AI Summary
5 min readIn 1964, a Dutch librarian and former medical student named Bart Hughes published a scroll titled "The Mechanism of Brain Blood Volume," arguing that when humans began walking upright, blood drained from the brain, and the way to restore our full potential was to drill a hole in the skull. He then drilled a hole in his own head with a dental drill. This is the modern origin of trepanation—an ancient surgical practice that has been around for at least 7,000 to 10,000 years, and which remains a fringe obsession for a small number of people today. On this Skeptical Sunday, Jordan Harbinger and co-host Nick Pell explore why humans have been drilling holes in their heads for millennia, and why a separate group of men are voluntarily removing their testicles—not for medical reasons, but for reasons ranging from sexual fetish to a desire for total freedom from sexual urges.
Trepanation: The Oldest Surgery in the World
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What you'll learn
- 1 Skeptical Sunday: Trepanation & Castration
- 2 (01:34) **Episode Introduction** - Jordan Harbinger and Nick Pell set up the episode's topic: extreme body modification, specifically drilling holes in one's skull and voluntary castration
- 3 (04:20) **What Is Trepanation?** - Nick explains that trepanation (also called trepanning or burr holing) is possibly the oldest surgical procedure in the world, dating back 7,000 to 10,000 years
- 4 (08:22) **Ancient Tools and Anesthesia** - The conversation covers what ancient trepanners used and how patients managed pain
- 5 (09:21) **Medical Reasons for Ancient Trepanation** - Head trauma was the most sensible ancient use—relieving pressure from brain bleeds and hematomas
- 6 (12:36) **Spiritual and Cultural Reasons** - Ancient people also trepanned for non-medical reasons, including letting evil spirits out
- 7 (13:50) **Classical and Medieval Uses** - Greeks and Romans used trepanation as the main treatment for epilepsy and similar disorders
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Trepanation, voluntary eunuchs, and other things to never try at home. Nick Pell cuts through the crackpot science here on Skeptical Sunday.
Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1369
On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:
- The oldest surgery on Earth: How humans spent 7,000 to 10,000 years drilling holes in skulls — and why survival rates reached 40 percent, climbing as high as 78 percent in some pre-modern European populations, rivaling the best of early modern Europe.
- When the ancients got it right: Why trepanation was sometimes sound medicine — relieving deadly pressure from a brain bleed — even as it was also used to release evil spirits, treat epilepsy and migraines, or mark warriors and shamans in rites of passage.
- The modern movement's quack roots: What drives voluntary trepanation today traces to Dutch pseudo-doctor Bart Huges, who drilled his own skull chasing a "higher consciousness" — a theory with zero evidence and a mortality rate north of 25 percent.
- DIY castration and the men behind it: How thousands of voluntary eunuchs and unlicensed "cutters" operate outside medicine, and why researchers tie the drive to body integrity dysphoria, sexual fetish, and the elusive pursuit of total "eunuch calm."
- How separating crackpot theory from real science comes down to asking what the evidence actually shows, respecting bodily autonomy without romanticizing harm, and consulting a mental health professional before anything irreversible.
- Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at [email protected] and let him know!
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