The Basis of Alchemy   Alchemists work on the physical and mental at the same time.  They are the chemists of old.  They believed through the process of learning to turn lead into gold (literally) they were also transforming themselves and perfecting themselves as human beings.   Alchemists believed that the characteristics of an object could be stripped from it to reduce it to "First Matter."  After achieving First Matter, other desirable characteristics can be added.  It was believed that nature always aimed for perfection, and the other metals besides gold were the “base�?metals which could be perfected into the very light and malleable gold.  The individual is also considered a base metal symbolically to be perfected.   The parallels between metals and life run all through alchemy.  The alchemists believed they were dealing with life.  We are manifestations of nature, and also divine as are all things. Alchemists did not draw any distinctions between animate and the inanimate.  All things were made of the same four elements.  Metals grow in the belly of the earth the same as a baby develops in the womb.