Doctor Reich claims that the basic charge of life is this blue orgone-like electrical charge—Orgones form a sphere around the earth and charge the human machine—He discovered that orgones pass readily through iron but are stopped and absorbed by organic matter—So he constructed metal-lined cubicles with layers of organic material behind the metal—Subjects sit in the cubicles lined with iron and accumulate orgones according to the law of increased returns on which life functions—The orgones produce a prickling sensation frequently associated with erotic stimulation and spontaneous orgasm—Reich insists that orgasm is an electrical discharge—He has attached electrodes to the appropriate connections and charted the orgasm—In consequence of these experiments he was of course expelled from various countries before he took refuge in America and died in a federal penitentiary for suggesting the orgone accumulator in treating cancer—It has occurred to this investigator that orgone energy can be concentrated to disperse the miasma of idiotic prurience and anxiety that blocks any scientific investigation of sexual phenomena. — William S. Burroughs, from Nova Express
Documents drawn from an interesting period of transition for Reich, from Marxist dialectician-psychoanalyst to biophysicist and natural scientist. FLA
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Hardback: 320 pages
Independent confirmation of Wilhelm Reich’s “bion experiments” and the emotional basis of cancer by this AIDS researcher and dermatologist; guaranteed jargon-free. FLA
Publisher: Aries Rising
Paperback: 283 pages
Cloudbusting, Reich and UFOs. Steiner, a Borderlands Research old-timer, photographs living “bioforms,” which Constable calls “critters,” that hover in the air and seem to be drawn to cloudbusting operations. Too mystical for my reptilian brain with his references to LSD and invisible forces, but a fascinating account of one man’s journey to understanding basic cosmic realities. FLA
Publisher: Borderland Sciences
Paperback: 488 pages
Illustrated
A former patient and student of Reich’s, Sharaf, having been personally invested in Reich and passionate about Reich’s work since discovering The Function of the Orgasm in 1944, gives us a close look at the complex weave of events, people and ideas that made up Reich’s life. Sharaf provides a detailed account of the private and public conflict which Reich endured until his death in an American federal pen on November 3, 1957, ignored or ridiculed by the public at large. The book covers Reich’s childhood, his years as “Freud’s pet,” his breakup with the Communist party and his expulsion from Viennese psychoanalytic circles in 1934, as well as illustrating Reich’s theoretical innovations in psychology, sociology and science.
The book explains Reich’s theoretical development from genital-centered “orgastic potency” to his discovery of the “orgone” (life energy) in 1940. Reich wished to counteract the murderous form of atomic energy with the life-furthering functions of orgone; this branched into the realization of orgone energy accumulators and rain-making machines by the early 1950s.
Reich’s interest in the ideas of Henri Bergson and Friedrich Nietzsche helped push his ideas on “mental health” beyond “mental” phenomena; his work with low-income laborers in clinics led to many theories on how “exploiters” use sexual repression. Reich’s ideas, an inspiration to the work of people like Deleuze and Guattari, point out how neurosis goes from the personal to the social and back, the body and its sexual potential being the very thing which must be contained since capitalist economies use people as natural resources.
By the time Reich began researching life energy itself, in and around people, his ideas of a conspiracy in the U.S. to persecute and discredit him seemed not so far-fetched. Beginning in 1956, the U.S. Government and the FDA burned his accumulators and publications. He was in jail by the following year. This is an easy, thorough and inspirational read about a fascinating life and some of the most important ideas on humanity and its environment.
KH
Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 550 pages
Illustrated
Reich sounds off in one of the all-time classics rants. “I am very deeply afraid of you, Little Man. That has not always been so. Imyself was a Little Man, among millions of Little Men. Then Ibecame a natural scientist and a psychiatrist, and Ilearned to see how very sick you are and how dangerous you are in your sickness. I learned to see the fact that it is your own emotional sickness, and not an external power, which, every hour and every minute, suppresses you, even though there may be no external pressure. You would have overcome the tyrants long ago had you been alive inside and healthy. Your oppressors come from your own ranks as in the past they came from the upper strata of society. They are even littler than you are, Little Man. For it takes a good dose of littleness to know your misery from experience and then to use this knowledge to suppress you still better, still harder.”
Publisher: Flatland
Paperback: 128 pages
This book is compiled from a series of interviews with Trevor James Constable discussing his work on weather engineering. Constable is best known for his work The Cosmic Pulse of Life. He uses simple geometric apparatuses to supposedly control the weather in such ways as dissipating fog and causing rain. This book could have greatly benefited by including plans for some of the devices and a little bit more scientific explanation of some of the principles involved. MC
Publisher: Borderland Sciences
Paperback: 148 pages
Illustrated
Landmark analysis of fascism in Germany and Russia—everywhere. Reich defines fascism as revolutionary emotions, irrational ideas and actions. This book signed Reich’s death warrant in Germany. Chapters include: “Ideology as a Material Force”; “The Authoritarian Ideology of the Family”; “Racial Purity, Blood Poisoning and Mysticism”; “Deconstruction of the Symbolism of the Swastika”; “Organized Mysticism as an International Anti-Sexual Organization.” FLA
Publisher: Flatland
Paperback: 400 pages