Book Reviews Perceptions Magazine, June 2023
The Alchemical Search for the Unified Field:
Pythagorean, Hermetic, and Shamanic Journeys into
Invisible and Ethereal Realms
By R. E. Kretz
Inner Traditions
Bear & Company
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
Link: www.InnerTraditions.com
2023, 192 pages, Paperback 6 x 9, US $24.99
Full-color throughout
ISBN: 978-1-64411-782-8
Reviewed by Brent Raynes
The author of this book has been employed in the telecommunications and IT industries. However, his life journey has taken him on quite a different route too as he came to study transcendental meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1970s, then trained under a Native American medicine man for three years, plus became a Master Mason and held leadership roles within the Knights Templar.
In this book he provides his readers with the proverbial fruits of his diverse labors, guiding his readers into the historical background of alchemy, detailing the three alchemical states of primal matter, comparing the Philosopher’s Stone to the “oblong square” depiction of what’s found in Freemasonry, as well as various depictions in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Hindu cultures – a sacred geometry that depicts Man as mind, body, and spirit encapsulating a soul.
Kretz points out that the objective of the Philosopher’s Stone is to help us to attain enlightenment through meditation and vocal mantras. He explains and details with full-color illustrations the process – how our brain functions as a kind of servomechanism of the Third Eye, and how the thalamus, pineal gland, and the pituitary gland regulate and coordinate all the functions within our body, and how we attain enlightenment when the Third Eye is balanced and can resonate as a kind of harmonic waveform generator.
I’d venture a guess that Kretz has adapted his telecommunications and IT background to best apply his teachings to ancient metaphysical knowledge and traditions, adapting modern medical and electrical science to a wide variety of ancient metaphysical belief systems that often seem too obtuse to meaningfully apply.
