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