Wilhelm Reich and the Concept of Orgone Energy
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian scientist who spent his life investigating human emotions and energy functions, centring his work around an unknown form of energy he postulated existed in all living matter and permeated the cosmos.
Nearly all of Reich’s publications have been reprinted, apart from his research journals, which are available as photocopies from the Wilhelm Reich Museum. “Wilhelm Reich in Hell” by Robert Anton Wilson offers an intriguing collection of thoughts and ideas regarding the “truth” about orgone energy, the man behind the ideas, and his ultimate downfall. Wilhelm Reich, M.D., died at the age of 60 after serving eight months of a two-year prison sentence.
Reich supplied Einstein with a small accumulator during their second meeting, and Einstein performed experiments in his basement, measuring the temperature atop, inside, and near the device.
Orgone, named after the sexual orgasm, is, according to Reich, a cosmic energy. He asserted that orgone was a massless, omnipresent substance, similar to luminiferous aether, but more closely associated with living energy than with inert matter. When Reich was studying “bions”, he observed that red blood cells, when not fixed and stained, also disintegrate into bions, much like grass does in water. He built boxes called “orgone accumulators”, which patients could sit inside, intended to harness the energy for its believed health benefits.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation into his claims and won an injunction against the interstate sale of orgone accumulators. Reich also designed a “cloudbuster”, which he claimed could manipulate streams of orgone energy to produce rain. He stated that orgone was the “primordial cosmic energy”, blue in colour, which he claimed was omnipresent and responsible for phenomena such as weather, the colour of the sky, gravity, the formation of galaxies, and the biological expressions of emotion and sexuality.
He conducted clinical tests of the orgone accumulator on people suffering from various illnesses. The devices include the orgone accumulator, the orgone shooter, the orgone blanket, the orgone generator, orgonite, orgone radionics, the cloudbuster, the orgone booster, noble gases, the chi machine, and the orgone wand.
There is some use of orgone accumulator therapy by psychotherapists in Europe, particularly in Germany. In therapy, instead of delving into the deep meaning of the information people present, Reich would observe how they breathed, held their shoulders, etc. His first step in therapy was to get the patient to breathe easily and deeply. In this regard, emotional therapy is additionally helpful, if not always essential, to aid in releasing the spastic muscles and inhibitions that led to the chronic holding in the first place. He was a pioneer of body psychotherapy and several emotion-based psychotherapies, influencing Fritz Perls’ Gestalt therapy and Arthur Janov’s primal therapy.
Wilhelm Reich might be in the trash bin of medical science, but he might eventually prove to be the most inventive and far-sighted physician-scientist of the twentieth century. Wilhelm Reich and orgonomy are subjects for anyone fascinated by nature, from the general public to physicians and psychiatrists to other scientific and mental health professionals. It was through his own life experience and his understanding of the nature of existence that Wilhelm Reich studied the science behind sexual attraction and human orgasm.
Wilhelm Reich’s Cloudbuster in Action
Kate Bush’s Tribute: ‘Cloudbusting’
In 1985, musician Kate Bush released the song “Cloudbusting”, inspired by Peter Reich’s memoir, A Book of Dreams, which recounts his experiences with his father, Wilhelm Reich. The song reflects the profound relationship between father and son, capturing the wonder and subsequent loss experienced through a child’s eyes. [Source]
Wilhelm Reich on Orgone Energy
“The discovery of orgone energy was made through consistent, thorough study of energy functions, first in the realm of the psyche, and later in the realm of biological functioning.”
“Orgone energy is energy before matter (not after matter, as is atomic energy). It is studied by means of Geiger-Müller Counters and other physical instruments.”