March 7, 2014 • 40 mins
What does the pineal gland do? Some people believe it represents the mystical "third eye" from ancient teachings. Could it possibly be used to see beyond our physical world?
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
From UFOs two, ghosts and government cover ups. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. Breedings,
Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt and
I am Ben. Is the tiny pine cone shaped gland
(00:22):
in the middle of your head a gateway to alternate realities,
perhaps to an inner spiritual place? Or is it just
your body's ingenious way of manufacturing your sleep cycle and
monitoring it, or maybe is it something in between that's
today on stuff they don't want me to know. I
(00:47):
like that intro quite a bit that that's exactly what
we're talking about. We're talking about the pineal gland. And
to follow up then, I guess one thing that we
could say is that it's totally understandable that people would
think of it as a third eye. You and I
recently did a couple of videos on the pineal gland,
(01:08):
something we had returned to remember very early in our days.
We did a fluoride episode, yes, and the paneo land
was right at the center of that episode. And the
pineal gland is, as you said, a pine cone shaped organ.
It swings above its weight class in terms of performance
in the body and the brain, because it produces two
(01:32):
very important hormones, uh, serotonin and melatonin. And I think
we say in the video that melanin and melatonin are
very different. So don't get him mixed up. Oh yeah,
it has nothing to do with the pigmentation on your skin.
It's just it's the melotonin is the thing that doesn't
(01:53):
it get your body into a sleep state or or
it coaxes your body towards a sleep state. Yeah, it
tells your body naptime. Yea is essentially what it does.
And one thing that really interested you and me about
this is that the pineal gland, even though it's inside
the brain, is actually able to sense and react to light. Yeah,
(02:16):
it's an it's an iPhone. It's not an old flip phone.
It's got some new features. Yeah, but they're actually really
old features. They're just upgrades, I guess. Yeah. Really, well,
you know that is a way to say it, because
we do know that some animals uh have have a
similar thing that we should differentiate. Now, there's the parietal eye,
(02:40):
which you also hear called the third eye. It's associated
with the pineal gland, and it's present in some animal species,
like there's a their reptiles have uh well developed third eyes, lizards, frogs,
land praise. You can see pictures of amphibians that have
a lot of frogs that have a bridal eye and
(03:02):
it's kind of weird looking, just looks like a tiny
little dot in the middle of their their what would
be their foreheads. Also able to sense light, and we
talked about we talked about how for thousands of years,
very smart people have been breaking their heads against the
wall to figure out what the panel glant is, right, Yeah, yeah,
(03:23):
it's well, it's a fascinating thing. We're always looking for
that that exit into the other realities. Um, I don't know.
It seems it seems like it could be a key.
It could be, but there are no definitive answers yet.
There's a lot of research going into it, but I
(03:43):
don't know what we'll have to find out. But let's
explore what we know. Okay, Well, yeah, so we know
that it's as we said, it's pretty small in adult humans.
It's a little under a centimeter in length or point
three inches. Uh. It weighs about point one grams, So
it's not it's not something that you would immediately notice
(04:07):
if you happen to be um opening up someone's head
for the first time and digging around. Uh, you know,
just in case you're doing that now and you're like, guys,
where's the pineal gland. I'm in a hurry. Um, We'll
go towards the center and look for that little what
it's like I've heard I've heard it say it's the
size of a grain of rice, but it's a little
(04:28):
bigger than that. But still it's it seems rather insignificant
when you are looking at the structure of the brain.
So we do know that the pineal gland is an
indocrine gland or an endocrine oregon, but we also know
that it's pretty enigmatic. It's kind of a shady neighborhood
of your brain because it is associated with a lot
(04:51):
of mental functions that modern science still does not understand.
One of those big ones would be sleep. You know,
like it's it's um. A lot of different neurological factors
are involved in sleep and physical factors as well. But
if we think of sleep as like the the heist
(05:12):
or the object of a heist film, then the panel
gland is totally in that Ocean's eleven crew like it's
it's a key player, got a little too far down
the street for that. Well, yeah, I was thinking about
sleep as one of the main mysteries here, just sleep
in general, and why animals need this RESTful cycle, And
(05:37):
there's a ton of research going into this and and
just what the heck is it? Why do we need
it to happen? And it turns out, at least from
some of the current research, that sleep is highly important
for a brain's functioning because it is it's it's essentially
strengthening the connections that you made throughout the day, kind
of organizing the information that you took in creating or
(06:01):
I guess strengthening the memories that you've created in that day.
And it's really strange the way your brain then connects
new ideas up to the established ideas that you already have.
It's freaking fascinating it and it really reminds me of
defragging a hard drive, making sure all of the all
of the bits and data are put together in the
(06:22):
right place. And I think that's a fantastic point that
we should consider there with with sleep, because everything you
said is true. It's absolutely true that we have some
very good guesses. Um. I I also tend to believe
the memory encoding part um, but we don't know entirely
(06:42):
what sleep does like completely. I think that the memory
encoding part especially with that comparison of defragging a hard drive,
is absolutely spot on. We know that we know that
the need for sleep varies according to age, Like very
young babies will sleep in around twenty hours every twenty
(07:07):
four hours, which has got to be refreshing to a
lot of parents, right. And we know that as people
age they get into this period where they're somewhere between
seven and nine or six and nine. And then as
you become older and I mean like elderly, not late
(07:27):
middle age, but as you become an elderly person, then
you can often sleep less and less. So we know
that without melatonin, sleep is a very difficult process. We
know that sleep is also a way that our body
can rest itself because you know, if you think about it,
(07:49):
you and I have talked about this before. Man, if
you think about it, sleep is just to me phenomenally irritating.
I hate sleep that you that you have to get yes,
And I'm beholden to this bag of humanity that I'm
I'm currently residing in I guess. Uh, you know how
(08:11):
strange is it if you have to explain sleep to
an alien species? You're so tired of this what you've
heard it? Okay, all right, so here you go while
you meet some aliens, uh, take me or a leader
or whatnot, and then uh you take them to your leader.
But the leader has to go to sleep, right, And
so the aliens say what's going on? And you say, oh, well,
(08:33):
here on earth, Um, you know, we're pretty normal. Every
every couple of hours or so, Uh, we just lose consciousness,
lose control of our body, and we vividly hallucinate. And
then sometimes we wake up. We don't know what really happened.
Got to get some coffee and then just start the
whole process over again. Yeah, and then we have, you know,
(08:54):
another set of hours before the hallucinations begin, and uh,
it's change. But it is it is true that sleep
is necessary, like just for a quick sidebar. Um. You
know we've talked about the DARPA research another like the
Uberman sleep cycle. Um, what's your take on that stuff?
The Uberman sleep cycle? Oh man, Okay, so I have
(09:18):
not attempted to change my sleep cycle up. Well, okay,
I have not been successful in any attempts to change
my sleep cycle. I I did try it one time
after you and I spoke. Actually, uh, and I don't
know it just I couldn't get my body too. I
couldn't get my mind and my body to sync up,
(09:39):
and I would I'd just be groggy all the time.
And in theory, when you change your sleep cycle into
the uber what is it called uberman, I think it's
subman uberman. Uh. That's when you take you take like
twenty minute naps at certain times during the day and
then another one fairly long sleep cycle or I don't
know exactly. I know there are different iterations. Yeah, but yeah,
(10:01):
I tried the one where you just sleep for twenty minutes,
then you're up for two three hours and you sleep
for twenty minutes. Oh that's hardcore, Matt. Yeah, that that
didn't work out so well that my wife out sing
me that I I'm glad you made it because that
seems really difficult. That was one that was really difficult
for me to try. For a very long time. I
(10:23):
did two four hour cycles, okay, um, which is sort
of the beginner of the Uberman, so I jumped into defend.
I shouldn't have done that. That was my fault, and
to be fair, dark Souls came out and I really
wanted to play it for as many hours as I could.
Oh weird. You were in a nightmare space soon as
intense between waking in reality and um. Your paneel gland,
(10:47):
with sensing light at various times that it may not
have been used to, was probably scrambling to adjust to
this as well. Right, your circadian rhythm felt a little off,
it was, Hey, are to be sure? Thank you for
bringing us back by the way, No, no, no, this
this is a good question though, because what if what
(11:07):
if we were in those situations and our pinel glands
were damaged. We know that one thing that could happen,
at least in kids is that if a kid's pineal
gland is damage, whether through cancer or an injury of
some sort, then they're going to tend to enter puberty earlier. Really, yes, really,
(11:30):
because the panel gland appears to play a major role
in sexual development as well also a hibernation. If if
you're someone who says the Uberman sleep cycles the opposite
direction where I want to go on a lump sum
all my sleep over winter. Jeez yeah, give me four
weeks please, thanks. Wow, that would be weird. Would you
(11:50):
do that? Oh? I don't think so. I don't think
I can handle it. I if there were a scientific
way to sort of make a lumps leap payment, then
I would do it. Oh, that's fantastic. I don't know.
I I they'd have to put some sort of limit
on how long you could do it or else. You
have people rip van winkling, like seven years of sleep.
(12:13):
Well yeah, and if you have any kind of responsibilities
in your life whatsoever, you just can't do it. There's
no way that's right. Sorry, kids, I'm gonna be gone
for four months and then I'll have my eye on
you all the time. That's pretty best up. Just stock
a bunch of pop tarts up, leave the kids on
their own. We also know that the panel gland can uh.
(12:36):
There's some pretty strong evidence that the pineal gland can
influence the action of some drugs like antidepressants and Tony
Montana's favorite cocaine. So this brings us to um, let's see,
that's all I've got about what we know the panel
gland does. And there's a lot of other stuff too. Okay, Yeah,
that so the big thing the takeaway here is neo
(12:59):
gland helps regulate regulate sleep, and it's important. It's really
important for that because sleep, as we found out, if
you don't get enough sleep, there are some crazy things
that can go on inside your brain. There's some neurological
problems that you can find, um just from the effects
of insomnia. So it's important, it's crucial. We've established this.
(13:22):
Now let's get a little crazy. Ben, absolutely, Matt, let's
get crazy with it all right, before we jump in
head first to all of the interesting fringe ideas surrounding
the panel. Plant, I think it's time for a word
from our sponsor. What about you? Wow? I mean I
keep forgetting that we even have sponsors. I'm just grateful
(13:42):
that someone is willing to help us make this show. Yeah,
it's kind of weird sometimes that they're all subsidiaries of
the same company, But I man, I don't care as
long as that money's coming in. Well, hello there, sir,
you seem a little bit unfocused. Yeah, I haven't had
a hard time. When I watch TV and have my
(14:03):
phone out, I can only see one at a time.
It's weird. Ah. Yes, no, that's a common problem into
day's society, with so many devices and so much content
to consume, two eyes just won't cut it. You, my friends,
may be suffering from third eye myopia. Third I what
(14:24):
third eye myopia? Why? It's a common problem both in
the Upanishad and numerous other religious text You see, your
third eye, which can access all sorts of spiritual planes,
is often not being used to its fullest extent in
the modern day, which is of course, to allow you
to watch television or read your iPad while reading a
(14:47):
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(15:10):
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(16:15):
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I had not heard that ad before. That's an interesting one.
Did you catch the last part? The little legal leads
(16:37):
that they spent up at the end there. Oh, come on, man,
every everything has something like that. I'm sure like the
Slinky had some pretty extensive one. Mean to I heard
something about boomerangs, but I don't know boomerangs. Maybe there
was something in there about boomerangs. I'll listen to it again.
But if it isn't there, I'm sure there's a reason.
There could be nothing nefarious with Illumination Global Unlimited. That's
(16:59):
that's fine now. And according to us statistic that I
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people may have died due to boomerangs. That's pretty grim.
But h that was a little bit weird, And it's
a good segue to talk about some of the things
that are more odd or controversial about the pineal glands
(17:20):
because Matt, as we said, people around the world do
and have believe for some time that it's a seat
of spirituality. But there's something else there too. Uh. There's
the belief that fluoride can accumulate in the panel gland
and cripple its function, right, can calcify it? This is
(17:43):
this is really interesting to me. This is one of
the first things that we ever covered as a show.
I think it was episode six five or six or
something where we discussed fluoridation of water specifically in the
United States, and uh, the legal battles that were going
on in order to make that happen. What kind of
(18:03):
fluoride is actually going into the water, right, because, as
a lot of people are unaware, there are multiple types
of fluoride. I went to the dentist just the other
day and I was looking through some of their coal gate,
the bottles of coal gate that they give away for
free when you go and see the dentist, and one
of them had or there I looked at three separate ones,
(18:27):
and all three had different types of fluoride. Only one
of them used sodium fluoride um. One of them was
monofloor monofluoro phosphate or something like that, and then there
was another one. But anyway, it was just it was
fascinating to me to see even now fluoride products or
have varying different types of fluoride in them, right. Yeah,
(18:48):
and for most I would say it's fair to say
that from most consumers, at least in the United States,
when you think of fluoride, you think of just one thing, yes,
sodium floor, right, is what is the common one, right,
the clinical grade or whatever it's called. But we also
know that in fluoridated water systems there is a different
(19:10):
type of fluoride involved in there, and a lot of
times it's it's kind of a what do we what
do we call it? It's a byproduct of factories sometimes
of different processes. Yeah, opponents of fluoridation have a couple
of a couple of things that that I would say,
our bones to pick about the production of fluoride itself,
(19:34):
the kind of splint the water supply, and that's stuff
from the phosphate industry, or during the early days of
atomic bomb construction, uh, the radioactive materials the manufacturing process
resulted in fluoride as a byproduct. So the question then became,
(19:55):
was this actually good for the human population to put
it in the water or was it instead sort of
a a ploy by an industry or by government in
order to repress knowledge of building these atomic weapons, or uh,
(20:15):
just to circumvent e p A regulations that otherwise would
have been quite expensive. Yeah, rather than having to pay
to have these chemicals disposed of somewhere, why not let's
get paid to put it into the water source. As
a benefit. I really don't know how I feel about
this subject, Ben, because when we were even then, back
in the day, when we were going over this stuff,
(20:37):
it was very difficult, or at least I found it
difficult to find unbiased sources um for for really anything
about this subject. Uh really, what is it for? An
Action Network was one of the places we found, and
I mean, that's just obviously against it. I don't know
where that money is coming from to fund that thing
right there. Yeah, they're against floridation there. Fluoride Action Network
(21:02):
does sound like a dynamic name that could go either way,
but they're definitely against fluoridation in the water system, primarily because,
according to them, there are numerous health concerns that aren't addressed.
They're not talking so much about um specifically panel gland
damage in a spiritual sense, which we will find in
some conspiracy theories, but they're talking more about possible developmental damage.
(21:27):
And one of the one of the biggest arguments there
is that there we the average public person doesn't know
where this floriade is coming from. And secondly that there
are not enough cohesive studies on the events. And I
love that you said it was difficult to find um
unbiased sources because this is an incredibly contentious subject, so
(21:54):
much so that you and I are probably getting hate
mail from people on both sides of the argument us
by bringing it up, which really says something. And people
who consider themselves skeptics or debunkers will argue that the
that this is all alarmism right there, sensationalism, and that
(22:16):
fluoride in the water itself is a benefit, as the
American Dental Association argues, because it lessens the um was,
it lessens the development of cavities or the development of
tooth decay UM. And usually when people say this, they're
very angry about it, and I'm not I'm not sure
(22:37):
why they're so very angry about it, but boy they
are steamed. And this of course happens on the other
side as well. My primary issue as an individual only
with fluoridation is that with it in regardless of what
the PPM or part pavilion is UM, it's very difficult
(22:59):
to control a dose. If it is something like if
we consider this like a medicine right or a health benefit,
then it's very difficult to say, uh, you know, you
can only have this much in your system at any
given time, and you add to that toothpaste. A lot
(23:21):
of people who have brown stains on their teeth, and
you know, they don't drink coffee or tea, and they
don't smoke cigarettes or something else. What they end up
doing is getting these brown stains from a condition called fluorosis,
which happens because of you have to watch florid. Sorry, yeah,
you think it's the opposite, but too much floride discolors
(23:44):
your teeth. Well I okay, So the biggest thing that
we couldn't find is a scientific study that shows the
calcification or the pinel the fluoride build up inside the
pineal gland. At least, I was completely unable to find
and anything a scientific study on this where it's repeatable,
and that to me, right there is kind of a
(24:07):
red flag. Um, yeah there is. That's that's at least
in humans, I should say, Ah, yeah, okay, that's a
good point. We have seen some studies that have linked
the accumulation of fluoride but also of calcium with age.
(24:27):
And there's one study that's often um that's often posted,
I believe by an author named Jennifer Luke, and in
this study she linked fluoride accumulation in the paneel gland,
but she did it by looking at the eleven cadavers
and they were elderly. So there's not there's not a
long term study of a person's brain, which would be
(24:51):
pretty expensive. Here, well, and here's the thing, how do
you even do that? Are I guess it's just m
R after m R I or UM. I don't even
know if that would be the correct thing to use.
But just studying someone's brain for the entirety of their life,
and you'd have to do it on numerous people, right, yeah, exactly.
(25:11):
So I've got a little bit about Dr Luke's research. Um.
This is written by a professor named Paul Kannit at St.
Lawrence University in two thousand and one, and Dr Khannitt
says that Luke had a couple of things she found
out about the panel gland. She said, this little gland
(25:35):
in the center of the brain is responsible for a
lot of stuff we know that. She also found it
was a calcifying tissue like teeth and bones, so she
hypothesized that it would concentrate fluoride to noticeably high levels
because it's not protected by a blood brain barrier and
it has what's called a high profusion rate of blood
(25:56):
and that second only to the kidney. So she found
how levels of fluoride in these eleven cadavers. But there's
some other stuff that we saw have to deal with,
you know, is this is this something that would just
naturally accumulate in someone as they age? To what degree
(26:16):
does fluoride inhibit the functions of the pineal gland and
which functions specifically does it inhibit? Now, I'm sure for
a lot of people, especially some of our younger listeners,
the idea of reaching and going through puberty sooner might
sound just just great. You know, I don't know. Maybe
(26:40):
it takes all types right, But is there is there
a biological price paid for that later? It's interesting. It
takes me back to what you were talking we were
talking about sleep earlier, when we were talking about is
you get older you need less and less sleep? And
if I want, I wonder if there is a connection
there with the calcifying of your pineal gland. It's function
style is working so well, and I wonder if your
(27:02):
body kind of is making up for that in requiring
less sleep because you're maybe your melatonin just isn't what
it used to be. Interesting hypothesis there, Matt, that's not
that's a that's something I'd like to hear more about.
Also from our listeners. We have to talk about some
(27:23):
other ideas about the panel Gland. I know my favorite one.
What is it? D m T Ah? Yes, d M
T and and okay, so lay it on me. What
what's the gist? Well, I learned about this when I
watched a trailer for a movie called The Spirit molecula documentary,
(27:44):
and it's discussing whether or not the panel Gland releases
small amounts of d m T during your sleep cycle,
and that basically the ideas that or the thought, the
original thought is that maybe that's why we hallucinate and
have these insane dreams sometimes that don't make any sense
(28:06):
this way or that. Uh. And is it because we
are tripping when we're sleeping? Yeah? And d m T
uh is the more casual name for die methyl trip
to mean this. This hypothesis is it was for a
long time fringy and controversial and it's still very controversial.
By a guy named Rick Strassman is one of the
(28:28):
main proponents of this um who also had the idea
that you get this rush of d m T when
you're dying, right, the final moments of death are that
that's fascinating to me, the idea that it's kind of
it never ends. Didn't Altice Huxley get shot up with
hallucinogens before, like as he died. I remember hearing about that,
(28:50):
but I haven't read I haven't read any official accounts.
Well maybe that's a story for another day. But for
a long time this was very controversial. It remains it's controversial. Um.
But there have been uh there's been at least one
study done that I know of, which showed that uh
rats seem to produce some amount of d m T
(29:14):
uh naturally. And we know how dangerous it is to say,
well it happened to a rat, so clearly it happens
to every other animal. But it is an indication that
more research is needed at the very least. Ye, So
one of the one of the more fascinating things that
you can find when you're when you start researching d
(29:36):
m T in the panel gland you get you eventually
get to or maybe even start near ayahuasca and its
use in tribal regions and the certain religions in South
America and other places. Um which is ahuasca is essentially
d MT and a couple of other substances mixed together,
and it produces a very strong hallucinating trip where in
(30:03):
these in these cultures it's used as a spiritual journey
as a way to kind of conquered internal demons. And
when you when you pair that up with kind of
the fascination and fears of the soul in the afterlife
in the Western world, I think that right there is
ultimately the the fascination, the reason that people really really
(30:25):
want to know more about this in the pineal gland
and what the heck is it? And is it really
a key? Ah? Yeah, that's that's part of the part
of the ongoing search, as you say, for the soul. Yeah. Well,
the basically the idea is, well, do they know something
that we don't know? Or have have we forgotten something? Yeah,
And a lot of people do believe that's true for
(30:48):
one reason or another. This calls to mind one of
my favorite phrases. I I can't remember who said this.
It was either an artist or neuroscientist, very sure close
or than you would think. Sometimes, Uh, the the idea
was that, um, the more we search for the human soul,
(31:09):
the less we find of its existence. But the longer
we search, the more that search itself seems to indicate
that something's there. Well you know what I mean. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
so you can't you can't find the hard evidence, but
(31:30):
oh yeah, but you're there's still this sort of undeniable
There's this innevitable need for a for the conscious mind too,
to somehow understand what exists past it or beyond it,
And I think that's a worthwhile endeavor. I also think
(31:50):
that we should mention that the pineal gland has been
linked to people who claim to be able to travel astralely.
So if you like, if you like, Matt and I
are fans of those Mysteries of the Unknown time life
books and the Unsolved Mystery Show and things like that.
One of the things that happens when people who talk
(32:13):
about astral travel is that they often depict themselves as
rising in an incorporeal form that's linked somehow by by
this um intangible tendril right back to their back to
their actual body, And often this is depicted as a
tendril connecting pituitary gland to the where it would be
(32:35):
in the spiritual body. And we don't just mean um
fictionalized accounts of of astral travel. We're also talking about
you know, stargate researchers and most notably Ingo Swan. I
think there are accounts of this, real, real accounts of
people trying to do this. One last thing I want
to talk about, ben is the symbolism of the pine
(32:59):
cone and whether or not it has anything to do
with the peel gland, and if it does, why the
heck are there so many pine cones in ancient symbology. Ah? Nice,
good catch. I can't believe we almost missed that one.
Well just uh, and I just have a couple of
things here, and if maybe give me some thoughts on that,
if if you don't mind so u you you know
(33:19):
what anchor watt looks like in Cambodia anchor watt, And
if you don't know what that looks like, and you're
listening this, put a N G K O R W
A T into a search engine and look at the
spires on this old, ancient, ancient temple. They don't necessarily
look exactly like a pineel gland, but I've seen it
referenced many times that this structure is really important, the
(33:43):
structure of these spires. Then you go to a freemasonry
I don't know if you've you've been to the Fox Theater, right, Yes,
So in Atlanta there's the Fox Theater. It used to
be a Masonic lodge, and it still looks like one.
It really looks like one, and not in this building
in particular, but there are several other Masonic buildings in
Atlanta and other places that use the pine cone. A
(34:04):
lot of times you'll see them on the ceiling um
with a of light fixture or just a piece of
metal hanging down, and it's a pine cone. It's absolutely
a pine cone. Then you go to the Vatican and
you look at let's say, the Pope's staff that has
a pine cone on it, or maybe you go out
into the Belvidere courtyard and you check out this ancient
(34:26):
Roman fountain fountain that's sitting there, and it's a giant
pine cone. You know, when you when you go into
these conspiracy theories as we do, you you start symbols
are highly important, or they seem to be very important.
And it makes me wonder again, is there something that
these guys know about this pine cone that I don't know, man,
(34:50):
or is it just a symbol of releasing seeds and
harvest and you know, the flow of life? Maybe? Well,
all that's a great question, a great series of questions.
All of the especially in the ancient world, all of
the symbols used have significance. Um, this was you know,
(35:10):
if we look back, just from a technological perspective, people
didn't have the ability or the luxury of making um
disposable arts, you know, and so why would you waste
your time on a meaningless embellishment? So we do know
that uh, symbols of any sort have incredible significance, especially
(35:35):
the further back those symbols go. Um. We could have
a whole conversation about obelisk in a different episode. But
the the question then becomes, um, you know, what does
this signify? Um? What if anything doesn't mean in the
modern day? And I think that's an interesting question, but
I haven't in my own research, I haven't found much
(36:00):
more than something pointing out the the idea of this.
And there could definitely be a correlation because Plato is
talking about the panel Gland, as did Renee Descartes, and UM,
a couple of other notable intellectuals. Uh, decart actually believe
(36:21):
that it was the seat of the human soul. UM.
So maybe there is more to that symbolism than we know.
But at this point, Matt, I have to ask you
some stuff. All right, where can people go to learn
more about the panel gland? Well, if you want to
go hardcore science, the first place that I would go
(36:42):
is the Journal of Panel Research, which is part of
the Wily Online Library. UM. This is primarily studying studying
the melotonin aspects of the panel gland, but there's some
fascinating stuff in there. It's updated all the time. Every
once in a while you'll get a free article, but
most of it is you have to pay to read
the entire article, but you can get an abstract and
(37:03):
kind of see the ideas that are being looked at UM.
So that's fascinating. If you want to hear people talk
about this kind of thing. UM, if you're not already
subscribed to the Joe Rogan Experience, to do that now
and listen to Rogan and his friends talk about weird stuff.
It's pretty great. Also, The Duncan Trust All Family our
(37:24):
podcast that's where I end up all the time when
i'm editing. Oh, I have a contribution here. If you're
a fan of our show and you haven't already subscribed
to Stuff to Blow your mind, you're welcome. You'll love it.
They have an episode on the panel Gland. Uh. They
(37:44):
also are fellow monster enthusiasts, so they cover a lot
of stuff about monsters as well, and they get weird
with it. So check out their podcast, which is free,
and you'll hear more about this stuff. Check out our
website stuff they don't want you to know. Dot com right,
(38:04):
still not fired, where you can find Matt and I
getting into all sorts of online hijinks. As we're recording
this today, we just mocked strangled our mascot agents Scully My.
That is my favorite thing I've edited in a long time.
(38:26):
I'm still really on the fence about how that's gonna
play out for us, but we'll see what people think
when we talk about that. That's on our video. Can
you get Away with Murder? Or getting away with Murder?
I believe? And Uh. In the meantime, you can find
us on Facebook and Twitter. Matt, what do you want
people to write in? And ask us about this time around.
(38:47):
I I want to know your thoughts on this tiny
little gland in your head. First of all, we've we've
kind of talked about it a little bit on Facebook
already with our video series. Oh you know what, I
want to know, what's what is your weirdest dream that
you've had that you think maybe attributed to the d
m T from your pineal gland? Uh? Yeah, weirdest dream
(39:08):
that you can recall? And do you think you had
a precognitive pre figurative dream? You know? Is is time
really a little bit more elastic rather than linear in
in uh dreamland? Ah? Interesting stuff, good question. Time travel
is my favorite thing in the world. You mean time
(39:29):
travel other than one second at a time forward. Yeah,
that's kind of boring. But and that is it for
us today. Thank you so much for listening. We hope
you enjoyed this. We know we touched on a lot
of things, uh, and didn't dig too deep into some
of the main themes we discussed. That's because we would
like to hear from you before we jump all the
(39:50):
way into the deep waters on things like fluoridation and
things like astral travel. So right to us and let
us know what we should cover, how would you cover us?
How would you cover it rather? And uh, you know
it's something that you're rarely going to hear outside of
a therapy session. Tell us what you're dreaming about, and uh,
(40:11):
tell us the weirdest, strangest dreams you've had. Wrap it
all up in an email, give us a title with
something like dreams in there, and send it straight to
us if you wish. Our email address is conspiracy at
Discovery dot com. From more on this topic and how
(40:31):
they're unexplained phenomenon, visit test tube dot com slash conspiracy stuff.
You can also get in touch on Twitter at the
handle at conspiracy stuff.
From UFOs two, ghosts and government cover ups. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. Breedings,
Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt and
I am Ben. Is the tiny pine cone shaped gland
(00:22):
in the middle of your head a gateway to alternate realities,
perhaps to an inner spiritual place? Or is it just
your body's ingenious way of manufacturing your sleep cycle and
monitoring it, or maybe is it something in between that's
today on stuff they don't want me to know. I
(00:47):
like that intro quite a bit that that's exactly what
we're talking about. We're talking about the pineal gland. And
to follow up then, I guess one thing that we
could say is that it's totally understandable that people would
think of it as a third eye. You and I
recently did a couple of videos on the pineal gland,
(01:08):
something we had returned to remember very early in our days.
We did a fluoride episode, yes, and the paneo land
was right at the center of that episode. And the
pineal gland is, as you said, a pine cone shaped organ.
It swings above its weight class in terms of performance
in the body and the brain, because it produces two
(01:32):
very important hormones, uh, serotonin and melatonin. And I think
we say in the video that melanin and melatonin are
very different. So don't get him mixed up. Oh yeah,
it has nothing to do with the pigmentation on your skin.
It's just it's the melotonin is the thing that doesn't
(01:53):
it get your body into a sleep state or or
it coaxes your body towards a sleep state. Yeah, it
tells your body naptime. Yea is essentially what it does.
And one thing that really interested you and me about
this is that the pineal gland, even though it's inside
the brain, is actually able to sense and react to light. Yeah,
(02:16):
it's an it's an iPhone. It's not an old flip phone.
It's got some new features. Yeah, but they're actually really
old features. They're just upgrades, I guess. Yeah. Really, well,
you know that is a way to say it, because
we do know that some animals uh have have a
similar thing that we should differentiate. Now, there's the parietal eye,
(02:40):
which you also hear called the third eye. It's associated
with the pineal gland, and it's present in some animal species,
like there's a their reptiles have uh well developed third eyes, lizards, frogs,
land praise. You can see pictures of amphibians that have
a lot of frogs that have a bridal eye and
(03:02):
it's kind of weird looking, just looks like a tiny
little dot in the middle of their their what would
be their foreheads. Also able to sense light, and we
talked about we talked about how for thousands of years,
very smart people have been breaking their heads against the
wall to figure out what the panel glant is, right, Yeah, yeah,
(03:23):
it's well, it's a fascinating thing. We're always looking for
that that exit into the other realities. Um, I don't know.
It seems it seems like it could be a key.
It could be, but there are no definitive answers yet.
There's a lot of research going into it, but I
(03:43):
don't know what we'll have to find out. But let's
explore what we know. Okay, Well, yeah, so we know
that it's as we said, it's pretty small in adult humans.
It's a little under a centimeter in length or point
three inches. Uh. It weighs about point one grams, So
it's not it's not something that you would immediately notice
(04:07):
if you happen to be um opening up someone's head
for the first time and digging around. Uh, you know,
just in case you're doing that now and you're like, guys,
where's the pineal gland. I'm in a hurry. Um, We'll
go towards the center and look for that little what
it's like I've heard I've heard it say it's the
size of a grain of rice, but it's a little
(04:28):
bigger than that. But still it's it seems rather insignificant
when you are looking at the structure of the brain.
So we do know that the pineal gland is an
indocrine gland or an endocrine oregon, but we also know
that it's pretty enigmatic. It's kind of a shady neighborhood
of your brain because it is associated with a lot
(04:51):
of mental functions that modern science still does not understand.
One of those big ones would be sleep. You know,
like it's it's um. A lot of different neurological factors
are involved in sleep and physical factors as well. But
if we think of sleep as like the the heist
(05:12):
or the object of a heist film, then the panel
gland is totally in that Ocean's eleven crew like it's
it's a key player, got a little too far down
the street for that. Well, yeah, I was thinking about
sleep as one of the main mysteries here, just sleep
in general, and why animals need this RESTful cycle, And
(05:37):
there's a ton of research going into this and and
just what the heck is it? Why do we need
it to happen? And it turns out, at least from
some of the current research, that sleep is highly important
for a brain's functioning because it is it's it's essentially
strengthening the connections that you made throughout the day, kind
of organizing the information that you took in creating or
(06:01):
I guess strengthening the memories that you've created in that day.
And it's really strange the way your brain then connects
new ideas up to the established ideas that you already have.
It's freaking fascinating it and it really reminds me of
defragging a hard drive, making sure all of the all
of the bits and data are put together in the
(06:22):
right place. And I think that's a fantastic point that
we should consider there with with sleep, because everything you
said is true. It's absolutely true that we have some
very good guesses. Um. I I also tend to believe
the memory encoding part um, but we don't know entirely
(06:42):
what sleep does like completely. I think that the memory
encoding part especially with that comparison of defragging a hard drive,
is absolutely spot on. We know that we know that
the need for sleep varies according to age, Like very
young babies will sleep in around twenty hours every twenty
(07:07):
four hours, which has got to be refreshing to a
lot of parents, right. And we know that as people
age they get into this period where they're somewhere between
seven and nine or six and nine. And then as
you become older and I mean like elderly, not late
(07:27):
middle age, but as you become an elderly person, then
you can often sleep less and less. So we know
that without melatonin, sleep is a very difficult process. We
know that sleep is also a way that our body
can rest itself because you know, if you think about it,
(07:49):
you and I have talked about this before. Man, if
you think about it, sleep is just to me phenomenally irritating.
I hate sleep that you that you have to get yes,
And I'm beholden to this bag of humanity that I'm
I'm currently residing in I guess. Uh, you know how
(08:11):
strange is it if you have to explain sleep to
an alien species? You're so tired of this what you've
heard it? Okay, all right, so here you go while
you meet some aliens, uh, take me or a leader
or whatnot, and then uh you take them to your leader.
But the leader has to go to sleep, right, And
so the aliens say what's going on? And you say, oh, well,
(08:33):
here on earth, Um, you know, we're pretty normal. Every
every couple of hours or so, Uh, we just lose consciousness,
lose control of our body, and we vividly hallucinate. And
then sometimes we wake up. We don't know what really happened.
Got to get some coffee and then just start the
whole process over again. Yeah, and then we have, you know,
(08:54):
another set of hours before the hallucinations begin, and uh,
it's change. But it is it is true that sleep
is necessary, like just for a quick sidebar. Um. You
know we've talked about the DARPA research another like the
Uberman sleep cycle. Um, what's your take on that stuff?
The Uberman sleep cycle? Oh man, Okay, so I have
(09:18):
not attempted to change my sleep cycle up. Well, okay,
I have not been successful in any attempts to change
my sleep cycle. I I did try it one time
after you and I spoke. Actually, uh, and I don't
know it just I couldn't get my body too. I
couldn't get my mind and my body to sync up,
(09:39):
and I would I'd just be groggy all the time.
And in theory, when you change your sleep cycle into
the uber what is it called uberman, I think it's
subman uberman. Uh. That's when you take you take like
twenty minute naps at certain times during the day and
then another one fairly long sleep cycle or I don't
know exactly. I know there are different iterations. Yeah, but yeah,
(10:01):
I tried the one where you just sleep for twenty minutes,
then you're up for two three hours and you sleep
for twenty minutes. Oh that's hardcore, Matt. Yeah, that that
didn't work out so well that my wife out sing
me that I I'm glad you made it because that
seems really difficult. That was one that was really difficult
for me to try. For a very long time. I
(10:23):
did two four hour cycles, okay, um, which is sort
of the beginner of the Uberman, so I jumped into defend.
I shouldn't have done that. That was my fault, and
to be fair, dark Souls came out and I really
wanted to play it for as many hours as I could.
Oh weird. You were in a nightmare space soon as
intense between waking in reality and um. Your paneel gland,
(10:47):
with sensing light at various times that it may not
have been used to, was probably scrambling to adjust to
this as well. Right, your circadian rhythm felt a little off,
it was, Hey, are to be sure? Thank you for
bringing us back by the way, No, no, no, this
this is a good question though, because what if what
(11:07):
if we were in those situations and our pinel glands
were damaged. We know that one thing that could happen,
at least in kids is that if a kid's pineal
gland is damage, whether through cancer or an injury of
some sort, then they're going to tend to enter puberty earlier. Really, yes, really,
(11:30):
because the panel gland appears to play a major role
in sexual development as well also a hibernation. If if
you're someone who says the Uberman sleep cycles the opposite
direction where I want to go on a lump sum
all my sleep over winter. Jeez yeah, give me four
weeks please, thanks. Wow, that would be weird. Would you
(11:50):
do that? Oh? I don't think so. I don't think
I can handle it. I if there were a scientific
way to sort of make a lumps leap payment, then
I would do it. Oh, that's fantastic. I don't know.
I I they'd have to put some sort of limit
on how long you could do it or else. You
have people rip van winkling, like seven years of sleep.
(12:13):
Well yeah, and if you have any kind of responsibilities
in your life whatsoever, you just can't do it. There's
no way that's right. Sorry, kids, I'm gonna be gone
for four months and then I'll have my eye on
you all the time. That's pretty best up. Just stock
a bunch of pop tarts up, leave the kids on
their own. We also know that the panel gland can uh.
(12:36):
There's some pretty strong evidence that the pineal gland can
influence the action of some drugs like antidepressants and Tony
Montana's favorite cocaine. So this brings us to um, let's see,
that's all I've got about what we know the panel
gland does. And there's a lot of other stuff too. Okay, Yeah,
that so the big thing the takeaway here is neo
(12:59):
gland helps regulate regulate sleep, and it's important. It's really
important for that because sleep, as we found out, if
you don't get enough sleep, there are some crazy things
that can go on inside your brain. There's some neurological
problems that you can find, um just from the effects
of insomnia. So it's important, it's crucial. We've established this.
(13:22):
Now let's get a little crazy. Ben, absolutely, Matt, let's
get crazy with it all right, before we jump in
head first to all of the interesting fringe ideas surrounding
the panel. Plant, I think it's time for a word
from our sponsor. What about you? Wow? I mean I
keep forgetting that we even have sponsors. I'm just grateful
(13:42):
that someone is willing to help us make this show. Yeah,
it's kind of weird sometimes that they're all subsidiaries of
the same company, But I man, I don't care as
long as that money's coming in. Well, hello there, sir,
you seem a little bit unfocused. Yeah, I haven't had
a hard time. When I watch TV and have my
(14:03):
phone out, I can only see one at a time.
It's weird. Ah. Yes, no, that's a common problem into
day's society, with so many devices and so much content
to consume, two eyes just won't cut it. You, my friends,
may be suffering from third eye myopia. Third I what
(14:24):
third eye myopia? Why? It's a common problem both in
the Upanishad and numerous other religious text You see, your
third eye, which can access all sorts of spiritual planes,
is often not being used to its fullest extent in
the modern day, which is of course, to allow you
to watch television or read your iPad while reading a
(14:47):
book or watching your kids. Oh and that's just my
dream man, That's that's everything I've ever wanted. Well, then
we have just the deal for you, sir. May I
introduce you to third eyeglass. Oh they're so shiny, And
what's this thing in the center? What a great question
(15:10):
that we will answer when the litigation which is ongoing
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you to channel the rather useless connection with a higher
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children kicking puppies, misapprehending police forces, ongoing litigation in foreign contries, myopia, dystopia, dyslexia, interrexia,
misapprehending the path of a boomerang u original cartoon idea
CD and T overdoses peneo gland deposits florida, decreation, calcium
(16:15):
and creation, potassium, pobia or magnesium in all of its forms.
The third classes are division of elimination, Global elimited. Wow,
I didn't even know those glasses existed. Again, I'm just
glad that we have a sponsor. So yeah, I had.
I had not heard that ad before. That's an interesting one.
Did you catch the last part? The little legal leads
(16:37):
that they spent up at the end there. Oh, come on, man,
every everything has something like that. I'm sure like the
Slinky had some pretty extensive one. Mean to I heard
something about boomerangs, but I don't know boomerangs. Maybe there
was something in there about boomerangs. I'll listen to it again.
But if it isn't there, I'm sure there's a reason.
There could be nothing nefarious with Illumination Global Unlimited. That's
(16:59):
that's fine now. And according to us statistic that I
made up just now, um, literally tens of dozens of
people may have died due to boomerangs. That's pretty grim.
But h that was a little bit weird, And it's
a good segue to talk about some of the things
that are more odd or controversial about the pineal glands
(17:20):
because Matt, as we said, people around the world do
and have believe for some time that it's a seat
of spirituality. But there's something else there too. Uh. There's
the belief that fluoride can accumulate in the panel gland
and cripple its function, right, can calcify it? This is
(17:43):
this is really interesting to me. This is one of
the first things that we ever covered as a show.
I think it was episode six five or six or
something where we discussed fluoridation of water specifically in the
United States, and uh, the legal battles that were going
on in order to make that happen. What kind of
(18:03):
fluoride is actually going into the water, right, because, as
a lot of people are unaware, there are multiple types
of fluoride. I went to the dentist just the other
day and I was looking through some of their coal gate,
the bottles of coal gate that they give away for
free when you go and see the dentist, and one
of them had or there I looked at three separate ones,
(18:27):
and all three had different types of fluoride. Only one
of them used sodium fluoride um. One of them was
monofloor monofluoro phosphate or something like that, and then there
was another one. But anyway, it was just it was
fascinating to me to see even now fluoride products or
have varying different types of fluoride in them, right. Yeah,
(18:48):
and for most I would say it's fair to say
that from most consumers, at least in the United States,
when you think of fluoride, you think of just one thing, yes,
sodium floor, right, is what is the common one, right,
the clinical grade or whatever it's called. But we also
know that in fluoridated water systems there is a different
(19:10):
type of fluoride involved in there, and a lot of
times it's it's kind of a what do we what
do we call it? It's a byproduct of factories sometimes
of different processes. Yeah, opponents of fluoridation have a couple
of a couple of things that that I would say,
our bones to pick about the production of fluoride itself,
(19:34):
the kind of splint the water supply, and that's stuff
from the phosphate industry, or during the early days of
atomic bomb construction, uh, the radioactive materials the manufacturing process
resulted in fluoride as a byproduct. So the question then became,
(19:55):
was this actually good for the human population to put
it in the water or was it instead sort of
a a ploy by an industry or by government in
order to repress knowledge of building these atomic weapons, or uh,
(20:15):
just to circumvent e p A regulations that otherwise would
have been quite expensive. Yeah, rather than having to pay
to have these chemicals disposed of somewhere, why not let's
get paid to put it into the water source. As
a benefit. I really don't know how I feel about
this subject, Ben, because when we were even then, back
in the day, when we were going over this stuff,
(20:37):
it was very difficult, or at least I found it
difficult to find unbiased sources um for for really anything
about this subject. Uh really, what is it for? An
Action Network was one of the places we found, and
I mean, that's just obviously against it. I don't know
where that money is coming from to fund that thing
right there. Yeah, they're against floridation there. Fluoride Action Network
(21:02):
does sound like a dynamic name that could go either way,
but they're definitely against fluoridation in the water system, primarily because,
according to them, there are numerous health concerns that aren't addressed.
They're not talking so much about um specifically panel gland
damage in a spiritual sense, which we will find in
some conspiracy theories, but they're talking more about possible developmental damage.
(21:27):
And one of the one of the biggest arguments there
is that there we the average public person doesn't know
where this floriade is coming from. And secondly that there
are not enough cohesive studies on the events. And I
love that you said it was difficult to find um
unbiased sources because this is an incredibly contentious subject, so
(21:54):
much so that you and I are probably getting hate
mail from people on both sides of the argument us
by bringing it up, which really says something. And people
who consider themselves skeptics or debunkers will argue that the
that this is all alarmism right there, sensationalism, and that
(22:16):
fluoride in the water itself is a benefit, as the
American Dental Association argues, because it lessens the um was,
it lessens the development of cavities or the development of
tooth decay UM. And usually when people say this, they're
very angry about it, and I'm not I'm not sure
(22:37):
why they're so very angry about it, but boy they
are steamed. And this of course happens on the other
side as well. My primary issue as an individual only
with fluoridation is that with it in regardless of what
the PPM or part pavilion is UM, it's very difficult
(22:59):
to control a dose. If it is something like if
we consider this like a medicine right or a health benefit,
then it's very difficult to say, uh, you know, you
can only have this much in your system at any
given time, and you add to that toothpaste. A lot
(23:21):
of people who have brown stains on their teeth, and
you know, they don't drink coffee or tea, and they
don't smoke cigarettes or something else. What they end up
doing is getting these brown stains from a condition called fluorosis,
which happens because of you have to watch florid. Sorry, yeah,
you think it's the opposite, but too much floride discolors
(23:44):
your teeth. Well I okay, So the biggest thing that
we couldn't find is a scientific study that shows the
calcification or the pinel the fluoride build up inside the
pineal gland. At least, I was completely unable to find
and anything a scientific study on this where it's repeatable,
and that to me, right there is kind of a
(24:07):
red flag. Um, yeah there is. That's that's at least
in humans, I should say, Ah, yeah, okay, that's a
good point. We have seen some studies that have linked
the accumulation of fluoride but also of calcium with age.
(24:27):
And there's one study that's often um that's often posted,
I believe by an author named Jennifer Luke, and in
this study she linked fluoride accumulation in the paneel gland,
but she did it by looking at the eleven cadavers
and they were elderly. So there's not there's not a
long term study of a person's brain, which would be
(24:51):
pretty expensive. Here, well, and here's the thing, how do
you even do that? Are I guess it's just m
R after m R I or UM. I don't even
know if that would be the correct thing to use.
But just studying someone's brain for the entirety of their life,
and you'd have to do it on numerous people, right, yeah, exactly.
(25:11):
So I've got a little bit about Dr Luke's research. Um.
This is written by a professor named Paul Kannit at St.
Lawrence University in two thousand and one, and Dr Khannitt
says that Luke had a couple of things she found
out about the panel gland. She said, this little gland
(25:35):
in the center of the brain is responsible for a
lot of stuff we know that. She also found it
was a calcifying tissue like teeth and bones, so she
hypothesized that it would concentrate fluoride to noticeably high levels
because it's not protected by a blood brain barrier and
it has what's called a high profusion rate of blood
(25:56):
and that second only to the kidney. So she found
how levels of fluoride in these eleven cadavers. But there's
some other stuff that we saw have to deal with,
you know, is this is this something that would just
naturally accumulate in someone as they age? To what degree
(26:16):
does fluoride inhibit the functions of the pineal gland and
which functions specifically does it inhibit? Now, I'm sure for
a lot of people, especially some of our younger listeners,
the idea of reaching and going through puberty sooner might
sound just just great. You know, I don't know. Maybe
(26:40):
it takes all types right, But is there is there
a biological price paid for that later? It's interesting. It
takes me back to what you were talking we were
talking about sleep earlier, when we were talking about is
you get older you need less and less sleep? And
if I want, I wonder if there is a connection
there with the calcifying of your pineal gland. It's function
style is working so well, and I wonder if your
(27:02):
body kind of is making up for that in requiring
less sleep because you're maybe your melatonin just isn't what
it used to be. Interesting hypothesis there, Matt, that's not
that's a that's something I'd like to hear more about.
Also from our listeners. We have to talk about some
(27:23):
other ideas about the panel Gland. I know my favorite one.
What is it? D m T Ah? Yes, d M
T and and okay, so lay it on me. What
what's the gist? Well, I learned about this when I
watched a trailer for a movie called The Spirit molecula documentary,
(27:44):
and it's discussing whether or not the panel Gland releases
small amounts of d m T during your sleep cycle,
and that basically the ideas that or the thought, the
original thought is that maybe that's why we hallucinate and
have these insane dreams sometimes that don't make any sense
(28:06):
this way or that. Uh. And is it because we
are tripping when we're sleeping? Yeah? And d m T
uh is the more casual name for die methyl trip
to mean this. This hypothesis is it was for a
long time fringy and controversial and it's still very controversial.
By a guy named Rick Strassman is one of the
(28:28):
main proponents of this um who also had the idea
that you get this rush of d m T when
you're dying, right, the final moments of death are that
that's fascinating to me, the idea that it's kind of
it never ends. Didn't Altice Huxley get shot up with
hallucinogens before, like as he died. I remember hearing about that,
(28:50):
but I haven't read I haven't read any official accounts.
Well maybe that's a story for another day. But for
a long time this was very controversial. It remains it's controversial. Um.
But there have been uh there's been at least one
study done that I know of, which showed that uh
rats seem to produce some amount of d m T
(29:14):
uh naturally. And we know how dangerous it is to say,
well it happened to a rat, so clearly it happens
to every other animal. But it is an indication that
more research is needed at the very least. Ye, So
one of the one of the more fascinating things that
you can find when you're when you start researching d
(29:36):
m T in the panel gland you get you eventually
get to or maybe even start near ayahuasca and its
use in tribal regions and the certain religions in South
America and other places. Um which is ahuasca is essentially
d MT and a couple of other substances mixed together,
and it produces a very strong hallucinating trip where in
(30:03):
these in these cultures it's used as a spiritual journey
as a way to kind of conquered internal demons. And
when you when you pair that up with kind of
the fascination and fears of the soul in the afterlife
in the Western world, I think that right there is
ultimately the the fascination, the reason that people really really
(30:25):
want to know more about this in the pineal gland
and what the heck is it? And is it really
a key? Ah? Yeah, that's that's part of the part
of the ongoing search, as you say, for the soul. Yeah. Well,
the basically the idea is, well, do they know something
that we don't know? Or have have we forgotten something? Yeah,
And a lot of people do believe that's true for
(30:48):
one reason or another. This calls to mind one of
my favorite phrases. I I can't remember who said this.
It was either an artist or neuroscientist, very sure close
or than you would think. Sometimes, Uh, the the idea
was that, um, the more we search for the human soul,
(31:09):
the less we find of its existence. But the longer
we search, the more that search itself seems to indicate
that something's there. Well you know what I mean. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
so you can't you can't find the hard evidence, but
(31:30):
oh yeah, but you're there's still this sort of undeniable
There's this innevitable need for a for the conscious mind too,
to somehow understand what exists past it or beyond it,
And I think that's a worthwhile endeavor. I also think
(31:50):
that we should mention that the pineal gland has been
linked to people who claim to be able to travel astralely.
So if you like, if you like, Matt and I
are fans of those Mysteries of the Unknown time life
books and the Unsolved Mystery Show and things like that.
One of the things that happens when people who talk
(32:13):
about astral travel is that they often depict themselves as
rising in an incorporeal form that's linked somehow by by
this um intangible tendril right back to their back to
their actual body, And often this is depicted as a
tendril connecting pituitary gland to the where it would be
(32:35):
in the spiritual body. And we don't just mean um
fictionalized accounts of of astral travel. We're also talking about
you know, stargate researchers and most notably Ingo Swan. I
think there are accounts of this, real, real accounts of
people trying to do this. One last thing I want
to talk about, ben is the symbolism of the pine
(32:59):
cone and whether or not it has anything to do
with the peel gland, and if it does, why the
heck are there so many pine cones in ancient symbology. Ah? Nice,
good catch. I can't believe we almost missed that one.
Well just uh, and I just have a couple of
things here, and if maybe give me some thoughts on that,
if if you don't mind so u you you know
(33:19):
what anchor watt looks like in Cambodia anchor watt, And
if you don't know what that looks like, and you're
listening this, put a N G K O R W
A T into a search engine and look at the
spires on this old, ancient, ancient temple. They don't necessarily
look exactly like a pineel gland, but I've seen it
referenced many times that this structure is really important, the
(33:43):
structure of these spires. Then you go to a freemasonry
I don't know if you've you've been to the Fox Theater, right, Yes,
So in Atlanta there's the Fox Theater. It used to
be a Masonic lodge, and it still looks like one.
It really looks like one, and not in this building
in particular, but there are several other Masonic buildings in
Atlanta and other places that use the pine cone. A
(34:04):
lot of times you'll see them on the ceiling um
with a of light fixture or just a piece of
metal hanging down, and it's a pine cone. It's absolutely
a pine cone. Then you go to the Vatican and
you look at let's say, the Pope's staff that has
a pine cone on it, or maybe you go out
into the Belvidere courtyard and you check out this ancient
(34:26):
Roman fountain fountain that's sitting there, and it's a giant
pine cone. You know, when you when you go into
these conspiracy theories as we do, you you start symbols
are highly important, or they seem to be very important.
And it makes me wonder again, is there something that
these guys know about this pine cone that I don't know, man,
(34:50):
or is it just a symbol of releasing seeds and
harvest and you know, the flow of life? Maybe? Well,
all that's a great question, a great series of questions.
All of the especially in the ancient world, all of
the symbols used have significance. Um, this was you know,
(35:10):
if we look back, just from a technological perspective, people
didn't have the ability or the luxury of making um
disposable arts, you know, and so why would you waste
your time on a meaningless embellishment? So we do know
that uh, symbols of any sort have incredible significance, especially
(35:35):
the further back those symbols go. Um. We could have
a whole conversation about obelisk in a different episode. But
the the question then becomes, um, you know, what does
this signify? Um? What if anything doesn't mean in the
modern day? And I think that's an interesting question, but
I haven't in my own research, I haven't found much
(36:00):
more than something pointing out the the idea of this.
And there could definitely be a correlation because Plato is
talking about the panel Gland, as did Renee Descartes, and UM,
a couple of other notable intellectuals. Uh, decart actually believe
(36:21):
that it was the seat of the human soul. UM.
So maybe there is more to that symbolism than we know.
But at this point, Matt, I have to ask you
some stuff. All right, where can people go to learn
more about the panel gland? Well, if you want to
go hardcore science, the first place that I would go
(36:42):
is the Journal of Panel Research, which is part of
the Wily Online Library. UM. This is primarily studying studying
the melotonin aspects of the panel gland, but there's some
fascinating stuff in there. It's updated all the time. Every
once in a while you'll get a free article, but
most of it is you have to pay to read
the entire article, but you can get an abstract and
(37:03):
kind of see the ideas that are being looked at UM.
So that's fascinating. If you want to hear people talk
about this kind of thing. UM, if you're not already
subscribed to the Joe Rogan Experience, to do that now
and listen to Rogan and his friends talk about weird stuff.
It's pretty great. Also, The Duncan Trust All Family our
(37:24):
podcast that's where I end up all the time when
i'm editing. Oh, I have a contribution here. If you're
a fan of our show and you haven't already subscribed
to Stuff to Blow your mind, you're welcome. You'll love it.
They have an episode on the panel Gland. Uh. They
(37:44):
also are fellow monster enthusiasts, so they cover a lot
of stuff about monsters as well, and they get weird
with it. So check out their podcast, which is free,
and you'll hear more about this stuff. Check out our
website stuff they don't want you to know. Dot com right,
(38:04):
still not fired, where you can find Matt and I
getting into all sorts of online hijinks. As we're recording
this today, we just mocked strangled our mascot agents Scully My.
That is my favorite thing I've edited in a long time.
(38:26):
I'm still really on the fence about how that's gonna
play out for us, but we'll see what people think
when we talk about that. That's on our video. Can
you get Away with Murder? Or getting away with Murder?
I believe? And Uh. In the meantime, you can find
us on Facebook and Twitter. Matt, what do you want
people to write in? And ask us about this time around.
(38:47):
I I want to know your thoughts on this tiny
little gland in your head. First of all, we've we've
kind of talked about it a little bit on Facebook
already with our video series. Oh you know what, I
want to know, what's what is your weirdest dream that
you've had that you think maybe attributed to the d
m T from your pineal gland? Uh? Yeah, weirdest dream
(39:08):
that you can recall? And do you think you had
a precognitive pre figurative dream? You know? Is is time
really a little bit more elastic rather than linear in
in uh dreamland? Ah? Interesting stuff, good question. Time travel
is my favorite thing in the world. You mean time
(39:29):
travel other than one second at a time forward. Yeah,
that's kind of boring. But and that is it for
us today. Thank you so much for listening. We hope
you enjoyed this. We know we touched on a lot
of things, uh, and didn't dig too deep into some
of the main themes we discussed. That's because we would
like to hear from you before we jump all the
(39:50):
way into the deep waters on things like fluoridation and
things like astral travel. So right to us and let
us know what we should cover, how would you cover us?
How would you cover it rather? And uh, you know
it's something that you're rarely going to hear outside of
a therapy session. Tell us what you're dreaming about, and uh,
(40:11):
tell us the weirdest, strangest dreams you've had. Wrap it
all up in an email, give us a title with
something like dreams in there, and send it straight to
us if you wish. Our email address is conspiracy at
Discovery dot com. From more on this topic and how
(40:31):
they're unexplained phenomenon, visit test tube dot com slash conspiracy stuff.
You can also get in touch on Twitter at the
handle at conspiracy stuff.
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Noel Brown
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