The Role of Alchemy

    Over the centuries, alchemy has been heavily discredited.  First by occultists, then by scientists.  The alchemists themselves contributed to the rejection of their own course of study.  Much of this stems from ignorance of the symbolism involved.

    Many occultists in medieval Europe erroneously sought to transmute one tangible metal, lead, into another tangible metal, gold, without consideration for the psychological/spiritual nature of the true transmutation.  This led these aspiring millionaires to give up in despair, thinking alchemy was worthless, or lie about accomplishing the task in an attempt to drain the vaults of gullible and greedy nobles.

    Emerging chemists, many of whom learned their methodology with alchemy, learned that their previous efforts were not as productive as true chemistry.  Departing from the original basis of the work, chemists found alchemy to be ineffectual in dealing with the external world.  When taken literally, the alchemical texts were mostly meaningless to the goals of science.

    After a lengthy time of chicanery by misguided occultists, the true alchemists became targeted by the royals.  Those who claimed the ability of transmutation and could not produce physical proof were imprisoned as thieves, tortured and/or killed.  Since the deceivers used experiments as a cover during commission of their crimes, the alchemists began inserting dangerous and deadly experiments in their writings.  (Paracelsus excelled at this spiteful activity.)  These alterations soured the popular opinion of alchemy and insured its decline as an accepted method of enlightenment.

    Regardless of its tragic history, alchemy is quite valuable.  In what other field of parapsychology has there been such scrutiny and productive experimentation?  Alchemy is psychology.  It's a form of primitive psychology mixed with philosophical and religious symbolism and terminology.  Like many other occult studies, it is swaddled in ignorance, misinterpretation, and deliberate obfuscation, however, underneath these, it shines with clarity much more than any other subject I've found.