J.P. Befumo - The Orgone Experiment

The Orgone Experiment

A Novel Based on the Life, Work, Persecution, and Death of Wilhelm Reich

J. P. Befumo

Copyright 2009 by J.P. Befumo
ISBN #: 978-0-9767489-5-3 ( Softcover )
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009943597

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Cover design by J. P. Befumo
This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Mans right to know, to learn, to inquire, to make bona fide errors, to investigate human emotions must, by all means, be safe, if the word FREEDOM should ever be more than an empty political slogan...

Wilhelm Reich, OROP Desert (response to FDA complaint)

This story is a work of fiction, based on the life of Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), a Viennese psychiatrist and pioneer psychoanalyst. Early in his career, Reich attracted the attention of many prominent scientists, and was hailed as a new Pasteur in the field of psychotherapy (Jerome Greenfield. 1974 Wilhelm Reich Vs. The USA . New York: W.W. Norton & Company).

Reich attributed all psychological, and many physical dysfunctions to sexual repression. He argued that physical, mental, and emotional health could not be segregated from social issues. An early proponent of abortion rights, safe sex, and universal tolerance, Reich established free clinics in Vienna and Berlin. He provided counseling and health care to the poor, and distributed literature and free contraceptives.

These controversial activities resulted in his being disavowed by Sigmund Freud, who had previously considered Reich a protg. He was also expelled from the Viennese Psychiatric Association, and even expunged by the Communist Party.

Reich came to New York City in 1939, and taught at the New School for Social Research in Greenwich Village. He theorized a physical analog to Freuds concept of the libido, underlying a new form of energy. Reich called this universal force orgone . He believed that orgone was the source of organization that overcomes entropy, and results in the formation of life.

Reich established a laboratory complex called Orgonon near the town of Rangeley, Maine. His ongoing investigation into the nature and properties of orgone led to the development of the Orgone Energy Accumulator , which he believed could collect and intensify this universal orgone flux.

Reich claimed that treatments using this device could assuage (but not necessarily cure) many ailments, including cancer. These assertions aroused the suspicion of mainstream medical science. Despite official condemnation, numerous physicians reported startling success when using Reichs techniques to treat advanced cancer.

The medical and scientific communities, however, were not the only ones provoked by Reichs findings. By 1947 he had also come to the attention of the FDA, which launched a massive investigation of his endeavors. In 1954 the FDA filed a blatantly falsified complaint accusing Reich of fraudulent activities.

Reichs nave idealism exacerbated his difficulties. He responded to the FDA complaint by arguing that scientific research was beyond the jurisdiction of any court. The court chose to interpret this response as a crank letter. When Reich, believing that he had acted properly, failed to appear at the hearing, Judge John D. Clifford Jr., under pressure from J. Edgar Hoover, entered a default judgment, and issued the flawed injunction as requested.

The proceedings continued for years. Although the fraud charge was never tried, Reich was convicted of contempt, and sentenced to two years in prison. First, however, he was forced to burn several hundred volumes of his work. (The injunction stated that he , not the federal agents, would do the actual burnings; an effort to exonerate the action on a technicality.)

Wilhelm Reich was found dead in his cell at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary on November 3, 1957three days before his first parole hearing. The cause of death was listed as myocardial insufficiency with sudden heart failure. He was sixty years old

In his last years, Reich claimed to have run a motor using only orgone energya demonstration witnessed by several prominent scientists. In his article The Day Reich Died, Harvey Matusow , a fellow prisoner serving time for perjury in the McCarthy witch-hunts, claimed that Reich had spent most of his time working on a book entitled Creation . In this book, Reich claimed, he developed the mathematical formulation of countergravity .

This book was never found.

Newspaper reports confirm Reichs ability to control weather using an apparatus he called the Cloudbuster . On July 6, 1953, attempting to help local farmers after a prolonged drought, Reichs efforts were reported to have resulted in 1.74 inches of rain over a three-day period in which the National Weather Service had predicted no chance of rainfall whatsoever. In subsequent experiments outside Tucson, Arizona, many credible witnesses described his having created a patch of green in the midst of desert.

By far, the most significant of his claimed discoveries resulted from the Oranur Experiment , which purported to demonstrate the ability of orgone energy to damp nuclear radiation. ( Oranur was an acronym derived from OR gone A nd NU clear R eaction.) Numerous witnesses allege that when one of these experiments backfired, everyone in the vicinity suffered from symptoms similar to radiation sickness, and the area was uninhabitable for some time thereafter.

Convinced that his discoveries were crucial to national security, Reich reported his findings to several government agencies, including the Atomic Energy Commission, the Bureau of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Air Force, and the White House. He claimed to have met with president Eisenhoweran allegation denied by the government, although records do prove that the president was in the tiny town of Rangeley, Maine on the date when Reich claimed the meeting occurred, and no official reason for the visit is known. Many witnesses confirm that during this period, military aircraft frequently circled Reichs facility at low altitudes.

That Reich met with Albert Einstein can be confirmed, and on January 13, 1941, the two worked together far into the night, analyzing the results of Reichs experiments. By all accounts, Einstein initially considered Reichs discovery significant enough to set up another meeting for February 1, and to borrow Reichs experimental apparatus. Then, abruptly, Einstein severed all communication with Reich. These and other occurrences convinced Reich that he was the victim of a government conspiracy to obstruct his discoveries and discredit him personally.

Whether Wilhelm Reich was one of the great geniuses of our age, or a confused neurotic, remains for history to decide. What can be concluded from available evidence is that he honestly believed in the worth of his work, and was not, as detractors claimed, a fraudulent crook.

The Orgone Experiment is a fictional tale based on the life of this colorful, misunderstood, and tortured soul. I have tried to remain faithful to the major events of Reichs life, while dramatizing the story in a manner consistent with what is known of his work and personality. The final trial scenes draw upon the actual court transcriptions in order to convey the depth and eloquence of Reichs insights and responses.