Western mysticism blatantly hijacked the concept of the third eye from ancient Hindu beliefs about chakras

From an inner center to a “psychic” eye

The third eye is commonly associated with ajna, a Sanskrit term for a chakra—one of the subtle centers mapped in certain Hindu spiritual traditions and, in some forms, Buddhist tantra. Often located between the eyebrows, ajna is linked with insight or inner perception. These teachings are varied, however: there is no single chakra system shared unchanged by every Hindu or Buddhist community, and the third eye is not simply a physical organ hidden inside the forehead.

How Western esotericism recast the idea

In the late 19th century, Western occult and esoteric writers drew on Asian religious ideas, including chakra teachings, as they assembled new accounts of hidden powers and spiritual development. The third eye became a useful image for abilities such as clairvoyance: supposedly perceiving what ordinary senses cannot. In that setting, a concept embedded in religious practice and cosmology could be presented as a general human faculty waiting to be awakened.

That shift changed the emphasis. Rather than explaining the chakra within a particular tradition’s broader ideas about discipline, liberation, or spiritual knowledge, popular esoteric accounts often focused on what an individual might see or do. The appealing promise of private access to unseen information traveled more easily than the religious frameworks that had given the concept its meaning.

What travels—and what gets left behind

This was not a simple transfer of one fixed belief. Western esotericists selected and reshaped ideas from traditions that were themselves diverse, and later popular culture simplified them further. Calling every modern use a direct copy would erase those layers; treating the modern “psychic eye” as though it were identical to ajna would do the same.

The telling change is in the question people ask: a spiritual center associated with insight becomes a supposed power for seeing hidden things. That is how a religious symbol can survive its journey across cultures while carrying a markedly different promise.