Orgone

Wilhelm Reich

Orgone (or orgone energy) is an esoteric concept, that goes back to the Austrian psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich. In his late ("neoreichian") creative phase (from the 1930s) Reich was working with something he called primordial cosmic energy. In 1939 he derived the concept of orgone energy from his Bion-experiments as well as the ideas of a Friedrich Kraus.

As part of today's popular Reichian "orgonomy concepts" terms like orgone energy, orgone biology orgone chemistry emerged.

Orgone is assessed as a kind of "putative energy" by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine(NCCAM) , that is used by some therapies(Homeopathy, Prana, Chi, ...), but has defied measurement. This idea is not covered by medical and scientific facts and was quickly unmasked as fiction.

Claims and assumptions about orgone energy

Reich believed to have detected microscopic structures in his experiments, „Energy bubbles, that represent the transition stages between inanimate and living matter“. They were to be created „all the time in nature through a process of dissolution of anorganic and organic matter that can be established experimentally.“ He called these energy bubbles bions. As an interpretation of his measurements he finally postulated the existence of a specific biological energy which he called "orgone".

Reich believed that that he could detect electrical fields with an electroscope or electrometer in electrically non-conductive materials such as rubber, cotton wool or sand, that originate from a cosmical energy called orgone. In analogy to his observations about Sapa bions which should emit energy, he believed in the existence of inborn human orgone energy. Orgone believers define life as "orgone energy that pulsates in a membrane" an call the doctrine of orgone energy Orgonomy.

Orgone energy was also available in inexhaustible quantities in the atmosphere and in soil and detectable with electric meters. The amplitude of an electric meter (an obsolete instrument to measure high voltages), however, only shows the level of voltage, but not the available energy. While the opening of a plastic container or rubbing on carpet might yield voltages of several thousand volt and lead to a corresponding measurement on an electric meter, but considerable electrical energy cannot be produced by this since only a limited number of charge carriers are utilized and at best a very short, low-power pulse can be generated. In accordance, air electricity, which can have voltages in the kilovolt range, cannot be used for energy production.

The orgone term is not scientifically recognized and is used only in the circles of the Reich- or orgone supporters. Some of them believe that orgone energy is identical with the phenomenon of the so called floaters (see: floaters in Wikipedia) or orgone energy waves, brief flashes of light (flickering before the eyes) or the sensation of high-frequency noise from tinnitus or circulatory disorders and brief loss of consciousness.

The first critic of the orgone concept was Albert Einstein, on whom Reich imposed his theories. Einstein took the trouble to verify the Reich's predictions, but could explain the test results with conventional physics without relying on abstruse hypotheses and wrote back to Reich: „I hope that you will develop your skepticism and won't let yourself be deceived by understandable illusions.“.

According to Reich, there is also a degenerate form of orgone energy called DOR (of "Deadly Orgone Energy"). DOR would cause darkening of sunlight. However, DOR was no smog nor dust, but a "negative energy" that would make it impossible for the atmosphere to transport sunlight. DOR would also damage orgone accumulators. In recent times, electromagnetic radiation is often equated with DOR and it is said, that devices that emit electromagnetic radiation, also would radiate DOR.

Orgone accumulators, orgone rays, orgone generators

Reichs assumptions about orgone energy led to orgone therapy and to the development of orgone accumulators, booths that should be able to store orgone. The Cloud Buster, a structure made ​​of copper pipes, whose ends are usually cast in a block of orgonite (a mix of resin and metal fragments) will according to Reich be able to discharge orgone from the atmosphere to the ground. Orgone accumulators and Cloudbuster are offered by esoteric dealers, but mainly Do-It-Yourself instructions are distributed. On a large scale orgone radiators are are commercially offered. Orgone radiators, which are typically designed as a one-sided pointed rod of metal, will absorb orgone energy and it is claimed in advertising that it will return it "purified and refined" as a concentrated beam. Also, there are "orgone generators", also called "chi-generators", which would allow one not only to affect orgone energy but to produce it.

Some protagonists

• Don Croft. The American esoteric and conspiracy theorists is the originator of the idea to connect the chemtrails-hypothesis with the orgone- and Cloudbuster-hypothesis.
• Georg Ritschl. The German, living in South Africa, runs a campaign called "Orgonise Africa".
• Bernd Senf. The former professor of economics in Berlin is one of the most dedicated self-proclaimed orgone researchers in Germany.
• Joachim Trettin, head of an "Orgone institute" in Nümbrecht in Cologne
• Karl Hans Welz (born 1944). The Austrian, living in California, who combined Radionik with the orgone theory, is considered the inventor of the substance Orgonite and has build the "orgone generator", in his view "the first device on the planet that creates orgone or life energy". Weiz also claimed that he had examined orgone "with scientific means" and made evident "even with thermometer, electroscope and Geiger counter".

Wilhelm Reich Orgone Institute Deutschland in Nümbrecht

Joachim Trettin (Bild: facebook

Advertisement for a "degree course of orgonomy" of a "Orgone Institute Nümbrecht" of Joachim Trettin

Trettins "Orgoninstitut" in Nümbrecht sells orgone accmulators (1630 Euro) and orgone blankets and also offers a "study of orgonomy". Graduates will be allowed to call themselves "Orgonomes" The graduation took place at a foreign private educational institution called "AMRI" (Alternative Medicine Research Institute) till 2008, where Trettin as well as Prof. Dr. h.c. (MD honoris causa, honorary degree) Beate Freihold should be active as lecturers (Professor in Orgonomy). The so called AMRI claims on their website to be part of an "Alternative Medicines Research Organisation (AMRO)" with a mailbox address in Vancouver (Canada) and also part of an "University Consortium International" (UCI). UCI President and founder of AMRO is a "Prince Egbert Phipps of The ISLE of MAN". From 2008 the graduation was at the diploma mill "Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica" (Unem) in Costa Rica.

Versions of this article in other languages

• Deutsch: Orgon

Literature

• Martin Gardner: Reich the Rainmaker: the Orgone Obsession. Skeptical Inquirer, 13(1):26-30, 1988
• Irmgard Oepen, Horst Löb: Der Orgon-Strahler – eine funktionslose, aber offenbar gewinnbringende Attrappe. Skeptiker 11 (4/98) 148-152