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Orgone Energy
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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