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The Soul and its Mechanism - Glands and Human Behavior |
We shall now consider the seven glands mentioned, but
confining our discussion to their mental and psychic effects. 1. The Pineal Gland - location, head - secretion, unknown. The pineal gland is cone-shaped, about the size of a pea, and is in the center of the brain in a tiny cave behind and above the pituitary gland which lies a little behind the root of the nose. The pineal gland is attached to the third ventricle of the brain. It contains a pigment similar to that in the retina of the eye, and also collections of what have been called "brain sand particles." Dr. Tilney says:
It has also been suggested that this gland regulates our susceptibility to light, that it has a definite effect upon the sex nature, that it is related to brain growth and that its active functioning [42] causes intellectual precocity as is clearly indicated in the historic case discussed below. This gland has also been called the third eye, and the eye of the Cyclops. Beyond these facts or conjectures, investigators frankly say they know nothing, and experiments have produced little information. In the experiment of feeding pineal gland extract to children and to defectives the response was nothing when the subject was over fifteen years of age, and contradictory in all other cases, so deduction was impossible.
As will be seen later, this historic case has a special interest in view of the conclusions of Oriental philosophers. Most of the books note that the pineal gland is stated by ancient philosophers to be the seat of the soul, and Descartes is frequently quoted as [43] saying, "In man, soul and body touch each other only at a single point, the pineal gland in the head." In the ancient belief that the pineal gland is the seat of the soul and in the fact apparently established that the pineal gland is a distinctive gland of childhood and atrophies later, is there not, perhaps, some real connection, some indication of hidden truth? Children have a ready belief in God and recognition of Him. Christ said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you" and "Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." One is mindful, too, of Wordsworth's "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood."
Oriental philosophy confirms this possible connection between the pineal gland and the soul. |
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