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Underground > Temple >

Opening the third eye?

05:14 / 14.04.04

what benefits or uses of opening the third eye have you found? For those of you who have worked towards or achieved this goal was it a permanant thing or a temporary experience? what are some specific exercises that have worked for you?

19:00 / 18.04.04

My experience has been a permanent thing and has helped me when it comes to divination and other such things. Exercises that have helped me are just chanting words at a pitch where you can feel the sound vibrating within your third eye.

02:43 / 19.04.04

thanks i will devote myself to that this week and keep my results posted. any specific words that seemed to work for you or are the words just a focus device and the intent more important?

22:41 / 19.04.04

You know, I'm no expert on this (in fact my third eye is utterly gummed up with that crusty sleep stuff), but...doesn't this sort of profound rending-of-the-veil type opening take more than a week and effect slightly more drastic changes in consciousness than giving a wee clairvoyant boost? I mean, I always figured it fell firmly in the category of ten-years-meditating-by-the-creek-and-then-one-morning-reality-got-ripped-away level 'work...of course, that may be what kept me from putting in a concerted week's effort...

Super Boiling Hero RamenKing

23:10 / 19.04.04

i'm still learning to train my third eye, any pointers??

23:33 / 19.04.04

that's a good question sine. i have no idea how long it takes or even what it "really" means or is. maybe some people with different opinions about opening it and what it does should put their input in so's i know what i am working towards and if i even WANT it open. also does the third eye = pineal gland? are there drugs to produce a short term experience of eye opening? what's the story on this crazy eye?

23:42 / 19.04.04

I'm pretty sure that no matter what your trying to do, if you put enough effort into it you'll notice something in a matter of weeks.

I always go back to playing the guitar, and i know it's a bit of a crap analogy, but even though it took a good few years to be able to play it well enough, i noticed a significant amount of results in the first weeks. I think this can be said to apply to a lot of things.

You might not be fully opening your third eye and achieving miraculous results, but maybe you'll know how to approach the situation a lot better, get rid of some of the obstacles and be confident that your on the right path with a short amount of practise. Then that confidence will spur you on.

23:58 / 19.04.04

also does the third eye = pineal gland?
Strictly speaking, yes. Some amphibians actually have a photoreceptive pineal covered only by a diaphenous membrane allowing it to directly sense light. Accordingly, the pineal is the seat of the circadian, bringing the organism in line with day & night via the catabolism of melatonin.

But what you're probably referring to is the notion that the pineal is an aetheric, or spiritual eye. The "Seat of the Soul". Many eastern systems depict the place on the forehead between the eyes as the center of enlightenment. This is probably due to the simple awareness of this center when one's eyes are closed. It's the default self-referential point of introspection, and this is about where the pineal rests in the brain. Interestingly, recent studies suggest that the pineal is capable of metabolising melatonin into DMT, which provides another level to the "Seat of the Soul" concept.

are there drugs to produce a short term experience of eye opening?
Yep. Several.

01:32 / 20.04.04

another interesting take on the pineal theory would be that the buddhist "opening of the third eye" was somehow increasing DMT output or supressing MAO inhibitors (the chemicals in the brain that keep DMT normally produced by your body from being processed) sufficiently so that you could work with a DMT type experience without drugs. I don't know enough about the neurology of this to say whether that's theoretically possible, but many mystical experiences somehow involve drugs (e.g.: the zen-like "runners high" is created by your body putting out increased endorphin ) and I've read about a buddhist sect somewhere that uses meditation to initiate psychedelic experience without drugs (can't be bothered to remember the name. Oh well). Terrence McKenna also said that the yogis he met in India were very interested in drug culture, and may have had some sort of biological action analguous to the drug experience.

01:33 / 20.04.04

sorry bout the italics, they don't mean anything, just accidental.

13:22 / 20.04.04

I just remembered that thing when Bill Hicks was talking about taking a "heroic" dose of magic mushrooms, he was like "yeah man, my third eye was squeegeed clean..."

15:04 / 20.04.04

Rick Strassman has suggested that the pineal could be modified to produce DMT by the application of certain resonance frequencies, as would be generated by mantric chanting and gyuto-style intonations. Given it's close coupling with melatonin there is also a good possibility that endogenous DMT could be modifying dream behavior as well. Thus the pineal could be modified to allow the dream experience to occur while awake. Merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream!

Also, to clarify a bit, while MAO exists in the brain and does act as a metaboliser of indoles like serotonin, it is the MAO in the gut that keeps DMT from being orally active. Once it's made it past the blood-brain barrier it is fully active regardless of the presence of any sort of MAOI. This is why smoking it is so effective and doesn't require any MAOI's. (MAO = MonoAmine Oxidase; MAOI = MonoAmine Oxidase Inhibitor)

17:06 / 20.04.04

Yeah, I wasn't sure about the mechanics of it. The impression I had gotten was that the pineal gland produces some amount of DMT normally but it didnt affect the brain so as to cause psychedelic affects. Do you know if any individuals/ groups have utilized this to any extent?

17:39 / 20.04.04

Well, research into this stuff is fairly cutting-edge and ongoing. There's *speculation* among researchers (primarily Strassman) that some mystical/religious states are triggered by some kind of stimulation of the pineal gland, but those who are able to do that sort of thing aren't interested in being tested, and those who sponsor such tests aren't necessarily interested in this application.

07:42 / 21.04.04

Apparently a good exercise is to look up into your fore head, I dunno if this works, why not try it. Also dancing helps, shamanic stuff.

16:30 / 21.04.04

I've heard about this third eye stuff before but never read up on it.
But someone mentioning something up there about becoming aware of a point on your forehead when you have your eyes closed made me think of something.
I am acutely aware of the point directly between my eyes, right at the top of my nose, when my eyes are closed. I've talked to other people about it before and they've never got what I'm trying to explain, leading me to believe that not many other people have this.
I can kind of "sense" objects moving towards that point on my face, particularly when my eyes are closed. If the object being moved towards my face is sharp and thin, like a needle, then the feeling is very intense, it feels like a tingling pressure, very concentrated. It's pretty uncomfortable. I've tested it out by getting other people to move a needle towards and away from that point, while my eyes are closed, and I'm always able to tell them whether the needle is near or far from me.
I doubt its got anything to do with this third eye stuff. I was just wondering whether anyone here knows anything about what it could be? I've looked everywhere and even asked my doctor, who said he'd never heard of it before.

22:04 / 21.04.04

Not only do amphibians have a photoreceptive pineal eye covered by a diaphenous membrane. Reptiles (my iguana has a very clear one) and birds do to. Not only does it help them synch with night and day but it also allows them to see ultraviolet light and quite possible magnetic fields.

It's how they navigate.

I've had some experience with openning my third eye but my best results have been with marijuana a few years back.

17:44 / 22.04.04

'Third eye' seems like a strange description.
I get sleep paralysis regularly, (as some people here might be bored of hearing), and I have the impression of 'seeing with eyes closed'. This could be referred to as a 'shamanistic' event, but then there is a blackout
period between closing my paralysed eyes, and waking up fully which leads me to the following theory..

As you percieve the surroundings in paralysis, there can be a lot of auditory and visual weirdness, and recently I've even been getting physical hallucinations. But I've never had a sense that I was anywhere except inside my own body.

Anyway -the theory is that when you are paralysed - All of your body is numb to sensation - even the eyelids on your face send no info to the brain. So to your paralysed 'self', you feel that your eyes are closed, but they are actually open -you can see around the room.
Its odd, I am a sure that I am breathing, but I can't feel it. I am sure that I am seeing, but I can't feel my eyes -can't gauge any 'states'. I can hear things, and see and feel, but I experience this from an odd mental perspective.