Although no charges were made, Reich was held until January, 1941. He also lost his position at the New School. Reich landed in trouble after claiming that the box cured cancer - in 1941, he was arrested by the FBI after claiming his box had saved several people. Modern Reich advocates believe that images of earth from space, with its thin blue halo, the blue haze seen around waterfalls, and the Northern Lights are all evidence of orgone energy, the fundamental life force. Reich concluded that this life energy force, or orgone, was blue, if seen under specific conditions. Cancerous mice, when placed in the box, improved, and seedlings showed atypical growth rates. Eventually he learned that his box didn’t just trap this energy - it intensified it. Constructed of metal and layered with cotton batting or wool, Reich’s box had unexpected properties - if he put his hand in the box he felt warmth and energy, as did others. Noticing a blue color in his microbiology experiments, he believed he was observing radiation, so he built a specialized Faraday cage, or box, to trap and study the energy. A friend and professor of psychiatry at Columbia University had arranged a teaching position for Reich at The New School in Manhattan. In his book “ Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich ,” Myron Sharaf notes that Reich left Norway on the last departing boat prior to the official start to WWII in 1939. Reich pushed back, and his visa was extended on the condition that he stopped practicing his unorthodox brand of psychotherapy which involved massage - touching a patient was unforgivable sin in Freud’s nascent community.Īmerica, Orgone Accumulators, Aliens and Cloud Busters He continued to search for the connection between biology and electrical energy, his “orgone” principal.īut eventually, Reich provoked his Norwegian peers to the point where they refused to endorse him for a visa extension - it must have been powerful provocation, as Norwegians traditionally take pride in their tolerant, humanistic views. Driven out of the International Psychoanalytic Organization, and now considered a madman by his colleagues, Reich sought intellectual refuge in England, Denmark, and Sweden, but didn’t find safe haven until 1934 in Norway. Publicly denouncing the Nazis as “sexual psychopaths” didn’t help. His books had been burned in Germany, and he was reportedly on death lists in both countries. Reich was under attack from the growing Nazi party as well as the Russian Stalinists. His successful orgone experiments drew relentless attacks from academics, the press, and law enforcement, ultimately leading to his suspicious death while serving a two-year prison sentence for violation of an FDA injunction. Eventually, Reich recognized this orgone energy as the same principle as chi, prana, and the divine creative force that enlivens all existence. His unapologetic foray into human sexuality science was unthinkable in post-Victorian culture, fraught with repressive taboos and frantic avoidance of sexual dynamics and politics. Reich’s unshakable belief in the potency of human sexual bio-energy would drive his research and haunt him for the rest of his life. From this point on, Reich would be dogged by controversy, official scrutiny, and smear campaigns. The psychoanalytic community, rejecting his theories as absurd, called him “the prophet of the better orgasm,” according to biographer Myron Sharaf. From this perspective, Reich identified human “ orgone ” bioenergy, asserting this was the source of all life. In 1924 Reich published his theories connecting sexuality and well-being, arguing that the ideal development of human potential and character is dependant on healthy sexual relationships built on deep trust and ego surrender. Thus began Reich’s lifelong role as a lightning rod for institutional medical, scientific, and legal fury.
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