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A Russian scientist named Michael Raduga claims to have performed surgery on himself at home and implanted a chip into his brain.
Raduga, who has no qualifications to perform neurosurgery, spent 10 hours using paper clips to hold his scalp in place while he bored a hole in his head with a drill he purchased at a hardware store.
Why would someone do something so reckless? To implant a chip that he hopes will one day be able to control his dreams.
That’s right. He did that without even knowing for sure if it would work.
“I am glad I survived but I was ready to die,” the 40-year-old told DailyMail.com.
“For many people, it will be some sort of entertainment. Now, imagine a paralyzed person who cannot experience anything in this life and now we find a way to help him to get into a lucid dream where everything is possible. Have sex, eat something, do something interesting.”
“To avoid years of bureaucracy, the implant was implanted into my brain,” he wrote on Instagram. “Two neurosurgeries. I was on the verge of death a few times. Five weeks on strong antibiotics. Six months of working time. Huge expenses and losses. Lifelong health consequences.”
Raduga is the founder of Phase Research Center and has a cult following, according to DailyMail.com
He has reportedly already asked his followers if they would be “willing to get a brain implant for more efficient lucid dreaming.”
Raduga says he performed the DIY brain surgery after watching hours of neurosurgery YouTube videos and practicing on five sheep.
“During the first 30 minutes I was ready to give up many times because first of all I lost a lot of blood – approximately a liter of blood. And I was afraid I could just lose consciousness,” he explained.
“I finished the surgery I took a shower and I worked for 10 hours straight… people didn’t know.”
The chip was eventually removed from his brain after five weeks by actual medical professionals, but there is still a chance he could suffer long-term complications from the procedure.
Besides being illegal in the United Kingdom, where Raduga did his at home brain surgery, it is “an extremely dangerous thing to do,” said consultant neurosurgeon Alex Green of the University of Oxford.
“Neurosurgery should only be practiced by experienced and qualified neurosurgeons. All sorts of complications could have happened.
“For example, if he had caused bleeding from a cortical vein or an intracerebral vessel he could have had a stroke with permanent deficit or death.”