it's effect on consciousness, I felt that it was really quite lacking in substance. The first part of the book follows the authors early life and his "turning on" to marijuana and psychedelics in Ibiza. This half of the book is terribly written. He flies through events, with little insight, often placing seemingly unconnected thoughts after something relevant, and then moving on without expansion or explanation. I am torn weather to be thankful that this section is short, or to wish he had gone into greater detail and given more background. The second half of the book, covering the events surrounding his self trepannation, is much more skillfully written. It moves at a more natural pace, and the content is definitely more interesting. Ultimately, I felt this book just had a lack of material. There are a few times where he repeats events or rehashes the "science" behind his guru's theory, almost word for word. And at points I couldn't actually tell if the sections written by other people regarding their experiences with trepanning were actually written by the author as a way of backing up his claims. An interesting subject, and one that I will look into further on the internet, but a pretty poor read at the end of the day.

[Brono · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating piece of art this book is. Not only for the horrific idea of drilling a hole in the head (ideally for a constant feeling of being high - expansion of consciousness) but also how the author explores the use of drugs and its effects in the mind.
Very precise description about the toxic and non-toxic drugs and for that I take my hat off.
I think many people have a very distorted idea of "drugs" in general and act like hypocrites when comparing a pothead to a heavy smoker..."oh I don't relate to drug addicts" - when directing such speech to potheads of course.
The humankind is driven by addiction - be it legal or illegal drugs, food, consumerism, and so on...if you fit in such a scheme Bore Hole will be a revelation to you.
Before jumping to any mistaken conclusion give credit to the one who experiment it on himself to find the benefits of expansion of consciousness on a not so conventional way!

[Big Daddy Gnome · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must say, quite a good read. Really made me want to drill a hole in my skull 👍

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

“This is the story of how I came to drill a hole in my head to get permanently high.”

Fuck dude it sure was

[Babs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was kind of brilliant. I would definitely recommend reading it: for its esoteric nature, its good for chatting about with others-ness, its example of how drug-use can completely change someone's entire outlook on life, permanently. However the author is clearly batty - although I won't discount the very central tenet of what the author is saying, the "scientific" explanations read as entirely pseudo bullshit - and the most fascinating aspect of the book is that an idea that made perfect sense while tripping on mescaline in the 1960s (I kid you not) is still held with absolute clear-dyed dedication by the author, now presumably sober, fifty years on.
In a nutshell, the author meets a charismatic and intelligent man called Bart Huges in the '60s, who explains to him that when the plates of the skull finally entirely fuse over, around the age of 20, this, added to the fact that as animals we now stand on our hind legs, thus draining blood downwards and away from our brains, means there is not enough blood in our brains, and the fused cranium means it cannot 'pulse' as it did when we were children. Therefore.... we are made dull, heavy, unimaginative, old. This is the reason, rather than, say, the natural degradation of brain cellsthat comes with ageing.
The author (and to a large extent my references to the author, Joe Mellen, also include Huges' views, given the former is an acolyte of the latter,) doesn't seem to take in to account natural selection, or adaptation of species etc. (eg. humans' hearts developed in response to them walking upright, to ensure the same amount of blood still reached this essential organ.) Reading Mellen's regurgitated scientific explanations, and I use that word with a grim and pained smile on my lips, is irritating. It's largely claptrap. Not satisfied with this Freud's Id and Ego are then woven in which led to me to think that if Mellen didn't have the private education and good accent that he has, he'd have plausibly been treated is as a lunatic. Indeed, in one of my favourite parts of the books, Mellen good-humouredly admits that when he lived in Ibiza in the 1960s, such was his fixated ranting about LSD that an American on the same scene actually paid him money to go away and leave the island. (He did.)
However I have given this book a good rating because it's really interesting. I mean, come on. Also, Mellen recounts a suprisignlyn detailed recollection of his life in this period of the 50s and 60s, although this is less surprising given I believe he wrote the draft of Bore Hole only a little after that time. What it feels like the book is missing, as someone reading it in 2021, is also perhaps as a result of this: although there is detail there is little 'flavour' of life in Ibiza and London in the 60s, which is a result of the book existing to outline the author's personal journey to what he would call enlightenment, and is focussed on that. For an amateur writer it's well-written, and I enjoyed some of the insights in to LSD use, not having taken it myself. Amazingly however, what Mellen doesn't do, except right right right at the end, tacked on in a couple of sentences - I feel the hand of a publisher - and which is all the more striking given the entire book is a treatise on trepanation, is to say whether it actually worked. The idea is that following trepanation one re-balances the brainbloodvolume and thus reattains the energy and creativity of a child, a permanent high, as the cover calls it. Does he?
Whilst I would not discount more research being done in this area - although sure, standing on one's head and getting a head rush does feel like getting high for a bit, for exceedingly obvious reasons - the scientific reasoning behind it feels bar-room. Bar-room at chucking out time. Huges says that trepanation "allows to achieve great things". However given so many people have achieved this without trepanation, and Huges and Mellen seem to have lived lives of moderate achievement, is the proof in the pudding?

[Leftjab · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the basic gist of this one is for someone to justify trepanation – Joe Mellen’s life story that to me felt like a long way to say “I’m not insane to have drilled/wanted to drill a hole into my head.” Yes, Mellen came of age in the 60s and it does seem like his very frequent use of LSD during that time led him to believe that drilling a hole in his head not only made perfect sense but also seemed like a good way for the masses to expand their headspaces. I mean, kinda literally expand their head spaces.

I did not come away from the book wanting to drill a hole in my head. I will say this (though doesn’t that come up in Ghostbusters? “Egon, this reminds me of the time you tried to drill a hole in your head.”), Mellen makes an excellent case for drilling a hole in one’s head, though the brainbloodvolume thing (Ned’s Atomic Dustbin album #3!) I wasn’t quite having? Seemed a bit of a stretch.

Good to read if you are interested in trepanation, the proliferation of acid into the mainstream in the mid 60s – really the most interesting aspect of the book, or the adventures of a British merry prankster who might have taken things a bit too far in the end. But hey, it sounds like his life has been ok, though the man who inspired him to drill a hole in his head (Bart Huges) sounds more likely like what would be common for someone who thinks drilling a hole in his head is a good way to stay “permanently high.” (Tragically, sounds like Huges took one trip too many and fried several parts of his cranial matter.) Good companion piece to Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind.

[Tasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bore Hole is a 1st person account of one man's experience through the psychedelic revolution of 1960s Europe. The first 66 pages are a brief review of Joe Mellen's life prior to meeting his guru, Bart Huges. The remainder are a single minded devotion to the teaching of Bart regarding the role of blood volume and brain function.

It's a simple premise. The sealing of the skull plates limits the pressure that can accumulate in the skull. The circulatory system is battling gravity to displace the less dense cerebral spinal fluid. The volume of blood limits the oxygen provided to the brain which will, in turn prioritize brain functions based on survival needs. By unsealing the skull, more blood can be introduced, meaning that more of the brain can function at the same time.

No proof is provided beyond a small sample size with no possibility of a control and only self reporting as a measurement. I have more questions than answers. However, a very brief look into some of the science indicates that this should be researched and studied.

There is more beyond this to the book and it is a quick and interesting read. It is also valuable as an anthropological resource due to the very limited number of modern people who choose to do this ancient practice outside of medical need, but rather in search of expanded consciousness.

[Wyatt Ryder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and readable, but should be read with scrutiny.

Bore Hole is the life story of Joe Mellen, a man who drilled a hole in his head to increase the blood supply to his brain and restore the childlike sense of euphoria that adults lack one their skull. The book is half auto-biography, and half preaching about how foolish the world is for not accepting this information.

It is a very readable book and very interesting, but the more I thought about it the more I realised Joe just could not be trusted as a narrator.

At its core this is a book about how Joe has unwavering faith in ‘the mechanism’. The mechanism is an explanation of how drilling a hole in your head, called trepanning, relieves the pressure in your skull and allows blood to replace spinal fluid in your brain. It also explains how, allegedly, all you need to have a great time on LSD is vitamin C and sugar. Every bad LSD experience is caused by a lack of sugar, according to the mechanism. It’s all written on a long, religious-text-like scroll. Joe claims the mechanism is the origin of all religion and the next step in human evolution. It is all created by a man named Bart, who was Joe’s drug mentor and friend.

Throughout the book explains the mechanism to all kinds of people. Basically anyone who visits his home gets a look at the scroll. He exhaustively mentions every person who is intrigued by the mechanism and what their qualifications are, but writes off those who don’t buy into it as ignorant, unwilling to see the forest for the trees.

Joe writes that journalists were refusing to display his message and fairly give LSD and trepanning a fair shot, but he is equally guilty of this crime. Throughout the book the mechanism is never once doubted. The final chapter of the book is a feature written by a journalist who gets trepanned and is undoubtedly in support of it. That is the only space he gives anyone from outside his circle. He never gives the other side, those who deny his great mechanism, a place to speak.

At the end of book he outlines how Bart went too far and started his own cult, where only those who devoted time and hardship were allowed to be blessed with the mechanism. Joe says he tried to stop this, but was excluded and regretted how it turned out. Reading this, it felt like Joe was saying “I was right the exact right amount” and Bart was the one who went too far. He calls Bart a megalomaniac who ruined his own life. He never considers that maybe the all-powerful mechanism is also a creation of Bart’s delusions and might need a little scientific scrutiny.

The worst part is that he never stops explaining the damn thing. The first explanation of the mechanism got most of the idea across, and the second made sure the reader understood the point of it, but he just keeps going. I feel like he explained the relationship of blood and the brain about 10 times. He even did it twice in the conclusion.

There are also other strange convictions Joe holds, like the idea of some drugs being toxic and addictive and others being non-toxic and impossible to build a tolerance to. This makes sense at a surface level, but it seems pretty biased towards the drugs he likes, such as weed. Cannabis tolerance is a pretty accepted thing and scientifically acknowledged, but Joe claims it cannot exist because of how non-toxic drugs work. He holds these convictions in the conclusion too, written 45 years after his trepanning.

In the conclusion he adds that science is ignoring the mechanism, an amazing discovery of unequivocal genius, simply because they refuse to see it as a viable option. He is preaching a message to a populace who does not want to hear it, he says. Not once does he consider any other possibility, like maybe the mechanism isn’t totally correct.

He also does this strange psychoanalysis throughout the book, explaining how his relationship with his parents redirected energy this or that way. He does this for other people as well. He never poses these as hypotheses, but instead fact. He is a devote Freud fan and makes it very clear.

All of this unwavering conviction creates this strange, unreliable narrator that made me doubt a lot of whats in here. He never stops talking about all the women he slept with and how they found each other irresistible. He also admits to sleeping with a teenager as a grown man. The way he writes these makes me wonder how honest he is being about how these relationships kicked off. It read to me like he was the one pursing them, and often rather aggressively. Maybe that’s not true, but the sheer lack of trust I can put into the rest of the book leads me to doubt everything else.

A lot of bad things happen around or to Joe, but not once does he ever suggest he could be the cause. What I found most upsetting is how he has a daughter in his early 20s, but the mother is unhappy with the relationship and leaves. His daughter is never mentioned again and he never claims to be supporting her or in communication. He continues on his holy quest to spread the mechanism and ignores his responsibilities.

As a book, the inability to trust anything Joe is saying makes for an interesting read, but I worry about those who would read it without a critical mind. Maybe Joe is right, maybe I am wasting my life as a miserable adult because my brain lacks blood, but I did not close this book wanting to put a hole in my skull.

[△*.- · Rating 3 out of 5]

*i'd like to note that i read the first edition, not the heavily expanded version released at a later date. that edition, i will read also in due time.

very fascinating work, albeit pseudoscientific in several ways. i found it amusing how sure of himself mellen was about the validity of this "mechanism-" especially in the faces of medical professionals and the condescending remarks he made when they displayed skepticism and disbelief regarding it (and understandably so). though, i must say, i found bart hughes's bbv theory incredibly interesting and well thought out- regardless of its legitimacy. though, it wasn't just the autotrepanation and bbv theory that rang false, hughes's ideas regarding "sugarlack" aren't logically sound either, as lsd actually increases blood sugar through its MoA, which, leaves the claimed improvement of the experience after the consumption of sugar a simple and obvious placebo effect- or, a simple "sugar rush," as is is commonly referred.

i hold no judgements against hughes, as lsd was incredibly new at this time (lsd discoved in 1938, this account spanned throughout the 60's) and the aforementioned information (lsd moa via 5ht2a, chemical and hormone releases etc. etc.) was just being discovered and may not have been widely distributed. however, with huges having been a near medical graduate, i would've thought he'd have been more involved in the newly emerging scientific developments of the matter. though, it was mellen who so arduously pushed to mainstream hughes's lsd, bbv/autotrepanation theories as a follower of his despite their newness, so, that likely had much to do with it also.

ultimately, my favorite thing about this piece was how it allowed the reader to be able to further observe the interconnectedness of the counterculture movements of the sixties, evident in mellen's run-ins with hughes, the beatles, (partially) burroughs, hollingshead, as well as of the moment he first met the esteemed amanda fielding, the woman who would later become his partner (rest in peace amanda <3). regarding amanda, the mention of the pigeon she famously grew very close with was a pleasant addition.

despite its charming lack of legitimacy and credibility, i highly recommend this work to others who enjoy strange, taboo and bizarre works of literature (both drug and medical related)- and especially to those who marvel at the history of lsd and the primary years of global psychedelic drug experimentation. a truly one-of-a-kind and special piece.

[Amanda Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of any book that makes me think on so deep a level. The whole explaination of how to achieve expanded consciousness through increased brain blood volume is endlessly facinating. I loved this for the many literary references throughout, the brutally honest account of Mellen's life, and the many ways he attempts to rid himself from the repression of adult life.

[James Conor · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting autobiography by a likely unreliable narrator who details his youth, early experiences with psychoactive substances and travels across europe pursuing more of the former.

good entertaining read, in some strange way i feel compelled to leave any real details out because it was so much more intriguing to go in nearly blind.

[Gigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted this to be gorier, to be more sensational, but in the end it read as a rather sober account of the 70s drug culture. With beat lit all over it, it just didn’t go far enough for me in terms of stylisation or excitement. Still not entirely convinced on the hole in the head thing.

[Mitchell Stafiej · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not very in depth - would've appreciated a deeper look into psychedelics as a whole. Instead you're left with small anecdotes and a deeply troubling surgery that is not explored adequately. Far too aloof to be talking about drilling a hole in your head.

[Zak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très intéressant et agréable à lire, à la fois la biographie d'une sorte de hippie et une (des rares) ressource(s) sur la théorie et la pratique de la trépanation pour atteindre des "états de conscience supérieurs"

[Miri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever thought about what would happen if you bore a hole in your head? I’m still not completely certain how it feels but it’s a very interesting story of a man on a mission who doesn’t let anyone stop him in his pursue

[J M-B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book i have wanted to read for years. Not a disappointment.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly scientific explanation of the value of trepanation.

[Kelly Sunflower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating and intriguing read.

[Gil Almeida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bom retrato da cultura Beatnik dos 60s. O tema da trepanação visto de uma perspectiva funcional. Peca um pouco pela repetição.

[James Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half was an awful Kerouac impression and he literally can't help but introduce a woman as "attractive" when adding them into the text.

[VLGRF · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drug-addled antics that end with a pretty gruesome account of self-trepanning. Probably easier than maintaining a meditation practice though.

[Savas Glacken · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5. some spoilers

Strangely enough, the first half of this book shared many similarities to On the Road, a story about the Beat Generation, predecessors to the Hippies of the 60's and 70's. Similar to Kerouac's story, there was lots of moving around, sharing partners, and scraping for cash. At times it was uninspired and kind of seemed like filler for the novel. Thinking back, this section was written in the 70's in a journal format so it really is just an account of Mellen's life in that time, and certain parts do pertain to the climax of the book. The second half, the 'trepanation' is where it truly gets interesting. The language used is more engaging, and you start to understand the reasoning and logic behind this decision.
While the description of the book may lead you to disgust toward Joe Mellen and psychonauts everywhere, it is clear that he and his closest friends see their trips differently. His main campaign during his prime was educating users on the benefit of taking sugar to increase glucose levels while on LSD induced psychedelic trips. This actually helps negate many of the 'illusions' and hallucinations that are attributed to these drugs and gives a more mindful high that is easier to function with. It helps support the 'peace and love' mantra of the time.
In terms of his actual brain-boring, he aims to elevate his constant state into one that some would consider more child-like, more wonderous. He does not aim to 'trip' constantly as some would think, but to bring back some fascination, wonder, and contentedness with both himself and the world around him.

All in all I am not sure I agree with the procedure, and the writing is lack luster throughout, but the approach to the subject matter is what sold me on this book. Maybe it's because I am a naive 21 year old who wants to believe that not all drugs are bad. I think there is something to be said about distancing the publics perception of psychedelics from hallucinations and psychosis, and realizing their potential that can aid in therapy, counselling, and everyday life. Not saying that one is worse than the other, but that there are different applications depending on the use and they should not all be labelled 'harmful' and 'bad'.

[Carlamagne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who tryna trepan

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy is more obsessed with sugar than he is with the hole drilled into his hed

[Cam · Rating 1 out of 5]

what the actual hell

[Rus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lujosa la edición. Muy interesante lo que cuenta. Leélo antes de comerte el próximo cartón 🤡🌈🤷🏻‍♂️

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ebook is an expanded edition of the original paperback with afterword material going up to 2005 or so. In the early and original parts of the book we learn how Mellen went from recreational drug taker to semi-professional evangelist for expanding consciousness in general and trepanation specifically. This followed a path of pot (1963), mescaline (1964), LSD (1965) when he met Bart Huges in Ibiza and helped him with the English version of his scrolls, “Homo Sapiens Correctus” and “The Ego”. In these works he described his discoveries of the two mechanisms of blood flow inside the brain. The first explains how expanded consciousness is caused by an increase in the capillary volume of the brain and the second how the speech system controls the distribution of blood to the centers in action by repressing function in other parts.



Bart's advice about ingesting sugar during trips was so effective for Mellen that he took Bart's suggestions for trepanation and, after some embarrassing missteps, drilled a hole in his own head. In this worldview the "fall" of man is the fall of blood from the brain due to gravity by the evolutionary decision to walk upright with a skullcase that fuses after childhood. The result, lost imagination and joy in adulthood. Giving a detailed biography of Huges, Mellen reflects back on his own career from working out of Hollingshead's World Psychedelic Centre to trepanation advocate, even after being largely shut out of Huges' inner circle due to his increasing isolation into narcissistic mania. He remains a firm advocate of the procedure, feels it helped him, and feels firmly that he should spread Huges' ideas.

[Thomas Sedkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

He's a little full of himself, and he appears to be valuing his purported principles in life over the responsibilities he took on in meaningful relationships. Most notably the first child he abandoned, and quite jarringly also to his guru, Bart, to whom he seems to neglect his own rather apparent role of the Dutchman's demise. In both cases he reflects on it briefly, and then seems to purge it from further thought. You could arguably add the severance of his relationship to his mom to that bucket as well.

That said, it's immensely interesting to read the stories and adventures of a person who pursues personal liberty and follows the wind at all costs. Especially of a person of reasonably sound intellect. I love dabbling in the odd break out of the rat race, so naturally it's intriguing and inspiring to read about someone who went all the way - even if I'd neither want nor dare to do it myself. It's entirely possible to dislike certain aspects of a person and enjoy others.

Apart from the initial chapter about his upbringing that felt a little dragged out (and chaotic) at times, it was a thoroughly engaging read!