Alchemy heals everything: "Living water, or water from the Grail." Destruction of a substance by fiery heat and combustion, usually in an open crucible

Imagine that there is a small swimming pool in front of you. Crabs were placed in it. The water in it does not contain soluble calcium salts, which are so necessary for the construction of their shells. It contains only soluble magnesium salts. You have personally seen this. Then you visited the pool area several times intermittently, where you saw how the crabs grew. At the same time, express analyzes of the magnesium content in the pool water were carried out before your eyes. They showed a gradual decrease in its content in the absence of calcium. And the crabs grew, and their shells, containing calcium, also increased. This is puzzling.

It turned out that the crabs found themselves in an extreme situation, and in the absence of calcium salts in the pool water, they began to extract magnesium salts from it, convert magnesium into calcium and continue to build their shells from calcium salts. Somehow I can’t believe this. Some kind of anomalous phenomenon! Crabs turned out to be capable of converting (transmuting) one stable chemical element into another, that is, carrying out a cold nuclear reaction - cold thermonuclear reaction.

This experiment, in which you mentally participated, was actually carried out in 1959 by the French researcher Louis Kervran. He also noticed that chickens, without receiving calcium salts in the food and water they consume, lay eggs in shells containing the above-mentioned chemical element. In his opinion, chickens convert potassium, which is abundant in the oats they feed, into calcium. It turns out that an unhatched chicken contains four times more calcium, than was in the egg from which it emerged, with almost unchanged shell weight. L. Kervran also observed the growth of Spanish moss on copper wire in the absence of soil.

There were other natural scientists who, in their opinion, noticed the phenomena of transmutation of stable chemical elements in the organic world. Let's name some of them. Thus, the Hanoverian baron Albrecht von Herzeele, back in 1873, wrote the book “The Origin of Inorganic Substances,” in which he showed how plants can convert phosphorus into sulfur and magnesium into calcium. The Frenchman Pierre Beranger showed in 1958 how when seeds germinate in a solution of manganese salts, manganese disappears and iron appears. On this occasion, he published an article in a scientific journal entitled "My results are incredible."

The above experiments of L. Kervran and observations of other researchers with corresponding conclusions about transmutation were not perceived by the scientific community due to their unusualness, which did not fit into accepted scientific dogmas; There were also doubts about the correctness of the research. But over time, there were more and more observations and experiments showing the reality of the transformation of some stable chemical elements into others by various representatives of the organic world. And the Japanese scientist Hizatoki Komaki in 1993 at the International Conference on Cold Nuclear Fusion confirmed the reliability of the previously cited experiments of L. Kervran and the conclusions from them.

Man, as an object of study, was not left without attention to his possible ability to transform stable chemical elements. And this is the great merit of the Novosibirsk scientist, academician V.P. Kaznacheev, a convinced supporter of the manifestation of cold nuclear reactions - cold thermonuclear fusion, or as he calls it - biothermonuclear fusion - in humans and in other representatives of the organic world. V.P. Kaznacheev managed to establish that as a person ages, the transformation of heavy stable non-radioactive isotopes into light ones occurs in his body, with the release of energy. This refers to the loss of the isotope carbon 15 and the accumulation of carbon 12. Transformations of other elements in humans have also been identified. According to V.P. Kaznacheev, in a living cell, not only the macromolecular protein process (combustion, oxidation) takes place, but also the phenomenon of cold biothermovenous, unknown to us. According to research by V.P. Kaznacheev, certain bacteria are capable of converting manganese 54 into the iron isotope 55.

In this regard, the appearance of iron-manganese nodules (small spherical accumulations of minerals) on the bottom of the seas and oceans may be due to the transformation of manganese into iron in the bacterial environment of bottom silt.

There have been attempts in publications to explain the mechanism of transmutation of chemical elements. It has been suggested that cold nuclear fusion processes occur in a living cell through mitochondria, which are structurally separate formations in the cell responsible for its energy. It is noted that human mental activity is associated with nuclear processes occurring in his brain. And these processes themselves have the nature of triggers - trigger mechanisms that trigger all vital functions occurring in the body.

A person is a system with a high level of self-organization. In this regard, he has all the data to carry out, within certain limits, self-regulation of the presence in his body of chemical elements necessary for his life and, if necessary, converts some of them into others through cold nuclear reactions. This possibility seems real in the light of all the above material, and the following fact can be cited as confirmation. Scientists have found that blacks of one tribe in Africa do not receive several chemical elements necessary for their life in the food and water they use, but they feel healthy, and the amount of the mentioned components in their organs not only remains over time, but sometimes increases. It can be assumed with great certainty that the mechanism of transformation of some chemical elements into others in the human body will inevitably work in the process of its adaptation to starvation, illness, enduring other stressful situations, adaptation to living conditions in a certain geographical or climatic zone with all its specific features.

Low-energy nuclear reactions carried out during technical experiments and cold thermonuclear reactions in biological systems have their own specifics and differ from each other, but they have one thing in common - the release of energy during the transformation of stable chemical elements, which exceeds the energy spent on their implementation. This fact is of fundamental importance for identifying new patterns of nuclear and intranuclear interactions and creating new power plants. There are also prospects for creative searches in the new scientific direction from physicists, chemists, biologists, doctors, agricultural chemists, soil scientists, microbiologists and other specialists.
The ability of biological systems to carry out cold nuclear reactions - cold thermonuclear fusion - can be recognized as an integral feature of living matter. This fact testifies to the colossal and still mysterious power of life, capable of transforming some stable chemical elements into others. In this regard, the following question is appropriate: the above ability of organisms was given to them by the Creator during the creation of the world or arose at a certain stage in the development of life on earth. Which one exactly? How could this even happen?

Modern knowledge about man, his abilities and capabilities of physiology and energy are comparable to the small tip of an iceberg rising above the water. And all the most complete knowledge about a person is a huge body hidden under water, called the “Secret Wisdom human body", which the doctor A.S. Zalmanov tried to touch in his famous book of the same name.

In the context of the modern rapid development of science and technology, we have to observe how the once rejected old gains recognition and acquires a modern appearance, and fantastic ideas become reality, and this process cannot be stopped.

Alchemy, without a doubt, can also be classified as an occult science. Initially, it was based on the same desire to command invisible spirits that we saw in shamanic practice. But over time, alchemy acquired an even more pragmatic and specific goal - the transformation of base metals into gold through a catalyst called the philosopher's stone (Lapis philosophorum).

Many interesting hypotheses have been proposed regarding the origins of alchemy. One of them believes that alchemy was revealed to people by the mysterious Egyptian demigod Hermes Trismegistus. This exalted personality, emerging through the fog of time, carrying the immortal Emerald in his hands, according to the ancient Egyptians, was the author of all sciences and arts. In honor of him, all scientific knowledge is collectively called the Hermetic arts. When the body of Hermes was interred in the Valley of Hebra, the divine Emerald was buried with him. After many centuries, the Emerald was excavated; According to one version, this was done by Arab sages, according to another - Alexander the Great. With the help of the power inherent in this Emerald, on which were engraved the mysterious letters of the Thrice Great Hermes (thirteen sentences in total), Alexander conquered the entire then known world. Unable, however, to control himself, he ultimately collapsed.

Alchemy flourished in Egypt from the earliest times, and Solomon is said to have practiced it. Its golden age began with the Arab conquests in Asia and Africa. The gullible Saracens, familiar with tales of talismans and celestial influences, fervently believed in the wonders of alchemy. At the magnificent courts of Almanzor and Harun al-Rashid, professors of Hermetic science found patronage, students and rewards.

For a long time, alchemy remained a truly secret teaching, and until the 11th century, the only alchemist known to the general public was the Arabian Geber, whose proper name was Abu-Muza-Jafar, nicknamed el-Sophie. His attempts to turn base metals into gold led to various discoveries in chemistry and medicine. He was also a famous astronomer, but has come down to our times as the creator of a language known as “gibberish.”

The Crusaders brought alchemy to Europe, and around the 13th century Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon and Raymond Lully revived it. Henry VI, King of England, invited lords, nobles, doctors, professors and priests to search for the philosopher's stone.

The first and most famous alchemist in Europe was Albert von Bolstatt (the Great). He was born in 1206 and died at the age of 74. They say about him that he was “great in magic, strong in philosophy and unsurpassed in theology.”

Albertus Magnus was a member of the Dominican Order and was the teacher of Thomas Aquinas in alchemy and philosophy. It is known that Albertus Magnus was the Bishop of Regensburg and was beatified in 1622. Albert was an Aristotelian in philosophy, an astrologer and a great expert in medicine and physics. In his youth he was considered weak-minded (!), but his sincere faith was rewarded by a vision in which the Immaculate Virgin Mary appeared before him and gave him great philosophical and intellectual abilities.

Having become a master of magical sciences, Albert began constructing a curious automaton, which he endowed with the ability to speak and think. The Android, as its creator called it, was made of metal and an unknown substance, chosen according to the "decree of the stars", and endowed with spiritual qualities through magical formulas and spells. This work took thirty years. According to legend, Thomas Aquinas, considering this mechanism diabolical, smashed it, thereby destroying Albert’s life’s work. Despite this, Albert left his alchemical formulas, including the secret of the philosopher's stone, to Thomas Aquinas.

The next remarkable person who claimed to have owned the philosopher's stone was Paracelsus, whose name was actually Philip Oreoll Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombastus of Hohenheim and whom his followers called "the prince of doctors, the philosopher of fire, the Swiss trismegistus, the transformer of alchemical philosophy, the faithful secretary of nature, the owner of the vital elixir and philosopher's stone, great monarch of chemical mysteries."

The generally accepted date of birth of Paracelsus is December 17, 1493. He was the only child in the family. His mother and father were interested in medicine and chemistry. His father was a doctor, and his mother ran a hospital. While still young, Paracelsus became greatly interested in the writings of Isaac the Dutchman and decided to reform the medical science of his time.

As a twenty-year-old youth, he set out on a journey that lasted twelve years. He visited many European countries, including Russia. It is likely that it even penetrated into Asia. In Constantinople, the Arab sages entrusted him with the secrets of the Hermetic arts. He probably received knowledge of nature spirits and the inhabitants of the invisible worlds from the Indian Brahmins, with whom he came into contact either directly or through their disciples. He became a military doctor, and his skill brought him great fame.

Upon returning to Germany, Paracelsus began the reformation of medicine. At every step he met resistance and was subjected to severe criticism. His unbridled temperament and flamboyant personality undoubtedly brought upon him many attacks, which he could easily have avoided if he had been a little more careful. He sharply criticized pharmacists for incorrectly preparing medicines and not taking into account the needs of their patients, caring only about their income.

Paracelsus's remarkable successes in the medical field made his enemies hate him even more because they could not repeat the miracles he performed. His treatment systems seemed so heretical at that time that slowly but surely his opponents forced Paracelsus out of his habitual place and forced him to seek refuge in a new one, where he was not known.

There are many conflicting rumors regarding the identity of Paracelsus. There is no doubt that he had a quick temper. He hated doctors and women. As far as is known, he never had a love interest. The excesses that were attributed to him brought him a lot of trouble. It was said that even while he was a professor in Basel, few people saw him sober.

The circumstances of Paracelsus' death are unclear, but the most plausible version is this: he died in a fight with assassins hired by his enemies who wanted to get rid of their rival.

It is said that Paracelsus' teacher was a mysterious alchemist named Solomon Trismosinus. Almost nothing is known about him, except that after many years of wandering and searching, he found a formula for the transformation of metals and made a huge amount of gold. A manuscript by this author, dated 1582, called "The Magnificent Sun", is in the British Museum. Trismozin is rumored to have lived for 150 years thanks to his alchemical knowledge. A very remarkable statement appears in his work "Alchemical wanderings", where he talks about the search for the philosopher's stone:

"Explore what you can, and what you can is part of what you know, and this is what you really can do. What is outside you is also inside you."

This principle is the fundamental dogma of alchemy. God is “within” and “outside” all things. It manifests itself through growth from the inside out, through the struggle for expression and manifestation. The growth and multiplication of gold is no greater a miracle than the growth from a small seed of a bush thousands of times larger than that seed. If this can happen to a plant seed, why can't it happen to a gold seed if it is "planted in the ground" (in the base metals) and "nourished" according to secret alchemical recipes?

Alchemy teaches that God is in everything, that he is the universal spirit, manifesting in an infinite number of forms. God is a spiritual seed planted in the dark earth (material universe). Through the art of alchemy it is possible to grow and multiply this seed so that the entire universal substance is saturated with it and becomes, like the golden seed, pure gold. In the spiritual nature of man this is called "rebirth", in the material body of the elements it is called "transformation".

Each grain of sand, according to alchemists, contains not only the seeds of precious metals and the seeds of precious stones, but also the seeds of the Sun, Moon and stars. Just as human nature reflects the entire Universe in miniature, so every grain of sand, every drop of water, every particle of cosmic dust is hidden in all parts and elements of the cosmos in the form of small embryos - so small that even the most powerful microscope cannot recognize them . Trillions of times smaller than ions or electrons, these seeds, unrecognizable and incomprehensible, await their time to manifest and begin to grow.

There are two methods by which their growth can be ensured. The first is Nature, because Nature is the alchemist who achieves the seemingly impossible. The second is art, and through art the result is achieved in a relatively short time, whereas Nature requires an infinite amount of time for this.

The true sage harmonizes his activities with the laws of Nature, realizing that the art of alchemy is simply a method copied from Nature, but with the help of certain secrets the formula is greatly shortened and the process intensified. Through this art, the seed that is inside the soul of the stone can grow so quickly that in a few moments a granite stone can turn into a large diamond. Since the seed is in all things, diamond can be grown from any substance in the universe. Of some substances, however, this miracle is much easier to perform, because in them the embryos of the diamond have long been fertilized and are thus more prepared for the animating process of art.

Alchemy, therefore, can be considered the art of increasing and bringing to a perfect state existing processes. Nature can carry out the purposes it desires or not. But with the help of true art, Nature always achieves her goals, because this art is not subject to the waste of time or the vandalism of spontaneous reactions.

In his book “The History of Chemistry,” James Brown formulates the goals that medieval alchemists wanted to achieve:

"It was, therefore, the general aim of the alchemists to carry out in the laboratory, as far as possible, the processes which Nature was working upon within the earth. Seven chief problems occupied their attention:

1. The preparation of a complex substance called an elixir, universal medicine or philosopher's stone, which had the property of transforming base metals into gold and silver...

2. The creation of a homunculus, or living being, about which many delightful but improbable stories have been told.

3. Preparation of a universal solvent that would dissolve any substance...

4. Palingenesis, or restoration of plants from ashes. If they succeeded in this, they would have hope of raising the dead.

5. Preparation of spiritus mundi, a mystical substance with many properties, the main of which was the ability to dissolve gold.

6. Extraction of the quintessence, or the active primary source of all substances.

7. Preparation of aurum potabile, liquid gold, the most perfect remedy for healing, because gold, perfect in itself, can produce the most perfect effect on human nature."

The fact that alchemy is basically only a slightly ennobled shamanism is confirmed by the cosmogony of the alchemists, known to us primarily from the works of Paracelsus.

According to Paracelsus, each of the four primary elements known to the ancients (earth, fire, air and water) consists of a subtle gaseous element and a gross bodily substance. Air, therefore, is dual in nature - it is a tangible atmosphere and an intangible volatile substance, which may be called "spiritual air." Fire is visible and invisible, discernible and indistinguishable. Water is understood as consisting of a dense liquid and a potential essence of a liquid nature. The earth also has two essential parts, the lower of which is motionless, earthly, and the highest is thinned out, mobile and virtual. The general term ELEMENTS applies to the lower or physical phases of these four primary elements, and the term elemental essences to their invisible spiritual components. Minerals, plants, animals and people live in a world consisting of the gross side of these four elements, and living organisms are made up of their various combinations.

Salamander (from Paracelsus' book "Interpretation of 30 Magical Figures")

Just as visible Nature is populated by countless living beings, so the invisible, spiritual counterpart of visible Nature is populated by hosts of bizarre creatures. Paracelsus divided them into four groups, which he called gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders. He taught that they are in fact living creatures, in many ways reminiscent in form of human beings and inhabiting their own world, unknown to people due to the underdevelopment of their senses, unable to penetrate beyond the world of gross elements.

Paracelsus writes:

"They live in four elements: Nymphs - in the element of water, Sylphs - air, Pygmies - earth and Salamanders - fire. They are also called Undines, Sylvesters, Dwarfs, Vulcans, etc. Each species moves only in the element to which it belongs and which is to him what air is to us or water to fish, and neither of them can live in an element belonging to another species.

For each elemental spirit, the corresponding element is transparent, invisible and breathable, just like our atmosphere."

The medical technique used by alchemists also follows from the cosmogony described above, which is also very reminiscent of the shamanic experience.

The conviction that all causes of disease come from the invisible nature of man is the fundamental principle of Hermetic medicine, which Paracelsus tried to introduce into widespread use.

According to his calculations, the etheric shadow shell of a person does not disintegrate after death, but remains until the physical form completely disintegrates. These “ethereal doubles” are often visible on graves and are the basis of belief in spirits. Being much subtler in its substance than earthly bodies, the etheric double is much more susceptible to impulses. It's a mess astral body is the cause of many diseases. Paracelsus taught that a man with a diseased mind can poison his own etheric nature, and this infection, by disturbing the natural flow of life force, will later manifest itself as physical illness. Paracelsus, considering disorders of the etheric double the most important cause of illness, “sought ways to harmonize its substance, bringing it into contact with other bodies, whose Vital energy could supply necessary elements and was strong enough to overcome the disease existing in the aura of the sufferer. Once the invisible cause is eliminated, the anxiety quickly passes" (Manly P. Hall. Encyclopedic presentation of Masonic, Hermetic, Kabbalistic and Rosicrucian symbolic philosophy. - Novosibirsk: VO "Nauka", Siberian Publishing Company, 1993).

According to Paracelsus, plants purify the atmosphere by absorbing carbon monoxide exhaled by animals and people, but in the same way plants can absorb diseases from people and animals. Those lower forms of life, whose organisms and needs are different from those of humans, are able to assimilate these substances without harm. Sometimes plants or animals die, sacrificing themselves for the sake of more intelligent and, therefore, more useful creatures that survive. Paracelsus argued that in any of these cases the patient gradually recovered.

Since the time of the immortal Hermes, alchemists have claimed that they can make gold from tin, silver, lead and mercury. Emperors, nobles, priests and commoners witnessed the “miracle” of the transformation of metals. Since alchemists actually worked with chemical compounds, it is not surprising that the most talented of them were able to implement and describe chemical processes already in the Middle Ages, which were rediscovered much later - in the era of Enlightenment and scientific revolution. Many alchemists and Hermetic philosophers hold a place of honor in the Hall of Fame of the History of Science, and we cannot deny their achievements. However, alchemy itself was forever discredited by a huge number of magicians and charlatans who imagined themselves to be carriers of secret knowledge inherited from previous generations.

At first glance, the history of alchemy is replete with inexplicable (or difficult to explain) miracles. At one time, Dr. Franz Hartmann collected “convincing evidence” that at least four of the currently known alchemists actually “transformed metals into gold” and did this more than once.

Let's look at these examples in turn and try to find out what was really behind the experiments on the transformation of elements.

In honor of the victory at sea over the French in 1340, the English king Edward III (reigned from 1327 to 1377) ordered the minting of special gold coins, which were called nobles. Until 1360, the nobles kept the provocative inscription: “King of England and France.” These coins, according to a number of authors, were made of gold produced by Raymundus Lullus.

Alchemist Raymondus Lullus (Raymond Lull) from Spain was born in 1235 in the town of Palma on the island of Mallorca, and died in 1315, according to other sources - no later than 1333. He lived an extraordinary life. As a boy, he was close to the Aragonese court, and later became a royal dignitary and educator of the future ruler of Mallorca, James II. Until the age of thirty-two, Lullus led the life of a rake and duelist. But then his life suddenly changed. He retired from the world, settling on the top of a mountain. At this time he wrote the theological and mathematical treatise “The Book of Contemplation”. Lullus set himself the goal of giving a logical proof of the truth of Christianity, thereby turning faith into an axiomatized “science.”

King Edward was able to attract the wandering alchemist to cooperation with the promise of organizing and leading a crusade against the infidels - the Turks; for this, Lullus undertook to produce 60,000 pounds (27 tons) of gold from mercury, tin and lead, which would " best quality than gold from the mines."

Raymondus was given quarters in the Tower and, as legend has it, he fulfilled his promise by creating required amount gold, which was then converted into six million nobles.

However, King Edward did not even think of going on a crusade against the infidels. Raymondus' luxurious quarters in the Tower turned out to be an honorary prison. The alchemist soon felt how things really were. He proclaimed that Edward would face misfortune and failure because of his weak faith. And he slipped out of England.

It would be very easy to attribute this deed of the alchemist Lullus to the realm of fable, which most alchemical stories truly deserve. However, those same nobles can still be seen in museums. They are made of high-grade gold and were probably issued in large quantities, since many calculations in those days were carried out with this coin. This is all the more amazing, historians testify, since England at that time practically did not conduct maritime trade and did not have any colonies or gold mines, and usually paid for all imports in tin. From what sources did King Edward draw gold, with the help of which he was apparently able to cover the costs of the Thirty Years' War with France?..

There are other mysteries of this kind in the history of the Middle Ages.

For example, the treasures left by Emperor Rudolf II after his death in 1612 created no less of a sensation. Quite unexpectedly, 84 centners of gold in the form of bullion and 60 centners of silver were discovered in his inheritance. The mysterious liquid located there was considered to be made from the philosopher's stone. Rudolf II, who had his residence in Prague as German Emperor since 1576, was famous as a great supporter of the secret sciences. In those days, a motley line of astrologers, clairvoyants and alchemists crowded around his court. Therefore, it seemed certain to many that the remaining gold and silver was of alchemical origin.

Rudolf II found numerous followers at the German princely courts. One of them was the Saxon Elector Augustus, who himself conducted experiments with the philosopher's stone in the laboratory - and, as they said, successfully. People called his laboratory nothing more than the “golden house.” It was equipped by him himself in the resident city of Dresden, where the professional alchemist Schwerzer also worked for him. Elector Augustus wrote in 1577 to an Italian alchemist:

“I’m so up to speed now that I can turn eight ounces of silver into three ounces of solid gold.”

When Augustus passed away, he left a gold reserve of 17 million thalers - a significant amount at that time. The whole world believed that the Elector had found a recipe for the transformation of metals. His successors, including Augustus II, called the Strong, were very eager to find out this secret. As Elector of Saxony and King of Poland in 1701, in a state dispute with the Prussian king Frederick I, Augustus II took the alchemist Johann Böttger from him. The latter was held captive in Dresden, and later in the fortress of Konigstein, until he received something that the German princes at that time valued at its weight in gold. It was porcelain. Having been appointed director of the porcelain manufactory in Meissen, founded in 1710, Boettger apparently remained true to his inclinations towards alchemy. The Dresden state porcelain collection still contains a pure gold kinglet weighing about 170 grams, which Bötger obtained in 1713 allegedly through alchemical manipulations.

What is the true origin of all this gold?

Once upon a time, Johann Christian Wigleb, a historian trained as a pharmacist, asked himself this question. We find the exact answer in his “Historical-Critical Study of Alchemy or the Imaginary Art of Making Gold,” which appeared back in 1777. To refute the legend about the gold of the alchemists, Vigleb dug historical sources and discovered that there was a very rationalistic explanation for the golden treasure of the Saxon elector.

In the 15th and 16th centuries The development of silver ores in the Saxon ore-bearing mountains reached an unexpected peak. Large quantities of silver were extracted from the fertile mines in Schneeberg, Freiberg and Annaberg. The tenth part (the so-called tithe) was to belong to the ruler. The elector received the same amount from the mint for the privilege of minting coins. It has been historically proven that in the period from 1471 to 1550, the Saxon electors appropriated more than 4 billion (!) thalers from the Schneeberg silver mines alone.

During the reign of Elector Augustus, the silver abundance of the ore-bearing mountains did not decrease. Therefore, according to Wigleb, “it is no longer a mystery how Augustus, after a 33-year reign and an equally long exploitation of the mines... was able to leave 17 million thalers... One can be surprised that he did not leave more.”

By the way, Schneeberg pyrargite contained considerable amounts of gold, which was also extracted. Schwerzer, appointed court alchemist, had a special passion for this silver ore and “transmuted” it until gold began to sparkle in the melting crucible.

As for the gold of King Edward III, it is historically certain that he collected war indemnities by raising taxes and imposing debt obligations. Without hesitation, he confiscated gold objects from churches and monasteries, even seizing coronation symbols...

In his fundamental work "In the Pronauses of the Temple of Wisdom", glorifying the fantastic achievements of the alchemists, Franz Hartmann writes:

"The most indisputable evidence of the transformation of base metals, which can convince anyone, lies in Vienna. This is a medal from the imperial treasures, and it is said that a part of it, consisting of gold, was made so by alchemical means by the same Wenzel Sailer, who was subsequently knighted by the emperor Leopold I and who was given the title of Wenceslaus Ritter von Rheinburg."

Let's talk about this "most indisputable evidence." I am retelling it from the book by Klaus Hoffmann, “Can Gold Be Made?”

Emperor Leopold I, who reigned from 1658 to 1705, was considered the great patron of all alchemists. At his court, alchemists performed sensational experiments on the transformation of elements. Until recently, scientists puzzled over them. The most exciting alchemical adventure is associated with the name of the monk Wenzel Sailer. Here's his story.

In 1675, rumors about the cheerful life of alchemists at the Viennese court attracted this monk to the emperor's residence. Life in the monastery in Prague bored him. Sailer himself was going to serve alchemy. He stole red powder from one brother, believing that this was the mysterious philosopher's stone.

Emperor Leopold I listened favorably to everything that the monk could tell him. Being the patron of all traveling craftsmen, he also sheltered Sailer. The monk had to show his skills in the emperor's secret laboratory. It was a gloomy basement with narrow windows that only meagerly let in daylight. Seiler had to summon all his self-control to appear outwardly cool. After all, not only his career at court, but also his life itself depended on the upcoming experiment. The trial of deceivers was usually brief. Quite a few of them ended their lives on the gallows, painted with gold leaf.

Sailer informed the emperor that he would partially “color,” that is, turn, the copper vessel into gold.

“Well, then, begin!” - the ruler ordered quite mercifully.

The monk began the ceremony, accompanying it with theatrical gestures and mysterious words. The servant kept a copper bowl ready to place it on the fire at Seiler's sign. When it became red hot, the master poured a pinch of miraculous red powder onto it. Muttering some incantations, Sailer turned the copper vessel several times in the air and finally plunged it into the prepared vat of cold water. A miracle has happened! Everywhere where the philosopher's stone came into contact with the copper of the cup, the glitter of gold could be seen.

The monk turned to a crucible with bubbling mercury standing at a distance. Seiler ordered his assistant to increase the fire, because, as he enthusiastically announced, he now wanted to “paint the mercury to gold.” For this purpose, he covered part of the red powder with wax and threw it into a boiling liquid. Thick, acrid smoke poured out. Almost instantly the violent seething in the crucible stopped. The melt has solidified.

However, the monk stated that the fire was not yet strong enough. With a confident movement, he threw several coals into the melt. They burned with a sparkling flame. When Sailer ordered the servant to pour the liquid melt into a flat bowl, it became clear that the contents had decreased significantly. Something wonderful happened again. The solidifying metal sparkled with a light sheen of gold, brightly reflecting the light of the torches. With a nod, the emperor ordered that the gold sample be taken to the goldsmith, who was waiting in the next room.

Leopold I and the courtiers eagerly awaited what the goldsmith's verdict would be. Finally the result was announced: the jeweler declared that this was the purest gold he had ever dealt with!

The emperor did not skimp on praise:

"Do not hesitate to present us with further evidence of your high skill. Mine gold, and we will shower you with favors!"

Emperor Leopold I ordered the minting of ducats from “artificial” gold. On one side there is his image, on the other there is an inscription placed around the date 1675: “I was transformed from tin into gold by the power of Wenzel Sailer’s powder.” The purity of these coins showed a purity greater than 23 carat gold. True, the ducats seemed somewhat lightweight to critical contemporaries.

With great pomp, Sailer was awarded the title of “royal court chemist”, and in September 1676 he was knighted. In addition, Leopold I, not without a long-range view, appointed him master of the Bohemian mint. Probably, the emperor hoped that thanks to Seiler's dexterity, the Bohemian tin mines would soon generate more income than the Hungarian gold mines.

The recipe for making the philosopher's stone was repeatedly described in numerous alchemical treatises, but in such a form that no one, and often even the alchemist himself, could understand anything. Some of these "recipes" are compiled relatively clearly, such as the recipe for making the philosopher's stone in the "Chemical Code" of Basilius Valentinius. Even if some of the most important data in it is encrypted with alchemical symbols, their solution is still quite simple. It described the chemical production of a blood-red liquid from mercury ore by dissolving the latter in aqua regia; the mixture was eventually heated for several months in a closed vessel - and the magic elixir was ready.

It should be noted here that in some details all alchemical recipes coincide. It is often stated that the philosopher's stone is a bright red, non-hygroscopic substance. When obtained from mercury and other components, the substance changes its color several times - from black to white, then to yellow and finally to red. Professor van Nieuwenburg in 1963 took the trouble to repeat numerous alchemist operations. In one of the experiments, he actually observed the described color changes. After removing all the mercury introduced according to the recipes of the alchemists, as well as its salts by decomposition at high temperatures or by sublimation, he obtained a very beautiful red non-hygroscopic substance. The sparkling prismatic crystals were chemically pure silver chloroate. It is possible that this compound was the very philosopher’s stone, which, due to its high gold content (44%), could cause the desired transformation - say, surface gilding or alloying with base metals. It is clear that with the help of this compound it was impossible to conjure more gold than it itself contained.

Today it is no longer possible to establish whether Wenzel Sailer took a substance like chloraurate or whether he used some sophisticated trick to bring his experiments on the transformation of metals to the desired goal under the critical gaze of Emperor Leopold I. However, Seiler performed another trick that can still be amazed today. The collection of medals and coins of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna contains a medallion weighing more than 7 kilograms. Its diameter is about 40 centimeters, and in terms of gold content it corresponds to 2055 old Austrian ducats. On the artistic relief of the front side, portraits of numerous ancestors of the imperial house are visible. On the reverse side, the inscription in Latin states that in the year 1677, on the feast of St. Leopold, Wenzel Sailer carried out “this true experiment of the actual and complete transformation of metals.”

In front of the emperor, in front of the assembled courtiers, representatives of the clergy and nobility, Sailer turned the described silver medallion into gold. He dipped the medallion about three-quarters of the way into various liquids, which he profusely claimed to have prepared from the great elixir. After that, he wiped the medallion dry with a woolen handkerchief. When Seiler removed the scarf with a spectacular gesture, everyone present was literally blinded by the golden shine of the medallion.

Even today you can clearly see the limit to which the alchemist lowered the medallion into the witchcraft liquid: the upper, smaller section of the medal remained silver; the lower part is colored gold and is indeed gold, as proven by experienced jewelers.

Despite this successful demonstration, Sailer's career as a court alchemist came to an end. He had to admit that he could no longer make gold. Perhaps he had used up all his miraculous powder.

Historians believe that the alchemist cost Emperor Leopold 20 thousand guilders, Sailer left a bunch of debts to various courtiers and government officials who too easily believed in his art.

In the end, Leopold I stripped the unlucky craftsman of all his titles and sent him back to the monastery. However, Leopold did not initiate a lawsuit against Seiler, which would undoubtedly have ended in death on the gallows - on the contrary, the emperor silently paid all the alchemist’s debts.

The decisive reason for this unusual behavior of the deceived ruler was, perhaps, that same golden medallion, which for several centuries has amazed us as proof of the true art of alchemy. Scientists and specialists did everything possible to penetrate the secrets of apparent transmutation - sections of samples are visible in several places on the medallion. Tests consistently confirmed that the lower part of the medallion was made of gold.

It took 250 years before scientists were able to uncover the secret of the alchemical medallion. This happened in 1931, when two chemists from the Institute of Microanalysis at the University of Vienna, Strebinger and Reif, managed to violate the museum's ban on taking new samples by assuring management that they were using no more than 10 milligrams for each analysis.

Sensitive microanalysis methods yielded a striking result: the medallion has a completely homogeneous composition, namely: 43% silver, 48% gold, 1% copper and small amounts of tin, zinc and iron.

How did Sailer manage to give the silver alloy such a hue that everyone took it for pure gold?

At the request of scientists, the Vienna Mint produced an alloy of the same composition. Strebinger and Reif immersed his samples in a variety of acids and salt solutions until they rediscovered Wenzel Sailer's recipe. Cold, half-diluted nitric acid, which medieval alchemists were good at preparing and used to separate gold and silver, gives the silver alloys immersed in it the desired golden shine! Currently, such etching, or “yellow boiling,” is one of the most common working techniques for jewelers. By treating with various mineral acids the desired color of pure 24 carat gold is achieved.

The biographies of most alchemists were, as a rule, a chain of failures and disappointments.

At first it seemed that this did not apply to Franz Thousand, an apprentice from Bavaria, but this cup did not pass him either.

Thousand left the tinsmith's trade and tried his hand at various other "arts." Following his musical inclinations, he searched and found a varnish that was supposed to give the violins the sound of instruments of ancient Italian masters. He tried to obtain morphine from table salt, revolutionize steel processing, sent out drugs against aphids, foot-and-mouth disease and ulcers in animals, as well as a hemostatic agent. He produced all these “secret remedies” in his “laboratory” on his property in Obermenzing near Munich.

The culmination of his chemical research was a little book, printed by himself in 1922: “180 elements, their atomic weights and inclusion in the harmonic periodic system.”

The former tinsmith thoroughly redesigned the classical system of elements and created a new one: “Whoever uses this arrangement will immediately understand that Mendeleev’s periodic system has been left far behind.” Thousand arranged the elements according to the rules of the “doctrine of harmony” and came to a respectable number - 180 elements. More than a hundred of them were yet to be discovered. Thus, the table contained 12 elements lighter than hydrogen, which, however, are “difficult to obtain on our planet.”

The author of the brochure did not hide where, in fact, the research for which the Bavarian tinsmith created the “theoretical prerequisites” should lead: the goal of his research is the transmutation of elements! The thousand-year aspirations, hopes and dreams of the alchemists are now glory to Thousand! - were close to implementation.

It should be noted here that in Germany in the early 1920s there were many “ghosts” wandering around, and one of them was the ghost of alchemical transformations. The peace treaty concluded at Versailles in June 1919 between the warring imperialist states brought the German people increased exploitation both by their own monopoly masters and by foreign capital. In April 1921, the Allied Reparations Commission established the amount of reparations that Germany had to pay - 132 billion gold marks (!). To obtain such a lethal sum for any economy, the German economy, shaken by post-war crises, would have to spend decades.

In post-war Germany, the topic of gold was the talk of the town. Sensational and hopeful headlines periodically appeared in newspapers and magazines: “The victorious march of the German genius”, “Germany has mastered the secret of transmutation and will be able to buy off reparations; the golden key will open up unprecedented prospects”, “The first gold made by the hand of man”, “Gold from mercury - a world-historical achievement of German science."

Science fiction writers did not lag behind the journalists. For example, Reinhold Eichacker’s novel, which appeared in 1922, is called “The Fight for Gold.” The hero of the novel, the German engineer Werndt, is able to capture the energy of solar radiation (“a hurricane flow of energy quanta”) using a mast made of a new aluminum alloy 210 meters long; this energy, converted into several million volts, allows it to split off two alpha particles and one beta particle from each lead atom. In the blink of an eye, Werndt fabricates 50,000 tons of reparation gold. The whole world is filled with artificial gold...

In the novel The End of Gold, another science fiction writer, Rudolf Daumann, describes the future events of 1938 in a fascinating way. A German chemistry professor named Bargengrond discovers a way to make gold through atomic transformation, resulting in a gang of American gangsters chasing him. After a wild pursuit, he manages to wrest his secret from the professor: gold can be obtained by splitting off two alpha particles from bismuth using “rhythmic O-rays” - very hard X-rays. When the hero of Dauman's novel was lucky enough to construct powerful X-ray tubes, he began to produce gold in centners.

Capitalist gold markets are collapsing, the global stock market crash is leading to the depreciation of gold...

Therefore, it is not surprising that the modern alchemist Franz Thousand found a sufficient number of sponsors among his compatriots awaiting miracles.

Thousand cheated the first “partner” he found for a tidy sum of 100,000 marks. He used “productive capital” to satisfy his long-standing desire to acquire estates. Indiscriminately, Thousand bought houses, plots of land, and ruined castles in order to speculate on them in the real estate market. When the partner began to have some suspicions, Thousand informed him (in April 1925) that the receipt of gold would begin just now. Shouldn't we turn to the newly elected President of the Reich, Hindenburg, with a request to become a guarantor in the enterprise? They found an intermediary, Secretary of State Meisner - the chief of the presidential chancellery of Hindenburg, who reacted favorably to the idea; Through him, another representative of the government was eventually found to create the Bavarian “golden kitchen” - General Ludendorff.

Erich Ludendorff - German military and political figure, general of infantry (1916). Born on April 9, 1865 in Krushevny, near Poznan, into a landowner family. He graduated from the cadet corps and served on the General Staff from 1894. In 1908-12 - head of the operational department of the General Staff. During the First World War, he was first chief quartermaster of the 2nd Army, and from August 23 to November 1914 - chief of staff of the 8th Army, chief of staff of the Eastern Front and 1st quartermaster general of the high command headquarters (from August 1916 ). After the Armistice of Compiegne in November 1918, Ludendorff emigrated to Sweden. In the spring of 1919, he returned to Germany and became the leader of the most extreme counter-revolutionary circles, and was an active participant in the Kapp Putsch in 1920. Closely aligned with the National Socialists, Ludendorff in November 1923 led, together with Hitler, the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. During the trial of the coup participants, Ludendorff was acquitted. In 1924 he was elected as a member of the Reichstag from the NSDAP. Having put forward his candidacy for the presidential elections in 1925, Ludendorff was defeated. He was the founder of the Tannenberg Union, whose goals were to fight the “internal enemies of the state” in the person of Jews, Freemasons and Marxists. After disagreements arose with President Hindenburg, on the one hand, and with his former associate Hitler, on the other, Ludendorff withdrew from active political activity. He died on December 20, 1937 in Tatzing (Bavaria).

As the publisher of the National Socialist propaganda leaflet "Völkischer Kurir", Ludendorff did not get out of debt. Now he was looking for financial sources for himself and his party. In this situation, the alchemist Thousand seemed to the “hero of the world war” to be a messenger from above.

Ludendorff invited a chemist who was supposed to subject the Thousand process to examination. Before his eyes, Thousand obtained 0.3 grams of gold from molten lead, to which he added 3 grams of iron oxide (let’s just say rust). The demonstrative alchemical transmutation was a success.

When they began to say that even such a person as Ludendorff trusted “this Thousand,” several financiers readily offered their services to the alchemist. cash.

With Ludendorff as his guarantor, Thousand founded Society 164. This is not a secret code: in Franz Thousand’s system of elements, gold had the number 164. To prevent the bird from flying away before laying the golden eggs, Ludendorff entered into a private agreement with Thousand, according to which the alchemist refused in favor of Ludendorff any implementation of his gold synthesis process . Thousand was given 5% of the profits. Shareholders and shareholders were to receive 12%, assistants - 8%. And Ludendorff was going to take 75% into the treasury of the National Socialists.

Among the members of Society 164 were such major industrialists as Mannesmann and Scheler, industrial and financial tycoons of the German Reich, and nobles, such as the princes of Schönburg-Waldenburg. They entrusted more than one million marks to Franz Thousand for his alchemical experiments.

"Society 164", later renamed the "Thousend Research Society", used this money to found alchemist laboratories throughout the German Reich.

Thousand saw his task primarily as traveling from branch to branch, concluding deals for the purchase of land and castles and negotiating "on top level". For example, Thousand wanted to know from the chairman of the Treasury Board, former minister Lenze, where it would be safest to place gold from his factories in the future. Then the alchemist went to Italy and established connections with one of the secretaries of the dictator Mussolini.

By the beginning of 1929, the Research Society was forced to admit itself insolvent. More than a million gold marks were wasted. No one really knew where this huge amount went. Idle factory installations, land for new workshops, dilapidated castles - all this testified to the wastefulness of Thousand. In all parts of Germany, people who trusted him brought lawsuits against Thousand.

In the end, the fleeing attacker was detained in Italy. As a person under investigation, he was transported to Milan, where he was in prison for six months.

Without losing heart, the criminal stubbornly insisted on his innocence. He knows how to make gold in kilograms, and let them first prove to him that he cannot make it. The investigator and prosecutor lost their temper. They ordered a demonstration test.

This alchemical performance took place in October 1929 at the main mint of Munich in the presence of its director, several specially instructed police officers, a prosecutor, an investigator, and also a defense lawyer.

The tricks of the roguish alchemists were well known by that time, and all protective measures were taken. When Thousand arrived at the mint, he was stripped naked, thoroughly examined, from his teeth to his toenails, even his eyelids were turned out. However, the artist really made gold! From a lead sample weighing 1.67 grams, he smelted a shiny metal ball, which, as later analyzes showed, contained 0.095 grams of pure gold and 0.025 grams of silver.

Although the experiment was closed, word of the successful transmutation spread throughout the city with lightning speed. The director of the mint, under pressure from reporters, said that he would certainly be relieved if this shiny piece of gold, fabricated by Thousand, did not exist at all.

In special editions on the front pages of newspapers, the press reported the sensational result of the experiment; The headline was printed in large letters: "The Thousand Alchemist Proves His Art." Thousand's resourceful defender demanded his release from prison. However Supreme Court The country rejected this request: Thousand is under investigation, primarily for fraud.

The main process began only in January 1931. It is clear that the trial attracted a lot of attention from the German public.

During the process, they also talked about a successful experiment at the Munich mint. Experts were heard. The opinion of university professor Gonigschmid from Munich was categorical. It is impossible to carry out the transformation of elements through a simple chemical reaction, as Thousand practiced.

The transformation of lead into gold, which at first glance was so convincingly demonstrated by Thousand at the mint, also received a striking explanation during the process. “Artificial” gold in the amount of 95 milligrams could well have been formed... from the gold nib of a fountain pen. When the prosecutor heard this, he ordered the evidence to be immediately brought to court, but Thousand's fountain pen with a gold nib could not be found anywhere.

The court found Franz Thousand guilty of repeated deception. He was sentenced to three years and eight months' imprisonment, including pre-trial detention.

Thousand's lawyer tried his best to convince the court that not only his client was to blame: in fact, it was not Thousand that should be tried, but Ludendorff and other party bosses from the NSDAP, as well as those who gave Thousand a loan. They “deified” Thousand until he, in his fantasies, began to accept his own deception as the pure truth.

During the reign of Hitler and his clique, the Nazis found their own and, as it seemed to them, promising source of gold. These were confiscated gold items and torn out gold crowns of those who were sent to the death conveyor in concentration camps. Alchemists were no longer needed - they were replaced by professional killers in black SS uniforms.

In addition to experiments in creating the philosopher's stone and the universal solvent, alchemists tried to comprehend the secrets of the origin of life and, comparing themselves with the Lord God himself, to create an artificial creature - a homunculus (from the Latin "homunculus" - little man).

Antiquity knew many artificial creatures - from the copper bull Moloch, who swallowed the condemned and spewed smoke from his nostrils, to walking statues that guarded the chambers of royal tombs. However, they were all deprived of the most important quality that makes a thing alive - the soul.

One of the first European alchemists, Albertus Magnus, gained the greatest fame in the matter of reviving dead matter. There is evidence of this from his student, the greatest Catholic philosopher Thomas Aquinas.

Thomas tells how one day he visited his teacher. The door was opened for him by an unfamiliar woman, moving in strange slow jerks and speaking just as slowly, with pauses between phrases. The future philosopher experienced a feeling strong fear in the company of this maid Albert. The fear was so great that Thomas Aquinas attacked her and hit her several times with his staff. The maid fell, and some mechanical parts suddenly spilled out of her. It turned out that the woman was an artificial being (android), which Albertus Magnus had been working on for thirty years to create.

At the same time, the Spanish alchemist Arnold de Villanova struggled with the creation of artificial man, whose achievements were later used by Paracelsus, who created detailed recipe growing a homunculus. In his work On the Nature of Things, Paracelsus wrote:

“There has been a lot of debate around whether nature and science have given us a means by which it would be possible to give birth to a man without the participation of a woman. In my opinion, this does not contradict the laws of nature and is indeed possible...”

Paracelsus' recipe for producing a homunculus is as follows. The first step is to place fresh human sperm in a retort flask, then seal the vessel and bury it in horse manure for forty days. During the entire period of “maturation” of the homunculus, one must constantly cast magic spells that should help the embryo acquire flesh. After this period, the flask is opened and placed in an environment whose temperature corresponds to the temperature of the horse’s entrails. For forty weeks, the little creature born in the flask must be fed daily with a small amount of human blood.

Paracelsus assured that if everything is done correctly, a baby will be born, who will then grow to normal size and answer the most intimate questions.

In the occult literature of that time there were other recipes for making a homunculus, but all of them in one way or another echoed the teachings of Paracelsus and differed from it only in details.

Growing homunculi was considered not only difficult, but also dangerous, because wrong actions could give birth to a terrible monster. The threat also came from the church, which prohibited, under penalty of death, from producing a person in an unnatural way. But the desire for “higher knowledge” for alchemists was always stronger than church dogmas: every now and then there were brave men who declared that they had conquered inanimate nature.

At the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, a legend appeared about Rabbi Yehuda Lev Ben Bezalel and his brainchild, the Golem.

Yehuda Lev Ben-Bezalel (also known as Maharal mi-Prag) was born in 1512 in the city of Poznan into a family of immigrants from Worms, who produced many famous Talmudists. After studying in the yeshiva from 1553 to 1573, Yehuda was the district rabbi in Morava and then moved to Prague. Here he founded a yeshiva, which enjoyed enormous fame, and a society for the study of the Mishnah. He lived in Prague until 1592. His acquaintance with the Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I dates back to the same period of his life. From 1597 until the end of his life, the Maharal was the chief rabbi of Prague. He died in 1609 and was buried in the Prague cemetery. His grave is well known. To this day it is a place of worship - and not only for Jews.

It should be said that the activities of the Maharal had a huge impact on further development Jewish ethics and philosophy. His most famous works - "The Paths of the World", "The Glory of Israel" and "The Eternity of Israel" - have not lost their relevance to this day.

In addition to religious works, Rabbi Yehuda Lev Ben Bezalel wrote a great many books of non-religious content - on astronomy, alchemy, medicine and mathematics. In general, it should be noted that Maharal was part of the galaxy of European scientists of that time, and his closest friend was the famous Danish astronomer (and astrologer) Tycho Brahe.

Bezalel sought a formula for revival, relying on the instructions of the Talmud, which states that if the righteous wanted to create the world and man, they could do this by rearranging the letters in the unpronounceable names of God. Bezalel's search led to the creation of an artificial creature called the Golem.

Life in the Golem was supported by magic words that had the property of attracting “free stellar current” from the Universe. These words were written on parchment, which was put into the Golem’s mouth during the day and taken out at night so that life would leave this creature, since after sunset the brainchild of Bezalel became violent.

One day, as the legend tells, Bezalel forgot to remove the parchment from the Golem’s mouth before evening prayer, and he rebelled. When they finished reading the 92nd Psalm in the synagogue, a terrible scream was heard in the street. It was the Golem rushing, killing everyone who got in its way. Bezalel barely caught up with him and tore the parchment that revived the artificial man. The golem immediately turned into a clay block, which is still shown in the Prague synagogue on Alchemists Street.

Later they said that the secret formula for reviving the Golem was preserved by a certain Eleazar de Worms. It supposedly takes up twenty-three columns of handwritten text and requires knowledge of the "221 Gate Alphabet" used in spells.

The legend also tells that the word "emet", meaning "truth", had to be written on the clay man's forehead. The same word, but with the first letter erased - “met”, translated as “death”, turned the Golem into an inanimate object.

The tales of the android, the homunculi of Paracelsus and the Golem were a major topic of discussion in scientific circles in the 18th century. Here and there new rumors were born about a found way to turn the dead into the living.

One of these stories tells that the famous doctor, botanist and poet Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of the creator of the theory of evolution, kept in his test tube a piece of noodles that could move by itself.

The Rosicrucians, who assimilated and developed the tradition of alchemy, also showed great interest in this kind of experiments.

“In a vessel,” we read in the secret Rosicrucian acts, “May dew, collected on the full moon, is mixed with two parts of male and three parts of female blood from pure and chaste people. This vessel is placed on moderate heat, causing red earth to be deposited below, and part is separated into a clean flask and from time to time is poured into the vessel, into which one grain of tincture from the animal kingdom is also poured in. After a while, stomping and whistling will be heard in the flask, and you will see in it two living beings - a man and a woman - absolutely beautiful... Through certain manipulations you can maintain their life for a year, and you can learn anything from them, because they will fear and honor you."

In 1775, Count von Kufstein from Tyrol appeared on the scene with his ten “spirits” enclosed in bottles.

The count was a wealthy Austrian landowner who served at the imperial court. His secretary, Kammerer, scrupulously calculating how many thalers the voyage to Italy cost the count (hotel bills, wig powder, expenses for gondolas and tips), casually mentions his chance acquaintance with the Abbe Zeloni, who, like His Excellency, , belonged to the Rosicrucian brotherhood. So, quite unexpectedly, among the mercantile calculations, a more than fantastic story worthy of Hoffmann’s pen appeared.

During five weeks spent in the mysterious laboratory of an Austrian castle, the count and the abbot managed to raise several “spiritualists”: a king, a queen, an architect, a monk, a nun, a knight and a miner. In addition to them, three completely fantastic characters appeared in the smoked glass: a seraphim and two spirits - red and blue.

For each, a two-liter flask of water was prepared in advance, covered with a bull's bladder, where they were supposed to live, like fish in an aquarium. Following the recipe of Paracelsus, the vessels were placed in a dung heap, which the abbot watered every morning with some kind of solution. Soon, intense fermentation began, and on the twenty-ninth day the flasks were again on the laboratory bench. Zheloni worked a spell on them for some time, and finally the delighted count was able to see his pets again. The metamorphoses that happened to them were truly worthy of amazement. The gentlemen managed to grow quite a beard and mustache, and the only lady shone with angelic beauty. In addition to these miracles, the king miraculously acquired a crown and scepter, the knight - armor and a sword, and a diamond necklace sparkled on Her Majesty's chest.

But soon the joy of the great accomplishment was overshadowed by the wayward behavior of the tiny captives. Every time it was time to feed them, they tried to escape from the glass prison! The abbot even once complained that the insolent monk almost bit off his finger. The crowned prisoner behaved even worse. Having managed to sneak away during the next meal, he managed to run to the queen’s flask and even tore off the wax seal suspended from the vial. Obviously, he did not like Paracelsus’s behest to renounce a woman.

Laughter and laughter, but it all ended pretty badly. The Rosicrucian brothers were very skeptical about Küfstein's demonstration. Someone even noticed that there were simply “bad toads” sitting in the flasks. Only one of the adherents, by the way, a healer, showed a willingness to participate in the experiment through the laying on of hands, but his reputation was already seriously damaged by outright fraud in Leipzig.

The long-awaited communication with the homunculi was not pleasing either. They broadcast, presumably, exclusively through Zheloni. Instead of wise advice and promised secrets, they talked rather incomprehensibly about their own affairs. The king was concerned only with political problems. The queen did not even want to think about anything other than court etiquette. The knight was constantly cleaning his weapon, and the miner was quarreling with invisible gnomes over underground treasures.

But the worst thing happened with the monk. As soon as the count tried to ask him about some manuscript of Paracelsus, the absurd monk created such a scandal that the flask fell off the table and was broken into pieces. It was not possible to save the poor fellow. After the solemn funeral in the same garden bed, another surprise followed. The king went on the run again, breaking almost all the laboratory glassware. Attempts to compensate for the loss of the monk with a more loyal person also ended in failure. The Count wanted to get the admiral, but it turned out something like a tadpole. Indeed, they are “bad toads.”

In the end, Kufstein heeded the pleas of his wife, who was concerned not so much with her husband’s ungodly activities as with the senseless waste of family capital. This is where the secretary's notes end. One can only guess how and under what circumstances the imperial count parted with his unusual collection and, no less interesting, where did the warlock abbot go...

Some clue to the “miracle” of Zhelony’s homunculi is given, oddly enough, by a bull’s bladder. In Europe, a rather funny toy is widely used, which is a glass tube filled with water with a rubber bulb at the end; Inside the pear floats a devil cast from multi-colored glass, which, as soon as you press on the pear, begins to tumble and move its arms and legs. Among the “spiritualists” there are not only little devils, but also knights and ducks, not to mention naked beauties.

This toy was probably known in the Middle Ages. And who knows whether it was a consequence of the legends about the homunculus or, on the contrary, gave birth to them?..

In the 20th century, most of the tricks of alchemists were exposed, and the alchemical practice itself was given an appropriate assessment both in academic circles and in popular scientific literature.

Nevertheless, it is somewhat premature to say that with the advent of the enlightened era, alchemists disappeared like dinosaurs. A good education and strong materialistic views are not a reliable defense against the alchemical techniques of deceiving the public. As Lieutenant Colombo used to say, in order to expose a trick, you need to be firmly convinced that it is a trick. But what about “confidence” if the alchemist is supported by the state itself?..

Despite its emphatically materialistic ideology, the Soviet state periodically extolled the most notorious alchemists, giving them fame, money and power. One of them was the notorious “Michurinite” Trofim Lysenko.

The peasant son Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (born in 1898) put a lot of effort into “making his way into the people,” that is, to avoid hard and unprofitable peasant labor. Before the World War, he already studied at the Poltava horticultural school, and in the early 1920s we find him at the Belotserkovsky breeding station of the Sugar Trust of Ukraine. Two brief publications in 1923 (in the Bulletin of the Variety Testing Department of the Sugar Trust), devoted to the selection of tomatoes and the grafting of sugar beets, demonstrate his desire to master the techniques of scientific work, but also the germs of his future fantastic theories.

In the second half of the 1920s, he was an employee of the Central Experimental Breeding Station in Ganja (Azerbaijan). He was entrusted with work on the problem of sprouting legumes in winter, but Lysenko did not complete it. He became a "grain alchemist."

The first impetus for Lysenko’s new type of activity was given in 1927, when the station was visited by Vitaly Fedorovich, a venerable publicist who published his essays in Pravda. The correspondent needed a prototype for the role of a hero from the worker-peasant environment, and Lysenko was introduced to the visiting journalist. For two days he entertained Fedorovich with stories, took him around the fields, and showed him the crops. What he saw inspired the correspondent, and he tried to create a real sensation around the first experience, interesting in concept, but modest in result. His long article “Fields in Winter” appeared in the Pravda newspaper. In it, the aspiring agronomist, who impressed the author with his peasant origins, was highly praised. In full agreement with the trends of the times, the correspondent was touched even by the fact that his hero did not shine with education: “... he did not go to universities, he did not study the furry legs of flies, but looked at the root.”

The correspondent wrote enthusiastically about Trofim and even called him the “barefoot professor.” It is interesting that as a person Lysenko made an unimportant impression, and Fedorovich gave him an amazing description:

“If you judge a person by first impression, then this leaves Lysenko with a feeling of toothache - God bless him, he is a sad-looking man. He is stingy with words and insignificant in face - all I remember is his gloomy eye, crawling along the ground with such looking as if at least, he was going to kill someone." But the journalist spoke with enviable respect about his promising work with peas:

“Lysenko solves (and has solved) the problem of fertilizing the land without fertilizers and mineral fertilizers, greening the empty fields of Transcaucasia in winter, so that livestock does not die from meager food, and the Turkic peasant lives through the winter without trembling for tomorrow... The barefoot professor Lysenko now has followers, students, an experimental field, luminaries of agronomy come in winter, stand in front of the green fields of the station, gratefully shake his hand..."

After the article appeared in Pravda, Lysenko immediately lost interest in legumes and stopped working with them, but for such freewheeling he was not kicked out of the station, but was favorably allowed to switch to a new topic - the influence of temperature on plant development.

The materials obtained during the research work provided the basis for one of approximately 300 highly specialized reports at the grandiose (2000 participants) congress on genetics, selection, seed production and livestock breeding, held under the leadership of Nikolai Vavilov in January 1929 in Leningrad. Leningradskaya Pravda, which covered the plenary sessions in the spirit of sensations, once published an article entitled “It is possible to turn winter grain into spring grain.” We were talking about the work of the great plant physiologist Maksimov. Nobody particularly noticed Lysenko (who spoke at the sectional meeting), except for Maksimov, who criticized low level his works. (Five years later, after his arrest and deportation, Maksimov will carefully choose his expressions when speaking about the new darling of the nomenklatura).

The collapse of expectations forced Lysenko to change his focus from an academic career to the search for success among party and government officials. He needed a sensation to take off quickly. But the party leader of Ukraine Postyshev and the Ukrainian People’s Commissar of Agriculture Shlikhter were looking for the same sensation: for two winters in a row, 1927-28 and 1928-29, huge crops of winter wheat froze. After two crop failures, it was reasonable to expect an increased harvest. But the local authorities needed a miraculous solution to all problems - for a victorious report to the Kremlin.

According to the official version, in February 1929, Lysenko wrote to his father to bury seed winter wheat in the snow and then sow the seeds that had sprouted. (In the mid-1960s, a cynical but plausible version was in circulation: Father Lysenko hid wheat from food detachments; the grain got wet and sprouted; out of greed, he sowed the field with this grain and received some harvest). On May 1, Lysenko Sr. sowed half a hectare; there was no talk about control seeding. In different years, about this case, doubling and tripling of the harvest, or an increase in it by 10 or 15 percent, were reported. In the summer of 1929, the People's Commissar of Ukraine announced a solution to the grain problem. As a reward, Lysenko was sent to work at the Odessa Institute of Selection and Genetics.

In the summer, a sensation swept through the central newspapers. No scientific reports about the “experience” of Lysenko’s father and son appeared in the press. Only Lysenko himself could supply information for them.

In the fall, Lysenko received significant support from the newly appointed People's Commissar of Agriculture of the USSR, Yakovlev (who later became the head of the agricultural department of the Central Committee and a consistent persecutor of geneticists). The miraculous vernalization (instead of painstaking selection and agrotechnical work) came at the right time: Stalin demanded to obtain results that suited him in each specific area, regardless of any limits of possibility known to science.

In general, the story with the instant recognition of Lysenko’s discovery could have seemed like some kind of hoax or a large-scale clouding of the minds of hundreds of bosses at once, if there had not been a simple explanation: the earth was burning under them, and they were ready to sign up for any nonsense, just to demonstrate to their superiors taking care of agriculture. Only this can explain the strange, even paradoxical situation in which leaders Agriculture Ukraine and the country as a whole did not see any difficulties in using the failed discovery in practice. They immediately believed in Lysenko’s miracle and decided that the firebird was already in their hands.

At the beginning of 1935, Lysenko received the highest praise. His speech at the 2nd Congress of Collective Farm Shock Workers with demagogic calls for class vigilance was interrupted by a psychologically precise statement: “Stalin: “Bravo, Comrade Lysenko, bravo!” There is applause in the hall.”

After this, the Soviet alchemist felt that his hands were untied. The general battle took place at a session of the USSR VASKhNIL (All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after Lenin) in December 1937. The main question for the discussion was: “Which material biologists should use to build agriculture: genetics or Lamarckism?”

It should be noted here that the name “Lamarckism” was given to the favorite theory of novelists of the late 19th century, based on the hypothesis of the inheritance of external influences by species.

Lamarck, Jean Baptiste (French: Lamarck, 1744-1829), French naturalist, predecessor of Charles Darwin, founder of animal psychology. He created the doctrine of the evolution of living nature (Lamarckism). The main misconception of Lamarck is usually called his belief that the emergence of new species is associated with the influence of environmental factors.

It was on Lamarckism that Lysenko’s doctrine was based on the possibility of remaking the nature of plants and animals in the direction and scale that suited the Soviet nomenklatura. It is known that Stalin himself believed in the ideas of Lamarckism, and the alchemist of modern times correctly grasped the secret desire of the leader to destroy the principle of the originality of the gene.

In his report at the VASKhNIL session, Lysenko focused on two issues. The first is “improving the quality of seed material of self-pollinating plants through intravarietal crossing,” the second is “remaking the nature of the plant through education.” And again, the most delusional theories, completely alchemical in their essence, find support from the powers that be.

The next step of the authorities was the arrest in 1940 of Nikolai Vavilov and other remarkable scientists. Stalin had already outlined the “final solution” to the genetic question, and for this it was necessary to remove all influential geneticists from the game.

The famous geneticist Joseph Rapoport recalled: “A.R. Zhebrak, professor of genetics at the Timiryazev Academy, said that after measures were applied to him after the session (August 1948 - A.P.), he got an appointment with one very responsible person, who began the conversation with him with an unheard-of statement: “You, geneticists, were saved by the Germans. If not for the war, we would have destroyed you back in 1941."

But even after the war the situation changed little. In August 1948, the next session of the USSR Academy of Agricultural Sciences took place, at which Lysenko’s supporters, with the tacit approval of the top leadership of the CPSU Central Committee, staged a decisive battle with geneticists. There was no need to think about ethics, and the Lysenkoites did not go into their pockets for words:

"...Only a scientist who has decided to commit scientific suicide can come up with the concept of a gene as an organ, a gland with a developed morphological and very specific structure. To imagine that a gene, being part of a chromosome, has the ability to emit unknown and undiscovered substances means to engage in metaphysical inexperienced speculation, which is death for experimental science..."

“...The history of the development of Mendelian science of heredity demonstrates with extraordinary clarity the connection of science under capitalism with the entire corrupt ideology of bourgeois society...”

“... Decaying capitalism at the imperialist stage of its development gave birth to a stillborn bastard of biological science - a thoroughly metaphysical, ahistorical teaching of formal genetics...”

It is now known that the text of Lysenko’s report at the 1948 session of the VASKhNIL was previously reviewed, edited and approved personally by Stalin.

The most humiliating thing happened at the last, tenth, meeting of the session. The night before, telephone calls were heard in the apartments of some “Mendelian-Morganists.” They received a call from “authorities”. And three people - the outstanding botanist Professor P. M. Zhukovsky, geneticist, associate professor of Moscow University S. I. Alikhanyan and Professor I. M. Polyakov made statements about changing their views and “moving into the ranks of the Michurinists.”

The defeat was complete. When the USSR Council of Ministers decided to introduce 35 new full members - academicians - into the VASKhNIL, there was not a single geneticist among them - all were proteges of Trofim Lysenko.

The repressive apparatus immediately began to work. Departments were closed, geneticists were expelled from their positions and were deprived of their titles.

By order of the Minister of Higher Education Kaftanov, about 3,000 scientists related to genetics were fired from their jobs.

In May 1949, Vladimir Pavlovich Efroimson, one of the founders of medical genetics in our country, was arrested.

Interestingly, he demanded that the indictment indicate that he was arrested for fighting Lysenko. But there was no such article in the criminal code, and Efroimson was convicted of “anti-Soviet agitation.”

A string of “Vavilovites” and “Mendelists” reached the Gulag camps. They were tried mainly on charges of “worshipping the West” and “praising American democracy.” Many of them perished in the snows of Siberia.

Often they voluntarily died. So, unable to withstand the persecution, the physiologist Dmitry Anatolyevich Sabinin, who defended genetics, committed suicide. Two more geneticists committed suicide - A. N. Promptov and L. V. Ferri.

In the atmosphere of triumph of alchemy, real monsters began to appear. Thus, an illiterate 80-year-old woman, Olga Borisovna Lepeshinskaya, stated that she had long ago discovered the formation of cells from formless “living matter” (for example, hay infusion, aloe juice, and so on). More than 70 professors who protested against this nonsense were expelled from scientific institutions and universities. Her daughter, also Olga (Panteleimonovna) Lepeshinskaya, and son-in-law Kryukov published fantastic articles in the most prestigious scientific journals about the transformation of cells into crystals and crystals into cells.

And soon a certain Boshyan published the book “On the Origin of Viruses and Microbes.” In it, he reported that viruses turn into bacteria, and bacteria and lower fungi can turn into... antibiotics. From penicillin, penicillum is formed - a mold fungus!

Why not experiments to obtain “spirits”?..

Only time put everything in its place...

Relapses into alchemy masquerading as experimental science were not a specific feature of Germany or the Soviet Union. They could take place in other countries with a dictatorial leader at their head. An instructive, albeit little-known example is the discovery of the “kenrak system” made in 1961 in North Korea by Professor Kim Bong Han. The essence of the discovery is as follows. In the body of higher vertebrates and humans, he discovered a complex kenrak system, consisting of tubes called bonhan tubes and associated bonhan bodies. This system is different from the circulatory, lymphatic and nervous systems. It supposedly ensures the integrity of the organism and its connection with the environment. A liquid containing deoxyribonucleic acid circulates through the bonhan tubes, which is part of the grains called salanaceous. Sanal grains can turn into cells, and the cells disintegrate into grains. This is the "Bong Han cycle: sanitary cell".

The kenrak system was considered as a theoretical basis oriental medicine"donyihak", which provides, in particular, the scientific basis for acupuncture.

Since 1962, abundant information about kenrak began to flow into the Soviet Union through the magazine "Korea" and the works of Kim Bong Han, illustrated with excellent color micrographs. Acquaintance with the published materials left no doubt that all this was a hoax. In photographs supposedly depicting bonhan tubes and corpuscles, well-known histological structures are easily recognizable - collagen, elastic, nerve fibers, sections of hair roots, encapsulated nerve endings, and the like. The Bon Han cycle was no different from the shamefully failed teaching of Lepeshinskaya on the emergence of cells from living matter.

At the same time, it became known that a special institute with many laboratories richly equipped with modern imported equipment was created for Kim Bong Han in Pyongyang. The institute occupied a five-story building. Conferences on kenrak were convened periodically and works were published in different languages. The assessments given were the most laudatory: “a great discovery”, “a great turning point in solving the main problems of the biological sciences”, “a revolution in the development of medicine” and so on. President of the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences Hong Hak Geun, calling Bong Han's work an "outstanding scientific discovery," wrote:

"These successes were achieved only thanks to the wise leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea and the beloved leader of the Korean people, Chairman of the Cabinet Kim Il Sung."

How could it happen that an alchemical theory, which has nothing to do with science, was accepted as a “great discovery”? The only explanation can be the fact that on February 1, 1962, Kim Bong Han and his team were sent a letter from the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the DPRK Kim Il Sung, which states:

“I warmly congratulate you on your great scientific achievement, the discovery of the kenrak substance... The entire Korean people highly appreciates your feat and is proud of it as a great achievement in the development of science in our country... Your devotion to the party and the people demonstrates the noble appearance of the red scientists nurtured by our party...” and so on Further. This turned out to be enough.

Let's sum up the intermediate results. Using the example of the history of alchemy, we found out what forms a primitive proto-religion could take in development. So far we are faced with loners who claim a special (I would even say, exclusive) place in human society and in the universe, but very soon they will begin to unite into interest groups, which, in turn, will grow, turning into secret occult communities. However, even the activities of these individuals demonstrate how destructive the practice of introducing occult (in this case, alchemical) theories into the framework of official science or government policy can be. We can respect and glorify the genius of Paracelsus in every possible way, but we should not forget that the great doctor was mistaken in many ways and not all of his recipes were effective. We must be able to separate truth from lies, speculation from truth, and then, perhaps, humanity will learn to avoid those dangerous turns that lead to the twilight of the mind. After all, Franz Thousand, Trofim Lysenko and Kim Bong Han are not yet an extreme case; in the following chapters I will talk about occult theories that almost led to disaster for the whole world.

“I prefer harmful truth to useful error; the truth itself heals the evil it has caused.” (J.V. Goethe)

The term “chemistry” is of Egyptian origin - in ancient times Egypt was called the Country of Kemi - the Black Land. The priests of Ancient Egypt were outstanding masters of chemical crafts, and chemistry gradually began to be called “Egyptian science.”

Two hundred years BC, in the city of Alexandria of Egypt, there already existed an Academy of Sciences, where the “sacred art of chemistry” was given a special building, the Temple of Serapis - the temple of life, death and healing.

This temple was destroyed by Christian fanatics in 391 AD, and the nomadic Arabs who captured Alexandria in 640 AD completed its destruction. They followed a simple rule: all ideas that are not in the Koran are erroneous and harmful, and therefore they must be eradicated. Moreover, works that are in agreement with the Koran should also be destroyed as completely unnecessary.

Much later, at the beginning of the 1st century AD, Arab chemists introduced another name, “alchemy,” instead of “chemistry.” It is believed that this word is closer to the concept of “noble chemistry”, since alchemy was considered “the art of transforming base metals (iron, lead, copper) into noble ones” - gold and silver with the help of a special substance - the “philosopher’s stone”.

ZOSIMA FROM PANOPOLIS AND THE SECRET OF THE “EMERALD TABLET”

One of the founders of alchemy is considered to be Zosima, a native of the Greek city of Panopolis, who lived in the 4th century AD in Alexandria of Egypt and taught students at the Academy.

In his writings, Zosima repeatedly mentioned the name of the legendary alchemist teacher Hermes and called him Hermes Trismegistus - three times the greatest, the lord of souls and a magician equal to God. The writings attributed to Hermes apparently dated back to the 5th-6th centuries BC.

According to legend, the soldiers of Alexander the Great found the tomb of Hermes Trismegistus with a stone slab - the “Emerald Tablet of Hermes”. Thirteen instructions to descendants were carved on it.

The seventh commandment said: “Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, with the greatest caution, with reverent care.” . This mysterious advice was apparently supposed to help those who are busy searching for the “philosopher’s stone” that transforms some substances into others.

It is often believed that Hermes Trismegistus is a legendary figure and is even identified with the ancient Egyptian sorcerer god Thoth.

From the very beginning of the birth of alchemy, from the first laboratories of the Egyptian priests, it was a secret science, full of mysticism. Alchemists encrypted their results and expressed themselves in a special allegorical language, incomprehensible to the uninitiated.

True, at that time there did not exist the now familiar symbols of chemical elements and chemical formulas substances, no one compiled reaction equations. In addition, alchemists who were looking for ways to obtain gold from simple metals were afraid that someone would reveal their secrets.

FROM ALBERT THE GREAT TO ISAAC NEWTON

“My father, the unsociable original,
I spent my whole life thinking about nature...
Alchemy of those days is a forgotten pillar,
He locked himself in a closet with his faithful
And with them there he distilled from flasks
Compounds of all kinds of crap.
There they called silver lily,
Leo means gold, and their mixture means a connection in marriage.”
(J.V. Goethe, “Faust”)

The most enlightened alchemist of his time was German Bishop Albert von Bolstedt - Albert the Great (1193-1280) . He wrote Set of rules, which stated that the alchemist “must be silent and modest and not communicate the results of his operations to anyone; he must live in a house separate from people.”

Albert the Great, like his other alchemist contemporaries, believed that all metals are created from mercury, that mercury is the “matter” of metals, and their color is determined by four “spirits” - mercury, sulfur, arsenic and ammonia (ammonium chloride NH4Cl).

Nevertheless, alchemy was historically the first science to combine theory and experiment. For almost two millennia - from the time of Zosima to the 17th century AD - alchemists conducted numerous experiments on the transformation of substances. From these experiments the science of chemistry later grew.

Belonged to the number of alchemists English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton (1643-1727). He devoted a lot of time and effort to the search for the philosopher's stone and the universal solvent. But Newton was interested not so much in methods of obtaining gold as in studying the interconversions of substances.

He was also an outstanding alchemist English philosopher, monk of the Franciscan order Roger Bacon (1214-1292). He conducted many experiments in search of ways to transform some substances into others. For refusing to reveal the secrets of obtaining gold, which he did not know, Bacon was condemned by his fellow believers and spent 15 long years in a church dungeon. His works, at the behest of the general of the Franciscan order, were chained to a table in the monastery library in Oxford as punishment.

ALCHEMISTS OF RUSSIA

In Russia, alchemy was not widespread: neither the authorities nor the people had confidence in alchemists. Instead of alchemists, there were alchemists in pharmacies and at the royal court. They prepared ordinary medicines, being essentially laboratory chemists.

Alchemists obtained and purified a variety of substances, mixing them according to the instructions of the pharmacist. Together with the pharmacist, they took part in the analysis and examination (“testing”) of new drugs. In the 18th century, the name of the profession “alchemist” was gradually replaced by “chemist”.

The position of chemist at factories in Russia first appeared under Catherine II. The “Regulations on the Tula Arms Factory” dated 1782 say: “The plant employs a Chemist, Mechanic and Architect.” At this time, nitric acid was produced in small quantities at this plant.

In one of the works of the Spanish alchemist Raymond Lull (1236-1315) there is the following definition: “Alchemy is a very necessary divine part of the secret heavenly natural philosophy, constituting and forming a single, but well-known science... to transform all metals into real silver, and then into real gold through a single universal medicine.”

And here is how Roger Bacon defined alchemy: “Alchemy is the science that shows how to prepare and obtain some means (elixir) which, thrown on metal or on an imperfect substance, makes them perfect at the moment of touch.”

Albert the Great considered such an elixir or enzyme (this name was used by the Greeks and Romans) a mixture of sulfur, mercury, arsenic, ammonia and arsenic sulfide As2S3.

THE SEARCH OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE

For thousands of years, alchemists have tried to find "philosopher's Stone"- some kind of solid or liquid substance, capable of transmuting the transformation of simple metal into silver or gold.

There was a legend that King Midas, who ruled in the Asia Minor country of Phrygia from 738 to 696. BC, allegedly received from the god Dionysus the ability to turn into gold whatever he touched with some mysterious magic stone. Midas was indeed fabulously rich, but not because he owned the stone: he owned all the gold deposits of Phrygia.

Alchemists considered nature to be alive and animate, so they were sure that metals grow and mature in the depths of the Earth from the mixing of sulfur with silver. They considered gold as a fully mature metal, and iron as an immature one.

The alchemists did not see significant difference between living and inanimate nature and believed that in inanimate nature the same processes occur as in the plant and animal world. In their opinion, the difference between gold and silver is only that the sulfur in gold is healthy - red, and in silver - white. When the spoiled red sulfur in the depths of the Earth comes into contact with silver, copper is born. When sulfur, both black and corrupted, is mixed with silver, lead is conceived: according to Aristotle, lead is leper gold.

Alchemists believed that with the help of the philosopher's stone it was possible to speed up the process of “ripening” immature metals and “healing” diseased metals, which in nature proceed rather slowly. The mythical “philosopher’s stone” can be considered a prototype of future enzymes and catalysts.

Since it was believed that the main component of any of the metals was mercury, and the second component was sulfur, alchemists had a firm belief that by changing the content of mercury and sulfur in the mixture, one could arbitrarily transform some metals into others.

Having set themselves a fantastic goal - the search for the "philosopher's stone" - the alchemists achieved very real practical successes. They created the first apparatus for the distillation (distillation) of liquids, sublimation (sublimation) of solids, recrystallization of salts and their thermal decomposition.

The famous Tajik physician, alchemist and philosopher Abu Ali al-Hussein ibn Sina (980-1037), better known as Avicenna, already knew how to obtain hydrochloric, sulfuric and nitric acids (HCl, H2SO4 and HNO3), potassium and sodium hydroxides (KOH and NaOH).

Alchemists were the first to use gold amalgam (a solution of gold in mercury) for gilding copper and iron items. They learned to extract gold from poor gold-bearing sands using mercury. The fact is that gold (a chemically inert metal) in nature is mainly in a native state. When gold-bearing sands are treated with mercury, it dissolves grains of gold, forming a heavy and liquid amalgam. The amalgam was separated from the sand and heated in furnaces, the mercury evaporated and pure gold remained.

Another method was invented to extract gold from poor rock. In Ancient Egypt, alchemical priests treated gold-bearing rock with molten lead, which dissolved gold and silver, then the melt was drained and fired in special pots. Lead turned into lead oxide PbO and was absorbed into the walls of the pot, carrying with it all random impurities, and an alloy of gold and silver remained at the bottom of the pot. The main secret of such firing is the material of the pots; they were made from bone ash.

Alchemists learned to use nitric acid to separate silver and copper, with which gold often forms natural alloys. Gold does not interact with nitric acid, and silver and copper form water-soluble salts - nitrates AgNO3 and Cu(NO3)2. These reactions also produce nitrogen dioxide NO2, which is released as a red-brown gas.

COURTY ALCHEMISTS

Many crowned heads, princes, sultans and khans kept alchemists in their circle, hoping with their help to increase their wealth. But already at the end of the 3rd century AD it became clear that alchemists were full of charlatans and swindlers. It is no coincidence that Emperor Diocletian (245-316) ordered all alchemists to be expelled from Rome and their manuscripts burned.

A thousand years later, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) in The Divine Comedy places alchemists in hell as malicious deceivers. And later a poem appeared:
“Everyone is glad to comprehend alchemy:
A brainless idiot, an old man and a young fop,
A tailor, an old woman, a nimble lawyer,
A bald monk, a shepherd and a soldier."

Nevertheless, interest in the “philosopher’s stone” continued into the Middle Ages. The Habsburg monarchs were especially thirsty for gold. The passion for alchemy began here Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612), who gained considerable fame as the patron of alchemists. Another monarch of the Roman-German Empire Ferdinand III (1608-1657) contained the alchemist Johann von Richthausen, who promised to produce the “philosopher’s stone”. In the presence of the emperor, he “transformed” mercury into gold, causing delight among the courtiers, but then it turned out that the alchemist had previously dissolved gold in mercury and, adding a pinch of “stone” ground into powder, evaporated the mercury by heating. What happened to Richthausen next, history is silent...

Encouraged alchemists and Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705). His favorite alchemist-monk Wenzel Sailer, using the “philosopher’s stone,” a mysterious red powder, turned zinc into gold, from which ducats were minted - Venetian gold coins that circulated throughout Europe. On one side of the ducats there was allegedly an inscription: “By the power of Wenzel Sailer’s powder, I became gold from zinc. 1675." However, not a single such coin has survived to this day. Impressed by the successful acquisition of gold, the emperor even elevated Sailer to the nobility.

THE ART OF THE ALCHEMIST SEILER

This happened in 1676. The alchemical monk Sailer conducted an experiment in obtaining gold from mercury in the presence of Emperor Leopold I and several of his courtiers. The place of the experiment was the secret laboratory of the emperor, a lover of alchemy, which was located in a gloomy basement with narrow windows and illuminated by torches on the walls.

Seiler covered a pinch of red powder, which he called the “philosopher’s stone,” with wax and threw it into the mercury boiling in a crucible, then he began to stir it with a rather thick wooden stick. Thick acrid smoke poured out, which forced everyone to turn away from the crucible and move away. Sailer ordered the servant to fan the fire under the crucible even more with bellows, and threw several coals into the mercury, which immediately burned with a sparkling flame.

When the liquid was poured from the crucible into a flat bowl, everyone saw that there was much less mercury... Gradually the molten metal hardened and sparkled golden-yellow; Instead of mercury, there was gold in the cup. A sample of the resulting metal was immediately taken to the court jeweler. After some time, he announced: the purest gold has been obtained!

Seiler was given the title of “royal court chemist”, knighted and appointed master of the Bohemian mint.

How did Sailer manage to deceive the emperor himself and his servants?

Apparently, the stick with which the swindler mixed the boiling mercury was hollow at the bottom, gold powder was hidden in it, and Sailer sealed the hole with wax. The lower part of the stick - material evidence of deception - was burned. The coals that Seiler threw into the crucible were also probably hollow, and some gold powder was hidden inside them. And wax and soot were an excellent camouflage.

Gold powder quickly dissolves in mercury to form a liquid mercury-precious metal alloy (amalgam), which can contain up to 10% gold. When the mercury was heated to a boil, it evaporated, leaving only pure gold in the crucible. Mercury oxide HgO could easily pass for the “philosopher’s stone”, which at high temperatures completely decomposes into mercury (which also evaporates) and oxygen: 2 HgO = 2 Hg + O2.

This is how the rogue alchemist turned mercury into gold in front of high-born simpletons - the emperor and his entourage...

THE STORY OF OTTO VON PAIKUL

You can give another story of an adventurer. It's about Swedish General Otto von Paikul.

He served in the troops of the Polish king Augustus II of Saxony, who fought on the side of Peter I with Sweden. In 1705, near Warsaw, Paikul was captured by the Swedes and sentenced to death. The general turned to the Swedish king Charles XII (1697-1718) with a request for pardon and, being an alchemist, promised to obtain gold in large quantities from antimony, iron oxide and antimony sulfide.

Paykul was given the opportunity to show his art. In the presence of the king, he received gold by influencing the specified mixture with the powder of the “philosopher’s stone”. His experiment lasted 140 days, and at night he took the mixture “to rest” to his home, where, apparently, he mixed gold powder into it. Paikul failed to avoid the death penalty...

The famous Swedish chemist Jens-Jakob Berzelius in 1802 tried to repeat his experiment using Paikul’s notes and, naturally, did not get gold.

Already in the 20th century, it became clear that natural mercury and mercury obtained from the mineral cinnabar (mercury sulfide HgS) always contain a small admixture of gold. Mercury forms a number of compounds with gold, some of which are capable of forming vapors with mercury and then condensing. Therefore, mercury cannot be freed from gold impurities even by repeated distillation.

Only a long-lasting electric discharge in mercury vapor can reveal a black coating of finely crushed gold on the walls of the reaction tube. This phenomenon caused the revival in the twenties and thirties of our century of the old alchemical tale about the possibility of transforming mercury into gold - now under the influence of electricity... Alas, this gold was an impurity in mercury.

In vanishingly small quantities, gold can be obtained from mercury in nuclear reactors. For example, from the radioactive isotope mercury-197 into nuclear reaction when, as a result of the capture of an electron from the electron shell of a mercury atom by the nucleus (the so-called K-capture), one of the protons of the nucleus of the mercury atom turns into a neutron with the emission of a photon.

ELIXIR OF LONGEVITY

The most famous alchemist who claimed the possibility of obtaining a mysterious substance that would allow a person to live for a long time, almost forever, was Jabir ibn Hayyan (721-815) from Baghdad. In Europe he was known for many centuries under the name Geber. His name is covered in legends. In Baghdad, Jabir created a scientific school, just as Aristotle created the Lyceum, and Plato created the Academy.

Jabir left one of the recipes for longevity. “You just need,” he wrote, “to find a toad that has lived ten thousand years, then catch a bat of a thousand years old, dry them, crush and grind them into powder, dissolve it in water and take a tablespoon every day.”.

It is clear that Jabir put his own irony into the description of the recipe, emphasizing its unreality. But he, like other alchemists, firmly believed that metals were formed in the earth from sulfur and mercury under the influence of the planets, and this idea outlived its creator by 700 years.

The legend of the elixir of longevity originated about two and a half thousand years BC in the Sumerian kingdom, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It was the epic of Gilgamesh, the son of the goddess Ninsun and a mortal man. At the end of his life, Gilgamesh wanted to gain immortality and was advised to eat the “grass of life” that grows on the seabed. Having obtained the grass, on the way to the house Gilgamesh decided to swim. The snake found the “grass of life” on the shore, swallowed it and became immortal, and Gilgamesh died.

Talented philosopher and alchemist Roger Bacon He quite seriously believed that thanks to the “elixir of longevity” a person could live for a thousand years.

Physician to the French King Louis XIII alchemist David Campi in 1583 he recommended his “elixir of longevity” to prolong life - colloidal solution gold in water. In one of Campi’s works there are the words: “Gold is all nature, gold is the seed of the earth.”

Alchemy Reformer physician Theophrastus Paracelsus (1493-1541) predicted that the “elixir of longevity,” if obtained, should extend human life to six hundred years.

In Russia, an ally of Peter I was engaged in obtaining the “elixir of longevity” Jacob Bruce (1670-1735), who had a laboratory in Moscow on the Sukharev Tower. For illiterate Muscovites, Bruce was known as a warlock, and they walked around the Sukharev Tower a mile away. According to one of the legends that circulated in Moscow at that time, Bruce received “living” and “dead” water and bequeathed to his servant to revive himself after death. This is unlikely to be true: after all, Bruce was solemnly buried after his death. Jacob Bruce was one of the most enlightened people in Russia. He was engaged not only in chemical experiments, but also in astronomy and mathematics.

Chinese alchemist Wei Po-yang, who lived in the second century AD, prepared immortality pills (in Chinese “hu-sha” and “tang-sha”) from mercury sulfide HgS. The legend says that Wei Po-yang took these pills himself and gave them to his students and his beloved dog. They all died, but then allegedly resurrected and lived forever. However, for some reason no one followed his example.

In the Middle Ages, around 1600, the legendary alchemist monk Vasily Valentin decided to achieve longevity for the monks of his monastery of the Benedictine order. He began to “cleanse their body of harmful elements” by adding antimony oxide Sb2O3 pills to their food. Some monks died in agony from such “purification.” This is where the second name for antimony comes from - “antimonium”, which means “anti-monastic”.

Creating an “elixir of longevity” is a fantastic task, but the synthesis of substances with the help of which a person could live up to a hundred years is quite within the capabilities of modern biochemists.

UNIVERSAL SOLVENT

At the same time there was a search "alkahest" - universal solvent, with the help of which alchemists hoped to isolate the “philosopher’s stone” from natural and artificial substances. They believed that by dissolving metals and minerals in such a solvent, it would be possible to precipitate gold or silver by evaporating the resulting solution.

At one time it seemed that such a solvent had been found.

In 1270 Italian alchemist Cardinal Giovanni Fadanzi, known under the name Bonaventure, selecting liquid mixtures to obtain a universal solvent, poured together concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acids and tested the effect of this mixture on gold powder. The gold disappeared before his eyes...

Excited Bonaventura could not stand on his feet. “Has the universal solvent really been obtained?” - he thought. The mixture was called “royal vodka” for its ability to dissolve the “king of metals” - gold.

And Bonaventure began to isolate the “philosopher’s stone”.

However, ten years passed, hundreds of experiments were carried out, but the goal was not achieved. It turned out that aqua regia does not affect glass, ceramics, sea sand (silicon dioxide), tin stone (tin dioxide) and many other substances, and therefore does not have universal properties. Bonaventure abandoned alchemical experiments and began preparing medicines...

The decline of alchemy began in Europe in late XVI century and continued until the end of the 18th century, which was greatly facilitated by chemists from many countries and, above all, Germany, France, Holland, England and Russia.

Source of information: www.alhimik.ru

As a result of a long (it took 32 years) and painstaking search for effective, universal methods of treating humans, it was possible to “correctly” read the works of the Alchemists - the transmutation that occurred in consciousness brought an understanding of the principles of Alchemy and this alchemical method is an approach to treatment, both simple and and complex human diseases. It turns out that everything was on the surface (as usual), and understanding “it” is not difficult, but talking about it is easy when you know the essence!

The works of the Alchemists are encrypted with allegories, symbols and the abstract descriptive nature of what is happening in the “furnace” and “retort”, and the difficulties of perception do not end there; “transmutation” has several meanings, and it’s not easy to understand when and which one we’re talking about! The philosopher's stone is not a cobblestone that lies on the road, but a “stone” that needs to be moved... and water will run out from under it!

This is what happened, practically, literally. We are talking about water that was prepared under special conditions, using an alchemical method; not all water is suitable for this... There were many mysteries, and they were revealed at once; as a result of experiments on ourselves, loved ones, friends, acquaintances, acquaintances of acquaintances and just people “on the street”, convincing evidence of the effectiveness of the approach, method, system appeared - so many positive results (cure) for such short intervals time (2-4 months) over these thirty years I have not observed, and “living water” has a powerful effect not only on somatic diseases indiscriminately, but also on psychosomatic ones too! The names of the diseases do not matter, they simply disappear without a trace and painlessly, without grueling and painful clinical procedures!

"Omnia in unum", - one of the profound expressions of the Alchemists, which rightfully belongs to Hermes Trismegistus - all in one. What are we talking about when everything is in one... We are talking about a person in whom everything is in one... The oven is the body, the retort is the stomach - the biochemical laboratory of the body, what to put there, how to put it there, in what form to put it there? Questions and answers that deserve a Nobel Prize... But why does hermetic knowledge need this prize, if only as a receipt for the helplessness of today's medicine!? The substance necessary for the body to restore it is melted by the body itself, inside, not outside of it, as a chemical, synthetic compound, which must still be adapted to the body and be tested, and for each individual, this is where difficulties arise, with a sheet of contraindications in the form of an annotation for the drug... Why is this? An error in the logic of reasoning led to today's medicine! So what if Paracelsus was a “reveler and a womanizer” - he survived the Bubonic plague in Europe, which came along with the nomads from Mongolia; as a result of the invasion, 60 million people died, but not at the hands of the nomads, but what was on their hands and body: Bubonic plague virus! Remember - “A feast during the plague”, no one knew who was next and how soon... The plague kills quickly! Paracelsus remained alive, his entire family died: “There are no prophets in one’s own country!” But it's simple - " Omnia in unum"- all in one thing, some understood, but the majority did not, and they even argued with persecution, and as a result, those who argued did not survive, they were covered with lime in a common ditch! Edification to fools! Stories repeat themselves!

Such a disappointing diagnosis as Crohn's disease is of unknown etiology, which means no one knows what to treat and how!? Four months in particularly old cases - and there is no disease, no relapses, here you have Alchemy, which was persecuted and trampled on so as not to be left without work, as now, nothing has changed! Rheumatoid arthritis is now successfully treated with hormones that disfigure the body, and separately the liver, kidneys, spleen and other systems, even if they are not steroidal, but as opposed to living water or water from the Grail, as I call it, I had this diagnosis, along with polyarthritis... Polyposis is a nasty, debilitating disease, and medicine does not answer the question of origin, it can only be treated surgically, but in the place of one removed polyp, at least two new ones can grow, and many understand what I’m talking about between the lines, .. goes away without effort, strict diets and painful waits for the next bleeding or diarrhea, at least. Papillomas go away on their own without cosmetic procedures removal, the skin becomes smooth, elastic, wrinkles and folds are straightened. All diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system, endocrine system and many others are quickly treated. Married couples who could not have children for a long time and were already in line for IVF, both are fine, but have no children, 3-5 women's cycles and two stripes, they took living water together with their husband or the man from whom the woman wanted to have a child, so as not to find out: who is healthy and who is not, this is not the point, although human emotions reach this limit! They can be understood: the biological program and its implementation is an extremely important part in the life of any woman, I emphasize - women! Currently busy with the issue of rejuvenation, the results will show soon!

1. Ablation

The separation of a component by removing the top, sometimes by dropping it from the surface, and sometimes by blotting using a feather or cloth. For example, removing film.

2. Albification

Making matter white in alchemical work.

3. Ablution

Purification of the substance by washing with liquid.

4. Amalgamation

Preparation of an amalgam or alloy of metal with mercury. Also means any union of metals.

5. Ascension

When the active or subtle part rises in the vial, it is usually under the influence of heat.

6. Assation

Returning the substance to dry ash by firing.

7. Calcination

The destruction of a substance by fiery heat and combustion, usually in an open crucible.

8. Cementation

Exposure of a substance to layer-by-layer mixing with a powdered (often caustic) material such as limestone, for example. This interaction mixture is placed in a cementing furnace.

9. Ceration

Making a substance soft and fluid like wax. This is often accomplished by continued addition of liquid and heating.

10. Cineration

Turning to ash.

11. Circulation

Purification of the substance by circular distillation in a pelican or closed still. By heating, the liquid components are separated, condensed and dropped back onto the substance in the vessel.

12. Coadunation

Another name for coagulation.

13. Coagulation

Converting a thin liquid into a solid mixture through some internal change, like the curdling of milk, for example. This can be done in different ways - adding a substance, cooling or heating.

14. Coction Coction (Cooking)

Cooking or heating a substance at a moderately high temperature for an extended period of time.

15. Cohobation

Frequent removal of the wet component of the substance by heating. Often a wet component (or some other liquid) is added and the process continues.

16. Colliquation

Combination or joint melting of two fusible substances

17. Coloration

Coloring a substance by adding a dye or colored tincture. Staining can affect the whole body or a superficial layer.

18. Combustion

Burning a substance in the open air

19. Comminution

Turning a substance into powder either by grinding, grinding or rubbing through a sieve.

20. Composition

Bringing two different substances together.

21. Conception

Marriage or union of the feminine and masculine aspects of a substance

22. Concoction

Cooking or heating a mixture of substances at moderately high temperatures for an extended period of time.

23. Congelation

The transformation of a thin, fluid substance into a thickened, dense substance, often by heating.

24. Conglutination

The conversion of a substance into a sticky mass, often through putrefaction.

25. Conjunction

A union of two opposing components, often seen as a union of male and female, subtle and gross, or even the elements.

26. Contrition

Reducing a substance to powder only through fire.

27. Copulation

The union or union of two opposite components, viewed through the metaphor of the union of the Masculine and the Feminine, or the union of the fixed and the volatile.

28. Corrosion

Consuming a substance with an acid, alkali or other corrosive material

29. Cribation

Turning a substance into powder by rubbing through a sieve or holes.

30. Crystallization

Crystal formation is usually from aqueous solution substances, either by their gradual formation in a liquid or by its gradual evaporation.

31. Dealbation

The black matter of alchemical making becomes dazzlingly white.

32. Decoction

The boiling of a substance in a vessel without the addition of any other material.

33. Decrepitation

The cracking and breaking apart of a substance under the influence of heat. For example, rock salt.

34. Deliquium (Deliquation)

The conversion of a solid into a liquid by a room in a humid room due to the absorption of atmospheric moisture. Or dewy moisture saturated with fluids.

35. Descension

When the subtle or active portion of a substance sinks to the bottom of a vessel rather than rises as vapor.

36. Dessication

Drying or removing all moisture from a substance.

37. Detonation

Explosive combustion of substances from heat, for example substances mixed with saltpeter.

38. Digestion

Slow modification of a substance due to moderate heat.

39. Disintegration

The destruction or separation of a substance into its various components.

40. Dispoliaration

Dissolving or transforming a dead substance into a liquid.

41. Dissociation

The destruction or decomposition of a substance into its constituent parts.

42. Dissolution

Dissolving or converting a substance into a liquid.

43. Distillation (Distillation, distillation)

Distillation. Separation of a volatile component from a substance by heating, followed by cooling and condensation.

44. Divapouration

The evaporation of dry vapors from a substance, which can occur at different temperatures.

45. Division

Division of substance into elements.

46. ​​Ebullition

Effervescence produced through fermentation.

47. Edulceration

Washing the salt substance until all salts have been removed.

48. Elaboration

A general term for the process of separating the pure from the impure, and carrying a substance to perfection, which can be achieved by various means and processes.

49. Elevation

Raising the subtle parts of matter upward, away from bodily remains, into top part vessel.

50. Elixeration

Converting a substance into an elixir.

51. Evaporation

Removing the watery part of the substance by moderate heating, or by standing in a dry place for a long time.

52. Exaltation

An operation by which matter is elevated into a purer and more perfect nature.

53. Exhalation

The release of gas or air from a substance.

54. Expression

Extracting juices using a press.

55. Extraction

Preparation of the finest and purest parts of a substance, usually by soaking in alcohol. The extract can be separated from the residue.

56. Fermentation (Fermentation, Fermentation)

The fermentation of a substance, usually of an organic nature, often accompanied by the release of gas bubbles.

57. Filtration

The process or removal of coarse parts of a substance by passing through a filter, wool, or cloth.

58. Fixation

Making something volatile permanent, so that it retains its properties in fire.

59. Foliation

Making certain substances layered, like leaves on top of each other, layers. Usually heat is achieved..

60. Fulmination

Preparation of a fulminate or explosively unstable form of metal. Sometimes applied to spontaneous cases of explosions.

61. Fumigation

Change of substance under the influence of caustic fumes.

62. Fusion

Combining powdered substances together, or transforming a substance into a new form, by means of the highest degree of fire, often using fusible fluxes.

63. Glutination

Turning a substance into an adhesive, glue-like mass

64. Gradation

The gradual purification of a substance, usually through a series of stages.

65. Granulation

Turning a substance into grains or powder. There are various means for this, such as compaction, grinding, thermal shock with temperature changes and many others.

66. Grinding

Reducing a substance to powder using a mortar and pestle.

67. Humectation

The process by which moisture is imparted to a substance, usually not by the direct addition of liquid, but by a gradual process of absorption of moisture.

68. Ignition

Self-firing of a substance by spontaneous combustion in a crucible.

69. Imbibition

The process is lengthy and gradual addition the required substance.

70. Impastation

When matter undergoes putrefaction, it turns into a kind of black, thick and viscous resin.

71. Impregnation

An alchemical process that some compare to pregnancy with a child. Thus impregnation results from the union or copulation of male and female, and leads to the birth of a new substance.

72. Inceration

Reducing a substance to a soft, waxy state, usually by combining with water.

73. Incineration

The reduction of a substance to ash by intense heat.

74. Incorporation

Mixing of mixed bodies into a conglomerate mass.

75. Ingression

This occurs when two substances mix in such a way that they can no longer be separated.

76. Inhumation

Burial underground, sometimes used to refer to the process of burying active substance in dark earthy material. Also used to refer to placing a container in manure.

77. Liquefaction

The turning of a solid into a liquid, usually by melting or dissolving.

78. Lixiviation

Oxidation of sulfide ores through exposure to water and air. Vitriol forms.

79. Luting

Sealing the flask with putty or resinous mass to achieve a tight seal...

80. Maturation

A general term used to identify an emerging degree of excellence in a job.

81. Melting

The turning of a metal or substance into a liquid by the action of heat.

82. Mortification

Here the substance undergoes a kind of death, usually through putrefaction, and appears as if it will be destroyed and its active power lost, but is eventually restored.

83. Multiplication

The process of increasing the strength of projection powder.

84. Precipitation

Precipitation of a substance to the bottom of a vessel from solution.

85. Preparation

A process by which unnecessary substances are removed and necessary ones are added.

86. Projection

Adding an enzyme or tincture to a substance to produce a transmutation effect.

87. Prolection

The division of a substance into a fine and a larger part by thinning or rarefaction of the finer parts of the substance, rather than by coarsening the earthen part.

88. Pulverisation

The destruction of a substance into smaller fragments through repeated blows with a blunt instrument such as a hammer or sledgehammer.

89. Purgation

Purification of a substance by removing the rough part.

90. Putrefaction

Rotting of a substance, often under the influence of moderate, prolonged moist heat. For example, in manure. Usually the matter turns black.

91. Quinta Essentia (Quint Essence)

The creation of quintessence, or the most sublime and refined form of matter.

92. Rarefaction

Making a substance extremely refined or airy.

93. Rectification

The purification of matter through repeated distillations, where the distillate is distilled again.

94. Reiteration

Repetition of the process is especially applicable to cyclic distillation, in which the distillate is returned to the vessel and the process continues for many cycles.

95. Resolution

This occurs when substances that are mixed together become violently separated when placed into solution. Thus, in this sense, milk disperses under the influence of vinegar. This process is similar to coagulation.

96. Restinction

Here the substance in white heat is brought to perfection by hardening in an elevating liquid.

97. Retrogradation

Returning the metal to its original open and living state.

98. Reverberation

Firing at high temperature in a reverberation (reflective) furnace.

99. Revivification

Returning dead matter back to life, or reactivating it.

100. Rubification

Formation of the matter of Work from white to red.

101. Segregation

Dividing a composite substance into parts.

102. Separation

Making two opposing components separate from each other. Often alternates with the process of conjunction.

103. Stratification

An operation by which layers are produced in a substance in a flask.

104. Subduction

Separating the extract down from the fine part as in filtration.

105. Sublimation (Sublimation, sublimation)

This is the name of the process when a solid substance, under the influence of heat, changes into a vapor form without a liquid phase, followed by condensation in solid form on the cold part of the vessel. Example: ammonia.

106. Subtilation

Separation of the fine part of a substance from the coarse and heavy one.

107. Transudation

This occurs if the essence appears to sweat out in drops during the downward distillation.

108. Trituration

The reduction of a substance to powder, not necessarily by grinding, but by applying heat.

109. Vitrification

Making a substance glassy by intense heat and sometimes adding limestone.