A treatise on white magic (Alice Bailey)

Can anyone repudiate this with reasoning..... ? Just curious...


The center between the eyebrows, commonly called the third eye has a unique and peculiar function. As I have pointed out elsewhere, students must not confound the pineal gland with the third eye. They are related, but not the same. In The Secret Doctrine they are apparently regarded as the same, and the casual reader can easily confound them but they are by no means identical. This H.P.B. knew, but the apparent confusion was permitted until more of the etheric nature of forms was known. The third eye manifests as a result of the vibratory interaction between the forces of the soul, working through the pineal gland, and the forces of the personality, working through the pituitary body. These negative and positive forces interact, and when potent enough produce the light in the head. Just as the physical eye came into being in response to the light of the sun so the spiritual eye equally comes into being in response to the light of the spiritual sun. As the aspirant develops he becomes aware of the light. I refer to the light in all forms, veiled by all sheaths and expressions of the divine life, and not just to the light within the aspirant himself. As his awareness of this light increases so does the apparatus of vision develop, and the mechanism whereby he can see things in the spiritual light comes into being in the etheric body.

You asked people to refute this with logic and I have the urge to do so, although I must admit that I don't have the necessary experience yet to really argue against it. What you say makes a lot of sense, but it seems almost as if you are saying the third eye forms itself some time after birth. But I had been under the impression that all shen centers are present at birth. This brings me to a fair amount of confusion and pondering about how shen centers actually manifest... if they are present as part of the creation of the individual's soul or if they arise as mentioned above in the original post.

You say something about the personality working through the pituitary body, which is interesting to me given that I had thought the personality manifested from past life experiences, energy body states, health, environment, and a plethora of other factors.

I suspect I missed the mark of what you were expecting to see or observe in the replies here, but I just wanted to let you know this post interested me and got me thinking today.

This was entirely copied from her book Treatise on White Magic. It was not my statement. I put it up as I thought it might create some thought about common thinking of the shen centers compared to what one finds in their study with the bible and other sources. It appears it has made us stop and think. Good.

Consider what difference one would find with the Pineal gland in relation to the Pituitary gland and their locations and their different function.  Also consider there is the astral Pineal gland and also the astral Pituitary gland just as there is the physical Pineal gland and also the physical Pituitary gland.   Each will have a different operation of sorts depending on the dimension of existence.   As above, so below.

I think it's also important to keep in mind that a structure like the Third Eye Shen has a very different function than what we can find at the Crown Shen, particularly in its spiritual operations. I notice that some people see them similar but in my practice I have found them to be quite different.

Personally, Jonathan, thanks for that comment. I have never heard anyone viewing them in related fashion like that. Wonder what would be their reasoning behind developing that view?

I'm not sure why they see them in related fashion as I don't seem them like that myself. Maybe because both can open gateways to higher realms? Even though I must state those gateways and realms are conceptually different.