Opening the Third Eye: Ancient Techniques for Activating The Pineal Gland or Third Eye

The pineal gland is a pea-sized gland shaped like a pine cone, located in the vertebrate brain near the hypothalamus and pituitary gland (around the middle of the forehead, slightly above the junction of the eyebrows).

Also known as the third eye, it is a revered tool of seers and mystics and considered to be the organ of supreme universal connection. In Hinduism, the third eye refers to the ajna, or brow chakra.

The third eye refers to the gate that leads to inner realms and spaces of higher consciousness. The third eye is often associated with religious visions, clairvoyance, the ability to observe chakras and auras, precognition, and out-of-body experiences.

Once your third eye is opened, and you see yourself, the whole expanse of your consciousness, you have come very close to the temple of God; you are just standing on the steps.

You can see the door and you cannot resist the temptation to go inside the temple and see what is there. There you find universal consciousness, there you find enlightenment, there you find ultimate liberation. There you find your eternity.

How to activate pineal gland — 3 ancient techniques for third eye activation

1. Stop your two eyes and pineal gland will activate

If your two eyes stop completely, if they become non-moving, static, like stones, with no movement in these eyes, the energy stops flowing through them. If you stop them, the energy stops flowing through them.

The energy flows; that is why they move. The vibration, the movement, is because of the energy. If the energy is not moving, your eyes will become just like a dead man’s eyes — stoney, dead.

Looking at a spot, staring at it without allowing your eyes to move anywhere else, will give a staticness. Suddenly the energy which was moving through the two eyes will not be moving through these eyes.

But the energy has to move; energy cannot be static. Eyes can be static, but energy cannot be static. So it tries to find a new path. And the third eye is just near, just between the two eyebrows, half an inch deep. It is just near — the nearest point.

If your energy is released from these eyes, the first thing that can happen is that it will move through the third eye. It is just as if water is flowing and you close one hole: it will find another — the nearest which can be found with the least resistance.

It will find it automatically; you do not have to do anything specifically. With these physical eyes, you just have to stop energy from moving through them, and then energy will find its own path and it will move through the third eye.

2. Closing the seven openings of the head with your hands

This is one of the oldest techniques — very much used, and one of the simplest also. Close all the openings of the head– eyes, ears, nose, mouth. When all the openings of the head are closed, your consciousness, which is continuously flowing out, is stopped suddenly: it cannot move out.

You may not have observed, but even if you stop your breathing for a moment, suddenly your mind will stop because with breathing mind moves on. That is a conditioning with the mind. You must understand what ‘conditioning’ means, then only will this technique be easy to understand.

For example, you have never thought without breathing. You are not conscious of breathing, but breathing is there continuously, day and night. Every thought, every thinking process is associated with breathing. If you stop your breathing suddenly, thought will also stop.

And if all the seven holes — the seven openings of the head — are closed, your consciousness suddenly cannot move out because you have always been moving out from these openings.

And with your consciousness remaining in it becomes concentrated between these two eyes, between these two ordinary eyes and focused. That spot is known as the third eye.

Once you can feel inside this space between the two eyes, then you have known existence, the totality of it, because this inner space is all inclusive. Nothing is left out of it.

The third eye sees the infinite, the immaterial and the spiritual. If you are centered at the third eye, many things happen. The first is discovering that the whole world is in you.

The third eye is not part of your physical body. The space between our two eyes is not a space which is confined in your body. It is the infinite space which has penetrated in you. Once this space is known, you will never be the same person again. The moment you know this inner space, you have known the deathless. Then there is no death.

When you know this space for the first time, your life will be authentic, intense, for the first time really alive. Now no security is needed, now no fear is possible. Now you cannot be killed. Now nothing can be taken away from you.

Now the whole universe belongs to you: you are the universe. Those who have known this inner space, they have cried in ecstasy, ”Aham Brahmasmi! I am the universe, I am the existence.”

3. Attention between eyebrows, Let mind be before thought

This was the technique given to Pythagoras. Pythagoras went with this technique to Greece, and really, he became the fountainhead, the source of all mysticism in the West. He is the father of all mysticism in the West.

This technique is one of the very deep methods. Try to understand this: ATTENTION BETWEEN THE EYEBROWS…

Modern physiology, scientific research, says that between the two eyebrows is the gland which is the most mysterious part of the body. This gland, called the pineal gland, is the third eye of the Tibetans — SHIVANETRA: the eye of the Shiva, of the tantra.

Between the two eyes there exists a third eye, but it is non-functioning. It is there, it can function any moment, but it does not function naturally. You have to do something about it to open it. It is not blind; it is simply closed. This technique is to open the third eye.

ATTENTION BETWEEN THE EYEBROWS… Close your eyes, then focus both of your eyes just in the middle of the two eyebrows. Focus just in the middle, with closed eyes, as if you are looking with your two eyes. Give total attention to it.

This is one of the simplest methods of being attentive. You cannot be attentive to any other part of the body so easily. This gland absorbs attention like anything. If you give attention to it, both your eyes become hypnotized with the third eye. They become fixed; they cannot move.

It is said in the old tantra scriptures that for the third eye attention is food. It is hungry; it has been hungry for lives and lives. If you pay attention to it, it becomes alive. The food is given to it.

And once you know that attention is food, once you feel that your attention is magnetically Drawn, attracted, pulled by the gland itself, attention is not a difficult thing then. One has only to know the right point.

So just close your eyes, let your two eyes move just to the middle, and feel the point. When you are near the point, suddenly your eyes will become fixed. When it becomes difficult to move them, then know you have caught the right point.

If this attention is there, for the first time you will see thoughts running before you; you will become the witness. It is just like a film screen: thoughts are running and you are a witness. Once your attention is focused at the third eye center, you become immediately the witness of thoughts.

Ordinarily you are not the witness, you are identified with thoughts. If anger is there, you become anger. If a thought moves, you are not the witness, you become one with the thought, identified, and you move with it. You become the thought; you take the form of the thought.

When sex is there you become sex, when anger is there you become anger, when greed is there you become greed. Any thought moving becomes identified with you. You do not have any gap between you and the thought. But focused at the third eye, suddenly you become a witness.

Whatsoever is happening, try to be a witness. You are ill, the body is aching and painful, you have misery and suffering, whatsoever — be a witness to it. Whatsoever is happening, do not identify yourself with it. Be an observer. Then if witnessing becomes possible, you will be focused in the third eye.

So by being centered in the third eye there will be the arising of the witnessing self. Now you can encounter your thoughts. This will be the first thing. And the second thing will be that now you can feel the subtle, delicate vibration of breathing. Now you can feel the form of breathing, the very essence of breathing.

First try to understand what is meant by ”the form,” by ”the essence of breathing.” While you are breathing, you are not only breathing air. Air is just the vehicle, not the real thing. You are breathing prana — vitality. Air is just the medium; prana is the content. You are breathing prana, not only air.

Modern science is still not able to find out whether there is something like prana, but some researchers have felt something mysterious. Breathing is not simply air. In particular, one name is to be mentioned — Wilhelm Reich, a German psychologist who called it ”orgone energy.”

It is the same thing as prana. He says that while you are breathing, air is just the container and there is a mysterious content which can be called orgone or prana or ELAN VITAL. But that is very subtle. Really, it is not material. Air is the material thing — the container is material — but something subtle, non-material, is moving through it.

When you are focused between the eyebrows and you can feel the very essence of breathing, LET FORM FILL. Now imagine that this essence is filling your whole head, particularly the top of the head, the SAHASRAR — the highest psychic center.

And the moment you imagine, it will be filled. THERE — at the top of the head — SHOWER AS LIGHT. This prana essence is showering from the top of your head as light. And it WILL begin to shower, and under the shower of light you will be refreshed, reborn, completely new. That is what inner rebirth means.

So two things: first, focused at the third eye your imagination becomes potent, powerful. That is why so much insistence has been given on purity. Before doing these practices, be pure. Purity is not a moral concept for tantra, purity is significant.

Because if you are focused at the third eye and your mind is impure, your imagination can become dangerous: dangerous to you, dangerous to others. If you are thinking to murder someone, if this idea is in the mind, just imagining may kill the man. That is why there is so much insistence on being pure first.

You have imagined many times to kill but the imagination cannot work, fortunately. If it works, if it is actualized immediately, then it will become dangerous — not only to others, but to yourself also, because so many times you have thought to commit suicide. If the mind is focused at the third eye, just thinking of suicide will become suicide. You will not have any time to change, immediately it will happen.

When you focus your eyes at any particular point, within three minutes your inner attention begins to flow toward the third eye. And the moment your inner attention begins to flow toward the third eye, your face begins to change. It means that now attention is being sucked by the third eye center. Your face has become dead; the whole energy is running toward the third eye center.

In the third eye, imagination and actualization are not two things. Imagination is the fact. Imagine, and it is so. There is no gap between dream and reality. Dream, and it will become real.

This is because the divine is centered in the third eye, so whatsoever the divine dreams becomes real. If you are also centered in the third eye, whatsoever you dream will become real.

When you are focused in the third eye, just imagine that the essence of prana is showering from the top of the head, just as if you are sitting under a tree and flowers are showering, or you are just under the sky and suddenly a cloud begins to shower, or you are just sitting in the morning and the sun rises and rays begin to shower. Imagine, and immediately there is a shower — a shower of light

Some techniques that help activating third eye

For activating the third eye you must follow one of the above mentioned three techniques. Below mentioned techniques alone will not activate the third eye but by following them along with above mentioned techniques will help in activation of pineal gland or third eye for sure.

1. Breathing: Practicing long and deep breath will help concentrating on third eye.

2. Tapping: Tapping between the two eyebrows, just above the nose on the forehead helps activating the third eye.

3. Chanting: Chanting causes the tetrahedron bone in the nose to resonate, which causes stimulation of the pineal gland. Considering chanting “Om,” also known as the sound of the universe, 1 hour each day.

4. Being in Darkness: The pineal gland is activated not only by the sun, but also by darkness — complete darkness. So make sure your bedroom is as dark as possible during your sleep time.

5. Organic foods: Foods with additives, preservatives, chemicals and pesticides are all risk factors for both premature aging and blockage of pineal gland.

6. Sungazing: The sun is a great source of power. Gaze gently at the sun during the first few minutes of sunrise and last few minutes of sunset to boost your pineal gland.

7. Khechari Mudra: This is definitely not for everyone and should only be tried under the supervision of an advanced kriya yoga teacher. The tip of the tongue is placed on the roof of the mouth.The aim of this mudra is to attain samadhi.

8. Crystals: Placing a crystal over the third eye while lying down is said to work wonders on activating the third eye.

9. Laughing: If you can find a place where you can laugh loudly and then sit silently for 15 minutes, that can help a lot in activating third eye. You will need to do two steps. First laugh loudly for 10 to 20 minutes. Laugh with full power and then sit silently for at-least 15 minutes and observe sensation in your body.

A blocked pineal gland or third eye can result in:

1. Confusion & delusions

2. Depression & anxiety

3. Neurological disorders

4. Pessimism

5. Jealousy & envy

A properly functioning pineal gland is synonymous with good health and well-being.

Effects Of Activating Pineal Gland

Once you function in that dimension, many things become apparent to you. For example, if a person is going to die, if your third eye is functioning you will become immediately aware that he is going to die.

No physical analysis, no physical diagnosis can say that certainly he is going to die. But with the third eye functioning, you suddenly feel that a man is going to die. How do you feel it? Death has an impact. If the man is going to die, then death has already cast its shadow there, and that shadow can be felt with the third eye at any time.

When a child is born, those who have had much deep practice using the third eye can see the time of his death that very moment. But then the shadow is very subtle.

When a person is going to die in six months, then anyone whose third eye functions a little can see the death six months before it comes. The shadow darkens. Really, around you a dark shadow settles down and that can be felt, but not with these two eyes.

With the third eye, you begin to see auras. A person comes to you; he cannot deceive you, because whatever he says is meaningless unless it corresponds to his aura. He may say he is a person who never gets angry, but the red aura will show that he is filled with anger.

He cannot deceive as far as his aura is concerned, because he is completely unaware about the aura. Whatsoever he says can be judged through his aura, whether it is right or wrong. With the third eye you start seeing radiations, auras.