By
ALAN CANTWELL, Jr., M.D.
In
my medical research into the infectious cause
and origin of cancer, I never imagined I would
become enmeshed in the strange world of Wilhelm
Reich. For two decades I had studied the work
of scientists linking bacteria to cancer, but
never once did I come across Reich’s important
experiments with the deadly “T-bacilli” that he
discovered in cancer.
I first learned about Reich in 1982 from Lorraine
Rosenthal who heads the Cancer Control Society
in Los
Angeles. Her mother worked in his laboratory in
the 1950s, and Lorraine
was sure his cancer work was related to my cancer
microbe research. She recommended I read Reich’s
two most revolutionary books: The Bion Experiments
on the Origin of Life (1938) and The Cancer
Biopathy (1948). These two volumes provide
valuable and fascinating insights into the origin
of the cancer cell and his discovery of cancer
“T” bacteria.
During his life, Reich was portrayed as a mad
psychiatrist and scientist who advocated free
love, abortion, communism, and a multitude of
other so-called perversions. The medical establishment
regarded him as quack who tried to dupe the public
into believing he had a cure for cancer. Eventually
the US
government took legal action to suppress Reich’s
research, and the closing years of his life were
filled with tragedy. Persecuted and hounded by
the government, he was finally sacrificed on the
altar of science.
Who was Wilhelm Reich? And why was he condemned
for his beliefs? Was he merely a crack-pot psychiatrist?
Or was he one of the greatest and most misunderstood
scientific geniuses of the twentieth century?
Reich’s
Sex Experiments and Orgone Energy
Reich was born on March 24, 1897, on a small farm
on the eastern outreaches of the Austro-Hungarian
empire in what is now known as the Ukraine. At age twelve his
childhood was shattered by his mother’s suicide.
Provoked by marital unhappiness and infidelity,
and beatings by her husband, she swallowed a kitchen
poison. Reich watched her die a slow and agonising
death. His father died of tuberculosis in 1914,
and twelve years later his only brother also died
of TB. Orphaned at age 17, Reich entered the Austrian
army and experienced the brutality of World War
One and the ensuing breakup of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire.
After the war he resumed his studies in Vienna
and entered medical school. He was a brilliant
student who developed a strong liking for the
new speciality of psychiatry. At age twenty-three
he became one of Sigmund Freud’s prized associates
and began private practice as an analytic psychiatrist.
As a pioneer in the study of human sexuality,
he used novel experimental methods to examine,
analyse and measure various aspects of physical
lovemaking. He concluded that the ability to love
was dependent on one’s physical ability to make
love with “orgastic potency.” Reich coined this
term to denote a kind of super-lovemaking in which
the mental, physical and emotional aspects of
sexuality were all functioning at a high level.
Experimenting with electrical stimulation of erogenous
zones, he showed that sexual feelings of touch,
pleasure, and pain could all be measured in the
laboratory.
The physiologic process of erection of the male
penis provided the beginning formula for Reich’s
great scientific discoveries. Before male orgasm,
he noted four distinct and separate processes
that had to take place physiologically. First
is the necessary psychosexual build-up or “tension.”
Second, the “charge” that accompanies tumescence
of the penis, which Reich measured electrically.
Third, the electrical “discharge” at the moment
of orgasm. And fourth, the final “relaxation”
of the penis.
Reich observed these four essential stages (tension,
build-up, discharge and relaxation) in all aspects
of life forms he examined. In the orgasm process
of sex, he discovered a unique energetic life
force that pervaded all nature. Reich named this
force “orgone energy.”
With Freud’s professional support, Reich quickly
rose to the highest ranks of academia. His classic
book, Character Analysis (1933), recounts
his original contributions to psychiatry and introduces
Reich’s novel concept of “body armoring.” Reich
discovered that unreleased psychosexual energy
could produce actual physical “blocks” within
the muscles and organs of the body. These blocks
act as an unfortunate “armor” preventing the release
of blocked sexual energy. The orgasm, along with
the convulsive body spasms which accompany orgasm,
is the mechanism through which “orgone energy”
is released by the body.
Reich believed a healthy and loving sex life is
everyone’s right. In fact, he considered a good
sex life absolutely necessary for the proper functioning
of the body. He stressed that the social and political
ills of the world stemmed largely from society’s
repression of sexuality. This repression leads
to unhappiness, depression, and the inability
to express joyous sexual love. For countless people
the sexual energy is blocked because of personal
body armoring. As a result of this armoring, such
people often fall victim to various aspects of
the “emotional plague.”
In his practice of analytic psychiatry Reich broke
with tradition. Instead of sitting passively,
notebook in hand while his patients talked, Reich
took an active role in the therapy. He frequently
touched his patients, felt their chests for breathing,
and repositioned their bodies. Sometimes he badgered
and goaded them to physical action. In order to
observe their body response during analysis, he
sometimes insisted that all or part of the clothing
be removed. Men were often reduced to shorts;
women to bra and panties. Reich’s colleagues publicly
protested against these unorthodox and radical
psychiatric practices, and his most vociferous
opponents accused him of immorality.
Reich,
Communism and the Nazis
As a young man in post-war Vienna during the 1920s and 30s, Reich was active politically. Disliking
the anti-sexual right-wing conservatives and repelled
by the fanaticism of the fascists, he migrated
to Marxism and the sexual freedom proclaimed by
the communists. Although Reich was a sex expert,
his expertise did not carry over to the state
of matrimony. In 1922 he married Annie Pink, a
psychiatrist. Their first child Eva was born in
1924, and a second daughter in 1928. No matter
how hard he tried, it was impossible for Reich
to conform to marital convention and the marriage
was chaotic.
In his writings the outspoken Reich went so far
as to propose that a series of romantic relationships
(“serial monogamy”) was a better alternative to
marriage. In The Function of the Orgasm (1927)
he declared: “Marriage is only one of the many
issues where social scientists go astray, especially
since they fail to see marriage for what it really
is – a sexual union, based primarily on genital
love. They prefer to ignore that fact and merely
view it as an economic union or means to perpetuate
the human race. Actually very few people marry
for money or to have children; marriages of today
really limit peoples’ freedom and may lead to
economic deprivation.”
For professional, political, and social reasons,
Reich moved his practice to Berlin
in 1930. He joined the German Communist party,
convinced the sexual freedoms of Marxism would
liberate the common man and foster his mental
health. As a spokesman for the Party, Reich advocated
free contraceptives, birth control, abortion on
demand, and sex education in schools.
By 1933, Reich’s marriage was on the rocks and
he was already in another passionate love relationship.
The German communists were increasingly disenchanted
with the controversial Reich due to some of his
outrageous ideas on sexual-political matters.
The Party finally expelled him. He was also in
a career crisis. His psychiatric writings and
left-wing political activities became progressively
more out of tune with Freud’s ideas and their
relationship cooled considerably. In a supreme
blow to Reich’s career, the Psychiatric Association
revoked his membership.
All this personal turbulence was compounded by
the rise of Hitler and Nazism. The Nazi press
damned Reich as a radical psychiatrist, an anti-Nazi
communist, a womaniser, and a Jew. Berlin was no longer safe. Disguised as a tourist
on a ski trip to Austria, he luckily got out of the city by the
skin of his teeth.
Returning to Vienna,
he soon realised he was no longer professionally
welcome there either. He emigrated to Denmark but soon became embroiled in disputes
with Danish communists. From there, he relocated
to Sweden, but was again harassed
by the authorities. Finally, through the help
of Norwegian colleagues, he secured residence
in Oslo,
where he had a new laboratory and enough money
to continue his research.
By 1934 Reich’s divorce was finalised. Escaping
the Nazis, Annie and his children resettled in
Austria. Reich was madly in
love with Elsa Lindenberg who had dutifully followed
him in his exodus to Austria,
Denmark,
Sweden, and finally to Norway. In Norway he was determined to
continue his research into the orgone life force
that he had discovered in his orgasm experiments.
The
Bion Experiments and the Origin of Life
His experiments began simply by close microscopic
examinations of the smallest form of cell life
known to man: the so-called “protozoa.” Reich
marveled at the squirming amoebae that developed
from his grass and water “infusions.” Swimming
in his microscopic preparations, the one-celled
organisms were seemingly structureless blobs,
yet they were also exceedingly complex forms that
ate, digested, contracted, expelled, and multiplied.
He playfully applied a small electric current
and watched the protozoa contract and elongate.
During the years 1934-1937 Reich was totally absorbed
in his experiments on the origin of life. His
preparations consisted of infusions of various
substances, such as grass, beach sand, earth,
coal, iron fillings and animal tissue. He tested
various combinations and added potassium, gelatin
and other biochemicals to the mixtures. Boiling
the preparations resulted in a marked increase
in the number of “vesicles” that could be cultured.
After much experimentation, Reich concluded the
cultured vesicles were intermediate “transitional”
forms which were “midway between life and non-life.”
“Dead” inorganic substances (such as sand, earth,
and coal) gave birth to vesicles which pulsed
with life. Reich named these energetic vesicles
“bions.” He suspected bions were a heretofore
unrecognised elementary stage of life.
After cooling the boiled bion cultures, he poured
some of the boiled material onto laboratory nutrient
culture media designed to grow ordinary bacteria.
An unbelievable phenomenon resulted: the boiled
bion cultures gave birth to peculiar-looking bacteria,
and amoeboe!
To eliminate the possibility of contamination,
Reich heated the cultures to the intense, flaming,
glowing temperatures of incandescence (150 degrees
Centigrade), and repeatedly sterilised his lab
culture media by autoclaving it at a high temperature
(180 degrees Centigrade) and pressure. At the
time it was thought no known bacteria or any other
life forms could possible survive such a high
temperature and pressure.
Reich believed he had discovered an indestructible
life force that defied death. He concluded: Bions
are preliminary stages of life; they are transitional
forms from the inorganic and non-motile – to the
organic, motile, and culturable state.
When Reich’s The Bion Experiments On the Origin
of Life was published in Oslo in 1938, the book created a furore. His critics latched onto one
paragraph in the book that intimated Reich might
have inadvertently found a cancer cure. Reich
wrote that preliminary studies showed bion-like
structures could be cultured from human blood
and “bion research proved particularly fruitful
for an understanding of cancer.” He was attacked
by the scientific and lay press as a “Jew pornographer”
who was tinkering with life and promoting a quack
cancer cure.
Instead of discouraging him, the attacks lured
him deeper and deeper into orgone research. Reich
was determined to prove, beyond doubt, the reality
of the new life energy forms he had discovered.
The
T-Bacilli, Cancer and Reich’s Bions
The unfair accusations surrounding the publication
of The Bion Experiments goaded Reich into
trying to solve the mystery of cancer. Weeks earlier
he had placed some sterile cancer tissue (provided
by the surgeons at a local hospital) into flasks
containing liquid nutrient broth. Now in his anger,
he scurried around to retrieve the bottles. To
his astonishment, “all these cultures showed a
green-blue coloration. Taking material from the
margin, [Reich] inoculated a new agar plate and
saw, for the first time, the T-bacilli, the discovery
of which would help break down the mystery surrounding
the cancer problem.”
The finding of bacteria in cancer filled
Reich with a curious mixture of fear and awe.
With fear because he knew that solving the secrets
of cancer would be a Herculean task, further antagonising
the medical establishment against him. With awe,
because he intuitively knew these bacilli were
involved in the agonising cancer deaths that affected
countless millions. After much study, Reich named
his newly-discovered cancer microbes “T” bacilli,
after the German word “Tod”, meaning death.
The years 1934-1937 in Norway were Reich’s happiest.
The bion work was exceedingly productive, and
he was deeply in love with Elsa Lindenberg. In
August 1938, Hitler annexed Austria.
Miraculously, Annie and his children had emigrated
to America the month before.
Reich’s lingering presence in Norway increasingly angered the authorities, and
the newspaper attacks against him were unrelenting.
Aggravated by depression and bouts of jealously
and pettiness, his relationship with Elsa cooled.
An American colleague strongly urged Reich to
emigrate to the United
States. In August 1939, on
the last boat to leave Norway
before the war, Reich left for America.
Half-heartedly he had asked Elsa to come, but
their tempestuous love affair was over and beyond
repair. By this time Reich was also completely
disillusioned with the communists and their false
promises and their perversion of Marx’s humanitarian
ideals. Never again would their philosophy interest
him, and he became an ardent anti-communist.
When he embarked for America, Wilhelm Reich was no longer young. He
was 42 years old and he would again be a stranger
in a strange land. He rented a house in Forest
Hills, Long Island, and soon
began a new love affair with Ilse Ollendorf, who
was extremely helpful in assisting him with his
research. They were married in 1946 and Ilse bore
him a son, Peter.
The cancer work continued with the T-bacilli proving
to be the key to the origin of cancer. Reich’s
experiments showed that all life contains orgone
energy and when this energy diminishes in the
cells, either through injury or aging, the cells
undergo a death process that Reich termed “bionous
degeneration.” As a consequence of this degeneration,
the deadly T-bacilli begin to form in the cells.
Reich could demonstrate these bacteria microscopically
in living (and unstained) cancer cells. Cultures
of T-bacilli injected into mice caused inflammation
and eventual death from cancer. The T-bacilli
that formed in the cells provoked a reaction in
the tissues resulting in the formation of vesicular
swellings. Microscopically, these vesicles gave
off a bluish glow, and Reich called them “blue
PA bions” because they resembled the clumped “PAcket”
bions that were experimentally produced when he
heated substances (such as grass and coal) to
high temperatures.
In degenerating cancerous tissue, the blue PA
bions seriously affected the orgone energy of
the cells. In other mouse experiments, Reich injected
blue bions into the tissue and observed the resulting
cancerous cell changes and the development of
actual protozoa. These cancerous changes were
similar to what had occurred in Reich’s earliest
experiments during the death process of cut blades
of grass immersed in his water infusions. First
the tissue cells swelled and formed vesicles;
and eventually transformed into protozoa.
Reich found that cancer cells have less orgone
energy than normal, healthy cells. As the energy-depleted
cancer cells break down and degenerate into T-bacilli,
putrefaction of the body occurs. It is the overwhelming
infection with T-bacilli and the massive breakdown
of cancer tissue that causes most deaths from
cancer. Cancer is literally death in the living
body.
Reich discovered T-bacilli not only in the cancer
tumours, but also in the blood, the body fluids,
and the excreta of cancer patients. He originally
thought the T-bacillus was the specific infectious
agent of cancer. But these cancer microbes were
eventually found by Reich in persons with other
diseases – and Reich also observed the T-bacilli
in the blood and excreta of normal healthy people!
The blood of cancer patients produced T-bacilli
easily and quickly. In contrast, normal blood
produced the bacilli slowly. Reich concluded “the
disposition to cancer is therefore determined
by the biological resistance of the blood and
the tissues to putrefaction. This biological resistance,
in turn, is itself determined by the orgone energy
content of the blood and tissues, which is to
say, by the organotic potency of the organism.”
Reich
in America,
the Oranur Experiment, and Orgone Energy
Reich’s early years in America
were comparatively quiet compared to his turbulent
years in Europe, but his
biomedical activities did not go unnoticed by
the authorities. In December 1941, under the guise
of subversive activity, the FBI arrested Reich
and detained him at Ellis
Island for three weeks. The exact reasons for
the arrest were never made clear, but the harrowing
experience further embittered him against his
real and imagined enemies.
Along with his cancer discoveries, Reich had first
noticed biological energy radiating from a beach
sand bion culture in his Oslo
lab back in January 1939. Now, in America, Reich would follow his hunches that would
lead him to discover a new energy pervading the
entire planet.
Reich and his lab co-workers frequently experienced
headaches, irritability, and other unpleasant
psychological and physical effects when working
with certain radioactive bion cultures. It was
theorised the beach sand had absorbed considerable
quantities of radiation from the sun. When the
sand was experimentally heated to incandescence
(1,500 degrees Centigrade), Reich believed the
solar radiation energy contained within the sand
was released. Whatever the reason, there was no
doubt orgone radiation was real and bion cultures
had to be handled with extreme care because of
their radioactivity.
In July 1940 Reich discovered orgone energy
in the atmosphere! In order to study the effects
of this radiation, he designed a specially-constructed
box to house and concentrate this energy. Boxes
were constructed to house lab animals. Eventually
larger boxes were constructed in which a person
could sit comfortably. Reich was interested in
determining the effect of atmospheric orgone energy
on humans, particularly persons with far-advanced
and incurable forms of cancer.
It was this “orgone accumulator box” and
its use in human cancer experimentation that caused
the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin
an intensive investigation of Reich’s scientific
activities in the late 1940s. There were all sorts
of rumours that the accumulator was a “sex box”
which induced uncontrollable erections and stirred
up intense and immoral sexual passions. As a result,
Reich was harassed and intimidated by the authorities.
Condemnatory articles in the professional and
lay press added fuel to the fire by alluding to
Reich’s mental problems and his sex-tinged research.
In the early 1940s Reich bought a summer house
and acreage in Maine. He dearly loved the clean air, the clarity
of the atmosphere, and the peacefulness of the
place. A research lab was eventually built on
the site, and in 1950 he moved permanently to
the site he named Organon. He was fifty-three
years old and tired of the stress of his psychoanalytic
practice. Over the years his continuing practice
had helped tremendously to support Reich’s studies
and family, but now he wished to devote the remaining
years of his life exclusively to orgone research.
At Organon a dangerous experiment began. Reich
was deeply concerned with the planetary dangers
unleashed by atomic warfare at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, and in the early 1950s it was feared the Korean War might
provoke another nuclear holocaust. Reich believed
orgone energy could be harnessed as a possible
antidote for nuclear radiation. He began testing
the effects of orgone energy (OR) on nuclear energy
(NR), and named the experiment “Oranur.”
During the Oranur experiment, radioactive radium
was brought to Reich’s lab and housed in a special
room containing orgone energy. The slow mixing
of the two energies produced a nuclear chain reaction
with devastating consequences. As a result of
this nuclear accident, Reich learned that nuclear
energy drastically changes orgone energy – converting
it into “deadly orgone energy” (DOR). The laboratory
accident seriously affected the physical, mental,
and emotional health of Reich and his co-workers
and necessitated a complete shut down of the lab
until the dangerous radiation levels cleared.
Reich’s daughter, Eva, almost died in the mishap.
Eva had been estranged from her father for years,
but after finishing medical school, she joined
him at Organon to help with the Oranur experiment.
The stressful changes wrought by Oranur, and the
increasing harassment by the FDA, put Reich under
great pressure. He was never quite the same again.
The experiment undoubtedly contributed to Reich’s
worsening relationship with Ilse. The marriage
become more and more stormy as he tormented Ilse
with accusations of infidelity and was physically
abusive. Few people understood the clinical nature
of feelings and emotions better than Reich; and
yet he could be cruel, unyielding, and insanely
jealous in his love relationships. He preached
sexual freedom for all but he practised a sexual
double standard in marriage that allowed him to
be unfaithful, but never his mate.
While Reich was immersed in the problems of Oranur,
Ilse developed uterine cancer. She was convinced
her cancer was connected with the radiation experiments
at Organon. While she convalesced from surgery,
Reich cruelly filed for divorce. After it was
finalised in September 1951, he began another
relationship. The following month he suffered
a major heart attack.
According to David Boadella’s biography of Reich,
“The Oranur experiment had exposed Reich and all
those who worked with him to severe strains. The
remainder of his life was to be devoted to working
on the many problems that the atmospheric chain
reaction provoked by Oranur opened up, and it
was particularly unfortunate for Reich that just
at the time when he was struggling to cope with
the dislocation to the normal activities of the
Institute, he should become victim of a sustained
campaign to belittle, discredit and attack his
work on many fronts.”
Reich’s
Trial, Book Burning and Imprisonment
Despite constant attacks by the FDA, Reich pursued
his experiments undaunted. He built a “cloud buster”
in order to affect the orgone energy in the atmosphere.
In the Arizona desert he induced rain by forcing clouds to form and disperse.
Like a god, he began to control the forces of
nature, as no one before him had ever done.
He was convinced the scientific world would recognise
the value of his work and would appreciate the
great benefit orgone energy could bring mankind.
Long before such subjects were popular, Reich
was concerned about toxic waste, nuclear energy,
and planetary pollution; he knew their detrimental
and damaging effects on the atmospheric orgone
energy. He was sure the FDA would never destroy
his research which held so much promise for the
planet and its healing. Reich also had implicit
faith in the fairness of the American legal system.
He fully believed that American justice would
never allow his important work to be discontinued.
Whether from ignorance or arrogance, or both,
Reich severely underestimated the power of the
FDA and the campaign against him. In February
1954 the FDA issued an injunction forbidding the
interstate shipment of orgone accumulators. The
injunction also denied the existence of orgone
energy, and proclaimed all Reich’s books and publications
were promotional materials for the worthless accumulator.
As demanded by the terms of the injunction, Reich
foolishly refused to appear in court. He was adamant
his scientific work could never be properly argued
or evaluated in court. His legal counsel pleaded
with him to reconsider, but he stood firm in his
position. His unyielding decision had disastrous
consequences. The FDA won the injunction by default.
The legal maneuverings culminated in a trial
that took place in Portland, Maine, in May 1956.
Reich was arrested in Washington, DC, on contempt
of court charges, and was forcibly brought to
Portland in chains. His refusal to cooperate with
the court did not bode well with the judge.
Time was running out for Reich. Years earlier
he had been abandoned by the psychoanalytic establishment.
The communists drummed him out of the Party, and
the Nazis wanted him dead. He had offended the
Austrians, the Danes, the Swedes and the Norwegians.
Now the Americans would have the opportunity to
destroy the mad psychiatrist and his new god of
orgone.
Reich was finally done in. He had played into
the hands of his enemies, and now they had him
where they wanted him. Reich was sentenced to
two years in federal prison.
Before imprisonment, the FDA had its final vengeance.
On June 5, 1956, FDA officials came to Organon.
Reich and his young son Peter watched in silence
as the federal officials axed the accumulators.
On June 26, Reich’s many books and journals at
Organon were burned by government authorities.
On August 23 in New York City the final destruction
of Reich’s literature took place. Six tons of
books, journals and papers were burned in a scientific
holocaust. And not a single major newspaper in
the Land of the Free protested this unprecedented
action, so reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
In early March 1957 Reich was imprisoned at Danbury
Federal Prison. The psychiatrist who examined
Reich recorded the diagnosis: “Paranoia manifested
by delusions of grandiosity and persecution and
ideas of reference.” A few weeks later, Reich
was transferred to the federal penitentiary in
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
The United States government won. Officially,
orgone energy did not exist. Reich was certified
as a mentally ill, quack psychiatrist who tried
to foist a sex box and a cancer cure on the American
public. The Reich affair was terminated.
In his prison cell towards the end of October
he began to feel poorly, but he was afraid to
bring the matter to the attention of the prison
officials. He told friends that his jailers would
try to kill him in prison, and believed he would
never get out alive. On November 3, 1957, Reich
was found dead in his cell, an apparent victim
of a heart attack.
Reich’s
Scientific Legacy
The body was taken to Organon for burial. A small
band of loyal followers, including Ilse, Eva,
and Peter, paid their last respects. Elsworth
Baker, M.D., who had studied with Reich for eleven
years, gave the eulogy. “Friends, we are here
to say farewell, a last farewell to Wilhelm Reich.
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 an organised conspiracy
sent him to prison and there killed him.”
Years later, Dr. Baker also wrote: “Reich’s attitude,
in fact his entire life, was unconventional and
as difficult for the world to understand as were
his discoveries. Many legends, probably even religions,
will develop about him. Already, some people look
upon him as a superman who could not err, or as
a spaceman come to earth; others have rationalised
and written articles attempting to prove him insane,
a charlatan, or a fraud, He was very human, natural,
and open, and foremost, a great and genuine scientist.
He could be as soft and warm as a summer breeze
or as violent and angry as a thunderstorm.”
Was he a genius or a madman? For those who consider
Reich an enemy of the people, his official sins
are duly recorded in the dusty archives of office
buildings in Vienna, Berlin, Copenhagen, Oslo
and Washington. For those willing to take the
time to investigate Reich’s writings, a different
sort of man emerges.
It is my feeling that Reich desperately wanted
to show the world God existed in the realm of
the orgone. Through the study of orgonomy, Reich
believed man and science could prove, beyond doubt,
that God is real. Like God, the orgone is indestructible.
And like God, orgone energy exists everywhere
in the universe. Man’s spirit constantly reflects
the orgone, eternally imbued with new life rising
from the ashes of death.
Almost a half-century after his death, his scientific
legacy persists. Reichian (Orgone) therapy is
practised by some psychiatrists and psychologists.
The American College of Orgonomy publishes the
Journal of Orgonomy devoted to his work,
and maintains a web site (www.orgonomy.org). Reich’s
laboratory and burial place at Organon is now
a Museum with a bookstore open to the public.
Cloud-busting followers like Jim DeMeo have established
an Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory in Ashland,
Oregon. The lab conducts yearly seminars reproducing
Reich’s bion experiments and demonstrating Reich’s
blood test procedures.
Reich’s T-bacilli are obviously connected to still
controversial and current bacteriologic findings
of so-called nanobacteria, pleomorphic bacteria,
cell-wall-deficient bacteria, and mycoplasma.
In addition, newly discovered bacteria have been
found in the blood of all human beings. All of
these microbial life forms have been implicated
as possible cancer-causing and disease-causing
agents.
In some ways Reich was childlike and surprisingly
naïve. His downfall was overestimating the goodness
of science; and underestimating the dark forces
of science. In human terms, he paid for this error
with his life.
Science, as we know it, is becoming increasingly
“dark.” As this new century begins, scientists
continue to discover all sorts of new ways to
kill mass numbers of people and other living things
with chemical, biological, and nuclear warfare.
Perhaps it is time to take another look at Reich’s
discoveries and his dream to harness orgone energy
for planetary healing. Rather than automatically
placing Dr. Wilhelm Reich in the trash bin of
medical science, he might eventually prove to
be the most inventive and far-sighted physician-scientist
of the twentieth century. H
References:
Baker
EF: "My eleven years with Reich". Journal
of Orgonomy 18:155-171, 1984.
Boadella
D: Wilhelm Reich: The Evolution of His Work.
Vision Press, Chicago, 1973.
Cantwell
AR, Blasband RA: "Bionous tissue disintegration
in AIDS". Journal of Orgonomy 22:220-228,
1988.
Cantwell
AR: The Cancer Microbe. Aries Rising Press,
Los Angeles, 1990.
Cantwell
AR: "Bionous breakdown in degenerative disease".
Journal of Orgonomy 25:191-202, 1991.
Cantwell
AR: "Bacteria, cancer and the origin of life".
New Dawn, November 2003, pp 71-76.
Reich
W: The Bion Experiments on the Origin of Life.
Ferrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1979.
Reich
W: The Cancer Biopathy. Ferrar, Straus
and Giroux, NY, 1973.
Reich
W: Passion of Youth; An Autobiography, 1897-1922.
Ferrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1988.
Sharaf
MR: Fury On Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich.
St. Martin’s Press/Marek, New York, 1983.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Alan
Cantwell MD is a retired physician and cancer
researcher who believes cancer is caused by bacteria
and AIDS is man-made. There is probably no other
physician on the planet whose publications are
as controversial. Many of his published writings
can be found on google.com; and thirty of his
published papers can be accessed at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
(type in Cantwell AR).