Modern Alchemy And The Philosopher S Stone

While preparing to carve an unusual sculpture from a stump in his front yard, a professor of physics is interrupted by two first-year students at the university where he teaches. When the students ask him about his project, the professor describes the future sculpture as a three-dimensional representation of the way a sample of each chemical element reacts when high pressure is applied to it. That is not at all what the students were expecting to hear. They somewhat reluctantly agree to sign up for a consultation hour with the professor so that he can explain the concept in greater detail. When the professor describes his research in the area of high-pressure solid-state-physics as "modern alchemy", the students are hooked! One of them has been contemplating a career in science or technology, the other is planning to concentrate on liberal arts and philosophy. This appears to be a unique opportunity that offers something for each of them and a chance to expand their common knowledge and friendship. The professor and the students review the history of medieval alchemy as the basis for modern science. They compare the challenges faced by the ancient philosophers to the obstacles of modern scientists. He introduces the students to his version of a modern alchemist's "philosopher's stone", a device with which he is able to change the properties of the elements and make them take on different character. He leads this students on exploratory "journeys" across the Periodic Table of the Elements. They compare the different behavior and discover new relationships. The students converse about the "mystical" modern ideas that the professor introduces along the way; e.g., quantum chemistry and physics. He never resorts to formal, mathematical theory in their circumnavigation of the "world of high pressure". In the end, the students feel "enlightened" in the true alchemical sense, ready for their own journey into the modern world of science and philosophy.

Being a brief account of the alchemistic doctrines, and their relations, to mysticism on the one hand, and to recent discoveries in the physical science on the other hand; together with some particulars regarding the lives and teachings of the most noted alchemists. The meaning of alchemy; The theory of physical alchemy; The alchemists before and after Paracelsus; The outcome of alchemy; The age of modern chemistry; Modern alchemy. H Stanley Redgrove, best known for his writings on alchemy. Early in his scientific career he was associated with Professor John Ferguson and others in forming the Alchemical Society and was appointed editor of its journal; that Society was one of the many killed by the last war. Redgrove's book on "Alchemy: Ancient and Modern," first published in 1912, is an excellent survey, which brings out clearly the connection between the old alchemical doctrines and the conceptions of modern chemistry.

" The purpose of this book is to release one particular secret, which has been kept hidden for the last 12,000 years. The Philosophers' Stone, Elixir of Life, Fountain of Youth, Ambrosia, Soma, Amrita, Nectar of Immortality. These are different names for the same thing. Throughout history this secret has been used by a very few to extend their lives hundreds of years in perfect health, with access to unlimited wealth, among many other miraculous properties. Some kept the secret because they understood that the time was not right for the secret to be free for all people, but most kept the secret out of their own jealousy, ignorance, egotism and corruption. The Stone's history and the history of the human race up until this day is a strange story full of secret societies, hooded cloaks, and mystical symbols. Such theatrics are childish and shallow. It's pointless to look for the light in the shadows...;"

The number of books in the English language dealing with the interesting subject of Alchemy is not sufficiently great to render an apology necessary for adding thereto. Indeed, at the present time there is an actual need for a further contribution on this subject. The time is gone when it was regarded as perfectly legitimate to point to Alchemy as an instance of the aberrations of the human mind. Recent experimental research has brought about profound modifications in the scientific notions regarding the chemical elements, and, indeed, in the scientific concept of the physical universe itself; and a certain resemblance can be traced between these later views and the theories of bygone Alchemy. The spontaneous change of one "element" into another has been witnessed, and the recent work of Sir William Ramsay suggests the possibility of realising the old alchemistic dream-the transmutation of the "base" metals into gold.