How to Use an Alchemical

Approach to Create Deeper

Levels of Transformation in
Yourself and Your Clients

with Leta Herman

October 16, 2019
 Agenda
❖ Introduction
❖ What is Alchemy?
❖ Why Practice Alchemy?
❖ Methods of Alchemy - Most Popular Alchemical Treatments/
Protocols
❖ Techniques and diagnostic considerations
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The goal today is not to start
practicing Alchemy. This is
an introduction so you can
begin to study Alchemy.
 Introduction
❖ Alchemy takes time to learn before you begin working with
others. It is a journey not a race…
❖ For some of you, this is the beginning of that journey as a
practitioner.
❖ For others, it is a chance to go deeper, look inside further…
❖ Finding and challenging yourself to go deeper “into the void”…

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 What characterizes Alchemical Healing?

❖ The practitioner has to be 100% focused on the perfection of the

client (not the illness or challenges for that person)
❖ Every person that comes into my clinic… I’m asking myself…
“Why are they really here?”
❖ They may think they’ve come for tennis elbow, but they’re here
for Alchemy.
❖ They want more to life then what they’re getting out of it.
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 Leta’s path
❖ Shamanic healing - Plant Spirit Medicine with Eliot Cowan
❖ Intensive Worsley-based Five Element training that led to Possession work and
eventually the 13 Ghost Points
❖ Found MasterJeffrey Yuen in 2004 - studied extensively (including his Advanced
Acupuncture program) and travelled all over the world with him, including China on
numerous trips.
❖ Chinese Medicine Practitioner for 20 years
❖ What I offer as a teacher is the practical perspective (plus the theory)… hours and
hours of Alchemical practice in my clinic for the past 20 years
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 Leta’s path
❖ Currently, owner and a full-time practitioner at Alchemy Healing Center in Northampton,
Mass
❖ Facilitator of the year-long Master Alchemy Program - intensive course for practitioners
and healers
❖ Co-host of the Inspired Action Podcast on Alchemy, the Five Elements and 9 Palaces
❖ Author of several books, Energy of Love, Connecting your Circle, Big “Little” Gua Sha Book
❖ Creator of several online courses
❖ Publisher of Healing Anxiety with Dr. Mary Ryan

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 “You must first have a
deep understanding of
your own life before
pretending to know life in
another, especially the
disturbances in the
development of life in
another.”
— Claude Larre and Elizabeth Rochat de la Valleé
 you can not “help” anyone
❖ Alchemical Healing is not nursing or mothering. You cannot HELP anyone. You will be a
facilitator, a witness, and a crossing guard (at someone else’s crossroad). But not a
HELPER.
❖ The practitioner takes this journey to evolve themselves, not to help others.
❖ It is your journey, and on that journey, you will change, transform, transmute -- just as
much as your clients.
❖ You cannot work with clients who are further along than you on the Alchemical Path...
you must be patient (and the patient) and move along on your own journey as well.
❖ You enter the “void” with no desire, no agenda, not expecting anything or any outcome.
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What is Alchemy?
“The ancient Chinese Daoists believed that we are like
gold—a metal that doesn’t ever corrode or break down.

You can bury it in the ground, dig it up, and when you
polish it, it hasn’t changed a bit. Even if you heat it or
freeze it, it doesn’t change its essential qualities. It’s as
beautiful as it has always been.

We humans are like gold, but we just don’t know it.”

— Born Perfect, Leta Herman and Jaye McElroy
 What is Alchemy?
❖ Alchemy is an exploration of the mystery of life, of dimensions, of all things that
are and that are not…transformation is the key here.
❖ The word Alchemy is used to mean many things… turning base metal into gold is
probably the first thing most people think of when they hear the word Alchemy.
❖ Chinese Daoist masters believed we are like gold—that our spirits can never
tarnish and disintegrate like other base metals, such as silver.
❖ Even though most people believe we all will eventually grow old, decrepit, and die,
these Chinese masters believed humans could become physically immortal just
like gold… never break down or decompose!
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 why alchemy?
❖ Alchemy helps release the baggage of this lifetime and past
lives to free you up to be your authentic self.
❖ It then releases the habits of perception that limit how you
interact with the world.
❖ Once you’re free from your baggage and the limitations of
your perception, you can truly fly in your life!

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 why alchemy?
❖ Alchemy is about Freedom and living Authentically.
❖ There’s more to life than past suffering. Letting go of the past
is freedom.
❖ Alchemy is a journey of one…a lonely path but you can take
your friends with you.


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 why alchemy?
❖ Clearing Xie (Evil) Qi - Gu/Worms, Possession by Gui/Ghosts
❖ Chronic disease, such as Chronic Lyme - the starting place
❖ Auto-Immune diseases - what is the deep emotional block?
❖ PTSD/Trauma release - true transformation
❖ OCD - obsessive thinking
❖ Self-cultivation, personal transformation, evolution
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 anyone can be an alchemist- are you?

❖ The Alchemical Practitioner needs to be an Alchemist — self awareness and

self-cultivating is the first step.
❖ Do I want to transform and evolve in my own life?
❖ Self-discovery and self-cultivation is the REASON to do Alchemy with others.
❖ “Normal” human being’s life isn’t focused on self-cultivating… it’s focused
on survival and trying to be happy with external forces (not internal).
❖ Are you a little boat on the sea, being tossed this way and that (good and bad
-right and wrong)…not in control?
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anyone
can
be an
alchemist…
 anyone can be an alchemist- are you?

❖ Add a rudder and sail on that boat and become a master of

your own life
❖ Alchemists were wizards … on a quest to become immortal
❖ Why die and become reborn again? Why not stick around for
longer and master your life?
❖ Longevity (or at least a very long life) or even immortality
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 why bother?
❖ Without Alchemy, we are often weighed down by the past so
that we cannot be free to be ourselves.
❖ We also developed ways of interacting with the world that
limit how we perceive what’s happening.
❖ No self cultivation, no desire to know more, do more, seek
more …

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 Ge Hong’s Alchemical Cauldron
located on his mountain in china
Sun SiMiao's
front door
on his
mountain
home in china
 The Alchemists
❖ Ge Hong - traveled to his house and mountain in China with Master Jeffrey Yuen in
2016.
❖ Bao Gu - wife of Ge Hong - also alchemist - Moxa - we saw her moxa gardens hidden
along the mountain sides… many different varieties. Her recipe inspired female Nobel
Peace Prize winner.
❖ Sun SiMiao - travelld to his village and home in China with Master Jeffrey Yuen in 2013
❖ Ma DanYang - created Starry Sky Treatment - studied with Master Jeffrey Yuen, his
wife, Sun Bu’Er
❖ The 8 Immortals
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 Where to start - Alchemy self-cultivation

❖ Learn who I am (5 Elements)

❖ 9 Palaces (how to balance all the aspects of my life)
❖ Then if you pay attention to those things, you can become more sophisticated
❖ First address Five Elements and Nine Palaces… you can’t do Alchemy while
ignoring them
❖ As a practitioner, you can invent your own Alchemy and your own points if
you understand the concepts

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 Where to start - Alchemy self cultivation

❖ There is no ONE way to do self cultivation… there are many,

many ways…
❖ Each person must find what works for them, what they enjoy,
what brings them peace and passion…

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 Where to start - Alchemy self-cultivation

❖ Alchemy is stepping out of normal life

❖ Becoming “a watcher” like Eckhart Tolle suggests in Power of Now
❖ A linear process-but any stage can be repeated or circling back
❖ The Alchemical Stages do not have time-based schedules
❖ Alchemy is a journey not a race…


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Diagnosis requires the
presence of the spirits
in you.
The presence of the
spirits is due to your
inner connection in your
own life.
 Methods of Alchemy
❖ Stone Medicine (elixirs) - dangerous and unpredictable, Ge
Hong made Elixirs
❖ Acupoints (acupressure or acupuncture), Sun Si Miao
❖ Meditations - Nei Dong (Inner Alchemy), Sun Si Miao
❖ Qi Gong - The original intent of Qi Gong was for Alchemy

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 Alchemical Healing
❖ The practitioners must experience their own healing in order for the treatment
to be successful!
❖ Huge realizations about yourself and the patient. You go through it together!
❖ Your happiness at your patient’s improvement should not last longer than
today.
❖ No mistakes / Namaste (Byron Katie) - you must have this attitude
❖ Sometimes people want their ghost back - fear of living without it
❖ Trust that in the moment, you will always make the right decision
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❖ Your happiness at your
patient’s improvement
should not last longer
than today.
 Who are you?
❖ Technician - It’s about the points and the order
❖ Teacher - It’s about teaching the person what they need to know
❖ Shaman - Stepping into the footsteps that are already there and just be

❖ Hero - Want to save people

❖ Saint - Want to teach people acceptance of what is
❖ Alchemist - Facilitating transformation only when inspired
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 Presence
❖ Before you enter the room, leave all your stuff and all
expectations of the treatment at the door
❖ Become sensitive to space and time — watch the air, the
light, hear all the sounds of the building, not just the music
❖ Entering the void, meeting the spirit, being in the moment
❖ Become the magician - melting candles, freezing rooms
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 Presence
❖ You need to learn to run multiple tracks at once… The
patient talking, the music (music saying the same words),
sounds in the room and outside (birds chirping, sirens
going by), watching the light, watching the air in the
room… etc.
❖ how do you do this ……………..

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Methods of Alchemy
 Methods of Alchemy
❖ Alchemy often begins with a cleansing/purging of the baggage of this lifetime and the
protection against future reoccurrences of the past
❖ Ghost Points - unhooking the person from what makes them not free to be their
authentic selves
❖ IDs/EDs - working with Gui/Ghosts (Gui are also beings that need care)
❖ Grieving - when a person is stuck in grief
❖ Heart Pains - deep loneliness and addictions
❖ Starry Sky Points - physical issues hampering the opening of the chest to release
emotions
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 Methods of Alchemy
❖ After the cleaning of Xie Qi and putting back into balance
what is out of balance… then the person can begin self-
cultivation:
❖ 9 Stage of Alchemy

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 How to Know if someone is ready for Alchemy

❖ Sincerity and willingness to change their life.

❖ Being centered in themselves to see their lives as being
different.
❖ Are they willing to do the work? Or do they want you to do
the work for them?

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 An hour is a
very short time
to completely
change
someone’s life.
 The Issue of time
❖ Many practitioners do these treatments in one hour sessions over time
❖ The issue is the person is “in the treatment” during the duration of that time, which
can extend out over months
❖ If the person is Earth, they will be willing and able to do that hard work in order to
receive the self-realizations that Earth people love. However, for most others, this
will be a very painful process
❖ Doing the protocol in one longer treatment (4-6 hours) in my opinion is much
more effective. How can a person release something that has been there for many
years, in some cases their entire life, in one hour?
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 Deciding Which Treatment?
❖ Diagnostic techniques:
❖ Seeing something off with basic humanness
❖ Eyes
❖ Pulses
❖ Front/back body — accessibility
❖ Asking if they can access their own heart or assert their will
❖ Gui vs. Emotional Gui - The difference between possession and obsession
❖ Shen are the spirits of heaven (through which the influx of Heaven comes to each person)
❖ Gui are the spirits of Earth (supernatural forces connected with Earth)
❖ how to get Gui to go home

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 Deciding Which Treatment?
❖ Innate knowing…something’s not right… Xie Qi
❖ IDs - Yi - Accessibility, possession, not fully rooted in your spirit so something can take over,
Possessed means you can’t access your own heart. You’re stuck inside yourself, can’t undo
it yourself
❖ EDs - Will - Doingness, unable to do what you want to do
❖ Ghost points - releasing cellular/emotional patterns in subconscious and unconscious,
curses, obsessions, something that haunts you from the past, something you're hooked into
because you had an opening for it. Ghost points you can actually do yourself because you’re
not stuck inside yourself. If you’re possessed, you can’t undo it yourself except in rare cases
❖ Worsley (dragons idea)… vs. Operating in the void - heart needs to be empty and free
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 Other issues
❖ Not Xie Qi but internal blocks and/or imbalances
❖ Grieving - When grieving is stuck, can’t move on. What is the
natural process of grief?
❖ Heart Pains - Spirit in heart is accessible, but unable to be
vulnerable, loneliness, addictions, filling the emptiness inside
❖ Starry Sky Points - Physical issues causing lock-down in
chest
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 Gui
❖ What is gui? In Chinese Medicine, a “ghost” is translated as “gui.”
❖ Hungry Ghost (wants to accumulate), Romantic Ghost (can’t leave their love), and
Traveling Ghost (hitching a ride)
❖ Shen are the spirits of heaven (through which the influx of Heaven comes to each person)
❖ Gui are the spirits of Earth (supernatural forces connected with Earth)
❖ conversations with Gui
❖ how to get Gui to go home
❖ About love, not power. There will always be a Gui more powerful than you!
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 Emotional Gui
❖ Being possessed by your own thoughts
❖ Like a worm in your mind… someone implants that thought in your
head
❖ Or you implant it
❖ Long term abuse can also cause this to happen
❖ 80% or more are emotional
❖ Start with emotional possession
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 Phlegm
❖ Fully entrenched phlegm is like a Gui. If you don’t believe in ghosts, you
can think of it like phlegm. Phlegm affects the mind.
❖ Phlegm is misting the heart. Taken over the heart. It’s like a Gui.
❖ This treatment can be for clearing out the phlegm and these blockages.
❖ Phlegm makes you go crazy when it mists the heart. So you’ll see odd
behaviors. Ghost points are great for psychological dysfunction. With
wind it can cause volatility.

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 Getting into the void
❖ Alchemical treatments, in my opinion, are best done in the void
❖ To access the void, you first must learn to go into the void of your own
heart (the space inside your heart that’s between heaven and earth)
❖ From there, you can access the void of your patient’s heart.
❖ And from there, you can access the greater void with possible gui/
ghosts
❖ (Little Shen vs. Big Shen vs. Void)
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vibrations!
 Vibrational techniques: non-needle & needle

❖ Vibrating technique (different than 8 Extra and Divergents)

❖ Why vibrational versus lifting and thrusting or circular
❖ This is something that is deeply entrenched in a deep pattern. These are stuck
things so it means you have to have a cellular pattern that’s entrenched in you
to be that way
❖ We are asking all the habits and all the cellular patterns to begin to shift so we
need the vibration to move it
❖ Shaking up something that’s stuck on a very deep level
❖

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 session Techniques
❖ Music - Divine DJ
❖ Paying attention, awareness, when is a point done? No rush…
❖ The Four directions — Facing south on first point (facing Fire,
activating your Shen, highest guidance and standing in the North which
is wisdom), vertical vs. horizontal axis and the design of the treatment
❖ When the treatment stalls - when to insert yourself, waiting until you’re
sure
❖ Needle vs. non-needle techniques (needles don’t go in until they slip in)
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 Needles
❖ All needles are straight in (not oblique)
❖ Take your time before insertion. People don’t say “ow” because the needle slips in
when ready.
❖ Difficult to do all needles (Du 16 on the back and points on the front) … requires
propping the person up
❖ Client doesn’t get a break, need urinal, can’t just stop, pull all the needles out and
then restart, can allow bathroom breaks but don’t break unless you feel it
❖ Practitioner stands throughout treatment (can be exhausting) (but sitting can be
more connection)
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 Non-Needles
❖ Simulate needling with non-needle techniques
❖ Think of yourself as being the needle. Your energy goes in as deep as it’s needed. Your finger
is not vibrating that much. It’s the energy below that’s vibrating. The finger might move so
subtly, the person doesn’t know it’s vibrating. It’s like a wave of energy that starts to build.
❖ The music is vibrational too, and it will intensify the experience
❖ Bi-lateral points can be done at the same time. Or do one-sided and when you feel
movement, finish it on the other side.
❖ Finish and go backwards through to “Remove”
❖ Rigorous/Rigid - doing it as prescribed as close as possible, simulate needle, vibrate and
leave needle in

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 Ritualistic treatment
❖ Colors
❖ Light (candles)
❖ Smoke
❖ Walking according to the Steps of Yu (Magic Square)
❖ Music and Chanting (variety of instruments, rhythms, beats, etc.)
❖ Don’t remember points easily. Weird space you’re in. It becomes a
ritual. I can do it in my sleep.
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Sun si Miao
 History of Ghost Points
❖ Sun SiMiao created the 13 Ghost Points treatment. There are additional
ghost points (a total of 20)
❖ Sun Simaio lived from 581-618 A.D. dying at 101 years old he was
afterwards honored as “The King of Herbal Medicine.” It is reported that
by the age of 20 he had mastered and memorized all the medical classics.
❖ When Sun Simaio died it was reported that his body did not decay for
more than a month. It is speculated that he had been taking mercury and
arsenic elixirs to preserve his body at death.
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 Thirteen Ghost Points - History
❖ Sun Simiao didn’t invent the points, he just put together this
treatment. Sun Simiao was Ge Hong’s student (but didn’t
live in the same time…officially).
❖ Ge Hong creating elixirs of life. External alchemy to get rid
of ghosts.
❖ Sun Simiao—internal alchemy to get rid of ghosts.

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The Ghost Points
 13 Ghost Points session
❖ Ghost point treatments - when you decipher the code, you discover the mystery that lies
underneath
❖ Many never do the whole treatment in one session
❖ Start with single points
❖ Then do in trinities or twos
❖ Each point is your teacher — you must develop your own relationship with each point
❖ You transform too… you learn so much by being present to someone else’s
transformation
❖ Some points are more stuck on different people, others aren’t
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 STories
❖ There is no right or wrong way to do them. I can sometimes
pick a single point that is life-changing. I'd rather do all of
them.
❖ That one trauma may have affected just one, but it’s more
than likely affected most or all of them.
❖ Stay on the point until it’s done. Minutes or hours.

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 Follow-Up Treatment
❖ The next day (if the person is struggling) or within a week (in general)
❖ Follow-up is about helping the person be their authentic self. Encourage you
to be more you. Here’s your connection to God, let’s make it strong everyday.
❖ I like to do the source points of the Primary Element
❖ Also remove Chaotic/Aggressive Energy
❖ Treat blood and qi (deficiencies or excess)
❖ Or any glaring physical issues

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 Key Points to explore
❖ Do single point in one treatment.
❖ Use same techniques (music, vibration).
❖ Talk to the person while doing the point about the theme…
❖ How did you change the way you interfaced with the world after your trauma?
❖ Are you able to speak well about yourself in the world?
❖ Has the feeling of oppression continued even after you got out of the abusive
relationship?

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 Key Points to explore
❖ If you’re just starting out…good points to use as a single
ghost point treatment
❖ Ghost Palace (the door to your palace) Du 26
❖ Ghost Market (how the person speaks about themselves in
the world) Ren 24
❖ Ghost Official (for oppression) LI 11
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 What to Tell Client
❖ Changes take place right away but it takes 3-6 months for
habits to change
❖ The follow-up sessions are critical

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Self-Cultivation through The 9 Stages of Alchemy
 The Nine Stages of Alchemy
❖ Each stage is an elixir
❖ The Shen has 9 transformations. No one knows exactly what the 9
transformations are or agrees to what they are. We have 9 lifetimes/
incarnations/curricula.
❖ The emperor has 9 alchemical representations of his empire—thus, the
emperor always had 9 dragons on his robe and only he could wear them.
❖ Transformation of the person into the full potential of who they are


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 The Nine Stage of Alchemy
❖ The Nine Stages are grouped into three sets of stages.
❖ Stages 1-3: These stages are about clearing away.
❖ Stages 4-6: These stages are about expanding your perceptions and
potential.
❖ Stage 7-9: These stages defy the limitations that we believe this reality
puts on us (limitations of gravity, time, and space). This includes flying,
morphing, becoming invisible, and time travel. 


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 Thank you and let’s connect!
❖ For more information Leta@AlchemyHealingCenter.com
❖ Upcoming Class: Intro to Alchemy Workshop November 16th Saturday
10-5:00 PM
❖ Livestream & in person (Northampton, MA) Lhasa OMS $50 discount…
http://alchemyhealingcenter.com/lhasa-discount
❖ Master Alchemy Program 2020 -waitlist / interviews /questions, https:/
www.MasterAlchemyProgram.com/map
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