I've read an article about trepanation "I drilled a hole in my head and I've never felt better" www.trepan.com what d'you think?
they did this for a long time on mental patients or other supposedly 'defective' people. it was supposed to release the demons trapped inside their heads and cure them. i've heard of people that do it now, and even to themselves. but home surgery just sounds like a bad idea, and, well, drilling a hole in my head is not something i'd ever want to do.
Some people think it increases blood flow or otherwise enhances awareness/perception. This is the general non-medical motive for trepanation. Actually, any person who has brain surgery get trepanned, so its not a "weird cult thing." There are however a subsect of people who trepan themselves for alternative reasons. Personally, I'm a science guy and there isn't enough evidence of positive effects to drill a hole in my headd for no good medical reason. To each his own, though.
There are quite a few ancient cultures that practiced trepanation, some still using the practice up to today. Some skulls in Europe have been found with man-made carved holes in them dating back about 5,000 years. It has been said that it is the oldest known surgical procedure. Usually it was done as a part of traditional medicine (or shamanistic reasons) rather then for a aesthetic body modification.
there is definetly a sub culture of people who trepan. I suppose it can be called cultish if you like in the same way that heavily pierced/tattooed people are a cult. Anyway, my only point is that some people are walking around with holes in their heads for legitimate medical reasons. I wasn't trying to be argumentative. peace