New Age practices tend to center around ancient customs and legend, typically of Indian Hindu or Eastern Buddhist origin. One commonality between the two is a belief in energy centers within the human body called chakras. Each of the seven main chakras serves a different purpose in awakening or stimulating the human body and are activated via meditation and physical activity. The practice of yoga and its link to chakras and human physiology is a topic in and of itself.

Of particular note is a peculiar organ known as the Pineal Gland found in amphibians, reptiles, avians and mammals. Reacting to light, the pineal gland produces melatonin which instigates various biologic functions such as reduction in blood pressure and regulation of Circadian Rhythms. The gland has other peculiar properties such as the production of Dimethyltryptamine, a psychadelic chemical linked towards human dreaming and mystical states.

This mysticism is known as the Third Eye by New Age proponents. The Third Eye is believed to be the conduit, called a Siddhis, whereupon living beings possess a magical or spiritual power for the control of self, others and the forces of nature. The siddhis described by occultists and yogis are in actuality supernormal perceptual states available to all human beings. The popular term 'Third Eye' comes from the Pineal Glands former state as a more prominent, and sometimes external, gland that resembles an undeveloped optical organ. Combined with its occasional psychadelic tendancies, the New Age leap is not difficult to understand. Detailed writings have been written about the similarities between LSD trips and meditative trances achieved via Pineal Gland stimulation.

Two core questions arise from the mixture of hallucinogenic drugs, medical science and New Age musings. Could our [human] perception of divine miracle, nirvana and enlightenment really only be a powerful chemical stimulation in our brains to bring us peace? Or perhaps are the ancient traditions of our ancestors now re-emerging as an alternate facet of reality that our rigid reliance on logic and science has caused mankind to overlook?