Orgone

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A cloudbuster experiment following Reich's theories of atmospheric orgone
A cloudbuster experiment following Reich's theories of atmospheric orgone

Orgone energy is a term coined by psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich in the late 1930s for a proposed universal creative substratum in nature, compared by his follower Charles R. Kelley to Mesmer's animal magnetism, the Odic force of Carl Reichenbach and Henri Bergson's Élan vital. Reich's theory, derived from Freudian psycho-analysis and biological vitalism, has been repeatedly cited as pseudoscience by skeptical activists.[1] [2][3] In the 1950s all reference to orgone was banned by the US Food and Drugs Authority, but today orgone is regarded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine as a "putative energy" - one which well may not exist, but which provides a paradigm or belief-system to explain claimed clinical benefits. [4]

Reich took an increasingly bioenergetic view of the Freudian concept of libido, developing a therapeutic approach he called Vegetotherapy. Departing from his work in the psychology of sex, Reich began first to speculate about biological development and evolution, then atmospherics and finally the creation of all matter.[5] Studying decaying materials he believed he detected sub-cellular vesicles which he called "bions" which were self-luminescent. At first he conceived the energy of these bions as electrodynamic or radioactive, but he later concluded from his research that he had discovered an entirely unknown but measurable force, which he then termed "orgone".[6]

According to Reich, orgone was the massless, omnipresent medium for electromagnetic and gravitational phenomena, a Luminiferous aether from which all matter arises. It is in constant motion, is attracted to itself and “contradicts” the law of entropy. It forms units that are the foci of creative activity, whether bions, clouds or galaxies, causing spontaneous generation of living organisms out of non-living matter. It can be accumulated in an insulated Faraday cage called an "orgone accumulator" and directed by a cloudbuster.[7] Reich held that certain forms of illness were the consequence of depletion or blockages of the orgone energy within the body.

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[edit] Evaluation

Reich constantly attempted experimental verification and sought the help of physicists. Albert Einstein agreed to do tests but put Reich's claim of "orgone heat" down to a lack of skepticism and experimental rigor. (see Wilhelm Reich#Orgone experiment with Einstein for more details) The idea of orgone has not been upheld by any experiment in the physical sciences according to this website, (see below).[8] Some recent research has, however, supported Reich's observations of certain effects he attributed to orgone.[9] As of 2007, though, the National Institutes of Health database PubMed, and the Web of Science database, contained only 4 or 5 peer-reviewed scientific papers published since 1968 dealing with orgone therapy. But Reich, relying on the claimed empirical benefits of orgone therapy, continued to attempt to verify his cosmological ideas by experiment.

Reich's orgone theories were quickly criticised as pseudoscience.[1] and the continuing applications of his ideas continue to receive such criticism.[10] In 1954 the FDA successfully sought an injunction to prevent Reich from making claims relating to orgone.[11] Reich was later jailed for defying the order and died in custody. (See a court decision) The court resolved to destroy Reich's books which mentioned orgone, allowing their re-issuance only if "statements and representations [pertaining to the existence etc. of orgone energy], and any other allied material, are deleted" and discouraged application of his methods by health practitioners. [1]

Psychotherapists practising various kinds of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology as well as medical practitioners have continued to use Reich's emotional-release methods and character-analysis ideas,[12] but use of orgone equipment is rare, being mostly limited to therapists who have been trained by "Reichian" institutions such as the American College of Orgonomy.

The Master's thesis of James DeMeo at the University of Kansas[13] reports positive outcomes from field experiments on one of Reich's most controversial claims, regarding the cloudbuster. His results reportedly demonstrate systematic changes in Kansas weather when it was used according to the original protocols of Reich. A German-language thesis from Stefan Müschenich and Rainer Gebauer at the University of Marburg,[14] replicated effects of the orgone accumulator on test subjects in keeping with Reich's original descriptions, while a control "dummy box" showed no such effects. A follow-up 1995 study, was undertaken at the University of Vienna, by Günter Hebenstreit,[15] with similar positive results in favor of Reich's claims.

[edit] Fictional accounts

This section conveys something of the popularity of Reich's ideas among the "Beat" generation of the 1950s.

[edit] William S. Burroughs

The study of orgone was heavily supported and researched by the beat generation author, William S. Burroughs, who is known for surreal imagery in his novels dealing mostly with his life with narcotics, especially heroin. The topic of orgones interested Burroughs not because he had cancer, but because he believed that the method in which orgone energy supposedly helped cure cancer-sick patients could also help alleviate harsh withdrawal symptoms from heroin, which Burroughs calls "junk sickness."

Burroughs compares cancer to a junkie trying to kick the habit in the novel Junky, where he also speaks of orgone accumulators. He writes:

“Cancer is rot of tissue in a living organism. In junk sickness the junk dependent cells die and are replaced. Cancer is a premature death process. The cancer patient shrinks. A junkie shrinks ¬¬– I have lost up to fifteen pounds in three days. So I figure if the accumulator is a therapy for cancer, it should be therapy for the after-effects of junk sickness.”

At the time that Burroughs was writing, there was only one source to get an accumulator. It was from the Orgone Institute in New York. They didn’t sell or rent these machines; instead, a ten dollar a month donation was required. Burroughs decided to build an accumulator of his own. He substituted rock wool for the sheet iron, but still achieved the desired effect. Burroughs writes about what occurred once he started using the accumulator:

“Constant use of junk of the years has given me the habit of directing attention inward. When I went into the accumulator and sat down I noticed a special silence that you sometimes feel in deep woods, sometimes on a city street, a hum that is more rhythmic vibration than a sound. My skin prickled and I experienced an aphrodisiac effect similar to good strong weed. No doubt about it, orgones are as definite a force as electricity. After using the accumulator for several days my energy came back to normal. I began to eat and could not sleep more than eight hours. I was out of the post cure drag.”

[edit] Jack Kerouac

The orgone accumulator was primarily used as a sex drive boost in Jack Kerouac’s popular beat novel, On The Road, when his character, Sal Paradise along with others visit Old Bull Lee, William Burroughs’s character, in New Orleans:

“‘Say, why don’t you fellows try my orgone accumulator? Put some juice in your bones. I always rush up and take off ninety miles an hour for the nearest whorehouse, hor-hor-hor!’ said Bull Lee… The orgone accumulator is an ordinary box big enough for a man to sit inside on a chair: a layer of wood, a layer of metal, and another layer of wood gather in orgones from the atmosphere and hold them captive long enough for a human to absorb more than a usual share. According to Reich, orgones are vibratory atmospheric atoms of the life-principle. People get cancer because they run out of orgones. Old Bull thought his orgone accumulator would be improved if the wood he used was as organic as possible, so he tied bushy bayou leaves and twigs to his mystical outhouse. It stood there in the hot, flat yard, an exfoliate machine clustered and bedecked with maniacal contrivances. Old Bull slipped off his clothes and went to sit and moon over his navel.”

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Gardner, Martin (1952). "Chapter 21: Orgonomy", Fads and Fallacies in the name of Science. Dover. 
  2. ^ Gardner, Martin. On the Wild Side. Prometheus Books. 
  3. ^ Lugg, A. (1987). Bunkum, Flim-Flam and Quackery: Pseudoscience as a Philosophical Problem. Dialectica, 41(3), 221-230.
  4. ^ http://nccam.nih.gov/health/backgrounds/energymed.htm "putative energy fields (also called biofields) have defied measurement to date by reproducible methods. Therapies involving putative energy fields are based on the concept that human beings are infused with a subtle form of energy. This vital energy or life force is known under different names in different cultures, such as qi... prana, etheric energy, fohat, orgone, odic force, mana, and homeopathic resonance".
  5. ^ ibid.
  6. ^ ibid.
  7. ^ BION EXPERIMENTS:: Adam Brown
  8. ^ Steven Barrett, MD. Some notes on William Reich, MD. Quackwatch.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ Steven Lower, PhD (21st March 2007). H20 dot con.
  11. ^ DECREE OF INJUNCTION ORDER (MARCH 19, 1954).
  12. ^ Kavouras, J.: "HEILEN MIT ORGONENERGIE: Die Medizinische Orgonomie," Turm Verlag, Beitigheim, Germany, 2005; Lassek, H.: "Orgon-Therapie: Heilen mit der Reinen Lebensenergie," Scherz Verlag, 1997, Munchen, Germany; Medeiros, Geraldo: "Bioenergologia: A ciencia das energias de vida", Editora Universalista, Brazil; DeMeo, J.: "The Orgone Accumulator Handbook," Natural Energy, 1989; 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-Universitat Marburg (M.D. thesis, 1995, University of Marburg, Germany (published by Verlag Gorich & Weiershauser, Marburg) 1995.
  13. ^ DeMeo, James: "Preliminary Analysis of Changes in Kansas Weather Coincidental to Experimental Operations with a Reich Cloudbuster," University of Kansas, Geography-Meteorology Dept., Thesis, 1979, Master's Abstracts, 18(1), 1980 (University Microfilms No.1313336)
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ Hebenstreit, Günter: "Der Orgonakkumulator Nach Wilhelm Reich. Eine Experimentelle Untersuchung zur Spannungs-Ladungs-Formel," Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des Magistergrades der Philosophie an der Grund- und Integrativwissenschaftlichen Fakultat der Universität Wien, 1995 (Master's degree thesis in Psychology).

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Reich's own works

 This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can (February 2008).
  • The Bioelectrical Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety
  • The Bion Experiments: On the Origins of Life
  • Function of the Orgasm|Function of the Orgasm (Discovery of the Orgone, Vol.1)
  • Contact With Space: Oranur Second Report
  • Cosmic Superimposition: Man's Orgonotic Roots in Nature
  • Ether, God and Devil
  • The Orgone Energy Accumulator, Its Scientific and Medical Use
  • The Sexual Revolution

[edit] External links