Alchemy is a good example. Alchemists dabbled in chemisty but they also took for granted that chemistry has deep symbolic and semantic meaning. Figure it out and chemistry will crack.

It turned out to not be the case, time after time.

There's no inherent meaning in how substances interact. There are laws, they're consistent but devoid of any meaning, on human level.

That's why I'm deeply scetical towards any New Age-style ideas.

The body of results from alchemy resulted in the narrow, useful part of it becoming formalized as chemistry. The body of results from string theory (or many worlds interpretations) is non-existent.

How long was alchemy a serious field of study? Thousands of years, right? String theory is 75 years old.

I still respect Isaac Newton, even tho he was an Alchemist and searched for Atlantis... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton%27s_occult_studie...

If you understand alchemy you have all the reasons to respect them