The pineal gland in the human brain possesses structures remarkably similar to those in our eyes. It also has strikingly similar faculties. This gland has cells that act as light receptors, as our retina has, and a structure comparable to the vitreous, the gel-like substance between the retina and lenses of our eyes. Something like a lens also exists in the pineal gland.
Scientists are still learning much about the pineal body. It has been known in both Eastern and Western belief systems as the seat of human consciousness. Eastern spiritualism holds that eyes exist all over the body in the form of apertures—acupuncture points. Western science is also coming to grasp that the pineal body is a kind of “third eye.”
“Under the skin in the skull of a lizard lies a light-responsive ’third eye‘ which is the … equivalent of the bone-encased, hormone-secreting pineal gland in the human brain. The human pineal is denied access to light directly, but like the lizard’s ’third eye,’ it shows enhanced release of its hormone, melatonin, during the night,” she wrote. “The pineal gland is the ’mind’s eye.’”
A bundle of nerve fibers connects this to the posterior commissure (another part of the brain that is not well-understood).
In the 1950s, researchers uncovered the pineal body’s ability to sense light and produce melatonin corresponding to the light levels it detects. It, thusly, controls important rhythms in the body and also affects the reproductive and immune systems. The pineal body was previously thought to be vestigial, that is dormant; this find revealed that it actually serves important functions.
In May 2013, another discovery was made which could also change the way the pineal body is understood.
A rat’s pineal body produces N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), it was found, something that organic beings produce but is (again) not well-understood. This is interesting because it is known that the ingestion of DMT can induce psychedelic experiences characterized as being spiritually intense.
Dr. Rick Strassman, with approval from the U.S. government, conducted research at the University of New Mexico in the 1990s where he injected DMT into human volunteers. It was Strassman who termed DMT the “spirit molecule.”
The presence of DMT in the pineal glands of rats was confirmed at the University of Michigan by Dr. Jimo Borjigin and at Louisiana State University by Dr. Steven Barker. Their research was partially funded by the Cottonwood Research Foundation, headed by Dr. Strassman, which supports scientific research into the nature of consciousness. Their study was published in the journal Biomedical Chromatography.
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