Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Philosopher's stone:- in Latin philosophi lapis, is a legendary substance that supposedly could turn inexpensive metals into gold and/or create an elixir that would make humans younger, thus delaying death. It was a longtime "holy grail" of Western alchemy. In the view of spiritual alchemy, making the philosopher's stone would bring enlightenment upon the maker and conclude the Great Work. It is also known by several other names, such as the 'Golden Wedding Garment', the 'Soul body', the 'Astral body' and the 'Living Stone', spoken of in some of the ancient philosophies as the 'Diamond Soul'



Transmutation of metals
The concept apparently originated from the theories of the 8th century alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, known to the west also as Geber. He analyzed each Aristotelian element in terms of four basic qualities of hotness, coldness, dryness, and moistness. Thus, fire was both hot and dry, earth cold and dry, water cold and moist, and air hot and moist. He further theorized that every metal was a combination of these four principles, two of them interior and two exterior.
From this premise, it was reasoned that the transmutation of one metal into another could be effected by the rearrangement of its basic qualities. This change would presumably be mediated by a substance, which came to be called al-iksir in Arabic (from which comes the Western term "elixir" wink . It was often imagined as a dry powder, made from a legendary stone — the "philosopher's stone".The stone was believed to have been composed of a substance called carmot.
Geber's theory and the concept of the philosopher's stone may have been inspired by the knowledge that metals like gold and silver could be hidden in alloys and ores, from which they could be recovered by the appropriate chemical treatment. Geber himself is believed to be the inventor of aqua regia, a mixture of muriatic and nitric acids, which is one of the few substances that can dissolve gold (and is still often used for gold recovery and purification).


The Philosopher's stone is believed to be able to allow humans to perform human transmutation (creating a human body with a soul attached). This meant that alchemists could possibly bring humans back to life after death, and also create whole new humans through alchemy. This was another theory on the internal life which those who seeked philosopher's wanted.


It was believed to be created through alchemy. There are many theories all which involve it being created through alchemy. The main components of the philosopher's stone is believed to be carmot (which is no longer believed to exist) and mercury. Also the creating of the stone is believed to need energy, energy which also is believed to be a human life/soul. It was believed that the stone couldn't be created by normal matter. Hence why the human life was used in theories. Also there were theories without using a matter or carmot to create it. Such as the theory to crystalize mercury. There are a bunch of legends about how they crystalized mercury and when they crystalized enough mercury and when it was made into a stone/crystal, it could turn lead into gold. But whenever the crystalized mercury was used and in the making people died from the fumes and such from the mercury. The mercury crystal, in some theories, is called the fake philosopher's stone. The name 'Philosopher's Stone' is misleading. It's believed to have many forms: liquid, stone, crystal, powder and many other forms. These are all legends, alchemy decade which meant, so did the research on the philosopher's stone and is now replaced by a similar (not the same) scientific technique, chemistry.

In the manga- The raw material of Philosopher's Stone is a very large amount of human lives, ranging from ten to millions. The first stone in history was transmuted by "Father", using the souls of the people of Xerxes. This event inspired the legend of a country which was destroyed in single night. The later Philosopher's Stones were transmuted by Doctor Tim Marcoh and his fellow alchemists who were instructed to make the Stones by Lust and the other Homunculi, using the lives of Ishbal prisoners, and later the makers themselves to cover it up. This series of Philosopher's Stones wasn't complete - they were made from only about 13 prisoners. The stone that Father Cornello used was also one of this series.

In the anime- A "Red Stone" can be obtained by crystallizing the highly toxic "Red Water." As the water emits highly toxic vapor that can kill over a wide area, the easiest method to crystallize it is to insert the substance into the womb of a pregnant woman, and leave it to became solid, killing the woman and the unborn child. Then it can be surgically removed. A slow and expensive chemical process is also possible, but the Stones created are usually very small, and not very useful.
The real Stone takes a high toll. Only an expert alchemist could transmute it, using as raw material a very large amount of human lives, ranging from thousands to millions. In the series it appears that Hohenheim used Red Water to begin the process and provide the power to generate a Stone.
The array used in Lior to transmute a true Philosopher's StoneThe lives of plague victims and those sentenced to death for witchcraft were transmuted by Hohenheim, and later the sacrificed lives from the Ishbal and Lior Massacres were harvested by Scar and his brother to create a Philosopher's Stone. In the Fullmetal Alchemist anime history, only Hohenheim and Scar were able to perform such a terrible feat. Though Dante possessed the knowledge, she feared to do it herself as the transmuation can be fatal to the one who creates the stone. Hence the saying "those who seek the Philosopher's Stone are destined to die".
The obtained Stone is not bound to a fixed form. The first Philosopher's Stone stone transmuted by Hohenheim was shown as a glowing diamond-like stone not much larger than a tennis ball; a sort of "perfect red stone". However, Scar's arm (and before, his brother's entire body) was an Imperfect Philosopher's Stone, able to perfect itself in the armored body of Alphonse Elric, who retained his metallic appareance, only with a red glow in his inside, and glowing red marks, reminiscent of the tattoos on Scar's arm, that appeared whenever he was touched by an Alchemist or a Transmutation Circle. Even this form, due to the metal impurity that was Alphonse's body, was not a truly perfect Stone - only after Gluttony consumed Alphonse would it be perfected.


The Philosopher's Stone has many potential uses for an alchemist. The State Alchemist Tim Marcoh researched it for the military, and was forced to turn over his research, including several vials of liquified Red Stones, to Basque Grand in order to improve the already incredible military efficiency of the State Alchemists involved in the Ishbal Massacre. The stones rendered the alchemists nearly invincible, and contributed in large part to the Ishbal genocide. After deserting from the military, Marcoh became a medical doctor, using the imperfect Philosopher's Stones only as a way to help the sick. It was hinted that even for those relatively unskilled in alchemy, like Father Cornello, could perform amazing feats like the transmutation of chimeras and temporary reanimation of dead animals. Scar's arm, an imperfect Stone, gave him the ability to decompose matter by alchemy and an instinctive understanding of a material's makeup.
A genuine Philosopher's Stone is capable of amazing feats, among them complete human transmutation and allowing a soul to be transferred into a new body. Such transferrence comes at the cost of a fraction of the alchemist's soul, and runs the risk of the new host body decomposing into a living corpse. In the manga, the Philosopher's Stone is the main ingredient in the creation of a homunculus, while in the anime the homunculi seek it to obtain humanity. Even a true Philosopher's Stone is not immune to Equivalent Exchange: every time it is used, a bit of it vanishes, and its power is likewise reduced.


The two types of Stone operate in the same manner. When a transmutation is performed, the matter is usually supplied by the alchemist himself. A broken radio can be reshaped into a fully functional radio, some scrap iron can build a sword, a spear, a gun, etc., but the source of the energy necessary to the process is only revealed in the final episodes. This energy is supplied by the mysterious Gate, a passage present in every human soul, linked to the "real" world (in the movie, the Fullmetal Alchemist world was thought to be the mystical Shamballa by the Thule Society). Every death in "our" world generates energy, meaning the souls of our dead became the energy harnessed by alchemists to perform their transmutations. The Philosopher's Stone supplies an additional energy source, utilizing not the souls from the other side of the Gate, but souls collected in the alchemy world which are transmuted into the Stone.