Psi and Psychedelics - Paranthropology - Weebly

PARANTHROPOLOGY: JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE PARANORMAL VOL. 2 NO. 2
The Pineal Gland: Psychic
and Psychedelic Powerhouse
Serena Roney-Dougal
(excerpt from chapter 4 of “Where
Science and Magic Meet”, 3 rd revised
edition, 2010, Green Magic Books:
Glastonbury, Britain)
We are slowly but surely becoming
increasingly clear that an altered state of
consciousness is conducive for psychic
(psi) experiences. The best examples of
this are the various relaxation, dream,
hypnotic, Ganzfeld, and meditation
experiments. 1 This corroborates
traditional teachings and practices both
East and West, e.g. Patanjali's 2 teachings
on yoga state that when you reach
Samadhi so psychic abilities manifest.
Since this aspect of traditional lore is
yielding to experimental research, it is
worth examining other items of
traditional knowledge.
I am very interested in the link
between psychic phenomena and our
physical state. The mind and body are
inextricably linked while we are alive and
living on this earth. Everything we do to
the body affects the mind, as anyone who
needs a cup of coffee in the morning
knows. My research into the pineal
suggests that it produces natural
ayahuasca which is psi-conducive; i.e.
take us into an altered state of
consciousness in which we are more
likely to have psychic experiences. And
this understanding helps to explain so
much of folklore and people’s
spontaneous experiences.
Folklore: East and West
While there are doubts as to whether one
can consider psi equivalent to a form of
'perception', there is a considerable body
of folklore which does so: the idea of a
'third eye'; or the 'second sight' as it is
called in Scotland. In Eastern (Indian)
terminology the 'third eye' is called the
'ajna chakra', about which there is a
considerable body of information. Some
modern teachers of yoga, who also keep
aware of Western research, equate the
'ajna chakra' with the pineal gland, while
Descartes called the pineal gland 'the seat
of the soul'. Let me quote, as a brief
introduction, from a booklet written by
one such teacher, Swami Satyananda
Saraswati:
All psychic systems have their
physical aspects in the body ... With ajna
chakra the physical equivalent is the
pineal gland. . . [He then goes on to
discuss recent scientific research on the
pineal gland and notes] Yogis, who are
scientists of the subtle mind, have always
spoken of telepathy as a 'siddhi', a psychic
power for thought communication and
clairaudience, etc. The medium of such
siddhis is ajna chakra, and its physical
terminus is the pineal gland, which is
connected to the brain. It has been stated
by great yogis ... that the pineal gland is
the receptor and sender of the subtle
vibrations which carry thoughts and
psychic phenomena throughout the
cosmos. 3
Thus, folklore and yogic teaching
suggest that the 'third eye' (pineal gland)
plays some part in the process of
becoming aware of psi information, but
what evidence is there that this is actually
the case? For this we have to turn to the
disciplines of neurochemistry and
anthropology.
24 PARANTHROPOLOGY: JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE PARANORMAL