Stimulation Of The Pineal Gland Through Internal Martial Arts

"It is this humble dabbler in medical science that we are able to get back the original function of the Pineal gland, like communication at a much higher level than just speech and communicating with the earth such as dolphins, whales and seal are able to do. We can do this by practicing Qigong and the internal martial arts. Back when science didn’t help at all, the ancient Chinese would simply say that when we do Qigong, we get back to normal, or what we should have been had we not been so reliant upon speech, travel, radio waves and television in modern times. Obviously, when a part of the body is not used, it becomes useless, like a leg muscle that has to be re-trained after a long illness of inactivity. We use our Pineal gland very rarely and on the odd occasion that it does work, we are amazed and call it coincidence or E.S.P. etc. These things should happen all the time but we have little use for real communication skills because it’s so easy to pick up a phone or to watch the news on the TV. Qigong helps our Pineal to work again by getting in touch with the ‘ground’ and ‘ground Qi’. This is the reason that in all internal martial arts, we are told to do nothing! This does not mean that we do not move or look or hear, but it means that our conscious brain rests while we practice thus giving our so-called extra-sensory organs a chance to re-establish themselves within our framework. However, it is not that easy of course as it takes much training before we are able to perform movements that are alien to us at a sub-conscious level. Hence the saying that it takes years before one advances in his or her Taijiquan training. It only takes a short time to learn the basic movements of Taijiquan. However, they are only that, movement! We must take these movements to a much higher level, a sub-conscious level so that they become like everyday things, like breathing or our heartbeat, they must the THAT automatic.

The reptile brain is that brain, part of the ‘Triune Brain’ that we use for survival; it is our oldest brain with the ‘Paleomammalian Brain’ (known as the "Limbic System" since 1952) being next and the youngest brain is called the ‘Neomammalian Brain’. All reptiles have the Reptile Brain, all mammals have the Paleomammalian Brain plus the Reptile Brain but it is only the higher Mammals such as humans that have all three brains.

Paul D Maclean in his exemplary work on the "Triune Brain" says of the Reptile Brain: "The remaining brainstem and spinal cord constitute a neural chassis that provides most of the neural machinery required for self-preservation and the preservation of the species".

The Reptile brain is where all of our ancient memory is stored, things like past lives, who we were and who we are, what we did and what happened to us, it’s all there for us to tap into if we wish to. Why would we want to do this? It is many people’s belief that stuff that happened to us in previous lives shows up on out current physical body. Like a birthmark that could possibly be linked back to when a previous incarnation was flogged for stealing a loaf of bread? So if we can get in touch with that memory that is causing the birthmark, then this is the first step in releasing the anguish caused by that ancient memory. The birthmark will not go away of course (many however believe that even this will disappear), however, the pain caused to our sub-conscious mind will be taken away from our knowing why. And any modern physical or emotional damage is usually easily fixed by allowing the patient to see why they are in such a mental state.

When a child is born it has to rely solely upon instinct and sensory stuff and reflexes. The child has no way of learning what is right or wrong. So it is little help to slap a child or chastise it in any way until it’s next brain comes into play so that is able to learn. When a child is slapped while still in the reptile brain mode, its only recourse is to go into survival mode (reptile brain mode) and as it cannot fight back, only cries! So how stupid is it to slap a child or to shake it to teach it a lesson when it has no way of learning!

Science now tells us that the reptile brain is that part that is in charge of these things. A child for instance knows nothing about the fact that if it fell off a table it would hurt itself, but if this happens, it will make an attempt to grab or in many cases it will not venture past the edge of the table. Why, because the reptile brain is looking after it.

Normally, there is no need to access the reptile brain in normal life. However, in order to learn properly the internal martial arts we must have access to this brain. It causes us to stand out from the so-called hard styles, as there is no mention of the reptile brain in any hard style that I know of. Hard styles are ‘hard’, they cause someone to be continually on the lookout for danger, and this is because hard styles are purely physical with little or no internal aspect. In the internal arts, we are taught that we are normal people, artists, writers, poets, schoolteachers, mechanics, mild mannered reporters etc. And we do not have to be tense and aware of an attack at any time! If an attack does happen our reptile brain kicks in and we are into survival mode becoming a raging animal fighting for our lives, with our physical conscious brain totally unaware of what is happening. We have of course done the training to cause our body to react with the correct movements but these have been done so much that they are now reflex actions that work independently from the conscious brain.

So an internal stylist does not LOOK like a martial artist because he or she does not have to! We can be totally happy in knowing that that instinctive survival mode will kick in at the right time taking care of business and not allowing our artistic brain to be affected by this confrontation. To this end, the internal martial arts of Taijiquan, Baguazhang and Xing-I Ch’uan have all been developed to cause the body to move in a self-defence manner automatically and reflexively.

Western science now accepts that we have a reptile brain, so much so that the rule in judging whether or not someone is clinically dead is to find out if the reptile brain is still functioning by sending out electrical waves. If it is not, then the person is dead!"

~Erle Montaigue