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Dr. Reich addressed the science of nature, from cellular to cosmos, but orgonomy is the scientific study of orgone energy. Since orgone energy is not yet defined, this is a rather circular definition. Bennett emphasized that 50% of Reich's work was done after the discovery of orgone energy, so there is a large body of hiss work focused on social and psychological studies. After the discovery of orgone energy, Reich integrated all his work showing how the movements of the cell, the individual, society, and cosmic stellar systems all clearly demonstrated this orgastic pulsation.

Reich talked about the concept of work democracy in his early writings, but in 1942 Reich wrote "No one understands that I am the discoverer of life energy and the destroyer of mysticism." Bennett noted that some people who currently are attracted to organic crystals and jewelry should pay attention to this. The experience of orgone energy must be had, and then followed up by observations and experiments.

Double blind experiments were not a standard in Reich's time, and so are not employed in his published work. However, his work has been reproduced in at least 2 studies using double blind methods that have been submitted for advanced degrees.

Actual evidence is abundant. The Journal of Orgonomy is a good resource. Also, Bernie Siegel's Peace, Love and Healing addresses the placebo effect that must be accounted for in double blind studies. This is especially important in arranging double blind experiments investigating orgone energy, as the energy field of the experimenter always enters into the experiment.

Bennett finished his remarks with a short overview of Reich's later work with orgone energy and its impact on studies of the cosmos. When looking at this area, one cannot shy away from his's discussion of UFOs and extra-terrestrial life. It simply comes with the territory.

Freud's early interest in little Hans resulted in only one article on children being published by him, but it did set the stage for a closer look at children's early development. That children could have sexual lives was certainly a radical idea in 1909 when the article was published.

In 1949 Dr. Reich began the Orgonomic Infant Research Center (OIRC) while he was still living in the New York City area. It failed within one year. There was no physical location for the center at the time – meetings were held in Reich's home in New Rochelle. In 1948 Neil was in the US and had had a series of meetings with Reich. Neil considered a move to Maine and he might have given the center some direction. But Neil had been labeled a "commie" at the time in England, so a visa would have been impossible to obtain. The OIRC was focused on what a 'healthy' child was like, not a focus on neurotic kids and how to cure them.

The years 1948 to 1951 were very intense years for orgonomy:

• The Geiger-Mueller reactions
• The Oranur experiments
• The observatory constructed in Maine
• The INS investigation into Reich
• The continuing FDA investigation

So why did Reich start another project? Bennett suggests it was the children: Reich's son was born in 1944, as was a niece of Steig's. Several orgonomists working with Reich had children born in 1945: Wright, Wolf, Singer, Baker, and others. So there were eight or nine young children in Reich's immediate environment. This was a different attitude of Reich than he displayed in the 1930's with his first child. Eva Reich was sent off to a communist camp for children and was miserable there.

By the 1940's he recognized the essential need and importance of the mother/child relationship. So by 1949 the topic of child rearing was part of every orgonomist's conversation. In early December he developed a plan for creating a program for child raising and for the support of mothers. He met with 30 or 40 professionals involved in childbirth and raising young children in the middle of December. He was pleased with this meeting and encouraged by this new direction.

There was a fatal flaw in the design of this Center. From the beginning, Reich divided the parents involved in the OIRC into two groups based on the perceived health of the parents. This was a subjective pre-screening, but more importantly, it did not take long for the parents to realize that their health had been pre-judged. Thus group A felt superior, while Group B felt maligned. It was a cause of friction, and Bennett suggests that it may very well be the Center fell apart so rapidly.

Reich had some important points around which this Center was organized:

• It is important that a healthy sex life continues while the woman is pregnant.
• An orgonomist should be part of the child's support group.
• Prevention of armoring in the first five or six years of the child's life is important. Reich called this orgonomic first aid.
• Parents should study and record their child's development up until puberty.

There were ideas learned from the OIRC that can be summarized:

• The oral orgasm of the child is a release of energy essential to the child
• There is a first puberty, occurring at age 3 to 6, when genital play begins
• In infants, armoring can be easily addressed.
• Respiratory blockage is usually the cause of the first layer of armoring
• Contact with the mother was essential for growth of the child

However, the OIRC collapsed quickly. By the sixth meeting, there had been established a pattern of analyzing children which upset many professionals in the group. Reich had begun the pattern by having his son stand in front of the group in his undershorts and the pointing out layers of armoring that he could observe in the child. Reich expected other parents to do the same. The professionals attacked him for this method and that greatly depressed him. He felt that if this could not work with these people, how could it work with anyone.

Reich said that there was a fear of, and a hatred for, freedom and life exhibited by this rebellion of members of the group. The chains are broken, but the person cannot be free, he wrote.

In the end, Dr. Reich moved to Maine and the OIRC quickly collapsed in New York.

Bennett outlined a history of Dr. Reich’s involvement with political organizations. In Reich Speaks of Freud he says he was never political. But he was involved in political movements. Below is a short chronology of his involvement with political organizations.

Bennett then proceeded to talk more about work democracy. Work democracy has a biological foundation in that sexual happiness is part of the natural process of life. Reich, in advocating work democracy, emphasized individual sexual freedom. He stated that it incorporated all that is desirable in a healthy sexual environment without any ugly side effects.

Bennett listed the elements of sexual health:

• Individual control of one’s personal and private life.
• Access to contraception, which supports the above.
• End of compulsory marriage.
• Adequate privacy for all, including adolescents.
• Encouragement of infantile and adolescent sexuality.
• Elimination of any form of sexual exploitation.
• Support for sexual minorities, offering of therapy if desired.

The above principals when applied to a society results in the following principals:

• All work is vitally necessary work.
• There is no economic exploitation (economic socialism.)
• No environmental exploitation.
• Work! Not labor.
• Ownership is local and revocable.
• Work in harmony with nature.
• Individuals have complete responsibility for work organization.

People cannot be forced into work democracy. But as 9/11 in the US showed, people will respond spontaneously in a work democratic manner to a crisis. Even if they later revert back to old forms of organizations, it shows that the drive to work democracy is an inherent drive within people.

Brenner shortened his presentation to call it "Opening the Eyes." Work on the 1st Ocular Segment is necessary for depth of emotional expression. The eyes are a two-way street, so armoring in the eyes blocks our ability to see things clearly, as well as blocking our ability to express emotion. This leaves one with a disconnect between how the world is seen and felt.

Armoring develops in childhood and often gets worse with time. The eyes become part of the mask a person chooses to wear and present to the world. Treatment of the ocular segment mobilizes aspects of vision, hearing and includes thinking aspects of the brain. Making "cracks" in the armoring allows energy to start flowing through the body.

This is Brenner's methodology:

1. Point out to the patient what the therapist sees.
2. Work on an ability to feel pleasure in the eyes. 'Feeling' gives feedback to the person.
3. Breathing. Fully and deeply.
4. Breathing and movement together. Following a finger or light source as it moves around in front of the patient.
5. Loosen the mask. Making faces and loud or strange noises.
6. Mobilize the forehead.

This requires the patient to take risks, as she has to try out seeing a new world. Sometimes there is a need to have an energy stimulus. For example, shouting a loud "No" in getting to the patient. This serves to break through the anxiety.

Closing the eyes is a retreat during therapy. It is one of the oldest of defenses. The opening of the ocular segment opens the patient's vision and thus opens her up to what is possible in life.

Prevention of armoring in individuals became Dr. Reich’s goal, especially how parents the building up of armor in children. “Hatred of the living” was what Reich called the armoring. Although the children’s clinic started by Reich in New York failed, Baker in northern New Jersey began an offshoot of that effort. Dr. Albert Duvall was Brenner’s therapist at that center. It was Brenner’s first exposure to self-regulation, which eventually led to Brenner becoming an orgonomic therapist.

Ten years ago Brenner’s brother told him that Duvall had molested him as a child. Brenner investigated this and found other patients who had been molested. Brenner presented his findings to the American College of Orgonomy. Felicia Saxe was a physical therapist involved in the New Jersey clinic who was kicked out by Dr. Reich himself. However, Reich never took any action against Duvall. The autobiography of Lorna Luft, Judy Garland’s daughter, talks about Duvall in Me and My Shadows.

Why didn’t Reich see this miscarriage of orgonomic therapy? Brenner offered that Reich was still new to living in the United States when Baker brought Duvall into Reich’s circle. Reich’s belief in work democracy perhaps made it more difficult for him to see this behavior of an associate. Duvall himself in a rather cynical statement said that Reich often displayed disingenuousness and naivety. As Baker said in his study of Reich, “He was easily fooled by people.”

Brenner continued that perhaps Reich allowed therapist he trained to enter too quickly into professional relationships, especially with children. Clinicians under Reich did not have a lot of training. However, these charges against Duvall (and perhaps two others) are not minor transgressions. Reich perhaps attracted manipulators. These people are all dead now, but there is still a need to look into the process of training therapists, especially those working with children.

Brenner then discussed how therapy could act on a patient. There are two ways:

Outside -> in. The process of character analysis can be harsh. In general, a rougher therapy but result in quicker results. It requires a less skilled therapist, but can remove armor too fast. The patient can shut down or regress as a result.

Inside -> out. This requires that the therapist build up that which is healthy in the patient, so that this building up can push out the armor in the patient. It is more supportive of the patient, is gentler and more sensitive to patient needs.

In real practice therapy is a combination of the two approaches. Weak structure needs building up. As a medical doctor, Reich wrote about the outside -> in process. However, in practice he was often gentle in dealing with his patients, thus using an inside -> out approach. Brenner recounted a conversation he had with his parents. Reich worked on his father and loosened up his armor by using words, eye contact, and talk. His father had tears in his eyes as a result of this gentle approach.  

Presentation of armoring in children is similar to that of adults. Primary energy is focused in the family system. Communication is very important in the family. Love is the subject of talk in the family and the force behind family conversation. Infants lose armoring very quickly.

In children, play therapy is the key to success. The therapist has to mobilize and engage the eyes of the child. Play with the child. The jaw needs to be loosened. Pretend one is a dog pulling on a rag or bone with a person. Making animal noises also open the throat. Gentle massage or gentle shiatsu can also be effective. Teenagers need lots of talk in therapy. Don’t do deep work as they have a lot going on hormonally in their body. Brenner himself will not accept a clinical relationship with a child unless the parents are already in therapy with him.

Children need to be protected from abuses. Kids can be more reactive than adults, they are like a pendulum in their swings in emotional reactions. In the Institute for Orgonomic Science they try hard to ferret out child abuse. The child needs to be able to trust the parent so that the child feels free to talk and share with the parent. The child has to know that the parent trusts them and that their conversation will be given respect.

As a child Brenner said he fooled around with an accumulator, cloudbusters, and orgone blankets. Now, as an orgonomist, he is neither a believer nor a disbeliever, but instead he wants to see the evidence. We need to agree on the elements in Dr. Reich’s work that can be evaluated. So, where do we go from here?

There is so much data and work.S Brenner quoted from Ether, God and Devil what Reich saiSd of his work. “I often had to defend myself against the criticism that I overstepped scientific limits, that I had undertaken ‘too much at one time’ … the facts and interrelations flowed toward me in superabundance … but the essential and basic facts about the discovery of cosmic orgone energy strike me as sufficiently secure and systematized for others to continue building the structure I could not complete.” This discovery has redefined our view of the universe.

So we must separate the wheat from the chaff. It is a difficult task as some phenomena are loosely connected. Some ideas and concepts of Reich are integrated into modern science, though without attribution. What are the strongest links in the chain of interrelations? What are the organizing principles? What elements are valid, and why?

In looking at neurons in a biological system, we observe that oxygen in the blood affects the actions of nerves. So deep breathing has this effect on a cellular level. What is the basic concept here?

Reich said that his only discovery was the function of orgastic potency. There has been a lot of research on the quantitative aspects of measuring orgone energy. A reaction from the field of therapy is that a therapist can pick up on energy levels in a patient. As a therapist we need to be aware of sensations coming from the patient’s energy field. One can also feel the patient’s energy level in one’s hands. According to Reich, this field reaction is the interaction of two energy fields, i.e. it is a communication between two orgonomic fields. Brenner called this a precognitive means of communication. Orgone energy can be organized within a system as well as being used as a form of communication.

As humans, we possess this well of energy. But the interaction of energies, the communication, is part of every measurement. Like Schrodinger’s cat, it is hard not to affect every measurement made by an observer. Further, there is the qualitative communication. The attitude and feelings and other emotions all add a new level of experimental bias to every measurement. It makes objective measurements very difficult.

According to Herskowitz, Reich thought therapy could move beyond talk alone. Is a healthy orgasm the only marker for health (Reich’s emphasis)? Reich’s stress on the sexual function is a sticky issue. Does it exist? Yes. Why not include other markers? Why are some neurotics capable of orgasm? Reich reported in Cancer Biopathy that even armored people could exhibit the orgastic reflex. In children, play and exercise takes up part of the energy, so they don’t have the full reflex available to them. But Brenner admitted that even jerks report they have the full reflex. Maybe they lie.

Brenner states that one can have energetic health but still not have mental and emotional health. Maybe there is a little disconnect, but we need more data to try to understand the orgasmic surrender in comparison with emotional health. Yet the question remains, are they the same? It is tricky research, very hard to test, and it won’t be soon, if at all, that his research is done. Maybe more important is who will answer these questions? Where are the youth to take over Reich’s work? There are so many basic questions.

Science is driven by emotions though. As scientists, we don’t like “bombs.” Thus, there is a reluctance to investigate this revolutionary thinking. In spite of the scarce research, the masses of people have voted for alternatives. The increase in the use of alternative medicine is an example. The rise in the organic movement has affected the health movement today. The medical advances of Reich are now being integrated into the medical community. Pointing out the source is of these changes may help in a better understanding of Reich’s role.

The truth does need to be told. Perhaps Reich doesn’t need attribution for all his work. But some essentials are necessary: preserving and protecting children is one. Thus, workers with children should be part of the movement.

There are several problems with cloudbusting.

1. Biological Problem. It can be sickening to people in the vicinity because of the high levels of orgone energy.

2. People Problem. There can be reactionary political results. This can be seen in some of the current use of so called orgone bombs.

One needs training and understanding of basic orgone principles before attempting to use a cloudbuster. Improper use can actually make droughts worse. Wilhelm Reich's original theory and the physics behind it are sufficient to understand the basic principles at work.

Reich was the first writer ever to talk directly about air pollution, acid rain, high altitude air streams (now called the jet stream), and high-energy streams above that.

DeMeo talked about the need to gently work on cloudbusting, similar to gentle Reichian baby massage. One should not hammer the atmospheric system. An example of misuse of a cloudbuster was seen in Algeria, when the people there left cloudbusters aimed in the air for days and weeks constantly. This resulted in causing droughts in Greece.

The cloudbuster is a triggering device. It is used to set an initial charge and then the healthy pulsation will result as an effect of this charge. It is "like using an acupuncture needle" on the atmosphere.

DeMeo talked about his five year project in Eritrea. A very ambitious program sponsored partly by the Eritrean government. Data from the Eritrean government's meteorological division confirmed a 30% to 50% increase in rainfall after commencement of the clouldbusting operations. Because of political jealousy, the project skipped a year and rainfall diminished to drought levels. This brought about a renewed interest on the part of the government and the cloudbusting resumed the following year, again with measurable, demonstrable results.

Unfortunately, war got in the way of the completion of the five-year plan, so cloudbusting stopped. Rather than working on growing food in the new rain induced economy, Eritrean boys went off to make fixed bayonet charges into machine guns, a rather strange way to celebrate being on the cusp of dramatic and permanent climate change.

DeMeo started his presentation with a little ramble around various books he has written. Of note, his latest work In Defense of Wilhelm Reich presents some well researched documentation that the driving force behind the defamatory slander of Reich can be traced back to agents, active and supportive, of the communist international, who had focused on Reich as an enemy because of his early social work in Germany.

DeMeo showed some slides from bionous cells from deep sea vents, called “extremophile cells.” He noted their similarity to the bions Reich first observed. DeMeo continued his talk with a slide tour of his research laboratory in Oregon. His metal lined room with its several accumulators is a very good replica of Reich’s room in the student laboratory in Orgonon, Maine, USA. He then showed some results of his sprout growth experiments. Significant increase in sprout length resulted from placing the seeds and sprouts in an accumulator when compared to sprouts grown under identical conditions not using an accumulator.

DeMeo talked about his G-M measurements in Oregon. Changes in measurement of the background level were from 5 cpm outside on a sunny day, to 3-4 thousand cpm inside the accumulator at the same time. He then correlated this remarkable gain in activity to sunspot activity.

Also of note is that ultraviolet absorption peaks at 240 nm in water that has been charged in an accumulator. DeMeo observed that the intense blue color of Crater Lake in Oregon has also been tested to peak around 240 nm, but fluorescent spectroscopy shows that the peak in fluorescence is in the 400-490 nm, which is in the range of visible blue light. DeMeo talks about this in more detail in this online paper.

The Saharasia study from ’79 – ’86 is the largest and most in-depth scholarly study on human behavior and social violence around the world that was ever completed. It was based on Dr. Reich’s ideas and resulted in a confirmation of his sex economic theories.

How did armoring get started in the first place? In the Trobriand societies, because they are matrilineal, there is no divorce for women. Males were part of the birth process and the birth was gentle for the baby. Children were all grouped together and spent their time playing as large groups. As adolescents they spontaneously formed “children’s democracies” within their peer groups.

As foreigners looked at this society there was a mystery of a lack of pregnancy in the adolescents. Eventually, after their initial experimentation, they paired up, and during festivals, got married. There are many other examples of societies that have similar characteristics. So this gives rise to the question of how to measure peaceful verses violent societies.

DeMeo displayed a long list of characteristics of the characteristics of peaceful, unarmored, matrist societies compared to violent, armored, patrist societies. One can see the table here. From this list of characteristics, there are 63 variables that over 400 cultures from around the world were rated on. This resulted in 500 positive correlations with only 20 negative ones.

Further, 1170 cultures with published data were studied by DeMeo. There was a predominance of patrist societies in Africa, Central and East Asia while Native North and South America and Oceana were less patrist moving to matrist societies. This led to the creation of a world behavior map that showed a strong association between desert landscapes and patrist societies.

Copyright: James DeMeo

The desert belts of the world are associated with the lowest carrying capacity of the land. Under these harsh conditions, male and female circumcisions occur, cranial infant deformations take place, and childhood malnourishment occurs often. This lead DeMeo to the conclusion that “severe and repeated drought and desertification, which promotes famine, starvation, and mass migrations among subsistence-level cultures, must have been a crucial factor which would have gradually, or even rapidly, pushed early matrist cultures towards patrism.”

Again, see this summary for more information about this topic.

Dr. Reich was instrumental in redefining sexual potency as defined in existing psychiatric work under Freud. Reich introduced the concept of orgastic potency, what he called sex economy. This moved analysis beyond the mere focus of male sexual achievement (leaving women out of the equation completely) as a mechanistic view into a more functional definition.

Reich was the first person to methodically design and carry out experiments that measured the changes in skin resistance, the galvanic skin response, in people who experienced pleasure and pain. He was especially interested in changes in skin charge during orgasm. At the time, he felt he was measuring Freud's libido energy.

This gave rise to somatic therapies in order to address the issue of the whole body during therapy. Reich viewed this flow in different areas of the body as well as developing different therapies that would allow the therapist to interact with this observed energy flow. Freedom of movement was desired, and deep breathing became an important part of the therapeutic work. This gave rise to the concept of armoring within the body in order to understand how free plasmatic movement within the individual became blocked.

Dr. Reich allowed, indeed, required the observer to be part of the scientific process in agreement with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. In looking at recent trends in research in the biological sciences, one sees an attempt to integrate biology into the "hard"; sciences. DARPA and MIT are two separate entities that exemplify this movement. But it is in this way that Orgonomy is ahead of the curve, since Reich was the first scientist to do a systematic measurement of processes occurring in the life sciences.

The basic principles of orgonomic concepts of energy are:

• Pulsation
• Swelling-charge-discharge-tumescence
• Attraction to higher orgonomic charges
• Pre-atomic (no mass)
• Similar to, yet different than, other energies
• Attracted to water
• Metal repels
• Increased levels in living versus non-living material
• Measurable
• Affects all living things
• Fills all space (but without mass)

The developments in light therapy in traditional medicine is a cousin to orgonomic research. Of interest here is some of the work of NASA on light's effects on plant growth in space. Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski's cancer work in Texas using antineoplastons appears to be very similar to Reich's use of bions in mice. Like Reich, Burzynski has been harassed by traditional medical gatekeepers.

Reich's galvanic skin measurements in the 1930's were the first attempt by medicine to measure the pleasure response by measuring the change in electric potential of the skin. This is one area of Reich's discoveries that has been further developed (although without attribution) by modern science. In The Bioelectric Body, which is a study of electromagnetism and the foundation of life, the author Robert Becker does briefly mention Reich.

Piezoelectric impulses and change in bone density is another use of electricity in healing. Collagen is a generator of these small electric impulses, but traditional science does not know why. Likewise early semi-conductor research in the 1960's used silicon and carbon mixtures, similar to Reich's early bion research done with sand and quartz. Becker's bone studies show that bone can be seen as a type of LED which leads to an overlap of bion, piezoelectric, and semi-conductor research. Huchsteiner explained that insulators are now being developed that hold a charge, leading to the possibility of plastic-based transistor development.

Huthsteiner continued on in a rather wide-ranging ramble across modern science, and I apologize for not having better notes on her presentation. In essence, the principle stated above that orgone energy is similar to, but different than, other energies leaves a large opening for interpretation of energy studies where one may at times be pleasantly surprised at the connections betweens Reich's work and modern studies.

“Love, work and knowledge are the well-springs of our life. They should also govern it.” Wilhelm Reich

Though Reich uses the word “love” less than “orgasm” in his writings, love is important in all of Reich’s work. If open to love, the unarmored person has less compulsion and can thus grow in a natural way. This is especially important in schools for children that promote unarmored development. It is also necessary that parents be without armoring for the healthy growth of these children.

There is a need to acknowledge the sexual aspect of children, meaning that no shame is attached to their sexuality. But there were still some of Reich’s trainees who were pathological. Maybe it is part of his writing. In The Sexual Revolution his tone was of a different time: suppressing repression alone is not enough in our present age. For example, casual sex is now becoming a health problem, but at the time of Reich’s early writings, it was seen as good for young adults.

Reich from four and a half years and on was active sexually. He also had a fear of his father based on the father’s abusive personality. Contrast this with Peter Reich’s memories of his father in Book of Dreams. There is a total opposite. What is going on that Peter had no sexual curiosity? Does the beating have a relationship with Reich’s early interest in sex?

A neurotic structure would prevent the blossoming of free sexuality immediately. There needs to be some regulation, for example there are laws against child molestation. But in the USA, the pornography industry is huge, and it often has a violent theme. In the USA children often have more time alone at home (one of Reich’s goals) yet they are in an environment that online can surround them with pornography. There are no good models there; hookups are mechanical, jaded and superficial. Sex is performed without meaning, yet this is the norm now.

Thus sex becomes a compulsive behavior. In the USA, 25% of Sixth Graders have had sex, rising to 85% of students in high school. Yet these sexually active teens rate their initial sexual activities negatively. Thus the privacy and confidentiality for teens has not produced the results for which Reich had hoped. 25% of young mothers are single. But with no education and support for these mothers, who suffers because of this social arrangement? Mothers are being forced to go to court to achieve some basic support for the mother and child, yet they live very frugal lives.

There is a need to learn to love. Reich describes the genital embrace but it remains a little too clinical. He also described the biological functions involved. Maybe writing more about love instead of sex would have been good. The loving connection needs to be seen as more than a sexual connection.

The biological connection between women and abortion is part of the different needs and functions that are present for the women but not there for the man. This difference extends in how women bring their feelings into the future. In adolescence, the girl fears abandonment more acutely than the men. It is a magnet and a life danger. Awareness of this is necessary. As women compete in the work place, and as menses starts earlier, there is a completely new sexual revolution that Reich had no idea would arise.

Reich’s concept of God had no tolerance for a distant punitive God; or that blame or hate were demanded. He was opposed to mysticism but perhaps he needed to define mystics better. Reich saw the concept of orgone energy and God rise to similar levels. He was driven to prayer at the end of his life for solace during his duress. He responded to the need induced by this stress. Mysticism can represent both the best or worst for personal reference. One can be close to God, or live in complete separation and lost in superstition.

At the end of his life, Reich found a rational aspect of religion. The necessity of the idea of God was important to all cultures. In Cosmic Superimposition Reich pondered what he called the greatest riddle of all: “the ability of man to think and by mere thinking to know what nature is and how it functions.”

This blood test is first outlined in Cancer Biopathy by Dr. Reich. It is a simple test used to measure the core vitality of a person. It is simple to perform, inexpensive (outside of the cost of a quality microscope) and has very reproducible results. Capillary blood is used, the blood is placed in normal saline solution, and then the red blood cells are observed in the microscope. They will begin to disintegrate in time in a regular pattern. The time for the disintegration is recorded. A healthy person may have a disintegration time of twenty minutes or more, whereas a sick individual may have times measured in less than a few minutes.

Jones stressed that the normal saline solution has to come from a glass container, not from plastic. This is available in the U.S., but in Great Briton where he lives, it is not possible to obtain normal saline in glass without a doctor's prescription.

The observer has to look for the identifying characteristic of the disintegration. The round, bulbous, "fatty" red blood cell will start to shrink and develop spikes on the outside membranes of the cell. This is the process that always occurs, and it occurs with all red blood cells. Numerous examples were shown, and can also be seen on Jones' site. There are some videos published on YouTube that give a good view of the process.

He discussed types of microscopes that are good for this test. One thing to note is that a phase contrast scope has to be used, as a bright field scope makes it impossible to observe the formation of the characteristic spikes.

Using a diabetic pen with lancet a blood sample is obtained. It is placed on a sterile slide that has a drop of the saline solution already on it, between two cover slips on either end of the slide. This allows a third cover slip to be placed on the sample and thus not flatten and destroy the sample red blood cells. This would be called a block out slide, but a well slide with an indention for the sample could also be used.

After this is done, one simply observes. The power of the microscope should be between 400X to 800X so as to allow observation of individual blood cells. Phase contrast has to be used, as bright light will wash out the details that one needs to observe.

Simple, fast, and elegant, the Reich blood test is a very good analytical tool for clinical use. Everyone should have access to this blood test on a regular basis.

Jones started his presentation with a little rant against modern science, pointing out their failures that are a result of an overly mechanistic thinking and an analysis based on the reduction of complex systems. He then continued on to a tour of microscopes necessary for good Reichian research. Basically put, one needs a microscope capable of 400X magnification with dark field capacity. These microscopes are not cheap, but occasionally good deals can be found on perfectly usable second hand items.

Then Jones talked about bions. He gets some sand and grinds it with a mortar and pestle. He then dissolves this powder in water and boils it. He sterilizes a slide and then takes some of the ground sand and places it on a spatula. Placing the spatula into a flame, he heats the sand until the spatula reaches incandescence. He then mixes this powder with the sterilized water and places a drop of the mixture on a slide.

One can get bions forming almost immediately. One can see little bits of sand not completely ground up, but between them see the bions moving about. At 100X magnification they can barely be observed, but at 400x one can really see the bions dancing around, spinning about, and starting to develop the primary stages of clustering.

Volcanic rock works even better than sand as a starting media. In fact, farmers often add volcanic rock to soil. Perhaps the reason for this is that this rock increases the bions in the soil and makes the soil more fertile by doing that.

Jones has also done this same process using stainless steel as described by Dr. Reich on page 25 in The Cancer Biopathy. The results were the same as using the sand or volcanic rocks. He displayed numerous slides and videos showing the formation of these bions and their motility upon formation. He addresses this topic in his recent book, Artificers of Fraud: The Origin of Life and Scientific Deception, which was on sale at the conference. It is a good read.

Jones started his talk with an offer to anyone interested in training to become a midwife in Great Britain. Since there is a shortage of midwifes that are familiar with the principles of orgonomy, he would be glad to share all his knowledge that he has gained since being trained as a midwife in the ‘90’s. He wants to find someone who would continue his orgonomic work in midwifery, as there seems to be little interest in it in his home country.

He shared a comment he heard a doctor make to a new mother after an emergency caesarian birth procedure. The mother was a bit put off by the surgery. The doctor said that the mother now had her baby, so “What’s the problem?” But there is a great deal of difference between a positive and a negative experience. To understand the functional basis for this, Jones referred back to the basic antithesis of the sympathetic and parasympathetic functions of the autonomic nervous system that Reich talked about in Chapter VII of The Function of the Orgasm. Anxiety for the woman is increased and exaggerated when she experiences uncertainty during childbirth. This gives rise to pain, and the accompanying fear only reinforces this pain. This is all a result of the functioning of the sympathetic system. In contrast to this, by working on the parasympathetic function of expansion and pleasure that an orgonomist can do during childbirth, the fear and pain are diminished.

Jones then reflected on midwifery as an occupation for a male. In the ‘70’s in Great Britain one had to be a nurse before becoming a midwife. This was a prohibitive investment in time for him, but when the rules changed in the ‘90’s he went into a program that offered direct training for being a certified midwife without first being a RN. After his training, he concentrated on doing a good job as a midwife and did not get hung up on the male/female thing.

In England, every vaginal birth has to be delivered by a midwife. Medical doctors have been quoted in giving advice to young trainees asking about birth procedures that “if you don’t know – ask a midwife. They’re the experts.” The midwife is in charge of the birth procedure in England, so he can introduce a little orgonomy into the process. He especially concentrates on the breathing of the woman, often going through the whole breath cycle with them. He is especially aware when they are holding their breath. He can feel the uterus softening up when the breathing becomes slower and more regular.

He shared an example of a patient who was very mobile during her childbirth. She walked back and forth even though she was 9 cm dilated. She started involuntary pushing where the orgasmic movement of her pelvis could be seen. She started to give birth standing up but changed to her knees.

But his best birth experience was with a lady who quite spontaneous in her birth. She was standing and hanging onto the bed and she started to get red in the face. She then lay down on the bed and gave birth immediately. He started to bring the baby to her, the baby and she opened their arms, and they met on her chest. The mother looked as if she had just finished a good game of tennis. She then proceeded to push the baby in his cart up to her room in the hospital.

In 1976 Kavouras used the accumulator for the first time. He then studied medicine. During this time, he found that he had many questions. It took many years before he was able to find some answers to his questions.

In 1988 Kavouras started his first clinic. There, the accumulator was hidden away in the basement, a bit of a secret in that he did not openly discuss its use a lot. Still, when he used the accumulator with some of his patients he found he had good results.

The construction of the accumulator was based on rumors of how to build one. Likewise, when he incorporated the DOR buster into the design of the device, he was using an experimental design. (Note: Unfortunately for us, he had no pictures to show of this design.)

He now thinks that the medical DOR buster is more useful in medical applications than the accumulator. However, he has to be careful when he has patients with low energy levels, as the DOR buster can draw energy away from the individual.

This is his technique: he uses the DOR buster for five minutes and then uses the accumulator to recharge the individual for 30 minutes, all depending on the individual person's energy levels and needs. Thus the art and experience of the therapist is necessary to be able to understand what might be best for the person.

He can treat some conditions and have rather rapid results. For an example he is able to treat a pulled muscle for three weeks and have the same results as normally would take two months to exhibit. He said that other medical conditions would likewise respond by cutting in half the treatment times using this DOR/accumulator combination. There may be a good future here for treatment of sport related injuries, as this could be rather enticing to a professional athlete to regain full strength in half the time.

A note of caution for Reichian therapists: breathing exercises with cancer patients, if too intense, can be dangerous for the therapist herself. The patient exhales a lot of DOR and the therapist can then absorb the DOR. This is an experience he has had in his personal life.

Can physical disorders be cured by a psychiatric orgonomist? Kavouras suggested that this was possible at a conference in Princeton New Jersey, USA, and it “caused a stir.” Why not? The process of cancer takes a long time to manifest itself. The immune system needs to be damaged. So psychiatric work can be helpful.

He gave an example from his own clinic. He had a patient with cancer who still had a strong immune system. From her history, Kavouras saw that there was a strong conflict focused on the male/female relationship. So she had to resolve this conflict within herself before health could be achieved. Her immune system could not act on her cancer tumor because of the psychological stasis she displayed.

Kavouras then shared several videos. A female, age 21, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She had received large doses of chemicals that had resulted in a coma. She came out of the coma crippled and unable to walk. He used a DOR buster on both sides of her brain. She can now walk.

A male, age 40, was involved in a motorcycle accident. He had a broken ankle with pain and swelling that kept him from walking. Seventeen applications of DOR buster resulted in elimination of the pain and full movement of the ankle.

A female, age 50, was a cancer patient. She had received chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She used an accumulator for three to four weeks in combination with homeopathy. The DOR buster was used as needed for her pain.

There were some questions from the audience. “What about the renal failure that came from the tumor mass being broken up?” Kavouras replied that he had not experienced this in his practice.

Another question: “What is the role of traditional cancer treatment when one is using Reichian treatments?” Kavouras pointed out that one has to accept therapy that has promised some help for the patient, unless of course the patient specifically does not wish the treatment. However, chemotherapy is simply a case of using poison in the body, so a Reichian therapist has to gently suggest to the patient when it might be time to stop the traditional treatment.

“Can I use this therapy with a pregnant woman?” Kavouras: No problem, though one has to be careful with DOR and the baby.

“Do you need a consent form to use these therapies in Germany?” Kavouras: Yes, an informed consent form is signed.

“Is it dangerous to stop chemotherapy suddenly?” Kavouras: It depends on the case, as the whole history of the patient needs to be examined.

Nothing happens by chance in the human body. Acute diseases happen with lower energy levels in the body. For instance, in children who have fewer diseases their body can produce and deal with higher and more frequent fevers. The United States is a leader in the world of people with acute diseases. Within the last fifty years there have been a greater number of chronic diseases that have appeared that do not have the ability to produce fever in the body.

Conventional medicine does not have the parameters for defining the person who is rarely sick but who suddenly gets cancer. This is a person who from a Reichian point of view is getting a lower energy level in the body that is weakening the immune system. Also, importantly, there is a predisposition for this condition based on family history. Thus, there has been a slow decline in health that is symptom free. When a line is crossed, the disease shows up suddenly. Today, there is a whole new class of diseases beyond this list from I to IV. Alzheimer’s is an example of this new type.

Reich recognized that the emotional side of a person is connected with his physical side. When there is a decline in the emotional health, there is a similar decrease in physical health. Thus, an MS patient with good emotional health has a good chance of a cure. There is also a connection between the emotions and their expression in the physical system. Kavouras used a chart to point out the physical linkages.

According to Reich, Orgone Therapy cannot promise that a person will feel better, but the therapy can be sure that the person will feel more.

Talking more of the emotional and physical connection, Kavouras stated that brain cancers often arise from states of deep depression. This is an attempt of the body to avoid the expression of the emotional state, only having it arise in the physical state. In working with this type of patient, the DOR buster and the accumulator are two important tools for the therapist.  Therapists need training in the proper operation of the DOR buster. The patient is asked to breath deeper which changes his energy level.

Reich for 50 years was always moving forward which is an ongoing inspiration for Kavouras. Reich exemplified the “Dare to Know” theme from homeopathy. Kavouras then finished his talk with a case example, showing a patient who had an open infection in her foot that was ulcerated to the bone. After three to four months of therapy using a DOR buster in combination with homeopathic remedies, the foot had healed with only a slight scar left.

"The children of the future will have to clean up the mess our failures have left for them." Dr. Reich felt that he had failed to significantly change society by his work in the social movements of the 1930's and 1940's in Europe. So the future was in the children. By helping them grow up in a non-armored environment, then perhaps these children will create a society that is more open to organization on work-democratic lines.

For Reich, it was important to start with what a child already is, not what we want that child to become. All molding of a child, smothering or shaping of the child is the early source of armoring in children. Since the parent and the educator all have their armor structures in place, all attempts to shape the child will result in a smothering action that thus recreates the armoring in the child which is already present in the adult.

Therefore, it is essential that one has to accept the sexuality of the child at an early age. And as the child grows, the young child needs to have the same rights that adults have. This is based on respect for the child, as well as a certain trust in the idea that the child will grow at her own rate into what she naturally wants to become.

This is the principle of self-regulation in the child, and is essential for the organic growth of new societies that these children may create. It is the inherent power of natural development that this will indeed occur if allowed to happen.

Lindemann has used an accumulator from an early age. She went over the basic design and construction of an accumulator. She uses a five double-layered one for her medical practice, but she did not specify what exact materials she uses.

The accumulator use is an interaction between the accumulator and the energy field of the individual sitting within the device. So for a person who has a lot of blocked up energy, one has to be careful. The accumulator can exacerbate the stuck energy and thus be counter indicative for the patient.

Where does one place the accumulator in a home? One has to be careful with placement. For example, the modern energy saving bulb is not good around an accumulator. Likewise anything that might contain radioactive materials (old watches were painted with radium for example). Likewise being as far as possible from radiating sources such as televisions, fluorescent lights, and modern solid-state electronics is best. It is difficult to find a perfect placement in today's world, so one must do the best she can under these constraints.

She talked about her test for cervical cancer giving a positive result during her student years. Medical treatment then (and now) for a first positive result like that is to have the woman return after three months for a retest. She used the accumulator on a daily basis and the second test showed no cancer cells. In those days she used the accumulator for one hour a day, but now she uses it for occasional use as she feels she wants to.

She shared some anecdotal stories about some of her patients, all very good results. In general, with cancer patients, if the patient is not using chemotherapy the accumulator will provide better results. But if the accumulator is used while a patient is also undergoing chemotherapy, the accumulator can ameliorate the negative effects of the chemotherapy: less pain, less hair loss, better blood work. However, if the patient is undergoing radiation treatments, one should not use the accumulator at that time.

Lindemann listed the following as properties of the emotional plague (EP):

• It is biological in origin.  It is a physical phenomenon manifesting in ill will.
• Aggressiveness is a signaling characteristic.
• This condition is often combined with a feeling of serving a good purpose.
• It is directed against the natural expression of life. Expressed as hatred toward life.

Ignorance of a person (or a group) is often a part of the aggressive response. For example, in not making contact with a person reinforces the feeling of loneliness in the armored person that can result in a pushing away of the contact or an urge to destroy the object that is outside of the armored person's life.

In all cases, it is aggressiveness that is the key to moving ill will into actions.

Dr. Reich was constantly confronted by the EP. Rational talk does not work when dealing with the EP. For Reich, this confrontation resulted in his drawing back from the aggression. He built his little secure island of work and love at Orgonon in Maine.

In general, one wants to expand out into the world. But when one confronts these armored personalities and their associated EP, withdrawal is a nature reaction.  But this leads to a fear of what has been lost as a result of this withdrawal.

While armoring is annoying, it is important for survival in this world. Although one can rip out the armoring in intense therapy (and in life), one still needs trustful relationships and healthy contacts to be able to open up in this world. Honesty is necessary in order to open up without being crushed by the world. It is like the lobster in the ocean. It needs its shell to protect itself, yet it also needs to shed it shell on occasion so that it can grow. It is very vulnerable in this period of not having a hard shell to protect it, so it retreats and hides while the new shell hardens.

Armoring in a person does limit her space and make it small. Until ready to give up the armoring, no growth can occur. In society, it is even more difficult to achieve growth. Fighting back, attacking, or ignoring only increases the strength and aggravates the armoring. As an example, Lindemann shared an event that recently happened to her. She was interviewed by a journalist about the new movie which we viewed last night. The journalist asked her about how orgonomic therapy worked, so Lindemann gave a session to the journalist in December. It seemed to be a positive session. Three weeks later the article about the movie came out and it was full of invective and bitterness about Reich. How did this come about she asked herself? At first she was angry and took the negative review of the movie personally, especially since the review used inaccurate facts.

But Lindemann chose to not fight back. Unbelievably, the journalist called her asking for feedback about the review that had been published. She meet with him and found herself meeting with a small little ashamed boy hiding in a mask of a proud journalist. There were two personalities struggling in this person. The boy was sorry, claiming "The chief made me do it." But the journalist personality thought that the article was OK so he was ready to move on and forget about it.

Lindemann reflected that given another chance to be interviewed she would do it all again. But she has learned that perhaps she needs to be more cautious in talking to the press in the future, even to the point of requesting to see the article prior to publication before she gives her permission for publication. In summary, although this experience is painful for her to remember, she has grown from it and will be better equipped for future similar experiences.

Lindemann shared some random thoughts about her work as an orgone therapist with the audience. First off, she talked about what is needed for the future of orgone therapy. About the orgasmic reflex: it is not necessary all of the time. If the ability is there, and the opportunity arises, then the reflex can be repeated throughout life.

Indeed, it can be one of the most important things in one’s life. However, anxiety about it leads to fear of failure, and fear is the enemy. But life is asking us to be alive, and life is the carrot to help us move to the orgastic reflex. We have to follow the impulse, and cannot let fear conquer us. It is the role of the therapist to help us overcome this fear.

An orgasm and the orgasm reflex are not the same thing. The reflex is slow pulsation and is a very gentle and deep thing. It is almost not visible or at least is unspectacular from the outside. It is a wave flowing through the body, starting from the genitals and flowing throughout the body.

Another point: there are great changes in the sexuality of youth today. Reich’s time was certainly greatly different than today, and we need the development of this concept of context to today’s world. But orgonomy is a small group – we need to open up and not be afraid of the newer generation. Openness to new ideas is necessary. It is important to understand the contrast between fear and love.

Trust is necessary, as hard as it is to have trust with an armored person. As a therapist, the first interaction one has is with the patient’s energy field. We need to be aware of the field from the first session on. There always is contact with the core in spite of the armoring. In her fourteen years of work with armoring, and especially in working with annoying people, she still has contact with the core of her patients. This makes it less personal as it is not about the individual alone, since one can always get to the core.

This contact with the core is only possible when there is contact with one’s own core. Fear takes one outside of oneself, so the therapist must stay within herself and remain in contact with her own core. There needs to be awareness of the five senses in addition to staying in contact with one’s core in order to make contact with other people. This ability to see the core in another person only comes after seeing it in oneself.

Another point: a young woman and her first sexual contact. There is tremendous pressure on her today to have sex early. But a young man has pressure also, especially of the “manly” expectations. So both boys and girls are bad off today.

What do we want in orgonomy today? We need more colleagues. Lindemann was part of 60 to 80 people that were introduced to orgonomy, which is a large number of people. Still, we need honesty with colleagues to be able to match skills, needs and resources. For Lindemann curiosity about Reich, her healing work with an accumulator, and her empathy for different approaches keep her in orgonomy. And she enjoys working with her colleagues now.

We don’t always need so much information about a patient’s background. Therapists have various tools to use that may be effective. Within one’s own life, after putting orgonomy into practice, change will occur. This is true even if one does not have a medical background.

Lindemann finished with a personal story. She was on a train in Vienna and saw an empty house on a hill with a garden. She had a picture of working there with patients. There was plenty of space available for others to join her there. So this is the dream she is putting out to the world. Welcome to her dream.

Dr. Reich was the first person to develop tools for working with live orgone energy. Maglioni gave an overview of orgone energy (OR), deadly orgone energy (DOR), cloudbusting, etc. This was one of two presentations in Italian, and my notes are not so good here. He went through many slides, all in Italian, and rather quickly presented. Sorry that I don't have better notes. This summary from the author explains this talk rather well:

Cosmic Orgone Engineering (CORE), also known as cloudbusting, is a method to restore the natural pulsation of the atmosphere, that was conceived by Wilhelm Reich at the beginning of the 1950's. A basic assumption of CORE is that the atmosphere, as well as the Cosmos, is full of a pulsatory energy whose presence was first discovered by Reich when studying the behavior of human beings, showing how it flows inside the organism; and then, by studying the origins of life, finding it everywhere in Nature. Reich decided to call it orgone energy or simply orgone, and postulated that this pulsatory energy underlies, and is responsible for, all atmospheric phenomena.

His book (in English) Methods and Procedures in Biophysical Orgonometry (2012, Self Published), ISBN: 978-88-91020-71-0, is the best, most comprehensive, and most lucid summary of Reich's original research plus summaries of all relevant research done after Reich's death. It is an essential read for anyone who wants more details on the theory, methodology, and results of experiments based on Reich's original work.

The book is not available through the usual sellers, though I have found an Italian site that sells the book. I don't know the cost of importing the book. Orgone.org is attempting to negotiate with the author rights to sell the book in the United States, as it is certainly a book that should be in the library of anyone who is in the least bit interested in the science that is the foundation of understanding Dr. Reich's discovery of orgone energy.

There is abundant literature published on the methods of use of orgone blankets, the accumulator, and DOR busters.  Maglioni's book, Method and Procedures in Biophysical Orgonometry is a good place to start if one wants a review of the literature.

There have been repeatable and reproducible studies done on five types of measurement of orgone energy:

1. Temperature measurements
2. Electroscopic discharge
3. Geiger Mueller counts
4. Hygrometer measurements
5. Gravimeter measurements

Regarding this last measurement, the instruments available in Reich's time were not as sensitive as those available to researchers today. It seems clear that there is a measurable change in gravity in interactions involving systems of high orgonomic potential. One needs to read Chapter 6 in Maglioni's reference book to evaluate these studies.

He then gave a brief overview of research in the five measurement types mentioned above. My apologies for these incomplete notes that follow. The slides were in Italian, and so it was difficult to juggle the translation with what was presented on screen. However, it appears that most of the material he presented is covered in greater detail in his book, which also includes complete references to the work of every researcher mentioned in the talk.

Thermal Orgonometry
Maglioni reviewed Reich's temperature work on the difference in temperature between the inside and outside of an accumulator (To-T). This work was recorded by Reich in The Cancer Biopathy. Reich talks a great deal about the weather dependency of this measurement. Blasband in The Journal of Orgonomy repeats these measurements in the 1970's. Konia likewise published his correlation of these measurements in the '70's, using a 24 fold accumulator (which used plastic as the organic material). Konia obtained consistent differences of +0.30 ˚C and +0.70 ˚C. DeMeo in 2008 reproduced this temperature result with the most accurate and scientifically significant experiments to date. His work showed a difference of +0.30 ˚C and +0.80 ˚C, with the smaller temperature differences associated with cloudy or rainy days in his Oregon laboratory. Ritter in England in the 1950's took a different approach, measuring the increase in core body temperature in a person after using an accumulator for a 40-minute session. He reported an increase in body temperature of +0.27 ˚C. Recently (2006) Correa & Correa confirmed this temperature increase in work done in Toronto. However, Muschenich at Marburg University in Germany did the most rigorous testing, in a double-blind study of subjects using the accumulator for 30 minutes. Again, a temperature difference was observed.

Electroscopic Orgonometry
Reich's original work on electroscopic discharge in an accumulator was not extensive. Baker (publishing as Rosenblum) measured the deflection angle of the electroscope leaves in his measurements, introducing a different set of parameters, but still arriving at the same results as Reich. Konia studied the DOR buster and its effects on electroscopic discharge. DeMeo showed the same change in discharge rate in a paper published online here. Ferrari and Maglioni have been performing ongoing experiments using tube capacitors made of alternating metallic and non-metallic materials.

Orgonomic Radioactivity
In 1947 Reich found that orgone energy concentrations could also be detected by a Geiger-Muller (GM) counter. Maglioni has done some current research in this area, published in his book mentioned above. Baker compared electroscopic discharge and GM measurements in 1977. DeMeo also provides some interesting insights in his paper mentioned above.

Orgonomic Hygrometry
This measurement of orgone demonstrates the mutual attraction between orgone energy and water. Konia published work 20 years ago showing a relationship between relative air humidity and an accumulator. He compared this differences in humidity in dry and rainy weather.

Gravitational Orgonometry
Lampitelli and Francis in Luxembourg showed a direct relationship between local gravity changes and fluctuations in local precipitation. This is an anomaly that cannot be explained by traditional mechanistic science, but it does have a very simple explanation in orgonomic physics, based on the basis that the flow of orgone is from a smaller to larger system. More details are in Maglioni's book, as well as his correlation between gravity changes and phases of the moon.

She began her talk with a few questions she is asking herself at this stage of her life. She has no answers to these questions right now, but she shared some of them. At a time when our planet is seriously overburdened with population, she has some doubts about her role as a midwife in being instrumental for adding to this overpopulation. Likewise, there is a changing role of medicine in its increased focus on money and technology that is leaving her wondering how long she will remain involved. Still, she uses her accumulator daily and especially uses an orgone blanket a great deal.

Moving on to a discussion of birth, she observed that the birth process, especially a first birth, is not the easiest thing for a woman. It is not a gentle thing as a rule, as there is a lot of work involved in giving birth. But the women (and men) who help the mother can surround the mother during this time and provide the necessary gentleness and peace to counter this strenuous work.

She used the example of Briana (not real name) as an example a person who did not have a totally natural birth – she was overweight, she smoked, her diet was not optimal – but nevertheless, she was surrounded by good support from family in her life, so she did have a good birth experience.

Moise shared images from her early life growing up in Hancock, Maine. There were many tender and loving glimpses of her family, including a few glimpses of Reich as a family person.

It was especially good to see the many images of her mother Eva Reich who worked her whole life to further Reich's work with children.

There was an inherent problem in linking UFOs and orgonomy together in that it led to increased ridicule for Dr. Reich and diminished the chances of having his research taken seriously. Reich was aware of this risk, yet he courageously spoke about UFOs anyway. Source materials for this talk came from the literature of Dr. Wilhelm Reich, Scharaf, Baker, and Eva Reich as well as information published in Contact with Space.

In 1953 Reich showed his first interest in UFOs after reading Kehoe's book The Flying Saucers Are Real. The analysis of CORE offered insights into this situation that simple mechanistic thinking could not.

Reich used nocturnal time-lapse photography. He saw "stars" just disappear in some slides of the night sky. Reich believed that he had recorded this behavior frequently because of the results of his energetic work at the observatory in Maine. However, it is quite possible that any activity of UFOs could also be attributed to the recent explosions of atomic devices in the atmosphere, an event that would have clearly been recordable from outer space.

In early October 1953 Reich used his cloudbuster on a UFO for the first time. He observed the lights diminishing and then disappear from the night sky. Reich at first thought the UFOs were benign, but his thinking later changed. If the alien technology was based on a utilization of cosmic orgone energy, then the devices they used may be responsible for an increase in DOR in the atmosphere.

In 1954 Reich took his trip to Tucson. There in the desert, many UFOs were observed. When UFOs appeared, clouds disappeared. When the relative humidity of the air dropped, the frequency of observed UFOs increased. During a daylight observation, Reich was able to observe one UFO in great detail, even seeing porthole like elements on the side of the object.

Then the DOR radium arrived from Maine. It was so dangerous that Reich had arranged for it to be flown from Maine by towing it in the air at the end of a 20-meter tether. When this material arrived, a large DOR cloud developed which was finally disbursed by use of cloudbusters. This was Reich's "battle with space".

However, biographers have not treated Reich's observations with the same seriousness and thoughtfulness that has been given to other areas or Reich's work. After all, Reich observed these phenomena, and then recorded his observations. But instead of serious consideration, a biographer such as Colin Wilson in The Quest for Wilhelm Reich called this work "sheer insanity". Even A.S. Neil who was quite friendly with Reich up until the end felt the writings on UFOs to be contrary to Reich's work prior to this time. Neil said that there was no proof of the UFOs, so we should consider them "bad for the future" (of orgonomy).

On May 20th, 1956 Reich asks himself "Am I a spaceman?" He demanded his right to think that thought, and state it also, as his right and privilege as an autonomous being. "We should not fear to enter the forest because there are wild cats lurking in the trees" is how he put it.

Dr. Reich proceeded in his UFO research knowing the dangers inherent in taking such unpopular views. Kehoe's book, The Flying Saucers Are Real, was very important to Reich. At around this time, a board was formed within the United States that was headed by Admiral Hillenkoetter.

Contact With Space talks of the appearance of UFOs. This description of the shape of these objects is very similar to documents recently declassified by the US military. Also recently declassified are reports from the State Department in Iran sent to the Department of Defense that used the same description of UFOs. Robbins showed some pictures from Strategic Air Command reports of the 1970's that were similar in design. Descriptions of the vehicle also are similar in that no exhaust trail is mentioned, and often there is a clearing of clouds around the sightings. As Reich noted in his observations, there is a pulsating effect in the lights emitted by the UFOs.

Robbins then spent a good deal of time talking about the extensive list of those who have observed UFOs. Images from Jutland, reports of Japanese pilots, cockpit crew of a Delta flight, official report from the Brazilian government, and other military and civilian reports are just a part of the list. Many reports backed up with good photographs.

Reich noted a blue color surrounding the UFOs, and Kehoe was the first to mention this after Reich. Other military observers have also seen this blue color. Reich also made note of a change in background radiation: from 600 cpm to 8000 cpm after a sighting.

Reich said that we often evade the obvious if the truth is too painful to recognize. He described himself and his views as being seen from the big picture as if one is flying a plane over new territory. Thus, details are often left out of the description, as is necessary.

For Dr. Reich, focusing a cloudbuster on a star and having it dim was a life-changing event. Perhaps naively, he wrote directly to Eisenhower of this event. He was directed by the Whitehouse to communicate with the Air Force and the CIA in the future. At the time, Hillenkoetter was the head of the CIA, and he was also the head of an ongoing UFO investigation. Hillenkoetter later became the head of the largest international organization investigating UFOs (National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena.) Thus is seems that Reich was able to communicate with some individuals who would listen to what he had to say.

During the Tucson operation, Reich was visited by Professor James McDonald from the Department of Meteorology, University of Arizona, Tucson. McDonald was to later go on and lead an attempt for academics to be more involved in UFO research, claiming at one point that the Air Force was mismanaging their investigation. Reich made his work difficult for the academic community as he used his own terminology in his CORE writings. His observations regarding chemtrails were very astute though.

The US Air Force did have schematics for the construction of cloudbusters. The question of whether the Air Force built cloudbusters to be used as weather weapons needs to be investigated. But before we look at this question, we need to look at a recent UFO sighting that Robbins records in the book he co-authored with Larry Warren entitled Left at East Gate. The book recounts the December 1980 landing of a UFO in Rendlesham Forest in southeastern England. Activity covered three consecutive nights and many people made observations at the time. There was abundant analysis following the event such as soil analysis where the objects landed and optical burns in the retinas of people who observed the objects.

Rendlesham Forest is adjacent to RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge, a NATO air base and nuclear weapons storage site, so military personnel were part of the witnesses. After the event, the witnesses were subjected to NSA brainwashing to confuse their memories of the event. When Warren did talk publically about the event, he was attacked and discredited by the established press. This is not surprising to Robbins, as it is usual for UFO events. However, there is a side story of this event that is of great interest to all people interested in Reich.

In 1987 there was a freak hurricane that came ashore in southeastern England. The lack of any kind of warning was very odd. 1.3 million trees were uprooted or tipped over in the Rendlesham Forest. The damage was huge and showed the tremendous force of the storm. In a presentation in Princeton in 1988 Robbins met a person who reported that there were huge devices at the NATO base that looked like Reich’s cloudbusters except that they were much larger. And he also remembered that the base had numerous wells that were used for fresh water. So there is an occurrence of UFO activity and a weather anomaly occurring in the same geographic area. One is forced to wonder if there was a use of cloudbusters with disastrous results in this event.

Robbins explored the forest in 1998 and even after eleven years the extensive and incredible damage is overwhelming. Five hundred-year-old Holly trees were totally lifted out of the ground, roots and all. Amazingly, there was very little rain associated with this storm/”hurricane”.

The existence of cloudbuster-like devices at the base was confirmed when Warren was giving a talk about the UFO sightings in the late 1980’s. A couple that had been stationed at the base at the time of the storm also had observed them. A dry hurricane, with no meteorological forecast, at an area where cloudbusters had been observed and an area that was of interest to UFOs over a period of three days: this is a convergence of events that is beyond chance. Inquiries by Robbins and DeMeo for more information were met with silence. However, it certainly seems that this may have been a case of cloudbusting gone awry.

From the point of view of a practicing orgonomist, bioenergy is projected by the vegetative system. Dr. Reich said there must be large centers in the autonomic nervous system from which this energy flows. This is essentially the solar plexus area of the body. When the flow of energy from the center to the periphery is disrupted as it is by armoring in a person, disease results.

One of these biopathies is schizophrenia. In schizophrenia the bioenergy breaks through into consciousness, which is not normally the way the bioenergy flows in an individual. The patient then interprets that the energy comes from outside rather than flowing within the individual.

Moreover, the patient often misinterprets his own movements so that he might then totally loose his own relationship to his own body and thus become catatonic.

Thus, schizophrenia is a disease based on a physical malfunctioning of the body and is not a mental "state." Reich in Character Analysis has a succinct discussion of this general phenomenon.

Taking Wilhelm Reich out of psychiatry is like taking the periodic table out of Chemistry. Reich was responsible for the unity of the psyche and soma in his principles of Orgonomy. The source energy for the psyche is pulsating throughout the body. Psychic illness is not “in your head” but is anchored in your body. Traditional medicine cannot really treat these psychosomatic ills. Only Orgonomy offers a treatment path because it analyses the entire body of the patient.

The orgasm theory is important, but what does it do? The theory of armoring is parallel with orgastic theory. Reich had a case referred to him by Freud. Sexual impotence was the diagnosis. The patient was treated five times a week for three years. Reich found the primal source of this impotence came from the patient at age two watching his mother give birth. But the discovery of this primal trauma did not cure the patient, contrary to Freudian doctrine. So Reich was ready to terminate the relationship.

This news the patient accepted calmly. Reich saw there that the real problem was this passiveness – not the patient’s sexual impotence. Character analysis thus arose from this insight, and later on Reich’s muscular work on armoring further refined the technique. The patient complained about the emptiness he felt. Reich pointed out the patient’s empty character. This created anger in the patient as his whole personality resisted this understanding. This is armoring at work.

For Reich, it is not so much what words are said, but how they are said. So the orgonomist has to watch the patient as well as to listen to him. There is a primal conflict in all people as their drives come in conflict with the world. As a result of this conflict, there is a split in the energy that fuels these drives of the individual, giving rise to neurosis in the patient. This energetic analysis of the source of neurotic energy is unique to Orgonomy.

Before one gets to the living, healthy core that exists in an individual, we have to get through the hate, fear, sadness, and terror of the armor that surround the core. The emotional plague that is a result of this energy in conflict with oneself exists for the individual as well as for the larger society. It is a conflict between the healthy and the sick. In Reich Speaks of Freud Reich states that there cannot be a resolution to this conflict if children are not allowed to grow up free of the emotional plague.

Orgastic potency is the essential point in understanding Dr. Reich’s analysis.

Simonian shared an anecdote from Reich’s life. Reich was at a presentation on Ginseng tea. At the end of the presentation, Reich asked the presenter if Ginseng tea enhanced the orgastic reflex. This confused the presenter who could not answer the question. “Then it has nothing to do with Orgonomy” was Reich’s reply.

All psychic health depends on orgastic potency. If the natural biological energy is blocked in an individual, then the natural capacity for love cannot be expressed. It is the orgastic capacity that allows the totally involuntary movements that are expressions of the healthy individual.

There has been a widespread misunderstanding of this concept as it is used in orgone therapy. This orgastic potency concept grew out of Freud’s stasis neurosis or energy blocks. Reich took this original understanding and extended it to a larger issue of energy in relationship to the functioning system.

When Reich read his first major paper on genitality in 1921, there was an icy feeling in the room. The analysts in the room rejected his concepts, but at that time genitality was defined only as the sexual act alone. So there were neurotics who were defined as being sexually healthy solely on the reason that they could perform the sexual act. Reich took two years to understand the difference between mere fucking and a loving embrace.

He began to see that all patients were genitally disturbed, especially the men who boasted about sexual prowess based on the number of times they could perform in one night. In fact, often these men were sadistic or at least not happy with their fucking experience. There was no involuntary movements or loss of consciousness as a result of their lovemaking.

Orgastic potency is defined as the capacity for surrender in the acme of sexual excitement in the natural sexual act. Sexual pleasure is free of anxiety and is concentrated in the genital areas. Pornography, especially bondage, is an example of the inability to surrender.

In clinical work one finds examples. Simonian spoke of a young woman who is promiscuous, sleeping around with various partners, who could only have an orgasm if she is being humiliated. She has a masturbation fantasy that a child’s throat is slashed and there is profuse blood flowing. This need for a sexual fantasy within this person is a manifestation of her pathological sexuality.

Conventional psychiatry has no understanding of this. Orgasm without fantasy is in opposition to the pornographic need expressed above. Current psychiatric texts have a very limited understanding of the function of the orgasm in relationship to good health. Orgonomy can identify the significance of the orgasm. According to Reich, the ability for sexual surrender is lost because of social suppression. Under orgone therapy, not only is armoring diminished, but also sexual fantasies can evaporate.

Reich in Character Analysis established that orgastic potency was the goal of therapy. The manner of achieving this goal is important. It is essential that there is a slow overcoming of the blocks in order to guarantee success. The orgastic response is a signal that this therapy has been successful. The person who gains full orgastic potency also develops other qualities in this process, such as the inability to lie.

Why do societies produce sexual repression? In The Function of the Orgasm Reich cites the work of Malinowski. Sexual repression functions to serve the transition from matriarchal societies to patriarchal ones. The patriarchal organization encourages the armoring of individuals found in societies today. Perhaps it served a need for the past thousand years Simonian observed, but it is no longer needed today.

Without the understanding of sex economy, real understanding of health and sickness and pathological relationships is impossible. Eventually a person can only destroy his own health if the principal of orgastic potency is not practiced.

Current oncological research is focused on the cancer cell as the cause of the disease of cancer, but this is a mechanistic approach to understanding this sickness.

Certainly accelerated division of cells can give rise to a tumor mass. But what is the cause of this? A cancer cell is a weak cell, so it is strange that this cell can destroy an organism. Before this cancer cell has grown into a tumor there must be pathological growth of the cells. So the cancer cells are symptoms of the disease, not the cause. Cancer affects the whole body.

Vecchietti displayed a chart that outlines the progress of a diseased cell as it grows in the person's body:

Vecchietti then showed a video of pre-cancer cells dozens of years before a cancer mass appeared. Pictures of the cells can be seen on his web site, in English and Italian.

Club shaped cells appear as an end product of the cell disruption. This club shape is foreign to the human body. They appear at the end of the second step in the first phase and signals the beginning of the third step, the formation of the tumor mass.

Vecchietti emphasized that it is critical to realize that the 1st Phase of this progression is not lethal. The patient can live many years with these cells in his body. Danger for the patient occurs after the creation of the tumor mass and the cancer cells begin to die in large quantities and infect the patient's blood with purification byproducts. These byproducts then create an environment that promotes the formation of more T-bacilli within the patient. This rising number of T-bacilli create a toxic environment for the body which if unchecked, leads to the death of the patient.

Many examples of the T-bacilli observed in ill patients were shown by Vecchietti . All were at 400X magnification in a dark field, conditions of observation similar to that of observing bions.

Thus, Dr. Reich gave us the possibility for early detection of cancer. Reich also detailed the progression on a cellular level of the deterioration of healthy, round, fat cells to cells of diminished size, with spikes in their membranes. He also defined a distribution pattern for the degeneration of a healthy cell noting that a healthy body can overcome all the cellular degeneration in the 1st Phase. It is not until the cells move into the 2nd Phase that a condition approaches being terminal. Total cellular breakdown appears by the second step of the 2nd Phase.

As the speaker was running out of time for his presentation, he referred us to his web site for a discussion on the use of accumulators in the treatment of cancer. It is an excellent web site, full of good images that illustrate his research.