Awaken the Power of Your Third Eye

By Kamini Desai, PhD

There is a gateway inside you that most of us have forgotten. It has been there all along quietly waiting and its name is the Ajna Chakra, the third eye. In the yogic tradition, awakening this center is not about developing some exotic supernatural power. It is about coming home to a way of seeing that is your birthright.

The sixth chakra, Ajna, pronounced "Gyna," literally means "to command" or "to perceive." Its symbol is a two-petaled lotus, and its seed sound is Aum: the vibration that holds both the visible and invisible worlds within it. The material and the immaterial. The human and the transcendent. The two petals of the lotus are often understood to represent the two nadis, Ida and Pingala , the lunar and solar energy channels that spiral up the spine and converge at this very point, merging into the central channel, Sushumna. When these energies unite at Ajna, the ordinary mind quiets and a deeper intelligence awakens. This is what the third eye is all about. It is the bridge between dimensions, the doorway between the human and transcendent self.

The Third Eye Is Not Where You Think It Is

When most people think of the third eye, they point to the spot between the eyebrows. And while that is not wrong, there is a deeper understanding worth knowing. In the more refined teachings of yoga, that point between the brows is called the Ajnakshetram, the channel or trigger point of the third eye. When you bring your attention there, you are not activating the point itself; you are activating what it points to: the geometric center of the brain, home of the pineal gland.

The pineal gland is singular and unique. It is the only gland in the brain that is not divided into two hemispheres. It is also one of the few structures in the brain not protected by the blood-brain barrier, making it unusually sensitive to light, electromagnetism, and subtle environmental signals. Modern researchers have identified that the pineal gland contains photoreceptor cells remarkably similar to those in the retina of the eye lending a striking biological parallel to the ancient claim that it is, quite literally, a third eye. Even the philosopher Descartes believed it to be the seat of the human soul. Yogis have been saying the same thing for thousands of years: the third eye is the eye of the soul, the eye of God, the dwelling place of the highest consciousness. It is also called the eye of Shiva, because Shiva represents pure consciousness, and the third eye is our gateway into that.

Interestingly, the third eye is said to be more naturally active in women. If you have ever had a strong knowing about a family member, perhaps sensing their pain before they told you, feeling something was off even across a great distance, that was your third eye already speaking to you.

A Gateway Between Worlds

The yogic tradition teaches that we have nine gates through which consciousness experiences the world of form: the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, and the other orifices of the body. But the tenth gate, the third eye, is the gate through which our individual consciousness experiences its own source nature. It is not turned outward into the world; it is turned inward, toward the infinite.

When this gateway begins to open, many practitioners notice something striking during Yoga Nidra: a brilliant white light, like a spotlight, flooding their inner field of vision. They are often convinced the sun has come out or a lamp has turned on. But nothing has changed outside. That light is coming from within. From this invisible channel between the material and the transcendent. Seeing that white light is a sign that you are crossing the threshold from the realm of form into the formless.

This experience has often been compared to the moment of death, not as something to fear, but as the dissolution of the individual ego self, the temporary merging back into the whole. The Mandukya Upanishad speaks of Turiya as “the fourth.” The ultimate dimension of pure awareness that both underlies and pervades waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Yoga Nidra is one of the most direct paths into Turiya. It is here that the third eye is most fully open: not looking at anything, but simply being the seeing itself. In Yoga Nidra, we practice this dissolution consciously. We practice disappearing into the experience of Turiya, the background in which all all experience occurs. 

From Duality to Unity: The Third Eye's Deepest Gift

We typically move through life looking through the "two eyes," the eyes of duality. Good and bad. Right and wrong. Up and down. Success and failure. These two eyes divide the world into opposing camps, and we exhaust ourselves trying to have only the half we prefer. But life, as you know, does not cooperate with that.

The third eye perceives the unity beneath the polarity. It can hold opposites without resolving them, without flinching, without needing one side to win. This is what happens when you emerge from a deep Yoga Nidra and nothing in your outer life has changed yet you feel at peace. Your parents are still the way they are. The world is still the way it is. And yet, you feel settled, you feel at peace within with what is happening without. That is the third eye showing you what it sees.

In I AM Yoga Nidra™, the master statement that captures this is: "I am at peace with myself as I am, and the world as it is." This is not resignation. This is not giving up on what matters. It means you act, but you act from peace and clarity rather than from reactivity and division. The Third Eye sees beyond duality to the underlying unity beneath. Like a yin/yang symbol, the polarities of life make up one whole. Breath in and breath out constitute life. So do up and down or success and failure. They are two parts of one whole. The third eye allows us to access this unity beyond duality. It gives us the power of clear-seeing and objectivity.

Three Doorways into the Third Eye: Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi

There are three progressive stages through which we consciously enter the third eye. You might be practicing these already without realizing it.

Dharana (Concentration). The first step to access the third eye is the doorway of concentration.  You are bringing the mind to a single point of focus. A candle flame, the breath, the 61 points, a counted breath. In Yoga Nidra, we use concentration to draw the scattered energies of the mind into a single, unified stream. This is your entry point. It takes you from I want this, I need to do that, I shouldn't have said that to simply: breath in, breath out.

Dhyana (Observation). The second step is the doorway of pure witnessing. You are no longer just focused; you are watching. You see thoughts arising, pleasant and unpleasant,  and you practice not engaging. Not commenting. Not fixing. This is the practice of opposites in Yoga Nidra, where we move through pairs of experience. This can include feeling heavy/light or opposites such as joy/sorrow. The purpose is not to analyze them, but to hold them with equanimity. This is a deliberate training of the third eye.

Samadhi (Merging). The third doorway cannot be forced. It happens. It arrives when the experiencer dissolves into the experience itself, when you disappear into the whole. To get to this point, there is nothing you can "do,” except practice the previous two. The seventh chakra is a pathless path. The third eye is your bridge to it. The only thing asked of you there is to let go.

These three, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, taken together, form what Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras calls Samyama: the complete, integrated act of inner knowing. When all three operate as one seamless movement, the practitioner gains direct perception of the truth of whatever they turn their attention toward. This is not intellectual understanding. It is the third eye functioning at its fullest.

Three Levels of Awakening Perception

As your third eye awakens through consistent practice, you will notice shifts in how you perceive. These tend to unfold in layers:

Self-awareness. The first gift: you begin to know what you are thinking, feeling, and doing as it happens. You catch yourself in a reaction before it controls you. You hear yourself say something and recognize it in the moment. This is the third eye awake. When you are not aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions, the third eye is asleep.

Attunement to others. The second gift: a deepening sensitivity to those closest to you, especially blood relatives and your inner circle. You begin to feel what they feel, sense what is happening for them, even when they have not told you. This is not imagination. This is your third eye reading the invisible field that connects us.

Expanded perception. The third gift is what we would call psychic perception. This can include visions, premonitions, déjà vu, a sense of things before they happen. These can come in different ways for different people. A word of caution here, one that Patanjali himself offered in the Yoga Sutras: these are siddhis, powers, and they can become traps. The moment we begin to identify with them, "Look what I can do!” we have stepped out of the third eye and back into the ego. The invitation is always to return to the transcendent and not to add this to our image. 

The Nectar: Amrita and What It Means for Your Body and Mind

The ancient texts speak of something called Amrita or the “nectar of immortality”. It is said that the pineal gland releases this nectar when we enter the realm of the third eye, whether through concentration, deep observation, or the effortless dissolution of the self in Yoga Nidra.

One drop of this elixir, the yogis say, is enough to lubricate the entire system. Desperation leaves, seeking stops and a feeling of love and bliss arises from within. This is not something that is generated through hard work or earned, but simply released, like water from a spring once the third eye opens. You stop trying to squeeze fulfillment from other people or from circumstances. You feel wellbeing, peace and happiness arising from within.

From a physiological perspective, researchers have noted that the pineal gland produces melatonin which governs sleep, circadian rhythms, and cellular repair.  The pineal gland may also synthesize other neuromodulatory compounds (DMT) associated with vivid inner experience and deep states of consciousness. Whether we speak the language of the ancients or the language of science, both point to the same remarkable truth: that this small, light-sensitive gland holds extraordinary influence over our experience of reality.

This may be why, after a deep Yoga Nidra, you do not want to open your eyes. You want to stay in that luminous, floating space where everything is soft and clear. That is Amrita. That is your nervous system remembering its natural state as internally steady and quietly blissful.

The more identified we are with doing, grasping, fixing or fearing, the less Amrita flows. The more we rest as the observer, the more freely it moves through us. This is why Yoga Nidra is such a powerful vehicle for this: it invites you out of participation and into pure, effortless presence.

Practical Techniques: Shambhavi Mudra 

One of the most powerful techniques for directly stimulating the third eye is Shambhavi Mudra. Here is a brief introduction to get you started.

Shambhavi Mudra: With eyes closed and chin slightly lifted (this allows the eyes to relax back in their sockets), gently draw the eyeballs upward toward the third eye point as you inhale. Release the eyes as you exhale. Do not strain. Even a soft intention to turn the eyes inward and upward is enough. You may feel a gentle pulsing or warmth at the third eye. Some people feel slightly dizzy at first but this is normal. Simply do less, soften your effort, and let it become a whisper of an intention rather than a muscular act.

In our full Yoga Nidra sessions you can use this technique when prompted to draw your attention to the third eye.  This technique is particularly helpful for reducing the calcification of the pineal gland that accumulates over time. Up until the age of around eight, the pineal gland is highly active, which is why young children often sense and see things that adults have long stopped perceiving. These practices invite that natural openness to return.

An Invitation

The third eye is not something you build. It is something you rediscover. It has always been here beneath the noise, beneath the opinions, beneath the endless stream of what I want and what I fear. It was there as a child and it is there now. The practices of Yoga Nidra, of concentration, of witnessing are clearing the lens through which you already see.

The yogis say: lead me from the unreal to the real. Asatoma sad gamaya. That is the invitation of the third eye. Not to see more,  but to finally see through to the space beyond the mind. To rest in the harmony that was always there beneath the polarity. To be, as the ancient prayer asks, at peace with yourself as you are, and the world as it is.

Jai Bhagwan,  Victory to the Spirit.

~ Kamini

Kamini Desai, PhD, is the Educational Director of the Amrit Yoga Institute and creator of I AM Yoga Nidra™. She teaches in the tradition of her father, Yogi Amrit Desai, carrying the lineage of Swami Kripalu (Bapuji) into the modern world through retreats, teacher trainings, and online masterclasses.