People across the world use some strange things to get high. These include cough syrup, toad venom, inhalants and special cheese. But one man took things a notch up by drilling a hole in his skull to achieve a "permanent high". Joe Mellen, a psychedelic adventurer, was a pioneer of experiments with LSD in the UK. He learned about an ancient process known as trepanation from a Dutch academic named Bart Hughes in the 1960s and tried to experiment with it. Mr Mellen tried the procedure decades ago, and even wrote about it in his memoir 'Bore Hole', but his story is viral once again.
Trepanation or trepanning is considered to be one of the oldest surgical procedures known to humanity.
It took three attempts for Mr Mellen to break through his skull and achieve the state he wanted, starting off with a grisly procedure with a hand-held drill in 1967.
"At that time, I was broke, and I certainly couldn't afford an electric drill, so I bought a hand trepan from a surgical instrument shop. It's a bit like a corkscrew, really, but with a ring of teeth at the bottom. It has a point in the middle, which makes an impression on the skull, and then you turn it until the teeth cut into the skull," he told Vice in 2016 about his first attempt.
"It was difficult. It was like trying to uncork a bottle of wine from the inside," Mr Mellen added.
He made the second attempt a year later using the same method with the hand trepan. "At first, I thought I'd gone through as there was kind of a "schlurping" sound as I took the trepan out and what sounded like bubbles. I think I went through a tiny bit, but I don't think it was enough," Mr Mellen told the outlet.
The third and final attempt was made in 1970, and it was successful. And this time, Me Mellen used an electric drill.
"It took half an hour all in all, including clearing up afterwards. I was feeling great because I'd done it, but then I noticed after about an hour I started to feel a lightness, like a weight had been lifted off me," he told Vice.
Mr Mellen's self-published book, in which he gave details about the procedure, sold 500 copies before it was published again by Strange Attractor. He also talked about the entire procedure during a 2015 speech at Breaking Convention.
