Wilhelm Reich and Orgone (Life Energy)

Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-born psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who worked with Sigmund Freud in the 1930's. He authored the book The Mass Psychology of Fascism in 1933.

Ironically, that same book would later be ordered destroyed by the FDA and US government, because it mentioned "orgone." Orgone was the form of energy Reich claimed to have discovered and learned how to collect and use. According to Reich, it was inherent to all living organisms and was tied heavily into our sexual urges and impulses, but was also vital to all life. Reich published scientific literature and produced devices able to collect and store orgone, according to his work.

The FDA held an injunction against Reich on a technical legal basis, that his lawyers were quoted as saying was "weak," and which they could easily help Reich get out of. Reich apparently took the trials as an opportunity to demonstrate the validity of his inventions, refused to argue his case on a legal basis, and was held in contempt of court. He was sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment in 1956 for contempt of court. He died the following year in prison.

After his imprisonment for contempt of court, at least some 6 tons of his books were burned, overseen by the FDA, and all of his equipment destroyed.


Here is a video serving as an introduction to his work:




Orgone devices are very simple, not unlike a simple electrical circuit that would simply produce an electrical current (which our bodies also use -- though not so directly). The most basic orgone device is simply layers of an organic material like wool, resin, etc. with metal. Reich said that metal conducted and "reflected" orgone from the environment (similarly to how metal conducts electricity), and that organic materials absorbed and stored it. The energy also seems to have a distinct pulsation or frequency component to it.


Long story short, people still make "orgone devices" and plant them all around electrical generators, cell phone towers, etc. to counter EM radiation that pollutes our surroundings and help restore balance. And the government hates it.

For anyone familiar with "chemtrails" (which the government also strongly denies, despite foreign countries admitting to modifying their own weather), orgone devices are supposed to be able to bust up chemtrails and help restore natural balance to weather formations. There are lots of people that play with this stuff on a daily basis and swear by it (look up the "Warrior Matrix" forums, for example), but you can try it yourself and come to your own conclusions. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac were both orgone enthusiasts.





There are multiple videos on YouTube from orgone enthusiasts, who are not paranoid types of people (ie "Sensei Dennis") yet they are forced to notice that helicopters repeatedly circle their houses and fly low right over head as they are out fooling with the stuff. For what it's worth. After all, the FDA did have all of Reich's work burned as if this was Nazi Germany, so this stuff is obviously pissing someone off in the government.


If you've never heard of it, well now you have.


Edit to clarify thread title.

[edit on 31-10-2009 by bsbray11]

Not to be too nitpicky but I don't believe they destroyed all of his work. His diaries still are controlled by his descendants.

He also released work in europe before coming to the states. His belief that some mental sickness was caused by the shame we felt over sexual activity was for it's time almost heretic. His views on sexual freedom were liberating in a time when it was not accepted.

reply to post by Seiko


I think it was all of his scientific/medical literature that the FDA was trying to destroy. I'm not positive they destroyed all of that, either, but they damned sure wanted to destroy anything with the word "orgone" in it.

reply to post by bsbray11


Most definitely, just as they are now going after dr weil, and other natural health advocates. This man's story was really the foretelling of what the fda would do, and how bad it is that they have declared only "drugs" can cure diseases.

Reich conducted dozens of experiments with the cloudbuster, 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. The blueberry crop survived, the farmers declared themselves satisfied, and Reich received his fee.

(taken from wiki)

I have always loved this story. It seems the maine newspaper and the local farmers believed in his work.

The thing that bothers me, is why no one else has found this orgone energy?? With all this technology someone should of found it by now?

reply to post by Maddogkull



Orgone is in a similar category as all the alternative energies that are discouraged by big business, then by extension through lobbyists the government, then by extension from government grants, academic circles.

There have been lots of tests and studies, that show positive results (faster plant growth, etc.), but then how those results were achieved is always brought into question, and debates and arguments dragged out ad infinitum since the energy itself remains to be quantified. But the devices are so cheap to make yourself, not even a 10 minute project using nothing but casting resin, scrap metal/coil, etc., that most people seem satisfied experimenting with it on their own.

Hmmm, it just seems weird that no other scientists, with an open mind would try to experiment on it, and find out.

Originally posted by Maddogkull
Hmmm, it just seems weird that no other scientists, with an open mind would try to experiment on it, and find out.

You mean like Charles R. Kelley, Ph.D.? Just as one example from a 2-second Google search.

I just told you in my last post there HAVE been positive results obtained from studies. I guess you missed that...

What you're saying is equivalent to saying "Well I guess there's no professionals out there that believe that are any affordable alternatives to gasoline/oil since we aren't moving away from them." There are more variables at work here than just "is this scientifically sound?" There is also money and power invested into this.

www.orgone.org...


If you don't WANT to believe there is anything to this stuff, or if you prefer being "skeptical," that's your business and you're entitled to your opinions. Like I said, this stuff is cheap and easy to make. Play with it if you want. Or leave it be if you want. The bottom line as far as science goes, is this is still obviously a controversial subject and you aren't going to get everyone in agreement at this point in time.

If you remember anything you would remember me asking you about orgone or u2u you because I was interested. I believe theres something interesting about it, but I’m not sure what to believe lol. But good work though, can see this is going to be a good thread for debate S&F

[edit on 31-10-2009 by Maddogkull]

reply to post by Maddogkull


Some scientists like to use the term "Zero point energy".

Perhaps if you look around you'll see that it is still being discussed and studied.

reply to post by Maddogkull


Well the best advice I can give you, is to save up $20 or so and run to Lowe's.

Take the 10 minutes to build something yourself, and start running your own personal experiments. Have a control set, and a set to be influenced by the orgone device. Reproduce experiments you see presented online, and judge for yourself.

It says the video is disabled???

Also he says that there’s this blue energy (orgone energy) that is around cells, and the earth. But aren’t there already scientific proven names for this phenomena? Also could orgone energy = dark energy ??? Makes you wonder.

[edit on 31-10-2009 by Maddogkull]

reply to post by Maddogkull


Dohhh!!


Well, you could double-click it and bring it up... but no, wait... there's more!

I just uploaded it myself and edited the OP again to link to mine, which is allowed to be embedded.


Thanks for drawing that to my attention.

reply to post by bsbray11



I'm willing to try an experiment in orgone energy. If organic material absorbes the energy[I'm organic] that is focused by a metallic coil; I'm going to wrap
copper wire around my head and see if I get any results. I wonder if a tinfoil hat would do the same thing?
I hope it can improve my memory!!!

I've always found Reich and the stories that surround him to be fascinating.

I'm off to Lowes for some wire.
s&f

[edit on 31-10-2009 by whaaa]

Originally posted by whaaa
I'm willing to try an experiment in orgone energy. If organic material absorbes the energy[I'm organic] that is focused by a metallic coil; I'm going to wrap
copper wire around my head and see if I get any results.

Well at least you're being original.


I've never tested Reich's original orgone accumulator designs, but just looking at them, I can't help but think they have a very uncanny resemblance to an electrical capacitor:



A dielectric material is sandwiched in layers between conducting metal plates, and is thus capable of storing a voltage after it is charged. The more layers, and the more dielectric material you charge up, the more capacitance and the more voltage will be retained for a longer period of time.


Similarly, I can't help but think that Reich's accumulator is simply collecting, storing, and reflecting back energy naturally given off by the human body, and using it to charge the surrounding atmosphere as well. Except instead of a dielectric, the key material would be some kind of organic matter.

I'm curious if clear casting resin, since it's a synthetic material, has any value at all in one of these devices.

It's interesting to note that a quartz crystal is often added to orgone devices that are placed around for EM radiation, since quartz and the silicon it is made out of have demonstrated some very unique electrical properties, being able to store information and also producing a current whenever the pressure upon them changes. Crystals are actually used in microphones for this purpose: when you speak, the changes in pressure caused by your voice cause fluctuations in the current emitted from a crystal.

Bsbray, mind answering me a question. They said that the blue glow around earth is the orgone energy, but really isent it due to rayleigh scattering? Im not sure about this, so please correct me if I am wrong

I have been looking around but, the orgone box seems so fake. The weather manipulator seem pretty real, but the orgone box that people sit in seems pretty fake. Are there any testimonies saying how great it is?

I i got was testimonials from this site. www.orgoneenergy.org...

So ofcourse they would have stuff like that on a site trying to sell products. I really want to believe , the box just seems like placebo effect.

[edit on 31-10-2009 by Maddogkull]

reply to post by Maddogkull


Reich said orgone, Rayleigh said this scattering. I personally do not know enough about either subject or its presumptions to give you an answer to that question. They could both be wrong for all I know, or both be right.


I've become really fascinated by these orgone devices. Reich himself said this energy is accumulated by layering organic and metal materials. But most "orgone devices" as people are shown building them are using synthetic resins and aren't sandwiching any else between the metal but the occasional crystal. I have trouble believing synthetic materials are going to have much of anything to do with energies associated with the vitality of life.

Wikipedia has this in its article on orgone:

The overarching concept of orgone has not been validated by experiments in the physical sciences outside of the work of Reich's own circle of students, though some of the specific observations have been replicated. In particular, Stefan Müschenich has demonstrated effects of orgone accumulators on test subjects in keeping with Reich's original descriptions, while a control "dummy box" showed no such effects.[21]

I think it's significant that Reich's original descriptions were followed and replicated here. Because he specifically called for organic materials. Synthetic casting resins are not organic materials, or at least if they are it must be by some technicality (I am no chemist).

Many designs also feature metal that is all touching each other and thus shorting out any electrical activity that would be isolated amongst them. Thus any capacitive effects would be negated right off the bat. This is something else that doesn't fit with Reich's original work so far as I can see.

Does anyone else here make these things? Because I think some experimenting is in order here. I'm going to be keeping an eye out for organic resins.

Originally posted by Maddogkull
I have been looking around but, the orgone box seems so fake. The weather manipulator seem pretty real, but the orgone box that people sit in seems pretty fake. Are there any testimonies saying how great it is?

Yes, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac both praised it. I also posted a source for a scientific experiment that apparently concluded the orgone "box" (accumulator) influenced a significant difference over the control.

That was this quote:

In particular, Stefan Müschenich has demonstrated effects of orgone accumulators on test subjects in keeping with Reich's original descriptions, while a control "dummy box" showed no such effects.[21]

...

[21] Müschenich, S. & Gebauer, R.: "Die (Psycho-)Physiologischen Wirkungen des Reich'schen Orgonakkumulators auf den Menschlichen Organismus" ("The [Psycho-]Physiological Effects of the Reich Orgone Accumulator on the Human Organism," University of Marburg (Germany), Department of Psychology, Master's Degree Dissertation, 1986. Published as: "Der Reichsche Orgonakkumulator. Naturwissenschaftliche Diskussion - Praktische Anwendung - Experimentelle Untersuchung" ("The Reichian Orgone-Accumulator. Scientific Discussion - Practical Use - Experimental Testing"), 1987, published by Nexus Verlag, Frankfurt (Also see the published work: Müschenich, Stefan: Der Gesundheitsbegriff im Werk des Arztes Wilhelm Reich (The Concept of Health in the Works of the physician Wilhelm Reich), Doktorarbeit am Fachbereich Humanmedizin der Philipps-Universität Marburg (M.D. thesis, 1995, University of Marburg (published by Verlag Gorich & Weiershauser, Marburg) 1995.

en.wikipedia.org...-Muschenich-20


I actually think the box makes sense, intuitively -- assuming an energy does exist that is stored/absorbed by organic material. Like I keep saying, it strikes me as a big capacitor.

"Cloudbusters" are a maybe for me, but I'm having particular trouble trying to make sense of lots of these orgone device designs I'm seeing. I'm not going to immediately discount that there may be something to them, but they certainly aren't following Reich's original specifications by using synthetic resin to seal a bunch of metal together. I can even understand the idea behind the crystals, but short-circuiting designs and using a synthetic resin sounds off with the original theory to me.