Until fairly recently, the pineal gland has been a very misunderstood piece of human anatomy. The fact that it was the “last” gland of the endocrine system discovered says a lot about what priority the function of this gland plays in the cycles of human evolution. It seems we just haven't been ready to know about it until now. Borrowing knowledge from yogic sages and inner discovery, let's delve into what is up with the pineal gland and how we can best access its power and purpose.
Be As a Child
Remember as a child how your world was more naturally magical? Full of imagination, possibility and delight? Do you ever recall the presence of special powers? Magical playmates? Or larger than life wisdoms? These fancies were not merely the illusions and fantasies of childhood, meant to be overcome and learned away by adulthood, but were instead the blessings and gifts accessible by one with an active and healthy pineal gland.
You see, this world is not as restrictive as our logical minds would have us believe; but by peering into existence through the looking glass of lower chakra-consciousness, it sure seems so. For when the vital energy and cosmic life-force (known as kundalini), which channels through a human form, are laid to rest at the base of the spine instead of flowing freely through the energy channels modulated and regulated by a fully functioning chakra system, one's consciousness becomes limited to the perspectives granted by such positioning. In other words, as a child, the life-force energy flows uninhibited through the spine and multi-chakra system. As a fully-functioning being at birth, the vital energy is able to utilize the pineal gland as a valve for maintaining awareness of the multi-dimensionality of existence. It remains so throughout childhood and is what affords young minds to know things without logical understanding, to see the future, and to access realms of otherworldly beings and those who have passed beyond.
As an only child, my oldest boy used to speak matter-of-factly about his previous life and his brother. He missed him often and sometimes cried at their separation. It wasn't until his brother was born 6 years later that I saw him “reconnect” with the person he had described as a 2-year-old child. There was no way he could have been talking from any place other than his “full-awareness system,” accessible through a fully functioning pineal gland.
Its Job and Decline
When the pineal gland is active, it not only secretes melatonin and serotonin, it distributes energy evenly through both hemispheres of the brain. There is a communication and a harmonic relationship between the linear world before one's eyes and the creative, often imaginative, but also very mystical and magical world of the inner realms. Children are able to easily weave what adults might call “nonsense” into what we deem “regular” conversation, sentence structure and memory. This is because, to them, there is no separation between the realms. It is a learned response and attitude to separate magical, imaginative ideas and expressions from what seems to be right in front of one’s eyes. This is due to an increase in serotonin produced by the pineal gland as a person grows.
Pineal gland functions begin to decline around age 7-8 years. This is when the pituitary functions start to over-ride the system, sending hormones into the blood stream that begin to activate the sexual organs. Cosmic energy, little by little, begins to drop from the full occupation in the spinal cord and sushumna channel, to the base of the spine around the reproductive organs. This shift increases toward the onset of puberty, when a child is suddenly thrown into internal chaos and “crisis” over the necessary negotiation going on within them between their spiritual and “sexual” selves. You could also say that in this movement of kundalini shakti from their pineal gland and higher chakra centers to the lower centers, that karma is activated and therefore a reduction of focus on the authentic nature takes place.
Karma, Sex and Beyond
The movement into karmic action and response must be an important and significant one -- at least it has been in our collective human past, so as to allow for the de-conditioning of the human psyche by forcing an examination of all that has been brought forward in the human experience. Once this karmic “cleaning out” takes place, by focusing cosmic energy on the first and second chakras - where karmic and ancestral patterning reside - it is in my opinion that the energy in one's body – the kundalini – should be able to move freely again through the spinal cord and sushumna channel, back to the pineal gland, without having to give up sexual pleasure, if that is one's desire. Instead, this cosmic energy becomes available to enhance any practice or action. In the sexual experience, cosmic energy would instead distribute orgasmic responses throughout the entire body and connectivity to the “other” would become a portal into other dimensions where the experience of Oneness is more tangible.
The yogis of old thought it necessary to suppress or deny the sexual impulses, “retaining seed” for the sake of enlightenment due to the fact that they knew the kundalini had fallen from the pineal gland down to the sexual organs during puberty, which was - in earlier times – questionable to them and even thought wrong. True, the shift for a child -- from innocent, imaginative dreamer to harshly awakened, pulsating hormonal junkie – is quite a shocker and an uncomfortable experience for most. However, the shift does not have to be so stark and awkward. It is through the practices of yoga that one can learn to keep the vital energy flowing through the spine and facilitate the retention of kundalini energy in the pineal gland, avoiding the fateful shriveling and wasting away that happens to so many by default.
Pineal Health and Restoration
Yogic practices such as asanas, pranayama, mantra, meditation and mudras keep balance between the hemispheres of the brain, which is key for pineal gland function because it keeps prana (life-force) moving up and down the spine and back and forth in the brain hemispheres. By practicing at a young age, one can avoid the stark shift from dual brain activity to single-hemisphere emphasis – which throws one into a state of near inner madness, trying to navigate an entirely different psychological terrain from the one experienced as a child.
If one has not had the opportunity to practice yoga from a young age and instead, has had many years of pineal gland calcification – which happens otherwise (due to municipally treated drinking water, fluoride additives in water, dental products, non-absorbable calcium and excessive sugar, caffeine, alcohol and tobacco), decalcification of the pineal gland becomes a necessary activity.
How to Decalcify the Pineal Gland:
1. Stop the intake of that which further calcifies the gland:
- fluoridated water/tap water
- fluoridated dental products
- most regular calcium products/foods with “added calcium”
- excessive sugar, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine
- pesticides
2. Include food, activities and tools that flush the pineal gland of calcification and support its health:
- yoga (postures, breathing, mantras/chanting**, mudras, visualizations & cleansing practices such as the neti pot)
- ORMUS gold
- raw chocolate
- skate fish oil
- distilled water
- raw apple cider vinegar
- essential oils: frankincense, sandalwood, palo santo, pine
- sun gazing (see article for guidelines)
- crystals over the third eye: amethyst, iolite, azurite, – 15 min/day – in sunlight is best; quartz, sodalite, moldavite and smokey quartz are also powerful here
- noni juice
- goji berries
- magnet over the 3rd eye
- spirulina or marine phytoplankton
- coconut oil
I would like to talk about a few of these methods for reducing the calcification deposits. My favorite means to do so is through chanting and toning. I spent 4 months in an ashram in India chanting every day for at least an hour per day and some days 6-8 hours. After each session I could literally feel the vibration of my being increased. It was obvious to me that I had elevated my frequency and my ability to connect to the vastness within. Mantra is extremely powerful. I have also had incredible experiences with crystals and meditating with them over my third eye and in a crystal grid. They are powerful holders of frequency. Super foods such as raw cacao, goji berries, coconut oil, noni and the like are dense with organic nutrients and ORMUS – which is, in short, consciousness food. By choosing a few of these methods and foods you can begin to experience states of being which allow you to know yourself as more than you have experienced before. This, too, is a sign of the pineal gland coming online, for in full pineal health, we recognize our cosmic positioning and station and realize we are not as insignificant as we once thought.
Through the decalcification process, the pineal gland is able to fill with liquid once again, as was its state as a child, and activate its full potentiality and power. What are these powers you ask? Well, until fairly recently it was unknown that the pineal gland actually contains rods and cones just like the physical eyes we are familiar with. Why would this be? This finding points to the ability this gland has to actually SEE...something beyond what our normal eyes see.
What Happens Next?
Through the practice of yoga and meditation, and as decalcification proceeds, the yogi is able to access deeper and deeper states of consciousness, inner wisdom and peace. Reports of inner visions and detailed images are common – including the sighting of a blue/violet light in the center of the brain, followed by the image of what seems to be a swan. This is the inner eye activating and actually seeing the third and fourth ventricles of the brain, which, when taken at a cross-section, actually look like a swan in flight.
Inner sight may also include the visitation of other-worldly beings, where they are either heard or seen or both. Other psychic senses may develop which are referred to as Siddhis in India – and which basically refer to abilities that most humans currently do not experience such as telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, healing abilities, and remote viewing, but can be even more fantastic and extend into realms of levitation, bi-location, time-travel, materialization and more. By accessing the power and purpose of the pineal gland, I believe we are reconnecting with a space beyond what we currently know with our familiar, though limited, linear understanding. We are tuning into, rather, our greater potentiality and the abilities we were born to access – which some might call “super-human.”
The pineal gland is meant to be spongy and have a grape-like texture/consistency. In most autopsies the pineal gland reveals itself, for most people, to be a shriveled up hardened pit in the center of the brain that has rendered itself useless. This is the result of zero awareness and a diet/lifestyle which allows for the calcification of inorganic minerals to accumulate – pointing to a lack of consciousness in choices or a passive approach to engaging life and comfort with the status quo.
We are so much more than our eyes tell us. By accessing the power and potential of our literal third eye – located in the center of our brains – and by syncing back up our brain hemispheres like they were as a child, we too can become as children and live, again, a magical life. It's all right here within us, to see a world beyond limitation and confusion. Our bodies are temples and our pineal gland is as a throne in the holiest of holies where we can enter in, by closing our eyes, and perceive what the eternal world would have us forget. The pineal gland grants access to the bliss beyond senses and the joy of youth. Isn't it time to remember the magic?
Photo Credit: "Leviathan" by FHG Photo is licensed under CC BY 2.0
References:
http://www.thehealersjournal.com/2012/12/17/rapid-detoxification-of-the-third-eye-pineal-gland/
http://decalcifypinealgland.com/how-to-decalcify-the-pineal-gland/
http://www.crystalinks.com/thirdeyepineal.html
http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1979/cmar79/pineal.shtml
