Wilhelm Reich and Orgone, Part 2: Willy vs. The Feds

If Reich's concept of orgone was simple pseudoscience, why did the US government ban -- and burn -- his books? In part two of this two-part episode on Wilhelm Reich and orgonomic vibes, Ben, Noel and Max explore Reich's activities in the US, as well as the oft-ignored legacy of Reich's studies in the modern day.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome

(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
so much for tuning in. Quick housekeeping note if he
didn't see the title of this Tuesday's episode, this is
part two of a two part series on a very
interesting sexual revolutionary. As a matter of fact, the guy

(00:47):
who invented the term sexual revolution, Mr Wilhelm Reich. Uh,
let's shout out our super producer, Mr Max Williams. They
called me ben Noel. We have been We've been taking
our time with this. I think we did our due
diligence with the excellent help of our research associate, Mr

(01:11):
Zach Williams. No relation, and uh, we saved a lot
of crazy stuff for part two. Wouldn't you say? This
is where we uh is where we get weird with it.
We we you know, we're just gonna kind of go
along for the ride in this magic school bus of weirdness.
But Dr Reich is is the one who truly originates

(01:33):
the weirdness here in nineteen thirty three, the Nazis, Uh,
they've he's already been on their radar. Ke you know.
It was to mention at the end of the last episode.
He's got some ideas that flat completely counter to the puritanical,
you know, repressive kind of views uh and ideologies of
the Nazi Party. And Rich has become a figure of

(01:56):
some note in this neck of the woods, and the
not sees do not care for it, and they have
decided that he is persona on grata a burn his
works along with the works of Sigmund Freud, who was
his mentor, uh and uh and the works of Magnus Hirschfeld.
He is compelled to flee. Um. He and his mistress escape.

(02:20):
They make haste to Denmark, but the Danish Communist Party
they've gone too far for even them at this point
does some of these ideas, this idea of the orgasm,
you know, being a source of pleasure, you know, and
then not just procreation. Um. So there they though that
you can't come in. Sorry, uh, no, no room at

(02:40):
the end. Um. So they then have to go to Sweden,
where Dr Reich is admitted, but he is placed under surveillance. Yes,
this is a weird story. This is a this is
a moment, right or should I say Reich for re enactments. Uh.
The the police who are surveilling the good doctor see

(03:03):
that he has multiple patients coming and going from his hotel,
and this convinces them that he is, to put it bluntly,
that he is a pimp, that he is operating some
sort of um sex worker ring. And the authorities say, look,

(03:24):
you can't stay here any longer. We know what you're
up to. Uh. And as you know, folks in every life,
when it rains, it pours. He loses his contract to
publish an upcoming book called Character Analysis, and he shows

(03:44):
up to a conference in nineteen thirty four at the
International psycho Analytic Association in Lucerne, and when he shows up,
he is told once again there is no room at
the academic in They tell him doctor, you cannot be here.

(04:07):
We expelled you from our association, from the I p A.
We would call it in English. We expelled you last year.
You should have you didn't know. You didn't get the letter.
And he sticks by it though. He stays despite the controversy,
and he lectures on a paper that he has produced.

(04:29):
H lectures as a guest. But this marks the partying
of ways between him and what we would consider mainstream
psycho analysis of the day. We've got a pretty crazy
quote about it. It's been a long time coming. I
think we've we've we've sort of seen this in the cards.

(04:50):
And just to site once again the fantastic article the
scientific assassination of a sexual Revolutionary. That headline alone, it's
worth the price of admission, which is free. You can
find this on Motherboard via vice by Jason louve um
On on the internet. But yeah, really, really great quote,
and this has exactly we've been describing why the fascists
were so against uh Reich's whole deal. And he saw this,

(05:14):
and I think he's, uh, he's he's stating a pretty
even handed view of the whole situation. Um he says, quote.
I was told that my work on mass psychology, which
was directed against the irrationalism of fascism, had placed me
in a much too exposed position. Hence my membership was
no longer tenable. Four years later, Freud had to flee

(05:34):
Vienna for London, and the psychoanalytic groups were crushed by fascists. Subsequently,
I avoided contact with my earlier colleagues. Their behavior was
neither better nor worse than as usual in such cases,
it was low and uninteresting. A good dose of banality
is all that is needed to hush up a matter nice.

(05:54):
So this is uh. This is especially enticing to me
because is uh. I will tell you, fellow ridiculous historians,
if you really want to cut someone to the core,
you shouldn't waste your time trying to viscerally insult them.
You can just look them in the eye and tell
them they're not being interesting. I'm telling you that that

(06:19):
is that is nuclear weaponry. In an acrimonious conversation. Hearing
Reich say that this particular Ivory tower is low and
uninteresting would have been quite a cutting insult for them.
At this point, we see Reik escaping through happy accident.

(06:40):
The horrors and atrocities of the Second World War we
mentioned in part one a Guardian article. I want to
go back to shout out to Christopher Turner, who wrote
wrote a fantastic piece Villain Reich, the man who invented
free love. This piece, the journalist says, the most brilliant

(07:03):
of the second generation of psychoanalysts, the folks have been.
Freud's pupils arrived in New York in August in nine nine,
and this was keep in mind, just a few days
after the war officially broke out. Right is feeling good.
You know, He's got the wind at his back, the

(07:25):
sun is shining on his career, and he is thinking, Hey,
maybe things aren't that bad. Maybe this country is the
place for me. Maybe they will understand what I'm trying
to teach people about sex and politics. Maybe, because this
is not fascist Europe, my ideas, my thoughts, my studies

(07:49):
will be given the deference they deserve. Uh. And I
like that you mentioned Kinsey Alfred Kenzie in part one. Uh, here, Nold,
because what you see is that just a year before
Kinsey has started his own historically significant investigations into into

(08:13):
sex society and all the associated baggage. But he was
on the heels He was on the heels of of Reich,
but but not purely contemporary. Reich was kind of ahead
of his at least it was parallel maybe, but like
Rich was already out there with this kind of stuff
before Kinsey made his debut. Right, Reich had been working

(08:34):
in this field for some time. Yeah, And his decision
to move to America was largely largely triggered by a
psychiatrist based in New York, a guy named Dr Theodore Wolfe.
Dr Wolfe had studied in Oslo for one year and

(08:55):
he was a fan of Reich's work. He thought it
led an interesting directions, so he pulled some strings and
he got Dr Reich a two year gig as an
associate professor of medical psychology at the New School for
Social Research in New York. Again, the sun is shining right.

(09:15):
You just got kicked out in the Ivory Tower. Your
papers are getting canceled, your books aren't publishing. But now
you're in a new country. You're making a new start,
you know, to the Perfect Stranger's theme song. That's how
I see Dr wolf and Dr Reich right now. Hey everyone,
this is future Max here. I just want to let
you know that I am not going to play the

(09:35):
Perfect Strangers to me right here. It just doesn't seem
like smart for a five second joke to riskless king suit.
So instead you're gonna get this. I should probably say
ahead of time, I'm very sorry for what you're about
to hear. And dreams not. It's a classic jam, it's

(10:00):
and I'm not not kiding. I really do think that,
especially the whole like come with the Swiss police monitoring
the Cummings and goings from there. You know, hotel that
could be the Friends apartments. You know, that could be
the sign fell Jerry's place. You know, this could be
the center of the Wilhelm Reich and Friends UH sitcom

(10:20):
that never was, that no one asked for. But I
think we deserve. But we're giving it to you because
you earned it, folks, You earned ito and uh and yes,
shout out to that golden era of sitcom themes. I
I love it. I gotta tell you, I liked the
theme songs more than the actual shows. And and rich

(10:44):
Is Reich is feeling warm fuzzy dare I say, sexually
and politically unrepressed when he rents a house in Forest
Hills in nineteen nine and then he starts u n
seen and repeating his earlier patterns of scholarship, the same

(11:05):
things he did in Oslo and Vienna and Berlin. He
starts an institute, and he starts a publishing outfit called
the Orgone Press for his various uh, his various publications,
his books, his articles and whatnot. He also sets up

(11:26):
a laboratory guys, and he hires Ilsa Olindorf we recognize
from part one as the woman who will become his
third spouse. Uh, he starts quoting her. Oh, we're closing
up the lab. You want to get a coffee like
they do in Vienna. Anyway, whatever his dating game was,

(11:48):
it works. Uh. They decide to get married. And I'll say,
is step in step, handing glove assisting Reich in his research,
which is considered to to his supporters, it is considered
groundbreaking new science and to his critics, as we'll see,

(12:12):
it's considered not science at all totally, and like like
we said, like you know that that that that that
kind of thumbing of his nose the scientific community talking
about how hey just add a little banality. It's a
great way to ruin a good thing. That really was

(12:34):
his like official f you to you know what had
what had been his his colleagues. You know, he is
now going his own way. He's going the way of
more of like let's just say what today we might
consider new age healer thinker types. And again there's some
that are way more reputable than others. That are some

(12:55):
that are pure snake oil salesman. I I the jury
is out in my opinion on on this, Uh, this
period of Reik's career because he really is, you know,
starting to harness this idea of these you know, sexual energies,
and he has dubbed them orgone energy uh, and he
has decided that he can harness, he can accumulate these

(13:18):
energies to do what what what with I'm not quite sure.
The idea is that they could be used to treat
certain cancer, radiation, poisoning, different ailments. We have no real data,
you know, proving the efficacy of any of this stuff.
But he essentially designs what he considers like a greenhouse

(13:39):
that can like capture these energies you know when a
person like hangs out inside and presumably does sexy stuff.
I don't know, we'll get there, um. But he he
designs this thing called the orgone Energy accumulator, which is
essentially just like a wooden cupboard um around the size
of a phone box, you know, a telephone booth um

(14:00):
lined with an insulated material of of metal um and
steel wool and in it um. The idea would be
that he that that he could capture this stuff the
way you might capture your solar power on us on
a solar cell, or the way you might store electricity
in a battery sure, yeah, yeah, or the way you
can get energy from wind power. Right, You're you're you're

(14:24):
taking ambient energy and you're sort of redirecting and accumulating it. Now,
let us be clear, ridiculous historians, none of us are
saying that the orgone energy accumulator worked to the same
scientific rigor of a hydroelectric dam or a wind turbine.

(14:47):
But we also promised some etymology here. If you are
wondering what orgon is it, Uh, it was defined as
a vital energy that was anti entropic. It's a generative
force and it's meant to at least in Reich's mind,

(15:10):
it is something that is all around us. It's like
um medicalaureans or the force in the Star Wars universe. Right.
It affects people in a gstaltic, you know, like comprehensive way.
And so his idea is that you can harness the
force for lack of a better word, and you can

(15:34):
improve people's orgastic potency. Right, you can improve their orgasms basically,
and this will therefore improve not just their mental well
being but their physical well being. Uh. This argo and
energy that he concentrates per you know, his reasoning in

(15:57):
his accumulator it. He does a thing that a lot
of doctors do in the early days, or a lot
of pioneers do in the early days, where he says, Okay,
I found something that I think is good. As a
matter of fact, I like it so much. I think
it is good for everything. So in you know, two

(16:19):
shakes of a Lamb's tale, as they used to say,
this guy is saying, look, I'm onto something, folks. Not
only does or going help you feel better, not only
is it the reason that you feel good when you
are engaged in sexual activity, but this can also help
you with cancer. You got radiation, sickness, no worries, let's

(16:42):
accumulate some war going. Uh do you have you know,
do you have a runny nose? Do you have a fever?
Do you have dropsy? Do you have half CELEPSI? Which
is a thing that I just made up. I'm doing
a rich voice. Is when do you have weird foot?
Is one of your feet weird? Let's get or going
on it or goings on the case. Uh, it's a

(17:03):
it's a catch all right, it's a catch cure all Yes,
that's right. And that that that inherently leads to skepticism,
you know, understandably. And I think we're both on the
same page about this, and I think we both also
agree that there is a period of Reich's life or
his his studies that that does make a lot of sense,

(17:24):
and that he really does kind of nail a lot
of the whole, you know, nature of sexual repression and
like all of that, and just the whole idea of
of being open about sexuality. But I feel like at
this point he's maybe gone a bridge too far. Um.
It just doesn't feel like scientific research. It starts to
feel more like the makings of a cult than it
does scientific research. M Yeah, And the question is does

(17:48):
it become at some point a cult of personality? And
I think that's a question a lot of us were
wondering when we were listening to part one of this series.
He does something that a lot of cult leaders do.
He purchases some out of the way land and he
starts building his compound folks over in Maine. He opens

(18:11):
the organ On Institute, which we refer to in Part one. Uh,
this is where he can free himself from the repressive
shackles of mainstream science, whatever that means. In his day.
He can research full time organomy, which I think is
just a beautiful, beautifully constructed word. I like the as

(18:33):
you would say, the mouth feel of it organomy. He
now expands, and he says, I didn't just find the
good stuff, the good pervasive energy. I found the dark energy.
I found what I call the d o R. Also,
by the way acronyms initialisms, I should say, uh, they

(18:53):
are a another indicator of cultic activity. D o R
stands for deadly orgon radiation. It's it's still orgasmic matter.
It's still you know, the force, but it's a little sithy,
it's a little sith lord about it. It is anti
matter to him, and he says, this stuff, this bad vibe,

(19:18):
for lack of a better term, is responsible through all
the bad stuff in the environment. This is before people
knew about the dangers of plastics. This is before people
knew about the pervasive nature of various um contaminants and
chemicals left in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. They

(19:40):
didn't know, for instance, about the harmful intergenerational effects of lead.
So Reich, being an intelligent man by all accounts, he
knew that there were stuff wrong with the environment, with
the world it wasn't perfect. But he again he the
bridge too far and he uh, he said, it's all

(20:03):
due to this duo r the snacks and old rhyme.
But I stand by it. No it's good. Um, but yeah, no,
it is it it It does kind of take on
this uh Midichlorian kind of like good force versus bad
force kind of vibes, you know what I mean, like
like the powers of evil versus the powers of darkness,
which you can boil down, you know, if you really
want to take a paint with a broad brush. You know,

(20:24):
there obviously are forces of of of positivity and and
and and healing and cleansing, and there are obviously forces
of contamination and poisoning and destruction, there's no question about that.
But they're not They're not these like separate entities. They're
they're all. They all cut. They all stem from the
stuff that we're all made of. You know. It's not
like there's some evil you know, hexas from Fern Gully

(20:47):
force out there that's just creating all of this demonic
evil energy to destroy the trees. I mean, it really
is just a lot of it comes from man harnessing
these things and making things that then have byproducts that
cause all these problems. And it seems like what what
Reick is trying to do is oversimplify into these like
cosmic sort of you know materials, right like like this

(21:09):
matter antimatter kind of situation, which just feels a little
bit reductive and almost kind of really further makes me
kind of sort of shake my head and some of
where he's going in this period. I like the I
like the term reductive here because one thing that will
stand out to anybody in in stem right now, anybody

(21:30):
in a scientific field, is that you know, measurable forces
of the universe of reality as we know it, they
have no moral compass. Gravity is not thinking about actions.
Gravity is not trending toward uh a good or a

(21:51):
bad that could be identified by human beings. So to
ascribe morality to this concept of orgon and deadly orgone
d o R, it's it's a little a bit uh well,
it's a lot of bit of anthropomorphizing, which is when
you ascribe human framework, human cognitive framework to a thing

(22:15):
that is only a thing, and you know, there's this
is a huge part of human psychology. It's kind of
the reason cars have two headlights such that they look
like a face. It's kind of the reason that humans
grow attachments to the oddest things. This is what we
mean when we say he's getting a little off the rails. Objectively,

(22:35):
he is aware of at this point, he is aware
of the US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Also,
we had an earlier episode about the unluckiest or luckiest
guy in Japan during that time. Please do check out
our show on the guy who survived both of those attacks.

(22:58):
In Reich's opinion, now he sees himself as a leader
of good, almost uh messionic figure. He is fighting for
life energy, not death energy, and he wants to weaponize.

(23:18):
He wants to weaponize his concepts. And that's when he
starts building what we call cloud busters. What he called
cloud busters. You might call them were gone guns if
you're in the right subreddit these days. But he says,
look this stuff, it can make it rain. It's not
a euphemism for throwing dollar bills. It can actually change

(23:40):
the weather. And with these cloud busters, I can also
reverse the process of desertification, which is when soil erodes
and biome transforms into something like the Sahara that's right,
and um, this kind of technolog g is where I

(24:01):
think uh we mentioned Reich in a past Ridiculous History
episode about a guy that kind of like scammed um
a small drought ridden town into thinking he could you know,
make it rain um because yeah, cloud seating using silver
iodide or dry ice was a thing, uh since the

(24:21):
nineteen forty. Is the idea of like being able to
pull rain out of out of clouds and in times
of drought even seen it harnessed like during the there's
an Olympic ceremony I think where they they did a
big thing where they made it rain um using this technology.
He wasn't going for that. His cloud busting uh technology
that he purported to have invented used this Oregon energy

(24:43):
believe that he could pull it directly out of the
atmosphere and then funnel it into the ground or into
a body of water. He believed that what he was
doing was akin to what you might see happening with
a lightning rod, you know, where it could you know
go to ground. This energy contain in his mind that
same level of of powers as electricity, and he claimed

(25:04):
to have successfully achieved this. You know again, this is
all happening on his land under his watch, you know,
with his data. So it's a little little questionable there.
But um, he he did do numerous experiments using these
cloud busters, and according to Reich, um these these experiments

(25:29):
started to get some interest from from beyond, from beyond
our our our universe. M h, yeah, he believes an
extra terrestrial life. To say the quiet part out loud
UFOs U A p s. They're called now a days
in the West. Uh. He calls them energy alpha's and

(25:51):
he says they are attacking the Earth with d O
R again deadly orgo and radiation. He says, I've seen
a number of alien crap aft over my institute here
in Maine. And he even goes on to describe how
he and his son use a orgon gun a cloud
buster to fight a quote full scale interplanetary battle in Arizona.

(26:20):
This is again from that Vice article, but you can
find it confirmed in multiple sources, because he really did
say this. Now did he believe it himself? Was he
a scam artist? Was he bilking people? Or was he
like Merlin in uh Mark Twain's a Connecticut Yankee and
King Arthur's court. Did he believe, truly believe his own magic.

(26:45):
That's up to history. Not everybody, surprise, surprise, agreed with him.
He got lambasted in the press for his application of
um orgon principles two people with serious medical conditions like cancer.
One journalist in particular, Mildred Brandy, wrote two. I don't

(27:10):
know it's you could say their hit pieces in terms
of language, but Brandy here is not coming from a
bad place necessarily. You can find the articles the New
Cult of Sex and Anarchy and the strange case of
Wilhelm Reich. These may have well, he's definitely in some

(27:31):
way triggered a federal investigation the f D. A shortly
after these articles come out. They send their agent, Charles
Wood double O D. I guess w w O dB.
There's a pun there somewhere, I believe. And this whole

(27:52):
scenario really was kind of dramatized in the incredible Kate
Bush song and music video cloud Busting UM. Kate Bush
kind of plays Reich's son, uh and Donald Sutherland plays
Reich himself, and there's this really cool kind of orgon
cannon kind of thing, like one of these cloud busters,

(28:14):
where there's like a crank and they you know, he
shoots it up at the sky and like the whole
deal is you're not really sure if it works or not,
and the guy is just crazy scientists. Um. But the
Sun really loves him. And at the end you see
the men and the men in black kind of suits
coming for him and taking him away, and then the
Sun sort of runs out to the field where the

(28:34):
the devices and and uses it and then makes it rain.
And then you see Dad kind of looking back and
like smiling and like giving the thumbs up to the Sun.
And it's a really beautiful video. Um, And it really
is kind of it's it's less about you know, is
this real? Was this something that he actually could do?
And more just about like the liberation the liberating power

(28:55):
of like belief and discovery and things like that, like
and the fact that it freaks people out, you know,
when someone truly believes in their own magic. As you
put in Agent double O D right, because it's still
like would no, no, let's let it go. No, you're right, Max.
So in the f d A goes official with their

(29:17):
issues after their agent Charles Wood, investigates Reich and this
center organ on in Maine, UH and the FDA says
Dr Reich, you have violated the Food, Drug and Cosmetic
Act because you are delivering miss branded and adulterated devices
across state lines, and you are also making false and

(29:41):
misleading claims. I want to stay here for a second,
because we are We're at the point now where a
lot of people who believe in rather conspiratorial perspectives on
on the life of Reich will say, this is why
he's legit. They'll say the f d A shut down
and repressed his technology. Now to what degree that depends

(30:07):
again on which forum you're in online, which conforts you
go to, etcetera. But the FDA makes no bones about this.
They're not being particularly diplomatic. They say these accumulators are
a sham. They say Orgon Energy does not exist. A
judge comes out with an injunction that says the following,

(30:28):
All accumulators that are rented by Reich or owned by
Reich and anyone working with him, must be destroyed post
haste at any labeling that refers to Orgon Energy. While
you're at it, burn that to throw that on the fire.
And and Wright doesn't go to court. By the way,

(30:50):
he writes a letter defending himself. But the FBI, you know,
they take this pretty seriously, um as as you can
again see dramatized and that that also k push video.
They actually have a whole section of their website even
today devoted to Wilhelm Reich um and this is what
they have to say about this. This this gentleman um quote,

(31:11):
This German immigrant described himself as the Associate professor of
medical psychology, director of the Oregon Institute, President and Research
physician of the Wilhelm Reich Foundation, and discoverer of biological
or life energy. A nineteen forty security investigation was begun
to determine the extent of Reich's communist commitments. In a
security investigation concluded that neither the Oregon Project nor any

(31:34):
of its staff were engaged in subversive activities or were
in violation of any statute within the jurisdiction of the FBI.
So that's good, uh. In the U. S. Attorney General
filed a complaint seeking permanent injunction to prevent interstate shipment
of devices and literature distributed by Dr Reich's group. That
same year, doctor Wright was arrested for a contempt of

(31:55):
court violation of the Attorney General's injunction. That kind of
took a turn. Yeah, and that's why even today true
believers will say he found something they don't want you

(32:16):
to know. Uh, they're there are consequences here, whether or
not you think there's something to the science, whether or
not you think it has some sand to it, holds water,
whatever you want to say. It's clear that the FDA
was against it. They were they they were being the
deadly rago and radiation. As far as Reich's concerned, they're

(32:39):
they're a force for evil and repression. And you know
the guy hates repression. Uh. It's strange because if you
look at the actual accumulator, which we described briefly, it's
like it's like it's as smaller than average phone booth,
and even a phone booth now maybe a dated reference,

(33:02):
but you sit in this little time out corner and
you wait for the organ that has been accumulated to
acree in your own body and go through you. Right,
you're focusing your medicalaureans and right thinks that this can
replace actual therapy. As any therapist listening along today knows

(33:26):
that's um that could be a dangerous and unhealthy replacement.
Sitting by yourself in a box, even a magic box,
is not the same thing as processing, uh, your life,
your past and your future. Oh and you thought it
could cure cancer, right now, that's that's that's that's right.
He did think it could cure all kinds of stuff. So,

(33:48):
like we said, he's brought up on charges for contempt
of court for violating the Attorney General's injunction, and he
ultimately was sentenced to two years in jail in prison
for refusing to stop selling his inventions on May seven
of nineteen fifty six, um apparently, and what what stays

(34:10):
to this day one of the only federally sanctioned book
burnings in America. His books were burned. That's wild, you know,
like to your point, Ben that it does really feel
like there's something more going on here than just a
crotchety old mad scientists, you know, refusing to to stop
selling his wares. You know, if there's really nothing to it,

(34:31):
why does the government care so much? You know? He
went to Louisbourg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, and and six months
later he passed away, um while incarcerated from a heart attack.
It's a sad, sad way to go sad into his life,
but apparently, up until the last he really did believe
his own magic. I'm gonna keep using that because I
just love that bag. I think. I think it can
be a negative thing. It can be like drinking your

(34:52):
own kool aid, you know, but it also can be
believing in yourself. You know what I mean. I don't know.
I'm of two minds here. Yeah, that is why I
don't think he was a scammer. I don't think he
was a confidence man. I think he genuinely believed this. Also,
let's get in front of let's get in front of
any correspondence here and say, yes, we know that Jim

(35:14):
Jones gave flavor Aid, not kool Aid to his own cult,
but we like the phrase drink your own kool aid.
We think it makes sense. You get it, You get
the gist. Dr Reich is six years old, and like
you said, no, he's only in he's only incarcerated for
six months before he passes away. And even now you

(35:35):
can find people a little bit further on the conspiratorial
spectrum who will say that he was murdered, but there
is to be clear no proof of that at this time.
It does look like a heart attack. And if we
fast forward a decade later, we'll see that society is

(35:58):
still thinking about it and thinking about his work. Time
Magazine says Dr Villain. Reich may have been a profit
for now. It sometimes seems that all America is one
big Oregon box. Uh. And so I know, look, I
want to pause because I know we have we have
some folks who may consider themselves supporters, adherents, believers in

(36:23):
Reich's work today in the audience. And you should know, folks,
that you are not alone. As a matter of fact, right,
got co signed by uh, some notable people, some names
that might surprise you, fellow scientists, not psychoanalysts, more like physicists. Yeah,
and we we had mentioned at the top of the
of episode one of this expansive two parts series that

(36:47):
there were definitely gonna be some way ends from some
some important cultural figures, one of which, as you teas
been as as a very renowned physicist Albert Einstein. Reich,
through his own research and experimentation, believed that his energy,
this orgon energy was was and this is a I'm

(37:07):
gonna quote this New York Times article, Um that we've
been referencing was quote reflected by non organic substances like
metal and absorbed by organic substances like wood, and that's
why he built this organ accumulator out of wood and metal. Einstein,
though they had actually had met before. In January of

(37:29):
Einstein believed that that Reich was barking up the wrong tree. Um.
He wrote Reich a letter and told him that he
had been able to replicate these findings regarding the increased
temperature in the box that he was perceiving as the
absorption of these um these these energies, these organ energies.
But there was a much simpler explanation and then then

(37:50):
you know this idea of of of accumulating organ energy. Um.
They never wrote to each other. Again, we don't really
know what that explanation was, but I did refer to
this correspondence as quote the Einstein affair. I guess in
a way of like almost um, you know, kind of
discrediting Einstein and saying like this guy didn't know what

(38:12):
he was talking about. This is just like a brief,
you know, encounter that ultimately did not lead him to
change his opinions on anything. But Einstein thought there was
something there. He just thought it had a different explanation,
and he was talking about you know, you could loosely
call it a greenhouse effact. He said, yeah, the temperature
gets warmer. I believe you that part is true. But

(38:33):
here's why you're shutting a box, MIDDI Glorian's bros. You
and I Ben have experienced this greenhouse effect we can
call the podcast effects. You know, when we're in the
box together. When we were doing things in person more
often with inadequate air conditioning and ventilation. You know, your

(38:53):
body temperature alone is going to raise the temperature that
room over the course of you know, a session pretty significantly.
So I would maybe argue that's what Einstein was was
barking at. Reik's ideas have never ever been really examined
by the scientific community, nor have they been really revisited
by the psychoanalytical community. Um, and they still both of

(39:18):
these you know groups, uh still kind of disown him.
M yeah. Yeah, And psychoanalysts today are not looking kindly
on on Reich's life and work. But we do see
that he has a legacy. You know, he contributed to

(39:42):
things like ego psychology, gastalt therapy, body psychology, even primal
scream therapy, which is as metal as it sounds. Yeah,
there's an interesting note here again from that Vice article
that says you can see a little bit of Reich's

(40:04):
academic DNA in what's sometimes called feel good body therapy, massage, yoga.
There's also you can also do heavy metal yoga. I
recommend it. It's yeah, oddly soothing, it's counterintuitive, but it
feels good. We had mentioned that at the top of
of episode one. I think here to where things like

(40:25):
raiky energy work. You know, a lot of these uh.
You know the Vice article uses feel good uh, you
know whatever therapy, but I mean it could be described
as holistic medicine or even like ancient Asian medicine and uh,
and therapies such as reflexology and and deep tissue massage
and the idea of the body storing these energies. Um.

(40:48):
And you know, Reich's whole early deal was about tension
in the body and where does that stuff go and
how do you get it out? And he really kind
of flew in the face of the the psychiatric can
unity by touching his patience. And we know that touch
can be a very important part of people's uh, isolation,

(41:08):
you know, and if people's feelings of loneliness and not
sexual touch but just touch, just you know, like having
someone lay hands on you. It sounds like religious experience,
but just having a massage and someone touching you with
to heal, you know, laying healing hands. I think that
can really go a long way. Uh. And that's alive
And well today, I've got a massage scheduled for this
week and I cannot wait. It is one of the

(41:29):
most you know, valuable things I think I do, other
than like going to actual therapy. I think a massage
is really really valuable because those tensions do get stored
and then there's no questions. Do you feel fair enough
to me? Okay, Well, if I pay you and I
give you permission, please touch me all day long. Because
when I leave that transactional I I do feel well.

(41:50):
It's so is therapy. You know, everything is transactional in
some some way or another. You're paying somebody to do something.
It doesn't make it any less worthwhile or any less valuable.
But I walk out of that room feeling relief. Oh well,
more massages for you, my friend. I'm quite close with
several professional messeurs, I guess would be the word. Uh,

(42:11):
and it is. It is legitimate. It does do a
world of good for people to each their own. Uh.
And if you want to take a page from Reich's book, literally,
if you would like to learn more about his work,
you will find that his publications are still kept in print.
There is also a scientific journal, the Journal of Organomy.

(42:34):
Probably my favorite word from this series. Uh. They have
public lectures even now in the modern day. You can
learn more about it. And there are Reichi and therapists.
They follow Wilhelm Reich. They didn't burn them, all right,
It's definitely obviously the the perspective has changed to some degree.
Um whether that's because they feel like, you know, people

(42:56):
don't take it seriously enough anymore. Again, I'm I'm not
to put on conspiracy had too much from from our
other show, but I really do get a sense of
the government, you know, was after this guy for something
other than just like he's violating food and drug laws.
Like why did they burn his books? That's the thing
that really blows me away. They burned his books and

(43:17):
thankfully you can still get them, and he has been
and remains. I mentioned that Kate push thing a a
very uh loom was large and pop culture. You know,
there are a few of these Oregon accumulator boxes that
um stayed around. Uh. The writer and uh druggie weirdo
william S Burrows had one and apparently invited Jimmy Page,

(43:40):
the guitarist for Lizeppelin, to hop into one when he
was interviewing him in nineteen seventy five. Reportedly Page declined,
but um, the Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was a big fan
of of Burrows and they hung out um a good
bit at his home. And uh there's photographs of of
of of Kurt Cobain inside of the accumulator when he

(44:01):
visited his house in n There's also some you know,
examples of it. The inspiration in film, like in the
Jane Fonda film Barbarella, you can see something called an
excessive machine and this is in eight and then one
of Woody Allen's kind of lesser known films. Um and
what kind of own issues there, um, but he did

(44:21):
make some interesting films. In nineteen seventy three, the movie Sleeper,
which is kind of a weird SATs here called dystopian
sci fi thing. There is a machine called the Orgasmatron,
So he's definitely still around. Yeah. Actually that's what I
want to kind of talk about. So a couple of
years ago, my brother gave me this book right here.
Oh yeah, and I can't I can't say I finished it.

(44:45):
I think I got about like a third of the
way through it. I'm not the biggest reader. I think
I've talked about that before unless it's about like a
sports article. But I remember reading it would be like,
what the hell is this about? What are these cloud busters?
I didn't know anything about the about it about her
pillam right forehand, but I'm just reading this is so weird. Um.
I will say he at least the way his son

(45:06):
portrays him in his book, because this book was written
by his son, Peter Reich. Everything says that will Helm
believed what he was preaching. He was drinking that flavorade,
his own flavor. Doesn't the son to describe a dream
where his father came down to to to rescue him
in a UFO. Isn't that a thing? So yeah, I

(45:30):
didn't make it all the way through. But like they
do talk about, like going to he talks about when
he went to Arizona with the cloud Buster and fought
the like big thing like it's uh, it's very weird
when you don't know anything about the story and you're
just reading this. I'll tell you though. It was six tons,
six physical tons of books that were burned by by

(45:53):
the US government, So of course they make him a
bit of a martyr right and there. I think that's
a huge part of why people remain so interested in
his explorations today. If you would like to learn more
about Dr Reich firsthand, then I guess what. He's got

(46:15):
a museum. It is in Maine. I believe it's pronounced rangely.
Perhaps we'll actually I have to check with Andrew Howard
R Pal who is from Maine to get confirmation there.
But the the museum itself, I've never been there in
the interest of full disclosure, but it is a repository
of a lot of his work. They have an active

(46:37):
itinerary of programs and events, and you can visit the
organ on institute that's on the property. I really want
to go. The website is just villam Reich Museum dot org.
Check it out. And you know, more importantly, tell us
if you have been, tell us if you accumulated or

(46:59):
gone while you were there, And importantly, which kind of
orgon did you accumulate? The good stuff or the d
O r U the deadly orgon radiation. What a ride.
Thanks again to our excellent research associate Zach Williams, who
you will meet very soon. Ridiculous historians and where would

(47:20):
we be without the man the myth of the legend,
our super producer, Mr Max Williams. Max, I'll read the
rest of that book if you want. I'll please not
that that's about the level of reader I am. Or
maybe you could produce like a little short film. I
can just watch that instead. Surely there must be some

(47:40):
cliff notes or idiot's guide to Willhelm Rank to orgon energy.
I'd be down with that. I'd just be fun just
to see what they think is the most important bits.
Because to your point, Max, when you read something like
that and it is just kind of the regurgitations of
someone's mind who has been exposed to you know, a
person of the stature, you know, this person's father, I
can't imagine, uh what what all of that would entail.

(48:03):
And then just like you know, um, it would it
would have to have an effect you know, on on
on this person in the way they think about in
view the world. So I'm interested as well. Um, but
let us know what you think. You can write to
us on on the social media. You can find me
exclusively on Instagram where I'm at how now, Noel brown Man,
I think they've they've got a couple of places to
find you. The rumors are true, folks. You can see

(48:26):
me all over the internet. You can get a behind
the scenes peak of stuff that I am working on,
such as the book that Noel, Matt and yours truly
wrote for stuff they don't want you to know. I'm
holding it up in the chat even though this is
an audio podcast. It's called inniverse to creativity stuff they

(48:49):
don't want you to know. On to other adventures as well.
We're gonna be going live to promote the book in October.
If you ever want to meet us in person, uh
find out more? You can write to me at Ben
Bowlen bo w l i in on Instagram. You can
also help me in my ongoing mission, my continuing mission

(49:10):
to explore strange new foods. Do you like that? Max?
A little spin on that? Okay? And and you can
find me also on Twitter where I'm at Ben bullin
hs W. If you know you know uh and if
you know Twitter, you know the best thing about it
is that's where you can find my pal, Mr Max Williams,
the resident curling expert of not just ridiculous history, not

(49:33):
just Twitter, not just the Internet. But these are modern days.
I will not accept that honor. If you wanted to
know more about curling, follow Matt Hamilton's the most interesting
man in curling, who was just coast comes off as
being a very good guy. But yes, you can find
me on Twitter at a t L underscore. Max Williams
activity is literally just trolling Ben. So yeah, all right,

(49:57):
I got so much I gotta go accumulate my are
going guys. I didn't want to say it, but over
the course of these episodes, I'm kind of persuaded. Yeah, man,
I think I'm gonna build the building and we're going
to accumulator in my garage. Probably would also work as
a good like sound booth, you know, for for voiceover
or something. Who like things to be dual purpose. Let's
see you next time. Books. For more podcasts for my

(50:25):
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,