Supposedly a Tibetan lama (priest), Rampa claimed to have been born in 1911 in Lhasa and to have spent many years, from the age of seven, in esoteric training for the priesthood, specializing in Buddhist medicine, and then to have written an autobiography, The Third Eye, which was first published in 1956.
The book covers events at the lamasery under his guru, Lama Mingyar Dondup, and tells of the operation to open Rampa s “third eye” by drilling a hole into his head just above the bridge of his nose. This was purportedly to get into the center of his psychic system, which the monks thought to be associated with the pineal gland found in the limbic system of the brain. A sliver of wood treated with herbs and fire was inserted into the hole, and he immediately experienced a blinding flash and spirals of color. After this initiation there followed experiences of clairvoyance, telepathy, levitation, astral travel, and a friendship with the Dalai Lama.