Scott Thill: 4 Things You Should Know About Your Third Eye

Located in nearly the direct center of the brain, the tiny pine cone shaped pineal gland, which habitually secretes the wondrous neuro-hormone melatonin, while we sleep at night, was once thought to be a vestigial leftover from a lower evolutionary state. Indeed, according to recent research, we could be increasing our chances of contracting chronic illnesses like cancer, by unnecessarily bathing its evenings in artificial light, working night shifts. or staying up too late. By disrupting the pineal gland, and melatonin's chrono biological connection to Earth's rotational 24 hour light and dark cycle, known as its circadian rhythm, we're possibly opening the doors, not to perception, but to disease and disorder. A recently published study from Vanderbilt University has found associations between circadian disruption and heart disease, diabetes and obesity. By hacking what pinealo-philes call our minds third eye, with an always on techno culture, transmitting globally at light speed, we may have disadvantaged our genetic ability to ward off all manner of complicated nightmares. No wonder the pineal gland is a pop culture staple for sci-fi, fantasy and horror fandom, as well as a mass attractor of mystics and mentalists. Its powers to divide, and merge our light and dark lives, only seems to grow, the more we take it seriously. We still lack a complete understanding of the pineal gland, University of Michigan professor of physiology and neurology, Jimo Borjigin, a pioneer in medical visualization of the pineal gland's melatonin secretion, told me. Numerous molecules are found in the pineal, many of which are uniquely found at night, and we do not have a good idea, of what their functions are. The only function, that is established beyond doubt, is the melatonin synthesis and secretion at night, and we do not have a good idea of what their functions are. The only function that is established beyond doubt, is the melatonin synthesis and secretion at night, which is controlled by the central clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and modulated by light. All else is speculative. Discerning between the science and speculation of the pineal gland hasn't been easy, since long before Rene Descartes called it the principal seat of the soul, after studying it at length nearly four centuries ago.