The Legacy of Alchemy, distillation

It was Paracelsus who said “Solve et Coagula”, which means separate and bind. This well-known alchemical maxim finds its perfect physical counterpart in distillation. It is the only method that radically separates water from its material burden in order to bind it anew afterwards in a state of perfect purity. The secret of distillation lies in the molecular phase change.

By this is meant the transition from the liquid to the gaseous state on reaching the boiling point at 100 degrees. In the moment of evaporation, the water molecules carry out the most radical separation from pollutants. The burden that was still so strongly bound to the water in the liquid state is released at a single stroke. As pure vapour the water molecules rise, condense in the cooling system and finally become highly pure drops that fall one after another into the receiving glass.

All residues remain as a milky, cloudy concentrate in the evaporating vessel. The masterclass of distilling water takes place in glass distillation. Glass distillation marks the supreme discipline of water treatment. Glass distillation is the perfect symbiosis of technical precision and human mindfulness. Originally developed as an instrument of alchemy, this system is usually found in laboratories, where it is operated by trained specialists.

Not everyone is capable of purifying water by means of glass distillation. Whoever chooses this path of water purification needs more than technical equipment. A prospective distiller needs time to learn and a deep understanding of the element. The use of a glass still makes high demands on the character of the user. Glass distillation is not for everyone. A distiller has patience, conscientiousness and a clear and conscious devotion to the element of water.

That may sound elitist, yet it is precisely in this demand on the user that the hidden aesthetics of this most beneficial method of water purification reveals itself. The distiller is the most important part of this highest of all refining processes of water. Moreover, glass distillation is the only way to follow the magically fascinating phase change of water directly and live with one's own eyes. Refining water by means of glass distillation is a contemplative process, a process of almost magical appearance.

With fascination one can watch how this mightiest of all water purifications takes place. Gently the water begins to boil in the glass flask. Invisibly the pure vapour rises. In the glass condenser the water condenses and changes once more from vapour to liquid. Until finally, drop by drop, the purified water gathers in the receiving glass as the very purest essence. What a gift to humanity! Whoever learns the art of distillation with glass, the art of the highest purification of water, at the same time learns the unsurpassably noblest form of treating water, multiple distillation.

The art of multiple distillation

When conventional filters, even the finest, reach their limits with extremely persistent substances, multiple distillation, that is, the repeated phase change, allows an almost endless increase in the purity of water. One may picture multiple distillation as a series of ever finer sieves, each sieve closing the tiny gaps of the one before. Scientifically speaking, the separating power increases exponentially with each individual pass.

A single distillation already holds back 99 percent of all pollutants. A mere tiny percent remains in the water. If this already highly pure water is then sent a second time through the molecular phase change of distillation, the purification takes hold once more, with the same incorruptible efficiency, and again reduces this remaining percent by 99% of its value. Then, with each further pass, this purifying effect multiplies mathematically, so that the concentration of foreign substances not only falls but practically collapses in on itself.

Only in this way, through multiple distillation, can even the most resistant forever chemicals be isolated layer by layer and left behind in the evaporator. What lands in the receiving glass at the end of this fascinating process is a water of a brilliance and purity that lies absolutely beyond conventional measuring scales. This purity marks the absolute gold standard of water refinement. Ultrapure water. Absolutely free of all foreign substances. What is regarded today in modern laboratories as the technical summit of purity, however, formed the foundation of alchemy centuries ago.

The masters of alchemy understood multiple distillation as far more than a mere, mechanically more intensive cleansing. Their aim was to potentise the water energetically to the utmost through the constant repetition of the purification steps and to raise it to an entirely new level of quality. Paracelsus, for instance, the world-famous physician and alchemist, saw in multiple distillation far more than a material purification. Paracelsus spoke of a ninefold distillation.

According to Paracelsus' thesis, water loses its coarse material heaviness in a ninefold distillation, and with each pass its capacity to receive healing signatures steadily grows. Paracelsus said the spirit of the water would be freed from its material inertia and only then, and only in this way, be made truly usable. The first three distillations serve to purify the body of the water. The second three purifications would free the spirit of the water.

The third three distillations finally lay bare the soul of the water. And after all nine passes the water would at last be fully awakened in its inner power. And only now would the water be cleansed of all earthly, spiritual and energetic dross. The water is now transformed into the essence of the essence, the legendary Materia Prima. You should know that for Paracelsus this Materia Prima formed the basis of all his remedies and elixirs, on account of whose healing effect he attained world renown far beyond the boundaries of his time.

Paracelsus said, “And everything you must do yourself”. This credo of alchemy has lost none of its meaning to this day. And the validity of this alchemical credo shows itself most clearly in the search for an answer to the simple question of where one can actually buy drinkable distilled water. Whoever sets out in search of such a source will soon find that it is an almost hopeless undertaking. The supposedly distilled water from the DIY store or the petrol station has absolutely nothing in common, apart from its misleading name, with the pure distillate this book is about.

Many hope to find what they seek in the health food shop, the pharmacy or the organic market. Yet the reality is sobering, for there are in fact no suppliers who officially offer distilled water as a foodstuff. There are, however, very understandable reasons for this. Since the persistent fear of the alleged danger of distilled water still holds sway over large parts of the population, any appreciable demand would be stifled at birth. Moreover, the production and logistics for so sensitive a product would be so elaborate that the selling price would have to be exorbitantly high. The only safe source of first-class distilled water is, and remains, one's own production.

After all these comparisons we now leave the technical considerations behind us and turn to the actual heart of this book. The question, what is the perfect hydration for human beings? Yet whoever says openly that they drink distilled water is usually met with deep dismay and almost reflexive disbelief. Why such reactions occur and which deeply rooted prejudices lie hidden behind this wall of rejection, we shall explore in the next chapter.