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THE PINEAL: MEET THE SPIRIT GLAND «+ 61 "spiritual" role, it needs the greater protection from the environment af- forded by such deep placement in the skull. The human pineal gland becomes visible in the developing fetus at seven weeks, or forty-nine days, after conception. Of great interest to me was finding out that this is nearly exactly the moment in which one can clearly see the first indication of male or female gender. Before this time, the sex of the fetus is indeterminate, or unknown. Thus, the pineal gland and the most important differentiation of humanity, male and female gen- der, appear at the same time. The human pineal gland is not actually part of the brain. Rather, it develops from specialized tissues in the roof of the fetal mouth. From there it migrates to the center of the brain, where it seems to have the best seat in the house. We have already noted the pineal's proximity to cerebrospinal fluid channels, which allows its secretions easy access to the brain's deepest recesses. Additionally, it sits in strategic closeness to the crucial emo- tional and sensory brain centers. These sensory or perceptual hubs are called the visual and auditory colliculi, little mounds of specialized brain tissue. They are relay stations for the transmission of sense data to brain sites involved in their registra- tion and interpretation. That is, electrical and chemical impulses that begin in the eyes and ears must pass through the colliculi before we expe- rience them in our minds as sights and sounds. The pineal gland hangs directly over these colliculi, separated by only a narrow channel of cere- brospinal fluid. Anything secreted by the pineal into that fluid would settle onto the colliculi in a moment. In addition, the limbic, or "emotional," brain surrounds the tiny pi- neal. The limbic "system" is a collection of brain structures intimately involved in the experience of feelings, such as joy, rage, fear, anxiety, and pleasure. Therefore, the pineal also has direct access to the brain's emo- tional centers. For many years physiologists considered the mammalian pineal gland the equivalent of the "brain's appendix." It was a residual, vestigial organ, a