Pineal Gland - Biological Viewpoint as a Third Eye?

Pineal gland, from the mythical viewpoint, is known as "The Third Eye". But, can we classify it as an eye?



Our eyes are parts of human sensory perception organs. Let's assume all sensory-perception organs possess these characteristics:


(a) it detects some form of stimuli; (b) it is situated and is well protected within our body's compartment; (c) it has an opening that allows the receptor to intercept/detect the stimulus; (d) it has a core receptor unit; (e) information about perceived signals is transmitted via a medium or information bus -- a.k.a nervous system, and; (f) all information is processed at a central processing unit (CPU) -- for all cases, this is always the brain

To test our assumptions, let's run them through some of our common-known and clearly understood sensory organs (we will leave other non-clearly understood senses, like sense of passing time, or spatial sense, etc, out for now).

Sight: (a) signal = light; (b/c) shield = eye socket and eye lid; (d) receptor = eye; and (e) nervous system = optical nervous system

Sound: (a) signal = noise; (b) shield = skull; (c) ear; (d) receptor = eardrum; and (e) nervous system = auditory nervous system

Taste: (a) signal = chemical reaction on surface of the receptor -- the tongue; (b/c) shield = mouth, teeth; (d) receptor = tongue; and (e) nervous system = taste reception neuron system

Smell: (a) signal = chemical reaction on surface of the receptor -- the nose; (b/c) shield = skull, nasal cavity; (d) receptor = nose; and (e) nervous system = olfactory nervous system (bulbs, neurons, etc)

Tactile Sense (touch, temperature, pressure): (a) signal = physical impact/force, temperature, moisture, etc; (b/c) shield = skin; (d) receptor = somatosensory system; and (e) nervous system = body nervous system

You see, all our common senses possess similar characteristics as outlined by our assumption above. What about the pineal gland? These are what we know:  (b), it's shielded,  it is well protected almost at the centre of our skull; (d) the receptor, in this case, of course, the pineal gland; and (f) the processing unit is always the brain.

Now for the unknown: what are the (a) stimuli or stimulus it detects? (c) What is the opening that exposes the receptor (the pineal gland) to detect the stimuli? What is (e) the nervous system that is used to transmit the information to the brain?

I am continuing study to answer the 3 questions above and will post update in the future blogs.