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 tinkering with something he called primordial cosmic energy. In 1939 he derived from his Bion-experiments as well as the ideas of a Friedrich Kraus the concept of orgone energy.

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

Claims and assumptions about orgone energy

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 in the atmosphere and in soil available in inexhaustible quantities 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.

According to Reich, there is also a degenerate form of orgone energy called DOR (of "Deadly Orgone Energy"). DOR would lead to eclipses of the sun. However, DOR was no smog or dust, but a "negative energy" that makes 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.

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 (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.

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 save Orgon. 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 offered commercially. 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, combined Radionik with the orgone theory, is considered the inventor of the substance Orgonit and has build with the "orgone generator" in his view "the first device on the planet that creates life energy or orgone". 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

In North Rhine-Westphalia Nümbrecht a "Wilhelm Reich Orgone Institute Deutschland" (IOO, short "Orgone Institut Deutschland") is located. It is headed by Joachim Trettin. Trettin claims to be "the first professor of orgonomy at all". Trettin also claimed to be "Prof. h.c. Dr. (unem)". The abbreviation unem refers to the Costa Rican Diploma mill "Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica" (UNEM), that offered false professor and Ph.D. titles for "donations". The "orgone institute" in Nümbrecht offers orgone accumulators (1630 Euro) and orgone blankets.

The Orgoninstitut also offers a so-called "study of orgonomy". It will be an 18-month correspondence course with 18 days of attendance (one per month). On the days of attendance "lab work" in form of a certain Reichian blood test, the observation of bions and "measurements of orgone energy" should be conducted. The cost is 6750 EUR (375 EUR per month). An obscure "foreign private high school" (AMRI) collects a further "graduation fee" in the amount of 1500 € which was later increased to 2500 €. In 2008 it was surprisingly stated on the websites of Trettin that graduation was not at the AMRI (where Trettin is listed as a "Professor") but at the title mill "Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica" (Unem) in Costa Rica (To cite):

PS: update September 2008. This announcement isn't up-to-date anymore. The study is purely a course at the Orgone Institute. Subsequent graduation resides with Unem University. See update www.orgonomiestudium.de

According to the orgone institute graduations at the foreign institution

...are not recognized in all countries, for example not in Germany, unless a conference of the ministers of cultural affairs allows to bear the title... In the wake of the merger of Europe, we hope, though perhaps unfounded, on an improvement.

"Students" can start with their training in any month. Teaching content should be the writings of Reich, orgonomist training, the history of psychoanalysis and "legal issues". Trettin is the auditor.

Graduates will be allowed to call themselves "Orgonome". According to the orgone institute a typical orgonome would have a

...technically new career in the fields of alternative medicine and therapies, therapeutics, religious philosophy, meteorology, biology and physics, desert greening, education, social work, midwifery practice, the prophylaxis of neuroses and the wellness area.

The graduating foreign private institution is the "AMRI University" (College of Alternative Medicine) where Trettin and a Prof. Dr. h.c.(MD honoris causa, honorary degree) Beate Freihold(professor in orgonomy) should be working as lecturers. The AMRI is according to information on its own website member of an "Alternative Medicines Research Organisation (AMRO)" with mailbox 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". As a reference for the alleged seriousness of AMRI's a shady private organization and fake title trading company International Parliament for Safety and Peace of Vittorio Busa in Palermo is given.

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