THIRD EYE

The third eye is the center of a person’s being and is also referred to as the heart’s eye, the intuitive eye, the mystical eye, the transcendental eye, the inner eye, or the mind’s eye. 

In New Age spirituality, it is associated with enlightenment.  It may also relate to mental images having deeply personal spiritual or psychological significance.  Religious visions, clairvoyance, the ability to see chakras and auras, are connected with the third eye, as are precognition and out-of-body experiences.

Father Richard Rohr, representing Christianity, holds that the third eye is a metaphor for non-dualistic thinking, the way mystics see. 

He explains that mystics use the first eye for sensory input, sight, and the second eye for reasoning, meditation, and reflection.  He points out, though, that one must not confuse mere correct information or knowledge with the transformation of consciousness.  The mystical sight of the third eye builds upon the first two eyes, but goes further, he says, to the level of awareness that he calls “having the mind of Christ.”

For the Vedantist, the third eye is the eye of the Atman, who is the watcher, the witness of all that a person does.  The Atman is background consciousness, whose source is Brahman, God.  Advaita Vedanta is the non-dualistic view that Father Rohr referenced, where everything is one thing, the basis of mysticism.