Frater Albertus

A paradox seems to reveal its when one begins active work in a laboratory. It is not very noticeable the beginning because chemical experimentation is supposed to result identical results under identical conditions. However, this is not necessarily the case when it comes alchemical attempts.

We are not speaking here of that initial experimentation in both strict chemical and alchemical endeavours which is always subject to trial a error. However, when we are past that experimental stage and a repetition of a proven formula or procedure is to expected, the alchemical aspirant very often confronted with unexplainable failures. For example, one may have witnessed, and then proven by personal experience, an occurrence in the laboratory - only to find when the same procedure is performed at a later date, perhaps at another location (but possibly even in the original setting) that the result is not the same.

Is it possible that alchemical procedures come under different laws than ordinary chemistry? This is very unlikely when we consider that every action is based upon a cause and every causation is based upon law. If a law needs no vindication because it has the inherent property of a predestined result why, then, does the student of alchemy get unexpected results?

This paradox has puzzled many students of alchemy. Some say, for whatever it is worth, that "higher forces," have their hands in the results. What "higher forces," one may well ask? Others claim that the equipment or materials have been handled by others and thus are "contaminated." There are many rationalizations of this kind.

Yet is it only too obvious in daily life that so-called routine work does not always proceed in a routine manner. There seems to be times when one experiences "a streak of bad luck." other words, things just don't occur correctly no matter how one tries, while at other times everything runs smoothly. Since this takes place in everyday life, why should we believe, that the work in the laboratory must always satisfy our expectations?

Actually there is no difference between the laboratory and the world outside. Success or failure, no matter where the place, are always based upon prevailing circumstances. These circumstances are a major cause of the actual results obtained.

Failure, even repeated failure, is the result of ignorance of the laws involved. Since a law in itself does not change, the application of the law can, and does, make all the difference. This is the main reason why insufficient knowledge causes failure in alchemical laboratory pursuits. Merely observing another working and then trying to duplicate the procedures does not always create the same results. If it was that easy there would never be any failures when an onlooker tried to repeat a procedure.

It is practice, constant practice, by oneself that develops a person as an adept in an undertaking!

Since the approach alone can be sufficient indication of impending success or failure, it is a necessity that alchemical work requires alchemical thinking. In many instances, a gradual shift from alchemical concepts to chemical interpretations creates the cause of failure in the laboratory. Not enough attention is given to the precept, "Know the Theory first before attempting the Praxis!"

Any attempt at practical laboratory work is dependent upon the knowledge we have. It may seem that we are "doing the same thing over again" but our way of thinking has changed, if have added our own interpretations and explanations, we probably are not doing the "same thing" at all.

Another aspect may be added here which is not "scientifically" acceptable but still very much evident. Circumstances over which we have no control have something to do with our laboratory results. We are not referring to physical circumstances such as temperature and ph but to celestial mechanics and celestial laws about which we are still very ignorant. It is here that we may have to look for an explanation of our difficulties in the laboratory as these celestial influences could possibly affect both the operator and the substances under consideration. Although the modern scientist is likely to ignore such factors, the interplay between cycles and celestial influences most likely holds the key to unexplainable results developing procedures.

When identical results do not appear from a repitition of the same experience there is no better known way to solve the paradox than by learning to think as an alchemist thinks. No violation of law is involved! Instead, one will then function with a knowledge of laws that modern science, unfortunately, does not consider as factors in its approch. One will then not indulge in hopeless rationalizations which necessarily fail to open up new avenues for experimentation. Finally this new alchemical approach, this new understanding of law, will lead the aspirant to properly modify procedures accord to the real circumstances. Thus the aspirant can achieve the desired alchemical results: the evolution of substances and not simply new combinations.

Richard and Isabella Ingalese

Editor's Note: One of the most fascinating personal experiences in the long history of alchemical research is that of the twentieth century American lawyer, Richard Ingalese, and his talented wife Isabella. In this introduction to their essay on physical immortality, we will only briefly recall their story for the reader who might not be aware of the small book which documents their experience.

Richard and Isabella Ingalese were prominent writers in the early 1900's with several insightful and useful books about personal transformation to their credit. In 1921 they decided to turn their brilliant minds to the study of laboratory alchemy. Their goal was the production of the legendary Philosopher's Stone and medicinal means to extend physical life. According to their account, they knew no one who could personally instruct them and worked entirely from the available English (Waite) translation of Paracelsus. Isabella did their first laboratory work while Richard went back to work as an attorney to finance their efforts.

After several years Isabella succeeded in extracting the necessary oils from metals. Richard then joined her in the laboratory research. After more years of work they finally produced and successfully tested a primitive medicinal stone with a group of friends known as "The Renewal Club." In 1928 Richard Ingalese gave a public talk about this experience with laboratory alchemy in such honest and open terms that it is impossible to doubt his integrity. It is this inspiring speech which was later printed as a limited edition booklet.

To this editor's knowledge, the following essay, excerpted from the 1930 edition of their book, The Greater Mysteries, is the only writing of the Ingalese's appearing after the 1928 speech which hints at their alchemical nowledge and provides valuable clues about the usage of "alchemical elixirs in conjunction with the tools of Mental Alchemy and ordinary hygienic law.

If any reader has further knowledge about the life and researches of this remarkable couple and would communicate such information to us, or could merely indicate posible sources to contact for this purpose, we would be exceedingly grateful.

In 1981, when the ordinary scientific research commented upon by the Ingalese's has reached a point where it is anticipated that normal humans may have a 600-year life span by the end of the century, the following comments by two profound thinkers about the possibility and methods of achieving immortality deserve special attention.

There is a phase of immortality which appeals to many minds at this time. We refer to physical immortality.

The chemist, the physician, the masseur and the electrician are all drafted into the army which is arrayed against old age and death. Many magazines are devoted to the subject of physical culture. Every hamlet, town and city has its teachers of deep breathing and its beauty doctors. Every city, school, college and pleasure resort makes provision for athletic exercises or out sports. Every city has its Board of Health working, more or less intelligently and successfully, to lessen the death rate. All these things are indicative of the popular and growing desire for longevity or physical immortality.

Then, in the realms of metaphysics we have many teachers who are endeavoring to demonstrate over old age and death and who are attempting to teach their followers how to attain physical immortality through mental means. These tremendous demands going forth into Divine Mind, as desire, prayer and conscious effort, must in time bring results to those demanding. But, since the majority of people do not believe in physical immortality, and only hope for prolonged youth and longevity, their demands will doubtless be met in this way.

In point of fact there cannot be a literal physical immortality in the present gross forms, because even if the body could be renewed indefinitely, the time will come when the earth and all such forms upon it will die and disintegrate. By physical immortality, hen, is meant the renewal and retention of the body for as long a time as may be desired, or the transmutation of the physical body into a finer form of matter. Those who believe in such physical immortality and desire to have it, will have their demands met, when they comply with the Laws of Life.

According to Occultism there are six things that must be done to acquire socalled perpetual youth. First, eliminate all bad Karma. Second, frequently make the demand of Divine Consciousness for perpetual youth, using the renewing Cosmic Forces to aid the materialization of the demand. Third, prepare and use either an alchemical elixir or a vegetable compound which will renew the tissues of the body as rapidly as its normal waste requires, or transmute it into an ethereal form. Fourth obey the hygienic laws. Fifth, conserve mental and physical forces. Sixth, sleep from seven to twelve hours out of each twenty-four.

It is not an easy task to preserve youth and to live the strenuous lives that most of us do at this time in our evolution. Merely to live is not altogether desirable, though many there are who do prolong their lives to, and beyond three score years and ten; and there are a few who have lived beyond their century cycle. But usually, after this age has been reached, the body then becomes cumbersome to its possessor and a trial to his associates and friends. "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything is merely physical existence and not that Perpetual youth which is desired. An old alchemist eating the apples of immmortality

If one should observe the last five requisites and still have or make bad Karma, the power to renew youth would prove unavailing, for "the wages of sin" or ignorance "is death."

It matters not what power one may have to renew one's body, if one is guilty of infractions of the moral code, then the Law would pay the wages of sin. To live a moral, harmonious life is the first and greatest requisite toward attaining perpetual youth. It was these characteristics which enabled the Nazarene to escape the dominion of death; and we cannot think of that Divine Personage as an old man. Thought stamps itself upon the body and particularly upon the face. A sin-stamped face is never youthful, it always suggests experience and age, no matter what art or science may do for it. It is ignorance of this requisite that has caused so many people in the past to fail in their attempts to prolong their youthful appearance, though they had considerable knowledge of some of the other requisites.

It is also necessary to make the demand of Diety for youth. This demand, in itself, is helpful both as an autosuggestion and as a means of putting the law into operation to meet the demand. The conscious use of Cosmic Force is always constructive to the body, because it brings new and necessary atoms and elements into it. Those who know nothing of the Occult Forces in Nature accomplish the same results, only in a lesser degree, by demanding, or praying for health and youth, or by asserting in a creative way the possession of these qualities.

For example, a Christian Scientist, with a limited knowledge of the law, will accomplish good results by denying old age and death and affirming the possession of youth and life. A student of Occultism would not only make the same affirmations but would also consciously draw into himself the Cosmic Force which would help to objectivize the desire.

But the use of mind alone, either consciously, as in the manipulation of nature's finer forces, or less consciously, as in denials and affirmations, will not prolong youth or life except in very rare cases of powerful and trained minds. But even when such minds do accomplish this purpose, so much time and force is given to the self-treatments that not much is left for the accomplishment of any other purpose. In other words, mere existence is maintained by using nearly all one's force to hold an old worn-out body.

This is not intended as a criticism of those metaphysical schools of thought which disapprove of the use of physical means to heal the body or to aid in maintaining its youth. All these schools are but different aspects of ancient thought applied to modern conditions. They are all good and helpful in their way, but by reason of their recent origin, are necessarily passing through an experimental stage. In time they will, through experience, discover that since food is necessary to maintain the body at all stags of its development, so, after fifty years of age, special preparations are necessary to maintain youth and to promote longevity.

No modern school of metaphysical thought has yet reached a point where any of its members or leaders can successfully claim to have maintained youth one hundred years or even to have prolonged physical life, with full faculties, beyond that period. Occultism, however, has ages of experience to its credit. In the Orient, where it is more generally known, tradition is rife with accounts of lives prolonged hundreds of years. And even in the Occi dent there are traditions of magicians who brewed and drank the elixir of life, and thus lived from age to age. And even as late as the end of the eighteenth century Comte de Saint Germain. and other Occultists, even' according to the prejudiced, vilifying writers, produced evidence of having lived two hundred years or more, and were well preserved at the time of the French Revolution. This great age they attributed to an alchemical elixir of life which they possessed.

Whenever there are legends which persist age after age, among different people, you may be sure they have some basis in fact, whether it be a legend of a flood or of the elixir of life. The Occultist says there are both vegetable and alchemical compounds which will renew the tissues of the body. The masters of Occultism give their alchemical secrets only to their very advanced students, or to initiates who would not misuse the knowledge thus received. But it is interesting to know that our chemists are becoming so expert that persons wishing to prolong youth can obtain many material aids from them.

Where one has the knowledge and power to maintain youthfulness, generation after generation, in time it becomes a question of desirability to do so. Styles change in bodies as well as in raiment. Each generation produces better bodies and brains than the previous one. The seat of civil ization changes also. With these changes, an adept under an old regime might feel unpleasantly conspicuous in a differently colored, or different kind of body in a new civilization.

To the person who can, at will, per petuate or lay down his life, the prolongation of youth and life are but matters of convenience to facilitate his evolution. In most people, back of the desire for physical immortality, is the fear of death, and yet such life can never be gained until that fear has been conquered.

Occultism differs also from certain other contemporaneous schools of metaphysics in regard to hygiene. It true that mind can dominate matter and control physical conditions an environment, but conditions also affect the mind. The Occultist thinks that it is a conservation of mental force to obey hygienic laws, rather than to remonstrate over the conditions that arise from disregarding them.

Frater Albertus

Q. It seems that not all classes receive the same instructions. Why is it that some are shown how to make an emerald green tincture from antimony and even a bright blue one while others never get to see them?

A. A great deal depends on those present in a class. Since every class is working on a joint project to begin with from the Prima to the Quarta (or formerly from the Prima to Septa at the Paracelsus Research Society), some receive more or somewhat different instructions because of their joint efforts. Some students are only concerned about what they can use for personal gain and not what can be done to assist in the work. The degree of individual consciousness while engaged in the work is the deciding factor.

Q. There is much talk about the phil. mercury among the students, but little or few results are to be had as to its effectiveness according to all that can be found in the literature. Why is that?

A. First of all, there are many alkahests. The phil. mercury is of special interest to those engaged in alchemistical research because of the greater energy found in it. When we have shown in the laboratory and openly declared in our literature the preparatory steps to get a crude starting media, it does not mean that the final or end result of the phil. mercury has been given. This has been and will be reserved, as has been in the past, for those who have proven themselves ready to receive it. Those who know about it will decide whom they shall entrust with it.

Several have approached me and wanted to know why it has been withheld from them. The answer is obvious. They will have to prove themselves to receive it. It has turned out to be a blessing that some of those who thought that they should automatically receive such information have turned against us. It is a sign that speaks for itself as to why such knowledge is reserved for others.

Q. There are letters circulating that indicate the College is going out of existence and that all teachings have stopped. There has been no reply forthcoming about all sorts of talk and accusations against Frater Albertus and the College. Can we expect an answer?

A. Here is your answer. The Paracelsus College is as active as ever, if not even better and more so than before. Attendance is excellent and class results even more productive than before since changes in the administration have been made. Any statements made by individuals or groups or the media have their origin with them and not with us.

We have no control over anyone as to what is written, said or printed. Statements have appeared in the media that I am the greatest living alchemist. Such statements were not made by myself. Others say I am a dangerous person, a liar and a cheat. Anyone can form an opinion about the teachings of the College or my person as it pleases or not pleases them. It is suggested that anyone contact the sources of such information directly. We here at the College, including my person, have other and more important work to do than reply to all kinds of statements and gossips.

You may perhaps recall the statement made in the book "The Occult Explosion" that the PRS taught in a two weeks course how to transmute lead into gold. Many suggested that we should sue the author and start legal proceedings against him. We did not even deem it worth our time to write to the author about such misleading statements. We have more important things to do than respond to malicious propaganda of individuals whose ulterior motives are only too evident.

Q. Rumors are circulating that most students who previously attended classes at the former PRS have not returned. Is this so, and why?

A. This is correct. Anyone who has attended any College or University and received the instructions one set out to receive has finished that aspect of their lives. They are thereafter on their own, as it is said. This applies likewise to both the PRS and now Paracelsus College. However, many students have studied and remained in close contact with the College after their regular study groups. We still enjoy the presence of those who were even with us in the very beginning when we came into the open. That is now over twenty years and a truly noteworthy sign one has reason to rejoice about. It is very unlikely that a majority of students would ever maintain a lifelong affiliation with their respective Alma Maters.

Q. Are you still going to teach in other foreign countries?

A. Yes. Commitments are already made for 1982.

Q. Will you personally supervise the special Elective Classes to continue this instruction after the Quarta class?

A. Yes, until other help is trained to assist me at home and abroad.

Q. Why do students have to come from foreign countries to Salt Lake City. Would it not be better to go to them? You now have students coming from Africa, Australia, Mexico and other countries.

A. We have been invited to teach in other European countries besides Switzerland and Austria. We would like to do so but there is a time factor. There is just not enough time available to teach more classes. Anyone who is interested enough in receiving what we have to offer will have to find ways and means to reach us. That is how it was formerly and most likely will be in the future. Besides, we are not proselytizing and trying to get members for Paracelsus College as no memberships are available. Teachings for those who make an effort to find and to receive them are available free of charge, as these teachings can not be paid for with material ways and means.

Q. There is a correspondence between the three Gunas (Satva, Raja, and Tama) and what may be called Proticity, Neutricity, and Electricity. Is it presumptuous to extend this correspondence directly to the Alchemical Salt, Sulphur and Mercury?

A. It is not presumptuous to extend this correspondence directly with the three alchemistical essentials.

R. W. Councell

The claims of the alchemists are twotold: first, that a law of evolution obtains in the mineral and metallic realm; and second, that its working has been practically demonstrated. Modern writers on chemistry, and modern critics of alchemy, do not definitely deny the possibility of evolution, but they do assert that the practical proof of the existence of such a law has not yet passed successfully through the crucial test. Yet the truth of the alchemists assertions is vouched for in the most solemn language possible. Without any obligation to do so, writers have pledged their hopes of eternal salvation upon the truthfulness of their statements.

If he reads many alchemic books, the unbiased man will be unable to avoid one conclusion that the alchemist had 'one that which he solemnly asserted he has actually accomplished, viz, produced gold which was not previously in existence. The whole possibility turns on this point: Is gold a compound body?" Chemists can only say they have not yet succeeded in splitting it up, if indeed such a statement is true. It could also be said that it acts like a simple body. This latter is not a suffcient argument for many compounds - take for example, ethyl and ammonia - act as simple bodies to form bases, salts, amalgams and so on. These compounds were formerly considered to be simple.

In order to understand the alchemic writer it is necessary to follow his mental processes, to enter into the same mental view. It is obvious that the alchemist dared not openly name his materials in the practical part of his book; neither did he describe in detail his first handling of these materials. These important points he apparently hinted at in a very circuitous way in his theory or philosophy.

In nature it often happens that the obvious is false and the concealed is true. So it is in the speech of the alchemists. It would indeed, in some respects, be easier to follow their methods, if blank spaces, or mere letters of the alphabet, were substituted for most of the names given. The student would then - instead of wasting his thought, time and means on the wrongly named materials - be compelled to guide himself by the properties of the things. As matters are, he probably works on things which, though indicated, or even named, by the alchemic writers, could not possibly accomplish the work, because they are not in the true evolutionary path to silver or gold. The following points should be considered. -
1. The place where the substance is found.
2. Whether liquid or solid.
3. How treated.
4. Any change when heated.
5. Its action in contact with other bodies.
6. Does it solidify, or liquefy, on exposure to air?
7. Does it evaporate?
8. Is it easily distilled or with difficulty, and great heat?
9. Its scent or taste.
10. Its ordinary outward appearance.
11. Is it acid or alkaline?
12. On mixture does it evolve heat, or produce cold?
13. If a fluid, does it swim on, mix with, or sink in other fluids? These and other signs will aid in determining whether or not the worker has succeeded in "spotting" the materials used by the alchemist.

All this is very elementary; but apparently students usually rush at the thing which the writer has called antimony - for instance - and try to force from it the signs and reactions described. If much more thought were used, before the actual practice began, these blunders would be less frequent.

The curious names used - since the writers cannot use the real names indicate, as before remarked, properties cognizable by the senses; if this be kept constantly in mind, it may be that the correct name (or names) will fit into the proper place. By the association of ideas in the student, it is quite possible to alight on the association of ideas which led the writers to select these obscure but permissibly relevant terms.

In the present day, however, we are seriously handicapped by our scientific training in our attempts to probe these tergiversations. We are taught to attach one meaning to one word, so far as the limits of language allow. We strive to get the "currency of thoughs as pure and unadulterated as possible. Thus we naturally fall easy victims to an apparent simplicity and candour (the critics call it ignorance), which is in reality a deliberately designed subtlety.

The trouble is not entirely with the parables and the analogies, many of which are of as much force and appropriateness now as then: it is also with the names of chemicals, and the difficulty of estimating exactly what substances they knew. Again, it is certain that the handled things which were then unnamed, things which today are well known. It is of assistance to get the most ancient books on chemistry such as Boerhaave, Macquer, and work up through Ure and other men to the present day. Also books on mining and metallurgy from Basil Valentine, and so consecutively to the 20th century.

When the sage speaks of a single simple sulphur, and a single simple mercury, it is necessary to remind onself that, for all we know to the contrary, the substances may have been compounds, which the alchemist could not analyze further. Even if they were compounds, it would make no difference, for if the working were the same method as used by the alchemist we should get the same results, if operating on the same subjects. But it might make a difference mentally, when trying to discover what these "simple" things might be. Thus it is evident that the correct interpretations of the words and phrases of the alchemists is the only key which avails to unlock the mystery.

(Excerpted from "Apologia Alchymiae," London, 1925.)