Man Implants Chip in His Brain to Help 'Control' His Dreams

A Russian man was hospitalized after drilling into his skull to install a microchip as part of an effort to control his dreams, according to reports and his tweets.

Telegram channel, Mash Siberia, the Siberian subsidiary of Russia's Mash news Telegram channel, shared images of the man from Russian city, Novosibirsk, and detailed the incident in a post shared on July 20.

The Russian national, identified as Michael Raduga on his Twitter account, said he used a household drill on his skull to insert a chip that would allow him to control his dreams. He said he had been studying videos on the internet that showed how neurosurgeons work.

"I bought a drill, drilled a hole in my head and implanted an electrode in my brain," he said according to the Telegram post.

Newsweek has not been able to independently verify whether the incident took place.

Raduga also shared the images to his Twitter page and said that, despite almost dying during his operation due to blood loss, the results opened up "fantastic prospects for future dream control technologies."

"On May 17, 2023, I performed by myself trepanation, electrode implantation, and electrical stimulation of my brain's motor cortex. I needed it to test brain stimulation during lucid dreaming," he tweeted on July 18, alongside graphic pictures.

Raduga reportedly went to the hospital and was treated for injuries. The images showed the Russian with multiple bandages on his face as well as a an X-ray that appeared to show the electrode inside his head.

Raduga is an author and founder of the organization Phase Research Center. He has conducted research and studies into out-of-body experiences, lucid dreaming and astral projection, according to the organization's website.

Newsweek has contacted the Phase Research Center via email for comment.

"For the first time in history, we conducted direct electrical stimulation of the motor cortex of the brain during REM sleep, lucid dreams, and sleep paralysis," he tweeted on June 28.

Raduga stated that he conducted the experiment at an apartment in Almaty, Kazakhstan, after moving earlier this year.

"I am glad I survived but I was ready to die," he told the Mail Online. "For many people, it will be some sort of entertainment. Now, imagine a paralysed 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,"

The Mail Online report also stated that Raduga is not a doctor and has no neurosurgery qualifications. The chip was eventually removed about a month after the self-performed surgery.

"They say that in order to start a new stage of life, you first need to free your head. Greetings from neurosurgery department," he tweeted on June 20, alongside a picture of himself with bandages around his head.

Research into the possibility of using microchips, or brain chips, has been the focus of Twitter owner Elon Musk's company Neuralink since it was founded in 2016.

The stated ambition of the company has been to develop a brain-computer interface or BCI—a gadget that connects the brain to a computer.

The company's website describes its "implant" as "fully implantable, cosmetically invisible and designed to let you control a computer or mobile device anywhere you go."

The chips and electronics used are stated as being advanced, low-power chips that are capable of processing neural signal and transmitting them wirelessly to the Neuralink app.

The product is not yet available for the public to purchase but patients interested in the technology in the future can join a registry to see if they qualify for trials.

In May, Musk's company received approval from the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to conduct its first test on humans. Neuralink's earlier bid was rejected on safety grounds, according to a Reuters report in March.