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Alchemy, Science and the Quest for Immortality
 By Jo Hedesan. Published in Esoteric Coffeehousewww.esotericoffeehouse.com on 19 Jan 2009.
My earlier two-episode vampire analysis has prompted me to thinking about the questfor immortality, which is probably as old as mankind. The first known hero story, thatof the Sumerian Gilgamesh, has the prince unsuccessfully seeking the plant thatwould bestow him immortality. In the Bible, the first human beings, Adam and Eve,were apparently created immortal only to lose the gift due to evil temptation. Adamand Eve’s story assumes that humanity was initially meant to be immortal. But if immortality is the natural state of mankind, would it be possible to recover it by somemeans?I shall conspicuously pick from the countless attempts at achieving immortality thoserelated to alchemy. Commonly described as the art of making gold, alchemy often hadthe goal of achieving life-extension or immortality. In fact, scholars consider that lifeextension, not gold was the foremost goal of Chinese alchemy (1). In the West, theattainment of the elixir vitae was initially secondary to the art of goldmaking (2). Thefirst author to emphasize it was the Arab alchemist Jabir (3). He conceived of the“elixir vitae”, another name for the magical Philosopher’s Stone, which transformedmetals into gold. The alchemists who came to possess the Stone would then beexpected to live many years, or even forever.From this concept an entire legend of immortal alchemists was born. One of theearliest embodiments was the French alchemist Nicholas Flamel (1330 – 1418), whichwas reputed to have faked his own death (4) and was recently featured in a novel asan ‘immortal’ (5). The Renaissance magus Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, though lessassociated with alchemy, was portrayed as having lived several hundreds of years inMary Shelley’s
The Mortal Immortal 
(6). Yet perhaps the most influential ‘immortal’in his age was the mysterious Count of St Germain, whom I have talked about in my previous article. He was reputed to have lived hundreds or even thousands of years, alegend that he apparently cultivated as well (7).It was in the Renaissance that the idea of ‘elixir vitae’ and of an universal medicine became the main ideal of alchemy. The physician Paracelsus proclaimed that the purpose of alchemists must be to cure illness, rather than make gold (8). His followersdedicated themselves to finding the miraculous elixir vitae. Van Helmont, one of thelater alchemists, also believed the prolongation of life was possible, although notimmortality (9).As the rationalism of science progressed in the 1700s, the alchemist’s claims toobtaining a life-extending elixir were attacked as being either absurd (in scientificcircles) or demonic (in religiously influenced circles). After all, the Christian Churchcould only frown upon concerns for the extension of one’s mortal life as opposite tocaring for the afterlife. Thus, the image of Faust – the alchemist who sells his soul tothe devil in exchange for immortality and pleasure – became widespread in theliterature of the 1600 and 1700s (10).
 
Yet if the 17
th
and 18
th
century scientists launched a scathing attack on alchemists for their attempt to extend life, they did not shy away from coveting immortalitythemselves. In other words, it wasn’t immortality or life extension that theyquestioned, but the methods of achieving them. For scientists, the only way towardslongevity involved scientific experimentation and the use of reason. Thus, Descartes,Francis Bacon, Franklin, and above all the Marquis de Condorcet believed in the possibility of achieving human immortality through science (11). Even MaryShelley’s father, William Godwin, maintained that the goal of immortality wasattainable through human evolution (12). It was mainly against these scientific dreamsof immortality that the Romantics conceived the notion of the ‘lonely’ or ‘accursed’immortal. As Roberts points out, their work suggest that the extension of life can onlyresult in an extension of misery and suffering (13). This is because, for them, theachievement of immortality was pointless without spiritual evolution.Despite Romantic warnings, the desire for immortality has not ceased to be a humanideal until our very day. Marx, Bergson and several Darwinists thinkers upheld the principle of prolongevity as possible and desirable (14). In the twentieth century, andseeping into ours as well, the possibility of immortality has been hailed by a plethoraof semi-sci-fi methods, such as cryonics, mind uploading or cyborgology(transforming humans into cyborgs) (15). By the use of these methods, scientists say,man’s life will be extended indefinitely (16, 17). Yet, if science is often highlyoptimistic about life extension, the cultural views of physical immortality remainmixed. Pop culture treatments of the vampire or the immortal often harken back toRomanticism, portraying the loneliness, the evil, the boredom or the suffering impliedin longevity. Yet in the end, if offered immortality, how many people would actuallyrefuse it? After all, in the absence of an alchemical universal medicine, we do our bestto postpone old age or death, by taking pills, healthy foods, beauty products etc – our modern versions of the immortality elixir.
References:
(1) Holmyard, E.J. (1990).
 Alchemy
. New York: Dover Publications.(2), (3), (14) Gruman, G.J. (1966). A History of Ideas about the Prolongation of Life:The Evolution of Prolongevity Hypotheses to 1800,
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
, 56 (9), pp. 1-102.(4), (5)
Wikipedia.
(2008). Nicholas Flamel. Online. Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Flamel. Accessed on 18.01.2009.(6), (11), (12), (13) Roberts, M. (1990).
Gothic Immortals
. London: Routledge.(7) See my earlier article athttp://www.esotericoffeehouse.com/alchemy/mysterious-count-st-germain-legend-birth-dracula/(8) Paracelsus. (2008). Liber Paragranum, in Paracelsus,
 Essential Theoretical Writings
, ed. and trans. by Andrew Weeks. Leiden: Brill.(9) Pagel, W. (2002).
 Joan Baptista Van Helmont: Reformer of Science and Medicine
.Cambridge: Cambridge Press.(10) Culianu, I.P. (2002). Dr Faust, Great Sodomist and Necromancer – Reflectionson the Myth, in Culianu, I.P.
Mind Games
. Bucharest: Polirom.(15)
Wikipedia.
(2008). Immortality. Online. Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortality. Accessed on 18.01.2009.(16) Smith, D. (2005). 2050 and Immortality is Within our Grasp,
The Observer 
, 22May. Online. Available at:
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akira606385

a very interesting analysis. Please do inform me if you have anything else regarding Alchemy. I would love to read your works. akira606385@hotmail.com

reply09 / 08 / 2009
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