大象传媒

We sometimes say people need something “like a hole in the head”, meaning that they really don’t. People who believe in trepanning – making a burr hole in the skull – would beg to differ.

Dating back to prehistory, the basic idea is that trepanning improves blood circulation and can flush out toxins. It’s also used for expanding consciousness.

One such example of the latter is Joe Mellen, who, in 1960s Amsterdam, was finding his high with marijuana and self-trepanation, encouraged by Dutch LSD enthusiast Bart Hughes and Bart’s girlfriend (later Joe’s wife), Amanda Feilding.

Feilding now heads up the Beckley Foundation which, among other things, extols the virtues of trepanning, including how it might treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s by increasing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

To hear more about this unusual medical procedure, listen to Out of the Ordinary: Hole in the Head.

2. The amateur engineers searching for free energy

In one episode of Out of the Ordinary, Jolyon Jenkins buys instructions for building a perpetual motion machine from "Dr David Ranko" who claims to have the secret of “free energy”. This secret comes via research by inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), which, according to Ranko, was rescued by “an under-the-radar team of renegade scientists” after disappearing in “mysterious circumstances.”

From the kit, Jolyon builds what is known as a “Bedini Machine”, named after an American free energy enthusiast who apparently died in, er, “mysterious circumstances”. Bedini’s work has been taken up by retired civil engineer Patrick J. Kelley, a believer in harnessing quantum “zero point energy” from the energy field around us but not a believer in the second law of thermodynamics – that energy is wasted as it is transferred or transformed.

Attempting to square this circle, Jolyon shows his gadget to various experts and other free energy enthusiasts, some claiming that their own attempts at creating free energy were shut down after intimidation from mysterious "Men In Black". However, Jolyon remains sceptical about any cover-up, and despite these well-meaning attempts by amateur enthusiasts, he's unsure that humanity is prepared for the potential misuse of unlimited free energy.

Find out more about the search for perpetual motion in Out of the Ordinary: Free Energy.

3. The modern day miracle makers

“I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home,” said Jesus to the paralysed man he healed – one of the seven miracles so pivotal to the Christian faith. Two millennia later, according to Candy Gunther Brown, Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University, prayer for healing is “why Christianity is growing on a global scale right now.”

If you thought modern day healing miracles might be dull by comparison, think again. Have you heard about the gold tooth that suddenly replaces a filling, the appearance of brand new organs, and even the raising of the dead?

Trying to verify such acts of healing is an elusive business, thwarted by lack of evidence and by contradictory – and problematic – scientific studies. While one rather haphazard study in a peer-reviewed journal suggests prayer improved hearing and sight impairments, another suggested that prayer worsened outcomes if the recipients knew about it!

Click here to listen to Out of the Ordinary: The Power of Prayer.

If you want your country to change, you campaign, you vote, or you could set up another country. The latter – less well trodden – route has been taken by a group of opportunistic libertarians led by Vít Jedlicka, Czech politician and now self-styled president of “Liberland”.

Liberland's President Jedlicka, lawyer Sonja Prstec and ex-foreign minister Jose Miguel Maschietto

Liberland is seven square kilometres of unclaimed and (still) uninhabited marshland on the west bank of the Danube, between Croatia and Serbia.

Half a million people have signed up to the new utopia, despite the Croatian authorities closing off the land “border” and arresting budding pioneers.

The initial elections for Liberland involved just three people, but now the “country” boasts various ministers of state.

When Jolyon joins Jedlica, the Liberland leader is busy sizing up a Russian hovercraft as an alternative way to populate the area.

One thing is for sure – Jedlica’s spirit is indomitable: “All the countries are just things in our heads,” Vit says, “and if there is a lot of people that have these things in their heads, then there are countries.”

To hear more about the plight of this young country, listen to Out of the Ordinary: Liberland.