Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (08/08/89)
Really-From: ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward Suranyi)
With all the talk lately about "Cloudbusting" and Wilhelm and Peter
Reich, I thought it would be instructive to see how someone with
a completely different perspective looks at his work. The following
piece is by Martin Gardner, a well known mathematician and critic
of the paranormal.
From "Hermit Scientists" by Martin Gardner (1951)
Reprinted in Gardner's _Science: Good, Bad and Bogus_ (1981)
Reprinted here without permission
Let us turn to a more colorful scientist whose work has recently
become a lively cult among the more Bohemian intellectuals of New York
and elsewhere -- the psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich. Like Hubbard's
dianetics, Reich's "orgone therapy" has no connection with religious dogma
but is presented simply as a revolutionary discovery in biology and
psychology.
Reich began his curious career in Austria as an orthodox Freudian
but later broke with the psychoanalysts, founding his own publishing
house in Germany in 1931. He also severed his ties with the Austrian
Communist Party, having served in the same cell with the writer Arthur
Koestler. Five years later, Reich opened an institute at Oslo, where he
met with furious attack by Scandinavian biologists who insisted his
knowledge was less than that of an undergraduate. Expelled from Norway,
he came to New York in 1939 at the invitation of Dr. Theodore P. Wolfe,
an associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, and lectured
for a brief term at New York's New School for Social Research. [Later, he
maintained] a press in Greenwich Village, and research laboratories in
Forest Hills, New York, and Organon, Maine.
In Reich's best-known work, _The Function of the Orgasm_, he
compares himself to Peer Gynt, i.e., the unconventional genius, out of
step with society, misunderstood, ridiculed. Society has the last laugh,
he writes, until the Peer Gynts are proved right. In [another]
publication, _Listen, Little Man_, 1949, Reich likens himself to such
persecuted figures as Jesus and Karl Marx. "Whatever you have done to me
or will do to me in the future," he declares, "whether you glorify me as
a genius or put me in a mental institution, whether you adore me as your
savior or hang me as a spy, sooner or later necessity will force you to
comprehend that *I have discovered the laws of the living*. . ."
A pamphlet by Dr. Wolfe, published by Reich's Orgone Institute in
1948, is called _Emotional Plague Versus Orgone Biophysics_. The purpose
of the booklet is stated on the cover:
A vicious campaign of slander and distortion against
Wilhelm Reich and his work was begun early in 1947.
There is no telling where it will lead. This campaign
has not been confined to magazine and newspaper articles,
but an agency of the United States Government has been
dragged into it.
Chief signs of this "emotional plague" (Reich's term for the slander
campaign) are two articles by Mildred Brady, one in _Harper's_ (April,
1947), the other in _The New Republic_ (May 26, 1947). The government
agency is the Food and Drug Administration, at that time investigating
Reich's "orgone accumulators." These are large boxes of wood on the
outside and metal inside. Patients rent them from the Institute, then
sit inside them to build up their orgone potential by absorbing the
box's abnormally high concentration of orgone energy (a nonelectromagnetic
radiant energy coming from outer space which Reich discovered in Norway
in 1939). "The Orgone Accumulator is the most important single
discovery in the history of medicine, bar none," Wolfe writes.
The following paragraph from a letter of Reich's published in the
pamphlet, is revealing:
It is an old story. It is older than the ancient Greeks
whom we consider the bearers of a flourishing culture. . . .
It was no different two thousand years later. Giordano
Bruno, who fought for scientific knowledge and against
astrological superstition, was condemned to death by the
Inquisition. It is the same psychic pestilence which
delivered Galileo to the Inquisition, let Copernicus die
in misery, made Leeuwenhoek a recluse, drove Nietzsche
into insanity, Pasteur and Freud into exile. It is the
indecent, vile attitude of contemporaries of all times.
This has to be said clearly once and for all. One cannot
give in to such manifestations of the pestilence.
A word about orgone energy. Reich regards his discovery of it as
comparable to the Copernican Revolution. A failure to accept it on the
part of other psychiatrists is, of course, "resistance to a new concept."
In _Character Analysis_ he interprets Freud's "Id" as the action of
orgone energy in the body. The energy provides a biological and physical
base for psychiatry, and to operate with the old Freudian drives is,
Reich asserts, like trying to drink from a mirror image of a glass of
water. In _The Function of the Orgasm_ he describes orgone energy as
blue in color (it has been photographed on Kodachrome film, Wolfe tells
us), and adds that it is responsible for the Northern Lights, St. Elmo's
Fire, lightning, the blue of the sky, electric disturbances during
sunspot activity, and the blue coloration of sexually excited frogs.
"Cloud formations and thunder storms," he writes -- "phenemena which
to date have remained unexplained -- depend on changes in the
concentration of atmospheric orgone." In 1947 Reich measured the energy
with a Geiger counter.
It is interesting to note in passing that Reich also attributes
the flickering of stars to orgone energy.
Reich's most astounding discovery is reported in the article "The
Natural Organization of Protozoa from Orgone Energy Vesicles," in the
November, 1942, issue of his _International Journal of Sex Economy and
Orgone Research_. In this paper, accompanied by microphotographs,
Reich describes his observations of protozoa being formed spontaneously
from aggregates of bions. The bion is another Reich discovery. It is
the unit of living matter, consisting of a membrane surrounding a
liquid and pulsating with orgone energy. Bions are constantly being
formed in nature by the disintegration of both organic and inorganic
matter. Under his microscope Reich observed bions grouping together
to form various types of protozoa, and he has the photographs to prove
it. Cancer cells, incidentally, are protozoa which develop from tissue
bions. To charges of critics that protozoa get into his cultures from
the air, or were already on the disintegrating material in the form of
dormant cysts, Reich simply answers that it isn't so, though he gives
no evidence of taking adequate precautions against either possibility.
Disciples of Reich frequently defend him by saying, "Granted that
his biological work is highly suspect, you'll have to admit he's made
great contributions to the field of mental therapy." This may be
true. But it has somewhat the same plausibility as a statement like
the following: "Granted that Professor Ludwig von Hoofenmeister errs
in his theory that stars are holes in an opaque sphere surrounding
the earth, you'll have to admit has has made magnificent discoveries
in his study of cosmic rays."
The reader may wonder why a competent scientist does not publish
a detailed refutation of Reich's absurd biological speculations. The
answer is that the informed scientist doesn't care, and would, in fact,
damage his reputation by taking the time to undertake such a thankless
task. For the same reasons, scarcely a single classic in the field of
modern scientific curiosa has prompted an adequate reply.
[In the book Gardner adds a postscript, written in 1981:]
Reich's orgonomy cult *seems* to be waning (I could be wrong!),
though most of his books are back in print, and his followers are
still to be found among writers, artists, and show people like Orson
Bean. Numerous books about him, favorable and otherwise, have been
written in recent years. His daughter Eva Reich, a pediatrician in
Hancock, Maine, is active as a lecturer in orgonomy. Her father's
rain-making device -- huge tubes that squirt orgone energy into the
clouds -- is in her front yard. [Any Love-Hounds want to make a
pilgrimmage?] For a while she was using orgone energy accumulators
to treat infants at a hospital for premature babies in Harlem; but,
after the director asked her to cease or resign, she chose the latter.
Eva is firmly persuaded that human auras are orgone energy. See
Lynn Franklin's long, sad interview, "Like Father, Like Daughter,"
in the _Maine Sunday Telegram_, June 22, 1980. According to
_Newsweek_ (December 13, 1976): "For twenty years, Eva Reich has
been hiding microfilms of portions of Reich's papers in a mushroom
cave in the Catskill Mountains. Unless the courts intervene, she says,
she may make these secrets available to the world."
A silly book has just crossed my desk: _The Quest for Wilhelm
Reich_, by Colin Wilson (Doubleday, 1981). Poor Colin. He had
great promise as a young writer in Britain before he went crackers
over the paranormal. Wilson sees Reich as crazy, but nevertheless
a genius whose discovery of orgone energy puts him in the company
of Semmelweis, Mendel, and all those other great scientists who were
unappreciated in their day. No book on Reich is less worth reading.
Note from Ed:
This in *no way* takes anything away from the greatness of
"Cloudbusting" which is one of my favorites even among Kate's
songs. It's just that I always have to laugh whenever Kate mentions
in an interview that Reich was "very respected." Sometimes her
philosophical ideas have to be taken with a grain of salt, I think.
Ed
ed@das.llnl.gov
Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (08/08/89)
Really-From: koeppel@aramis.rutgers.edu In article <8908072131.AA10759@das.llnl.gov> Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU writes: > Really-From: ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward Suranyi) > > written in recent years. His daughter Eva Reich, a pediatrician in > Hancock, Maine, is active as a lecturer in orgonomy. Her father's > rain-making device -- huge tubes that squirt orgone energy into the > clouds -- is in her front yard. [Any Love-Hounds want to make a > pilgrimmage?] For a while she was using orgone energy accumulators > > Ed > ed@das.llnl.gov Yes, I'd like to go! Not now, 'cause I can't take the time, but we should find out just where it is, and make a point to go! I want a picture of it! jessica
ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward Suranyi) (08/10/89)
In article <8908072131.AA10759@das.llnl.gov> I quoted Martin Gardner: >written in recent years. His daughter Eva Reich, a pediatrician in >Hancock, Maine, is active as a lecturer in orgonomy. Her father's >rain-making device -- huge tubes that squirt orgone energy into the >clouds -- is in her front yard. [Any Love-Hounds want to make a >pilgrimmage?] For a while she was using orgone energy accumulators (As you see, Reich did have a daughter, Eva, as some posters have just figured out.) I've seen some postings from people who are interested in trying to find the "cloudbuster". It's way too far for me, but if anybody goes, can you get pictures? The above quote was written in 1981, and I have no idea if it's still accurate. On the other hand, I have absolutely no interest in seeing the Wilhelm Reich museum at Orgonon. As I've said before, "Cloudbusting" is a great song, but a great song does not change the facts. Wilhelm Reich was an incompetent scientist and a medical quack to boot. About the only thing that can be said in his favor is that he probably did not *mean* any harm. IMHO, he was justly arrested and sent to prison for the same reason that purveyors of Laetrile, copper arthritis bracelets, and electronic dieting devices are today, when they can be caught: Charging patients for worthless cures is a crime. It also leads to vast suffering by those who avoid orthodox medical treatment which, in many early cases, could have helped. Of course, "Cloudbusting" is based on Peter Reich's story, not his father's. As far as I can tell, Peter is essentially blameless. It worries me, however, to see Kate take Wilhelm Reich's ridiculous theories so seriously. In every interview I've seen of her in which this song is discussed, she appears to really believe that his cloudbuster worked! Just had to get it off my mind. Ed ed@das.llnl.gov
Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (08/10/89)
Really-From: "Nick@The End of Time,,," <nkings@zaphod.axion.bt.co.uk> From article <8908072131.AA10759@das.llnl.gov>, by Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU: > Really-From: ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward Suranyi) > > With all the talk lately about "Cloudbusting" and Wilhelm and Peter > Reich, I thought it would be instructive to see how someone with > a completely different perspective looks at his work. The following > piece is by Martin Gardner, a well known mathematician and critic > of the paranormal. > Thanks, Ed for the article! But... how much of KaTe's Cloudbustin' is based on reality? Is it just the premis that a rain-making machine exists? Or was Wilhelm dragged away by the authorities? (Or dragged away by the ghosts and ghoulies? :} ) - Nick Kings - nkings@axion.bt.co.uk - < Thor Nogson > - "It's not easy being a dolphin"
orion@WPI.WPI.EDU (Kenneth G Descoteaux) (04/12/90)
I've had this since before I became a Kate-fan and I finally remembered to bring this to my terminal so I could get it right... If anyone is interested in reading about Wilhelm Reich, the Doctor Who Made it Rain, the September 1989 issue of _Yankee_ (Vol 53, No 9) was a special issue on "New England's Most Famous Imposters, Hoaxes & Frauds: Unforgettable Tales of Mad Scientists, Patent Medicine Miracles, Flagrant Fakers, and Foods That Aren't What They Taste (and that's no hoax)" 'The Doctor Who Made it Rain' by Tim Clark (pp. 72-79,130-134) (there's a good BW of a real cloud-buster, the nozzle end was just made out of steel pipes, 10 tubes made of three pipes screwed end-to-end) Some tidbits: Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian pschiatrist born in 1897. By 1953 he was living at Orgonon in Rangeley, Maine. One of the uses for orgone enery was similar to 'pyramid power' in that boxes or cones were used to accumulate energy for using to heal minor injuries. He noticed the effects of acid rain in 1952, a decade before _A Silent Spring_ and 24 years before "acid rain" was a phrase. He attributed the effect to a nuclear testing at first, but later decided it was caused by a bad form of orgone energy called 'deadly orgone' originating from the exhaust of flying saucers. It was in an attempt to eliminate DOR that the cloud-buster was invented. One of his employees accidently made it pour for over 24 hours by accident once by over use of a cloud-buster. A nine-year old Peter gets mentioned in connection with a $1000 fee for making rain over a blueberry farm during a drought in 1953. The FDA was all over Reich for his claims about the healing capability of orgone energy and brought an injunction against him in 1954. In retaliation, he threatened to "flood the East" and apparently caused rain and snow up and down the coast. While fighting the FDA in court, he was sentenced to two years in prison for contempt of court. Appeals went all the way to the US Supreme court, but he went to jail in March 1957. He died of heart failure on November 3, 1957 while in a federal prison. A cloud buster is supposed to be rusting at Orgonon, not far from his tomb. Apparently believers in Orgone energy are around who publish something called the "Journal of Orgonomy", and who used cloudbusters during the nation-wide drought 'last summer' <not sure if they mean '88 or '89> <With the above offering, I humblely state that I too have some small holes in my music collection, don't we all?> Ken Descoteaux orion@wpi.wpi.edu
MTARR@WESLEYAN.BITNET (04/14/90)
Hello, Katefans... I can't believe I grew up in Maine, and never once heard of Reich or his place in Rangeley!!! I seem to vaguely remember something about a machine that could make it rain, but I never knew anyone who had seen it. Does it look like the machine in the video? Unfortunately, I no longer live in Maine, and going back for that sole purpose would be rather stupid, but one of these days I'm going to hunt that machine down and find it. I do have one question, though: did it *really* make it rain? If so, why hasn't someone jumped on the idea and manufactured cloud- busters, to bring relief to the Midwest and maybe even Equatorial Africa? Did Reich ever get a patent on it? If he didn't, it'd be a neat thing to get one and provide drought relief to the arid regions of the world. If it works, that is. Anybody have an answer to my question? Also, has anybody been able to track down a copy of "The Book of Dreams"? I'd really like to read it sometime. ******************************************************************************** Meredith Tarr "Looking for a moment that'll never happen mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu Living in tha gap between past and future" Wesleyan University -KT ********************************************************************************
eric@CLUTX.CLARKSON.EDU (Eric France) (04/14/90)
From article <9004131335.AA01867@gaffa.MIT.EDU>, by MTARR@WESLEYAN.BITNET: > Hello, Katefans... > > I can't believe I grew up in Maine, and never once heard of Reich or his > place in Rangeley!!! I seem to vaguely remember something about a machine > that could make it rain, but I never knew anyone who had seen it. > > Does it look like the machine in the video? Probably not. Allegedly, the video cloudbuster was designed by ultra-surreal artist and Alien-designer H. R. Giger especially for KaTe and this video. Another damn fine job (from the man who invented chest-bursting aliens ;). Anyone know what the eventual disposition of KaTe's cloudbuster was? Seems like it should go in a music museum somewhere (but not the R'n'R HoF). Some rich Love-Hound buy it up for his collection? Eric France "Think, Dammit!" eric@clutx.clarkson.edu BSD: You're not dealing with AT&T. (Well I am now!)
ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward Suranyi) (04/14/90)
In article <9004131335.AA01867@gaffa.MIT.EDU> MTARR@WESLEYAN.BITNET writes: [Talking about the cloudbuster] >Does it look like the machine in the video? Not really. From what I understand, Reich's machine looked simply like a bunch of tubes sticking out of the ground. Not nearly as impressive as Kate's vision. >I do have one question, though: did it *really* make it rain? No. Ed ed@das.llnl.gov
orion@WPI.WPI.EDU (Kenneth G Descoteaux) (04/14/90)
In article <9004131335.AA01867@gaffa.MIT.EDU> MTARR@WESLEYAN.BITNET writes: >Does it look like the machine in the video? Not really. In the BW photo, the 'buster is mounted on what looks like a 3'x3'x3' platform. The 'buster appears to have some kind of swivel mounting. The 'buster has a 6' tall by 2' wide wooden frame-like construct at the top of which there are 2 rows of pipes around 6" apart. Each row contains 5 pipes set maybe 4" apart. Each of the pipes is actually made of 3 lengths of 6' or 8' metal piping (the kind with male threads on one end and a flange at the other). The pipes look like 3"-4" diameter pipes. It looks like something Reich had his handyman throw together in the garage (which is essentially what happened). Very 'raw'. Kind of like an Anti-Aircraft gun. The biggest difference is that Reich's Cloudbuster had cables connecting each pipe to a *nearby lake or stream* to act as an orgone energy 'ground'. KaTe probably felt that her Cloudbuster looked more impressive at the top of prominence rather than near a pond and ignored this detail (artistic freedom). > did it *really* make it rain? _Yankee_ talked to the blueberry farmer (Osmon Merrill or Ellsworth Maine) who paid $1000 for Reich's rain. He was satisfied that Reich *did* make it rain. (He paid only after 1/2" of rain fell) The only way to be sure would be to build your own... >****************************************************************************** >Meredith Tarr "Looking for a moment that'll never happen >mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu Living in tha gap between past and future" >Wesleyan University -KT >****************************************************************************** Ken Descoteaux orion@wpi.wpi.edu Ken Descoteaux orion@wpi.wpi.edu
ecwu59@castle.ed.ac.UK (E Welsh) (04/14/90)
In article <1990Apr13.220718.22077@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> eric@clutx.clarkson.edu writes: >Anyone know what the eventual disposition of KaTe's cloudbuster >was? Seems like it should go in a music museum somewhere (but >not the R'n'R HoF). Some rich Love-Hound buy it up for his collection? I read somewhere that it was gathering dust in a barn at East Wickham Farm. I'll give a fiver for it though if she's selling... +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | __ | evan@tardis.ed.ac.uk |Are you selling your | | |_ \ / | ecwu59@castle.ed.ac.uk |soul to a cold gun ? | | |__VAN \/\/ELSH | ecwu86@ercvax.ed.ac.uk | Kate Bush. | | | rew@lfcs.ed.ac.uk | | +____________________________________________________________________+
MTARR@WESLEYAN.BITNET (04/15/90)
X-VMS-News: eagle rec.music.gaffa:3434 > Anyone know what the eventual disposition of KaTe's cloudbuster > was? Seems like it should go in a music museum somewhere (but > not the R'n'R HoF). Some rich Love-Hound buy it up for his collection? I have an interview of Kate ca. 1987, in which she said it was in her garage. I don't know if it's still there, but that's where it went after the filming of the video- hell, if I had something like that, I'd want to keep it, too! Thinking about it, I bet the real thing did look vaguely like the one in the video, because it had ten tubes pointing up at the sky, and I seem to remember Kate's Cloudbuster as having a bunch of tubes, as well. ******************************************************************************** Meredith Tarr "Looking for a moment that'll never happen mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu Living in the gap between past and future" Wesleyan University -KT ********************************************************************************
THOMASDL@UIUCVMD.BITNET (05/07/91)
Just found this in the Bangor (Maine) Daily News - April 27/28 edition: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RANGELEY - The orgone energy accumulator, an invention of Wilhelm Reich, will be the focus of a workshop from Monday, July 22, through Friday July 26, at the Wilhelm Reich Museum in Rangeley. Reich discovered a new form of energy, his supporters say, but his work was opposed by the Food and Drug Administration, which filed a complaint in 1953 asking for an injunction against Reich. To register, call 864-3443. Fee for the conference is $275. Accomodations must be arranged separately. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I believe the correct area code is 207... for those willing to shell out $275! thought you'd be interested, David T. Champaign IL p.s. I tried to send this last week, but it apparently was bounced back to me. I apologize if this has appeared before!
aipssa@cc.curtin.edu.au (05/13/91)
In article <9105061842.AA14801@EDDIE.MIT.EDU>, THOMASDL@UIUCVMD.BITNET writes: > RANGELEY - The orgone energy accumulator, an invention of Wilhelm Reich, will > be the focus of a workshop from Monday, July 22, through Friday July 26, at > the Wilhelm Reich Museum in Rangeley. I'm interested in Wilhelm Reich's work but being in Australia it's not easy to find info. I would be interested to hear from anyone who is going to attend this workshop or knows about it. (I won't be going myself - the expense is a bit much). Please post direct to me at Douglas@BA1.curtin.edu.au Thanx in advance JArrod Douglas. Undergraduate Curtin University Western Australia Douglas@BA1.curtin.edu.au
AIPSSA@cc.curtin.EDU.AU (05/13/91)
Path: cc.curtin.edu.au!aipssa From: aipssa@cc.curtin.edu.au Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa Subject: Re: Wilhelm Reich Message-ID: <1991May13.125044.8098@cc.curtin.edu.au> Date: 13 May 91 12:50:44 +0800 References: <9105061842.AA14801@EDDIE.MIT.EDU> Organization: Curtin University of Technology News-Moderator: Approval required for posting to rec.music.gaffa Lines: 20 In article <9105061842.AA14801@EDDIE.MIT.EDU>, THOMASDL@UIUCVMD.BITNET writes: > RANGELEY - The orgone energy accumulator, an invention of Wilhelm Reich, will > be the focus of a workshop from Monday, July 22, through Friday July 26, at > the Wilhelm Reich Museum in Rangeley. I'm interested in Wilhelm Reich's work but being in Australia it's not easy to find info. I would be interested to hear from anyone who is going to attend this workshop or knows about it. (I won't be going myself - the expense is a bit much). Please post direct to me at Douglas@BA1.curtin.edu.au Thanx in advance JArrod Douglas. Undergraduate Curtin University Western Australia Douglas@BA1.curtin.edu.au