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A comment on Isaac Newton’s attempts to unlock secret code of pyramids. Parent comment

Re:Isaac Newton’s attempts to unlock secret code of pyramids by DoingIsLearning on Monday December 07, 2020 @05:54AM (#25330995)
I remember reading somewhere that many of the intelectuals of the time (including Newton) would likely have suffered some degree of mercury poisoning (from alchemy related experiments). This could well explain the paranoia and odd behaviour later in life.
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Re:Isaac Newton’s attempts to unlock secret code of pyramids by varvar on Monday December 07, 2020 @08:05AM (#25331723)
Alchemy means "the process of transmutation by which to fuse or reunite with the divine or original form" which in reality doesn't deal with concrete materials, but it is about something akin to psychological transformation.

Practitioners of alchemy would uphold deceptive ideas about it, in order to protect themselves.

I highly doubt that Newton was as silly and foolish as misunderstanding what alchemy is fundamentally about. However supposedly he was found to have mercury in his hair upon being found dead, which certainly discredits the occult and esoteric part of his studies.

The public image of Newton is heavily shaped by the British Government, the whole thing about the Enlightement scientist that society is supposed to emulate and so on. It's quite the rabbit hole to investigate.

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Re:Isaac Newton’s attempts to unlock secret code of pyramids by JesseMReeves on Monday December 07, 2020 @10:56AM (#25333352)
Why is this being downvoted? These are facts. Seemingly nobody knows the psychological / spiritual ideas behind alchemy and only has comical images of long-bearded men trying to turn metal into gold in their minds?

There is a whole rabbit hole to explore here: William Newman: “Newton the Alchemist”.

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Re:Isaac Newton’s attempts to unlock secret code of pyramids by acqq on Monday December 07, 2020 @08:25AM (#25331908)
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.1979.000...

"Newton’s ‘derangement of the intellect’. New light on an old problem, P. E. Spargo and C. A. Pounds, 1979"

And regarding the documented symptoms:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.1979.000...

"Mercury poisoning: A probable cause of Isaac Newton's physical and mental ills, L.w. Johnson and M. L. Wolbarsht, 1979"

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