Wilhelm Reich
Pioneer of emotion-centered healing techniques and researcher of primordial energy.
Wilhelm Reich (1897 - 1957) crashed through the barriers between disparate scientific fields and cultural preconceptions creating a body of work so far in advance of current theories that established scientists, in particular the APA (American Psychiatric Association) conspired with the FDA (American Government's Food and Drug Administration), to have him put in jail.
In 1919, while a student at the University of Vienna (Austria), Reich met Sigmund Freud. Reich soon became a highly regarded member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association, serving as deputy director of Freud's Psychoanalytic Polyclinic.
Reich's Early Work
Reich believed that the root cause of mental illness was evidenced in inhibited sexuality. He developed a theory of what he initially called "vegetative currents", streaming life energy flowing within the human body that is basic to it's functioning. These currents are most accessible to study in the sexual (life continuing) functions, but are inherent in all life.
Reich discovered that these vegetative currents were blocked by chronic tension of the body's muscles. These blocks form in observable patterns and structures, "character armor", which Reich believed were reflective of the primitive evolutionary segmentation of the body. These patterns provide a degree of predictability of the symptoms that the patient would experience.
Reich created a body / mind therapy using deep (belly then chest) breathing, recollection of emotional incidents in childhood, and physical pressure on focus points of the bodily "armor" to evoke deep emotional responses in his patients. These methods helped release buried tensions and promote emotional health. Reich's work on character armor is the source of many of today's alternative psychiatric techniques. Reich believed healthy sexual activity was an effective way to release stored muscular and emotional tensions, a position that caused him a great deal of conflict during his career.
The Mass Psychology of Fascism
Reich applied his theories in intensive work at clinics for working people that he created in Vienna and later Berlin, in cooperation with the communist party, of which he was for a time a member. That association ended with the publication of "The Mass Psychology of Fascism" in 1933.
Reich here applied his concept of "vegetative currents" to the behavior of crowds and nations. The unmet needs of the infant, imprinted on the body's muscular structure, create an irrational desire for security and for a protective, authoritarian "Father Figure". This desire takes the place of healthy sexuality in the neurotic character structure. These same repressed needs can be directed by skillful manipulation of the emotions into rage at another group, presented as the cause of the frustration. Reich believed that healthy, sexually fulfilled people would not allow any leader to direct their emotions. For this reason he had to leave Germany when the Nazis came to power.
The Orgone Experiments
Reich boiled hay and other materials breaking them into component parts. When he observed these materials at high temperature under a high powered microscope he noted bright, glowing, blue vesicles. Reich called these vesicles "Bions" - and believed he had isolated an elemental particle of life. The energy contained in these vesicles he named "Orgone".
Reich, by using his extraordinary intelligence and his ability to observe carefully without pre-conception, had re-discovered the basic life principle, well known in the esoteric teachings of Kundalini Yoga, Tantra, and other Eastern traditions. The concept of Chi and Prana are simplifications that today have some understanding in the West.
In the 1940's and 1950's, when Reich worked, there was little knowledge of these concepts. This Author has examined Reich's personal library in his laboratory (now a museum) in Rangeley, Maine. There are several introductory books on Eastern religion there, but nothing that would indicate that Reich connected his theories to Eastern Metaphysics. An article on Reichenbach's "Od" theory (which presaged Orgone) is included in Reich's archived papers.
Reich discovered that metal would reflect orgone, and that organic material would store it. He began layering these materials to concentrate orgone - what became his "orgone accumulator", first used in study and then as a therapeutic device which he believed would enhance the vegetative current in the body, allowing it to overcome disease. He had hundreds of patients using orgone accumulators (a simple cabinet built of layered material, that the patient would sit in) and many people believed them to be effective.
Cloudbusting
Orgone, as primordial life energy, is everywhere. But Reich found that the concentration of Orgone was uneven, that deserts were greatly lacking in this important energy. He built an array of metal tubes, each connected to a flexible hollow metal tube that ran deep into the ground. With this "Cloudbuster" adjusting the flow of Orgone he could create and dissipate clouds in the sky. Reich had several well documented successes in creating rain during a drought in Maine and on a field trip to the American South-West.
The "Emotional Plague"
In 1953 Reich published "The Murder of Christ", a sweeping and powerful analysis of near-universal sociological illness that he called the "Emotional Plague of Mankind".
At about the same time the forces of fear and repression, as Reich would see them, gathered for the final attack. The FDA sent a series of agents searching for evidence against Reich. No attempt was made to understand his research, rather Reich was assumed to be a fraud because, in the eyes of the FDA, Orgone did not exist. A judge signed an injunction forbidding Reich to, among other things, ship his orgone accumulators across state lines.
Reich believed the courts had no business ruling on the validity of scientific discoveries and paid little heed to the injunction. When the government found that a number of accumulators had been shipped from Maine to New York, crossing state lines, Reich was sentenced to two years in Federal prison. He died there on November 3, 1957. His final manuscript, "Creation" perhaps containing his work on negative gravity and formulas for orgonomic equations, was never returned to his estate and is presumed lost.
The Reich Archives
Following the instructions in Reich's will, most of his unpublished papers were sealed for a period of fifty years. That time has now elapsed and as of October 29th, 2007 the archives, all 98 cubic-feet of them, are available for scholars and researchers. No doubt many new insights into Reich and his work will be found there.
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Wilhelm Reich
Scientist of Life's Secrets
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