The Pineal Gland

Ask most doctors to describe the pineal gland, and they will tell you that it is a small organ in the centre of the brain which in the adult human has no useful function whatever. It very much looks as if they may be wrong. Medical scientists in advanced brain research are concluding that the pineal gland may possess astonishing qualities. If harnessed, these qualities could have a significant impact on our understanding. It could be a ‘Third Eye’—a ‘window on life’—through which we could see a whole new dimension of consciousness, once we discover how to look through it.

Some scientists believe the pineal gland serves as a connection between the ‘psychical body’ and the brain’s spinal nervous system. They suggest it may hold the key to instinct, the ‘sixth sense,’ and various complex mysteries of the mind. The gland itself is oval-shaped and about the size of a pea. It’s located between the brain’s two halves. Surgeons have been aware of it due to its accessibility.

Key to Mental Power

According to an ancient Indian tradition, every human being possesses a ‘Third Eye,’ a kind of mystical organ that provides us with a window on our spiritual life and holds the key to our mental power. Today, many scientists believe the ‘Third Eye’ is, in fact, the pineal gland. It’s not just a spiritual symbol. The latest theory suggests the gland connects the ‘psychic body’ to the nervous system. It translates subtle brain impressions. These theories were ridiculed when first evolved. Today, these ideas don’t even raise a smile among skeptical scientists. Recent discoveries validate their validity.

Many birds and animals retain faculties lost in human evolution. Studying their brain mechanisms helps our understanding. This is certainly true with the pineal gland. In several species of fish and lizard, the gland is quite large in comparison with the rest of the brain. In some cases, such as the lamprey, it extends to the forehead. There, a small cavity is covered by a thin skin membrane. The lamprey’s pineal looks like an eye and connects with the brain through a thick ‘optic nerve.’ In fact, the gland strongly resembles an eye in just about every animal except humans.

The human pineal gland no longer shares any characteristics with a sensory organ. It has just the normal functions of a gland; in other words, is capable of secreting one or more substances. The human pineal consists of two types of cells: pineocytes and astrocytes. Cells like these are present throughout the nervous system. However, no other gland in the human body contains them. The pineal seems to be a gland and nerve tissue, puzzling scientists due to theoretical inconsistencies. Every organ in the human body depends on something else because nothing works entirely by itself.

Even the heart, which has its own nervous system, relies on current flowing from the nerve centers. And this presents the scientists with another problem; although the pineal gland is linked with the brain, it is not activated by the nerve-cells that surround it. In fact, it seems to activate through ‘messages’ that reach it from the eyes—messages conveyed by the pupils rather than by retinal images. But whether it plays a major part in analyzing these messages is something that researchers have yet to establish. Some scientists think that the pineal gland may be more vastly important than research has so far shown.

Cosmic Ray Receiver

Experiments have shown that it directly influences the thyroid gland (one of the body’s main hormone producers) and people also believe it governs a human being’s emotional state. Another even more starling theory is that it acts as a kind of built-in cosmic ray receiver. We now know that cosmic radiation considerably influences our everyday lives, and we also know that many animals are unusually sensitive to it. It may be that the pineal gland acts as a kind of regulator that adjusts the body’s organism depending on the amount of cosmic radiation it receives. Whatever the truth, science is still a long way from ferreting out the pineal gland’s secret.