It is evident that congruent quests unfolded in tandem in ancient India, China, and Egypt thousands of years ago. These civilizations all sought to transform lead or other elements into gold and attain immortality by manipulating and purifying myriad types of matter.
Though their aims and procedures correspond in interesting ways, their specific alchemical procedures sprang up independently of one another.
“In the second century A.D., Egyptian craftsmen in Alexandria were the first alchemists who tried desperately to convert metal into gold. Almost simultaneously and independently, the Taoist monks (not pure alchemists but religious magicians) believed gold to be a miraculous medicine and they, too, sought to produce it, not for wealth but for perpetual youth and immortality,” wrote acupuncturist Joseph P. Hou, Ph.D., in his book “Healthy Longevity Techniques.”
The late Dr. Allen G. Debus (1926–2009) also wrote of the near simultaneous and independent emergence of alchemy across different cultures. Debus received a Ph.D. at Harvard University and became a renowned science historian. He wrote in his book “Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry” that alchemy emerged independently not only in Egypt and China, but also in India. Though Chinese and Indian alchemical practices show cross-influences at a later period, Debus believed the two began independently of one another.
An alchemy course outline at the University of Hawai‘i describes the ancient practice: “Alchemy is a cosmic art by which parts of that cosmos—the mineral and animal parts—can be liberated from their temporal existence and attain states of perfection: gold in the case of minerals, and for humans, longevity, immortality, and redemption. Such transformations can be brought about on one hand by the use of a material substance such as the ’philosopher’s stone' or elixir, or, on the other hand by revelatory knowledge or psychological enlightenment.”
Alchemy may have emerged independently in various cultures because of considerations that are common leading to theorems, Debus wrote. For example, there is the early association of immortality and gold. Debus outlined some of the similarities and differences across cultures.
Egyptian alchemy wasn’t as closely associated with religion as the Chinese and Indian practices were. In Egypt, it was more a practical study than a mystical one.
Chinese and Greek alchemy were comparable in some ways. The origin of Greek alchemy is hazy; one theory holds that it stemmed from Egypt. Both Chinese and Greek cultures incorporate a concept of physical breath. Greek alchemists harnessed the elements of earth, water, air, and fire. Likewise, the Chinese discipline includes the five elements of fire, wood, water, earth, and metal.
Chinese alchemy sought balance between yin and yang (these are associated with feminine and masculine, respectively earthly and heavenly, natures). For example, Chinese alchemists combined saltpeter, associated with yin, and sulfur, associated with yang, and the resultant bang signaled the discovery of gunpowder.
The Greeks, too, held opposites to be pertinent. They worked with hot and cold, moist and dry, earth and air, and fire and water.
Like with the discovery of gunpowder (long used in firecrackers prior to its use in weaponry), alchemists’ observations of chemical reactions laid some of the groundwork for modern chemistry.
As science developed, however, many of these alchemical practices became antiquated—relegated to the realm of the esoteric or mysticism.
In a comparison, the University of Hawai'i presented the riddle form in which the alchemist wrote: “The grey wolf devours the King, after which it is buried on a pyre, consuming the wolf and restoring the King to life,” which translates to an “extraction of gold from alloys by skimming off lesser metal sulfides and roasting of the gold antimony alloy until antimony evaporates and pure gold remains.” Yet, this cryptic message is no less mystifying to the layman than modern jargon in chemistry such as: “dehydrohalogenate vicinal dihalides with amide ion to provide alkynes.”
Modern scientists, such as Sir Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and John Locke, were alchemists. Bill Newman, a historian at Indiana University, studied Newton’s secret coded recipes. He told PBS science program, NOVA: “If you look at the experimental notebooks that he kept for about 30 years, it really is impossible to avoid the conclusion that he was trying to produce the philosophers’ stone.”
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