Throughout his controversial life, the alchemist, physician, and social-religious radical known as Paracelsus combined traditions that were magical and empirical, scholarly and folk, learned and artisanal. He read ancient texts and then burned “the best” of them. He endorsed both Catholic and Reformation beliefs, but he also believed devoutly in a female deity. He traveled constantly, learning and teaching a new form of medicine based on the experience of miners, bathers, alchemists, midwives, and barber-surgeons. He argued for changes in the way the body was understood, how disease was defined, and how treatments were created, but he was also moved by mystical speculations, an alchemical view of nature, and an intriguing concept of creation. Bringing to light the ideas, diverse works, and major texts of this important Renaissance figure, Bruce T. Moran tells the story of how alchemy refashioned medical practice, showing how Paracelsus’s tenacity and endurance changed the medical world for the better and brought new perspectives to the study of nature.

Drawing upon Huser's 1589 publication of Paracelsus' works, this dual-language volume combines a critical edition of Essential Theoretical Writings on philosophy, medicine, nature, and the supernatural, with new English translations and extensive commentary on the second largest sixteenth-century German-language corpus.

A Harvard graduate student and researcher explores a global entheogen system, discovering their practices leading to cognitive enhancement and, arguably, the next human form.Revised Advance Reader Copy, 2017From Cambridge to Moscow, Oxford to Zürich, Princeton to Mazar-i-Sharif and Bangkok, this journal of research interviews records the lifestyles within a most rare and elusive organization, one that has evolved special gifts: advanced capacities of thought, memory and perception.

Together these essays show one of the most original minds of the Renaissance at the height of his powers.

A Karger 'Publishing Highlights 1890-2015' title This 2nd, revised edition is still the reference work available in print and electronically on Paracelsus by the Paracelsus authority. Furthermore, it makes a very good read. See also Pagel's last book The Smiling Spleen on Paracelsianism as a historical phenomenon. '...a work in the brilliant tradition of biographical research ... even the casual reader will be impressed to learn that, four centuries ago, the man who had the courage to burn in public the writings of Avicenna, recognised pulmonary disease in miners as an occupational hazard, cretinism and goitre as endemic in certain areas, and chorea and hysteria as manifestations of disease, not demonic possession.' The Lancet

Drawing on the whole range of relevant manuscript and printed sources, Charles Webster considers Paracelsus's life and works, explores his advocacy for total reform of the clerical, legal, and medical professions, and describes his precise expectations for the Christian church of the future.