Historical Figures

Cornelius Agrippa
He was a German mystic and alchemist, who studied both medicine and law.
He established a secret society in France devoted to magic, astrology and kabbalah ( set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal and mysterious Ein Sof (no end) and the mortal and finite universe (his creation))
Set up a laboratory in the hopes of synthesising gold.
Set up a medieval practice in Geneva.
Many of his opinions were controversial.

Luigi Galvani
During the 1790s, he demonstrated what we now understand to be the electrical basis of nerve impulses when he made frog muscles twitch by jolting them with a spark from an electrostatic machine

Paracelsus
German Swiss renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist.  Paracelsus viewed the universe as one coherent organism pervaded by a uniting lifegiving spirit, and this in its entirety, Man included, was 'God'. His views put him at odds with the Church, for whom there necessarily had to be a difference between the Creator and the created.

He summarised his own views:

“	Many have said of Alchemy, that it is for the making of gold and silver,. For me such is not the aim, but to consider only what virtue and power may lie in medicines.

Darwin
Was an English naturalist who created the theory of evolution and natural selection. He wrote the book On the Origin of Species. He took a 5 year voyage around the world researching his theories.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
 He wrote The Necessity of Atheism, a pamphlet that attacked the idea of compulsory Christianity. Shelley eloped to Scotland with Harriet Westbrook, a sixteen year old daughter of a coffee-house keeper. This created a terrible scandal and Shelley's father never forgave him for what he had done. Shelley moved to Ireland where he made revolutionary speeches on religion and politics. He also wrote a political pamphlet A Declaration of Rights, on the subject of the French Revolution, but it was considered to be too radical for distribution in Britain. In 1814 Shelley fell in love and eloped with Mary, the sixteen-year-old daughter of William Godwin. and Mary Wallstonecraft. For the next few years the couple travelled in Europe. Shelley continued to be involved in politics and in 1817 wrote the pamphlet A proposal for putting reform to the vote throughout the United Kingdom. In the pamphlet Shelley suggested a national referendum on electoral reform and improvements in working class education.