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Part I

The Experiment
Chapter I
The Tension-Charge Formula

In this paper, I should like to present my observations vis a vis experiments I performed on the transformation of non-living matter into bacterial organisms. First, a brief discussion of the theoretical background:

During the course of approximately fifteen years of clinical work, I had come up with a formula for the function of the orgasm, which was later verified experimentally.  [Footnote 2] In the autonomic life-support system, a sequence occurs whereby mechanical filling [turgor] or tension leads to an electrical charging [of the organism]; this is followed by an electrical discharge, which in turn results in mechanical relaxation.

This raises two questions:

First, does this formula apply only to the function of the orgasm or does it govern autonomic life functions?

Second, since the orgasm is a basic life phenomenon, this formula had to be manifest in even the most primitive biofunctions, such as the life activity of protozoa. I therefore postulated that the orgasm formula is identical to the life formula. Originally, I had no great hopes of proving the accuracy of this hypothesis within a short space of time. By accident, however, I solved the crux of this question quite quickly and consistently.

Furthermore, my clinical and laboratory experience had generated a wealth of ideas that served as guidelines for the biological research. Electrical experiments on the erogenous zones showed that vegetative excitations [of the organism] are functionally identical to their corresponding directions of electric flow. On the other hand, vegetative organ sensations appeared to be functionally identical with the onset of vegetative movement, which falls into two basic groups: The sensation of largeness and well-being, i.e., expansion, coincides with the onset of elongation as clearly seen in penile erection. Anxiety and sensations of unpleasure, on the other hand, are identical with the onset of a creeping back into the self, i.e., a contraction of the biological organism.

The change from expansion to contraction became obvious to me in my observation of ocean mollusks. The emission of electrical energy that occurs when this electric marine organism contracts confirmed my assumption that the sudden contraction is functionally identical to an electrical discharge. Therefore, I felt justified in leaping ahead to postulate that, on the one hand, electrical charging at the periphery, expansion, and well-being are functionally identical, as are electrical discharging at the periphery, contraction, and fright or anxiety on the other hand.

I postulated further that during expansion the distance between parts increased due to swelling. This must be closely related to an increase in electrical potential. Conversely, there is a decrease in distance between parts during contraction die to a loss of swelling, thus a greater tissue resistance, and a decrease in electric potential, i.e., discharge. Consequently, the physical [phenomenon of] electrical charge had to be felt directly as vegetative excitation.

Furthermore, I had come across the orgasm reflex about three years ago in my clinical work with neurotic patients who had hypertonic musculature. After removal of the muscular armor, separate vegetative spasms in various parts of the body combined in a unitary reflex involving the entire organism, which I called the orgasm reflex. It is the same phenomenon as the involuntary vegetative convulsions that occur at the acme of sexual gratification. From that I had to conclude that the autonomic nervous system expands and elongates during pleasure, but contracts in anxiety. The determining factor seemed to be the unitary functioning of the organism as a whole; that is, the ameba continues to exist in the metazoa in the form of a contractile and expansive vegetative life apparatus.

According to this view, the nerves within the organism no longer appeared to initiate the impulses, but merely functioned as organized conductors of vegetative impulses involving the body as a totality. The literature contained many references to the view that the ganglia in the autonomic nervous system function like storage batteries; and further, that the muscles represent the discharge apparatus, [with the discharge] resulting in movement. The body fluid, which in humans comprises about 80% of the total body weight, had to be regarded as the primary means for transmission of the electrical excitation.

The basic functions of the living, expansion and contraction, govern life; but they themselves consist of individual physical functions that are organized in a complex way. I will later discuss the evidence for this offered by colloidal chemistry. Here I should like to limit myself to a brief discussion of a pattern of uniformity, not only within the realm of the living, but also between organic and inorganic functions. As I mentioned, these were merely considerations that had developed from a great number of clinical and experimental investigations.

The biological directions "toward the world," represented by expansion, its opposite, "away from the world," "withdrawal into the self," represented by contraction, seemed to be reflected in the primitive model of a pig's bladder [as exemplified in] the mechanical process of expansion. When a pig's bladder is filled with air, it enlarges mechanically. The surface becomes tense and strives to restore the original condition, like a spring that is being stretched. This is opposed by an internal pressure exerted by the air. There are now three possibilities:

The internal pressure is lower than the surface tension; the bladder can be enlarged further without bursting
The internal pressure is equal to the surface tension; the bladder assumes a spherical shape and is stable.
Finally, the internal pressure of the air is greater than the surface tension; the bladder bursts

in the vegetative realm, an increase in internal pressure leads to contraction, as in the urinary bladder, or to constriction and division, as in the cell.

In electricity, charge and discharge are obviously separate processes. In inorganic processes, mechanical tension and relaxation, and electrical charge and discharge, are separate functions. In organic processes, on the other hand, these two physical functions are involved in a specific sequence" tension-charge-discharge-relaxation. This is the formula for vegetative functioning.

In chemical processes, there are substances which can produce tumescence, i.e., tension, and detumescence, i.e., relaxation. When KCI and lecithin act on tissues, the surface tension increases because of swelling; with calcium and cholesterin, the surface tension decreases due to detumescence and shrinking.

Now, it could not be without significance for an understanding of the function of the orgasm that tension and relaxation, tumescence and detumescence, expansion and contraction, charge and discharge, etc., are an integral part of the function of the parasymapthetic and sympathetic nervous systems, where they converge as one unified functional system. In a special investigation, "The Basic Antithesis of the Vegetative Life Functions" (1934),  [Footnote 3]  I had pointed out this relationship based on experimental results of other authors. Potassium acts like lecithin; lecithin like the parasymapathetic nervous system; finally, the parasympathetic nervous system entails pleasurable excitation, swelling, increased turgor, increased surface tension, and, as was finally shown, charge as well. On the other hand, calcium, cholesterin, the sympathetic nervous system, and unpleasure or anxiety, form a functional unity recognizable by the following processes: shrinking, contraction, discharge, and a decrease on surface tension.

I summarized these comparisons in a table four years ago as follows:

Whatever had been described hitherto as "purposeful activation," "entelechy," etc., in biology, especially in its metaphysical aspects, seemed to be explained by just this leap from individual physical functions to their unified functioning; this is what directs the life process. Metaphysical principles of biology could thus be replaced by a dialectic materialistic interpretation of life processes.

The coordination of the life functions is controlled by the process of tension-charge within the individual organs, as well as within the entire organism. The concordance of inorganic and organic processes was evident in the function of tumescence-detumescence and charge-discharge.

The difference between the living and nonliving is a result of the specific combination of functions that otherwise occur separately in the nonliving.

Based on these postulates, summarized here, I now approached the biological experiments described below.

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