The Pineal Gland and the Cosmic Consciousness

The pineal gland is the seat of human conciousness and the gateway to cosmic consciousness. When it is activated and opens, light of the spirit pierces through the crown at the top of the head. The division between the individual and the cosmos breaks down and there's nothing but light both within and without.

This is not second-hand knowledge but descriptions of my own experience.
Purely by chance I discovered a video of a presentation by David Wilcock (www.divinecosmos.com) which I found very impressive, informative and inspiring. He spent a good portion of this over 90-minutes of presentation talking about the role of pineal gland in transmutation of human consciousness. What he says corresponds with my personal experience, though, of course, there were some scientific facts about the pineal gland which I was ignorant about before.
And today, after finishing the daily chores and morning Tai Chi training, the first think I did was turning on the computer and checking out about this tantalizing cone-shaped gland in our brain. To my amazement, I found ocean of information about it both from scientific sources and new-age spiritual healers, teachers and alternative therapists. Numerous techniques have been invented and offered for helping people activating their pineal gland to expand their consciousness, and obviously there are already loads of teachers out there (mostly in the States by the looks of it) running courses and workshops teaching their TM (trade-mark registered) techniques.
Now though there's no way for me to verify one by one if those claims are authentic or not, I do know as a result of extensive research, study and practice of Taoist spiritual alchemy teachings that this knowledge and practice of activating pineal gland has been around for over a thousand years (perhaps even longer). The knowledge wasn't made widely known to the world because the Taoist lineages used to treat it as 'secrets of celestial mechamism' and guard it with uttermost caution. At the beginning all the teachings were performed in a ear-whispered transmission fashion (often one-to-one). Beginning from the Han Dynasty, some adepts (realized beings) start to compose treatises about the secret art but most of these were shrouded in esoteric symbols, images that was impossible for any outsiders to comprehend. In the terminology of Taoist alchemy, the pineal gland is called ni wan (the mud ball) and is said to be the dwelling place of the lord of the human spirit. The way to activate it is to accumulate chi and refine it until it is powerful and pure enough to pierce through the 3 passes on the spine (the final one being located at the base of the skull) and travel into the pineal gland where the shen (purified and sublimated chi) is accumulated until it is strong enough to pierce through the crown. Then further practice is required to make this a regular experience until the individual spirit is re-united with the Tao (the Cosmic Intelligence) permanently. Only then the individual is said to have become an 'immortal', an enlightened soul.
However, prior to the activation of the pineal gland stage, there are dozens of stages of preliminary work to be carried out mostly focusing on de-conditioning and purifying the individual's psyche and energy. A mind soiled by colourings and conditioning or is full of selfish desires is not fit to perform any of the more advanced spiritual work.
Needless to say, there must be thousands or even millions of people out there who are feeling curious about the 'pineal gland activation' work and anxious to try it out. But such work should be approached with excessive caution as the gland can be a gateway to both Heaven and Hell. If one hasn't done the preparation work by purifying his energy and mind, it's more likely way that the premature activation of the gland will open the door to demonic forces. Any way, it is not just one of the new-age meditation techniques that you can pick up from a workshop or a short course run by a 'healer' or 'teacher'. It takes years' and years' of pains-taking work on mind withdrawal, seclusion, meditation, energy work. If it's only a matter of paying for someone to join one or two workshops, everyone would have become enlightened now!

     ''If your eye be single, your whole body will be full of light!'' 
--- Jesus Christ