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Alchemy

Jaymes

The cake is a lie
What do you guys think of alchemy and those who still practice it? Are they crazy, or just at the same level of kids who get science kits for fun?

I find alchemy fascinating, if only to look at the symbolism of it.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
It interests me that people still practice alchemy. I have no idea what their motives for doing so are. What do you think attracts them to alchemy, Jensa?
 

Jaymes

The cake is a lie
I'll admit I haven't really looked into it as much as many, but from what I've read it's actually more spiritual than just wanting to turn things into gold. I can't speak for alchemists today, but apparently in the past gold was viewed as a 'perfect element' because the metal was so enduring, and alchemists sought to help nature along by turning things into gold.

EDIT: Here's a section of an article from Wikipedia that explains it better than I did.

"But, as stated by many Alchemists, the real goal is not something practical or directly usable, but is basically the study of everything as a form of meditation, like a method to discover himself; for this reason, many alchemy manuals describe the "Philosopher's Stone" as a gift that every man have into himself, the "Trasmutation" as the process that trasform the alchemist by studying sciences, and the "Universal Panacea" as the true meaning of love and science. So, when reading an alchemist book, the reader must do an abstraction work to read "over" the words to figure the "way" to follow."
 
After reading the article and most of its links, I am left with my original opinion.

That is, there are two categories: chemists and lunatics. I fail to see a third.:D
 

Unedited

Active Member
I have studied Alchemy. I see nothing crazy about it. It's easy for people of today to look back on science and laugh at what they then believed, but there's a good chance that people two hundred years in the future will be doing the same thing for us. I'm not sure how much spirituality can be found in it though.
 
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