January 31, 2013 • 33 mins
Pineal Optics: Prepare to open that third eye, listeners, because Robert and Julie are taking you on a journey from philosophical ponderings about human spirituality to scientific explorations of the human pineal gland and the extra parietal eye common to other animals.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie,
do you ever open your third eye? Do you have
access to your third eye? Yeah? I opened up sometimes.
I'm index it. Get it a little squeaky clean. What
(00:25):
about you? Um, I guess it's mostly dormant, you know,
but in yoga there's a lot of talk about it,
so you know, occasionally we're talking about chakras and third eye.
So I get into that a little bit. You know.
I don't want to freak you out or anything of
but it it's kind of winking at me right now. Yeah,
it's pull sating under there. Oh, that might be a boil. Okay,
(00:47):
all right, So obviously we're gonna talk about the pennel
gland and it's also called the third eye. Yes, yeah,
so the third eye for for those of you who
have not been exposed to it, where we're gonna start
out with just a brief discussion about the non scientific
idea of the third eye, that being that there is this, uh,
(01:07):
we have the two eyes with which we see the world,
but that buried inside us. There's this third eye that
if we are too, if we open it, we can
see something that isn't there, or something that is hidden
from our normal perceptions of the world that we we
will be able to see uh, the spiritual aspects of
the world around us, or see into the future, or
(01:27):
see into the now. Um. It really depends on who's
doing the talking as to what a third eye actually
consists of. You see, you see various takes on this
in Hinduism. Um. If you've ever looked at any Hindu iconography,
then you've you've no doubt seen like the flaming eye
of Um, of the of Shiva, that that burns and
(01:50):
shoots out flames. You. If you're familiar with with with
the yoga, for instance, you probably know of the ana chakra.
This is a position supposedly positioned in the main right
behind the eyebrows center and this involves you know, future site,
clear side presence, or even occult powers depending on who
again is doing the talking. You see, uh. You see
(02:11):
the third eye in Kabbalah, in Taoism, in various New
Age ideas and uh. And you know even in heavy
metal lyrics from time to time as well. Also Gwin Stefanie,
well you know she used to wear the Yeah, the
bindy is a reference to to the third eye, into
the into the chakra and all that. Um. So, yeah,
(02:33):
anytime someone's wearing a bindy, they may not know it.
They might just be wearing it for purely uh you know,
ornamental reasons. But but there is this idea of the
third eye in that. What I think is so fascinating
about this topic is that the third eye has been
something that has been sabol symbolic to us, right, this
idea of seeing and seeing all. But really it does
(02:54):
have roots envision and we will talk about that via
the pineal gland. Um. So it's cool about this is
that somehow humans had sort of an inkling that this
third eye um might have actually been something within their
own brains that was giving them some sort of insight
or sensorial experience. And we'll talk more about that a bit. Yeah,
(03:16):
so first let's uh, let's back up just a little
bit about about the pineal gland and its history and
its connotations and associations with the idea of a third
eye and spiritual insight and all this. If you go
back in time, to around two thousand a d. You
had this man by the name of Galen, uh Greek
medical doctor philosopher, spent most of his time in Rome,
(03:39):
and uh he wrote on a number of things, but
he his writings dominated medical thinking like on up until
the seventeenth century. And he did discuss the pineal gland
in his eighth book UH of his anatomical work on
the usefulness of the parts of the body. And he
was really more interested in the pineal gland than than
anyone um at that time, or for you know, for
(04:00):
years and years afterwards. Now, this was a time when
when there there was this idea that the ventricles in
the brain flowed with something called psychic numa. And numa
is supposedly the breath of life in Stoic philosophy. It's
this uh fine vaporous substance that Galen described as the
first instrument of the soul. Okay, So imagine these uh,
(04:24):
these these old thinkers and UH philosophers, and you know
they're they're trying to understand out how the world works,
how the human body works. Um. There working with limited tools,
though at their disposal, and and they have only the
knowledge that came before them with which to understand it. Right.
So there they have this idea of psychic numa in
their mind and they're poking around in um the brain
(04:48):
of of a corpse to see what they can find
and see what seems to do what. So when when
Galen looked at the pennel and uh, and he in
his book he describes the penel and talks about its
resemblance in shape and size to nuts found in the
cones of the stone pine. And that's will we made
the name peneal pine. Uh. Think about that next time
you have pine nuts. Yeah. So he's spoking around in
(05:10):
the brain, finds a pineal gland, but he doesn't see
it as really involving any of this numa, any of
this spiritual stuff, because he notices that it is outside.
It's something outside of the brain. And he thinks that
the part of the brain that's going to be involved
in regulating psychic numa is gonna be uh, something that
we call the vernis supier of Sarah Belli uh in
the Sarahbellum Uh. And then he figured that was much
(05:32):
more proper to play, to play that role. But okay,
so after his death again, his his work continues to
remain important. Uh. In medieval texts, it is misinterpreted a
few times, and it eventually the idea that the pineal
gland is involved with the human spirit um and in
our spiritual essence resurfaces. And and that's a long run,
(05:53):
by the way, right up to the seventeenth century. Yeah, indeed,
I mean, you know, and certainly these classical thinkers, I
mean many of them are still we still hold them
up high today. They were, they were groundbreakers. So the
seventeenth century rolls around and we have a guy named
reneed to Carts who most people are familiar with, right,
because what's his famous quote? I think therefore I am yes, yeah,
easy to remember for me because it was there was
(06:15):
a money python song about philosophers, the Australian Philosopher's Song.
There's a really bad joke too about how a waiter
asked him if if he would like dessert and he says,
I think not, and then he kills over. That's pretty good. Um.
So reneed to Carts is, you know, primarily known for
his contributions to mathematics and philosophy, but he was also
(06:36):
really interested in anatomy psycho and in psychology as well,
So he ends up doing a lot of thinking about
what it is to be human and then the biological
aspect of that. And in this book, The Treaties of Man,
he describes a conceptual model of a human which consists
of two part body and soul. So the Carts works
(06:57):
up this theory that the pineal gland is the seat
of the sin. This communists in other words, it's the input.
It's where the input of the senses are bound into
an understanding of the world. So we see it involved
according to the deck Heart's in sensation, imagination, memory, and
uh and bodily movement. Now Deckart's theory would would go
on to be very important. A lot of people would
(07:18):
really take this and run with it, because it's an
important man saying some really awesome things about this little
tiny pine nut in our in our heads. However, it's
important to note that he was not really he wasn't
even really working with the best anatomical and physiological assumptions
of the time, so he's he's really kind of going
off in his own direction on this, but it continues
(07:39):
to be important towards the end of the nineteenth century.
You see Madam Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy, and she
really gets into the idea of the third eye um
and and and the pennel and compares it to the
eye of Shiva, and she really argues that the pennel
land is an atrophied organ of spiritual vision. Switch Again,
(08:01):
as we've discussed, there's this idea of this third eye
hidden inside as that allows us some sort of sight
that we have forgotten and that can on some level
be attained again. Okay, so again what I find really
interesting about that is that there are seeds of truth
to that in terms of the tissues of the pineal gland.
And again we'll talk about that more and more scientific terms.
But this inkling that this there's this uh sensory perception
(08:25):
center in the pineal gland is correct. Yeah, and you
can also get behind the idea that there is an
ancient form of sight involved in the pineal gland. Some
of the theories back that up as well, but it's
not attuned with the spirit per se. By the end
of the podcast, will come back around to an inkling
of some of those ideas, but but for the most part,
from here on in put the spiritual world behind you,
(08:48):
because it's all going to be about seeing an evolution.
So if we crack open the skull as uh as
Galen did uh and we take a look at the pineal,
what are we gonna see. We're gonna see a small
organ shap like a pine nut, and it's located on
the midline attached to the posterior end of the roof
of the third ventricle in the brain. Now, in a
(09:09):
human it's roughly a cinamater in length varies, and it
is composed of penniless sites and glial cells, and in
older animals, the apennial often contains brain sand, which are
just calcium deposits. But I do love the idea of
brain sand. Um. Yeah, it is essentially an endocrine organ, right,
(09:30):
But I did want to mention that when the human
embryo is in the earliest stage of development, the cells
that will form the penneil gland have the potential known
as the differential excuse me to Frenchian potential to become
I cells such as lens, epiphilial layer or retina neuron cells.
So in other words, it has all the ingredients to
(09:51):
make a brand new eye, but it forms into this
endocrine organ which produces the hormone melatonin. Yeah. Again, and
it is cell your level, it is astonishingly similar to
the eye um, particularly to the cellular structure of the retina.
So it's not just a thing where someone founded they're like,
it kind of looks like an eye, because it really
(10:11):
doesn't really look like an eye, but but at at
a cellular level. And again, uh, in early and it's
into development we see the connections to our actual eyes. Yeah,
and there's a great connection to as you say, evolution
when we look at the reason for this why this
peneon gland exists. But before we do that, let's talk
a little bit more about the melotonin um and its role,
(10:32):
because what we have found is that the human peneal
gland regulates the rhythm that beats out of the biological
clots of ourselves by secreting melotonin according to light stimulus
received through the eyes and from the skin as well
as other selves. So in the morning, the level of
melotonin secreted is low, in the evening it's high. And
then the benefit of exposure to natural light in the
(10:54):
morning is that the secretion of melotonin is curbed, enabling
the body to keep daily rhythm on track. Now, that
seems kind of straightforward and so what, but that's kind
of a big uh that's a big deal production going on. Yeah,
And we've talked before about the importance of melotonin and
serotonin in the human mind and the human body. I mean,
it's it has everything to do with our our biological patterns.
(11:17):
It had with our our our level of contentment with
the world and uh and certainly has come up in
our discussions of various uh um psychedelic properties as well. Yeah,
and if you think about the penneal gland too, it's
kind of like the control tower of the body, trying
to really sense to what degree it needs to secrete
the melotonin. Remember that it's getting these cues from skin cells,
(11:39):
other cells in the body um as well as the eye. Yeah,
you can think of it as a transducer, Okay. The
pennel transduces signals from the sympathetic nerve system into a
hormonal signal. So it's like, uh, you know, if you're
assembling the human body, you say, out of an Ikea kit,
and you might see the pineal in its own little
(12:00):
little plastic bag there, and you might well leave it
out during the confusing assembly process, but you would definitely
notice that result. That is a that is an important
little nut to screw into the finished works. That's right,
even with that tiny, little, tiny little uh what is
that supposed to be? I guess like a screwdriver, Alan
(12:20):
the Alan rinch looking thin. That's the thing is crazy?
Um that that has got to be the most frustrating
tool in existence. Um. I wanted to mention that in
the animals, the pineal gland is really paramount to reproductive
functions since the detection of increased light, let's say in
the spring by the peneal gland and just the secretion
of melotonin and then that sends this whole symphony of
(12:42):
cues to the animal's body to begin preparing for the
breeding season. So if you look at horses and sheep,
this involves a hypothalamus secreating the anterior pituitary hormones which
then essentially said out, yeah, I'm gonna say it, go
now a tropin And this is a hormone aimed at
bolstering the animals going ads and getting them ready for breeding. Yeah, yeah,
(13:03):
I was. I read a bit which said that when
you're breeding sheep, um, sheep, that normally breed only once
a year can be induced to into two breeding seasons
if you dose them up with melotona. Yep, exactly. And
we've seen this in examples with other animals too as well. UM,
So I wanted to mention this because I think this
is really interesting. Um, this role of milotonin. Again, we
(13:26):
just think of it as well that helps us to sleep,
and um, you know, have this wakefulness and not have wakefulness.
But I read this really very interesting study about how
malfunctioning circadian rhythm genes could be the basis for bipolar
disorder in children, many of whom are plagued with the
onset of sleep disorders at an early age. UM. And
(13:46):
this is really a big detail that sets bipolar disorder
apart from a d h D and kids, Um, this
sort of messed up sleep cycle or sleep disorders. R
O r N genes are expressed in the eye, brain
and pineal gland in. In a study of one hundred
and fifty two bipolar children and one hundred forty children
as a control, these children, obviously we're not bipolar or
(14:09):
thought to be. Psychiatrist Alexander Nicolausku of Indiana University found
four alterations to the r O r B gene that
were positively associated with being bipolar. So r O r
B expression is known to change as a function of
the circadian rhythm in some tissues, and mice without the
gene exhibit circadian rhythm abnormalities. So what they began to
(14:32):
see is that this this correlation with melotonum and with
disorders like this are hand in hand. And Nicolaski says
that every time we investigate some abnormality of molecular machinery
linked to the clock genes, we find an association with
bipolar disorder. So obviously there needs to be more research,
(14:53):
but it shows promise in the treatment and that researchers
have been on the right path and strictly regulating a
bipolar patients leap schedule to improve extreme mood cycles that
you see in bipolar disorder. Again, here's this pineal gland,
the controlled tower, but you know, trying to give out
the signals to the body. And it shows that something
like this can really sort of go awry if if
(15:16):
it's not all regulated. So I know what you're wondering,
where does it come from the pineal gland? How do
how do we end up with this this thing that
is in many ways and in many interpretations, a kind
of primitive eye buried in the center of our skull
without any actual um chance to glimpse the light. It
ends up being this is mere transducer. Well, it's a
(15:36):
good question, and I'm glad you asked it because because
that's what we're going to talk about you. So this
really gets down to questions of the evolution of the
human high and the evolution of sight and um. And
when you start thinking about ocular evolution, we're talking about
really old business here, like really important, like when you're
starting a business, like what are some of the first
things you have to have, right, You've got to have
(15:58):
you gotta have the building you had had the bad room,
and the first people you hire maybe you know you
you've you've gotta have the key people on staff before
you staff up from there. So when we're talking about
the development of the eye, we're talking about some very
old business and a lot of stuff ends up built
up around it. So it it makes sense when we
start talking about the ramifications of of melotonin levels on
(16:19):
all these varying levels of of of animal activity, because
it's it's route down to the to some of the
earliest development. So the eye has been around for a while.
And if you look at the eye of a human
the eye of a fish, they're not all that different.
So it goes back a long ways in evolution. But
if you go back far enough in our development, you
(16:40):
find a cyclops, or more specifically, you find something called
a lanceolate, and these are primitive creatures. They're still around
today and they have just one eye. Now. A couple
of the main theories about the pennial evolution come down
to this idea of a developing two eyes from one
all right, so back in the day simple organisms, one eye,
(17:03):
and then his evolution progresses. This eye divides into left
and right. Now this is all predicated on the primordial brain.
Like this primitive brain that's just the solid mass, that's
a big ball. It hasn't divided yet into the right
and left half spheres. So the brain divides into two
and then from one eye we get two eyes now,
(17:23):
and then they're there. Even the various takes on which
came first, chicken or egg? Does the brain split because
the eye splits? Are does does the eye split because
the brain splits? Um You can sort of go either
ways on that too. Particularly interesting theories that stem from that.
First of all, there's one here from Professor Masosuki Iraki
of Nara Women's University, and Professor Araki believes that the
(17:46):
third eye comes into being during the transition from one
eye to two. The position that iraqis describing is that
this the single eye pulls to the left and right
and uh and divided. Uh. An eye remains in the
spot where the single eye had originally been. So the
third eye then is not the third to be created,
but the first, the original. Okay, so it's uh so
(18:08):
we what we think of is the third eye is
essentially the tissue, the prime big primordial tissue, primordial I
really very simple. I right, that had that was able
to then sort of secrete itself back into our brains
a bit. Yeah, because we discussed with the way the
human body works. It's something doesn't just become useless overnight
and fall off of us. You know, it's stuff gets
(18:30):
sometimes sometimes well sometimes but but but but for for
the most part, things get tucked away, Things get to
get to get hidden in case they're used later. Our
body can be sort of a hoarder in that example.
Another theory comes to us from David Klein, PhD. And
he and he works for the Nationalist Suit of help Um.
He has this theory that it all comes down to
(18:52):
UM to melatonin again in the in the head, in
the brain. And then the idea here is that rough
five million years ago, the ancestors of today's animals became
dependent on melotonin as a signal of darkness, and is
the need for more and more melotonin grows, the peneal
gland develops as a structure separate from the eyes to
keep the toxic substances UM needed to make melotonin away
(19:16):
from sensitive eye tissue. That's because this whole process of
red option and all other chemical sort of interacting with
one another, right, and the more distance you have, the
better UM in this making of melotonin. So if you
have that distance, then you are making sure that your
eyes are not going to be affected by the chemical.
That's sort of like the really very shallow dive on that.
(19:39):
But I kind of feel like booths of them are
correct because if you have this you know, primitive brain
that's just a ball that then uh evolved into this
right and left hemisphere and then you've got the tissue well,
as you say, the body is really good at saying okay, hey,
you're sitting around, why don't you do something dumping some
some toxic stuff in there and some meloton and we're
(20:00):
not using that room for anything. And so we see
the same thing with our office here. We only have
so much room to work with. And then of an
office goes empty for too long, the video department will
move some stuff in there and start filming some some
skits and segments. The void gets filled. Yeah, um, and
then they all that you know, of course, then someone
is the control tower of the light source in all
(20:21):
the offices, the gland, controlling to what degree we are
exposed to um. So yeah, I think that was our earth.
I think it's so fascinating to to see how the
human body can adapt like that. Um. And not just
the human body, but if you look at the lancelot,
this is really primitive creature. How the beginnings of that show,
(20:42):
how this this evolvement of our eye systems and our
penny all gland all sort of came together. Yeah. Now,
when I was describing Iraqi's theory and you're imagining this
one eye in the middle of a head, I ended
up imagining a human face. Uh, well, actually your face,
since it's the one I'm looking at. Imagine an eye
in the center of your head, and then the two
eyes coming out, and then this, uh, this primordial eye receding.
(21:06):
So you're you may be wondering, was there ever a
time when you have three eyes? Three or at least
three ocular units on the face. And yes, we're gonna
We're glad you asked, because we're going to discuss after
this quick break. There are plenty of animals around today
which which do have they're two highly evolved eyes, and
(21:28):
then also this remnant eye, this uh, parietal eye, which
is very closely connected to everything we're talking about. Okay,
we're back the parietal eye. Now, if we look to
some examples in nature, we can get a fine, fine
(21:51):
feeling for what this parietal eye does. Yes, now we're
not again, we're not talking about You look at the
face and you see three distinct eyeballs. But if you
look at the certain lower vertebrates such as fish and lizards, um,
you'll actually see this kind of you could almost mistake
it for some sort of like gray pimple. Uh, this
this kind of gray little dot, gray little slit um
(22:13):
around the forehead, and that is this parietal i um.
They typically, like I said, it's a gray oval and
the animals don't actually see out of this structure like
they can't they can't look out of it like they're
they're not right then, since data is not going in
it and then forming a picture, that's what the other
(22:34):
eyes are doing. This either throattle I is more. It's
a it's photosensitive and it does influence circadian rhythm, but
it's unable to capture images. And it's believed that it's
sense it's light and regulates body temperature and hormonal balance.
So in a way you can think of it, and
we'll discuss this a little more here. It is an
(22:54):
eye that sees only one thing, and it sees what
time it is. It sees where are if you can
even apply a concept like time to to an animal,
but it can see where it is in the cycle
of night and day. Yeah, And what I think it's
really cool about it is that it does have this
sense of passing of time through its pridal eye and
(23:16):
these two kinds of neurons, So unlike the human eye,
which makes use of five different kinds of neurons called
photoreceptors to analyze light. The parietal eye has only two,
as I said, but these two neurons help frogs, fish
and lizards figure out what time it is. Um. This
is from Seed Magazining the article The secrets in the
third eye. The comparison of the color signals now begin
(23:39):
at the photoreceptor rather than in the retinal neurons as
in the regular human eye. So when this happens, the
photoreceptors in the parietal I are able to give information
about the passage of time because, and this is key,
the color spectrum changes over time during the day, So
the signal that comes out of the photoreceptor is sort
of a re eat out of what time it is,
(24:02):
which very cool. I mean, this is sort of a
superpower that we don't possess, even if we do have
pocket watches. Pocket watches when it's like the nineteenth century. Now, Yeah,
and this parridal eyes often retained in burrowing lizards. Uh.
And the idea here is that these are animals that
are occasionally exposed to light, and the thridle eyes more
suitable photo receptor for a burrower. Right, And um, that's
(24:22):
why I think is really cool about these parle eyes
is that they do differ. In a paper by Gundy
and Works entitled Parietal Eye Penny on Morphology and Lizards
and It's physiological implications. Uh, they looked at seventy five
species of lizards in their parietal eyes and they found
that there were seven different morphological types. Um. Some of
(24:43):
these types were the lateral parietal eye, the borrowed die
eye as you mentioned, and this is my favorite, a
finger like projection that extends towards the parietal eye, so
from inside the head. Yeah. Yeah, and this actually allows
for the maximum absorption of light this sort of configuration. Yeah.
So it's like the prietal eye and the pineal gland
(25:05):
sort of reaching to touch each other, like uh, like
Adam and and uh and God on the Sistine Chapel. Right,
I hope someone, I really hopes someone paints that would
surely that's on the side of a van somewhere or
Alex Gray has done it. This seems like a great
Alex Gray topic right there. There's a lot of really
cool study, especially in lizards are a great way to
(25:26):
study the pridal eye, and they found a lot of
interesting stuff about the the evolution of of the parietal
eye and the evolutionary conjunction between invertebrate and vertebrate ways
of seeing color uh prinstance, John Hopkins University study found
two pigments in the pridal eye of the side blotched lizard,
two different structures of protein communication. One of these is
(25:48):
a pigment communicated with transducent like protein called gustusin is
vertebrates us and other is a pigment that uses GO protein.
It's an invertebrate way of of seeing. So the theory
here is that early on this go protein this was
the norm, and then his evolution progresses transucent pathway developed,
(26:08):
and then as a and as it progresses even further,
you move up to the lateral eyes, which are actually
very highly specialized structures that are allow us to have
depth reception, and then the go pathway is dropped and
we retain only the transucent pathway. So again we see
in the parridal eye an ancient form of seeing, an
ancient way of just barely peeking out from the darkness
(26:33):
of consciousness into the light of the world. That's beautiful.
Well all right, so we uh, we couldn't tidy up
the rest of this podcast without making a mention of hallucinogens, right,
because if they're really heavy into them as a topic lately. Um, So,
what do hallucinogens have to do with the pineal gland
in the third eye other than people feeling like they
(26:55):
have tapped into them when they're on hallucinogens. Yeah, we
have a guy by the name of Rick Strassman in
d who researched the hypothetical and as yet unproven connection
between the pineal gland and the production of d MT. UH.
First he was very interested in the pineal gland, then
he got very interested in d MT. He actually performed
the first new human studies with psychedelic drugs in the
(27:18):
US and over twenty years back in between nine five
when he was he does about sixty volunteers with d MT.
Eventually ended up canceling the research because he grew too
concerned about the part of the negative effects that some
of these individuals were having on these trips, seeing some
frightening things, uh, lizardman, godlike beings freaking out as they
(27:42):
dissolve into light. That kind of thing which, as we
discussed in our Psychedelic episodes, that can certainly happen, but
he he did formulate a number of just kind of
really out their ideas. I mean from the side you
you you read what the man has written, and he's
not a complete lune or anything. I don't want to
paint him like at but he has some very far
(28:02):
reaching ideas about what the pineal gland might consists of
and what it's doing, and and he gets into some
some really interesting territory where he's entertaining the notion that
d MT actually affects the brain's ability to receive information,
not just interpret and generate it, and that it can
potentially allow us to perceive dark matter and parallel universes.
(28:24):
So it's, uh, it's all very theoretical. Um, you know,
don't take that to the bank. But but I do
find it really really interesting. It is interesting. I mean,
it's certainly in an extrapolation on what Nobel laureate Julius
axel Rod found is that the brain does have naturally
occurring trace amounts um of d m T in the brain.
(28:47):
And then some people have taken this to say the
peneal brain is is um where it's made, and perhaps
there's some sort of um connection connection between psychosis and
even hallucine egens are I should say hallucinations. But again,
a lot of this is all unproven at this point.
We just all we know for sure is trace amounts
(29:10):
that are naturally occurring in the brain of d M
t U d MT being this hallucinogen substance. Yeah, to
what extent are we coming back around to the same
mistake of attributing spiritual importance to this little nut in
the brain, or are we coming around to some truth
about it that it is? I mean, obviously it has
(29:30):
something that it has. It has stuff to do with
the way that we sense and understand the world, But
to what degree so exactly? Yeah, you know, we we
didn't talk about the third eye is being a Freemason symbol.
Oh of course, yes, the what the the name for
it at the top of the dollar the triangle with
the eye. Yeah, yeah, I mean that's the third Eye.
(29:52):
But whatever we've we've seen that in It's in the
US Great Seal on the dollar bill. And of course
there's a lot of conspiracy theorists who will point that
Hollerabilee and say that you know, that's that's that's the
work of Freemasons. Um. But from what I understand, Ben Franklin,
who was the only Freemason who worked on the currency
at that time, proposed a design and it did not
(30:13):
have that third eye in it. So also, um, that
dollar bill third eye symbol was in use I think,
uh far, maybe like a decade or more before the
Freemason's even began to use it. The eye of providence,
that's right. Yeah, yeah, And actually, if you want to
know more about that, you should totally check out stuff
(30:34):
they don't want you to know because they do some
deep dives into that territory. And I really need to
look it up because I was not familiar with the
term I have providence to like, just a couple of
weeks ago, I was in yoga, and this is gonna
sound hippie dippy, but during Shavasna, I saw this, uh
that's when you're in rest. Yeah, I saw this, this triangle,
like a pulsating triangle. It seemed like it might be
(30:56):
God or something, you know, Like that was the kind
of vibe I was getting off of it. So afterwards, like, hi,
I wonder if there are any ideas out there of
like that interpret God or a divine being as like
a like a triangle, you know, like in a very
geometric like stripped down since and that was the closest
thing to find its like Shiva's that call. Yeah, so
(31:17):
I don't know, only the yogi you're gonna laugh at.
Oh and I should also mention that one of the
things that got me into this particular podcast is I
was thinking back to the old horror movie Um from
Beyond was based on a Lovecraft story, and that has
a lot to do with monsters with pineal glands that
end up poking out of their head and squirming around
like worms. And it's a lot of fun. Do you
(31:38):
have a great bog post on that, Yeah, yeah, you
can check it out. I do the Monster of the
Week deal when I have one a half time. All right, So,
speaking of having time for things, let's call the robot
over and do like a quick listener mail here. All right, Hey,
Julian Robert, this is from Valerie. I wanted to tell
you how much I enjoyed your shows on mazes and labyrinths.
(31:59):
Learning the rual difference between the definitions versus the use
of the words was very interesting. I'm a big fan
of etymology and love love it when it makes its
way into podcast. I'm equally terrified and enamored by mazes.
I have a better understanding of my mixed feelings. Now.
During the Labyrinth podcast, you mentioned the the Hopie Native
American tribe. I believe the name is pronounced Hopie, and
(32:21):
I think, guess maybe I said Hoppy or something I
think I did well, or I imagine we both did.
I'm gonna at the same time. Yes, I'm going to
share the blame. Um, And she says, says Hopie like
the garden tool and the sling for urine. Just noticed
it and thought you might want to note. I have
very much enjoyed your podcast of late. I've been trying
to do more wonder woman poses when I am not
feeling tiptop about myself. I haven't noticed if it works
(32:44):
just yet, but maybe I will end up with a
bit better posture valory. Alright, cool, And she's referring again
to the podcast that we did about life hacks and
how we can game your biochemistry through assuming certain postures. Yeah, walks, labyrinths.
Get yourself in the right power pose and it can
have a phenomenal effect on your life. All right, Well, um,
(33:08):
that's all we're gonna do for this episode. If you
would like to write an if you have any anything
to share about the pineal gland, about the privle eye,
about the third eye, uh in pine nuts, stop pine
nuts in the munching of them, let us know we'd
love to hear from you. You can find us on tumbling,
you can find us on Facebook. On both of those,
she'll find us under the name stuff to Blow Your Mind.
(33:30):
And on Twitter, our handle is blow the Mind and
you can drop us a line at blow the Mind
at discovery dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics, does it how stuff works dot com
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie,
do you ever open your third eye? Do you have
access to your third eye? Yeah? I opened up sometimes.
I'm index it. Get it a little squeaky clean. What
(00:25):
about you? Um, I guess it's mostly dormant, you know,
but in yoga there's a lot of talk about it,
so you know, occasionally we're talking about chakras and third eye.
So I get into that a little bit. You know.
I don't want to freak you out or anything of
but it it's kind of winking at me right now. Yeah,
it's pull sating under there. Oh, that might be a boil. Okay,
(00:47):
all right, So obviously we're gonna talk about the pennel
gland and it's also called the third eye. Yes, yeah,
so the third eye for for those of you who
have not been exposed to it, where we're gonna start
out with just a brief discussion about the non scientific
idea of the third eye, that being that there is this, uh,
(01:07):
we have the two eyes with which we see the world,
but that buried inside us. There's this third eye that
if we are too, if we open it, we can
see something that isn't there, or something that is hidden
from our normal perceptions of the world that we we
will be able to see uh, the spiritual aspects of
the world around us, or see into the future, or
(01:27):
see into the now. Um. It really depends on who's
doing the talking as to what a third eye actually
consists of. You see, you see various takes on this
in Hinduism. Um. If you've ever looked at any Hindu iconography,
then you've you've no doubt seen like the flaming eye
of Um, of the of Shiva, that that burns and
(01:50):
shoots out flames. You. If you're familiar with with with
the yoga, for instance, you probably know of the ana chakra.
This is a position supposedly positioned in the main right
behind the eyebrows center and this involves you know, future site,
clear side presence, or even occult powers depending on who
again is doing the talking. You see, uh. You see
(02:11):
the third eye in Kabbalah, in Taoism, in various New
Age ideas and uh. And you know even in heavy
metal lyrics from time to time as well. Also Gwin Stefanie,
well you know she used to wear the Yeah, the
bindy is a reference to to the third eye, into
the into the chakra and all that. Um. So, yeah,
(02:33):
anytime someone's wearing a bindy, they may not know it.
They might just be wearing it for purely uh you know,
ornamental reasons. But but there is this idea of the
third eye in that. What I think is so fascinating
about this topic is that the third eye has been
something that has been sabol symbolic to us, right, this
idea of seeing and seeing all. But really it does
(02:54):
have roots envision and we will talk about that via
the pineal gland. Um. So it's cool about this is
that somehow humans had sort of an inkling that this
third eye um might have actually been something within their
own brains that was giving them some sort of insight
or sensorial experience. And we'll talk more about that a bit. Yeah,
(03:16):
so first let's uh, let's back up just a little
bit about about the pineal gland and its history and
its connotations and associations with the idea of a third
eye and spiritual insight and all this. If you go
back in time, to around two thousand a d. You
had this man by the name of Galen, uh Greek
medical doctor philosopher, spent most of his time in Rome,
(03:39):
and uh he wrote on a number of things, but
he his writings dominated medical thinking like on up until
the seventeenth century. And he did discuss the pineal gland
in his eighth book UH of his anatomical work on
the usefulness of the parts of the body. And he
was really more interested in the pineal gland than than
anyone um at that time, or for you know, for
(04:00):
years and years afterwards. Now, this was a time when
when there there was this idea that the ventricles in
the brain flowed with something called psychic numa. And numa
is supposedly the breath of life in Stoic philosophy. It's
this uh fine vaporous substance that Galen described as the
first instrument of the soul. Okay, So imagine these uh,
(04:24):
these these old thinkers and UH philosophers, and you know
they're they're trying to understand out how the world works,
how the human body works. Um. There working with limited tools,
though at their disposal, and and they have only the
knowledge that came before them with which to understand it. Right.
So there they have this idea of psychic numa in
their mind and they're poking around in um the brain
(04:48):
of of a corpse to see what they can find
and see what seems to do what. So when when
Galen looked at the pennel and uh, and he in
his book he describes the penel and talks about its
resemblance in shape and size to nuts found in the
cones of the stone pine. And that's will we made
the name peneal pine. Uh. Think about that next time
you have pine nuts. Yeah. So he's spoking around in
(05:10):
the brain, finds a pineal gland, but he doesn't see
it as really involving any of this numa, any of
this spiritual stuff, because he notices that it is outside.
It's something outside of the brain. And he thinks that
the part of the brain that's going to be involved
in regulating psychic numa is gonna be uh, something that
we call the vernis supier of Sarah Belli uh in
the Sarahbellum Uh. And then he figured that was much
(05:32):
more proper to play, to play that role. But okay,
so after his death again, his his work continues to
remain important. Uh. In medieval texts, it is misinterpreted a
few times, and it eventually the idea that the pineal
gland is involved with the human spirit um and in
our spiritual essence resurfaces. And and that's a long run,
(05:53):
by the way, right up to the seventeenth century. Yeah, indeed,
I mean, you know, and certainly these classical thinkers, I
mean many of them are still we still hold them
up high today. They were, they were groundbreakers. So the
seventeenth century rolls around and we have a guy named
reneed to Carts who most people are familiar with, right,
because what's his famous quote? I think therefore I am yes, yeah,
easy to remember for me because it was there was
(06:15):
a money python song about philosophers, the Australian Philosopher's Song.
There's a really bad joke too about how a waiter
asked him if if he would like dessert and he says,
I think not, and then he kills over. That's pretty good. Um.
So reneed to Carts is, you know, primarily known for
his contributions to mathematics and philosophy, but he was also
(06:36):
really interested in anatomy psycho and in psychology as well,
So he ends up doing a lot of thinking about
what it is to be human and then the biological
aspect of that. And in this book, The Treaties of Man,
he describes a conceptual model of a human which consists
of two part body and soul. So the Carts works
(06:57):
up this theory that the pineal gland is the seat
of the sin. This communists in other words, it's the input.
It's where the input of the senses are bound into
an understanding of the world. So we see it involved
according to the deck Heart's in sensation, imagination, memory, and
uh and bodily movement. Now Deckart's theory would would go
on to be very important. A lot of people would
(07:18):
really take this and run with it, because it's an
important man saying some really awesome things about this little
tiny pine nut in our in our heads. However, it's
important to note that he was not really he wasn't
even really working with the best anatomical and physiological assumptions
of the time, so he's he's really kind of going
off in his own direction on this, but it continues
(07:39):
to be important towards the end of the nineteenth century.
You see Madam Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy, and she
really gets into the idea of the third eye um
and and and the pennel and compares it to the
eye of Shiva, and she really argues that the pennel
land is an atrophied organ of spiritual vision. Switch Again,
(08:01):
as we've discussed, there's this idea of this third eye
hidden inside as that allows us some sort of sight
that we have forgotten and that can on some level
be attained again. Okay, so again what I find really
interesting about that is that there are seeds of truth
to that in terms of the tissues of the pineal gland.
And again we'll talk about that more and more scientific terms.
But this inkling that this there's this uh sensory perception
(08:25):
center in the pineal gland is correct. Yeah, and you
can also get behind the idea that there is an
ancient form of sight involved in the pineal gland. Some
of the theories back that up as well, but it's
not attuned with the spirit per se. By the end
of the podcast, will come back around to an inkling
of some of those ideas, but but for the most part,
from here on in put the spiritual world behind you,
(08:48):
because it's all going to be about seeing an evolution.
So if we crack open the skull as uh as
Galen did uh and we take a look at the pineal,
what are we gonna see. We're gonna see a small
organ shap like a pine nut, and it's located on
the midline attached to the posterior end of the roof
of the third ventricle in the brain. Now, in a
(09:09):
human it's roughly a cinamater in length varies, and it
is composed of penniless sites and glial cells, and in
older animals, the apennial often contains brain sand, which are
just calcium deposits. But I do love the idea of
brain sand. Um. Yeah, it is essentially an endocrine organ, right,
(09:30):
But I did want to mention that when the human
embryo is in the earliest stage of development, the cells
that will form the penneil gland have the potential known
as the differential excuse me to Frenchian potential to become
I cells such as lens, epiphilial layer or retina neuron cells.
So in other words, it has all the ingredients to
(09:51):
make a brand new eye, but it forms into this
endocrine organ which produces the hormone melatonin. Yeah. Again, and
it is cell your level, it is astonishingly similar to
the eye um, particularly to the cellular structure of the retina.
So it's not just a thing where someone founded they're like,
it kind of looks like an eye, because it really
(10:11):
doesn't really look like an eye, but but at at
a cellular level. And again, uh, in early and it's
into development we see the connections to our actual eyes. Yeah,
and there's a great connection to as you say, evolution
when we look at the reason for this why this
peneon gland exists. But before we do that, let's talk
a little bit more about the melotonin um and its role,
(10:32):
because what we have found is that the human peneal
gland regulates the rhythm that beats out of the biological
clots of ourselves by secreting melotonin according to light stimulus
received through the eyes and from the skin as well
as other selves. So in the morning, the level of
melotonin secreted is low, in the evening it's high. And
then the benefit of exposure to natural light in the
(10:54):
morning is that the secretion of melotonin is curbed, enabling
the body to keep daily rhythm on track. Now, that
seems kind of straightforward and so what, but that's kind
of a big uh that's a big deal production going on. Yeah,
And we've talked before about the importance of melotonin and
serotonin in the human mind and the human body. I mean,
it's it has everything to do with our our biological patterns.
(11:17):
It had with our our our level of contentment with
the world and uh and certainly has come up in
our discussions of various uh um psychedelic properties as well. Yeah,
and if you think about the penneal gland too, it's
kind of like the control tower of the body, trying
to really sense to what degree it needs to secrete
the melotonin. Remember that it's getting these cues from skin cells,
(11:39):
other cells in the body um as well as the eye. Yeah,
you can think of it as a transducer, Okay. The
pennel transduces signals from the sympathetic nerve system into a
hormonal signal. So it's like, uh, you know, if you're
assembling the human body, you say, out of an Ikea kit,
and you might see the pineal in its own little
(12:00):
little plastic bag there, and you might well leave it
out during the confusing assembly process, but you would definitely
notice that result. That is a that is an important
little nut to screw into the finished works. That's right,
even with that tiny, little, tiny little uh what is
that supposed to be? I guess like a screwdriver, Alan
(12:20):
the Alan rinch looking thin. That's the thing is crazy?
Um that that has got to be the most frustrating
tool in existence. Um. I wanted to mention that in
the animals, the pineal gland is really paramount to reproductive
functions since the detection of increased light, let's say in
the spring by the peneal gland and just the secretion
of melotonin and then that sends this whole symphony of
(12:42):
cues to the animal's body to begin preparing for the
breeding season. So if you look at horses and sheep,
this involves a hypothalamus secreating the anterior pituitary hormones which
then essentially said out, yeah, I'm gonna say it, go
now a tropin And this is a hormone aimed at
bolstering the animals going ads and getting them ready for breeding. Yeah, yeah,
(13:03):
I was. I read a bit which said that when
you're breeding sheep, um, sheep, that normally breed only once
a year can be induced to into two breeding seasons
if you dose them up with melotona. Yep, exactly. And
we've seen this in examples with other animals too as well. UM,
So I wanted to mention this because I think this
is really interesting. Um, this role of milotonin. Again, we
(13:26):
just think of it as well that helps us to sleep,
and um, you know, have this wakefulness and not have wakefulness.
But I read this really very interesting study about how
malfunctioning circadian rhythm genes could be the basis for bipolar
disorder in children, many of whom are plagued with the
onset of sleep disorders at an early age. UM. And
(13:46):
this is really a big detail that sets bipolar disorder
apart from a d h D and kids, Um, this
sort of messed up sleep cycle or sleep disorders. R
O r N genes are expressed in the eye, brain
and pineal gland in. In a study of one hundred
and fifty two bipolar children and one hundred forty children
as a control, these children, obviously we're not bipolar or
(14:09):
thought to be. Psychiatrist Alexander Nicolausku of Indiana University found
four alterations to the r O r B gene that
were positively associated with being bipolar. So r O r
B expression is known to change as a function of
the circadian rhythm in some tissues, and mice without the
gene exhibit circadian rhythm abnormalities. So what they began to
(14:32):
see is that this this correlation with melotonum and with
disorders like this are hand in hand. And Nicolaski says
that every time we investigate some abnormality of molecular machinery
linked to the clock genes, we find an association with
bipolar disorder. So obviously there needs to be more research,
(14:53):
but it shows promise in the treatment and that researchers
have been on the right path and strictly regulating a
bipolar patients leap schedule to improve extreme mood cycles that
you see in bipolar disorder. Again, here's this pineal gland,
the controlled tower, but you know, trying to give out
the signals to the body. And it shows that something
like this can really sort of go awry if if
(15:16):
it's not all regulated. So I know what you're wondering,
where does it come from the pineal gland? How do
how do we end up with this this thing that
is in many ways and in many interpretations, a kind
of primitive eye buried in the center of our skull
without any actual um chance to glimpse the light. It
ends up being this is mere transducer. Well, it's a
(15:36):
good question, and I'm glad you asked it because because
that's what we're going to talk about you. So this
really gets down to questions of the evolution of the
human high and the evolution of sight and um. And
when you start thinking about ocular evolution, we're talking about
really old business here, like really important, like when you're
starting a business, like what are some of the first
things you have to have, right, You've got to have
(15:58):
you gotta have the building you had had the bad room,
and the first people you hire maybe you know you
you've you've gotta have the key people on staff before
you staff up from there. So when we're talking about
the development of the eye, we're talking about some very
old business and a lot of stuff ends up built
up around it. So it it makes sense when we
start talking about the ramifications of of melotonin levels on
(16:19):
all these varying levels of of of animal activity, because
it's it's route down to the to some of the
earliest development. So the eye has been around for a while.
And if you look at the eye of a human
the eye of a fish, they're not all that different.
So it goes back a long ways in evolution. But
if you go back far enough in our development, you
(16:40):
find a cyclops, or more specifically, you find something called
a lanceolate, and these are primitive creatures. They're still around
today and they have just one eye. Now. A couple
of the main theories about the pennial evolution come down
to this idea of a developing two eyes from one
all right, so back in the day simple organisms, one eye,
(17:03):
and then his evolution progresses. This eye divides into left
and right. Now this is all predicated on the primordial brain.
Like this primitive brain that's just the solid mass, that's
a big ball. It hasn't divided yet into the right
and left half spheres. So the brain divides into two
and then from one eye we get two eyes now,
(17:23):
and then they're there. Even the various takes on which
came first, chicken or egg? Does the brain split because
the eye splits? Are does does the eye split because
the brain splits? Um You can sort of go either
ways on that too. Particularly interesting theories that stem from that.
First of all, there's one here from Professor Masosuki Iraki
of Nara Women's University, and Professor Araki believes that the
(17:46):
third eye comes into being during the transition from one
eye to two. The position that iraqis describing is that
this the single eye pulls to the left and right
and uh and divided. Uh. An eye remains in the
spot where the single eye had originally been. So the
third eye then is not the third to be created,
but the first, the original. Okay, so it's uh so
(18:08):
we what we think of is the third eye is
essentially the tissue, the prime big primordial tissue, primordial I
really very simple. I right, that had that was able
to then sort of secrete itself back into our brains
a bit. Yeah, because we discussed with the way the
human body works. It's something doesn't just become useless overnight
and fall off of us. You know, it's stuff gets
(18:30):
sometimes sometimes well sometimes but but but but for for
the most part, things get tucked away, Things get to
get to get hidden in case they're used later. Our
body can be sort of a hoarder in that example.
Another theory comes to us from David Klein, PhD. And
he and he works for the Nationalist Suit of help Um.
He has this theory that it all comes down to
(18:52):
UM to melatonin again in the in the head, in
the brain. And then the idea here is that rough
five million years ago, the ancestors of today's animals became
dependent on melotonin as a signal of darkness, and is
the need for more and more melotonin grows, the peneal
gland develops as a structure separate from the eyes to
keep the toxic substances UM needed to make melotonin away
(19:16):
from sensitive eye tissue. That's because this whole process of
red option and all other chemical sort of interacting with
one another, right, and the more distance you have, the
better UM in this making of melotonin. So if you
have that distance, then you are making sure that your
eyes are not going to be affected by the chemical.
That's sort of like the really very shallow dive on that.
(19:39):
But I kind of feel like booths of them are
correct because if you have this you know, primitive brain
that's just a ball that then uh evolved into this
right and left hemisphere and then you've got the tissue well,
as you say, the body is really good at saying okay, hey,
you're sitting around, why don't you do something dumping some
some toxic stuff in there and some meloton and we're
(20:00):
not using that room for anything. And so we see
the same thing with our office here. We only have
so much room to work with. And then of an
office goes empty for too long, the video department will
move some stuff in there and start filming some some
skits and segments. The void gets filled. Yeah, um, and
then they all that you know, of course, then someone
is the control tower of the light source in all
(20:21):
the offices, the gland, controlling to what degree we are
exposed to um. So yeah, I think that was our earth.
I think it's so fascinating to to see how the
human body can adapt like that. Um. And not just
the human body, but if you look at the lancelot,
this is really primitive creature. How the beginnings of that show,
(20:42):
how this this evolvement of our eye systems and our
penny all gland all sort of came together. Yeah. Now,
when I was describing Iraqi's theory and you're imagining this
one eye in the middle of a head, I ended
up imagining a human face. Uh, well, actually your face,
since it's the one I'm looking at. Imagine an eye
in the center of your head, and then the two
eyes coming out, and then this, uh, this primordial eye receding.
(21:06):
So you're you may be wondering, was there ever a
time when you have three eyes? Three or at least
three ocular units on the face. And yes, we're gonna
We're glad you asked, because we're going to discuss after
this quick break. There are plenty of animals around today
which which do have they're two highly evolved eyes, and
(21:28):
then also this remnant eye, this uh, parietal eye, which
is very closely connected to everything we're talking about. Okay,
we're back the parietal eye. Now, if we look to
some examples in nature, we can get a fine, fine
(21:51):
feeling for what this parietal eye does. Yes, now we're
not again, we're not talking about You look at the
face and you see three distinct eyeballs. But if you
look at the certain lower vertebrates such as fish and lizards, um,
you'll actually see this kind of you could almost mistake
it for some sort of like gray pimple. Uh, this
this kind of gray little dot, gray little slit um
(22:13):
around the forehead, and that is this parietal i um.
They typically, like I said, it's a gray oval and
the animals don't actually see out of this structure like
they can't they can't look out of it like they're
they're not right then, since data is not going in
it and then forming a picture, that's what the other
(22:34):
eyes are doing. This either throattle I is more. It's
a it's photosensitive and it does influence circadian rhythm, but
it's unable to capture images. And it's believed that it's
sense it's light and regulates body temperature and hormonal balance.
So in a way you can think of it, and
we'll discuss this a little more here. It is an
(22:54):
eye that sees only one thing, and it sees what
time it is. It sees where are if you can
even apply a concept like time to to an animal,
but it can see where it is in the cycle
of night and day. Yeah, And what I think it's
really cool about it is that it does have this
sense of passing of time through its pridal eye and
(23:16):
these two kinds of neurons, So unlike the human eye,
which makes use of five different kinds of neurons called
photoreceptors to analyze light. The parietal eye has only two,
as I said, but these two neurons help frogs, fish
and lizards figure out what time it is. Um. This
is from Seed Magazining the article The secrets in the
third eye. The comparison of the color signals now begin
(23:39):
at the photoreceptor rather than in the retinal neurons as
in the regular human eye. So when this happens, the
photoreceptors in the parietal I are able to give information
about the passage of time because, and this is key,
the color spectrum changes over time during the day, So
the signal that comes out of the photoreceptor is sort
of a re eat out of what time it is,
(24:02):
which very cool. I mean, this is sort of a
superpower that we don't possess, even if we do have
pocket watches. Pocket watches when it's like the nineteenth century. Now, Yeah,
and this parridal eyes often retained in burrowing lizards. Uh.
And the idea here is that these are animals that
are occasionally exposed to light, and the thridle eyes more
suitable photo receptor for a burrower. Right, And um, that's
(24:22):
why I think is really cool about these parle eyes
is that they do differ. In a paper by Gundy
and Works entitled Parietal Eye Penny on Morphology and Lizards
and It's physiological implications. Uh, they looked at seventy five
species of lizards in their parietal eyes and they found
that there were seven different morphological types. Um. Some of
(24:43):
these types were the lateral parietal eye, the borrowed die
eye as you mentioned, and this is my favorite, a
finger like projection that extends towards the parietal eye, so
from inside the head. Yeah. Yeah, and this actually allows
for the maximum absorption of light this sort of configuration. Yeah.
So it's like the prietal eye and the pineal gland
(25:05):
sort of reaching to touch each other, like uh, like
Adam and and uh and God on the Sistine Chapel. Right,
I hope someone, I really hopes someone paints that would
surely that's on the side of a van somewhere or
Alex Gray has done it. This seems like a great
Alex Gray topic right there. There's a lot of really
cool study, especially in lizards are a great way to
(25:26):
study the pridal eye, and they found a lot of
interesting stuff about the the evolution of of the parietal
eye and the evolutionary conjunction between invertebrate and vertebrate ways
of seeing color uh prinstance, John Hopkins University study found
two pigments in the pridal eye of the side blotched lizard,
two different structures of protein communication. One of these is
(25:48):
a pigment communicated with transducent like protein called gustusin is
vertebrates us and other is a pigment that uses GO protein.
It's an invertebrate way of of seeing. So the theory
here is that early on this go protein this was
the norm, and then his evolution progresses transucent pathway developed,
(26:08):
and then as a and as it progresses even further,
you move up to the lateral eyes, which are actually
very highly specialized structures that are allow us to have
depth reception, and then the go pathway is dropped and
we retain only the transucent pathway. So again we see
in the parridal eye an ancient form of seeing, an
ancient way of just barely peeking out from the darkness
(26:33):
of consciousness into the light of the world. That's beautiful.
Well all right, so we uh, we couldn't tidy up
the rest of this podcast without making a mention of hallucinogens, right,
because if they're really heavy into them as a topic lately. Um, So,
what do hallucinogens have to do with the pineal gland
in the third eye other than people feeling like they
(26:55):
have tapped into them when they're on hallucinogens. Yeah, we
have a guy by the name of Rick Strassman in
d who researched the hypothetical and as yet unproven connection
between the pineal gland and the production of d MT. UH.
First he was very interested in the pineal gland, then
he got very interested in d MT. He actually performed
the first new human studies with psychedelic drugs in the
(27:18):
US and over twenty years back in between nine five
when he was he does about sixty volunteers with d MT.
Eventually ended up canceling the research because he grew too
concerned about the part of the negative effects that some
of these individuals were having on these trips, seeing some
frightening things, uh, lizardman, godlike beings freaking out as they
(27:42):
dissolve into light. That kind of thing which, as we
discussed in our Psychedelic episodes, that can certainly happen, but
he he did formulate a number of just kind of
really out their ideas. I mean from the side you
you you read what the man has written, and he's
not a complete lune or anything. I don't want to
paint him like at but he has some very far
(28:02):
reaching ideas about what the pineal gland might consists of
and what it's doing, and and he gets into some
some really interesting territory where he's entertaining the notion that
d MT actually affects the brain's ability to receive information,
not just interpret and generate it, and that it can
potentially allow us to perceive dark matter and parallel universes.
(28:24):
So it's, uh, it's all very theoretical. Um, you know,
don't take that to the bank. But but I do
find it really really interesting. It is interesting. I mean,
it's certainly in an extrapolation on what Nobel laureate Julius
axel Rod found is that the brain does have naturally
occurring trace amounts um of d m T in the brain.
(28:47):
And then some people have taken this to say the
peneal brain is is um where it's made, and perhaps
there's some sort of um connection connection between psychosis and
even hallucine egens are I should say hallucinations. But again,
a lot of this is all unproven at this point.
We just all we know for sure is trace amounts
(29:10):
that are naturally occurring in the brain of d M
t U d MT being this hallucinogen substance. Yeah, to
what extent are we coming back around to the same
mistake of attributing spiritual importance to this little nut in
the brain, or are we coming around to some truth
about it that it is? I mean, obviously it has
(29:30):
something that it has. It has stuff to do with
the way that we sense and understand the world, But
to what degree so exactly? Yeah, you know, we we
didn't talk about the third eye is being a Freemason symbol.
Oh of course, yes, the what the the name for
it at the top of the dollar the triangle with
the eye. Yeah, yeah, I mean that's the third Eye.
(29:52):
But whatever we've we've seen that in It's in the
US Great Seal on the dollar bill. And of course
there's a lot of conspiracy theorists who will point that
Hollerabilee and say that you know, that's that's that's the
work of Freemasons. Um. But from what I understand, Ben Franklin,
who was the only Freemason who worked on the currency
at that time, proposed a design and it did not
(30:13):
have that third eye in it. So also, um, that
dollar bill third eye symbol was in use I think,
uh far, maybe like a decade or more before the
Freemason's even began to use it. The eye of providence,
that's right. Yeah, yeah, And actually, if you want to
know more about that, you should totally check out stuff
(30:34):
they don't want you to know because they do some
deep dives into that territory. And I really need to
look it up because I was not familiar with the
term I have providence to like, just a couple of
weeks ago, I was in yoga, and this is gonna
sound hippie dippy, but during Shavasna, I saw this, uh
that's when you're in rest. Yeah, I saw this, this triangle,
like a pulsating triangle. It seemed like it might be
(30:56):
God or something, you know, Like that was the kind
of vibe I was getting off of it. So afterwards, like, hi,
I wonder if there are any ideas out there of
like that interpret God or a divine being as like
a like a triangle, you know, like in a very
geometric like stripped down since and that was the closest
thing to find its like Shiva's that call. Yeah, so
(31:17):
I don't know, only the yogi you're gonna laugh at.
Oh and I should also mention that one of the
things that got me into this particular podcast is I
was thinking back to the old horror movie Um from
Beyond was based on a Lovecraft story, and that has
a lot to do with monsters with pineal glands that
end up poking out of their head and squirming around
like worms. And it's a lot of fun. Do you
(31:38):
have a great bog post on that, Yeah, yeah, you
can check it out. I do the Monster of the
Week deal when I have one a half time. All right, So,
speaking of having time for things, let's call the robot
over and do like a quick listener mail here. All right, Hey,
Julian Robert, this is from Valerie. I wanted to tell
you how much I enjoyed your shows on mazes and labyrinths.
(31:59):
Learning the rual difference between the definitions versus the use
of the words was very interesting. I'm a big fan
of etymology and love love it when it makes its
way into podcast. I'm equally terrified and enamored by mazes.
I have a better understanding of my mixed feelings. Now.
During the Labyrinth podcast, you mentioned the the Hopie Native
American tribe. I believe the name is pronounced Hopie, and
(32:21):
I think, guess maybe I said Hoppy or something I
think I did well, or I imagine we both did.
I'm gonna at the same time. Yes, I'm going to
share the blame. Um, And she says, says Hopie like
the garden tool and the sling for urine. Just noticed
it and thought you might want to note. I have
very much enjoyed your podcast of late. I've been trying
to do more wonder woman poses when I am not
feeling tiptop about myself. I haven't noticed if it works
(32:44):
just yet, but maybe I will end up with a
bit better posture valory. Alright, cool, And she's referring again
to the podcast that we did about life hacks and
how we can game your biochemistry through assuming certain postures. Yeah, walks, labyrinths.
Get yourself in the right power pose and it can
have a phenomenal effect on your life. All right, Well, um,
(33:08):
that's all we're gonna do for this episode. If you
would like to write an if you have any anything
to share about the pineal gland, about the privle eye,
about the third eye, uh in pine nuts, stop pine
nuts in the munching of them, let us know we'd
love to hear from you. You can find us on tumbling,
you can find us on Facebook. On both of those,
she'll find us under the name stuff to Blow Your Mind.
(33:30):
And on Twitter, our handle is blow the Mind and
you can drop us a line at blow the Mind
at discovery dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics, does it how stuff works dot com
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