Orgone energy
Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897 -
November 3, 1957) was an Austrian psychologist trained by Sigmund
Freud.
He is known for three things:
-
Freud regarded all his theories as unscientific.
-
He tried to join Marxism and psychoanalysis in
studies of fascism, producing a very popular book, The Mass
Psychology of Fascism.
-
His creation of the mystic pseudoscience of "Reichian
Therapy", based on the concept of orgone energy,
and
persecution by the US government of himself and his theories until
his death
During Reich's exile in USA he developed a mystic
pseudoscience of "Reichian Therapy", where Freud's concept
of
the libido has been transformed into orgone, a form of universal power
(an "energy field", similar to qi or other semi-
mystical energy concepts). Orgone was an unproven form of energy
first described by Reich in the late 1930s. Reich
characterized orgone as a type of primordal cosmic energy,
blue in colour, which is omnipresent and responsible for
such things as:
-
weather,
-
the color of the sky,
-
gravity,
-
the formation of galaxies,
-
and good orgasms (the sense of well-being felt
after orgasm was supposed by Reich to be due to the orgasm
optimising the flow of orgone energy throughout the body.
Reich even speculated that this energy might be used
for propulsion of UFOs.
As a consequence of his theory, illness was primarily
due to depletion or imbalance in the orgone energy of the body.
Reich devised devices known as orgone accumulators,
which he claimed could concentrate and store orgone energy.
Published descriptions of orgone accumulators depict a box made of
alternating layers of metal and non-metallic material,
with the metal on the interior. The outer, non metallic layer attracted
orgone energy, and the metal inner layer trapped it
and reflected it within the box: multiple layers amplified the effect.
The patient would sit within the accumulator, and absorb
the concentrated orgone energy. Reich also devised smaller, more portable
accumulators of the same layered construction,
for application to parts of the body to promote healing.
At one point Reich claimed the existence of a second
form of energy, oranur or DOR (for
"deadly orgone radiation").
DOR seems to be the antithesis of orgone.
Reich designed orgone "guns" called cloudbusters
to suck DOR from the sky. It has been claimed that they can be used
to
manipulate the weather and to create rainstorms in a process called
weather engineering. According to some accounts, the
government of Eritrea financed several such projects in the 1980s
and 1990s in order to change the weather in the region.
In his book, "The Function of the Orgasm",
Reich argued that the "functional" orgasm causes an electrical
discharge from the
body and a dynamic spasm of the nervous system that are necessary
for optimum health. Without such functional orgasms,
the body becomes stiff and rigid and develops "body armor".
Reich claimed that the masturbatory orgasm does not produce
the functional electrical discharge, and that conscious thought during
the sexual act prevented the functional orgasm.
Reich's earlier books, in particular his book The
Mass Psychology of Fascism, are regarded as somewhat scientifically
valuable. However, during his later career, Reich subsequently revised
his older books to include the orgone concepts. As
these are generally regarded unscientific, scholars of psychology
and sociology prefer to refer to earlier, German, editions of
his works. Any attempts to reprint old editions of his books are blocked
by the foundation which owns the rights to Reich's
works, which is why they are scarce and hard to find.
Part of the FDA's injunction against Reich's orgone
accumulators included any documentation of the accumulators, as well
as
withholding any of his existing books from publication until mention
of orgone energy was expunged from them. This has
caused many to levy charges against the United States government of
censorship of Reich's ideas. In the late 1960s and early
1970s Reich's ideas enjoyed a revival and most of his books were reprinted
and read by the loosely defined "New Left". As
of 2003, the majority of the scientific community dismisses Reich's
claims as pseudoscientific. Many people view Reich's
theories as a system of magic.
The orgone accumulator and the cloudbusters are now
mostly remembered for the songs of the same name by Hawkwind,
Pop Will Eat Itself and Kate Bush.
By Reich
-
Der triebhafte Charakter : eine psychoanalytische
Studie zur Pathologie des Ich, 1925
-
Die Funktion des Orgasmus : zur Psychopathologie
und zur Soziologie des Geschlechtslebens, 1927
-
Über den Ödipuskomplex : drei psychoanalytische
Studien with Felix Boehm and Otto Fenichel, 1931
-
Character analysis or in the original:
Charakteranalyse : Technik und Grundlagen für studierende
und
praktizierende Analytiker, 1933
-
The Mass Psychology of Fascism - even
the 1946 USA edition is regarded as bogus in scientific contexts,
what should be referred to is the German 1933 edition of Massenpsychologie
des Faschismus : zur Sexual
Sexualökonomie der politischen Reaktion und zur proletarischen
Sexualpolitik which was banned in Nazi
Germany.
About Reich
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