[Avodah] kinetic healing and halacha

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, January 9, 2008 6:28 am, Herr Rabbiner Arie Folger wrote:
: Wouldn't alchemy, when people still believed in it, be physical, too?
: I believe that we generally consider alchemy the precursor of modern
: chemistry.

This is a bit tangential, as it's about my claim that alchemists
believed "as above, so below" -- that everything down here manipulates
a corresponding thing up there, and so I can make things happen in
heaven. Given this claim, the Torah point stands; if I'm wrong, take
alchemy off the list.

I was thinking of alchemy in terms of things like the quest for
imortality. Not in the sense of a study of the empirical that fits
experiment to theory rather than the other way around.

Wikipedia also acknowledges the dual nature of alchemy. Its entry opens:
> In the history of science, alchemy refers to both an early form of the
> investigation of nature and an early philosophical and spiritual
> discipline, both combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics,
> medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art all as
> parts of one greater force...

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
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