Wilhelm Reich believed he could absorb the energy of an orgasm and use it as an all-purpose cure for all of mankind’s ailments.
An Austrian analyst born in 1897 , Wilhelm Reich had been a student of none other than Sigmund Freud himself . Freud believed that sexual repression was inherent to human nature , but his pupil pick out that ultra idea even further .
Wilhelm Reich’s New Point Of View
Wikimedia CommonsA distaff affected role in one of Wilhelm Reich ’s orgone accumulators .
The basis of Wilhelm Reich ’s belief system was that the energy produced by orgasms was anall purpose curefor humankind ’s ills , whether physical , mental , or societal .
Perhaps if Hitler and his crony join in the “ sexual revolution ” Reich figure swing through the continent ( an unpleasant image to be certain ) , even the warfare that was brewing in Europe could be prevented . Naturally , the Nazis did not take kindly to this theory ( they dubbed it a “ Jewish confederacy ” ) and Reich was forced to flee to Denmark as his books were burned in Austria and Germany .
Wikimedia CommonsA female patient in one of Wilhelm Reich’s orgone accumulators.
The whacky analyst eventually obtain resort in the United States during the tardy thirties . It was there Reich adjudicate to reach out to fellow refugee Albert Einstein , whom he indite the first sentence in 1940 “ to discuss a difficult and urgent scientific matter . ”
Public DomainKurt Cobain waves from inside William S. Burroughs ’s personal accumulator on a visit .
The urgent matter Reich was so eager to hash out with Einstein was an elaborate invention he had come in up with , the so - called “ Orgone Energy Accumulator . ” The accumulator register was actually nothing more than an tremendous wooden boxwood lined with metal and steel wool , but Reich believed what he had create had the powerfulness to rein “ orgone energy ” from the ambiance and rid patients of all their physical and genial woefulness .
Public DomainKurt Cobain waves from inside William S. Burroughs’s personal accumulator on a visit.
Einstein courteously ignored Reich ’s letter , but the tenacious psychoanalyst kept up a deluge of correspondence until Einstein wearily agreed to meet him in Princeton . Reich considered the coming together a smashing achiever , noting in his diary that his world - shattering discovery rendered Einstein ’s relatively modest employment obsolete , noting “ [ Einstein ] is simple and open . I sensed his impuissance … and was aware when his notion were faulty but felt not a ghost of gloating . ”
The renowned physicist understandably took a different view of the meeting , as Reich also note ( without caustic remark ) , “ When I assure him , in concluding , that people view me mad , his reply was ‘ I can believe that . ' ” Wilhelm Reich kept direct preposterous letter , but Einstein went back to simply ignoring them .
Finding An Audience With The Beat Generation
Despite having been dismissed by one of the most brilliant scientific minds of the century , Wilhelm Reich ’s orgone accumulator win popularity amongst America ’s avant - garde exercise set in the forties and 1950s . JD Salinger , Allen Ginsberg , Paul Goodman , and Jack Kerouac all sky-high comprehend Reich ’s excogitation : it even made an appearance in Woody Allen’sSleeper .
Kerouac was introduce to the accumulator after William S. Burroughswrote to himclaiming “ After reading [ Reich ’s ] book I built an orgone collector and the gimmick really works . The man is not crazy , he ’s a bally genius . ”
Wikimedia CommonsWilhelm Reich and one of his cloudbuster machines .
Wikimedia CommonsWilhelm Reich and one of his cloudbuster machines.
alas , the popularity of his machine would really take about Wilhelm Reich ’s downfall : the collector derive to the aid of the Food and Drug Administration in the late 1940s . Its inventor then bunk afoul of the U.S. government when he refused to have it tested to validate the results he claim it allow .
Reich had been on the Union radar since his arrival in the state back before the start of World War II . The FBI had a file on him that was over 700 page foresighted and had put him under privy surveillance due to his membership in the Communist Party ( which , funnily enough , had booted him because of his ideas about sexual liberation back in the early 1930s ) .
By the time the FDA begin to crack down on Reich , his idea had become even more outlandish . In the 1950s , Reich turned his attention from the human body to the sky , creating a “ cloudbuster ” ( a bundle of jumbo thermionic vacuum tube that shot water in the sky ) that the believed could conduct orgones and use their power to control the atmospheric condition . He was also convinced that unidentified flying object were poison humans with radiation , which could only be combated by tackle the major power of orgones .
By this time , the FDA had had enough and a court had ordered Wilhelm Reich to block selling his machine . Reich neglect the order and was sentenced to two years for continuing to sell accumulators in 1957 . He go in prison eight month into his conviction in November of that year .
After register about Wilhelm Reich , study about some of the weirdestweapons created by the Nazis . Then , check outAhnenerbe , Heinrich Himmler ’s programme to prove the Aryan raceway was descend from Nordic gods .
