The Pineal Gland, What is it?

The pineal gland has always been something that has fascinated me. It apparently is active during prayer, is concentrated on in meditation to achieve multitudes of things, and to top it off, despite all research by scientists they cannot figure out what it really does. So what do all of you think what it does? I want to see what some others think.

just perform a search on the "pineal gland" here on ATS, and you'll get a good idea of what others think in the existing threads - i've even got one in my sig below

Last night while trying to sleep, I kept becoming aware everytime my body was about to go into unconscious mode and I was left shaking myself out of paralysis about 5 times. Was terrible, but finally got asleep.
During this, I rememebred to stay away from sleeping on my back because it'd be more likely I'd have another paralysis again, then I wondered if SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is connected to the pineal gland?

Let's say that the baby lies on his back and the glands fluid flows out and creates some strong hallucinations or a "trip" and the brain of the baby has some sort of seizure or something and then death? Or not, but I can't help but think they are related. (a lot of SIDS cases involve the baby sleeping on his back).

Was just wondering. Not sure if there's been a connection made already or not.