For centuries, notions such as the transformation of base into precious metals, an accord between humans and planets, the existence of an elixir of life, or prediction of the date of death, have been on the outermost fringes of science. So too have aspects of an art critical to western thought, what the Greeks termed, astronomia: an amalgam of astronomy and astrology. In Blinded By Starlight, Dr Frank McGillion demonstrates how by reference to modern scientific studies into the pineal gland, such assertions are perilously close to being shown to be, to a greater or lesser extent, true.