The Prescientific Stage of the Pineal Gland
This chapter summarizes the evolution of concepts about pineal function from primitive times to the nineteenth century. Since primitive times, ideas about the meaning of the pineal gland for mental functions can be traced in Eastern and Western cultures.
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The Prescientific Stage of the Pineal Gland
In Hindu philosophy and Vedic literature, a popular legend tells of how Parvati, the wife of Shiva, covered her eyes, leaving the world plunged into a confused state of darkness. Fortunately, a third eye appeared in front of Shiva, and the world was saved from an impending disaster (Fig. 2.1). In this sense, according to ancient Hindu traditions, human beings have a third eye or mystical body (presumably, the pineal gland) that provides a sort of window to their spiritual life and the key to their mental powers [1]. According to the Tantric interpretation of Buddhism, six to eight neural centers are found at different levels. The lower one is located near the anus (muladhara chakra) and controls the sexual organs. In this chakra lies a certain kind of energy, called the power of the serpent (Kundalini shakti). Normally it is potential energy and the snake is at rest, but when activated it exerts a wide-ranging influence on mental processes. One can “wake up” (enable) the Kundalini shakti by an intense practice of yoga techniques involving contemplative processes of the mind, and once activated, this energy must be channeled step by step through the set of neural centers (chakras) to ultimately reach the Ajna chakra located at the top of the forehead, between the eyes. For many believers, it represents the pineal gland. The energy must then flow to the Brahmarandhra chakra, possibly the lateral cerebral ventricles [2]. Thus, for tantric Buddhism the pineal is the sixth chakra (Ajna), which aims to provide a window to the spiritual life of individuals and is a key to clairvoyance and meditation. Since Ajna was considered to be active between 2 and 6 a.m., this was the best time for the peak stage of meditation. Certainly this has turned out to be a prescient idea since we now know that the maximum metabolic activation of the pineal, including melatonin synthesis, peaks between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. In the West, the link between the pineal gland and mental illness had existed for a long time. Many schools in classical antiquity tried to explain the origin of mental disorders as so-called diseases of the soul. The great philosophers of antiquity (Plato and Aristotle) defended the concept of a rational, immaterial soul, with illnesses being understood as a perversion of the spirit, a kind of moral failing. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 D.P. Cardinali, Ma Vie en Noir, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41679-3_2
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The Prescientific Stage of the Pineal Gland
Fig. 2.1 Shiva as head of family with his wife Parvati, represented in a painting of 1820 (Rajput) (note the third eye)
The approach to the intimate side of the human soul by the schools of medicine in ancient Greece was more materialistic. In the fourth century BC, Hippocrates believed that the soul was closely linked to corporeality and therefore denied any supernatural aspect of the soul. This legacy was picked up by the school of medicine of Alexandria, which attained the height of
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