Trepanation - Opening Ones "Third Eye" - The Hard Way

The medical community argues against it . . . media has used it as a shock story . . . but it's a procedure that has been around for ages, and some people believe it to be effective: trepanation. The desire to increase one's conciousness permanently has led some brave people to undergo this procedure. - Source WARNING - SHOCKING IMAGES ( This source under went a trepanation procedure. It shows not only trepanation in action, but also has his own personal diary. You have been warned. Read below for more links and information. )

Hippocrates endorsed its use and it’s the world’s second oldest surgical procedure following circumcision. It’s called trepanation and it literally means drilling a hole in your head. The practice of making a hole in the skull has been around since the Stone Age — archaeologists have found trepanned skulls dating back to 3000 B.C. Hippocrates, in his classic medical text "On Injuries of the Head," endorsed trepanation for the treatment of head wounds. During the middle ages it was thought the procedure was able to liberate demons from the heads of the possessed and, later on, “enlightened” Europeans did it to cure maladies ranging from meningitis to epilepsy.

And yes, today in the 21st Century people are still doing the procedure, even whats known as self-Trepanation....

So why are people still doing it? Wiki says : "Although widely considered today to be pseudoscience, the practice of trepanation for medical benefits continues. The most prominent explanation for these benefits is offered by Bart Hughes, sometimes referred to as "Dr. Bart Hughes" even though he did not complete his medical degree. In the Hughes theory, trepanation increases "brain blood volume" and thereby enhances cerebral metabolism in a manner similar to cerebral vasodilators such as gingko biloba. However, most individuals who practice non-emergency trepanation today do so for psychic purposes. A prominent proponent of the modern view is Peter Halvorson, who drilled a hole in the front of his own skull to increase "brain blood volume"."

Quite the length to go for Enlightenment. There is a Trepanation Society, Trepan, Which believes that by having Trepanation done, or even Self-Trepanation one can expand their own consciousness and open their 'third-eye'. Apparently, it goes under the guise of body modification, although it is a serious and dangerous 'medical' procedure. Its hard to believe people are actually out there doing this. Then again, not really.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) is a freely-accessible online encyclopedia of philosophy run and maintained by Stanford University. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field, including professors from over 65 academic institutions worldwide. Apart from its online status, the encyclopedia maintains the traditional academic approach, used in most encyclopedias and academic journals.

Link - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Images of the Day

Best Commercial Ever

This commercial is for real. I mean it happened for real. He really made a rap video for his furniture store. Yeah.

The Armed Forces Welcomes Suicidal Teens

Top 5 weirdest patron saints

Mental Floss has compliled a collection of the top 5 weirdest patron saints :
1) Saint Drogo (1105-1185), a Flemish nobleman who was reportedly able to bilocate, maintaining his presence in two locations at once. Witnesses claimed seeing Drogo working in fields simultaneously, and going to mass every Sunday. He is the patron saint of coffee and coffeehouses, we suspect because his peculiar talent for multitasking. (He’s also the patron saint of those whom others find unspeakably repulsive, but that’s another story altogether.)

2) Saint Anthony the Great (251-356), an Egyptian Christian monk who lived in a tomb for some years to overcome the temptation of “boredom, laziness and the phantoms of women,” and thus is known (among other things) as the patron saint of gravediggers.

3) Saint Lawrence of Rome (225-258), having been martyred by being roasted alive on a gridiron, is the patron saint of cooks and tanners.

4) Saint Nicholas, commonly associated with Santa Claus, is said to have aided the poor father of three marriageable girls who could not afford their dowries. To save them from a life of prostitution (a common fate for unmarried women in third-century Asia Minor), he dropped three sacks of gold down their father’s chimney late one night. (Sound like another St. Nick we know?) Thus, he is known as the patron saint of prostitutes.

5)French saint Thérèse de Lisieux (1873-1897), known as “The Little Flower of Jesus,” who wrote “Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.” She is the patron saint of flowers.

Via - Mental Floss

Junko Mizuno - Powerpuff Girls on Acid

Junko Mizuno [wiki] is a Japanese artist. She debuted in 1996 with a booklet called MINA animal DX. Her drawing style mixes childish sweetness and cuteness with blood and terror -a so-called kawaii noir style-. She describes her artwork as “The Powerpuff Girls on acid.”. Besides her comics, sometimes published in color, she designs T-shirts, calendars, postcards, and other collectibles. Mizuno has participated at Angoulême International Comics Festival. In the U.S., Viz Comics has published some of her work.
In this video, Jonathan Ross interviews Junko Mizuno for the Japanorama BBC series.

Consciousness and Reality Documentaries

Some guy catalogues every Google and Youtube video dealing with consciousness and reality. This Site is a trip in of itself. An amazing video collection indeed! In fact after you're done with the videos, which will take ages, take a look around his page. This one is for surfing for hours.
Link - DEDROIDIFICATION

Images - Frozen "Waves"

OK, so it isn't really a "Frozen Wave" but it sure looks like it. What it really is is a Glacier that has melted and re-frozen over-and-over. Still amazing. Source - Thrilling Wonder - Tons of More Pics

Greeks - Worshipping the Ancient Gods Again

After a break of 16 centuries, Greek pagans are worshipping the ancient gods again - despite furious opposition from the Orthodox church.

"Not since the late fourth century AD, when the newly Christian Roman state outlawed all forms of pagan worship, had a high priestess officiated on the sacred site. It was high noon when Doreta Peppa, a woman with long, dark locks and owlish eyes, entered the Sanctuary of Olympian Zeus. At first, tourists visiting the Athenian temple thought they had stumbled on to a film set. It wasn't just that Peppa cut a dramatic figure with her flowing robes and garlanded hair. Or that she seemed to be in a state of near euphoria. Or even that the group of men and women accompanying her - dressed as warriors and nymphets in kitsch ancient garb - appeared to have stepped straight out of the city's Golden Age. However this was indeed an act of worship.

So big, that like a thunderbolt from the deity himself, the one-hour ceremony has achieved the near-impossible task of unnerving Greece's powerful Orthodox church. Since Peppa's performance 10 days ago, hierarchs have redirected the venom they usually reserve for homosexuals, Catholics, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, masons and the "barbaric" Turks at the "miserable resuscitators" of the degenerate dead religion. In fire-and-brimstone sermons priests have slammed the "satanic" New Ageists and fulminated against their idols. "

Article and interview in full at - The Guardian UK

Image of the Day - First Hair Wash in 26 Years

An 80-year-old Chinese man has washed his hair for the first time in 26 years.

Video - Constantly Mutating Painting

In 2005, Japanese art group Rinpa Eshidan filmed themselves painting one week’s worth of art - painting and erasing the same canvas over and over again.
The time-lapse clip is fantastic - if you haven’t seen it before, you’re missing out.

Stonehenge Builders' Houses Found

A huge ancient settlement used by the people who built Stonehenge has been found, archaeologists have said. BBC NEWS

"Excavations at Durrington Walls, near the legendary Salisbury Plain monument(Stonehenge), uncovered remains of ancient houses. In ancient times, this settlement would have housed hundreds of people, making it the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain. The dwellings date back to 2,600-2,500 BC - according to the researchers, the same period that Stonehenge was built. "In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards," he explained. "Source and Full Article - BBC NEWS

Boston's Scared of 8-Bit Finger Flippers

A marketing campaign for Cartoon Network's Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie went awry Wednesday in Boston when several of Cartoon Network's blinking signs were mistaken for bombs causing a terror alert throughout the city that included blowing up at least one of the lights by the city's bomb squad. Check out what caused all the stir here.

The charges were (see finally) dropped against the marketeers putting up the signs, but apparently Turner Broadcasting (who paid them) will be fined for the publicity stunt. More info - ATHF Wikipedia entry

Seriously America, are you that afraid?

Kittiwat Unarom - The Body Baker - Weird Breads

Kittiwat Unarom, age 28, is a Thai artist and son of a baker who creates macabre edible sculptures out of bread. From the Associated Press:

“Of course, people were shocked and thought that I was mad when they saw the works. But once they knew the idea behind it, they understood and became interested in the work itself, instead of thinking that I am crazy,” said the fine arts masters degree student. He hopes his realistic artwork will make people ponder whether they are consuming food, or food is consuming them.

Lady’s Fingers? Anyone? Ok - Bad Joke.....

The Photography of Dora Maar

Dora Maar was a French photographer and painter, best known for being a lover and muse of Pablo Picasso. However, she was famous as a photographer, and also was a painter herself, before she met Picasso. Picasso was attracted by her beauty and self-mutilation (cutting her fingers and the table - he got her bloody gloves and exhibited them on a shelf in his apartment). She spoke Spanish fluently and lived a very secluded, quiet life. Their relationship lasted nearly nine years. On May 3, 2006, one of Picasso's portraits of her, Dora Maar au Chat (Dora Maar with Cat) was auctioned at Sotheby's at a closing price of US$95,216,000, making it the world's second most expensive painting ever sold at auction [1]. - [Wiki]

Examples of her Photography :

Library of Terence McKenna Media

Terence Kemp McKenna was a writer and philosopher. He was notable for his many speculations on subjects ranging from the Voynich Manuscript to the origins of the human species to Novelty theory, which claims time to be a fractal wave of increasing novelty, which culminates dramatically in 2012. His concept appeared to involve a combination of hallucinogenic chemical agents, Gaianism, and shamanism. - [Wiki]

Data Church has an amazing Collection of McKenna's writings, lectures, videos and much more. Ranging from Food of the Gods , Culture & Ideology are not your friends, Stoned Ape Theory, Timewave Zero and Novelty Theory. An amazing site for anyone intrested in other theories of existence.

Links - Data-Church>People>Terence McKenna - Transcripts of Terence's Work

The Cynosphere

"An unusual tricycle built in France in 1875, the Cynosphere was driven by two caged dogs. The Society for the Protection of Animals thought the idea inappropriate and further development was abandoned, just as the world's first superbike, driven by great danes, came off the drawing board. A ladies version driven by poodles actually went into production but suffered from several flat spots in the power curve. What's this got to do with motorcycles, well it is clearly where the term "a dog to start," so much used by Velocette owners, derived from!"

Link-Source - A-Z Motorcycles

Every Mad Magazine Cover - 1952-2007

This site has scanned images of all the regular issue Mad comic and magazine covers staring with #1 from 1952 to the current day at over 450 issues. My favs so far have been the covers during the 60's and 70's. Pretty cool stuff if you ever were a Mad magazine kid like me. Link after these covers.



Link - Mad Mag Cover Site

Update - After surfing around looking at Mad Mag stuff i found a site that has started archiving the Mad "Fold-in's" on their page. Its pretty cool, there is a menu at the bottom, where you select the date of the "Fold-in". Once selected you get the page in full, then just click the image to see it "Fold-in"! In the forums they said they just started and he found a group of folks ready to start scanning in their's aswell. I.e. Watch this one - its going to grow.
Link - Mad Mag "Fold-In" Page

God and Gorillas

Anthropologist Barbara J. King explains what our distant cousins can tell us about religion and why it's OK for scientists to believe in God.

"Every human culture has believed in spirits, gods or some other divine being. That's why human beings have often been called Homo religioso. Some people take this long history of belief in the otherworldly as evidence for God; doesn't it explain why religion continues to be so pervasive? But many scientists are coming up with their own, decidedly secular, theories about the origins of faith. Take Daniel Dennett, the philosopher who has proposed that religion is a meme -- an idea that evolved like a virus -- that infected our ancestors and continued to spread throughout cultures. By contrast, anthropologist Pascal Boyer argues that religious belief is a quirky byproduct of a brain that evolved to detect predators and other survival needs."

"Of course, these thinkers are either religious skeptics or outright atheists who mean to imply that we've been duped by evolution to believe in supernatural beings when none, in fact, exist. That's what makes Barbara J. King, an anthropologist at the College of William and Mary, so unique. She has no desire to undermine religion. In fact, she's been deeply influenced by the religious writers Karen Armstrong and Martin Buber. But her main insights about the origins of religion come not from researching humans' deep history, but from observing very much alive non-human primates. "

"For the last two decades, King has studied ape and monkey behavior in Gabon and Kenya, and at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. In her new book, "Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion," King argues that religion is rooted in our social and emotional connections with each other. What's more, we can trace back the origins of our religious impulse not just to early cave paintings and burial sites 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, but much earlier -- back to our ancient ancestors millions of years ago. And today, King says, we can see the foundations of religious behavior in chimpanzees and gorillas; watching our distant cousins can do much to explain the foundations of our own beliefs."

The entire interview of a very provocative concept from Kingcan at Salon.
Source-Quotes from the same article.