Forwarded from 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐝 (☆ 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮 ☆)
Roots to Fruits: The magic of foraging
🔗 SOURCE: WickedLeeks
At this time of year I always go ‘brambling’, but it wasn’t until I looked into the history and science of foraging that I realised just how powerful picking blackberries can be.
The best place I know for brambles is near a little town in East Lothian called Haddington. I was vaguely aware that in the 16th Century the area was part of a witchcraft ‘outbreak’.
Innocent women were persecuted for speaking in demonic tongues and casting spells on their neighbours. What I was not aware of was that one of their crimes was ‘hedgerow witchcraft’ or the foraging for medicines from wild plants for everything from childbirth to depression.
Today a lot of people still forage in hedgerows and thankfully none of us are burned at the stake. But there is still a sense of the subversive. Foraging for food is one of the few ways we can sever reliance on the established food and medical system. It is seen as a little bit wild, a little bit dangerous; there is even still a connection to witchcraft.
In her wonderful book A Spell in the Wild, Alice Tarbuck, who describes herself as a modern day ‘witch’, guides the reader through some of the ways we can reconnect to our pagan roots. Part of her practice is to gather wild plants for their medicinal properties, as well as for the feelings of empowerment and freedom it gives her identifying and gathering her own food and medicine.
It is well known that wild foods like blackberries and rosehips are packed with vitamin C. But is there something even more powerful going on?
Wendy Russell, a professor of molecular nutrition at The Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, and certainly not a witch, thinks so. She explains that, as well as the vitamins and minerals identified by science, there are potentially millions of phytochemicals in wild plants we do not yet know about.
These micronutrients could hold the key to improving our health and even treat non-communicable conditions like diabetes. For example, blackberries are packed full of anthocyanins, that give the fruit its purple colour and could protect against cancer.
A study carried out at The Rowett Institute found the 20 most-foraged plants in Scotland all contain high quantities of phytochemicals. Comparisons between wild cabbage and domesticated cabbage found the wild cabbage had far more phytochemicals. Prof Russell wants to bring some of these micronutrients in wild plants back into our diets through growing wild plants on marginal land, and reintroducing some of the genetics of wild plants back into our domesticated breeds.
There are also the mental health benefits in foraging. Recent studies have found that being outside in nature and gathering plants can improve your state of mind. One study at the University of Oregon found fractal shapes in nature like snowflakes and flowers can be soothing. Why not the sepals of a rosehip or the seeds on a blackberry? Another study from Japan found that forest bathing, the process of taking a mindful, multi-sensory walk in the woods, i.e. something very similar to foraging, can reduce stress.
As I set out to forage over this autumn equinox, I will be noticing the change in temperature, the leaves turning and the smell of the earth. I will be using all my senses to spot the red haws in the hedgerow, hear the robins singing and taste the sweetest blackberries. Best of all I will share my bounty with my friends when I get home. For me that feels like magic.
What is magic about foraging for you?
#SharingTheKnowledge
#HealthyLiving
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄, 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲👇👇 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲:
@Truth_Awakening_Channel
𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝.🤝🥰✌️
🔗 SOURCE: WickedLeeks
At this time of year I always go ‘brambling’, but it wasn’t until I looked into the history and science of foraging that I realised just how powerful picking blackberries can be.
The best place I know for brambles is near a little town in East Lothian called Haddington. I was vaguely aware that in the 16th Century the area was part of a witchcraft ‘outbreak’.
Innocent women were persecuted for speaking in demonic tongues and casting spells on their neighbours. What I was not aware of was that one of their crimes was ‘hedgerow witchcraft’ or the foraging for medicines from wild plants for everything from childbirth to depression.
Today a lot of people still forage in hedgerows and thankfully none of us are burned at the stake. But there is still a sense of the subversive. Foraging for food is one of the few ways we can sever reliance on the established food and medical system. It is seen as a little bit wild, a little bit dangerous; there is even still a connection to witchcraft.
In her wonderful book A Spell in the Wild, Alice Tarbuck, who describes herself as a modern day ‘witch’, guides the reader through some of the ways we can reconnect to our pagan roots. Part of her practice is to gather wild plants for their medicinal properties, as well as for the feelings of empowerment and freedom it gives her identifying and gathering her own food and medicine.
It is well known that wild foods like blackberries and rosehips are packed with vitamin C. But is there something even more powerful going on?
Wendy Russell, a professor of molecular nutrition at The Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, and certainly not a witch, thinks so. She explains that, as well as the vitamins and minerals identified by science, there are potentially millions of phytochemicals in wild plants we do not yet know about.
These micronutrients could hold the key to improving our health and even treat non-communicable conditions like diabetes. For example, blackberries are packed full of anthocyanins, that give the fruit its purple colour and could protect against cancer.
A study carried out at The Rowett Institute found the 20 most-foraged plants in Scotland all contain high quantities of phytochemicals. Comparisons between wild cabbage and domesticated cabbage found the wild cabbage had far more phytochemicals. Prof Russell wants to bring some of these micronutrients in wild plants back into our diets through growing wild plants on marginal land, and reintroducing some of the genetics of wild plants back into our domesticated breeds.
There are also the mental health benefits in foraging. Recent studies have found that being outside in nature and gathering plants can improve your state of mind. One study at the University of Oregon found fractal shapes in nature like snowflakes and flowers can be soothing. Why not the sepals of a rosehip or the seeds on a blackberry? Another study from Japan found that forest bathing, the process of taking a mindful, multi-sensory walk in the woods, i.e. something very similar to foraging, can reduce stress.
As I set out to forage over this autumn equinox, I will be noticing the change in temperature, the leaves turning and the smell of the earth. I will be using all my senses to spot the red haws in the hedgerow, hear the robins singing and taste the sweetest blackberries. Best of all I will share my bounty with my friends when I get home. For me that feels like magic.
What is magic about foraging for you?
#SharingTheKnowledge
#HealthyLiving
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄, 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲👇👇 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲:
@Truth_Awakening_Channel
𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝.🤝🥰✌️
Orgone Channel Telegram
•http://www.waterjournal.org/uploads/vol4/demeo/WATER.2012.6.DeMeo.pdf •http://www.orgonelab.org/bibliography3.htm * James DeMeo, Aurelio Albini, William Aronstein, Alexander Bingham, Emilio Del Giudice, Robert Haralick, Morton Herskowitz, Marco Heimann, Harold…
WHAT IS ORGONE ENERGY AND ITS RELATION TO OTHER FORMS OF ENERGY
Article by Roberto Maglione
Posted on 01 December 2025. Tags: Biophysical Orgonomy, CloudBuster, Oranur Experiment, orgone accumulator, Orgone Acupuncture
WHAT IS ORGONE ENERGY AND ITS RELATION TO OTHER FORMS OF ENERGY
A comparative study between Reich’s orgone energy and other known energies of the past has been discussed in the first part of the talk. Generally, those energies were called by different names even though they had the same basic characteristics. One of the most accepted and widespread terms that might encompass all of these is aether. Its functions were studied in all epochs of our recent civilization both inside and outside public institutions. In 1905, Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis, the (luminiferous) aether was removed from mainstream science and no longer reintroduced. Notwithstanding that, the aether continued to be thoroughly studied by many independent researchers and scientists outside of academic circles. From the present investigation it emerged that orgone energy presents many similarities with most of the ancient and more recent forms of energy, and it can be identified with them. Besides, the (luminiferous) aether of the Victorian age might be considered directly related to Reich’s orgone energy in that they have in common very basic physical qualities.
The second part of the talk is focused on the relationship between orgone energy (or aether), a pre-atomic energy (in Reich’s terms) and its secondary by-products, nowadays considered the primary pillars of traditional physics. Presently, the laws of physics are based on the behaviour of inanimate objects. The basic processes of living matter (such as pulsation, lumination, condensation into matter, irritability, and heat formation) and their animation are excluded from the fundamental assumptions. This led over time to a sterile and limited conception of physical phenomena. Striking evidence of this limited understanding is illustrated by the Brownian Movement misnomer whereby the living motion of Clarkia Pulchella pollen (looking much like bions) has been reduced to and studied as merely a movement of inert, dead particles (Jones, 2013; Maglione, 2014). The orgone energy continuum is of non-electrical nature and is substantially different from electromagnetic energy. It is the medium through which electromagnetic waves propagate in space, a conception already in use before Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis (1905), and even by the early Einstein (1894-5 first paper). Electromagnetic waves are simply a disturbance of the orgone continuum that propagate through it with a pulsating movement. Friction (static) electricity is a manifestation of orgone energy in an excited or Oranur state, while heat is a particular manifestation of the movement of orgone energy particles due to the conversion of part of their kinetic energy into heat when hitting metallic layers or materials. This latter conception promptly invalidates the second law of thermodynamics (and entropy). Matter is formed by the superimposition of two or more excited orgone energy particles that converge and start rotating at luminal velocity.
The talk’s conclusion stresses the point that orgone energy, as well as its secondary manifestations or by-products, were already known throughout the ages. Reich’s profound research ability led him to introduce for the first time ever, in this historical context, rules and laws within a modern language to understand and manage all the fundamental and secondary qualities of this energy, including the living properties, which have been so neglected by many, even in the more distant past.
https://www.psychorgone.com/biopathies-physical-orgone-therapy/what-is-orgone-energy-and-its-relation-to-other-forms-of-energy
Article by Roberto Maglione
Posted on 01 December 2025. Tags: Biophysical Orgonomy, CloudBuster, Oranur Experiment, orgone accumulator, Orgone Acupuncture
WHAT IS ORGONE ENERGY AND ITS RELATION TO OTHER FORMS OF ENERGY
A comparative study between Reich’s orgone energy and other known energies of the past has been discussed in the first part of the talk. Generally, those energies were called by different names even though they had the same basic characteristics. One of the most accepted and widespread terms that might encompass all of these is aether. Its functions were studied in all epochs of our recent civilization both inside and outside public institutions. In 1905, Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis, the (luminiferous) aether was removed from mainstream science and no longer reintroduced. Notwithstanding that, the aether continued to be thoroughly studied by many independent researchers and scientists outside of academic circles. From the present investigation it emerged that orgone energy presents many similarities with most of the ancient and more recent forms of energy, and it can be identified with them. Besides, the (luminiferous) aether of the Victorian age might be considered directly related to Reich’s orgone energy in that they have in common very basic physical qualities.
The second part of the talk is focused on the relationship between orgone energy (or aether), a pre-atomic energy (in Reich’s terms) and its secondary by-products, nowadays considered the primary pillars of traditional physics. Presently, the laws of physics are based on the behaviour of inanimate objects. The basic processes of living matter (such as pulsation, lumination, condensation into matter, irritability, and heat formation) and their animation are excluded from the fundamental assumptions. This led over time to a sterile and limited conception of physical phenomena. Striking evidence of this limited understanding is illustrated by the Brownian Movement misnomer whereby the living motion of Clarkia Pulchella pollen (looking much like bions) has been reduced to and studied as merely a movement of inert, dead particles (Jones, 2013; Maglione, 2014). The orgone energy continuum is of non-electrical nature and is substantially different from electromagnetic energy. It is the medium through which electromagnetic waves propagate in space, a conception already in use before Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis (1905), and even by the early Einstein (1894-5 first paper). Electromagnetic waves are simply a disturbance of the orgone continuum that propagate through it with a pulsating movement. Friction (static) electricity is a manifestation of orgone energy in an excited or Oranur state, while heat is a particular manifestation of the movement of orgone energy particles due to the conversion of part of their kinetic energy into heat when hitting metallic layers or materials. This latter conception promptly invalidates the second law of thermodynamics (and entropy). Matter is formed by the superimposition of two or more excited orgone energy particles that converge and start rotating at luminal velocity.
The talk’s conclusion stresses the point that orgone energy, as well as its secondary manifestations or by-products, were already known throughout the ages. Reich’s profound research ability led him to introduce for the first time ever, in this historical context, rules and laws within a modern language to understand and manage all the fundamental and secondary qualities of this energy, including the living properties, which have been so neglected by many, even in the more distant past.
https://www.psychorgone.com/biopathies-physical-orgone-therapy/what-is-orgone-energy-and-its-relation-to-other-forms-of-energy
Media is too big
VIEW IN TELEGRAM
Roberto Maglione, What is Orgone Energy, Its Relation to Other Forms of Energy, May 2025
https://youtu.be/jOtgbZgqp8I
drsimonian channel
https://youtu.be/jOtgbZgqp8I
drsimonian channel
Forwarded from Orgone Channel Telegram (ned)
"I can understand the impatience of my friends who would like to learn as much as possible as soon as possible. However, the interest of the total work requires the interpolation of several years between the time a finding is made and its publication. This is an automatic safeguard against theoretical blunders. From the very beginning of orgone research it has proven valuable not to publish a new finding until it has developed into an essential new insight. The continued development to a new insight is a confirmation of the previous finding"
~ Wilhelm Reich in the introduction to Orgonotic Pulsation, The differentiation of orgone energy from electromagnetism ~ Presented in talks with an electrophysicist, International Journal for Sex-Economy and Orgone Research Vol. III, reprinted in Orgonomic Functionalism # 3, pp. 20-21
~ Wilhelm Reich in the introduction to Orgonotic Pulsation, The differentiation of orgone energy from electromagnetism ~ Presented in talks with an electrophysicist, International Journal for Sex-Economy and Orgone Research Vol. III, reprinted in Orgonomic Functionalism # 3, pp. 20-21
http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/reich_816.html
archived as http://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/Reich_03.doc
(also https://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/Reich_03.pdf )
more of the Wilhelm Reich is on the /PX.htm#Reich page at http://www.stealthskater.com/PX.htm#Reich
note: because important web-sites are frequently "here today but gone tomorrow", the following was
archived from http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/reich_816.html on October 10,
2006 . This is NOT an attempt to divert readers from the aforementioned web-site. Indeed, the
reader should only read this back-up copy if it cannot be found at the original author's site.
Wilhelm Reich's Contact With Space
by Robert Scott Martin
SPACE.com staffwriter
posted: 05:38 pm ET
16 August 1999
On January 28, 1954, Wilhelm Reich "happened accidentally to observe 2 bright yellow-orange
lights moving in front of a mountain range toward a lake." The encounter was the opening salvo of a
"war" with UFOs that would occupy the final phases of Reich's troubled medical and scientific career.
At the time, Reich -- a trained psychoanalyst who had once belonged to Sigmund Freud's inner
Vienna circle -- was already facing what he called "emotional and physical misery" caused by his more
terrestrial battle with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration over the use of "orgone" -- a controversial
form of ambient "life energy" that he claimed to have discovered.
Reich found an inexhaustible range of uses for his discovery, touting orgone as everything from the
secret of anti-gravity to a tool for weather control (especially rainmaking). Most importantly, he found
that he could use orgone to "interfere" with UFOs.
But to the FDA, orgone simply did not exist, rendering Reich's orgone-based therapies prosecutable
under quackery statutes. Even today, 4 decades after the controversy, Reichian therapists claim to be
able to manipulate the energy for a wide variety of healing effects -- including the cure for cancer --
without resorting to drugs, radiation, or chemicals. Instead, Reichians work to build up a current of
orgone within the patient's vicinity in order to strengthen and heal the underlying life force itself.
Nevertheless, Reich's legal fight with the FDA ended with his death in prison after defying a federal
injunction against the use of orgone for medical purposes.
Whatever the official status of his medical theories, Reich expected a response when he wrote to the
U.S. Air Force about his UFO sighting. He reasoned that "the U.S. Air Force is the natural organization
in the Western World responsible" for dealing with such phenomena because "it operates in the
atmosphere and watches the frontier upward toward outer space." When the military didn't deal with his
report to his satisfaction, Reich took matters into his own hands.
The Encounter and the Air Force
In his letter to the Air Force -- reproduced in his last book Contact With Space -- Reich described his
sighting as "a brightly shining light" moving from west-to-east through the forest outside Rangeley,
Maine. A second, similar phenomenon soon joined the first, both moving steadily in front of Spotted2
Mountain. He concluded that the objects were not stars due to their course and the mountain intervening
between their apparent motion and the sky, but the possibility that they were military vehicles or other
objects of a terrestrial type did not seem to occur to him.
At around the same time, Reich's secretary Ilse Ollendorff also reported seeing "a similar but
brighter and bigger, because closer, object." Like the aerial phenomena observed by Reich, Ollendorff's
sighting hovered in front of a mountain but then "was seen rising once vertically upward, settling down
again and then disappearing."
The Air Force, for its part, was either unaware of Reich's running battle with the FDA or was
intrigued enough by his encounter to overlook the controversy. Lt. Steven J. Hebert, stationed at the
Presque Isle Air Force Base, wrote back telling Reich that the "subject officer notified this organization
archived as http://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/Reich_03.doc
(also https://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/Reich_03.pdf )
more of the Wilhelm Reich is on the /PX.htm#Reich page at http://www.stealthskater.com/PX.htm#Reich
note: because important web-sites are frequently "here today but gone tomorrow", the following was
archived from http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/reich_816.html on October 10,
2006 . This is NOT an attempt to divert readers from the aforementioned web-site. Indeed, the
reader should only read this back-up copy if it cannot be found at the original author's site.
Wilhelm Reich's Contact With Space
by Robert Scott Martin
SPACE.com staffwriter
posted: 05:38 pm ET
16 August 1999
On January 28, 1954, Wilhelm Reich "happened accidentally to observe 2 bright yellow-orange
lights moving in front of a mountain range toward a lake." The encounter was the opening salvo of a
"war" with UFOs that would occupy the final phases of Reich's troubled medical and scientific career.
At the time, Reich -- a trained psychoanalyst who had once belonged to Sigmund Freud's inner
Vienna circle -- was already facing what he called "emotional and physical misery" caused by his more
terrestrial battle with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration over the use of "orgone" -- a controversial
form of ambient "life energy" that he claimed to have discovered.
Reich found an inexhaustible range of uses for his discovery, touting orgone as everything from the
secret of anti-gravity to a tool for weather control (especially rainmaking). Most importantly, he found
that he could use orgone to "interfere" with UFOs.
But to the FDA, orgone simply did not exist, rendering Reich's orgone-based therapies prosecutable
under quackery statutes. Even today, 4 decades after the controversy, Reichian therapists claim to be
able to manipulate the energy for a wide variety of healing effects -- including the cure for cancer --
without resorting to drugs, radiation, or chemicals. Instead, Reichians work to build up a current of
orgone within the patient's vicinity in order to strengthen and heal the underlying life force itself.
Nevertheless, Reich's legal fight with the FDA ended with his death in prison after defying a federal
injunction against the use of orgone for medical purposes.
Whatever the official status of his medical theories, Reich expected a response when he wrote to the
U.S. Air Force about his UFO sighting. He reasoned that "the U.S. Air Force is the natural organization
in the Western World responsible" for dealing with such phenomena because "it operates in the
atmosphere and watches the frontier upward toward outer space." When the military didn't deal with his
report to his satisfaction, Reich took matters into his own hands.
The Encounter and the Air Force
In his letter to the Air Force -- reproduced in his last book Contact With Space -- Reich described his
sighting as "a brightly shining light" moving from west-to-east through the forest outside Rangeley,
Maine. A second, similar phenomenon soon joined the first, both moving steadily in front of Spotted2
Mountain. He concluded that the objects were not stars due to their course and the mountain intervening
between their apparent motion and the sky, but the possibility that they were military vehicles or other
objects of a terrestrial type did not seem to occur to him.
At around the same time, Reich's secretary Ilse Ollendorff also reported seeing "a similar but
brighter and bigger, because closer, object." Like the aerial phenomena observed by Reich, Ollendorff's
sighting hovered in front of a mountain but then "was seen rising once vertically upward, settling down
again and then disappearing."
The Air Force, for its part, was either unaware of Reich's running battle with the FDA or was
intrigued enough by his encounter to overlook the controversy. Lt. Steven J. Hebert, stationed at the
Presque Isle Air Force Base, wrote back telling Reich that the "subject officer notified this organization
👀1
to take whatever action necessary since this unit is interested in investigating unidentified aerial
phenomena."
Hebert enclosed a copy of “Technical Information Sheet Form A” (the Air Force's UFO reporting
questionnaire) for Reich and Ollendorff to fill out and return. As Contact With Space ruefully notes,
Reich received the letter only 5 days before the FDA obtained the injunction forbidding the distribution
of orgone equipment as medical devices.
Reich returned the questionnaire along with a copy of a short essay "Survey on Ea", providing
background on other unusual occurrences around the Orgonon research facility including the revelation
that friends had told Reich "of saucers having been seen over Orgonon in 1951". However, he had taken
little personal interest in the reports until 1953 when his discovery of Donald Keyhoe's book made him
wonder whether UFOs -- or in his terminology, "Enigma Alpha" or "Ea" -- might be propelled by
orgone.
The Air Force did not reply, perhaps put off by the impenetrable nature of the "basic orgonometric
equations" included as an appendix to "Survey on Ea". In the book, Reich includes a rather coyly self-
important note saying "not all can be revealed" about his relationship with the Air Force. But there is no
evidence in Contact With Space that Reich was in communication with the military until October, a full
6 months later.
Instead, during that time, Reich writes that he busied himself with appealing the FDA injunction and
preparing a research trip to Arizona where he hoped to investigate the role played by orgone reactions in
the formation of deserts.
Watching for hostile signs in the sky
In looking toward space to explain his sighting, Reich showed himself to be anything but an
uncontaminated witness. Like most U.S. citizens in the 1950s, exposed to years of speculation that
flying saucers were not native to the Earth, Reich already believed that unknown aerial phenomena were
-- in his words -- most likely "contacts with visitors from outer space."
Reich was familiar with Donald Keyhoe's groundbreaking 1953 book Flying Saucers from Outer
Space, leaving him predisposed to look for extraterrestrial explanations for the unknown lights weaving
across the sky near his Maine research facility. Moreover, the fact that he had seen “War of the Worlds”
only 3 weeks before reporting his sighting was also likely a contributing factor -- as Reich called the
film "a rather realistic approach to the planetary emergency," it evidently made quite an impression.3
Furthermore, the cultural climate of the 1950s not only predisposed Reich to look beyond the Earth
but also to look for evidence that his UFOs were engaged in "warlike" behavior.
The threat of war was in the air, both in Reich's embattled personal life and in the broader political
framework. The Keyhoe book popularized several apparently hostile encounters between Air Force
pilots and unidentified aerial phenomena, while no less a personage than General Douglas MacArthur
would warn only a year after Reich's sighting that "all countries on Earth will have to unite to ... make a
common front against attack by people on other planets."
With that in mind, the Austrian refugee who had fled to the United States from the Nazis considered
it not only a scientific but also a patriotic duty to alert Air Force Intelligence to the encounter at once.
This policy of full disclosure was typical to Reich, who had taken care to keep the White House
informed about developments in orgone research since 1951. While his critics point to this as another
symptom of what long-time skeptic Martin Gardner called Reich's "paranoid egoism", Reich himself
seems to have considered the matter a "major responsibility" and seems to have downplayed the
potential uses of his encounter as a self-promotional vehicle.
Just before the war with the UFOs
In May, however, Reich made an accidental discovery that a few Air Force officers -- including
General Harold Watson, chief of intelligence at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base -- would find very
interesting.
phenomena."
Hebert enclosed a copy of “Technical Information Sheet Form A” (the Air Force's UFO reporting
questionnaire) for Reich and Ollendorff to fill out and return. As Contact With Space ruefully notes,
Reich received the letter only 5 days before the FDA obtained the injunction forbidding the distribution
of orgone equipment as medical devices.
Reich returned the questionnaire along with a copy of a short essay "Survey on Ea", providing
background on other unusual occurrences around the Orgonon research facility including the revelation
that friends had told Reich "of saucers having been seen over Orgonon in 1951". However, he had taken
little personal interest in the reports until 1953 when his discovery of Donald Keyhoe's book made him
wonder whether UFOs -- or in his terminology, "Enigma Alpha" or "Ea" -- might be propelled by
orgone.
The Air Force did not reply, perhaps put off by the impenetrable nature of the "basic orgonometric
equations" included as an appendix to "Survey on Ea". In the book, Reich includes a rather coyly self-
important note saying "not all can be revealed" about his relationship with the Air Force. But there is no
evidence in Contact With Space that Reich was in communication with the military until October, a full
6 months later.
Instead, during that time, Reich writes that he busied himself with appealing the FDA injunction and
preparing a research trip to Arizona where he hoped to investigate the role played by orgone reactions in
the formation of deserts.
Watching for hostile signs in the sky
In looking toward space to explain his sighting, Reich showed himself to be anything but an
uncontaminated witness. Like most U.S. citizens in the 1950s, exposed to years of speculation that
flying saucers were not native to the Earth, Reich already believed that unknown aerial phenomena were
-- in his words -- most likely "contacts with visitors from outer space."
Reich was familiar with Donald Keyhoe's groundbreaking 1953 book Flying Saucers from Outer
Space, leaving him predisposed to look for extraterrestrial explanations for the unknown lights weaving
across the sky near his Maine research facility. Moreover, the fact that he had seen “War of the Worlds”
only 3 weeks before reporting his sighting was also likely a contributing factor -- as Reich called the
film "a rather realistic approach to the planetary emergency," it evidently made quite an impression.3
Furthermore, the cultural climate of the 1950s not only predisposed Reich to look beyond the Earth
but also to look for evidence that his UFOs were engaged in "warlike" behavior.
The threat of war was in the air, both in Reich's embattled personal life and in the broader political
framework. The Keyhoe book popularized several apparently hostile encounters between Air Force
pilots and unidentified aerial phenomena, while no less a personage than General Douglas MacArthur
would warn only a year after Reich's sighting that "all countries on Earth will have to unite to ... make a
common front against attack by people on other planets."
With that in mind, the Austrian refugee who had fled to the United States from the Nazis considered
it not only a scientific but also a patriotic duty to alert Air Force Intelligence to the encounter at once.
This policy of full disclosure was typical to Reich, who had taken care to keep the White House
informed about developments in orgone research since 1951. While his critics point to this as another
symptom of what long-time skeptic Martin Gardner called Reich's "paranoid egoism", Reich himself
seems to have considered the matter a "major responsibility" and seems to have downplayed the
potential uses of his encounter as a self-promotional vehicle.
Just before the war with the UFOs
In May, however, Reich made an accidental discovery that a few Air Force officers -- including
General Harold Watson, chief of intelligence at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base -- would find very
interesting.
As Reich was scanning the sky with a "cloudbuster" -- a device he had designed to draw orgone out
of the sky in order to induce rain -- he saw a star "fade out" in the presence of 3 other witnesses. He
pointed the cloudbuster pipes at a second blinking light, which also faded in brightness. Meanwhile, the
first star reasserted itself once the cloudbuster was pointed away from it.
Reich repeated the experiment three more times in quick succession, reporting identical effects each
time. As it was scientifically impossible that his device could have interacted with actual stars -- even in
orthodox Reichian literature, the cloudbuster's range was measured in kilometers not light-years -- he
concluded that his device had interfered with 2 UFOs.
Having concluded that his cloudbuster could also function as a "spacegun", Wilhelm Reich began to
outfit his Arizona expedition as though preparing for a war with outer space.
In October 1954, Wilhelm Reich was under siege. Not only had the Food and Drug Administration
stripped him of his livelihood, but also almost daily UFO sightings were leaving his friends and family
exhausted and frightened.
"There is no doubt that I am at war" with the UFOs, Reich wrote hours after four bright pulsating
lights hovered for hours over Orgonon, his research facility in rural Maine. "What seemed only a
possibility 1-year ago is certainty now."
The UFOs had been menacing Orgonon since Reich began experiments with super-charging his
"cloudbuster" weather-control device with small amounts of radioactive material. Reich had learned in
May that the cloudbuster not only apparently pulled rain out of clouds but also drained energy from
lights in the sky, making it -- in his words -- a "spacegun" effective against UFOs.4
Like the cloudbuster, the Austrian psychiatrist turned "natural scientist" was convinced that UFOs
operated on orgone -- an ambient energy source that interacts with life and organic matter. Reich's
claims to the contrary, the FDA had determined that orgone did not exist and so had obtained an
injunction against any medical treatment purporting to effect cures through orgone manipulation.
However, Reich stayed devoted to the reality of his discovery. He trained the "spacegun" on 2 aerial
objects as they hovered ominously over Orgonon, causing both to retreat. One "disappeared after
weakening, waning, and blinking, leading Reich to conclude triumphantly that "tonight, for the first time
in the history of man, the war waged for ages by living beings from outer space upon this Earth ... was
reciprocated."
As above, so below. On that same day, Reich informed the authorities in Portland that he would
resume his orgone-oriented publishing efforts. This defiance would lead to his death in prison less than
3 years later.
An odd meeting with Air Force Intelligence
Convinced that the aliens were waging their "war" against Earth by poisoning its orgone and creating
deserts, Reich decided to test his spacegun in the drought-wracked wastes north of Tucson, AZ.
According to his final book Contact With Space, it had not rained in Tucson for 5 years, making the
desert a perfect proving ground for both the cloudbuster's rainmaking and UFO-weakening abilities.
Meanwhile, in order to share his findings with the Air Force, Reich sent his assistant William Moise
ahead to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. As Reich bitterly noted, Orgonon "had
received no direct help from the Air Force, financial or otherwise". But he remained eager to keep the
military posted on the extraterrestrial-combat uses of orgone.
Moise, however, got a guarded reception at Wright-Patterson. General Harold Watson, chief of Air
Force Intelligence, had initially seemed eager to speak with Moise about Reich's claim to have
"disabled" 2 UFOs, even insisting that Moise could arrive late in the day and the 2 men could "continue
the conference after supper."
Traveling cross-country, Moise was concerned that accidental factors could get in the way of the
of the sky in order to induce rain -- he saw a star "fade out" in the presence of 3 other witnesses. He
pointed the cloudbuster pipes at a second blinking light, which also faded in brightness. Meanwhile, the
first star reasserted itself once the cloudbuster was pointed away from it.
Reich repeated the experiment three more times in quick succession, reporting identical effects each
time. As it was scientifically impossible that his device could have interacted with actual stars -- even in
orthodox Reichian literature, the cloudbuster's range was measured in kilometers not light-years -- he
concluded that his device had interfered with 2 UFOs.
Having concluded that his cloudbuster could also function as a "spacegun", Wilhelm Reich began to
outfit his Arizona expedition as though preparing for a war with outer space.
In October 1954, Wilhelm Reich was under siege. Not only had the Food and Drug Administration
stripped him of his livelihood, but also almost daily UFO sightings were leaving his friends and family
exhausted and frightened.
"There is no doubt that I am at war" with the UFOs, Reich wrote hours after four bright pulsating
lights hovered for hours over Orgonon, his research facility in rural Maine. "What seemed only a
possibility 1-year ago is certainty now."
The UFOs had been menacing Orgonon since Reich began experiments with super-charging his
"cloudbuster" weather-control device with small amounts of radioactive material. Reich had learned in
May that the cloudbuster not only apparently pulled rain out of clouds but also drained energy from
lights in the sky, making it -- in his words -- a "spacegun" effective against UFOs.4
Like the cloudbuster, the Austrian psychiatrist turned "natural scientist" was convinced that UFOs
operated on orgone -- an ambient energy source that interacts with life and organic matter. Reich's
claims to the contrary, the FDA had determined that orgone did not exist and so had obtained an
injunction against any medical treatment purporting to effect cures through orgone manipulation.
However, Reich stayed devoted to the reality of his discovery. He trained the "spacegun" on 2 aerial
objects as they hovered ominously over Orgonon, causing both to retreat. One "disappeared after
weakening, waning, and blinking, leading Reich to conclude triumphantly that "tonight, for the first time
in the history of man, the war waged for ages by living beings from outer space upon this Earth ... was
reciprocated."
As above, so below. On that same day, Reich informed the authorities in Portland that he would
resume his orgone-oriented publishing efforts. This defiance would lead to his death in prison less than
3 years later.
An odd meeting with Air Force Intelligence
Convinced that the aliens were waging their "war" against Earth by poisoning its orgone and creating
deserts, Reich decided to test his spacegun in the drought-wracked wastes north of Tucson, AZ.
According to his final book Contact With Space, it had not rained in Tucson for 5 years, making the
desert a perfect proving ground for both the cloudbuster's rainmaking and UFO-weakening abilities.
Meanwhile, in order to share his findings with the Air Force, Reich sent his assistant William Moise
ahead to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. As Reich bitterly noted, Orgonon "had
received no direct help from the Air Force, financial or otherwise". But he remained eager to keep the
military posted on the extraterrestrial-combat uses of orgone.
Moise, however, got a guarded reception at Wright-Patterson. General Harold Watson, chief of Air
Force Intelligence, had initially seemed eager to speak with Moise about Reich's claim to have
"disabled" 2 UFOs, even insisting that Moise could arrive late in the day and the 2 men could "continue
the conference after supper."
Traveling cross-country, Moise was concerned that accidental factors could get in the way of the