This article examines how the pineal and other endocrine glands secrete other hormones during sungazing, which create not just a high, but greater energy, longevity and experiences of samadhi or higher consciousness.by Wayne Purdin
In the last issue of The Sun Gazette, the article “Imbibe Sunshine for a Natural High” examined how sungazing and sunbathing cause the secretion of “feel good” hormones serotonin beta-endorphins, and dopamine. This article will examine how the pineal and other endocrine glands secrete other hormones during sungazing, which create not just a high, but greater energy, longevity and experiences of samadhi or higher consciousness.
There’s more to the pineal gland than what meets the eye, or, I should say, optic nerve. The effect of sunlight on the pineal is something that needs to be researched more. It is already one of the most researched glands of the body. Scientists know that bright light stimulates the production of seratonin and melatonin in the pineal, but there are other neurochemicals produced by the pineal that have more profound effects than just the mood, sleep, reproductive and body temperature effects of serotonin and melatonin.
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, including Dr. George C. Brenard, a leading authority on the pineal gland, observed sun yogi HRM for 130 days in 2002. They found that his pineal exhibited growth and reactivation. The average size of the pineal is 6×6 mm, but in HRM’s case it was 8×11 mm.
Scientists refer to the pineal gland as the “atrophied third eye.” Indeed, it, along with the pituitary, is the third eye chakra or energy center, but they’re just dormant, not atrophied. According to Max Heindel’s Rosicrucian writings, in the distant past, man was in touch with the inner worlds through an activated pineal and pitutary gland. Considered the most powerful and highest source of ethereal energy available to humans, the third eye has always been important in initiating psychic powers (e.g. clairvoyance and seeing auras).
To activate the ‘third eye’ and perceive higher dimensions, the pineal and the pituitary must vibrate in unison, which is achieved through meditation or sungazing. When a correct relationship is established between the personality, operating through the pituitary, and the soul, operating through the pineal, a magnetic field is created. The pineal can generate its own magnetic field because it contains magnetite. This field can interact with the earth’s magnetic field. The solar wind at dawn, charging the earth’s magnetic field, stimulates the pineal gland. This is why the period between 4 and 6 am is the best time to meditate and why sunrise is the best time to sungaze. At these times, the pineal stimulates the pituary to secrete Human Growth Hormone. That’s why sungazers experience rapid nail and hair growth, restoration of hair color, and general rejuvenation. Cleopatra used to place a magnet on her forehead to stimulate the pituitary to restore her youth and good looks. She didn’t know she already had a magnet in her head. Also at dawn, the negative and positive forces interact and become strong enough to create a “light in the head” while meditating.
This light has been seen by mystics, initiates, prophets and shamans throughout the ages, and they refer to it as the experience of God or of a universal intelligence. Many cultures and mystics have induced this experience through the use of hallucinogenic substances, such as soma, mushrooms, Mescalin, and LSD. However, these experiences tend to be short-lived and require repeated usage to re-live the experience. Most mystics agree that natural methods, such as intense meditation, visualization, deep-breathing, chanting and sungazing combined with physical purification are the best way to induce third eye activation and can have life-transforming effects.
Drugs and certain yogic techniques can force the pineal open prematurely before the mind is ready for psychic powers, and this can lead to psychosis. Sungazing, if done correctly, gradually awakens the pineal, along with the pituitary so that the person is not shocked by experiences of higher consciousness, and these experiences are not colored by negative images in the mind.
The use of mantras and chanting can also gradually awaken the pineal because it sits above the mouth suspended in the third ventrical, a chamber filled with cerebrospinal fluid, what some esotericists have called “the grail.” Its location above the mouth in a fluid chamber makes the pineal gland quite uniquely positioned to respond to sonic vibrations.
Manly P. Hall, in The Opening of the Third Eye stated that the pineal gland “vibrating at a very high rate of speed, is the actual cause of true spiritual illumination.” The pineal governs energy level. Thus, the more it is stimulated, the higher a person’s energy level. Monks at a monastery in France were told by a new abbot to stop chanting. The found that they no longer were able to get up before dawn to work in the fields after only a few hours of sleep. When chanting was restored, so was their energy. You can find chanting and singing practices in many cultures that activate the third eye. Take, for example, this quote from The Dialogues of Kabir, “In the center between the two eyes is the seat of eternal music, the music of the spheres. One who practices this sound principle gains entry into this kingdom.” And a more recent teaching from Sri Chinmoy states that “There are quite a few mantras that also help in opening the third eye. The Gayatri Mantra, for example, helps in opening the third eye, for it invokes the infinite knowledge, wisdom and light.” Sun yogis usually recite the Gayatri mantra while sungazing. The last line of this mantra can be translated as “May it [the sun] activate the brain.” Jonathan Goldman in Tantra of Sound wrote that “Sound can act like a psychoactive substance, altering and enhancing consciousness.” Perhaps this is because certain sounds can stimulate the production of psychoactive substances in the pineal.
Dr. Rick Strassman, who conducted research at the University of New Mexico from 1990 to 1995 on the effects of the psychoactive drug Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), suggested that the pineal gland is involved in DMT production, because the precursors and enzymes necessary for its formation are quite high in the pineal. He says DMT may be released from the pineal during dreams, near-death, death, birth, and during meditation and mystical experiences. Near death experiences are identical to DMT trips. HRM says that at the moment of death, the pineal gland collapses, releasing all it’s peptide contents. I propose that during sungazing, meditation, or chanting, the pineal secretes not only DMT, but other peptides as well that have psychoactive effects. The mixture of these secretions has been called various names: nectar of the gods, ambrosia, the living water, and amrita. It is said that to experience amrita is to be bestowed with immortality, that is, to be freed from the cycle of birth and death…hence liberated. The term Amrita is Sanskrit for “elixir of immortality,” it literally means “deathlessness”. This has obvious parallels to “ambrosia” the name of the classical Greek “food of the gods” which means “no death.”
During sungazing or in deep meditation, this nectar is produced, fills the grail chamber and drips down the back of the throat. David must have experienced this when he wrote in Psalm 23:5 “thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” Related phenomena are an intensely sweet taste and the brilliant inner light. Its taste is described as nectar, honey, gold dust, euphoric, ecstatic, intoxicating and gives the feeling of being imbued with holiness. People report that it usually is secreted while practicing the Khedari Mudra (tongue upward on palate).
The following is the account of an initial amrita experience by a sungazer, Lillie, who had been sungazing up to 23 minutes: “I have had an awesome experience 10 or 12 times that I have not yet read about. This will happen most often in the morning. I will get this taste in my mouth that will last anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours. It is the most wonderful taste I have ever experienced! I can assure you that there is NOTHING to describe what may be similar, or at least nothing I have ever tasted. It is just so divine I find myself getting lost in it, and wanting it to never go away. I don’t know if there’s any connection, but I now have less anxiety, and much better eating habits. Also, I can strongly feel others’ emotions before they even look at me and I have begun to see colored auras on people and animals.”
After reading about amrita and continuing sungazing for three more months, this is Lillie’s update: “The amrita has not become more often, but it lasts longer (the longest being almost three hours now). My emotions during amrita are extreme joy and happiness. The taste is still so amazing it takes my breath away. The only way I can describe even a hint of the taste is like a milk-sugar-nutty, and that’s still not even close! If I’m not at work or in the public and can find a quiet place, the taste seems much stronger.
I have energy surges that seem pretty powerful. Not nervous energy, but like a blissful energy. Kind of like when I was a happy child. I believe it stems from sungazing and meditation. I meditate twice a day. While sungazing, I do a light meditation that consists of expressing gratitude for everything. At night, I meditate on colored balls of light before going to sleep. I do deep breathing before sungazing and walk barefoot for 15 minutes afterwards. When I eat just a little fruit or nothing in a day is when I usually notice the blissful energy. I truly am more loving and grateful since I started sungazing. I now get by on five hours of sleep instead of eight. I used to be a light smoker. My cravings went away at only 7 minutes of sungazing [after about two months]. I mean they completely went away. It’s like I never smoked, and I’m amazed that I ever did that. Being able to see auras is still pretty mild. I usually can see it on an angry person, and it’s kind of like pulsating shades of reds and oranges from the head and chest area. I can see other colors on occasion when I am paying close attention. (I also can see mostly blue and white on my dogs). As far as feeling and knowing other emotions, this has become very powerful, almost to the point of frightening me on occasions. Sometimes I think I can almost physically feel the emotions of others.”
I have not been blissed out to the extent that Lillie has, nor have I experienced any indescribable taste in my mouth. However, I have experienced sensations of bliss during and after sungazing, also feel more love and gratitude, and am more sensitive to the feelings of others. I suppose that amrita is being produced and collected in the grail during sungazing, but not to the extent that it overflows down the back of my throat. It is nonetheless, being transported through the gland ducts to the blood and lymph and throughout my body.
To get back to the biochemistry of amrita, DMT increases all pituitary homones and beta-endorphins, vasopressin, prolactin, Growth Hormone, and corticotrophrin (cortisol). It is possible that a DMT-induced surge of beta-endorphins creates the euphoria of an amrita experience. Serotonin receptors are activated by DMT and serotonin receptors regulate heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, pupil diameter. Apparently DMT is a small molecule not much larger than glucose and Strassman says that it is like brainfood that is rapidly transported across the blood brain barrier.
As far as the primary active ingredient of amrita goes, besides the opiates which give a profound analgesic effect, the “wakefulness” chemical is probably a phenethylamin similar to Mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethyla-mine). Our bodies can convert the amino acid phenylalanine to tyrosine and phenethylamine. Mescaline made from the peyote cactus is one of the oldest psychedelics known to man and is used in spiritual ceremonies. Curiously it can produce a bright internal light. Tyrosine is also a precursor to the excitatory neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine. The “wakefulness” chemical could also be a tryptamine that the body produces, perhaps similar to 5-MeO/DMT. The essential amino acid tryptophan is the precursor for tryptamine, which is slightly psychedelic. Tryptamine is a naturally occurring compound found in both the animal and plant kingdoms. Tryptamine and LSD have a common mode of action.
Research will probably find that many secretions from about five different organs including the pineal and pituitary may contribute to the mixture. Thus, the production of amrita may be a joint effort of the circumventricular organs secreting into the cerebro-spinal fluid of the grail. High levels of opiates, oxytocin, vasopressin, phenethylamine and tryptamine would render the individual into the extreme heart expanding unitive experience of Samadhi or Cosmic Consciousness.
