If you have participated for a while in threads in this forum you know there is widespread belief that whites, because of calcified pineal glands, are inferior in various ways. That argument is grounded in certain urban myths about melanin which I will be addressing. I will then end by redirecting your attention to what I believe to be a real connection between the Pineal Gland and Spirit.
Urban Myth #1: Whites are inferior because they have calcified pineals and Blacks don't
There is a monthly journal called Radiology owned and published by the Radiological Society of America, Incorporated. The March 1982 issue contained a paper entitled "Age-Related incidence of Pineal Calcification Detected by Computed Tomography". It was co-authored by Robert A. Zimmerman, M.D. and Larissa T. Bilaniuk M.D. :
http://radiology.rsna.org/content/142/3/659.full.pdf
Here at Destee, you will hear frequently the urban myth that whites have calcified pineal glands and blacks do not. But, the science is that calcification of the pineal gland is not as distinctly demarcated as that. To begin with, and I make this point often, race is more of a cultural designation than a biological one. Just one example of this non-scientific classification is the inconsistency of considering President Obama as black and George Zimmerman as white when they both have one and only one white parent:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/trayvon-martin-case-georg_n_1387711.html
But, it gets even more confused once we add into the conversation the topic of pineal calcification. As the aforementioned Radiology paper details, with documented facts instead of racist hysteria, blacks have incidences of pineal calcification as well, about 10% of blacks do. So, do a quick review ... remember the blacks here who have insisted emphatically that whites are the ones with calcified pineals? Well, as it turns out, 1 out of every 10 of those blacks, statistically, have calcified pineals as well.
Since racial classifications are so muddied by subjective cultural bias, it is more relevant to consider Americans vs. other cultures. That reveals an enlightening stat. 40% of Americans have calcified pineal glands. Which perhaps explains why America's melting pot is what Dr. King infamously described as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today"?
Urban Myth #2: Pineal Calcification is directly related to godliness
This urban myth is rooted in the, as yet, unproven premise that the amount of melanin in a human body directly affects how godly that human is. The biggest problem with this urban myth is that melanin is neither synthesized or secreted by the pineal gland. What the pineal gland does both synthesize and secret is a similar sounding hormone --- melatonin:
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/otherendo/pineal.html
So, why is there this confusion between melanin and melatonin? Well, the answer to that is not difficult to figure out. One of the distinctions culture makes between blacks and whites is skin color. Skin color is determined by melanin, primarily but not exclusively eumelanin. Hence, if you are a black racist and you wish to 'prove' that whites are inferior to blacks, you can do this if you can prove that inferiority/superiority is determined by melanin.
And, well, you fudge a bit by pretending melanin and melatonin are the same thing banking on most coppertops being too lazy to educate themselves as to what is fact and what is fiction.
Unproven Theory: The Pineal Gland and the Ajna Chakra
Let us move on from groundless urban myths to what I propose may, indeed, have some validity. We will start with a scientifically proven fact.
Synthesis and secretion of melatonin by the pineal gland is "dramatically affected" by light exposure to the eyes. This sensitivity to light is indirectly proportional. At night, when light incidence to the eyes is less, more melatonin is synthesized and secreted.
Now, we inject not a fact but conjecture. I am probably not the first to suggest to you that there may be some sort of connection between the spiritual sixth chakra [aka the Ajna chakra], and the physical pineal gland [aka the Third Eye].
So, connecting the dots between scientific fact and conjecture [aka intuition] we consider a possible connection between the Third Eye, the Ajna chakra, and the Light:
Several years ago, I was working in corporate America at a job I found most disturbing to inner peace. Quite by accident, if you believe in accidents, I discovered a Way to restore inner peace. That Way involved sitting in a quiet dark room, back straight, focusing my eyes upon a spot directly ahead and exactly between my physical eyes but doing this with my eye lids closed, all the time folding my hands in my lap with fingers shaped into a pyramid. At the time, I knew little about chakras or pyramid power or the Third Eye or the Light. I just knew that the real I flowed naturally into this exercise.
Years passed. I came to understand that what I was doing was what others called meditation. Whatever. And, I came to understand that what I was staring at with my physical eyes was the approximate location of the pineal gland, which some now believe to be the material realm visualization of the immaterial realm Ajna chakra.
But ... why did I close my eyes? And why do so many people close their eyes when they pray and/or when they meditate?
I Flow toward this explanation which sits between Scientific fact [material realm] and esoteric intuition [immaterial realm]. The physical light which science talks about is not exactly the same thing as the Light which sages 'spin' by climbing the Jacob's Ladder of the Chakras:
Here, again, we see in the story of Jacob climbing the ladder to heaven, him waiting until the sun sets to climb the ladder to heaven, accomplishes the same thing as I and others closing our eyes to pray and/or meditate.
Why this need to limit light from the physical material realm to 'see' the Light of the spiritual immaterial realm. Could it be to activate the aforementioned synthesis and secretion of melatonin by the Third Eye?
Hhmmmm.
Aummmm.
Urban Myth #1: Whites are inferior because they have calcified pineals and Blacks don't
There is a monthly journal called Radiology owned and published by the Radiological Society of America, Incorporated. The March 1982 issue contained a paper entitled "Age-Related incidence of Pineal Calcification Detected by Computed Tomography". It was co-authored by Robert A. Zimmerman, M.D. and Larissa T. Bilaniuk M.D. :
http://radiology.rsna.org/content/142/3/659.full.pdf
Here at Destee, you will hear frequently the urban myth that whites have calcified pineal glands and blacks do not. But, the science is that calcification of the pineal gland is not as distinctly demarcated as that. To begin with, and I make this point often, race is more of a cultural designation than a biological one. Just one example of this non-scientific classification is the inconsistency of considering President Obama as black and George Zimmerman as white when they both have one and only one white parent:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/trayvon-martin-case-georg_n_1387711.html
But, it gets even more confused once we add into the conversation the topic of pineal calcification. As the aforementioned Radiology paper details, with documented facts instead of racist hysteria, blacks have incidences of pineal calcification as well, about 10% of blacks do. So, do a quick review ... remember the blacks here who have insisted emphatically that whites are the ones with calcified pineals? Well, as it turns out, 1 out of every 10 of those blacks, statistically, have calcified pineals as well.
Since racial classifications are so muddied by subjective cultural bias, it is more relevant to consider Americans vs. other cultures. That reveals an enlightening stat. 40% of Americans have calcified pineal glands. Which perhaps explains why America's melting pot is what Dr. King infamously described as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today"?
Urban Myth #2: Pineal Calcification is directly related to godliness
This urban myth is rooted in the, as yet, unproven premise that the amount of melanin in a human body directly affects how godly that human is. The biggest problem with this urban myth is that melanin is neither synthesized or secreted by the pineal gland. What the pineal gland does both synthesize and secret is a similar sounding hormone --- melatonin:
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/otherendo/pineal.html
So, why is there this confusion between melanin and melatonin? Well, the answer to that is not difficult to figure out. One of the distinctions culture makes between blacks and whites is skin color. Skin color is determined by melanin, primarily but not exclusively eumelanin. Hence, if you are a black racist and you wish to 'prove' that whites are inferior to blacks, you can do this if you can prove that inferiority/superiority is determined by melanin.
And, well, you fudge a bit by pretending melanin and melatonin are the same thing banking on most coppertops being too lazy to educate themselves as to what is fact and what is fiction.
Unproven Theory: The Pineal Gland and the Ajna Chakra
Let us move on from groundless urban myths to what I propose may, indeed, have some validity. We will start with a scientifically proven fact.
Synthesis and secretion of melatonin by the pineal gland is "dramatically affected" by light exposure to the eyes. This sensitivity to light is indirectly proportional. At night, when light incidence to the eyes is less, more melatonin is synthesized and secreted.
Now, we inject not a fact but conjecture. I am probably not the first to suggest to you that there may be some sort of connection between the spiritual sixth chakra [aka the Ajna chakra], and the physical pineal gland [aka the Third Eye].
So, connecting the dots between scientific fact and conjecture [aka intuition] we consider a possible connection between the Third Eye, the Ajna chakra, and the Light:
Several years ago, I was working in corporate America at a job I found most disturbing to inner peace. Quite by accident, if you believe in accidents, I discovered a Way to restore inner peace. That Way involved sitting in a quiet dark room, back straight, focusing my eyes upon a spot directly ahead and exactly between my physical eyes but doing this with my eye lids closed, all the time folding my hands in my lap with fingers shaped into a pyramid. At the time, I knew little about chakras or pyramid power or the Third Eye or the Light. I just knew that the real I flowed naturally into this exercise.
Years passed. I came to understand that what I was doing was what others called meditation. Whatever. And, I came to understand that what I was staring at with my physical eyes was the approximate location of the pineal gland, which some now believe to be the material realm visualization of the immaterial realm Ajna chakra.
But ... why did I close my eyes? And why do so many people close their eyes when they pray and/or when they meditate?
I Flow toward this explanation which sits between Scientific fact [material realm] and esoteric intuition [immaterial realm]. The physical light which science talks about is not exactly the same thing as the Light which sages 'spin' by climbing the Jacob's Ladder of the Chakras:
Genesis 28:10 -19
Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Here, again, we see in the story of Jacob climbing the ladder to heaven, him waiting until the sun sets to climb the ladder to heaven, accomplishes the same thing as I and others closing our eyes to pray and/or meditate.
Why this need to limit light from the physical material realm to 'see' the Light of the spiritual immaterial realm. Could it be to activate the aforementioned synthesis and secretion of melatonin by the Third Eye?
Hhmmmm.
Aummmm.