Hey Jokerman
- Thread starter Casey
- Start date
I know quite a lot about him.
Reich started out off as an orthodox Freudian, contributing work on the sexual origin of neurosis, then joined the Communist party; after his attempts to combine Freud and Marx offended both groups, he was rejected by both. Following a stay in Norway, he moved to America and announced his discovery of an unknown form of energy called orgone. This was supposed to be blue in color, and to cause the blueness of the sky. According to Reich, orgone energy permeates the universe; it's the basic element in the health in all living creatures, and lack of it causes disease. Reich devised a kind of greenhouse for trapping this energy, and was called the Orgone Accumulator. This invention was the cause of his downfall, for the FDA objected to the sale of the accumulator on the grounds that there was no scientific evidence that it worked. When Reich declined to obey a court order that forbade him to send accumulators across state lines, he was sentenced to two years in prison, where he died more or less insane. He was the only person in US history to have his books burned by the government. This mostly took place from 1940 to his death in 1957.
He wrote a book, The Cancer Biopathy, which was of interest to me. His basic idea is that cancer can only be understood in terms of an all-pervading cosmic energy which is not subject to the mechanical laws of nature. This notion was already familiar to me. G.B. Shaw called it the "life force." The philosopher Whitehead hinted at the same thing when he spoke of the universe as a single living organism. Anyway, I read it and was impressed. There could be no doubt that Reich was something of a fanatic; at the same time, he writes with the clarity and detachment of a true scientist. Yet, ultimately, I didn't find anything real to his orgone ideas or accumulators. The thing I found most irritating about him was that he seemed incapable of believing in the honesty of anyone who didn't agree with him. He took it for granted that people who questioned his ideas must be motivated by envy or hatred. He even coined a term to describe what was wrong with these unbelievers: they were suffering from "emotional plague," a disease that was supposed to be akin to hysteria.
He also had a UFO phase. Visitors at his place, Orgonon, reported seeing shining objects in the sky. He came to believe that Orgonon was under observation from UFOs.
It was the "pure Reichians" who became custodians of the official legend: Reich the visionary and prophet, who was destroyed by pigmies in the grip of emotional plague. There was no question of insanity, or even of his fate being, to some extent, Reich's own fault. It wasn't his ideas but his paranoiac behavior that landed him in jail. He seemed to be a thoroughly dislikable human being. So why was I interested in him? Because there is a kind of horrifying fascination in watching a man of Reich's immense vitality make a series of wrong choices that bring him to disaster.
There's much more to say about him, his ideas, inventions, and paranoia. If you want me to go more into anything in particular, just ask. What got you interested?
Reich started out off as an orthodox Freudian, contributing work on the sexual origin of neurosis, then joined the Communist party; after his attempts to combine Freud and Marx offended both groups, he was rejected by both. Following a stay in Norway, he moved to America and announced his discovery of an unknown form of energy called orgone. This was supposed to be blue in color, and to cause the blueness of the sky. According to Reich, orgone energy permeates the universe; it's the basic element in the health in all living creatures, and lack of it causes disease. Reich devised a kind of greenhouse for trapping this energy, and was called the Orgone Accumulator. This invention was the cause of his downfall, for the FDA objected to the sale of the accumulator on the grounds that there was no scientific evidence that it worked. When Reich declined to obey a court order that forbade him to send accumulators across state lines, he was sentenced to two years in prison, where he died more or less insane. He was the only person in US history to have his books burned by the government. This mostly took place from 1940 to his death in 1957.
He wrote a book, The Cancer Biopathy, which was of interest to me. His basic idea is that cancer can only be understood in terms of an all-pervading cosmic energy which is not subject to the mechanical laws of nature. This notion was already familiar to me. G.B. Shaw called it the "life force." The philosopher Whitehead hinted at the same thing when he spoke of the universe as a single living organism. Anyway, I read it and was impressed. There could be no doubt that Reich was something of a fanatic; at the same time, he writes with the clarity and detachment of a true scientist. Yet, ultimately, I didn't find anything real to his orgone ideas or accumulators. The thing I found most irritating about him was that he seemed incapable of believing in the honesty of anyone who didn't agree with him. He took it for granted that people who questioned his ideas must be motivated by envy or hatred. He even coined a term to describe what was wrong with these unbelievers: they were suffering from "emotional plague," a disease that was supposed to be akin to hysteria.
He also had a UFO phase. Visitors at his place, Orgonon, reported seeing shining objects in the sky. He came to believe that Orgonon was under observation from UFOs.
It was the "pure Reichians" who became custodians of the official legend: Reich the visionary and prophet, who was destroyed by pigmies in the grip of emotional plague. There was no question of insanity, or even of his fate being, to some extent, Reich's own fault. It wasn't his ideas but his paranoiac behavior that landed him in jail. He seemed to be a thoroughly dislikable human being. So why was I interested in him? Because there is a kind of horrifying fascination in watching a man of Reich's immense vitality make a series of wrong choices that bring him to disaster.
There's much more to say about him, his ideas, inventions, and paranoia. If you want me to go more into anything in particular, just ask. What got you interested?
State specific? You bet your ass it's state specific, cos only the USS Iowa, USS Wisconsin, USS New Jersey and USS Missouri used those guns.
If that's not state specific I don't know what is
btw, TOTALLY off-topic, could've PM'd this but now i'm here...I DL'ed Iggy's solo album The Idiot and I'm not feeling that shit as much as I'm feeling the Stooges. Stooges had much more tempo, energy, etc. The Idiot seems a lot more laid back.
If that's not state specific I don't know what is
btw, TOTALLY off-topic, could've PM'd this but now i'm here...I DL'ed Iggy's solo album The Idiot and I'm not feeling that shit as much as I'm feeling the Stooges. Stooges had much more tempo, energy, etc. The Idiot seems a lot more laid back.
I know what you mean. The Stooges have this, I don't know, raw power thing going on. 
But I'll say this: The Idiot is a grower. It's a slow-grower too. Doesn't astound on the first few listens. After that it starts coming together. It's a hypnotic album.
But I'll say this: The Idiot is a grower. It's a slow-grower too. Doesn't astound on the first few listens. After that it starts coming together. It's a hypnotic album.
First of all, fuck you all for taking my thread off topic.
I was aware of the mentions of orgone accumulators in the works of both Kerouac and William S Burroughs, who said sitting in one caused him to orgasm. I wonder if this stirred the sensationalist media articles slamming Reich and referring to the accumulators as "sex boxes".
But it was actually the song "Cloudbusting" by Kate Bush that enticed me to learn more about Reich and his work. She wrote the song after reading "A Book of Dreams" by Dr. Reich's son Peter, which dealt with his work and subsequent arrest from his perspective as a child at the time. There's a famous music video for it as well with Kate playing Peter Reich and Donald Sutherland playing Dr. Reich.
So, I began to do some research and read as much as I could find on the Internet about Orgone energy. Pretty much everything I discovered regarding the properties of Orgone was positive and believable - ie the experiences of Burroughs, and the Cloudbusting machines. There were reports of the Cloudbusting machines being used to end droughts in Maine, and Reich being paid by the farmers for providing these services.
(For anyone other than Jokerman reading this, a Cloudbuster is a device that can quite literally make it rain, by rearranging Orgone energies in the sky).
So, if it's suggested, or in any way proven that a Cloudbuster actually works, then it would and could be the device that ends world drought and one of the most important breakthroughs in scientific history.
Yet, the Government dismissed his ideas as a pseudoscience and locked him up, where he died.
My thoughts though, were that if they REALLY believed his ideas were nonsense, why burn all his writings? And it was the Government and FDA, no less, that did so. What information did they not want getting out? If it was all bullshit, surely there would be no reason to do that? If they only locked him up for acting bizarrely, why do that? Like you said - the only person in the entire US history to have his books burned. Something about that just doesn't sit right.
Of course, in my quest to find out more, I came across the "Pure Reichians", so to speak. Well, actually, what I discovered were shocking tales from those who had lived in Reichian communities. Tales of abuse, although these seemed more to do with his unorthodox methods of psychiatry rather than anything to do with Orgone. It seems the mans intents were destroyed and twisted by those claiming to operate under his name and vision.
For anyone else with an interest in this, I suggest you watch this for a brief introduction:
I was aware of the mentions of orgone accumulators in the works of both Kerouac and William S Burroughs, who said sitting in one caused him to orgasm. I wonder if this stirred the sensationalist media articles slamming Reich and referring to the accumulators as "sex boxes".
But it was actually the song "Cloudbusting" by Kate Bush that enticed me to learn more about Reich and his work. She wrote the song after reading "A Book of Dreams" by Dr. Reich's son Peter, which dealt with his work and subsequent arrest from his perspective as a child at the time. There's a famous music video for it as well with Kate playing Peter Reich and Donald Sutherland playing Dr. Reich.
So, I began to do some research and read as much as I could find on the Internet about Orgone energy. Pretty much everything I discovered regarding the properties of Orgone was positive and believable - ie the experiences of Burroughs, and the Cloudbusting machines. There were reports of the Cloudbusting machines being used to end droughts in Maine, and Reich being paid by the farmers for providing these services.
(For anyone other than Jokerman reading this, a Cloudbuster is a device that can quite literally make it rain, by rearranging Orgone energies in the sky).
So, if it's suggested, or in any way proven that a Cloudbuster actually works, then it would and could be the device that ends world drought and one of the most important breakthroughs in scientific history.
Yet, the Government dismissed his ideas as a pseudoscience and locked him up, where he died.
My thoughts though, were that if they REALLY believed his ideas were nonsense, why burn all his writings? And it was the Government and FDA, no less, that did so. What information did they not want getting out? If it was all bullshit, surely there would be no reason to do that? If they only locked him up for acting bizarrely, why do that? Like you said - the only person in the entire US history to have his books burned. Something about that just doesn't sit right.
Of course, in my quest to find out more, I came across the "Pure Reichians", so to speak. Well, actually, what I discovered were shocking tales from those who had lived in Reichian communities. Tales of abuse, although these seemed more to do with his unorthodox methods of psychiatry rather than anything to do with Orgone. It seems the mans intents were destroyed and twisted by those claiming to operate under his name and vision.
For anyone else with an interest in this, I suggest you watch this for a brief introduction:
I actually started to mention Kate Bush’s song in my first post, as it’s one of my favorites, as well as being by one of my favorite artists, but decided to wait for your response. I’m in the middle of a long response to what you said about Ristol’s post count, no, about Reich, and will post it in a while.
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