Orgone: Origins
A while back EVP team member, Jamie, picked up a pendant made of Orgonite. It was ugly but it was supposed to shield her from negative energies especially whilst working with the paranormal. In time, I forgot about it, my questions about the stuff going largely unanswered. Recently, she showed me a video on YouTube that demonstrated the wondrous shielding properties of this manmade “crystal” and suddenly, my curiosity resurfaced. So I decided to do a blog post about it.
Though I made that decision a few months ago, this is the first time I’ve attempted it because I was not prepared for the research RABBIT HOLE it would take me down. Not to toot my own horn but, I have diligently slogged through every pseudo-scientific video and website I have found…devoting WAY too much time to what is, to date, a fruitless pursuit.
Why then, you may ask, am I writing about it? Well… I am writing about it because A. I’ve done ALL this research and it shall not go to waste and TWO because I have actually discovered some pretty mind blowing stuff.
Here we go again…
Orgonite was thusly dubbed for the concept of Orgone Energy, which was created by a man named Wilhelm Reich. An Austrian psychoanalyst, Reich was the deputy director of Freud’s outpatient clinic, The Vienna Ambulatorium. He coined the term “sexual revolution” and influenced various ideas like Gestalt therapy and body psychotherapy. And while he was not without considerable and legitimate contribution, he was eventually banned from the Institute of Psychoanalysis due to his radical political views and had to leave Germany shortly after Hitler came to power.
That hair though!
Though he continued his work in the Untied States, his views did him no favors with the conservative American public. It Probably didn’t help that his theories were very focused on sex which, while common to Viennese psycho-analytic circles, shocked Americans.
The word “Orgone” was a pseudo-greek formation and it is no coincidence that the first syllable is “org” (meaning “Impulse or excitement”) as in “orgasm.” Reich discovered it shortly after coming to America. He considered this biological or cosmic energy to be an extension of Freud’s idea of the libido. Like Freud, much of Reich’s theory was focused on libido except, instead of the focus being on man’s inherently selfish primal drives, Reich felt libido was a life-affirming force repressed by society.
Simply put, Reich believed that what the world needed was: more orgasms. (I mean…who can argue with that?) His theory of orgastic potency, the ability to release emotions from muscles and lose one’s self in an uninhibited orgasm, was the ultimate goal of character analysis.
If you really want to get into the crazy world of Orgonomy go to the Wilhelm Reich Wiki and knock yourself out. It’s really too much to put here, all of it ~fascinating~. But for the purpose of this post, I will simply say that Reich believed this Orgone energy was an untapped, undiscovered gold mine of health and wellness.
His next efforts were focused on the harnessing and amplifying of this energy…none of which resulted in necklaces like the ones shown above. Instead, Reich created a box he called an accumulator which was made of plywood layered several times with rock wool and sheet iron which supposedly intensified the accumulation of Orgone energy inside. His first prototypes were small, designed for mice. He claimed his experiments showed a decrease in tumors throughout the bodies of mice with cancer. Later, he grew the boxes for humans. A simple design, this box was about five feet tall and had a chair inside on which the patient would sit naked.
But see? There’s a little window for all you claustrophobes!
Through much adversity, Reich continued his research, attempting to win Einstein as one of his supporters. But after conducting his own experiments on Reich’s accumulator, Einstein was unconvinced of its effectiveness, relegating results to environmental factors. Though Reich made repeated attempts to sway Einstein, he was ultimately told not to attach Einstein’s name to his work for the purpose of advertising.
It wasn’t until 1947 when several magazine articles were published drawing attention to Reich’s work, with the intention of attacking the field of psychoanalysis, that his reputation was notably damaged. Though he refuted it as a smear campaign, the inflammatory spin was enough to draw the attention of the FDA who, upon investigating, touted Reich’s work as fraudulent and marked it a “sexual racket” further damaging his credibility.
Still, he continued his work, discovering another form of Orgone he called Deadly Orgone Radiation or DOR. He attributed desertification to accumulations of this radiation and created a device called a “cloud buster” to combat its effects. Large aluminum pipes were mounted on a mobile base and connected to cables which were then inserted into water. He believed it could unblock Orgone energy in the air and cause rain.
Anti-aircraft? Anti-DOR! Make it rain, boys!
Whether or not it actually worked was debatable. Eventually his findings were dismissed by the American press and he and his students were labeled “A cult of sex and anarchy.” And joining his reputation on the slippery slope of deterioration was his sanity. He became convinced that the Earth was under constant attack by UFO’s or “energy alphas.” And, when the Food and Drug Administration saddled him with an injunction which prevented him from making medical claims and from shipping his Orgone devices across state lines, he felt he was the victim of a conspiracy. Upon defying the injunction he was imprisoned and, sadly, that is where he spent the remainder of his life.
So there you have it, the story behind the father of this Orgone/Orgonite movement. I know! I have not even touched upon the ugly necklaces or how this questionable science experienced a renaissance which created a burgeoning Etsy market and awesome Instagram accounts of child stars with too much money and nothing better to believe in! Not to mention picking apart the vast list of jargon that poses as explanations, detailing the life missions of people who believe they are helping the planet through global Orgonite littering campaigns, and the direct link to the ever-fascinating chemtrail. I told you it was a rabbit hole and I am bringing it ALL to you. Stay tuned for the next installment of the saga that began with one ugly little necklace.
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