# Dark Web **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 8, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702 "2013-02-08T14:01:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/1 "2013-02-08T14:01:43Z")
from [the Dark Web column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3092/how-can-i-access-the-deep-dark-web): - after all, the anonymity of the dark Web means you can’t tell if the party looking for **frozen human pineal glands** is a mere ghoul or a state DEA agent . . .\* Frozen human pineal glands? Is this a real example or just a random, made-up thing to put in the column? RR ---
**Author:** ![Butcher\_Cook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Butcher\_Cook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Butcher_Cook)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/2 "2013-02-08T14:03:42Z")
They’re real. I have a jar of them in my cupboard. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/3 "2013-02-08T17:24:10Z")
> [@Butcher\_Cook](#): > > They’re real. I have a jar of them in my cupboard. Shenanigans. If they’re in your cupboard, you probably have _thawed_ human pineal glands. I suspect the example is inspired by a passage in _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_ which describes human pineal extract as an incomparably powerful hallucinogen. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/4 "2013-02-08T18:45:27Z")
Pineal glands are used to make human growth hormone. [BBC article](http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/human_growth_hormone.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/5 "2013-02-08T20:34:00Z")
> [@mascaroni](#): > > Pineal glands are used to make human growth hormone. > [BBC article](http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/human_growth_hormone.shtml) The article says the pituitary gland produces it, not the pineal gland. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/6 "2013-02-08T21:41:20Z")
The pineal gland apparently makes melatonin and is also linked to reproductive development. > **[Pineal gland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland)** > > The pineal gland (also known as the pineal body, conarium, or epiphysis cerebri) is a small endocrine gland in the brain of most vertebrates. The pineal gland produces melatonin, a serotonin-derived hormone which modulates sleep patterns in both circadian and seasonal cycles. The shape of the gland resembles a pine cone, which gives it its name. The pineal gland is located in the epithalamus, near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two halves The... ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/7 "2013-02-08T22:27:36Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > I suspect the example is inspired by a passage in _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_ which describes human pineal extract as an incomparably powerful hallucinogen. We have a winner! Una For the Straight Dope. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/8 "2013-02-08T23:07:51Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Shenanigans. If they’re in your cupboard, you probably have _thawed_ human pineal glands. > > I suspect the example is inspired by a passage in _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_ which describes human pineal extract as an incomparably powerful hallucinogen. It isn’t really, by the way (and, anyway, there is nothing you would get in human pineal extract that you would not get from the same gland from an animal). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/9 "2013-02-08T23:37:50Z")
> [@Butcher\_Cook](#): > > They’re real. I have a jar of them in my cupboard. Did you bring enough for everybody, Mr. Cook? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/10 "2013-02-09T00:32:57Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > It isn’t really, by the way (and, anyway, there is nothing you would get in human pineal extract that you would not get from the same gland from an animal). What??? Hunter S. Thompson wrote something that wasn’t true? Next you’ll be telling me that Richard Nixon wasn’t really a werewolf. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/11 "2013-02-09T01:19:58Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > What??? Hunter S. Thompson wrote something that wasn’t true? Next you’ll be telling me that Richard Nixon wasn’t really a werewolf. Then why did they drive a wooden stake through his heart before they screwed down the lid? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/12 "2013-02-09T03:17:43Z")
Whenever pineal glands are mentioned, I always think of [From Beyond](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091083/). ---
**Author:** ![Vashbul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Vashbul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vashbul)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/13 "2013-02-09T08:34:15Z")
Actually, in Fear and Loathing, it’s “the adrenaline glands from a living human body … It’s no good if you get it out of a corpse.” ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/14 "2013-02-09T10:44:45Z")
> [@Vashbul](#): > > Actually, in Fear and Loathing, it’s “the adrenaline glands from a living human body … It’s no good if you get it out of a corpse.” No, both glands are mentioned. Actually, there is a _tiny bit_ more substance to claim about the adrenal glands. Adrenochrome is a real substance, chemically closely related to the adrenaline produced by the adrenal glands, and may perhaps (I don’t think the point is well established) have real hallucinogenic effects. The bit about it only working if taken from the adrenal gland of a living body is just bullcrap that Thompson made up, though, as is the similar claim made about the pineal gland in the same passage. AFAIK though, there is no basis _at all_ for the notion that the pineal might contain anything hallucinogenic. Indeed, it it did contain anything hallucinogenic we would probably all be tripping out all of the time, since it is in the middle of the brain. The hormone it actually secretes, however, is melatonin, which just makes you a little sleepy, and is widely available OTC in the USA. [Descartes](http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pineal-gland/), however, thought that the pineal was the point of connection between the body and the immaterial conscious soul. Probably influenced by this, the once very influential woo-mistress Madam Blavatsky declared the pineal to be the [“third eye”, the “organ of spiritual vision”](http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pineal-gland/#3.3). Perhaps that is what caught Hunter Thompson’s imagination about it, although he recast these (already baseless) ideas in terms of his own obsession with hallucinogens. No doubt this is what inspired “From Beyond” too. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/15 "2013-02-09T20:35:53Z")
Note that the pineal gland does appear to be homologous to the actual third eye found in a handful of lower vertebrate species. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/16 "2013-02-09T21:31:43Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Note that the pineal gland does appear to be homologous to the actual third eye found in a handful of lower vertebrate species. True, but I do not think they use it for “spiritual vision”. It is not even for regular _seeing_, just for detecting light levels and thereby regulating sleep/waking cycles. (And the latter is probably still its main function in humans.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/17 "2013-02-09T23:11:16Z")
Yeah. I just wanted to ensure that any casual reader understood the distinction between the woo and the scientific truth that the woo happens to resemble. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/18 "2013-02-09T23:56:28Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > The article says the pituitary gland produces it, not the pineal gland. :smack: I don’t know me arse from me elbow… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-web/649702/19 "2013-02-11T20:27:08Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > …AFAIK though, there is no basis _at all_ for the notion that the pineal might contain anything hallucinogenic. Indeed, it it did contain anything hallucinogenic we would probably all be tripping out all of the time, since it is in the middle of the brain… But, dude, don’t you get it? We _are_, man! But seriously, thanks, **njtt** , for providing a Cecil-worthy mini-essay on an interesting topic. If **Una** needs to take a few months off, maybe she could put in a good word for you with the Perfect Master.