Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. talk to the CG Jung Society of Seattle March 7, 2014 entitled, "CG Jung, Albert Hofmann and the Philosophers' Stone" Shamanism, yoga and alchemy are historically the three great traditions of transformation -- physical, psychological and spiritual -- with shamanism, yoga and alchemy the Eastern and Western extensions. In all three traditions there is recognition of the reality of living yet immaterial "spirits," "essences" or "souls," intrinsic to all living beings and even inanimate matter. The concepts and worldview of the alchemical philosophers were suppressed first by the medieval church and then by the rise of scientific materialism. It is the great merit of Jung's work to have rehabilitated the alchemical wisdom tradition from the cultural unconscious of medieval Europe -- re-interpreting it as the secret symbolic language of the psyche. It remained for another Swiss scientist of the 20th century chemist Albert Hofmann, with his unexpected discovery of material substances that profoundly expand perception and consciousness, to reconnect with the material element of the alchemical tradition. This was the secret of the lapis -- the precious "wisdom stone" -- that could bring about a profound new way of "seeing." Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., is a recognized pioneer in psychological and cross-cultural studies of consciousness and its transformations. He is a psychotherapist and Professor Emeritus at the C alifornia Institute of Integral Studies. His books include The Unfolding Self, The Well of Remembrance, Green Psychology, The Expansion of Consciousness, Alchemical Divination and Mind Space and Time Stream. He is the editor of two collections of essays on Ayahuasca and of Psilocybin Mushrooms.

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