"Our Darling"
Dr Wilhelm Reich
Dr Wilhelm Reich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich
[ Excerpts ]
Wilhelm
Reich
Born March 24, 1897(1897-03-24)
Dobrzanica, Galicia
Died November 3, 1957 (aged 60)
Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897 – November 3, 1957) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry.[1] He was the author of several notable textbooks, including The Mass Psychology of Fascism and Character Analysis, both published in 1933.
Reich worked with Sigmund Freud in the 1920s and was a respected analyst for much of his life, focusing on character structure rather than on individual neurotic symptoms.[2] He tried to reconcile Marxism and psychoanalysis, arguing that neurosis is rooted in the physical, sexual, economic, and social conditions of the patient, and promoted adolescent sexuality, open relationships outside marriage, the availability of contraceptives, abortion, and divorce, and the importance for women of economic independence. His work influenced a generation of intellectuals, including Saul Bellow, William Burroughs, Paul Edwards, Norman Mailer, and A. S. Neill, and shaped innovations such as Fritz Perls's Gestalt therapy, Alexander Lowen's bioenergetic analysis, and Arthur Janov's primal therapy.[3]
Later in life, he became a controversial figure who was both adored and condemned. He began to violate some of the key taboos of psychoanalysis, using touch during sessions, and treating patients in their underwear to improve their "orgastic potency." He said he had discovered a primordial cosmic energy, which he said others called God, and which he called "orgone." He built "orgone energy accumulators" that his patients sat inside to harness the reputed health benefits, leading to newspaper stories about "sex boxes" that cured cancer.[4]
Reich was living in Germany when Hitler came to power in January 1933. On March 2, the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter published an attack on one of Reich's pamphlets, The Sexual Struggle of Youth.[5] He left immediately for Vienna, then Scandinavia, moving to the United States in 1939. In 1947, following a series of articles about orgone in The New Republic and Harper's,[6] the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) obtained an injunction against the interstate sale of orgone accumulators. Charged with contempt for violating it, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved sending the judge all his books to read and arguing that a court was no place to decide matters of science. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and in August 1956, several tons of his publications were burned by the FDA,[7] arguably one of the worst examples of censorship in U.S. history.[2] He died in jail of heart failure just over a year later, days before he was due to apply for parole.[8]...
Vegetotherapy and the orgasm
Reich's home in Drammensveien near Olaf Kyrres plass at Frogner, Oslo. A blue plaque reads: "The physician and psychoanalyst WILHELM REICH (1897-1957) lived and worked here 1935–39. Developed character analysis and the body-oriented therapy."
Reich stayed in Norway for five years, working under the auspices of Professor Schjelderup of the Psychological Institute at the University of Oslo.
He first presented the principles of his vegetotherapy in a paper called "Psychic contact and vegetative current" in August 1934 at the 13th International Congress of Psychoanalysis at Lucerne, Switzerland, and went on to develop the technique between 1935 and 1940. Vegetotherapy involves the patient physically simulating the effects of certain emotions, in the hope of triggering them. Reich argued that the ability to feel sexual love depended on a physical ability to make love with what he called "orgastic potency." He tried to measure the male orgasm, noting that four distinct phases occurred physiologically: first, the psychosexual build-up or tension; second, the tumescence of the penis, with an accompanying charge, which Reich measured electrically; third, an electrical discharge at the moment of orgasm; and fourth, the relaxation of the penis. He believed the force that he measured was a distinct type of energy present in all life forms.[25]
He was a prolific writer for psychoanalytic journals in Europe. Originally, psychoanalysis was focused on the treatment of neurotic symptoms. Reich's Character Analysis was a major step in the development of what today would be called ego psychology. In Reich's view, a person's entire character, not only individual symptoms, could be looked at and treated as a neurotic phenomenon. The book also introduced Reich's theory of body armoring. He argued that unreleased psychosexual energy could produce actual physical blocks within muscles and organs, and that these act as a "body armor" preventing the release of the energy. An orgasm was one way to break through the armor. These ideas developed into a general theory of the importance of a healthy sex life to overall well-being, a theory compatible with Freud's views.
His idea was that the orgasm was not simply a device to aid recreation, but was the body's emotional energy regulator. The better the orgasm, the more energy was released, meaning that less was available to create neurotic states. Reich called the ability to release sufficient energy during orgasm "orgastic potency," something that very few individuals could achieve, he argued, because of society's sexual oppression. A man or woman without orgastic potency was in a constant state of tension, developing a body armor to keep it in. The outer rigidity and inner anxiety is the state of neurosis, leading to hate, sadism, greed, and at a political level, fascism and antisemitism.[24]
He agreed with Freud that sexual development was the origin of mental illness. They both believed that most psychological states were dictated by unconscious processes; that infant sexuality develops early but is repressed, and that this has important consequences for mental health. At that time a Marxist (see Freudo-Marxism), Reich argued that the source of sexual repression was bourgeois morality and the socio-economic structures that produced it. As sexual repression was the cause of the neuroses, the best cure would be to have an active, guilt-free sex life. He argued that such a liberation could come about only through a morality not imposed by a repressive economic structure.[26] In 1928, he joined the Austrian Communist Party and founded the Socialist Association for Sexual Counseling and Research, which organized counseling centers for workers.
The bion experiments
From 1934-39, Reich conducted experiments looking at vegetative energy in the body, especially the Galvanic skin response, which became research into the origins of life. These he called the "Bion Experiments."
He examined protozoa, single-celled creatures with nuclei. He grew cultured vesicles using grass, sand, iron, and animal tissue, boiling them, and adding potassium and gelatin. Having heated the materials to incandescence with a heat-torch, he noted bright, glowing, blue vesicles, which, he said, could be cultured, and which gave off an observable radiant energy. He named the vesicles "bions" and believed they were a rudimentary form of life, halfway between life and non-life. When he poured the cooled mixture onto growth media, bacteria were born, he said, dismissing the idea that the bacteria were already present in the air or on other materials.[27]
T-bacilli
In 1936, Reich wrote that "[s]ince everything is antithetically arranged, there must be two different types of single-celled organisms: (a) life-destroying organisms or organisms that form through organic decay, (b) life-promoting organisms that form from inorganic material that comes to life."[28] This idea of spontaneous generation led him to believe he had found the cause of cancer. He called the life-destroying organisms "T-bacilli," with the T standing for Tod, German for death. He described in The Cancer Biopathy how he had found them in a culture of rotting cancerous tissue obtained from a local hospital. He wrote that T-bacilli were formed from the disintegration of protein; they were 0.2 to 0.5 micrometer in length, shaped like lancets, and when injected into mice, they caused inflammation and cancer. He concluded that, when orgone energy diminishes in cells through aging or injury, the cells undergo "bionous degeneration," or death. At some point, the deadly T-bacilli start to form in the cells. Death from cancer, he believed, was caused by an overwhelming growth of the T-bacilli.
Opposition to his ideas
Scientists in Oslo reacted strongly to his work on bions, deriding it as nonsense. Tidens Tegn, a leading liberal newspaper, launched a campaign against him in 1937, supported by scientists and other newspapers.[24] Between September 1937 and the fall of 1938, over 100 articles denouncing him appeared in the main Oslo newspapers.[33]
In 1937, Leiv Kreyberg, the country's top cancer specialist, was allowed to examine one of Reich's bion preparations under the microscope. Kreyberg wrote that the broth Reich had used as his culture medium was indeed sterile, but that the bacteria were ordinary staphylococci. He concluded that Reich's control measures to prevent infection from airborne bacteria were not as foolproof as Reich believed. Kreyberg accused Reich of being ignorant of basic bacteriological and anatomical facts, while Reich accused Kreyberg of having failed to recognize living cancer cells under magnification. Thus, Sharaf writes, an opportunity for scientific exchange degenerated into name-calling.[27]
Reich sent a sample of the bacteria to another Norwegian biologist, Professor Thjötta of the Oslo Bacteriological Institute, who also said they resulted from air infection. Kreyberg and Thjötta had their views published in Aftenposten on April 19 and 21, 1938, Krayberg referring to him as "Mr. Reich," alleging that Reich knew less about bacteria and anatomy than a first-year medical student. When Reich requested a detailed control study, Kreyberg responded that his work did not merit it.[27]
Reich's The Bion Experiments on the Origin of Life was published in 1938, leading to attacks by the scientific and lay press that he was a "Jew pornographer," who was daring to meddle with the origins of life. Alan Cantwell writes that Reich's detractors focused on one paragraph in which Reich wrote that his research had "proved particularly fruitful for an understanding of cancer," which led to the claim that he was promoting a quack cancer cure.[25]
By February 1938, his visa had expired. Several Norwegian scientists argued against an extension, Kreyberg saying, "If it is a question of handing Dr. Reich over to the Gestapo, then I will fight that, but if one could get rid of him in a decent manner, that would be the best." The writer Sigurd Hoel wondered when it had become a crime to perform amateurish biological experiments. "When did it become a reason for deportation that one looked in a microscope when one was not a trained biologist?" Reich received influential support from overseas, first from Bronislaw Malinowski, who wrote to the Norwegian press in March 1938 that Reich's sociological work was a "distinct and valuable contribution to science," and from A.S. Neill, founder of Summerhill in England, a progressive school known throughout the world. Neill also wrote to the Norwegian press, arguing that "the campaign against Reich seems largely ignorant and uncivilized, more like fascism than democracy ..." Norway was proud of its intellectual tolerance, so the "Reich affair" put the government on the spot. A compromise was therefore found. Reich was given his visa, but a royal decree was issued stipulating that anyone wanting to practice psychoanalysis needed a licence, and it was widely understood that Reich would not be given one.[33]
Throughout the affair, Reich had issued just one public statement, when he asked for a commission to replicate his bion experiments. Sharaf writes that the scientific opposition to his work affected his personality and relationships. He was angered and humiliated by the notoriety he had inadvertently achieved. His self-confidence undermined, he felt like a marked man, hunted and tormented, no longer comfortable in public, and seething with bitterness against the researchers who had denounced him.[34]
Orgonomy
Freud had argued that there was a sexual energy called libido, which he initially described as "something which is capable of increase, decrease, displacement and discharge, and which extends itself over the memory traces of an idea like an electric charge over the surface of the body," but by 1925 he had rejected the idea that it was a physical energy.[20] Reich took the idea further, arguing that he had discovered a primordial cosmic energy. He called it "orgone," and the study of it "orgonomy."
Orgone is blue in color, he wrote, omnipresent, can be seen with the naked eye, and is responsible for such things as weather, the color of the sky, gravity, the formation of galaxies, and the biological expressions of emotion and sexuality. He argued that St. Elmo's Fire is a manifestation of it, as is the blue color of sexually excited frogs. Red corpuscles, plant chlorophyll, gonadal cells, protozoa, and cancer cells are all charged with orgone, he said.[24]
He argued that humankind had previously split its knowledge of orgone in two: "ether" for its mechanistic, physical aspects, and God for the spiritual, the subjective.[45] He wrote that, "God-Father is the basic cosmic energy from which all being stems, and which streams through (the) body as through anything else in existence."[46]
Orgone accumulators
In 1940, he built boxes called "orgone accumulators" to concentrate atmospheric orgone. Some of the boxes were for lab animals, and some were large enough for a human being to sit inside. Composed of alternating layers of ferrous metals and organic insulators with a high dielectric constant, the accumulators had the appearance of a large, hollow capacitor. Based on experiments with them, he argued that orgone energy was a negatively-entropic force in nature responsible for concentrating and organizing matter. The construction of the boxes caught the attention of the press, leading to wild rumors that they were "sex boxes" that caused uncontrollable erections.[25]
According to Reich's theory, illness was primarily caused by depletion or blockages of the orgone energy within the body. He conducted clinical tests of the orgone accumulator on people suffering from a variety of illnesses. The patient would sit within the accumulator and absorb the "concentrated orgone energy." He built smaller, more portable accumulator-blankets of the same layered construction for application to parts of the body. The effects observed were said to boost the immune system, even to the point of destroying certain types of tumors, though Reich was hesitant to claim this constituted a cure. The orgone accumulator was also tested on mice with cancer, and on plant-growth, the results convincing Reich that the benefits of orgone therapy could not be attributed to a placebo effect.[citation needed] He had, he believed, developed a grand unified theory of physical and mental health, a claim regarded by the psychoanalytic community as quackery.[47]
Experiment XX
In December 1944, Reich began the 20th (Roman numeral XX) in his series of bion experiments.[48] He filtered all the earth out of an earth bion preparation so that all that remained was clear yellow water, then buried the test tube outdoors in the frozen ground. When he retrieved it three weeks later and examined it under a microscope, he saw pulsating plasmatic flakes. Since the yellow water had not contained visible particulates before it had been frozen, Reich concluded that free orgone energy had condensed out to form the lifelike flakes. This experiment formed the basis for Reich's later theory that all matter in the universe had derived from orgone energy via cosmic superimposition.[49]
Cloudbusters
Reich with one of his cloudbusters, which he said could manipulate streams of orgone to produce rain.
Reich posited a conjugate, life-annulling energy in opposition to orgone, which he dubbed Deadly Orgone or DOR. He wrote that accumulations of DOR played a role in desertification, and he designed a "cloudbuster" with which he said he could manipulate streams of orgone energy in the atmosphere to induce rain by forcing clouds to form and disperse. It was a set of hollow metal pipes and cables inserted into water, which Reich argued created a stronger orgone energy field than was in the atmosphere, the water drawing the atmospheric orgone through the pipes.[20]
Reich conducted dozens of experiments with the cloudbuster[citation needed], calling the research "Cosmic Orgone Engineering." In 1953, a drought threatened Maine's blueberry crop, and several farmers offered to pay Reich if he could make it rain. The weather bureau had reportedly forecast no rain for several days when Reich began the experiment on at 10 a.m. on July 6, 1953. The Bangor Daily News reported on July 24:
Dr. Reich and three assistants set up their "rain-making" device off the shore of Grand Lake, near the Bangor hydro-electric dam ... The device, a set of hollow tubes, suspended over a small cylinder, connected by a cable, conducted a "drawing" operation for about an hour and ten minutes ...
According to a reliable source in Ellsworth the following climactic changes took place in that city on the night of July 6 and the early morning of July 7: "Rain began to fall shortly after ten o'clock Monday evening, first as a drizzle and then by midnight as a gentle, steady rain. Rain continued throughout the night, and a rainfall of 0.24 inches was recorded in Ellsworth the following morning."
A puzzled witness to the "rain-making" process said: "The queerest looking clouds you ever saw began to form soon after they got the thing rolling." And later the same witness said the scientists were able to change the course of the wind by manipulation of the device.[50]
The blueberry crop survived, the farmers declared themselves satisfied, and Reich received his fee.[20]
Orgone experiment with Einstein
Reich discussed orgone accumulators with Albert Einstein in 1941.
On December 30, 1940, Reich wrote to Albert Einstein saying he had a scientific discovery he wanted to discuss, and on January 13, 1941 went to visit Einstein in Princeton. They talked for five hours, and Einstein agreed to test an orgone accumulator, which Reich had constructed out of a Faraday cage made of galvanized steel and insulated by wood and paper on the outside.[51] Einstein agreed that if, as Reich suggested, an object's temperature could be raised without an apparent heating source, it would be a "bombshell" in physics.[52]
Reich supplied Einstein with a small accumulator during their second meeting, and Einstein performed the experiment in his basement, which involved taking the temperature atop, inside, and near the device. He also stripped the device down to its Faraday cage to compare temperatures. In his attempt to replicate Reich's findings, Einstein observed a rise in temperature,[53] which Reich argued was caused by the orgone energy that had accumulated inside the Faraday cage.[54] However, one of Einstein's assistants pointed out that the temperature was lower on the floor than on the ceiling.[55] Following that remark, Einstein modified the experiment and, as a result, concluded that the effect was simply due to the temperature gradient inside the room.[56] He wrote back to Reich, describing his experiments and expressing the hope that Reich would develop a more skeptical approach.[57]
Reich responded with a 25-page letter to Einstein, expressing concern that "convection from the ceiling" would join "air germs" and "Brownian movement" to explain away new findings.[54] The correspondence between Reich and Einstein was published by Reich's press as The Einstein Affair in 1953, possibly without Einstein's permission....[58]
Works
German-language books
* Der triebhafte Charakter : Eine psychoanalytische Studie zur Pathologie des Ich, 1925
* Die Funktion des Orgasmus : Zur Psychopathologie und zur Soziologie des Geschlechtslebens, 1927
* Dialektischer Materialismus und Psychoanalyse, 1929
* Geschlechtsreife, Enthaltsamkeit, Ehemoral : Eine Kritik der bürgerlichen Sexualreform, 1930
* Der Einbruch der Sexualmoral : Zur Geschichte der sexuellen Ökonomie, 1932
* Charakteranalyse : Technik und Grundlagen für studierende und praktizierende Analytiker, 1933
* Massenpsychologie des Faschismus, 1933 (original Marxist edition, banned by the Nazis and the Communists)
* Was ist Klassenbewußtsein? : Über die Neuformierung der Arbeiterbewegung, 1934
* Psychischer Kontakt und vegetative Strömung, 1935
* Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf : Zur sozialistischen Umstrukturierung des Menschen, 1936
* Die Bione : Zur Entstehung des vegetativen Lebens, 1938
English-language books
* American Odyssey: Letters and Journals 1940-1947 (posthumous)
* Beyond Psychology: Letters and Journals 1934-1939 (posthumous)
* The Bioelectrical Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety
* The Bion Experiments: On the Origins of Life
* The Function of the Orgasm, 1942, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe
* The Cancer Biopathy (1948)
* Character Analysis (translation of the enlarged version of Charakteranalyse from 1933, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe)
* Children of the Future: On the Prevention of Sexual Pathology
* Contact With Space: Oranur Second Report (1957)
* Cosmic Superimposition: Man's Orgonotic Roots in Nature (1951)
* "Concerning Specific Forms of Masturbation" (essay)
* Ether, God and Devil (1949)
* Genitality in the Theory and Therapy of Neuroses (translation of the original, unrevised version of Die Funktion des Orgasmus from 1927)
* The Invasion of Compulsory Sex-Morality (translation of the revised and enlarged version of Der Eindruch der Sexualmoral from 1932)
* Listen, Little Man! (1948, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe)
* The Mass Psychology of Fascism (translation of the revised and enlarged version of Massenpsychologie des Faschismus from 1933, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe)
* The Murder of Christ (1953)
* The Oranur Experiment
* The Orgone Energy Accumulator, Its Scientific and Medical Use (1948)
* Passion of Youth: An Autobiography, 1897-1922 (posthumous)
* People in Trouble (1953)
* Record of a Friendship: The Correspondence of Wilhelm Reich and A.S. Neill (1936-1957)
* Reich Speaks of Freud (Interview by Kurt R. Eissler, letters, documents)
* Selected Writings: An Introduction to Orgonomy
* Sexpol. Essays 1929-1934 (ed. Lee Baxandall)
* The Sexual Revolution (translation of Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf from 1936, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe)
* The Einstein Affair (1953)
Notes
1. ^ Sheppard, R.Z. A family affair, Time, May 14, 1973.
2. ^ a b c "Wilhelm Reich," Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
3. ^ Sharaf, Myron (1994). Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich. Da Capo Press, pp. 4–5.
4. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 4, 8; see also Obituary notice for Wilhelm Reich, Time Magazine, November 18, 1957.
5. ^ a b Sharaf 1994, p. 170.
6. ^ Fredric Wertham, Calling all Couriers, The New Republic, Dec 2, 1946, a review of The Mass Psychology of Fascism; Brady, Mildred Edie. The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich, The New Republic, May 26, 1947; Brady, Mildred Edie. The New Cult of Sex and Anarchy, Harper's, April 1947; also see "The New Coast of Bohemia" (editorial), Saturday Review of Literature, August 16, 1947, and Henderson, Harry and Shaw, Sam. "Greenwich Village: Tourist Trap," Collier's, December 6, 1947.
7. ^ 50 years ago in 1956: the burning of Reich's publications, The Wilhelm Reich Museum, June 2006. Retrieved January 9, 2009.
8. ^ a b c Sharaf 1994, p. 477.
9. ^ a b Sharaf 1994, p. 39.
10. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 463.
11. ^ Reich, Wilhelm. "Background and scientific development of Wilhelm Reich," Orgone Energy Bulletin V, 1953, p. 6, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 40 and p. 488, footnote 10.
12. ^ Reich , Wilhelm. Passion of Youth, Paragon House, New York, 1990, p. 25; also see Sharaf, p. 49.
13. ^ Reich, Wilhelm. "Über einen Fall von Durchbruch der Inzestschranke in der Pubertät," Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft, VII, 1920, 222-223, cited in and translated by Sharaf 1994, p. 43 and p. 448, footnote 12.
14. ^ a b Sharaf 1994, pp. 42–46.
15. ^ In his book Passion of Youth (p. 36-37) Reich says that his mother died by the end of September 1910. She took an unknown poison on a Monday, which corresponds to September 26. Based on his further comments one easily concludes that she died three days later, in September 29, 1910, at 2.00 a.m. Her first suicide attempt, with ingestion of Lysol (the afore mentioned household cleaner) had ocurred in January 1910, the same evening Leon Reich came to know about the adultery (Reich, idem, p. 31).
16. ^ Reich, Wilhelm. Über einen Fall von Durchbruch der Inzestschranke in der Pubertät, op cit, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 47 and p. 489, footnote 21.
17. ^ a b Sharaf 1994, p. 48.
18. ^ a b Blumenfeld, Robert. Tools and techniques for character interpretation. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006, p. 135.
19. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 58.
20. ^ a b c d e f g h Biography, The Wilhelm Reich Museum. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
21. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 108–109.
22. ^ Biographical notes on his family: Annie Pink, born April 2, 1902, Vienna, died January 5, 1971, New York. Eva Reich became a doctor and applied orgonomical techniques to the care of newborns. Lore Reich Rubin became a doctor and psychoanalyst.
23. ^ According to his daughter Lore Reich, Anna Freud and Ernest Jones were behind the expulsion.
24. ^ a b c d e f g Brady, Mildred. The Strange case of Wilhelm Reich", The New Republic, May 26, 1947, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 360.
25. ^ a b c Cantwell, Alan. Dr. Wilhelm Reich", New Dawn Magazine, 2004. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
26. ^ D'Aloia, Alessandro. "Marxism and Psychoanalysis: Notes on Wilhelm Reich’s Life and Works", Marxist.com. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
27. ^ a b c Sharaf 1994, p. 228.
28. ^ Reich, Wilhelm. Beyond Psychology: Letters and Journals 1934-1939. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1994, p. 66
29. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 234–235, 242.
30. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 242.
31. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 234–235.
32. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 238–241, 243.
33. ^ a b Sharaf 1994, pp. 230–233.
34. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 233.
35. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 245–246.
36. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 253.
37. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 255.
38. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 254.
39. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 257–259.
40. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 263.
41. ^ Sharaf 1944, pp. 264–265.
42. ^ Elkind, David. "Wilhelm Reich -- The Psychoanalyst as Revolutionary; Wilhelm Reich", The New York Times, April 18, 1971. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
43. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 274.
44. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 8.
45. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 352.
46. ^ Reich, Wilhelm. Murder of Christ. Orgone Institute Press 1953, p. 41.
47. ^ Klee, Gerald D. "What ever happened to orgone therapy?", The Maryland Psychiatric Society, Summer 2001; Vol. 28, No. 1; Pg 13-15, retrieved August 14, 2006; Grossinger, Richard. Planet Medicine: From Stone Age Shamanism to Post-industrial Healing, Taylor & Francis, 1982, p. 293.
48. ^ Reich, Wilhelm. The Cancer Biopathy, chapter II, section 6. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (January 1, 1974).
49. ^ Reich, Wilhelm. Ether, God & Devil & Cosmic Superimposition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (January 1, 1972)
50. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 379–380.
51. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 285.
52. ^ Brian, Denis (1996). Einstein: A Life. John Wiley & Sons, p. 326.
53. ^ "I have now investigated your apparatus ... In the beginning I made enough readings without any changes in your arrangements. The box-thermometer showed regularly a temperature of about 0.3-0.4 higher then the one suspended freely," Einstein's letter to Reich, February 7, 1941, English translation, in The Einstein Affair, Orgone Institute Press, 1953
54. ^ a b Sharaf 1994, p. 286.
55. ^ "One of my assistants now drew my attention to the fact that in the room ... the temperature on the floor is always lower than the one on the ceiling," Einstein to Reich, February 7, 1941, op.cit.
56. ^ "Through these experiments I regard the matter as completely solved," Einstein to Reich, February 7, 1941, op.cit.
57. ^ "Ich hoffe, dass dies ihre Skepsis entwickeln wird, dass Sie sich nicht durch eine an sich verständliche Illusion trügen lassen," ("I hope that this will sharpen your skepticism so that you're not taken in by one of these understandable illusions"), Einstein to Reich, February 7, 1941, op.cit.
58. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 288.
59. ^ "FBI adds new subjects to electronic reading room", U.S. State Department, March 2, 2000.
60. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 361.
61. ^ FDA file on Reich, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 363 and footnote 6, p. 513.
62. ^ FDA file on Reich, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 364 and footnote 11, p. 513.
63. ^ Greenfield, Jerome. Wilhelm Reich Vs. the U.S.A.. W.W. Norton, 1974, p. 69, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 364 and footnote 13, p. 513.
64. ^ Reich, Wilhelm. Conspiracy. An Emotional Chain Reaction, item 386A, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 367 and footnote 14, p. 513.
65. ^ Reich, Wilhelm. Conspiracy. An Emotional Chain Reaction, item 386A, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 367 and footnote 14, p. 513.
66. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 367.
67. ^ a b Sharaf 1994, pp. 410–413.
68. ^ Complaint for injunction by FDA, Feb 10, 1954, part1, USA vs WILHELM REICH 1954-1957.
69. ^ "Wilhelm Reich's Response to FDA's Complaint for Injunction", February 25, 1954, posted on orgone.org.
70. ^ DECREE OF INJUNCTION ORDER (USA vs Wilhelm Reich) by JUDGE CLIFFORD MARCH 19, 1954 - USA vs WILHELM REICH 1954-1957
71. ^ Wilhelm Reich: Man's Right to Know, Wilhelm Reich Museum. Retrieved July 27, 2009.
72. ^ Michael Silvert (1906-1958), born Meyer Silverzweig in Poland. He was arrested with Reich and committed suicide in 1958 when he was released from prison.[1]
73. ^ Herskowitz, Morton. The Trial, The Institute for Orgonomic Science. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
74. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 458, 465, 466, 473.
75. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 458–461.
76. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 461.
77. ^ There is some discrepancy between the sources on this. Myron Sharaf writes that Reich signed his last will on February 10, 1957, naming his daughter Eva as executrix, which meant she controlled the publication and republication of his work. The Wilhelm Reich Museum writes that his last will was on March 8, 1957, naming the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Fund as the entity charged with running Orgonon as the Wilhelm Reich Museum, transmitting his legacy, and housing his archives. See Sharaf 1994, p. 465 and Biography, The Wilhelm Reich Museum. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
78. ^ a b Sharaf 1994, pp. 469–470.
79. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 476.
80. ^ Sharaf 1994. p. 5.
81. ^ Obituary notice for Wilhelm Reich, Time Magazine, November 18, 1957.
82. ^ Sharaf 1994, p. 6.
83. ^ For example: Kavouras, Jorgos: Heilen mit Orgonenergie: Die Medizinische Orgonomie, Turm Verlag, Bietigheim, Germany, 2005; Lassek, Heiko. Orgon-Therapie: Heilen mit der reinen Lebensenergie, Scherz Verlag, 1997, München, Germany; Müschenich, Stefan: Der Gesundheitsbegriff im Werk des Arztes Wilhelm Reich (The Concept of Health in the Works of Wilhelm Reich, MD), med. Diss., Marburg, Görich & Weiershauser, 1995.
84. ^ Müschenich, Stefan & Gebauer, Rainer: Der Reich'sche Orgonakkumulator. Naturwissenschaftliche Diskussion, praktische Anwendung, experimentelle Untersuchung. Frankfurt/Main: Nexus-Verlag 1987
85. ^ Hebenstreit, Günter: Der Orgonakkumulator nach Wilhelm Reich. Eine experimentelle Untersuchung zur Spannungs-Ladungs-Formel. Univ. Wien, Dipl.-Arbeit, 1995
86. ^ The American College of Orgonomy
87. ^ Institute for Orgonomic Science
88. ^ A good overview of Reich's work is Wilhelm Reich: The evolution of his work by David Boadella. A bibliography on orgonomy gives full citations to university dissertations, and to controlled experiments replicating Reich's work on bions, the orgone accumulator, and the cloudbuster.
89. ^ "Cloudbusting", YouTube. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
The Einstein experiments
* The Einstein Affair, Orgone Institute Press, 1953.
* Aspden, H. (2001). "Gravity and its thermal anomaly: was the Reich-Einstein experiment evidence of energy inflow from the aether?," Infinite Energy, 41:61.
* Bearden, T. (2002). "Energy from the vacuum," Cheniere Press, pp. 333–337.
* Brian, Denis (1996). Einstein: A Life, John Wiley & Sons. Reich is discussed on pp. 325-327, 382, 399.
* Clark, Ronald W. (1971). Einstein: The Life and Times, Avon. Reich is on pp. 689–690 of the paperback edition.
* Correa, P and Correa, A. (1998, 2001). "The thermal anomaly in ORACs and the Reich-Einstein experiment: implications for blackbody theory," Akronos Publishing.
* Correa P and Correa A. (2001). "The reproducible thermal anomaly of the Reich-Einstein experiment under limit conditions," Infinite Energy, 37:12.
* Mallove, E. (2001). "Breaking Through: A Bombshell in Science," Infinite Energy, 37:6.
* Mallove, E. (2001). "Breaking Through: Aether Science and Technology," Infinite Energy, 39:6.
http://www.orgonite.info/what-is-orgonite.html
A Brief
History of Orgone Research
In the 1930's and 1940's, Dr. Wilhelm Reich was able to detect and measure the existence of etheric energy (life energy, chi, etc.), which he called orgone, using a modified geiger counter.
Dr. Reich determined that stacking alternating layers of fiberglass (an organic substance) and steel wool (an inorganic substance) would actually attract and collect orgone/etheric energy of both the life-beneficial positive form (which Reich called "OR" or "POR") and harmful negative etheric energy ("deadly orgone" or "DOR").
Orgone Accumulator Diagram He constructed large boxes called orgone accumulators or "oracs" using this simple layering principle and was able to successfully heal his patients of various ailments, including various forms of cancer, by having them sit inside the box for periods of time.
In 1986, scientists at the University of Marburg, Germany published the results of a blind study1 which showed that 30-minute orgone accumulator treatments caused consistent, positive psycho-physiological effects not seen with the all-fiberglass box used for a control, stating "the results received in our investigation furnish evidence for the assumption that the physical properties of the orgone accumulator and its psychophysiological efficacy on human organisms, postulated by Reich and his associates, factually exist."
Reich's work was continued in earnest in the 1960's by more open-minded Russian scientists such as Dr. Nikolai Kozyrev (1908-1983), who also scientifically proved that such unseen energies indeed exist all around us, and who's Reich-inspired work led to the unfortunate development of practical Soviet military defense applications which utilized principles of so-called "torsion fields" (e.g., etheric energy). Kozyrev's work, which indeed confirms both Reich's research and our empirical experiences with orgonite, was classified until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Following in their footsteps, thousands of Ph.D.-level researchers from both sides of the Iron Curtain spanning multiple generations have continued Kozyrev and Reich's pioneering work, slowly forcing mainstream Western science to finally, "officially recognize" the concept of a universal, unseen energy medium they call "dark matter," "vacuum flux" or "zero-point energy," depending on who you ask. It is commonly understood among orgonite enthusiasts that these are all essentially describing the same thing, which Reich called "orgone".
A collection of post-Reich reports, re: Orgone; featuring Trevor Constable's weather control experiments, originally published in The Journal Borderland Research ( http://www.borderlands.com/archives/1987-43-1.htm )
