History Main / PinealWeirdness

Because the human pineal gland is buried deep in the fleshy bits of the brain and was the last part of the endocrine system to be understood, it's picked up a bunch of mystical baggage. Often it's associated with telepathy and/or enlightenment; sometimes it's referred to as a "ThirdEye". To be fair, TheOtherWiki does say that in nonmammal vertebrates the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland pineal gland has cells similar to those in the retina]]. In some reptiles, fish, and amphibians, it even [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parietal_eye connects to an external opening and has light-sensing properties]] (which serve to regulate physiological day/night cycles rather than to perceive).

* In ''Videogame/KingdomOfLoathing'', there used to be a quest where you had to [[TwentyBearAsses collect the pineal glands]] of zombies to make a vaccine. Zombie Pineal Glands still have a purpose, showing that TheDevteamThinksOfEverything: they're a small but essential component of a ''literal'' NinjaPirateZombieRobot. The event ended a ''long'' time ago, and for a good while pineal glands were extremely expensive in the Mall. Eventually, the Item of the Month known as "the Deck of Every Card" gave players a way to fight zombies from the event, giving a new way for pineal glands to enter the Kingdom.

* In ''Series/AmericanGothic'' Lucas mentions the supposed importance of the pineal gland/third eye. Yancy then stabs him in the area in an attempt to kill him.

* In ''Videogame/KingdomOfLoathing'', there used to be a quest where you had to [[TwentyBearAsses collect the pineal glands]] of zombies to make a vaccine. Zombie Pineal Glands still have a purpose, showing that TheDevteamThinksOfEverything: they're a small but essential component of a ''literal'' NinjaPirateZombieRobot. Since the event ended a ''long'' time ago, the remaining pineal glands are now incredibly valuable in the Mall. (The developers have stated that when the price gets too high, they'll come up with a way to put more glands into the Kingdom, but we shouldn't expect that any time soon.)

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivo'' shows how Tyrants are made - their key ingredient is a hormone secreted in the pineal gland of adolescent boys feeling extreme terror or stress. Umbrella's answer for harvesting such: remove the gland ''without anesthetic''. Needless to say, [[MoralEventHorizon it works]].

%%* DoctorSteel's PSA, "Imagination."

* In ''[[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Ethan of Athos]]'' by LoisMcMasterBujold, the Cetagandan Empire figures out how to bioengineer telepathy; their starting point is a homeless woman with a mutated pineal gland.

* In ''{{Abberrant}}'', Novas draw their power from the Node, a part of their brain that grows in size when their power is awakened and grows further as they become more powerful. While no mention of it being the pineal gland has been made, it is implied to follow this rationale.

* In ''TopTen'', an alien's diet is based on the chemicals secreted by the pineal gland, requiring a round of brain eating once a year. Police initially think it's just a calendar-themed serial killer. This assumption is helped by the fact [[DisposableSexWorker all the past victims are prostitutes]].

* Averted in the VisualNovel ''{{Ever 17}}'' where there's a brief discussion of the pineal gland and how it relates to the third eye, but it's dismissed as nonsense. They even [[ShownTheirWork mention Descartes' theories about it and the evolutionary history of it as a light sensitive organ]].
* ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivor Resident Evil: Survivor]]'' shows how Tyrants are made - their key ingredient is a hormone secreted in the pineal gland of adolescent boys feeling extreme terror or stress. Umbrella's answer for harvesting such: remove the gland ''without anesthetic''. Needless to say, [[MoralEventHorizon it works]].
* In ''{{Postal}}'': Apocalypse Weekend, when you go to the insane asylum, you find scrawlings within that detail plans to eat the inmates pineal glands with a fork. These show up in several areas, so its not quite clear whether the inmates, the staff, or both were planning on harvesting the inmates.

* In {{Spinnerette}}, all SuperEmpowering [[{{Macguffin}} Cherenkov-Kirby reactors]] are made from the pineal gland of Doctor Zhang, aka Ultra, the first superhero.

* A SilverAge {{Superman}} comic had Superman exposed to radiation that caused his pineal gland to develop into a literal third eye. Of course, this was ''exactly'' what he needed to defeat the villain.
* A SilverAge ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' story had her visiting the future in response to a call for help from the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes. To get her up to date on the pending crisis, they used a future-tech device to download the info into her "'Third Eye' pineal gland."

* In the Fancy vs. Nasty update in ''Videogame/TeamFortress2'', for the Fists of Steel description:

[[folder:Web Originals]]
* DoctorSteel's PSA, "Imagination."
[[/folder]]

* The Diclonii in ''ElfenLied'' start their lives as humans with a huge pineal gland. If their psychic "Vector" arms come in contact with a normal human's pineal gland, that human will only create Diclonii when they reproduce.

* In ''Videogame/KingdomOfLoathing'', there used to be a quest where you had to [[TwentyBearAsses collect the pineal glands]] of zombies to make a vaccine. Zombie Pineal Glands still have a purpose, showing that TheDevteamThinksOfEverything: they're a small but essential component of a ''literal'' NinjaPirateZombieRobot.
** Since the event ended a ''long'' time ago, the remaining pineal glands are now incredibly valuable in the Mall. (The developers have stated that when the price gets too high, they'll come up with a way to put more glands into the Kingdom, but we shouldn't expect that any time soon.)

-->-- ''FearAndLoathingInLasVegas'' (the movie), a description of what will happen if you eat a pineal gland.

* In the 1959 monster movie ''Fulm/TheAlligatorPeople'', secretions from alligator pituitary glands regeneration injured humans' wounds, then cause them to sprout scales within a year of treatment.

* In the 1959 monster movie ''The Alligator People'', secretions from alligator pituitary glands regeneration injured humans' wounds, then cause them to sprout scales within a year of treatment.

* Descartes claimed the pineal gland was the connection between the mind and the body; this is probably the TropeMaker (as well as CompletelyMissingThePoint of the problem he was trying to solve). There has been some debate about whether he actually thought this, or was simply giving it as an [[SureWhyNot entirely arbitrary answer]] to the continual questions of a particularly obnoxious princess he was tutoring.

** Similarly, the Church of the SubGenius says it offers a surgery to open the eye.

* In ''{{Earth 2}}'' the changes to Uly's system after his Terrian healing were suspected to have started in his pineal gland. Julia, his doctor, lied about it to protect him and the matter was quietly dropped.

* In {{Spinnerette}}, all SuperEmpowering [[{{Macguffin}} Cherenkov-Kirby reactors]] are made from the pineal gland of Doctor Zhang.

[[folder:Stand-Up Comedy]]
* Creator/BillHicks used to refer to [[MushroomSamba psilocybin mushrooms]] as "a squeegee for your third eye".
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' flirts with this trope in "Morpheus", in which the danger-of-the-week is a parasite that puts people to sleep and then eventually kills them by causing aneurysms near their pineal gland. They eventually figure out that the parasite is feeding on melatonin -- which is what the pineal gland ''actually'' produces -- so in the end it's more an example of Pineal Normality.

* The PsychoSerum in ''VForVendetta'' [[ArcNumber (batch 5)]] was stated to be pituarin-pinealin.

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''{{Firestarter}}'', one of these glands is a seat to Charlie [=McGee=]'s power.

->"Your head will swell up like a watermelon... You'll gain about 100 pounds in 2 hours... You'll grow claws. Big ones. Then you notice six huge hairy tits swollen up on your back... you go blind... your body will turn to wax... they'll have to put you in a wheelbarrow... and when you squeal for help, you'll sound like a raccoon."

* In [[PrincipiaDiscordia Discordianism]] (and thus also in ''{{Illuminatus}}!'') the pineal gland is the organ that allows communication with Eris. [[{{Troll}} Allegedly]].
** If you have trouble activating your Pineal, try the appendix which works almost as well.
** Similarly, the Church of the SubGenius says it offers a surgery to open the eye.