Need a hole in the head? Just might!

I had quite an interesting interview the other day. . .

I'm working on a story on people who have drilled holes in their heads to increase the blood flow to the brain. I wanted to talk in particular to one man who runs a web site that advocates this practice and that links to writings and publications that support the theory that doing this gives a person a "permanent high," a completely altered consciousness, and a general feeling of clarity and happiness. When I first started working on this story, I called him, and he absolutely refused to talk to me, because he assumed the story was going to contain opinions of people who called people who do this a bunch of kooks and his role would be to refute them. I managed to convince him otherwise, and, as he was going out of town, arranged to talk to him on his return.

I called him last week to do the interview, and he was more than forthcoming with the information, which surprised me, given the fact that he initially refused to talk and pretty much hung up on me. But halfway through the two-hour interview, he said suddenly: "I had a dream about you last night."

"Oh?" This was a new twist. What kind of dream? Should I hang up now?

"Yeah," he went on. "I didn't know it was of you though until you called this morning."

"Oh."

"Yes, it was a good dream. . .I mean, it had a good feeling."

"Oh."

"Yes, it definitely was a good dream."

"So. . ." I ventured. "What was it about?"

"I dreamt that there was this person who had a tumour in their brain. And they had a hole drilled and the tumour was removed and they were fine," he said.

"Oh."

And then, "And you think that was me?" I asked.

"Yes, I do," he said. "I mean, I didn't know until you called, like I said, but now I know it was you. But, not that you have or will get a tumour or anything. But just that you would get it, get what this practice is all about."

"Oh."

"You do get it, right?"

"Ummm." I thought about it for a little while. And I realized that, in some strange way, I did get it. I mean, I'm not going to run out a drill a hole in my head -- not unless his dream actually comes true. But, after talking to him and three others, and reading all the literature about it, it actually does seem to make sense. At least I'm at a point now that I don't think they're all a bunch of crazy people. But I'm also not a die-hard advocate. Which means that I'm completely objective, which is a good thing to be when writing a story like this.

And, if his dream ends up coming true, I can point to yet another benefit of drilling a hole in the head!