Science and Your Third Eye

More and more, scientists seem to be making discoveries that validate beliefs held by spiritual traditions since ancient times, as with quantum physics and the nature of perception and reality. Recent research has made intriguing connections between the pineal gland and the Third Eye’s function as the gateway for psychic vision and insight.

Only since the early 1900s has the Third Eye chakra become known as the seat or center of psychic vision. For more than 2,000 years, the Third Eye has been known as “Ajna” or the “Guru” chakra by Hindu practitioners of yoga and tantra, the site where a guru could introduce spiritual guidance. Located between the eyebrows, it’s directly behind the root of the nose, and usually symbolized by a circle with a petal on either side and the symbol for Om, which looks like a fancy numeral 3, in the center.

Modern practitioners associate chakras with the endocrine system of glands that secrete hormones to regulate the body’s functions, including mood, growth and development, tissue function, and metabolism. Until very recently, science has considered the gland associated with the Third Eye, the pea-sized pineal gland, to be pretty useless, a kind of evolutionary leftover like the appendix.

Measuring Time and Creating Dreams
The pineal gland’s primary job is to secrete melatonin, which regulates our sleep cycle, retards aging, regulates growth, and maintains mental stability. Because the pineal is light-sensitive, scientists have assumed that the signals that trigger melatonin production are solely received through the eyes.

Serena Roney-Dougal, one of the few people in Britain to have earned a Ph.D. for a parapsychological thesis (parapsychology is the scientific study of psychic ability or “psi” ability), recently revealed research strongly implying that the Earth’s electromagnetic field (EMF) may actually be the pineal gland’s trigger, particularly of its ability to open psychic doorways.

Visionary Gland
In addition to melatonin, the pineal gland also produces chemicals that affect the brain, and whose functions are similar to drugs like Prozac, which affects serotonin levels. Evidence also suggests that the pineal can manufacture its own hallucinogenic substance, known as pinoline, from melatonin, and enzymes that can cause serotonin itself to produce a “variety of possible hallucinogens,” according to Roney-Dougal.

The production of those enzymes in animals and humans seems to be strongly affected by the Earth’s electromagnetic and geomagnetic fields. Could this be why profound spiritual experiences and psychic insights seem to occur so much more easily at sacred sites, which are known to have powerful geomagnetic and electromagnetic fields? Roney-Dougal says that it “suggests that the old idea of a ‘sixth sense’ may be just that, a sensitivity to the EMF.”

Psychedelic Effects
When the pineal gland is stimulated geomagnetically, it produces chemicals similar to consciousness-altering plant hallucinogens. One is a plant-based ceremonial drink made by some Amazon tribes to produce psychic effects for healing, clairvoyance, and precognition that is chemically nearly identical to the pineal’s hallucinogen, pinoline.

Other studies show that consciousness-altering drugs alter levels of melatonin and serotonin. If this is the case, says Roney-Dougal, any strong change in the earth’s ambient magnetic field would produce a rush of natural hallucinogens in our bodies, enabling us to be more psychically receptive.

EMF and Psychic Activity
Renowned parapsychologist Stanley Krippner conducted studies that showed a connection between EMF and geomagnetic activity and an increase in dreams or psychic activity. He set up a dream laboratory where some participants slept in one room while others attempted to “send” them certain images to determine whether those images would creep into the sleepers’ dreams. One part of the study revealed that on nights with less geomagnetic activity, the dreamer was much more accurate in picking up the sender’s images.

The complete article explaining Roney-Dougal’s research, as well as her studies of such things as the links between psychic ability, shamanism, and psychedelics, the psychophysiology of the chakra system, and yoga and parapsychology, are available online and make fascinating reading.

Science, Psychics, and Spirituality
There is a vast realm of scientific information available that, if you’re interested, can add immeasurably to your spiritual growth and psychic abilities. Try watching the “introductory” movie What the Bleep Do We Know, and browsing books like The Tao of Physics, Dancing Wu Li Masters, and Fred Wolf’s Taking the Quantum Leap: the New Physics for Nonscientists. They’re clear, concise, and absolutely mind-boggling!