Etheric Technologies 7: Wilhelm Reich and Orgone, Part One

[ecosophia]

One of the things that makes the history of modern etheric technologies complex is that there isn't a nice straightforward sequence of researchers, each of whom picks up where the previous one left off.  More precisely, such a sequence exists -- the development of radionics from Albert Abrams through Ruth Drown to George and Marjorie de la Warr, T. Galen Hieronymus, and David Tansley, among others -- but other researchers such as Leon Eeman and Walter Kilner have stumbled across the same realm of etheric energy and explored it in their own unique ways, coming up with their own terminology and techniques. The subject of this week's post is far and away the most colorful and controversial of these figures: that astonishing force of nature, Wilhelm Reich. 

The whole sweep of Reich's career requires a book, not a journal post, and Myron Sharaf's biography Fury on Earth is a good option if you're interested. Even his work in the realm of etheric technologies is complex and important enough that it will require two posts, of which this is the first. 

To summarize a complex biography very quickly, Reich was one of Sigmund Freud's students in Vienna immediately after the First World War, and unlike most Freudians, came to the conclusion that the best solution to the psychological ills caused by sexual repression was, ahem, less sexual repression. He's the man who invented the phrase "the sexual revolution."  He was involved with Marxism in the giddy early days after the Russian Revolution, but ditched it (like many other intellectuals of the time) once Stalin showed conclusively just now nightmarish Marx's theories were when put into practice.

Over time, his research led him deeper and deeper into the complicated territory of sex, where biology meets psychology. He figured out that dysfunctional emotional habits are reflected in specific patterns of body tension, which he called "character armor."  He also focused much of his research on the role of orgasm as a release of tension -- a kind of reset button for the body.  All this while he was being thrown out of one country after another, because the Communists, the Fascists, the mainstream Freudians, and the churches all found him a convenient punching bag and made as much trouble for him as they could. 

He was living in Norway with his second wife when he began to stray across the border into the nonphysical realms. He was researching cancer, which seemed to be associated with certain patterns of character armor and emotional dysfunction, and claimed to find microbes of an unknown type in tissue cultures taken from cancers. Some of these, he noted, appeared through a microscope to be surrounded by little haloes of blue light. Some other people could see those, others couldn't; a close reading of Reichenbach's books could have clued Reich in to what was going on, but I haven't encountered any evidence yet that he read Reichenbach.  So he continued his researches, convinced that what he was studying was a physical reality rather than an etheric one. 

In 1939, just before war broke out, he relocated to the United States and continued his researches on the mechanism of the orgasm. His theory while he was in Norway was that the orgasm was an electrochemical release of energy, but around the time he arrived in the United States his experiments convinced him that he had discovered an energy unknown to science, which behaved a little like electricity but was closely linked to biological life. (Sound familiar?)  He called this energy "orgone."

Experiments with Faraday cages, which are used to shut out electromagnetic radiation, led him to the discovery that certain material structures appear to concentrate orgone. If you make a box of alternating layers of conductive and insulating materials, orgone appears to concentrate within it. Remember Mesmer's baquets, with their layers of conductive metal or water separated by glass and other insulative materials?)  That led him to construct boxes large enough to sit in, like the one above, as orgone accumulators. This is where we'll leave him for this week, recruiting volunteers to sit in orgone accumulators and testing the effects on their physical and mental well-being.  In next week's installment we'll talk about the strange places Reich's researches led him, and the savage response of the American medical industry to his discoveries. 

Comments

[youngelephant]

This is an exciting one. At first I thought Reich was the only radionics person around. My personal theory is that the road to illumination is paved with releasing character armor. I find neo-Reichian therapy highly effective, although I mainly picked and chose from that tradition awhile ago.

Reich also has an interesting essay on capital and character which I found very enticing. I read it 2-3 times last year but couldn't quite decipher it; I think I'd do a better job now. I'm not a Marxist, but like you said (i think at one point in the past) it's a useful diagnostic.

Oh and Robert Anton Wilson wrote a play about Reich.

[(Anonymous)]

I’d like to read Orson Bean’s Me And The Orgone again. I read it in grade school and of course didn’t understand it. (Me, to parents: “What’s ‘orgasm’?” “I don’t know.” “Never heard of it.”)

—Lady Cutekitten

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you again for this series. I've seen some of these people discussed some other places. I've never seen as powerfully concise a description of each of the researchers, nor as integrated a series as this one. These are important parts of history so often overlooked. Definitely not a word about any of this, in pretty good public high school and private college history classes in the U.S.

If I remember right, both Reich and Rolf equally said that intense muscle tension locks up unresolved emotional/psychological tension. And, that it can be relieved by intensive therapeutic touch. Which is said to be an uncomfortable thing, not like a soothing massage.

Young Elephant, what would be a good way to learn about the elements of neo-Reichian therapy, from which to pick and choose?
Is the Reich essay on economics readily available?
"Oh and Robert Anton Wilson wrote a play about Reich." Just supposin' here... I'd love to learn that Philip Glass or Robert Fripp set it to music!

Today I saw two news headlines, about research papers published in the standard medical peer review system based on large population studies.

One said that the Moderna RNA-splicing genetic modification injection, often mislabeled a vaccine even though it's not, is 90% effective after six months.

The other said that having already had the worrisome infection (as I had last year) is 84% effective at producing long-term immunity.

Therefore, it seems to me that exhortations to get my RNA modified come from people who claim a 6% reduction in risk MUST BE worth it to me to participate in a historically brand new, novel, unprecedented mass exploration in RNA splicing.

Am I missing anything in my analysis?

I worry about the prospect of RNA-splicing injection proof becoming mandatory.
At least you'll be able to choose the barcode on your wrist or your forehead, I suppose!

My doctor's clinic is closed for remodeling. I haven't been able to get a call through to the alternate location. Worrisome to me that I might have to start anew with a randomly assigned doc, who might not have the respect and rapport I had with the previous one.

I have a deep sense of intuition, philosophy, do well at discursive meditation, get some good results from a couple of different types of divination. Banishing is new to me. I have no current affiliation with a deity, but do feel a sense of keen respect for Shiva. Are Mercury and Venus the best to meditate upon for help getting a reliable medical establishment professional on my side?

- Mr. New-Writer

[(Anonymous)]

Very happy to see this one. I came to the occult via Reich (whom I first found via William Burroughs). I even used to have an orgone accumulator. Orgone accumulators are many things, but unfortunately "easy to move" is not one of them.

[ecosophia]

Reich is far and away the most colorful figure in the history of modern etheric technologies, and he was also the most productive in terms of writings and theories -- where most of the figures we'll cover wrote a couple of books, Reich wrote a good-sized bookshelf worth of them. His background as a psychoanalyst also gave him a perspective nobody else had until after his works got into circulation. Me, I think that somewhere in the fusion between orgone accumulators, Eeman screens, and Hieronymus machines, there are some amazing possibilities, but we'll see.

[ecosophia]

I'll have to read that!

[ecosophian]

There's a Whilhelm Reich Museum in Maine, they sell books.

https://wilhelmreichmuseum.org/

Apparently Reich moved or was forced to move to Maine, due to its remoteness. His orgone accumulators gather energy from the outside, but they don't filter out polluted energy. Maine was one of the places where he could experiment freely. Another factor was moving away from society - into a self-imposed exile.

[ecosophia]

We won't be discussing Ida Rolf in this series, but that's only because she wasn't into etheric machines. She was a remarkable figure in her own right, a student of Oom the Omnipotent aka Pierre Bernard. I don't know if she borrowed ideas from Reich but the timing is right -- she developed her ideas not long after he published his. As for meditating to get a new physician, hmm -- that's not the sort of thing for which I've used discursive meditation. Still you might meditate on how to manage the thing!

[ecosophia]

It occurs to me that insulative and conductive materials can both be flexible and rather thin -- it might be possible to create an orgone accumulator that can be flattened and folded up, with a structure of external poles like a tent...

[ecosophia]

I hope I can make an opportunity to visit up there someday.

[ecosophian]

There's a thing called Orgone blanket. Its supposed to be a portable orgone accumulator, though I can't testify as to its efficiency. You can buy them, but they are quite expensive.

[(Anonymous)]

"only because she wasn't into etheric machines"

Oh, that makes sense with the technology theme as the unifying thread.

"Oom the Omnipotent aka Pierre Bernard"

I don't think I've heard of him before. Another interesting lead to follow!

"As for meditating to get a new physician"

I meant to ask a more open ended question. Something like, "What's a good way for me to either reconnect with the previous physician, or get another one just as good?" Maybe I need to back up a step and start by asking, "What's even the right question to ask here?" The whole thing feels boggling, intimidating, very uncertain and stable in a hard to process way.

- MNW

[(Anonymous)]

There may still be extant copies! Good luck!

I’d also like a copy of My Cat’s In Love. I forget the name of the vet who wrote it but he was a darn good writer. Others I hope to reread as an adult:

My Zoo Family by Helen Martini, zookeeper and his wife raise orphaned big-cat cubs
P.J., My Friend by Noel B. Gerson, author’s account of his pets
Damoo Dhotre’s account of his life as a lion tamer, I’ve forgotten the title .
You’re Stepping On My Cloak and Dagger, by Roger Hall, about his adventures in OSS during WW II. This one, I’m happy to say, has recently come back into print, though I don’t have it yet.

There are so many wonderful old books we have been deprived of, either because would-be reprinters can’t find the copyright holder, or because of the grip hysterical woke kids have on publishing companies—Dhotre’s memoir, for example, could probably never be reprinted by a mainstream publishing house today. I hope someone with the needed time, money, and legal expertise someday founds Good Old Books Publishers.

—Lady Cutekitten

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks Ecosophian, how interesting! The site's page on the property sure makes it look like a positive, voluntary move by Reich, that was happy for him.

"Organon Circle" sounds like a blessed address.

JMG, I see on the site's programs and events page that they have workshops about Reich, with specialist speakers. I wonder if they would be interested in having you as a presenter?

- Mr. New-Writer

[(Anonymous)]

I am certain that I saw orgone accumlators that resembled sleeping bags back in the 1980s. If I find more information, I'll let you know.

Jon
tangerine tangential cactus

[(Anonymous)]

There is a soundtrack for this blog post, Hawkwind's Orgone Accumulator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPISXvQwm_E

I've got an orgone accumulator
It makes me feel greater
I'll see you sometime later
When I'm through with my accumulator
It's no social integrator
It's a one man isolator
It's a back brain stimulator
It's a cerebral vibrator
Those energy stimulators

Just turn your eyeballs into craters
But an orgone accumulator
Is a superman creator
It's no social integrator
It's a one man isolator
It's a back brain stimulator
It's a cerebral vibrator

I've got an orgone accumulator
And it makes me feel greater
I'll see you sometime later
When I'm through with my accumulator

-Cliff

[(Anonymous)]

This layering effect of insulator/conductor/insulator is actually similar to very crude semiconductors, and oddly similar to Phil Callahan's investigation of paramagnetism. The Irish round towers have diamagnetic layers of limestone followed by layers of paramagnetic stone, which seems to increase or amplify the effect.
I don't know if this is a coincidence, but I also suspect that there's no such thing as coincidence in etheric technology. It may be that the paramagnetic effects are simply the physical layer equivalents to whatever is going on etherically.

Etheric Technologies

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

As I read those extra-ordinary posts on etheric technologies, it seems to me that these technologies all employ fairly cheap materials and require rather straight forward building skills. For instance there is no need of complex electronics or electrical circuits or of elaborate metal work or craftsmanship.

Why would that be? Is it because we are still at the early stages of this technology?

Regards

[readoldthings]

The hysteria that Reich's work still provokes on the Far Right is a good reminder that what is waiting in the wings once Wokesterism collapses isn't necessarily going to be much better.

[(Anonymous)]

A tent... or a suit. Orgone Man has a nice ring to it.
Whispers

[(Anonymous)]

Books aren't inexpensive. They do have quite the logo.

[jpc2]

Hmmmm, I have a 'grow room' setup I've never unpacked. Basically a 4x4x6 foot or so tent that was covered with a reflective Mylar film. Designed for growing plants - usually MJ but also good for tomatoes under lights. Next warm day I'll have to open it up and see what it looks like. Package is about 2ft by 4ft and less than 6 inches. Might be a possibility with a new cover. Would need to figure out the materials.

Bought it about 10 years ago when I was using Medical MJ for post cancer pain planning to grow some. (Didn't help me much and never really cared for the 'high'. So I stopped.) Don't remember the price but was no more than $250.

John - Coop Janitor

Song About Wilhelm Reich

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG:

You might be interested to know that in 1985 British singer Kate Bush released a song about Wilhelm Reich called Cloudbusting, see link for official music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pllRW9wETzw

Sincerely,
Anon.

[ecosophia]

Bernard has a couple of bios out recently; we'll be discussing him in the series of posts on American occultism in the main blog, because he played a crucial role in the transmission of yoga to the United States. Not bad for someone who started out running a chain of Asian-themed sex clubs!

[ecosophia]

Interesting! Thanks for the heads up.