Alchemy and the Abaton

In the Abaton in ancient Greek Ascleipieion temples, a dormitory, the visitor or patient would sleep. Here, they would be lulled into a hypnotic state, and begin their dream journey. The physician - priests at the Asclepions were also master dream interpreters who would divine the treatment to be followed from the patient's account of the dream that allowed healing to take place. Jung would call this transformational healing, alchemy. Alchemy can be understood as a symbolic process which harmonizes purification and transformation, crafting balance between polar opposites. The ascent of an individual from their base state of ignorance to their golden state of enlightenment is represented by alchemical symbols. The fundamental thesis Jung is advancing about the relationship between Alchemy and Psychology is that for pre-scientific humans there is not a sharp distinction between subject and object and thus this leads them to unconsciously project their own inner states onto external objects (especially objects that are mostly unknown to them), so a reflective analysis of alchemical symbols becomes revelatory about the unconscious psychic life of this time period.