According to New Age philosophy, the pineal gland's a little apparatus inside the brain that's responsible for allowing the spirit to channel its influence through to the physical, like with psychic ability, consciousness, emotion, free will, and your 'true self'. One of the latest New Age concerns is that sodium-fluoridated water's calcifying our pineal glands into a nonfunctional state. This is supposedly one of the greatest reasons people today are disconnected from their sense of spiritual equilibrium, ergo are unable to break out of the Elite's NWO power structure agenda.
As a result, products have been developed, sold and recommended to decalcify the gland and restore its functionality. Things like candles, crystals, music, and exotic consumables are prescribed to 'fix' the problem you, me and everyone else is assumed to have. While positive thinking is encouraged, it's 'not enough on its own', so you'll always have to attain the possession of some object - probably with your own hard-earned cash - to cleanse the gland so you can discover your 'true self' and ultimately reach Enlightenment. I mean, that's what Buddha did, right? And Jesus, and Gandhi? Isn't that what the Dalai Lama would recommend?
I'm not versed in the purported science, history and culture behind it, but I do have common sense.
I think it's profoundly ironic. On one hand, New Ageists typically regard spirituality as superior to and independent of materialism. Yet on the other hand, I'm expected to believe that our independence from physical objects is dependent on a physical object: the pineal gland. There might be any number of ways to twist, bend and warp interpretations of that, but to me, it's circular logic. The only (kinda) relevant response I ever seem to get when I bring this up on forums is, "All the answers are within; if you don't understand it now, you're not meant to know it yet." That doesn't really justify the spirituality through materialism philosophy the pineal gland idea seems to more or less subscribe to. (Please, leave a comment correcting me if I'm wrong.)
The brain is, in fact, made up of atoms. Did some of us forget?
You can go on forums where New Ageists command a respectable slice of the userbase pie chart and find them consoling others with statements like: "Remember, you're bigger than events. Your intentions shape your destiny." What they forgot to mention was: "By the way, your pineal gland's calcified. Forget it. You're not actually in control of anything."
We'll have companies in a few decades placarding ads reading, "Can't reveal your true, loving self? Here, we've got a drug for that!" Hell, it's already become a matter of spending money to achieve happiness: without the cash to purchase the reverse-osmosis water filter, quartz crystals, and meditative paraphernalia, your gland will remain calcified, which purportedly keeps us disconnected from the semblance of self we're told is always just a choice away with a change in attitude and perspective. Now we're being told it's actually beyond our control and, "Here, spend hundreds on all this shit so you can properly Love Thy Neighbor." Predictably, it's also become an excuse to abdicate responsibility. "Open my eyes? Oh no, I can't do that. My pineal gland's calcified. I'm waiting for a cure!" That's about the same as waiting for a cure to bad decisions. It's all within you - stop looking out there.
Are we to believe we're measured by the benevolence of our intentions, but should meanwhile accept that nobody's responsible for those intentions because they're actually up to some gland in the brain instead? It's a fucking paradox. Think about it.
I accept there very well may be a connection between the gland and spirituality. However, people commonly extrapolate that the gland must be the cause of spirituality, which I find questionable. It's ironic to me that in a belief enveloped by concepts of Spinozism, Law of Attraction, and 'creating your reality', this excitement over the pineal gland often carries a fundamentally contradictory statement: While the material plane begins with spirituality, our spirituality begins with the gland - a material object, which began with spirituality, which began with materialism. It's an infinitely regressing model of logic, like a dog chasing its tail.
A similar paradox can be observed if one looks at the notion of belief forging reality. If we leave it up to the average New Ageist, the belief in the reality that beliefs don't create reality is because said belief created the reality that beliefs don't create reality. It just doesn't make sense.
Out from all of this emerges one question: What happens to someone who, in circumstances beyond their control, ends up with a defective pineal gland? Do they just grind out their lives with no inward consciousness, emotion or identity; do they have any purpose at all?
Think for yourselves.
