In our weekly updates, we often share with you the latest news and reviews from the naturopathic community, often reviewing the merits of one nutrient or another. However, as a deeply naturopathic company we want to take this opportunity to remind ourselves of the growing research that is once again suggesting that given the optimal environment of light, water, and oxygen, we all potentially hold within us one of mother nature’s most amazing gifts, the ability to trans mutate our own nutrients.
Although we recognise that it is difficult to find such a state of true enlightenment and harmony in the western world, and please acknowledge that we are not necessarily promoting this lifestyle, it’s good to remind ourselves of the potential that is so beautifully demonstrated by the yogi's lifestyle, and that this ability to differing extents is a hidden resource that’s within us all, hence the saying on occasions less is in fact more.
So we ask what if everything we thought we knew about the western understanding of nutrition was wrong, or at best only appropriate to our lifestyles, and instead of relying on high daily intake levels of key nutrients, we could simply reconnect with our ability to trans mutate all our daily nutritional needs. I know this is challenging to many, but just for a moment allow yourself the time to consider the infinite possibilities this would reveal for mankind as a whole.
These days many of us discount this theory due to the myth that alchemy is simply devoted to creating gold and other precious substances from base metals like lead.
In fact, it is a centuries-old interest in transmutation (changes) to matter. Changes that can be naturally occurring, or actively stimulated, to produce a new element. This has led to an interest in the chemical alterations and processes that take place in animals, seeds, and bacteria, for example.
Also, alchemy is often associated with a magical and mythical creative process. When in fact, it is firmly rooted in scientific discovery. The meaning of 'alchemical', according to the Oxford Dictionary, is: “the medieval forerunner of chemistry concerned with the transmutation of matter.” This implies its relevance has been relegated to the mists of time, and that alchemy has been superseded by more respected forms of scientific study.
The interesting thing we want to share is that research in this field does have important contemporary applications. Also, that previous research into the transmutation of matter within living organisms achieved noteworthy and highly significant discoveries. Many of which have been largely ignored or in some cases suppressed.
More recently, alchemy in relation to nature is gaining ground. Not least as humankind seeks new ways to boost health and welfare by unlocking the full potential of what the Earth has already provided.
Alchemy and its place in contemporary science
You are probably aware that early experimentation means many ancient cures and remedies have found their way into modern medicine. Seeds, flowers, bark and beneficial microbes favoured by ancient ‘chemists’ now feature in contemporary drugs and foodstuffs, including foxglove derivatives to treat heart issues and the flora that inspired Aspirin!
(source: https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/natural-remedies-6009109#6)
Look on any supermarket shelves, and you will also find natural ingredients in everyday products that have been used since ancient times. Cleopatra is believed to have used aloe vera for skincare, and St John’s Wort has been utilised to balance mood since Roman Times!
(sources: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730301-200-how-aloe-vera-became-a-cure-all-and-cosmetic-superstar/ And https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11155493).
This shows vividly that experimentation with substances - to unlock their potential - is as old as humankind. That includes the constant search to create something new and more valuable, from a fundamental, natural source.
Interest in transmutations and converting substances into something new can even be seen in the world of art, of all places! In its catalogue for an ‘Art of Alchemy’ exhibition in 2017, the Getty Research Institute said: “Alchemists’ efforts to discover the way the world is made have had an enduring impact on artistic practice and expression around the globe. Inventions born from alchemical laboratories include metal alloys for sculpture and ornament, oil paints, effects in glassmaking, and even the chemical baths of photography. The mysterious art of alchemy transformed visual culture from antiquity to the Industrial Age, and its legacy still permeates the world we make today.”
(source: https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/alchemy/)
We couldn’t agree more that alchemistry has led to important discoveries. However, we also believe that the transmutation of matter should be given greater consideration, to expand and enhance its applications in improving health and welfare. Including revisiting previous findings on how we can potentially alter nature’s bounty, to create something of even greater value.
Alchemy is a continuation of a logical use of what already exists, to better support and appreciate human and plant physiology. We can use it to better understand – and possibly replicate or accelerate – the natural processes that create alterations in living matter.
Of course, contemporary discoveries are more feasible and respected! Particularly as cold fusion technology has been used to create nuclear reactions. So, it is possible to create seismic change within small entities.
Previously, the widely accepted view was that chemical elements cannot be destroyed or created in a lab. Before radioactivity was properly understood, ample studies supported the view that even blending chemical substances does not alter their elemental compositions and behaviours.
Nuclear science revealed these long-held views to be flawed. Yet, the fact they were so embedded in mainstream science is one reason why early experiments with matter transmutation were greeted with cynicism, utter disbelief and even willful suppression.
Before we delve further into contemporary thinking on the transmutation of matter, it is worth going back in time to explore some of the earliest research into alchemy and living organisms. Not least these endeavours illuminate interesting areas of study that we can revisit, now society has a more open mind to the possibilities and modern experimentation techniques to expand the results.
19th century alchemists
Some of the earliest research in this fascinating field involved chicken droppings! In fact, these farmyard animals will feature further along in our overview of the history of naturally occurring matter transmutation too.
The French chemist, Louis Vauquelin, became intrigued by poultry faeces in 1799. He noticed how much lime (CaO) it contained. To dig deeper into this, he took a hen aside. Vauquelin then fed the bird a measured amount of oats, before analysing the composition of both its shell and faeces. He discovered the hen’s waste contained five times more calcium than it had consumed in its oat diet!
Where had this calcium come from?
Vauquelin also noted that the quantity of silicon eaten had decreased significantly when compared to what appeared from the other end of the hen. This suggested to him that the silicon had transmuted into the calcium during the digestive process. However, the quantities involved still didn’t fully account for the increase in lime.
Another French man, Choubard, discovered in 1822 that watercress germinated from seeds with no minerals in contained minerals, despite the lack of them in their environment. A few years later, a chap called Vogel also found that watercress plants have sulphur in them, which was also not present in the seeds or germination mediums he used.
(Source: https://bionutrient.org/site/library/reviews/biological-transmutations).
Small, but significant studies, hinted at some of the mysteries of natural processes that support plants and animals. When German Chemist Albrecht von Herzeele published ‘About the Origin of Inorganic Substances’ in 1873, his research paper included the view that: "It is not the soil that produces the plant, but the plant that creates the soil."
It was the first of a series of published works by von Herzeele that detailed his experimentation and conclusions, much of which revolved around the way different plants change the chemical structure of soil.
For example, he studied Vicia sativa, also known as the common vetch. Varying the plant’s access to calcium, potassium and phosphorus during germination, von Herzeele researched the resulting levels. Among his extensive findings was that by adding calcium salts to the plant’s nutrition, it was possible to stimulate the production of more potassium.
Interesting though this is to us now, the scientific world in von Herzeele’s era was not at all receptive. Especially to his belief that: "Plants are capable of effecting the transmutation of elements". His carefully researched books disappeared into obscurity. In fact, we would not even be aware of his work, if a man called Rudolf Hauschka had not discovered it by accident. Fortunately, it was then republished in 1930.
Examples of 20th century alchemisty
Once returned to the public realm, this early experimentation spurred more investigation. Among the more receptive audience for Herzeele’s research was French Scientist, Pierre Baranger. He was head of the Laboratory of Chemical Biology and professor of organic chemistry at Ecole Polytechnique.
Baranger assessed the limitations in Herzeele’s output and expanded and varied the experimentation with Common Vetch seeds. The aim was to generate a more statistically robust study with clearer controls. From this, Professor Baranger created a large body of work between 1950 and 1970.
Within this, he outlined his more advanced discoveries, particularly the way he could significantly increase the presence of calcium and iron in the plant while lowering phosphorus and potassium. This added further evidence and weight to Herzeele’s view that plants are capable of producing elements that have not been provided by their environment.
You would imagine this doubling up was more convincing to the scientific establishment, but this was not the case. Both Baranger and his family after his death found that their efforts to publish his work and have it recognised by fellow scientists were met with closed doors and closed minds. Resistance to the transmutation of matter was still ingrained.
Fortunately, for this important field of study, Professor C. Louis Kervran took up the mantle and his scientific credentials resulted in important steps forward. Kervran’s insights into plants, geology and nuclear science were published in ten books and earned him a Nobel Prize nomination, clearly adding gravitas to his work on transmutation.
His interest in the way living things alter chemical elements had a strikingly different origin than his predecessors, though chickens did eventually feature.
Kervran’s foray into this field began when he became intrigued with finding out how people could die from carbon monoxide poisoning when the environment they were in did not contain detectable amounts. This led him to an extensive and detailed study of Sahara oilfield workers and their physical responses to high temperatures and exertion. One of Kervran’s notable findings was that on average, these workers excreted 320 mg more calcium each day than they had ingested.
This is when Kervran brought chickens back into the crucial field of transmutation of matter! The professor set up experiments after observing that hens lay eggs with shells made of calcium, even in environments where there is no calcium in the soil they peck. However, the hens were taking in mica, which contains potassium. This again supported the idea that a process of transmutation takes place within chickens.
When Kervan published his results, between 1960 to 1980, his standing in the scientific community helped gain greater traction for his findings, including his view that living organisms can facilitate limited transmutation of elements. Even he didn’t get a completely warm response to his findings, though.
More recent studies into alchemistry
It took a 1978 project financially supported by the US Army Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command in Virginia to finally validate that biological systems can contain mechanisms to alter matter.
Kervan’s work formed one of the strands of this project, which aimed to find ways of using elemental transmutations within biological entities to explore potential new energy sources. The final report included; “It was concluded that elemental transmutations were indeed occurring in life organisms [sic] and were probably accompanied by a net energy gain."
The way forward in alchemistry
The above are just some of the scientific research strands that have explored the way that new elements can be created by naturally occurring processes.
The most recent research projects have benefitted open minds to the possibilities but also contemporary equipment to measure and analyse outcomes more accurately. Perhaps the most solid proof yet that transmutation of matter is not only possible but significant, came from the work of Ukrainian scientist, Vladimir Vysotskii.
Using modern analytics techniques and equipment, he began experimenting in this field in the 1990s. His team were particularly focused on how certain bacteria develop in water. By employing mass spectroscopy, the group was able to chart the way manganese transmutes into iron.
Clearly, this area of science warrants a great deal more research. It is ‘coming of age’ and passing from the realms of ancient magic to verifiable processes. However, that’s not to say the transmutation of elements is not still a highly mysterious phenomenon! There are still no solid clues about how it takes place.
This too is something that requires a great deal more study, possibly using experiments using low-energy radiation to better observe nuclear reactions in solids, including living organisms.
The results have implications for mainstream medicine and improvements in health and wellbeing, as well as alternative healing, agriculture, and energy studies. This all dovetails with Conella’s belief that the catalytic effects of electromagnetic energy have a strong role to play in good nutrition, particularly when we keep our body’s cellular structure at its best, by regulating what we consume.
Just as the full potential of matter transmutation is still to be uncovered, naturopathic understanding is in its infancy. However, you can rely on Conella to innovate and to expand the possibilities of Electromagnetic Nutrition whilst embracing the principles of the biology of belief and understanding light as our key energy source.
