“The PHILOSOPHER’S STONE is the INTIMATE CHRIST clothed in BODIES OF GOLD. However, for the EXISTENTIAL BODIES OF THE BEING to become PURE GOLD, it is necessary to be an ALCHEMIST and work diligently on the GREAT WORK. All ALCHEMISTS can afford the luxury of possessing BODIES OF PURE GOLD; but, of course, not just anyone is an ALCHEMIST.”
Samael Aun Weor
ATOMIC CONSCIOUSNESS
Materialist Science
Alchemical Science
On one occasion, in a lecture, I stated that many of the postulates of so-called materialist science would be the lies of tomorrow, and there were those who, weapons at the ready, came out to defend their position contrary to my assertion. However, I am neither the only one, nor the first, nor the last to affirm this:
"We hear it said that the idea of the Philosopher's Stone was a mistake, but all our opinions have stemmed from errors, and what we consider today to be the truth in chemistry may be recognized tomorrow as a fallacy."
VON LIEBIG, FAMILIAR LETTERS IN CHEMISTRY
Botany, for example, considered the branch of science that studies plants, is another misused term. Among the ancient Greeks, the *Botane* were, literally, the inhabitants of the plants, that is, the elemental intelligences or souls of plants. Thus, Botany should be, in rigorous science, the study of the inhabitants of plants and not merely the study of the plants themselves.
If, in a strictly academic sense, materialist science is: "EXACT and reasoned knowledge of certain things," then it could not err, being "exact knowledge." And, if to err is, colloquially, synonymous with lying, and, moreover, materialist science, which means "exact knowledge," has erred on countless occasions, it is deceitful, false, and excessively proud, for it does not accept its own errors, justifying them in a thousand ways.
Science without Conscience! What an idea!
The same applies to the Unconscious Scientist. From the moment so-called science divorced itself from mystical and philosophical principles, it stripped research of its soul.
Mathematics, called the "exact science," didn't one of its fathers be the Divine Pythagoras, so often mentioned in our classrooms? And we are told there that he was the discoverer of the multiplication table, the decimal system, and the theorem that bears his name, etc. And what scholar would deny that he was a great philosopher and mystic in every sense of the word?
What would we say of Paracelsus, one of the founders of experimental medicine, discoverer of zinc as an independent metal, and the one who defined the toxicity of arsenic, also noting the anti-syphilitic therapeutic efficacy of red mercury precipitate? And Paracelsus was one of the promoters of Mystical Alchemy, which proposes a true transformation of the person, within the person. Albertus Magnus (Alchemist) was the first to prepare caustic potash and to unravel the composition of cinnabar (mercury sulfide). Basilio Valentin (Alchemist) discovered, in addition to antimony, hydrochloric and sulfuric acids.
The great nuclear physicist and alchemist known as Fulcanelli is now quite famous; his two works (The Mystery of the Cathedrals and The Dwellings of the Philosophers) appeared in 1926 and 1930 respectively. I will transcribe below what Louis Pawels describes in his work "The Morning of the Magicians," about an interview his friend Jacques Bergier had in 1937 with the Adept Fulcanelli: At the request of André Helbronner (a notable French nuclear physicist), my friend (Jacques Bergier, Helbronner's assistant) interviewed the mysterious figure in the prosaic setting of a testing laboratory of the Gas Society in Paris. Here, exactly, is their conversation.
Monsieur André Helbronner, whom I understand is your assistant, is searching for nuclear energy. Monsieur Helbronner has been kind enough to inform me of some of the results obtained, especially the appearance of radioactivity corresponding to Polonium when a bismuth wire is vaporized by an electrical discharge within deuterium at high pressure. You are very close to success, as are some other contemporary scientists. May I warn you? The work you and your colleagues are engaged in is terribly dangerous. And it is not only you who are in danger, but all of humanity as well. The release of nuclear energy is easier than you think. And the surface radioactivity produced could poison the planet's atmosphere in a few years. Furthermore, atomic explosives can be manufactured with a few grams of metal and devastate entire cities. Let me tell you plainly: the alchemists have known this for a very long time. Bergier prepared to interrupt him, protesting. "The alchemists and modern physics!" He was about to burst into sarcasm when the other stopped him:
"I know what you're going to say: the alchemists didn't know the structure of the nucleus, they didn't know about electricity, they had no means of detection. They couldn't, therefore, perform any transmutation, they could never, therefore, release nuclear energy. I won't try to demonstrate what I'm about to tell you, but I beg you to repeat it to Monsieur Helbrohner: certain geometric arrangements of extremely pure materials are enough to unleash atomic forces, without the need to use electricity or vacuum technology. And now I will simply read you a few lines." The man took Frederic Soddy's work, L'interpretation du Radium, from his desk, opened it, and read:
"I believe that there were civilizations in the past that knew the energy of the atom and that were totally destroyed by the misuse of this energy." Then he continued:
"I beg you to admit that some partial techniques have survived. I also ask you to reflect on the fact that the alchemists mixed moral and religious concerns with their experiments, while modern Physics was born in the 18th century from the amusement of some gentlemen and some rich libertines. SCIENCE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE..."
"I have believed I was doing the right thing by warning some researchers here and there, but I have not the slightest hope that my warning will bear fruit. Besides, I don't need hope."
"I have believed I was doing the right thing by warning some researchers, here and there, but I have not the slightest hope that my warning will bear fruit. Besides, I don't need hope." Bergier ventured to ask a question:
“If you yourself are an alchemist, sir, I cannot believe that you spend your time trying to make gold, like Dunikovsky or Dr. Miethe. For a year now, I have been trying to learn about alchemy and have only encountered charlatans or interpretations that seem fantastical to me. Could you, sir, tell me what your research consists of?”
“You are asking me to summarize four thousand years of philosophy and the efforts of my entire life in four minutes. You are also asking me to translate into plain language concepts that do not lend themselves to plain language. I can, however, tell you this: you are not unaware that, in Official Science as it progresses today, the role of the observer is becoming increasingly important. Relativity, the uncertainty principle, show the extent to which the observer intervenes in phenomena today.” The secret of alchemy is this: there is a way to manipulate matter and energy in such a way as to produce what contemporary scientists would call a force field. This force field acts upon the observer and places them in a privileged position in relation to the Universe. From this privileged point, they have access to realities that space and time, matter and energy, usually conceal from us. This is what we call the Great Work.
But what about the philosopher's stone? And the making of gold?
"These are nothing more than applications, particular cases. THE ESSENTIAL THING IS NOT THE TRANSMUTATION OF METALS, BUT THAT OF THE EXPERIMENTER HIMSELF. IT IS AN ANCIENT SECRET THAT VARIOUS MEN WILL DISCOVER THROUGHOUT THE CENTURIES."
"And what do they become then?"
"Perhaps one day you will know."
"My friend would never see that man again, the one who left an indelible mark under the name of Fulcanelli. All we know of him is that he survived the war and disappeared completely after the Liberation. All efforts to find him failed." These efforts were indeed real, carried out by the "Alsos" commission, sponsored by the American CIA, which, after 1945, had very strict orders to find everyone in Europe who had had any connection with atomic science. Bergier was summoned to testify, but he could not provide any clues to the commander who interrogated him. The commander allowed him to examine the first known document on the military use of the atom. Jacques Bergier then verified that the atomic pile had been perfectly described as "a geometric arrangement of extremely pure substances" and that, moreover, this mechanism did not require electricity or a vacuum, just as Fulcanelli had predicted. The report ended by outlining the possibility of atmospheric contamination that could spread across the entire planet. It is understandable that both Bergier and the American officials wished to find a man whose existence was irrefutable proof that alchemical science was decades ahead of official science. And if Fulcanelli occupied such an advantageous position regarding atomic knowledge, he must also be well-informed about many other matters, and perhaps that is why all the investigations were in vain.
For our readers' reflection, let us see what scientific conclusion one of the greatest sages of the time, Einstein, reached, according to a personal interview that Giovanni Papini recorded in his work "GOG."
Einstein resigned himself to receiving me because I let him know that I had reserved for him the sum of 100,000 marks, destined for the University of Jerusalem (Mount Scopus).
I found him playing the violin. (He does indeed have the mind of a true musician.) Upon seeing me, he put down his bow and began to question me.
"Are you a mathematician?" "No."
"Are you a physicist?""No." Astronomer?—No.
Are you an engineer?—No—Are you a philosopher? No.—Are you a musician? —No. Are you a journalist? No.
—Are you an Israeli? No.
So why do you so desperately want to speak with me? And why have you made such a lavish donation to the Hebrew University of Palestine?
—I am an ignorant man who wishes to learn, and my donation is nothing more than a pretext to be admitted and heard.
Einstein pierced me with his dark, artistly eyes and seemed to reflect.
I am grateful for the donation and for the trust you have in me. You must agree, however, that telling you anything about my studies is almost impossible if you, as you say, know neither mathematics nor physics. I am accustomed to working with formulas that are incomprehensible to the uninitiated, and even among the initiated, very few have managed to understand them perfectly. Please excuse me, then...
I cannot believe,
I replied that a man of genius cannot explain himself in ordinary words. And yet my ignorance is not so completely devoid of intuition...
*Your modesty,* Einstein replied, and your goodwill deserve that I deviate from my usual ways. If any point seems obscure to you, I beg you to excuse me now. I won't talk to you about the two relativities I formulated: that's old news, something you can find in hundreds of books. I'll tell you something about the current direction of my thinking.
"By nature, I am an enemy of dualities. Two phenomena or two concepts that seem opposed or different offend me. My mind has one ultimate goal: to eliminate differences. By acting in this way, I remain faithful to the spirit of consciousness that, since the time of the Greeks, has always inspired unity. In life and in art, if you look closely, the same thing happens. Love tends to make two people into a single being. Poetry, with its perpetual use of metaphor, which assimilates diverse objects, presupposes the identity of all things."
"In the sciences, this process of unification has taken a giant leap. Astronomy, since the time of Galileo and Newton, has become a part of physics." Riemann, the true creator of non-Euclidean geometry, has reduced classical geometry to physics; the investigations of Nernst and Max Boro have made chemistry a chapter of physics; and since Loeb has reduced biology to chemical facts, it is easy to deduce that even biology is, in essence, nothing more than a paragraph of physics. But in physics, until recently, there existed data that seemed irreducible, distinct manifestations of an entity or of groups of phenomena. Such as, for example, time and space; inert mass and heavy mass, that is, mass subject to gravitation; and electrical and magnetic phenomena, which are in turn distinct from those of light. In recent years, these manifestations have vanished, and these distinctions have been eliminated. Not only, as you will recall, have I demonstrated that absolute space and universal time are meaningless, but I have also deduced that space and time are inseparable aspects of a single reality.
Faraday had long since established the identity of electrical and magnetic phenomena, and later, the experiments of Maxwell and Lorenz assimilated light into electromagnetism. Thus, in modern physics, only two fields remained as opposites: the field of gravitation and the electromagnetic field. But I have finally succeeded in demonstrating that these, too, constitute two aspects of a single reality.
This is my latest discovery: the unitary field theory. Now, space, time, matter, energy, light, electricity, inertia, gravitation, are nothing more than different names for the same homogeneous activity. All the sciences are reduced to physics, and physics can now be reduced to a single formula. This formula, translated into common language, would say something like this: "Something is moving." These three words are the ultimate synthesis of human thought
Einstein must have noticed the expression on my face, my astonishment.
"Are you surprised," he added, "by the apparent simplicity of this supreme result? Thousands of years of research and theories to arrive at a conclusion that seems like a commonplace of the most ordinary experience? I admit you're not entirely wrong. However, the effort of synthesis by so many geniuses of science leads to this and nothing more: 'Something moves.' In the beginning," says Saint John, "was the Word. In the beginning," replies Goethe, "was action. In the beginning and in the end," I say, "is movement. We can say or know no more. If the final fruit of human knowledge seems to you a most vulgar truism, the fault is not mine. By dint of unifying, it is necessary to obtain something incredibly simple."
This concludes this transcription.
One question remains: What is it that animates movement? In the sacred scriptures we are told: "...and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." In alchemy we know perfectly well what this is about... It is worth saying that if all sciences are reduced to physics, then physics is reduced to alchemy. Not for nothing has Hermetic philosophy (alchemical science) been called "The Mother of all Sciences"...
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ATOM
Atomic Consciousness does not submit to merely mechanical impulses for the purpose of transmutation, impulses devoid of knowledge of the laws that govern the Consciousness of the Atom. To penetrate the atomic world without knowledge of the laws that govern it is to cause catastrophic chaos in its infinitely small universe. And that is precisely what the so-called lords of materialist science have been determined to do, and the results have been swift: almost total imbalance of human and external nature.
This is why these gentlemen will never be able to demonstrate in their laboratories the transmutation of base metals into gold. What they have achieved is only a minimal amount in relation to the original metals, or original elements. The fact that the electron, as a corpuscle of negative electricity, which dances around the atom, needs less than one billionth of a second to "perform this" is something that invites us to reflect...
Who guides atomic movements in such a mathematical and exact way? Fanatical and dogmatic materialists would tell us that it is the mechanics of nature. Very well; and, can mechanics exist without mechanical who performed it? No. So, if we are told about a mechanics, we must necessarily accept intelligent principles that direct the movement of that mechanics.
The wise German scientist, Dr. Arnold Krumm-Heller, had already stated that an atom is a trio of matter, energy, and consciousness. Matter is the form perceptible through the microscope, its constitution; energy is the dynamics of the movement; and consciousness is the hidden intelligence (not manifest to the materialist scientist) that guides it so wisely and mathematically.
Specifically, atomic movement. If everything in nature is ultimately constituted by atomic and subatomic particles, then everybody has its atomic consciousness, be it mineral, vegetable, animal, human.
But let us allow scientific research, not devoid of mystical and philosophical foundations, to speak to us on this matter.
"We, therefore," says the Great Sage Fulcanelli in his "Philosophical Dwellings," "without taking sides, declare that the great scientists whose opinions we have transcribed are mistaken when they deny the possibility of a profitable outcome from transmutation. They are mistaken about the constitution and profound qualities of matter, even though they believe they have explored all its mysteries." But alas! The complexity of their theories, the accumulation of definitions created to explain the inexplicable, and above all, the pernicious influence of a materialistic education, impels them to search ever further afield for what is, in fact, right at their doorstep. They are, for the most part, mathematicians who have lost in simplicity—in the best sense—what they have gained in human logic and numerical rigor. They dream of imprisoning nature in a formula, of confining life to a set of equations. And so, through successive deviations, they unconsciously stray so far from the simple truth that they justify the harsh words of the Gospel: "They have eyes but cannot see, and an intellect but cannot understand."
Is it possible to draw these men to a less complicated conception of things, to guide these scattered souls toward the light of spirituality they lack? We will try, and, above all, we will say to those who agree to follow us,
“THAT NATURE CANNOT BE STUDIED OUTSIDE OF ITS ACTIVITY,”
“The analysis of the molecule and the atom teaches us nothing; it is incapable of solving the greatest problem a scientist can pose: What is the essence of this invisible and mysterious dynamic that animates matter? Indeed, what do we know of motion? Now, down here, everything is life and movement.
The vital activity, clearly manifested in animals and plants, is no less vital in the mineral kingdom, although it demands more attention from the observer. METALS, IN EFFECT, ARE LIVING AND SENSITIVE BODIES, and the mercury thermometer, silver salts, fluorides, etc., bear witness to this. What are expansion and contraction, if not two effects of metallic dynamism, two manifestations of mineral life?” And yet, it is not enough for the philosopher to merely note the elongation of an iron bar subjected to heating; rather, he must seek the HIDDEN WILL that compels the metal to lengthen. It is known that metals, subjected to the action of heat radiation, elongate their pores, extend their molecules, and increase in surface area and volume; in a certain sense, they expand, somewhat like us immersed in the beneficial action of the sun's rays. It cannot be denied that a similar reaction has a profound, immaterial cause, because without this impulse, one could not explain what other force compels the crystalline particles to abandon their APPARENT INERTIA. THIS WILL OF THE METAL, that is, ITS VERY SOUL, has been fully demonstrated by a beautiful experiment carried out by Ch--Ed, Guillaume. A calibrated steel bar was subjected to continuous and progressive traction, the force of which was recorded by means of a dynamometer. When the bar is about to give way, a constriction appears, the exact point of which is noted. The tension is released, and the bar is returned to its original dimensions, and then the experiment is restarted. This time, the constriction occurs at a different point than the first. Continuing in the same manner, it is observed that all the points were tested successively and that all began to give way, one after the other, under the same tension. Now, if the steel bar is calibrated one last time and the experiment is started again from the beginning, it is proven that a much greater force than the first must now be used to cause the symptoms of rupture to reappear. Ch.—Ed. Guillaume deduces from these experiments, with evident reason, that the metal behaved as an organic body would; it reinforced it, successively strengthened all its weakest parts and purposefully increased its cohesion to better defend its threatened integrity.‖
Let us consider another scientific testimony regarding mineral consciousness.
Jagadis Chandra Bose, whose work in the field of plant physiology was only acknowledged by the Encyclopedia Britannica, almost half a century after his death, as being so far ahead of its time that it could scarcely be appreciated on its own merit, left irrefutable testimony in this regard:
―In 1899, Bose observed the strange case that the mechanical radio conductor for receiving radio waves lost sensitivity when used continuously, but recovered its normal state after a period of rest. This led him to the conclusion that, however inconceivable it might seem, metals can recover from “fatigue,” in a manner similar to how tired animals and individuals regain their energy. Based on subsequent work, he began to think that the dividing line between metals—"lifeless," as they are called—and organisms—"living"—was extremely thin. Spontaneously shifting from the field of physics to that of physiology, he then began a comparative study of the molecular reaction curves in inorganic substances with those of the tissues of living animals.
"To his great astonishment and surprise, he noticed that the curves produced by slightly heated magnetic iron oxide were remarkably similar to those of muscles. In both, the reaction and recovery decreased with overexertion, and the resulting fatigue could be relieved by a gentle massage or a warm bath. Other metallic compounds reacted similarly to animals. When a metal surface etched with acids was cleaned to remove every last trace, it showed reactions in the acid-treated areas that were not observed in the others." Bose attributed a certain type of treatment memory to the affected sections. In potassium, he observed that its power of recovery was almost entirely lost if it was treated with various foreign substances: this seemed analogous to the reactions of muscle tissue to poisons.
In a paper he presented to the International Congress of Physics, held at the Paris Exposition of 1900, entitled "On the Generality of Molecular Phenomena Produced by Electricity on Inorganic Matter and on Living Matter," he emphasized the "fundamental unity existing in the apparent diversity of nature," concluding that "it is difficult to draw a dividing line and affirm that here the physical phenomenon ends and here the physiological one begins." The Congress was stunned by the disconcerting, or rather overwhelming, idea that the distance separating the animate from the inanimate might not be as great or as insurmountable as is generally believed; the Secretary of the Congress declared that he was astonished.
Sir Michael Foster, Secretary of the Royal Society, appeared one morning at his laboratory to see for himself what was happening. Bose showed the Cambridge veteran some of his recordings, to which the old man commented jokingly:
“But come now, Bose, what’s so new about this curve? We’ve been seeing it for at least half a century!”
“But… what do you think it is?” replied Bose without raising his voice.
“It’s quite clear… It’s the reaction curve of a muscle, naturally!” answered Foster firmly.
Looking at the professor from the depths of his penetrating brown eyes, Bose then said with a confident accent:
Excuse me, but it's the metallic reaction of tin.
Foster's mouth fell open.
"How?" he exclaimed, leaping from his chair.
Tin? Did you say tin?"
When Bose showed him all the results he had obtained, Foster was as bewildered as he was overwhelmed. He immediately invited him to present a report of his discoveries in another Friday address at the Royal Institution and offered to present his work personally to the Royal Society in order to gain priority. At the evening meeting on May 10, he had obtained results over more than four years and demonstrated each one in a complete series of experiments, concluding with the following peroration:
"I have shown you these handwritten documents on the history of tension and effort in living and non-living beings." How similar their writings are! So similar that, in reality, they are indistinguishable from one another. Faced with such phenomena, how can we draw a dividing line and assert, "Here ends the physical and here begins the physiological"? Such absolute barriers do not exist. When I became a silent witness to these autograph recordings and perceived in them a phase of the general unity that links all things—the speck that trembles in the ripples of light, the active life that teems on our earth, and the radiant suns that blaze above us—it was then that I first understood a small part of the message proclaimed by my ancestors on the banks of the Ganges thirty centuries ago: “To those who see only one thing in all the multiple changing manifestations of this universe, it is to them that the Eternal Truth belongs… To no one else, to no one else!”
“The consultant, Dr. Howard Miller, a cytologist from New Jersey and Backster’s physician (Cleve Backster, the most famous lie detector examiner in the United States), concluded that all living beings must have a kind of cellular consciousness.”
“The faculty of feeling,” Backster asserts, “does not appear to end at the cellular level.” It can extend to the molecular, the atomic, and even the subatomic. All kinds of beings that have been conventionally considered inanimate may need re-evaluation.
—The English astronomer Sir James Jeans had written that the current of human knowledge is leading impartially toward a non-mechanical reality: the universe is beginning to appear less as a great machine and more as a great thought. The mind no longer seems to be an accidental intruder in the field of matter. We are beginning to suspect that we should consider it as the creator and ruler of this realm.
We have been able to see how, from a fairly scientific and serious point of view, we are already being told about atomic consciousness or latent intelligence in matter. We will continue with other valuable testimonies, which extend from the plant kingdom to the human kingdom.
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