Alchemy, what is it?

[Epsilon]

I'm getting kind of interested in this subject and i don't want to get it obstructed by stuff I only read on the internet that people got from the tv show. Does any1 no what it really is and can give me some straight answers?

 

[Nelli]

Alchemy is the practice of turning baser metals into gold or other metals. Its also associated with finding a universal solvent for the elixer of life. It is said that with a nuclear reactor they managed to synthesize mercury into gold. Unfortunately all that was produced were flakes and the costs into creating it far exceeds the current value of gold. Im no expert but i too have been reading up on this alot.

 

[Epsilon]

I wonder what else they actually accomplished with the basis of matter that isn't commonly known.

 

[Graveyard Hound]

Just to save time and trouble, check "The Encyclopedia of magic and Alchemy" by Rosemary Ellen Guiley and it will provide you with more info. on the subject than you want to know. Trust me.

 

[Graveyard Hound]

Alchemy is the practice of turning baser metals into gold or other metals. Its also associated with finding a universal solvent for the elixer of life. It is said that with a nuclear reactor they managed to synthesize mercury into gold. Unfortunately all that was produced were flakes and the costs into creating it far exceeds the current value of gold. Im no expert but i too have been reading up on this alot.

In general, according to my texts, "Alchemy" covers a wide range of topics, from the discovery of a single cure for al diseases to the quest for immortality from the creation of artifical life to strightforward descriptons of scientific techniques. It is commonly believed, quite incorrectly, to the use of the "Philosopher's Stone", which is not a stone at all but a powder or liquid that can turn base metals into gold and when swallowed, gives everlasting life.

 

[Lumpino]

Old spiritual paktice. Alchemy is primarily a spiritual doctrine in Europe after the onset christianity veiled as a physical transmutation. Alchemists did not want to be burned at the stake.
In eastern alchemy texts - there not reigned Christians - was text often very clear.
See you The secret of the golden Flower, Taoist alchemy book, translantion by Richard Willhelm. The book is on the net in .pdf

 

[Graveyard Hound]

I would refer the reader to the book, now out of print, I think, entitled"Witchcraft, Magic, and Alchemy"by Grillot de Givry, 1971.

 

[Justinian]

I watched a really good History Channel show on this. Most alchemists actually died. This was because they were using Mercury. Something to do with the weird properties of mercury that everyone thought it was the so called philospher stone and used it in their mix and match chemistry experiments. This show though did go on to say that a lot of things came about because of alchemy. BUT.. most alchemist were con artists.. what they would do is get paid by some noble to pay for their "research". Now this was like high risk investing back in the day. These nobles were betting on this alchemist to find this philosopher stone so that they could make gold out of anything and then be the richest in the kingdom. This was the noble's point of view. Now from the alchemists point of view.. They were getting a lavish lifestyle paid for, sometimes for years. The con was to keep it going for as long as they could.. Sometimes they said, when they knew they were running thin on patience with the noble that was paying their salary, they would pull some David Copperfield type slight of hand trick on them to say they had found out the secret.. then when the noble would be sending out word that his alchemist had found it and have his other people testing this.. the alchemist would slip out the back door.

So that's what I heard from a purely historical stand point.

 

[Justinian]

Ooops.. forgot to add that a lot of alchemists also died from lead poisoning because they were trying to boil lead and then inhaled the vapors. Same with the mercury.

 

[JTFriend]

The foremost alchemist of the world and also Hierarch of this age is a man named Saint Germain. You can learn more about him:
Saint Germain - Lord of the Seventh Ray
Saint Germain on Alchemy - For the Adept in the Aquarian Age