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The most gripping passages in Bore Hole describe his
various attempts to complete the operation. They are also extremely gruesome, and those who lack
medical curiosity would do well to read no further. Yet to those who might contemplate
trepanation for and by themselves, Joey's experiences are a salutary warning. It should be
emphasized that neither he, Bart nor Amanda has ever recommended people to follow their example
by performing their own operations. For years they have been looking for doctors who could
understand their theories and would agree to trepan volunteer patients as a form of therapy.
Strangely enough, not one member of the medical profession has been converted.
In a surgical store Joey found a trepan instrument, a kind of auger or corkscrew designed
to be worked by hand. It was much cheaper and, Joey felt, more sensitive than an electric
drill. Its main feature was a metal spike, surrounded by a ring of saw-teeth. The spike was
meant to be driven into the skull, holding the trepan steady until the revolving saw made a
groove, after which it could be retracted. If all went well, the saw-band should remove a
disc of bone and expose the brain.
Joey's first attempt at self-trepanation was a fiasco. He had no previous medical experience,
and the needles he had bought for administering a local anaesthetic to the crown of his head
proved to be too thin and crumpled up or broke. Next day he obtained some stouter needles,
took a tab of LSD to steady his nerves and set to in earnest. First he made an incision to
the bone, and then applied the trepan to his bared skull. But the first part of the operation,
driving the spike into the bone, was impossible to accomplish. Joey described it as like trying
to uncork a bottle from the inside. He realized he needed help and telephoned Bart in Amsterdam,
who promised he would come over and assist at the next operation. This plan was frustrated by
the Home Office, which listed Dr. Huges as an undesirable visitor to Britain and barred his entry.
Amanda agreed to take his place. Soon after her return to London she helped Joey re-open the
wound in his head and, by pressing the trepan with all her might against his skull, managed
to get the spike to take hold and the saw-teeth to bite. Joey then took over at cranking the
saw. Once again he had swallowed some LSD. After a long period of sawing, just as he was about
to break through, he suddenly fainted. Amanda called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital,
where horrified doctors told him that he was lucky to be alive and that if he had drilled a
fraction of an inch further he would have killed himself.
The psychiatrists took a particular interest in his case, and a group of them arranged to
examine him. Before this could be done, he had to appear in court on a charge of possessing a
small amount of cannabis. The magistrate demanded another psychiatrist's report and remanded
him for a week in prison. Before this could be done, he had to appear in court on a charge of
possessing a small amount of cannabis. The magistrate demanded another psychiatrist's report
and remanded him for a week in prison.
There followed a period of embarrassment as the rumor went round London that Joey Mellen had
trepanned himself, where as in fact he had failed to do so. As soon as possible, therefore, he
prepared for a third attempt. Proceeding as before, but now with the benefit of experience, he
soon found the groove from the previous operation and began to saw through the sliver of bone
separating him from enlightenment or, as the doctors had predicted, instant death. What followed
is best quoted from Bore Hole.
'After some time there was an ominous sounding schlurp and the sound of bubbling. I drew the
trepan out and the gurgling continued. It sounded like air bubbles running under the skull as
they were pressed out. I looked at the trepan and there was a bit of bone in it. At last! On
closer inspection I saw that the disc of bone was much deeper on one side than on the other.
Obviously the trepan had not been straight and had gone through at one point only, then the piece
of bone had snapped off and come out. I was reluctant to start drilling again for fear of damaging
the brain membranes with the deeper part while I was cutting through the rest or of breaking off
a splinter. If only I had had an electric drill it would have been so much simpler. Amanda was
sure I was through. There seemed no other explanation of the schlurping noises. I decided to call
it a day. At that time I thought that any hole would do, no matter what size. I bandaged up my
head and cleared away the mess.'
There was still doubt in his mind as to whether he had really broken through and, if so, whether
the hole was big enough to restore pulsation to his brain. The operation had left him with a
feeling of well-being, but he realized that it could simply be from relief at having ended it.
To put the matter beyond doubt, he decided to bore another hole at a new spot just above the
hairline, this time using an electric drill. In the spring of 1970 Amanda was in America and
Joey did the operation alone. He applied the drill to his forehead, but after half an hour's
work the electric cable burnt out. Once again he was frustrated. An engineer in the flat below
him was able to repair the instrument, and next day he set out to finish the job. 'This time I
was not in any doubt. The drill head went at least an inch deep through the hole. A great gush
of blood followed my withdrawal of the drill. In the mirror I could see the blood in the hole
rising and falling with the pulsation of the brain.'
The result was all he had hoped for. During the next four hours he felt his spirits rising
higher until he reached a state of freedom and serenity which, he claims, has been with him
ever since.
For some time now he had been sharing a flat with Amanda, and when she came back from America
she immediately noticed the change in him. This encouraged her to join him on the mental plane
by doing her own trepanation. The operation was carefully recorded. She had obtained a
cine-camera, and Joey stood by, filming, as she attacked her head with an electric drill.
The film shows her carefully at work, dressed in a blood-spattered white robe. She shaves
her hair, makes an incision in her head with a scalpel and calmly starts drilling. Blood
spurts as she penetrates the skull. She lays aside the drill and with a triumphant smile
advances towards Joey and the camera.
Ever since, Joey and Amanda have lived and worked together in harmony. From the business of
buying old prints to color and resell, they have progressed to ownership of the Pigeonhole
Gallery and seem reasonably prosperous. They have also started a family. There is nothing
apparently abnormal about them, and many of their old friends agree in finding them even more
pleasant and contented since their operations. There is plenty of leisure in their lives,
mingled with the kind of activities they most enjoy. They have lectured widely in Europe and
America to groups of doctors and other interested people, showing the film of Amanda's
self-operation, entitled Heartbeat in the Brain. It is generally received with awe, the
sight of blood often causing people to faint. At one showing in London a film critic described
the audience 'dropping off their seats one by one like ripe plums.' Yet it was not designed
to be gruesome. The soundtrack is of soothing music, and the surgical scenes alternate with
some delightful motion of Amanda's pet pigeon, Birdie, as a symbol of peace and wisdom.
Joseph Mellen. Bore Hole. London, 1975.
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