Read an Excerpt
Lost Powers
Reclaiming Our Inner Connection
By J. Douglas Kenyon Atlantis Rising
Copyright © 2016 J. Douglas Kenyon
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-9906904-3-6
CHAPTER 1
Secrets of the Alchemists
Is Modern Science Simply Rediscovering Lost Ancient Knowledge?
BY JOSEPH ROBERT JOCHMANS, LIT.D.
Without a doubt the best known claim of the alchemists was the transmutation of lead into gold. Modern physicists up until the end of the 19th century dismissed such a notion as ridiculous, for it violated all known laws of the stability and constancy of the elements. But then came Madame Joliot-Curie, radium, and the discovery of radioactive substances that can be transformed by isotope decay from higher atomic number elements to lower number elements.
So far, physicists have been able to synthesize elements up to element 116, which is stable for only a few milliseconds before it deteriorates. Scientists now theorize that elements of even higher atomic numbers may be possible to synthesize, which might even exhibit a higher degree of stability.
One such synthetic element that proved more stable is element 114, known as also as "eka-lead" because it belongs to the lead family, and displays many of the same properties as lead. In fact, there are definite indications that eka-lead may exist in natural forms, and in minute quantities along with normal lead.
What is very significant is that, if eka-lead were induced to decay, the material would break down into several elements of lower atomic number, and the major end-product left would be gold.
Thus there may be truth in the old claim after all — the alchemists knew of some way of precipitating eka-lead from normal lead, and then induced decay in order to obtain the much sought-after yellow element.
Much of ancient alchemical experimentation dealt with water, and changing its properties in both chemical and biological functions. They spoke, for example, of producing from water at room temperature a solid, plastic-like substance that had unusual properties.
In 1967, Russian chemists N. Fedakin and Boris Deryagin of the Moscow Academy of Sciences successfully produced what they called "polywater" — a polymerized form of water with a mass density of 40, a boiling point of 650 degrees Celsius, and a freezing point of minus 40 degrees Celsius. It has the appearance of clear plastic.
It is now believed that polywater occurs naturally, in certain types of clay, in plants, and it is now thought to have a function in the cohesion of living cells.
It would be interesting to know just how much the early alchemists knew about polywater, for they appear to have drawn upon knowledge based on experimentation over many centuries, while modern chemists have known about it for barely half a century.
The ancient alchemists had not only an understanding of electricity, but how it could be used to separate water into its two component parts — hydrogen and oxygen. In the Princes' Library at Ujjain in India, there is preserved a document called the Agastya Samhita, which dates to the first millennium BC. In it is this description:
"Place a well-cleaned plate of copper in an earthenware vessel. Cover it with copper sulfate and then with moist sawdust. The contact of all these elements in this manner will produce an energy called Mitra-Varuna. By it water can be split into Pranavayu and Udanavayu. A chain of one hundred jars will give a very active and effective force."
We have here not only instructions for making a battery, but a description of the electrolysis of water into oxygen and hydrogen. It appears, too, that the Hindus were equally knowledgeable of the reverse process, of creating water out of the elements in the air. Both the Rig Veda and the Brihat Devatas mention that when "Mitra Varuna" is placed in a water-jar and exposed to the heavens, the "god" born is named Khumba-Sambhava, the Indian equivalent to Aquarius, the Zodiacal god who carries on his shoulder a water jug that never empties.
Alchemists from ancient China once employed unknown techniques for manufacturing a metal that did not find its full potentials until our modern age. In 1956, twenty metal belt-fasteners with open-work ornamentation were discovered in the burial site of the notable Chinese general of the Tsin era, Chou Chu, who died in AD 297.
The fastener was examined by the Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Dunbai Polytechnic. Their analysis showed that the fasteners were composed of metal that was an alloy of 5 percent manganese, 10 percent copper, and 85 percent aluminum.
Now, aluminum was supposedly not discovered until 1807, and not produced successfully in industrial form until 1857. Today the process of extracting aluminum from bauxite mineral is very complicated and involves the use of a Reverbier oven, refraction chamber, and regenerator, and utilizes temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius. What is more, electrolysis plays a key role.
The question is, where did the Chinese acquire these elements of present-era technology in the 3rd century? Or is it possible that they may have possessed methods of producing aluminum that are unknown today, employing a simpler long-lost forgotten technique not yet rediscovered by modern science?
Joseph Needham, the leading historian of Chinese science, has voiced his opinion that the anomalous 3rd century aluminum was the product of an unknown alchemist, someone who had access to a lost science. What else could the ancient alchemists have produced using the same methods? Many age-old sources identified the element mercury as having mysterious powers that have been lost to us today.
Chapter 31 in the classic Sanskrit work, the Samarangana Sutradhara, contains 230 stanzas that describe the workings of a mysterious mercury engine used for powering flying craft called vimanas: Here are the relevant texts:
"In the flying craft four strong containers of mercury must be built into the interior. When these are heated by controlled fire from the iron containers, the craft possesses thunder-power through the mercury. The iron engines must have properly welded joints to be filled with mercury and when fire is conducted to the upper part it develops power with the roar of a lion.
"By means of the energy latent in mercury, the driving whirlwind is set in motion and the traveler sitting inside the vehicle may travel in the air to such a distance as to look like a pearl in the sky."
Very curiously, British nuclear physicist Edward Neville da Costa Andrade, in a speech delivered at Cambridge in July, 1946, noted that the famed discoverer of the laws of gravity, Sir Isaac Newton, knew something about the secret of mercury. Quoting Lord Atterbury, a contemporary of Newton, Andrade remarked:
"Modesty teaches us to speak of the ancients with respect, especially when we are not very familiar with their works. Newton, who knew them practically by heart, had the greatest respect for them, and considered them to be men of genius and superior intelligence who had carried their discoveries in every field much further than we today suspect, judging from what remains of their writings. More ancient writings have been lost than have been preserved, and perhaps our new discoveries are of less value than those that we have lost."
Andrade continued, quoting Newton:
"Because of the way by which mercury may be impregnated, it has been thought fit to be concealed by others that have known it, and therefore may possibly be an inlet to something more noble, not to be communicated without immense danger to the world."
What it is about mercury that could be of "immense danger" we do not know. Yet it seems apparent that the ancient alchemists were well aware of the practical application of mercury.
In the 1970s, Soviet explorers excavating a cave near Tashkent, Uzbekistan, discovered a number of conical ceramic pots, each carefully sealed and each containing a single drop of mercury. A description and illustrations were published in several Russian scientific periodicals. There is no clue what these mercury containers were used for, but they must have been highly treasured and used for something that is beyond our present understanding and technology. It was a secret that was found, used, and preserved by a select few — only to be lost again to this day.
Ancient legends from the early days of the Silk Road speak of unknown alchemists from Central Asia who developed a thread of material which, when sown into a garment, made its wearer invincible: it could deflect arrows and spears, as well as be impervious to fire. It is said that Emperor Yu of China paid a small fortune in royal gold and jade in order to obtain just one such garment, a vest that was lightweight yet could not be penetrated by any known weapon or consumed by any flame.
In 2006, Yu's descendants from the University of Beijing announced their success in creating threads of fullerene carbon (chemically designated as C-60) in the form of microscopic nanotubes, which when "sown" together formed material that will one day prove to be much more resilient than present bullet-proof vests and fire-resistant clothing. We today know that fullerene carbon exists in very minute quantities in nature along with regular carbon-12 and carbon-14 molecules. Did the ancient alchemists once understand a method of how to "distill" natural C-60 and collect it, then develop it into a thread in the same manner as silk was harvested in our modern age?
Another Chinese legend spoke of alchemists producing a second suit of armor that provided its wearer with perfect camouflage. It did not cause invisibility, but rather made a body "obscure" and difficult to see because it was "blacker than black." Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University have recently created the darkest material known, which reflects back less than one tenth of one percent of light falling on it. The material is composed of carbon nanotubes grown on iron nanodots on top of a silicon wafer, and then meshed together, forming an irregular surface that minimizes reflection and maximizes light absorption.
What little light is reflected is scattered and diffused to such an extent that, when observed against most partially illuminated backgrounds, the outline of the material is hard to see. Against a dark background, it blends in and remains unseen. Like its ancient Chinese counterpart, the "extreme black" material makes a good "stealth" covering, and thus minimizes detection.
Another modern form of carbon that may have been anticipated by alchemists is called graphene, and consists of a single layer, one atom thick, of graphite — an element found in common everyday soot. What today's industrialists are discovering is that graphene, and its by-product graphene oxide, might be utilized as ideal reinforcements in composite materials, combinations of two substances that possess the desirable properties of both. Several alchemical references were made to the "magical" fusion of otherwise incompatible materials bonded together through a "secret" process using "black powder."
Graphene is also the only known substance at room temperature through which electrons flow at the same relativistic speed as neutrinos, giving it very unique and unusual electromagnetic properties. Arranged in specific chemically-induced patterns, graphene could serve as ultra-high speed transistor circuitry and be used to store a tremendous amount of information in a very small space. Were some alchemical manuscripts, in fact, made from graphene oxide "pages" that contained knowledge not only written on their surfaces, but also preserved within the sheets themselves?
Arabic alchemical manuscripts make several references to "a bendable glass that is stronger than Damascus steel" and was also non-magnetic. In 2007, physicists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced after two years of research the creation of a metallic glass that can be bent at right angles without breaking. Liquid metal is first supercooled, which makes it three times stronger than its natural crystalline state. During this process, minute quantities of zirconium, copper, nickel, and aluminum are interjected, much in the same manner that alchemists of old added tinctures to their metallurgical solutions.
The result is an amorphous glassy steel that holds no electrical charge. The overall final composition contains hard areas of high density surrounded by soft regions of low density. With small manipulations made to its new molecular structure, the end product develops plasticity and helps prevent internal cracks from forming and spreading.
As yet we cannot say with certainty that this was the same method used by ancient alchemists to produce their own version of "bendable glass," but the fact that it has now been accomplished by modern processes, and its characteristics are identical to the ancient alchemists' descriptions point for point, gives credibility to our forebears having been able to do the same, perhaps in ways simpler and less complicated than today's methods.
Going a step further, our modern research into the secrets of biochemistry only dates to the last century, but for other civilizations now lost in our past, the research may have extended over millennia. Many alchemical treatises are filled with formulas for perfumes, incense, and aromatic therapeutic mixtures that were meant to enhance memory and intelligence. Recently, researchers at the University of Lubeck in Germany performed a number of computerized memory tests using some subjects under normal or control conditions, while others were tested in a room filled with the smell of roses. In addition, a group of the control subjects were also kept in a room with rose scent during sleep.
Not only did the added rose odor significantly enhance initial test performance, but those who slept with the rose stimulus also dramatically improved their scores when the same memory test was given the following day. Brain scans taken during sleep showed that while slow-wave activity was occurring, the scent cue heightened output of the hippocampus, pointing to a direct correlation between olfactory stimulation and brain performance. We can only wonder, what else did the alchemists of old know about the use of specific aromas and their effects on the mind?
For thousands of years a resin extracted from the boswellia tree, which grows in southern Arabia, was burned as incense in major temples and sanctuaries throughout the ancient world. It was said to have the unusual effects of bringing peace of mind, relaxation, and a heightened sense of spiritual experience. Today we know this resin as frankincense; it was a highly prized ingredient that appeared in several alchemical treatises linked with other curative substances and methods of rejuvenation.
In early 2008, Arieh Moussayeff, a pharmacologist from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, led a team of American and Israeli scientists in successfully isolating from boswellia tree resin a compound they named incensole acetate. By injecting mice with this substance, they discovered the subjects had significantly reduced levels of stress and anxiety. The new chemical helps to regulate the flow of ions in and out of neurons in a similar way that modern antidepressant drugs work today. The experimenters concluded that their findings will one day aid not only in developing a new class of chemicals that will shed light on the molecular workings of the brain, but will also facilitate in creating a general calming effect to promote a healing mental state.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Lost Powers by J. Douglas Kenyon. Copyright © 2016 J. Douglas Kenyon. Excerpted by permission of Atlantis Rising.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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