I want to understand it but everything I read about it oscillates impossibly between vulgar metals -> gold and some kind of spiritual transformation metaphysical stuff
What is it and what can be legit gleaned from it in an empirical or useful sense?
Does it have utility outside of use as a metaphor or allegory or whatever?
Kind of. What makes us say it’s any less conversion/alchemy?
The elements aren’t being converted into other elements (for example, converting lead atoms into gold atoms). The only conversions taking place are chemical reactions, where compounds are either forming or being broken down.
How would half of the other processes work then, especially the fact you can find antimatter in some forms of life?
Bananas emit positrons because they contain potassium-40, which releases positrons as it undergoes radioactive decay. These positrons are quickly annihilated as they hit electrons, their normal matter counterpart. Potassium-40 is a naturally occurring isotope present in the Earth but it has a very long half life of around a billion years. Around 0.01% of all potassum is potassium-40 and technically, any food which contains potassium will also contain a little bit of potassium-40, it’s just that banana trees are known at being efficient at absorbing and storing potassium.
But to emit positrons, there must be at least one atom to bear it so it has a host to orbit, no?
Yup, there has to be a potassium atom for the positron to be emitted by.
I mean to be carried. Electrons and positrons orbit atoms. When lightning strikes, it’s a stream of electrons flowing through the atoms. Antimatter cannot come into contact with matter.