Bart Hughes was a Dutch librarian in the 1960s who decided the key to reaching a permanent state of higher mystical consciousness was to literally drill a hole into his own skull using a dentist's drill.

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Bart Hughes was a Dutch librarian in the 1960s who decided the key to reaching a permanent state of higher mystical consciousness was to literally drill a hole into his own skull using a dentist's drill. He theorized that human beings lost their innate spiritual connection to the universe when we evolved to stand upright, causing blood to drain from the brain, which could allegedly be fixed by opening a cranial window. Operating under a local anesthetic while looking in a mirror, he successfully bored a hole in his head and claimed he felt immediately enlightened, though doctors suggested he just felt the effects of severe blood loss. Unbelievably, he managed to convince a handful of followers to also perform DIY skull-boring, taking the concept of having an open mind to an absolutely horrifying, literal extreme