European alchemy, Chinese taoist alchemy, Vedic alchemy and Egyptian alchemy are not all the same thing really which makes it hard to talk about "alchemy" in a general sense. European alchemy was to some degree I think more focussed on transmuting base metals, taoist alchemy was more focussed on immortality etc..but I think in all branches of alchemy there were those who were into the deeper aspects of it also.

..and I still think the base metal transmutation stuff was origionally all about monoatomic(or diatomic w/e) elements, and the "purification" of the soul/mind when ingested over time. Something weird is definatly going on there if you do the work yourself and ingest this stuff. I am not suggesting anyone else actually go ingest this stuff though.. Ingest strange elements at your own risk. Please do lots of research if you want to go this path and don't ingest stuff you buy online. Buying these bottles of commercial Ormus online does not count..that's not alchemy and NOONE is selling real mono-atmonic gold IMO..these people are watering down alchemical tradition. There are people who have gone about this half assed and recklessly, ending up with very real heavy metal toxicity.

I like ananda bosmans opinion that the original soma was some kind of alchemical elixir made from many different plants, including rue, acacia, possibly phalaris and mushrooms combined with ORME's.