archived as http://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/Reich_07.doc [pdf] more orgone-related articles at http://www.stealthskater.com/PX.

htm#Reich note: because important websites are frequently "here today but gone tomorrow", the following was archived from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/06/tech/printable3457751.shtml on 11/07/2000. This is NOT an attempt to divert readers from the aforementioned website. Indeed, the reader should only read this back-up copy if the updated original cannot be found at the original author's site.

Wilhelm Reich after 50 years

"Sexual Energy gets a second look"
Rangeley, Maine, Nov. 6, 2007 (Associated Press)

This undated family photo from the mid 1950s shows the late physician-scientist Wilhelm Reich at his laboratory in Rangeley, Maine. The European-born inventor of the orgone energy accumulator died 50 years ago and will be honored at the opening of a major exhibition Nov. 15, 2007 at the Jewish Museum in Vienna. This is where Reich attended medical school and began his psychiatric practice and studied under Sigmund Freud.

Physician-scientist Wilhelm Reich -- best known for his claims of a cosmic life force associated with sexual orgasm -- died in Federal prison. The U.S. government burned many of his books and other publications and destroyed his equipment. But half-a-century later, a small number of scientists and other believers are working to advance the European-born psychiatrist's work on what he called "orgone energy" -- a theory largely forgotten in the scientific mainstream. "Personally, I think it's going to be a long time before all of his work is understood and recognized," said Reich's granddaughter Renata Reich Moise, a nurse-midwife and artist in the coastal town of Hancock in the northeast state of Maine. Reich died on Nov. 3, 1957 in a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania where he was sent for ignoring an injunction obtained by the Food and Drug Administration that outlawed a device he called an "orgone energy accumulator". Reich believed it could charge the body with essential life energy, heightening vitality and potentially helping to heal disease.

Critics point to some of these more unconventional ideas in deriding him as a quack. But supporters say that he was a brilliant man whose ideas warrant further exploration. The 50th anniversary of his death is being marked by a major exhibition on Reich and his work that opens Nov. 15 at the Jewish Museum in Vienna -- the city where he attended medical school, began his psychiatric practice, and studied under Sigmund Freud. Also this month, archives of Reich's unpublished papers (which have been stored at Harvard Medical School) will become available to researchers for the first time. Reich had stipulated that his papers only be opened 50 years after his death. He also specified that his laboratory at the site he dubbed 'Orgonon' -- which overlooks Rangeley Lake -- be converted to a museum. It opened in 1960. In Rangeley where Reich spent his latter years, scientists and doctors from the U.S. and Europe gathered this summer for a conference that explored the prospects of seeking FDA approval for clinical trials of orgone accumulator blankets to treat burn victims. Reich is described by the American Psychoanalytic Association as "one of the most brilliant, creative, and controversial of the pioneering analysts." He was the first to focus on character analysis rather than neurotic symptoms. He linked a healthy sex life -- which he called "orgastic potency" -- to emotional wellness, believing that failure to discharge sexual energy resulted in neurotic disorders. His more controversial work came after he veered away from psychotherapy into laboratory experiments in Norway that led to the discovery of what he called "bions" -- basic life forms that gave off orgone energy. After moving to the U.S. just before the start of World War II, he focused on isolating and collecting that energy and went on to test its effect on cancer. His orgone accumulators eventually caught the attention of the FDA. After an investigation, the agency branded the devices consisting of alternating metallic and nonmetallic materials a fraud. In 1954, it sought an injunction in U.S. District Court in Portland. Reich refused to appear in court, triggering a default judgment and order that his books and accumulators be destroyed. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison for contempt of court. He served only 8 months before he died of a heart attack. The FDA's injunction, supporters say, had a chilling effect on his work that persists even today. Moise said she believes there is merit in the orgone accumulator blanket, which her mother used in her medical practice. Moise has tried it herself to heal burns. "It's not crazy. It actually works," she said. Even as the anniversary-related events rekindle memories of Reich and his theories, some of his supporters worry that they are in a race against time. The challenge, they say, is to keep his work alive and advance it through new studies and experimentation at a time when Reich is not being taught in either medical schools or physics classes.
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Kevin Hinchey -- who is writing a book about Reich's work in the U.S. -- said that most of the doctors and scientists who've taken an interest in Reich's life are baby-boomers. "If something dramatic isn't done to bring his work before the medical and scientific community, I really wonder what's going to happen when the baby-boomers die. There's not a lot of younger people who are reading Reich."

[StealthSkater note: folklore has it that it was Reich's orgone-based weather-modifying "radiosonde" technology coupled with "Project Rainbow" (i.e., the Philadelphia Experiment) that evolved into "Project Phoenix I/II/III" (i.e., later collectively called the Montauk Project). More on Reich is archived on the PX/Montauk page at doc pdf URL ]

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