Wilhelm Reich
Elsworth F. Baker, M.D.
Reprinted from The Journal of Orgonomy Volume 1, 1968
The American College of Orgonomy
Analysis, The Sexual Revolution, and The Mass Psychology of Fascism, all of which were written before the discovery of orgone energy. We begin to understand that there must be some other reason than the given motive for the book-banning, a hidden purpose which must never be exposed. The same hidden purpose was responsible for the persecution of people to maintain the beliefs that the world was flat, that the sun revolved around the earth, that evolution was against the ideas of God, and that children were asexual. Any finding that genuinely increases the knowledge of natural functioning and man's relationship to the cosmos is anathema and comes to acceptance only after very many bitter years of struggle and persecution.
In 1953, The Emotional Plague of Mankind, consisting of two volumes, The Murder of Christ and People in Trouble, was published. The years between 1945 and 1953 had been filled with new findings, much work, and concern with many problems: new concepts of medicine, physics, and mathematics, and a growing understanding of cosmic functions and gravity, along with the almost catastrophic events precipitated by the oranur reaction. In spite of all this, Reich found time to produce many beautiful paintings and some sculpture, and to compose music.
More ominous to Reich than any of the dangers of natural research as the constantly threatening black cloud the emotional plague of mankind. It was, therefore, no coincidence that he published the two aforementioned volumes in 1953. There were persistent rumors of a "busy, pudgy little man," who had twice failed his psychiatric boards, constantly demanding that the APA "do something" about Reich and "all that orgone stuff", and this is at a time when that august body was begging for "new ideas in psychiatry however fantastic they might be . . . " Since 1946, this little man had been frightened of Reich's work and he eventually persuaded the APA to act, which it did by instigating a reactivation of the Food and Drug Administration's investigation with its support.
The culmination of this plague activity occurred on February 20, 1954, in the form of a complaint issued through the United States District Court at Portland, Maine, charging that the orgone energy accumulator was a fraud, that orgone energy did not exist, and that all the literature on the orgonomy was merely labeling for the sale of the accumulator. Reich was stunned and for three days could not act. Eventually, he sent his Response to Judge Clifford, contending that the law could not decide scientific matters and affirming his right through common law to continue his basic research. When he asked my opinion, I told him that I had little faith that an American judge would either understand or accept his response, since the court was concerned only with the technical question of his right to distribute the orgone energy accumulator (2) and this would have to be defended in court. Reich argued correctly that the court should protect sincere scientists from being attacked; he could not grasp that the court, within our present legal structure, had no way of knowing who was sincere except by testimony in court. He, therefore, refused to allow a court of law to judge his scientific work, a shocking, all-inclusive, uncontested injunction was issued against him on March 19. Without the necessity of proof, the Food and Drug Administration succeeded in having a federal court brand the accumulator a fraud, with the added contention that orgone energy does not exist, and the proscription that all literature that even mentioned orgone energy should be burned. It became illegal to dispense any information about the orgone energy accumulator. This injunction altered no scientific facts, but did cast an official stigma on the entire field of orgonomy. The emotional plague nature of the proceedings is evident in the fact that neither the court nor the Food and Drug Administration were really interested in learning about anything in favor of Reich's work, since no attempt was made to obtain facts from Reich or his co-workers, and petition by fourteen physicians to present the case for orgonomy was refused by the court. Reich's bitterness over these events was expressed in an article he wrote, The Modju Injuncta, laden with his feelings of abandonment and bitterness.
However, Reich had little time to think about himself, and he notified the court that he would resume his activities. He had become concerned about the rapid increase in development of desert conditions in the United States and other parts of the world, which he believed was due to an increase of DOR in the atmosphere, partly precipitated by the nuclear testing, but mainly coming in from outer space. Reports of space ships interested him; he had observed several sightings at Orgonon. DOR conditions increased following each sighting, and he concluded that the space ships were responsible. In October, 1954, he went to Tucson, Arizona, with two cloudbusters to ascertain what he could do to reverse the desert process, remaining there until April, 1955. His account is recorded in his Second Oranur Report entitled Contact with Space, published in 1957. This volume must be read for a fuller understanding of the project, but I shall present three observations which I made personally.
I was making a motion picture film of Reich's work in Arizona and soon learned the necessity of using a light meter. Although the sun appeared very bright and hot, the light meter indicated a much wider shutter opening than one would judge necessary. One morning, the light meter indicated a shutter setting of 8. At this point, Reich began to draw with the cloudbuster. With no other change in weather conditions, I checked the light meter after ten minutes and I found a shutter opening indication of only 11. One other change was noticed. After the drawing, although there was actually more light, the sun did not seem so glareful or hot; DOR had absorbed the light and produced both the glare and heat.
On another occasion, we were watching the maneuvers of a military jet place which left a long, unbroken vapor trail. Ahead of it, we observed an area of DOR. At the moment that the jet entered the DOR, the vapor trail disappeared abruptly; DOR had absorbed the moisture, so no trail appeared.
My final observation had to do with space ships. None has been captured as yet, and many people still believe that they do not exist. I shall merely record here what seven of us, besides Reich, saw. At about 9:00 P.M. one evening, Reich pointed to a very bright star (3) in the southwest, about 40 degrees above the horizon. It was unusual in that it was brighter than I had ever seen Venus to be. Also, it alternated in color regularly in a sequence of red, blue, green, orange, yellow and white, then back to red. We watched it for several minutes and then observed it through a 3-inch refracting telescope where it appeared larger but still merely as a body of light. Lining up with stationary objects, we found that it was moving slowly in a northeasterly direction and changing its position gradually with relation to other stars. Reich then trained the cloudbuster on it and after three or four minutes, the red color no longer appeared. This was followed by the successive non-appearance of the blue, green, orange, and yellow colors. Now all that remained was the white, which grew dimmer and dimmer until we could no longer see it. These were my observations; interpret them as you will.
By 1954, Reich had solved many problems of cosmic functioning and was nearing the solution of negative gravity. Gravity, he found, was due to the reaction of two energy streams; actually, a manifestation of superimposition.
In the meantime, after being assured by the federal court that the injunctions applied only to Reich, Dr. Michael Silvert assumed charge of the Orgone Institute Press and distribution of accumulators. CORE (Cosmic Orgone Engineering) replaced the Orgone Energy Bulletin as the official periodical and was published in 1954 and 1955.
Reich returned to Orgonon in May, 1955, and that summer held his last conference, which was based on the medical use of the DOR-buster, a modification of the cloudbuster. At this seminar, he met Aurora Karrer, a medical technician from Washington, D.C., who became his third wife and gave him comfort and loyal support in his last years. In the fall, he moved to Washington where he spent the next two winters. He had but little peace and quiet left in which to enjoy life. The Food and Drug Administration was busy charging him and Silvert with contempt of the injunction; he was being followed everywhere; his telephone was tapped and he received numerous crank calls. He was unable to interest scientists in his weather and desert control methods since they contented themselves with old concepts of cloud-seeding and irrigation. Everywhere he was frustrated, needled, and accused. It amazed me constantly that he could still show serious concern for the welfare of his remaining co-workers and their families.
On July 26, 1955, official contempt charges were placed against Reich and Silvert, followed by criminal court proceedings. Both, although they consulted attorneys, decided to act as their own counselors. In court, Reich acted as defendant, defense counselor, accuser and teacher. Actually, Reich had not violated the injunction but believed that his trip to Arizona was a violation; his feeling of responsibility towards Silvert, whom he knew was really responsible for the contempt charges, caused him to share equal responsibility and, finally, to state in court that he was in violation of the injunction. Both were found guilty, with Reich receiving a two-year sentence, Silbert a year and a day. A $10,000 fine was imposed on the Wilhelm Reich Foundation. Reich stated openly that he would not survive his sentence. He knew that he suffered from a serious heart condition but had not told anyone; his structure could not survive imprisonment in Connecticut and was later transferred to the penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He died on November 3, 1957, one week before the date of his recommended release. While in prison, he had solved the final formula for negative gravity and had written his last book, which he called Creation. The manuscript mysteriously disappeared at the prison, and the formula died with Reich. He had planned to give the formula to his son the following week.
Wilhelm Reich was buried at Orgonon on November 6, 1957, following a simple ceremony conducted according to his written instruction. I gave the following brief oration:
Friends, we are here to say farewell, a last farewell, to Wilhelm Reich. Let us pause for a moment to appreciate the privilege, the incredible privilege, of having known him. Once in a thousand years, nay once in two thousand years, such a man comes upon this earth to change the destiny of the human race. As with all great men, distortion, falsehood and persecution followed him. He met them all; until organized conspiracy sent him to prison and there killed him. We have witnessed it all, "The Murder of Christ." What poor words can I say that can either add to or clarify what he has done? His work is finished. He has earned his peace and has left a vast heritage for the peoples of this earth. We do not mourn him, but for ourselves, at our great loss. Let us take up the responsibility of his work and follow in the path he cleared for us. So be it.
At this point, I should like to offer a commentary on the controversy which developed concerning Reich's behavior in the final period of his life. Since 1939, when rumors that Reich was insane first started, they recurred from time to time mainly because that was the easiest defense against his work. His behavior in his last years, especially his attitude toward the court proceedings, revived and strengthened these rumors and even lent an air of some justification to them. The judge himself was doubtful and ordered a sanity test. The prison psychiatrist found him sane. Since Reich was sane, and of this there is no doubt, why did his behavior appear so erratic? I believe that this is easily explained. He was basically childlike and naïve, lacking sophistication of armored man; and he was frustrated. He thus reacted naturally, behavior not understood by armored society. Fighting desperately for his work, and even more so for suffering humanity, he was frustrated on all sides. He could break through nowhere, and yet he had so much to give to the world that he found himself becoming more and more reckless, a recklessness born of despair. His statement in court that he was guilty of violating the injunction was an example of his recklessness. The whole world seemed against him, which in fact it was, and the world called him paranoid by projection. Many aspects of this later period were confusing and caused a great deal of controversy even amount Reich's co-workers. The question that challenged everyone, even Reich himself, was whether he had conducted the case correctly and rationally. This question revolved chiefly around five points:
1. Should Reich have answered the complaint by appearance in court and fought a legal battle to prevent a rather inevitable injunction by default?
2. Was there really a well-organized, conscious conspiracy to destroy orgonomy, conducted from Moscow?
3. Were any departments and/or individuals in our government or the Air Force aware of the importance of Reich's work and secretly supporting him behind the scenes?
4. Was there, in fact, a national emergency of a kind requiring secrecy, which Reich maintained there was, and a need to defy the injunction?
5. Did Reich consciously or unconsciously martyr himself in identification with Christ?
There were those who were more certain of answers to the first four questions than was Reich himself. The first they would have answered was a decided "No;" the following three with as strong an affirmative. Another group would have felt serious doubt of the validity of such answers. Reich was at this time surrounded principally by the first group. Feelings ran high, and those who dared express doubt were accused of disloyalty and even conspiracy against Reich. At one time or another, Reich made personal attacks on each of his co-workers, although in many cases he would later change his opinion. Only the perspective of history may reveal all the facts, and discussion of these issues at this time must be undertaken with the acknowledgment that the final answers cannot now be given. My purpose is merely to throw whatever light I can upon this most misunderstood period of Reich's life, from February, 1954, to November, 1957.
In the first place, had we been living in a perfectly rational world, all these tragic events would not have occurred. It was true that The Wilhelm Reich Foundation and the Orgone Institute were renting and selling the orgone energy accumulator, a device that influenced health, and that, legally this was a concern of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We accept that they had those whom they considered experts test it and report presumably negative findings. Thus, legally, they were entitled to issue a complaint against Reich and The Wilhelm Reich Foundation. This complaint, in effect, charged Reich with being a fraud and challenged him to defend this accusation in court. Now, up until the issuance of the complaint, all the FDA investigation had been done in secrecy, by whom we still do not know. We do know that the Jackson Laboratories in Maine was one area of testing, but there were rumored to be many others. At the Jackson Laboratories, they found that cancer mice died sooner in an accumulator. The accumulator had been placed near an X-ray machine, an observation made by a student of orgonomy who happened to be working there at the time. Reich's Oranur Experiment had demonstrated that the death of the mice was to be expected under such circumstances, thus the FDA experiment actually confirmed Reich's work, even though it was officially reported as showing the accumulator's uselessness. Undoubtedly all of these tests were conducted in similar fashion by persons unfamiliar with Reich's work and methods, since there had been no contact between the testing laboratories and those physicians and laboratory workers familiar with the accumulator. One can rather obviously conclude that these experiments were done with bias concerning the fraudulence of the orgone energy accumulator, by mere virtue of the request of the FDA for the examination.
Under more rational circumstances, the FDA and any other interested parties (all medicine should have been an interested party) would have gone to Reich and asked him to show them his work and what evidence he had of the existence of orgone energy and its properties. They would have worked with him or under his direction until they were satisfied. If they had not been satisfied, they could have requested the accumulator remain a laboratory experiment until there was evidence enough for them to accept. Reich would have been more than willing to cooperate fully in this. However, from 1947 on, no serious effort was made to gain information from Reich or from physicians familiar with the accumulator. Even in the 1947 investigation, the FDA refused to listen to clinical findings and kept asking, "And what other literature do you have?" implying by their manner and their explicit questioning that a pornographic racket was connected with it. The FDA had apparently accepted Mildred Edie Brady's malicious article of 1947, mentioned previously as a factual and official estimation and was uninterested or unwilling to be shown otherwise. Actually, Brady was a free-lance writer with no scientific background and no real knowledge of Reich's work and the accumulator. She compensated for her ignorance with inference, distortion, and outright falsehoods. Unfortunately, even the esteemed Menninger Clinic accepted Brady's version without question or effort to obtain the facts, and put their official seal of approval on her slanderous article by republishing it in the clinic's official bulletin. Also, the FDA refused to release their findings and
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