Since earliest history mankind seems to have searched in one way or another for immortality. What that meant during different periods of time and how man has gone about the search have varied with time and location. In the ancient epic, "Gilgamesh" the hero went in quest of a magical plant that would provide immortality. He found it only to lose it before he really obtained it. In other early myths dying and resurrecting gods or those who travel between the underworld and the upper world are plentiful.
Coming forward in time to the Christian era, we have the resurrection of Christ as a central belief in a movement that would come to dominate Europe and all Western civilization. Thus, the desire for obtaining immortality was directed into religion and a promise of an afterlife. In Psychology and Alchemy, however, Jung says that "Christian civilization has proved hollow to a terrifying degree: it is all veneer, but the inner man has remained untouched and unchanged. His soul is out of key with his external beliefs..." (P 12). During the Middle Ages alchemy arose, among other things, according to Jung to compensate for the inherent problems in the Christian society. Jung saw in alchemy the reflection of a psychological process for working toward wholeness and believed that whether the alchemists realized it or not, they were doing the work of that process. Without a growing consciousness aspiring to wholeness, can we even begin to understand the urge toward immortality and interpret its ramifications?
The alchemists' work was overtly about turning base metal into gold. As one studies alchemy, however, it is clear that those involved were not concerned with literal wealth. In writing on Paracelsus in Alchemical Studies, Jung states "To return to our text: it is clear that it describes a procedure for attaining nothing less than immortality." (P 186). Except for Jung's works on alchemy, the practice may have been written off as nothing more than a medieval pseudo-science, or at best, the bedrock for scientific age's chemistry.
The scientific era, continuing into the present time, has brought with it a vast expansion of knowledge in chemistry, which has linked itself inseparably with modern medicine in Western culture. Chemistry and medicine deal with the material world and have accomplished great and miraculous feats in eradicating disease and prolonging life. But I question at this point whether Western culture has again lost its way. Has the growth of consciousness and awareness of who we are as individuals kept up with the pace of science, and are, perhaps, some of our philosophical and ethical questions in the realm of science and medicine related to that question.
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