Hugo Bart Huges (also Hughes; 23 April 1934 – 30 August 2004) was a Dutch librarian and proponent of trepanation.[1] He attended medical school at the University of Amsterdam, but was refused a degree due to his advocacy of LSD research and naming his daughter "Maria Juana".[2] In 1964 he published "The Mechanism of Brainbloodvolume ('BBV')" (also known as "Homo Sapiens Correctus"), a scroll in which he proposed that trepanation could be used to enhance brain functionality by balancing the proportion of blood and cerebral spinal fluid. Huges believed that, when mankind began to walk upright, our brains drained of blood and that trepanation allowed the blood to better flow in and out of the brain, causing a permanent "high". Using a foot-operated electric dentist drill, Huges drilled a hole in his skull on 6 January 1965.[3] He also published "Trepanation: A Cure for Psychosis", in which he expanded upon his theory, and an autobiography, The Book With The Hole, in 1972.

Huges trepanning himself in 1965
Huges after trepanning himself in 1965

In the 1970s Huges and his girlfriend Eveline van Dijk made several comics promoting trepanation.[4]

His writings influenced the British-born Joey Mellen to undergo self-trepanation, which he documented in a book called Bore Hole. Huges died of heart disease on 30 August 2004, at the age of 70. He is buried at Zorgvlied cemetery.

Publications

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  • Bart Huges: The book with the hole. Autobiography. Translation and elaboration by Joe Mellen and Amanda Feilding. Amsterdam, Foundation for Independent Thinking (F.I.T.), 1972.
  • H.B. Huges: Trepanation. The cure for psychosis Transl. by Joe Mellen. Amsterdam, Foundation for Independent Thinking (F.I.T.), 1971.
  • Hugo Bart Huges: The mechanism of brainbloodvolume. Transl. by Joe Mellen. Amsterdam, Foundation for Independent Thinking (F.I.T.), 1970.

References

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  1. ^ Turner, Christopher (Winter 2007–08). "Like a Hole in the Head". Cabinet.
  2. ^ Colton, Michael (May 31, 1998). "You Need It Like... ...a Hole in the Head?". The Washington Post.
  3. ^ "Today in 1965: 6 January - Permanently 'Stoned'". International Institute of Social History. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
  4. ^ "Eveline van Dijk". www.lambiek.net. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
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  •   Media related to Bart Huges at Wikimedia Commons
  • The Hole to Luck, Interview with Huges by Joe Mellen, The Transatlantic Review No. 23, Winter 1966-1967
  • The Doctor of LSD Who Drilled A Hole In His Head: Amsterdam's Counter Culture Revolution of the 60s, Mini-documentary about Bart Huges done as of a part of a 8 episodes based on different characters and shenanigans of the Provos movement in Amsterdam in the 1960's. The series cover various subjects, such as the attack on Beatrix and Claus' Royal Wedding, Anti-Rook Magier, Provo magazine, The White Bicycle plan, the Happenings at the Spui, all the way up to the Telegraaf riots and the cementing of Amsterdam as the counter culture centre of Europe