What If Ohsawa and Kushi Unlocked the Secret to Controlling Matter?
A Forgotten Chapter in Free Energy History
In the shadowed margins of scientific history, where ancient wisdom meets modern experimentation, a story unfolds that challenges the boundaries of matter, energy, and reality itself. In 1964, George Ohsawa and Michio Kushi, the Japanese philosophers behind macrobiotics, claimed to have transmuted elements through a plasma reaction—a feat that echoes the alchemical dreams of Asia and Europe, rooted in the cryptic teachings deciphered by their collaborator, Dr. Henoff, and inspired by Louis Kervran’s theories. Their journey, preserved in *Macrobiotics Weekly* in 1976, validated by Hal Fox in *Infinite Energy* magazine, and connected to modern pioneers like Harold Puthoff, Kenneth Shoulders, S-X Jin, and Stan Gleeson, suggests a profound possibility: what if they discovered a way to control matter itself, bridging ancient alchemy with the plasma reactions that define today’s free energy frontier?
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The Alchemical Roots: Henoff, Kervran, and the Deciphered Secrets
George Ohsawa (1893–1966) and Michio Kushi (1926–2014) were not scientists in the conventional sense; they were philosophers of balance, steeped in the Eastern teachings of yin and yang. Macrobiotics, their life’s work, sought harmony in diet, lifestyle, and the cosmos. But their story begins earlier, in the late 1940s or early 1950s, when Ohsawa sought out Dr. Henoff, a Breton chemist of Celtic descent with a turbulent past. Henoff, implicated in a bombing during a Parisian celebration of Breton’s annexation, had escaped to Germany, fought for Breton’s liberation during World War II, and eventually settled in Ireland under a new name. Ohsawa, after a year-long search, found him in the Irish countryside and brought him to New York for six months of collaboration.
There, Henoff translated a manuscript by Louis Kervran, a French biologist whose theories of biological transmutation proposed that living organisms could transform elements through low-energy processes—potassium into calcium, for instance. But Henoff’s contribution went deeper. Drawing on his knowledge of ancient alchemical texts, rooted in the traditions of Asia and Europe, he deciphered their cryptic language, revealing a shared wisdom: the alchemists of China, India, and the Muslim world, much like their Western counterparts, believed in a universal process of transformation, a spirallic dance of elements governed by balance. Kervran’s theories, Henoff argued, were a modern echo of this ancient knowledge, suggesting that transmutation was not a myth but a natural law, accessible through the right conditions. Ohsawa, captivated by this synthesis of Eastern teachings and alchemical lore, saw in it a path to merge his yin-yang philosophy with practical experimentation.
The 1964 Experiment: Plasma Reactions and Elemental Transformation
Inspired by Henoff and Kervran, Ohsawa returned to Japan, where he and Henoff designed new transmutation technologies until Henoff’s untimely death. Undeterred, Ohsawa sent Kushi to Europe to continue the work, culminating in a pivotal experiment in 1964. In a vacuum tube, Ohsawa and Kushi paired copper (yin) and iron (yang) electrodes, introduced oxygen, and applied an electric current to transmute sodium into potassium. Japanese scientists confirmed the result: a low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) facilitated by plasma, producing potassium at a fraction of the cost. At the time, traditional nuclear processes required immense energy—costs that were prohibitive—but Ohsawa and Kushi’s method bypassed these barriers, leveraging plasma’s unique properties to enable nuclear transformations at low energies
This wasn’t a mere chemical reaction; it was a plasma dance, a microcosm of the spirallic universe they envisioned. The electric currents ionized the gas, creating a plasma environment that facilitated nuclear reactions, a process they later linked to magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasma dynamics—where magnetic fields and electrically conducting fluids orchestrate elemental change. Kushi, reflecting on a symbolic dream Ohsawa had of a “big hand stretched out” with thunder and lightning, saw this as the creation of life through elemental transformation, a fusion of Eastern mysticism and scientific discovery.
A Legacy of Transmutation: From Sodium to Gold
Their ambitions didn’t stop with sodium. By 1976, *Macrobiotics Weekly*, edited by Kushi’s assistant, published a "Dynamic Periodic Table," reimagining the elements as a spirallic continuum, interconnected through cycles of transformation. Unlike the static periodic table of modern chemistry, this model showed elements evolving—oxygen into nitrogen over 100 days, nitrogen into platinum in a single day—reflecting the alchemical belief in a universal transmutative process. Kushi revealed to his apprentices that they had applied the same plasma method to replicate the sodium-to-potassium transmutation with iron, and even transmuted mercury into gold, fulfilling the alchemical dream. “It was just the same way we done iron experiments with him in the past,” Kushi said, indicating a standardized, repeatable process that could alter the nuclear structure of any el
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This spirallic model, rooted in the ancient alchemical knowledge Henoff deciphered, suggested that elements were not fixed but part of a cosmic cycle, manipulable through yin-yang dynamics. The energy costs of traditional transmutation, which required particle accelerators and immense power, were absent here; Ohsawa and Kushi’s plasma reactions offered a low-energy alternative, a glimpse of what free energy could achieve.
Biological Transmutations: The Living Connection
Ohsawa and Kushi’s vision extended beyond inorganic systems, drawing on the biological transmutations that inspired Kervran. In 1799, Louis Nicolas Vauquelin observed that chickens produced calcium in their eggshells despite a calcium-deficient diet, possibly through a reaction of silicon and carbon. Kervran built on this, proposing that life itself could transmute elements, a theory that Ohsawa and Kushi embraced as evidence of a universal process. Joe Champion, a researcher, later noted that Roberto Monti replicated these findings, showing that chickens could indeed perform biological transmutations, a lineage that Ohsawa, Kushi, and Kervran were part of. This connection between living and non-living systems underscored their spirallic universe, where the same principles governed the transformation of elements in a chicken’s egg and a vacuum tube.
The 1992 Experiment: Echoes of Gold and Isotopes
Decades later, a parallel experiment in 1992 at an unnamed university reinforced their claims. A researcher, using chemicals from various containers, observed a chemical reaction affecting radiation decay, producing new radioactive isotopes and unexpected quantities of gold, platinum, iridium, and rhodium. The experiment, marked by electrical noise and strict laboratory controls, suggested a low-energy nuclear process akin to Ohsawa and Kushi’s plasma reactions. Dr. Lin’s four additional radiation studies, possibly aimed at disproving the findings, only confirmed the anomaly, producing varying levels of precious metals with anomalous radiation. This mirrored Ohsawa and Kushi’s mercury-to-gold transmutation, hinting at a broader phenomenon that could synthesize valuable elements through LENR.
Hal Fox, Joe Champion, and the Free Energy Echo
The free energy community took notice. Hal Fox, a titan of LENR research and founder of *Infinite Energy* magazine, wrote that later researchers were imitating the 1964 Ohsawa-Kushi reaction, lending credibility to their claims. Fox, alongside S-X Jin, had reduced thorium radioactivity by 90% using high-density charge clusters (HDCC), a method that built on plasma-based transmutation principles. Joe Champion, another LENR researcher, connected Ohsawa and Kushi’s work to biological transmutations, citing Monti’s replication of Vauquelin’s findings and reinforcing the idea that their experiments were part of a larger tapestry of low-energy reactions.
Kenneth Shoulders and Harold Puthoff further advanced this field, pioneering HDCC—microscopic electron clusters that could facilitate nuclear reactions—using plasma principles that echoed Ohsawa and Kushi’s vacuum tube setup. Stan Gleeson, working in the late 20th century, also utilized HDCC to stabilize radioactive liquids, achieving results that paralleled Fox and Jin’s work. From Ohsawa and Kushi’s 1964 experiment to these modern efforts, every plasma-based LENR breakthrough owes a debt to their pioneering vision, a direct line from ancient alchemy and Eastern teachings to the cutting edge of free energy research.
Harold Puthoff’s Vision: Transmutation and Beyond
Harold Puthoff, a physicist known for his work on zero-point energy and UAP research, offers a modern perspective on this legacy. On the Joe Rogan Experience in May 2025, Puthoff claimed that the U.S. possesses at least 10 non-human craft, with materials showing unusual isotopic ratios—evidence of transmutation processes that could be powered by LENR. His work with Shoulders on HDCC, and his broader theories on zero-point energy, suggest that the plasma reactions Ohsawa and Kushi explored might underlie advanced technologies, capable of manipulating spacetime and matter itself. Puthoff’s vision aligns with Kushi’s hint to his apprentices: their method could “control matter itself,” a modern philosopher’s stone with implications for energy production, material synthesis, and interstellar travel.
The Shadow of Skepticism
Yet, the shadow looms large. Mainstream science dismisses LENR and biological transmutations as pseudoscience, and Ohsawa and Kushi’s claims lack peer-reviewed validation. The 1992 experiment, marked by secrecy and questions of contamination, raises similar doubts. Their successes may have been a projection of their yin-yang philosophy onto ambiguous results, a collective dream of transformation rather than a physical reality. The U.S. Navy’s interest in plasma compression fusion devices hints at a legacy that stretches from 1964 to the present, but the lack of transparency in government research fuels skepticism.
A Call to the Free Energy Community
What if Ohsawa and Kushi were right? What if their plasma reactions—rooted in ancient alchemical knowledge deciphered by Henoff, inspired by Kervran’s biological insights, and validated by Fox, Champion, Shoulders, Puthoff, Jin, and Gleeson—unlocked a method to control matter, a method that could produce energy, synthesize materials, or even power technologies beyond our imagination? The free energy community, ever on the fringe of discovery, has a duty to revisit this chapter. Replicate their experiment—build a vacuum tube, pair yin and yang electrodes, introduce oxygen, and see if sodium becomes potassium. Test the biological transmutations Vauquelin observed, and explore whether the 1992 gold production can be reproduced. The spirallic model, where elements dance in a cosmic cycle, beckons us to reconsider the boundaries of physics, biology, and technology.
Ohsawa and Kushi’s story, interwoven with threads of alchemy, Eastern teachings, and plasma reactions, is a reminder that the greatest breakthroughs often come from outsiders, those who see the world through a lens of balance rather than equations. Their legacy, preserved in the pages of *Macrobiotics Weekly* and *Infinite Energy*, challenges us to ask: what if the key to free energy, to controlling matter itself, has been hiding in plain sight since 1964? Let’s pick up their torch and find out.
