What does Third Eye mean?

Tool: Third Eye Meaning

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Album cover for Third Eye album cover

Third Eye Lyrics

(Intro by comedian Bill Hicks)

Dreaming of that face again.
It's bright and blue and shimmering.
Grinning wide and comforting me with it's three warm and wild eyes.
On my back and tumbling
down that hole and back again
rising up and...

  1. Nadienne
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    Jun 30th 2009 !⃝

    That's something else that irritates me: People who criticize others for choosing to live their lives differently. I would have figured that drug users would be more tolerant of differences in people. After all, they are frequently the target of intolerance. But then again, maybe one can't take the words of drug users at face value: maybe psychedelics don't really open one's mind...

    I know someone who's been off lsd for years, but he still holds conversations with his laundry. He may have enjoyed the experience at first. He doesn't any more. I probably would enjoy the experience at first. But I already question the reality of what I see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. Sometimes I hear crickets chirp my name. Lsd would probably confuse me even more.

    ChroMe LunGz, or anyone: What does it mean, Tool gets into your soul when you're on mushrooms? What do you see? Does the room you're in become someplace else? Do the sounds bounce off the walls with unusual colors? What do you feel? Triumphant? Tragic? Something else? If I said "Third Eye" gets into my soul even when I'm not on 'shrooms, how would you persuade me that I'm wrong? How do you know when your third eye is open? Can you say with certainty that Tool depicts the experience as beneficial? Or are you just assuming that because you like to trip and Tool quotes Bill Hicks, Tool must think the same way you do?

    I've watched their music videos. I've looked at their album covers. I can glean at least a dozen different interpretations from them, one being that there are at least thirteen different ways of looking at a blackbird, and one being that reality is illusory, elusive. But nothing of theirs has led me to conclude they condone the use of drugs.

    I guess what I want to know is, does tripping add another depth of meaning to "Third Eye"? Or does tripping distract you? ("Look at the waves of color coming out of the speaker! Wow, I've never seen that color before... Tool is so much better when I'm trippin'!" Never mind that Lynyrd Skynyrd is probably a zillion times better when you're trippin'.) Can anyone answer this?

  2. anonymous
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    Jun 3rd 2009 !⃝

    OK, your third eye can only be opened under the influence of phsycadelics. That's what it's about. It's about that Bill Hicks guy who loves pshycadelics. and being under the influence of phsycadelics. I listened to this song not on anything And it just straight rocks. But on mushrooms the music gets in your soul. And I know you stupid goody goody no drug using idiots think different but guess what? You'll never know until you try it. Tool is a pshycadelic drug based group. Look at all thier album covers for gods sake. watch thier music videos too. You'll zone out even if you're not trippin'. All you drug free fags quit listening to Tool cuz you have no idea what your talking about cus Tool is a million times better trippin'. Don't talk about opening your third eye if you've never opened it before. It's a whole other world where you can a have a conversation with a pile of clothes or whatever is trying to communicate with you. There are other beings around us. spirits, objects, and demons. which are only visible if your third eye is open. AKA your trippin' out. It may not seem real but it sure is. L8tr people that don't know what they're talking about.

  3. Nadienne
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    May 28th 2009 !⃝

    Nothing irritates me more than hearing or reading someone tell others that looking deeper for answers is stupid. The insights so far have been really good. I especially like OmegaMachine's commentary.

    But I don't get a sense that the (narrator's?) trip down the metaphorical rabbit hole was necessarily good. He says,

    So glad it's over.
    I've missed you so much.
    Came out to watch you play.
    Why are you running away?

    Not to mention the, I guess you could say instrumental part, the mostly-lyricless-middle, evokes (for me, at least) a sense of being on a conveyor belt, forced along while metal parts are welded onto your body. This is probably not what that actually represents, but it seems like this is where the narrator is transformed, and it sounds horrifying. Not a positive experience.

    This interpretation is probably colored by my own reluctance to try acid or lsd or anything that can permanently change me. I want to understand other perspectives. If you're drawn to lsd, does this song make it sound appealing?

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 23rd 2009 !⃝

    I believe this song is about a war within himself; between right and wrong.

    It has to be about drugs, or the Bill Hicks bit at the beginning would be completely pointless.
    I think its how the drugs allow him to see differently, his "third eye". It "pries" the eye open because drugs are unnatural to the body.


    "Down the hole and back again" in and out of drug use,
    "Rising up and wiping the webs and dew from my withered eye" ending up drugged and seeing through that "third eye" again.

    The "So good to see you...why are you running away?" is actually referring to himself, when he's drugged.
    Hes asking himself 'why did he stop taking the drugs when it helps him see so brilliantly?'
    Its like his darker self, or the bad side of his conscience talking to him.
    "Ive missed you so much" missed being the person he is while he's drugged.

    Then he yells prying open my third eye to stop the darker side, and tell him that his eyes were made naturally opened and that he doesn't need drugs to open another eye, he was created with what he needed, nothing more, nothing less.


    This next part is good vs bad, the first two lines are spoken by a darker conscience and the last two are by the better side of him:
    Bad:
    "So good to see you once again."
    *Its good to see you drugged again.
    "I thought that you were hiding from me."
    *And its been so long that I thought you were "hiding" or trying to quit.
    Good:
    "And you thought that I had run away,"
    *You thought that I had 'run away' from drugs, but that's not the case.
    "Chasing a trail of smoke and reason."
    *You thought that I was 'running away' while chasing after my (undrugged) beliefs,
    though those beliefs are very hard to grasp like smoke but with good reasoning.


    I know its pretty far-fetched, but try to keep an open mind, it is Tool we're talking about here(;

  5. 0megaMachine
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    Mar 14th 2009 !⃝

    There's actually quite a bit that this song alludes to. Some of it has already been mentioned but I'd like to add another variable that hasn't been introduced into the discussion yet...


    "We now believe you are prepared to visit us, where we are as you call it, if that is still your desire. It will not
    be a demonstration, but our reality. However, we will guide you and return you to this point. It is important that you understand that such a visit, momentary as it may seem, can produce within you changes that are irrevocable.)

    . . . I do desire it, and I accept the responsibility for any changes that
    may occur in me.

    (Open widely. Have fun, as you put it.)

    CLICK!

    (I am in a bright white tunnel and moving rapidly. No, it is not a tunnel, but a tube, a transparent, radiating tube. I am bathed in the radiation which courses through all of me, and the intensity and recognition of it envelop
    my consciousness and I laugh with great joy. Something has changed, because the last time, they had to shield me from the random vibration of it. Now, I can tolerate it easily, the actual energy itself. The radiation flow is two-directional in the tube. The flow moving past me in the direction from which I came is smooth, even, and undiluted. The flow that I am is moving in the opposite direction and appears much different. It is organized in a more complex form. It is the same as the wave moving past me, but it
    contains a multitude of small waves impressed upon the basic. I am both the basic and the small waveforms, moving back to the source. The movement is steady and unhurried, impelled by a desire I know but cannot express. I vibrate with joyous ecstasy just by the knowing.

    (The tube seems to become larger as another joins it from one side, and another waveform melds into me and we become one. I recognize the other immediately, as it does me, and there is the great excitement of reunion, this other I and I. How could I have forgotten this! We move along together,
    happily exploring the adventures, experience, and knowledge of the other. The tube widens again, and another I joins us, and the process repeats itself. Our waveforms are remarkably identical and our pattern grows stronger as they move in phase. There are variegations in each which,
    when combined with another related anomaly, create a new and important modification of the total that we are.

    (The tube expands again and I am no longer concerned with its walls as still another I enters the waveform flow. This is particularly exciting, as it is the first I perceive as returning from a completely nonhuman sojourn. Yet
    the intermesh was near-perfect and we became so much more. Now we know that, somewhere, a consciously controlled physical tail, much like a monkey's, is useful in ways far more than balance and acting as a third hand for holding things. It can be a very efficient means of communication
    far beyond a super sign language just as eloquent as the spoken word.

    (Steadily and surely, one I after another joins us. With each, we become more aware and remember more of the total. How many does not seem important. Our knowledge and ability is so great that we do not bother to contemplate it. It is not important. We are one.

    (With this, we divert from the underlying waveform and move away from it. We watch motionless in unified respect as the action of it continues away from us into an infinity. We also perceive easily the smooth originating wave coming from such infinity and dissolving into the pattern from whence we came.

    122 FAR JOURNEYS RAINBOW ROUTE 123

    (Flowing through all of us is a coherent energy that is our creation, that displays immensely the reality of the whole as far greater than the sum of the parts. Our ability and knowledge seem without limit, yet we know at this point such is valid only within the energy systems of our experience. We can create time as we wish or the need arises, reshaping and modifying within the percept itself. We can create matter from other energy patterns,
    or change the structure thereof to any degree desired, including reversion to original form. We can create, enhance, alter, modulate, or eradicate any percept within the energy fields of our experience. We can transform any such energy fields one into another or others except for that which we are. We cannot create or comprehend our prime energy until we are complete.

    (We can create physical patterns such as your sun and solar system, yet we do not. It has been done. We can adjust the environs of your planet Earth, yet we do not. It is not our design. We can and do monitor, supplement, and enhance the flow of the human learning experience, as well as
    other learning experiences of similar content throughout time-space. This we perform continuously at all levels of human awareness so as to prepare properly those entraining units of our prime energy for the entry and meld
    into the totality that we are becoming. It is the essence of our growth to do so. Such assistance and preparation is forthcoming from us only by request from one or more levels of consciousness within the entraining unit. Thereafter,
    a bonding is in effect through which many forms of communication pass between us until the ultimate transformation occurs.

    (We know who we are, and one I laughs and we all laugh at the name this I had given us. We are an INSPEC, just one. There are many others around us.)

    (You are still incomplete. There are parts of you yet to be transformed, including that visiting portion so filled with curiosity. Each of us is incomplete. That is why we remain at this point, to reach back and gather additional
    and remaining parts of us until we are complete.)

    (Our curiosity desires the effect of completion.)

    (We move into the creative return flow again, the waveform that brought you here. When we do so, we leave this reality.)

    (Can this be demonstrated?)

    (It is not possible. It is not within our knowledge to do so. When you have transformed and melded totally into your whole, you will comprehend. That is why this point came into being. It is not possible to continue until
    completion.)

    (Continue to what destination?)

    (We believe it to be the source of the radiation, the creative emission and return. Communication is closed with those who have continued. The desire to continue occurs upon completion. It is more than your curiosity, as
    you call it, and difficult to transmit in a form we can understand. There have been attempts by those completed who are to continue, without success.)

    (The ultimate home?)

    (A good beginning concept. A design which unfolds as perception grows. It is necessary now that you terminate your visit and return.)

    (We will be with you, our curious I.)

    Return where!

    (Your physical environs)

    . . . Where is that! . . .

    (In-human, your physical body)

    . . . Oh, yes, I had forgotten ... Do I have to go back?

    (Reach for us and we will be with
    you in many ways. You have much to do. Go get them, tiger!)

    (And a rote, as you call it, to play with.)

    CLICK!

    The return to the physical was near-instantaneous, my face and eyes were wet. I sat up in the chair and remembered. I reached for the yellow pad and pen, to get the rote into words immediately. I knew I had changed. For the rest of my physical life, I would remember. But this would never change:

    For those who would die, there is life. For those
    who would dream, there is reality. For those who
    would hope, there is knowledge. For those who
    would grow, there is eternity."

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 14th 2009 !⃝

    He is speaking of astral projection as well, in out in out. Its breathing exercises, the beauty of it all. I have done alot of research on it as well as practice it. The sound right before the lyrics, it portrays a trigger you have to focus on before you leave your body. The second sun, his enterpretation of a new life, just a guess. Do some research huh?

  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 18th 2008 !⃝

    Listen alright you dumb asses Maynard is a fucking drug head ok Maynard is the modern day Jim Morrison. The song is about rebelling prying open my third eye is doing psychedelic drugs which drugs is the way to revolt against "the man" think for yourself question authority. Yeah obvious nobody likes Bush. Stop looking so deeply into the lyrics guys the meaning is flat out in your face

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. SheddingSkin
    click a star to vote
    Nov 17th 2008 !⃝

    I could be wrong but part of Carl Jung's thing (and we know Maynard was into this with 46 & 2) the anima/animus, in this case the anima, is the part of the male psyche that is expressed in a feminine manner. Could the album name, even though I know the spelling is different, be a reference to this? Could this explain why he wore that dress on stage?

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 15th 2008 !⃝

    When you listen to this song and you close your eyes, you can feel your in the song mentioned third eye which is between your two eyebrows is opened. Through this eye you can see and feel Tool's music and you can create your own interpretations and feelings for this music. Tool created a music which lets you think about yourself and lets your mind wander. People are proud and say: I'm the only one who understands Tool! -> That's a wrong attitude. EVERYONE who listens to their music is able to understand them, because everyone can feel and interpretate and see their music with the opened third eye. That is what Tool wanted to have. Let the Listeners perceive their songs with the third eye and let them think about the songs in their own different ways.

  10. PizzaMind
    click a star to vote
    Oct 11th 2008 !⃝

    There are many references from a book called the Thiaoouba Prophecy. The blue second sun, the phosphorescent desert buttons, the holy crow, etc, all are from the story contained in this book. I'm not sure if the song is supposed to be from the perspective of the person in this book, about the events that take place. The book is quite an interesting read, and now that I can completely understand all the things mentioned in this song, it's taken on a whole new meaning. There's far too much to summarize, so just read it for yourself if you're curious enough.

  11. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 11th 2008 !⃝

    Hallucination, erratic thoughts and a racing mind that just brings random thoughts and feelings to the mind.

  12. anonymous
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    Aug 6th 2008 !⃝

    Idiots.
    You don't have to use drugs to open your third eye.
    I access mine by meditating every day
    not EVERYTHING Tool does is about drugs
    only drug-addicts want to see it this way because they think it makes it okay for them to do drugs

    Psychedelics like LSD, Mushrooms,Dmt, Etc and so forth are meant to open your mind. They're not happy party drugs like Ex.

    But this song makes references to many different things, such as seeing a "blue" (communicative/intelligent) Aura.
    Three warm and wild eyes, referring to the third eye of course

    Life is but a dream...all the clues are there folks.
    make up your own interpretation but don't assume everything is about drugs.

    And ps to those of you saying it may be a drug addiction,
    you can not become addicted to MDMA (if you are taking impure ex you may become addicted to some of the things it would be cut with but such as heroin, but I doubt that)

    Nor can you become addicted to LSD, Mushrooms, or DMT
    Get your facts right

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 16th 2008 !⃝

    Hallelujah dude, well said.

  14. anonymous
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    Feb 6th 2008 !⃝

    When I was driving home one night may I add that I was high which might mean I'm an idiot but I was listening to this song and you know when the song slows then picks up with the repeating of

    "So good to see you.
    I've missed you so much.
    So glad it's over.
    I've missed you so much.
    Came out to watch you play.
    Why are you running away?
    Came out to watch you play.
    Why are you running away?"

    Prying open my third eye...

    So good to see you once again.
    I thought that you were hiding.
    And you thought that I had run away.
    Chasing the tail of dogma.

    (I opened my eye and there we were.)

    So good to see you once again.
    I thought that you were hiding from me.
    And you thought that I had run away.
    Chasing a trail of smoke and reason.

    Prying open my third eye...


    well I had this interpretation that maybe maynards talking about Paul D'Amour and how he left I don't know this was just a theory I had But thin I had a Therroy that Paul D'Amour didn't leave on good terms because have you ever watched early interviews and how he always took that spot light and I noticed in Opiate that that bass stands out like its almost like that its tuned loader than jones and I figered that tool told him to leave because he was trying to stand out or somethin and we all know how tool is all about privacy so they told everyone he left on good terms.

    hey just something I thought of I could be toataly wrong

  15. anonymous
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    Dec 27th 2007 !⃝

    The song is about expanding your mind, and breaking the polluted consciousness instilled by the world. It's about opening your eyes to new realms and possibilities, whether they are drug induced or by spiritual means. It's about realizing we are all born with the gift of real truth, that the gift of the universe is written in our DNA. We have the chance to understand it all, if we so wish, by prying open our third eye.




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