Orgone Energy and the Energies of the Past

Abstract

A comparative study between Reich’s orgone energy and other known energies of the past is presented. Generally, those energies were called by different names, even though they had the same fundamental characteristics. One of the most accepted and widespread terms, that might encompass all others, is aether. Its functions were studied in all epochs, both inside and outside scientific 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, and in some cases even inside, various academic circles. From the present investigation it emerged that orgone energy presents many similarities with most ancient and more recent conceptions 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. This is because they have in common some very basic physical qualities.

Introduction

Reich’s research activity was focused on the investigation of an energetic principle apparently new to the science of the time. He succeeded in addition to experimentally confirming its presence in nature, and the cosmos, and in all living organisms, to measure, quantify and manage it. He wanted to name it orgone energy or orgone. Reich found that this energetic principle had many functions and might explain physical and metaphysical phenomena and be in possession of therapeutic qualities. He found it endowed too with aspects between the living and the non-living.

However, Reich’s orgone energy was not a new energetic principle, but a very old one. Its properties were investigated and studied before Reich by many scholars and scientists, in every age. In the Scientific Revolution physical science was fully involved in the study of the aether with the aim of explaining some of its functions in basic physical phenomena such as the action-at-a-distance of bodies (gravitation), the propagation and the aberration of light, and the formation of matter. It was then called luminiferous aether. Additional functions of the luminiferous aether that were investigated included neither refracting a ray of light when passing through it nor reflecting it. It also posed extremely low or zero resistance to the motion of bodies. Indeed, Reich never claimed to have discovered something new, but he highlighted that he had discovered and made public for the first time the scientific laws that govern this energy.

“I am well aware of the fact that the human race has known about the existence of a universal energy related to life for many ages. However, the basic task of natural science consisted in making this energy usable. This is the sole difference between my work and all preceding knowledge.” (2)

“The primordial OR energy ocean (formerly called “ether”) exists and is mass-free. Inert as well as heavy mass arise from mass-free energy through certain functional processes already known to orgonomic research in some detail.” (3)

In the Victorian age scientists failed to consider and investigate the therapeutic properties of the (luminiferous) aether and its relationship with the metaphysical realm since they studied it from either a mechanistic or a mystical point of view. Therefore, exclusivity must be given to Reich for having discovered aether as a living and pulsating energy with potent therapeutic qualities. He made the knowledge available to the public on how to use it for healing purposes. In addition, the tiny orgone or aether particles that the orgone energy continuum was supposed to be made from were endowed by Reich with life-giving and syntropic qualities. These latter properties were less considered by the scientific circles of the 18th and 19th centuries, in that scientists were more apt to consider the aether as a medium fundamental to explain the action-at-a-distance of bodies. It was a medium competent to transmit transverse waves of light and electricity, and the other known radiant and electrical actions, rather than having possible functions in the biological and medical realms. The only people in our recent history that seriously considered and applied the therapeutic qualities of the aether, were the Chinese, around ten thousand years ago. This was with their Qi conception and their acupuncture methodology.

According to Reich, orgone energy is also responsible for metaphysical phenomena in that he thought the Oranur state (one of three characterizing the behaviour of the orgone energy continuum) might help to promote higher states of consciousness. (4)

Reich thought this kind of energy can be found everywhere and fills the universe and all things in nature and is the primary component of matter. Orgone energy and matter can co-exist in the same space. Orgone energy is said to be a pre-atomic energy as matter is formed by the superimposition of two or more orgone energy waves (each wave presumably associated to the movement through space of an orgone energy unit).
The above phenomenon marks the line beyond which formation of secondary physical phenomena, recognized by traditional physics as electricity, magnetism, gravity, etc, occur.
In high concentrations, such as those found inside an orgone accumulator, the energy has many beneficial effects on living organisms and might be useful in medical therapies of several diseases, including cancer.
Reich remarked that the qualities of the orgone energy continuum he discovered, possibly made of an infinite number of units or particles connected to each other and filling the whole universe, might be compared with those of the well-known (luminiferous) aether of the Scientific Revolution and of the ancient’s conception, and it can be identified with that. (5)
Table 1 reports a comparison between the (luminiferous) aether of the Scientific Revolution and Reich’s orgone energy.(6) From the table, an almost complete similarity between the two conceptions can be found.

Summary of Functions (Table 1)

#	As required for the ETHER	As observed in COSMIC ORGONE ENERGY
1	Exists universally.	Exists universally; Orgone accumulators operate everywhere.
2	Fills all space.	Fills all space; orgone energy can be demonstrated in a vacuum.
3	Penetrates all matter.	Penetrates all matter.
4	Is the source of all energy.	Varies and manifests itself as heat, “static electricity,“ thunder- and sheet lightning, electricity, magnetism, gravitational attraction.
5	Changes into matter or mass.	Superimposition of two or more orgone energy waves (“Kreiselwelle”) results in a mass particle.
6	Is responsible for the cohesion of atoms.	Keeps unit of matter, bions, together. Cohesive force becomes free and demonstrable when solid matter disintegrates into bions=orgone energy vesicles.
7	Transmits light.	Transmits orgonotic excitation with the “speed of light”; “light” is manifestation of orgonotic lumination and is of local character.
8	Is transparent.	Is transparent; can become visible as “refraction of light,” as “heat waves” and “bad seeing.”
9	No heat in aether.	Most orgonotic functions are “cold”: lumination, movement through wire, attraction. However, reflection by metal creates heat, as does highly mobile concentration within matter, planet, organism.
10	No loss of energy.	No loss of energy; however, there is an “energy metabolism”: a) Flow toward higher level; b) Maintenance of higher level, “capacity”; c) Discharge toward lower level.
11	Is resting, stationary; earth moves through aether like a rotating ball on stagnant water.	Is always in wavy and pulsatory motion; the orgone envelope moves more rapidly in the galactic orgone ocean than the earth’s globe; Analogy is that of a ball rolling on water waves more slowly than the waves,
12	“Cannot be demonstrated”; misinterpretation of Michelson experiment was due to assumption that the aether was stationary and that “light” traveled through space.	Is clearly demonstrable everywhere visually, thermically, electroscopically, with Geiger counters; accounts for phenomena in nature hitherto unexplained: “natural leak,” “bad seeing,” “field action in empty space,” “static,” “cosmic rays,” blueness of sky, ocean, distant mountains, “ionized cosmic dust” in aurora borealis, etc.

Orgone energy and aether

The presence of the aether in Nature and its qualities has been thoroughly investigated and discussed in past centuries by a long list of philosophers, theologians, researchers and scientists.(7) They conceived of it as a medium either composed of discrete, separate parts or grains, or perhaps made of a jelly or continuous substance.
In recent times, supporters of the granular hypothesis were for example Huygens,(8) Earnshaw,(9) Reynolds,(10) and Todeschini (11). Amongst the many in the other group (supporting the continuous hypothesis) we find Lord Kelvin (12), and Lodge (13) that promoted a continuous and part-less aether like an infinite liquid. Maxwell suggested an aether made of parts or cells linked together by interlayer connections thus rendering it both a granular and continuous (jelly) substance (14).
Image on the left in figure 1 shows a scheme of the granular aether as conceived by Reynolds. The aether is made of an infinite number of spherical grains with the same size. Piling of the spherical grains, when in normal condition, is such that every grain is at the same mean distance from each of its twelve neighbours (15).
Image on the right in the same figure shows the physical model of the aether that was taken by Maxwell to be a medium for the propagation of the electromagnetic waves. The model is made up of (hexagonal) cells of aether vortices connected by idle wheels or particles. The angular velocity of the vortices corresponds to the magnetic field intensity. The spherical idle wheels between the vortices would account for the electrical current and, while flowing from one side of the conductor to the other, make the vortices rotate and induce a magnetic field. Thus, each vortex represents a rotating element of the aether carrying magnetic lines of force, while the connecting particles transfer rotation and simulate electric displacement (16).

 

Reich’s orgone energy continuum might belong to the first school of thought in that Reich made many examples from direct observations and experiments in which the orgone energy continuum was found to be made of tiny, dynamic, and sometimes visible dots or points or particles (17). Nevertheless, the model developed by Maxwell seems to fit better to Reich’s assumptions of the orgone energy continuum being made of single units connected together.

In the period of the Scientific Revolution we find many important scientists that devoted their existence to elucidating the secrets of the aether conundrum. Amongst them we find Ciolkovskij (1857-1935), Lorentz (1853-1928), Mendeleev (1834-1907), Maxwell (1831-1879), Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1824-1907), Earnshaw (1805-1888), Faraday (1791-1867), Fresnel (1788-1827), Ampere (1775-1836), Young (1773-1829), Bernoulli (Johann, 1710-1790), Euler (1707-1783), Huygens (1629-1695), and also Descartes (1596-1650).
Descartes was the first in the 17th century, to develop and to bring into science a modern concept of aether, constituted of subtle particles moving in vortexes (18). Descartes conceived the aether as a transparent fluid, an extremely subtle form of matter that thoroughly fills the vast interstellar and interplanetary spaces, imperceptible to the senses, capable of transmitting force, and exerting effects on material bodies immersed in it.
It was in this period that for the first time in the history of our scientific culture the aether was fully investigated by scientists who tried to give it an identity (19). Since direct measurements of the aether properties appeared impossible at that time authors did try to estimate an order of magnitude from indirect observations. Size of the constituting grains (particles) (20), mass (21), density (22), rigidity (elasticity) (23), and viscosity (24), were the parameters explored. At the same time, in the last 40 years of the 19th century research on the aether was so significant and advanced to make Larmor, a British physicist, to write in one of the most important cultural and intellectual reference of that time, the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1911), the following (25):

“… and the properties of this medium [aether], as deduced from the phenomena of light, have been found to be precisely those required to explain electromagnetic phenomena.” This description, quoted from James Clerk Maxwell’s article in the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, represents the historical position of the subject up till about 1860, when Maxwell began those constructive speculations in electrical theory, based on the influence of the physical views of Faraday and Lord Kelvin, which have in their subsequent development largely transformed theoretical physics into the science of the aether.”

The behaviour of the aether was mathematically modelled by most of the scientists as a monoatomic, superfine ideal gas or as a perfect fluid. Most remarkable along this direction were the works of Earnshaw (26), Maxwell (in its original form) (27), and Larmor (28). From the investigations it emerged that the aether had an extremely low mass and grain’s size, an extremely low density, almost zero viscosity and a very high elasticity (29):

“The extraordinary elastic properties of the aether are due mainly to the excessively high velocity of the aetheron [……], its long free path, and small mass [pages 65-66] … The enormous velocity of the aetheron and the great length of the mean free path makes the aether unique among all physical bodies. For rapidly acting forces it vibrates and transmits waves with a velocity of 300000 kms per second, and is capable of exerting the most tremendous stresses, such as are required for holding the planets in their orbits; but for slowly acting forces yields without resistance, because its own molecular motions are so rapid. [66] … the aether not only penetrates all matter freely, but even waves in it pass through all physical bodies, with only the hindrance incident to refraction and dispersion such as we see in light. The refraction is due to the unequal resistance offered by matter to the advance of the wave front, and the dispersion to unequal resistance to various wave lengths [68] … The enormous elasticity of the aether prevents bodily rupture of the medium; and this secures continuity of the wave front … It appears that the earth also conducts the signals, so that wireless apparatus may be installed and used in deep mines, which would enormously increase the power of signalling in case of accidents interrupting communication by the shafts and tunnels [71].”

These properties made the aether a unique fluid that transcended the properties of any other known terrestrial substance and were extremely exceptional when compared to them. To give an idea of what the aether quantitatively might be, Wood compared its properties with those of known substances (30):

“We conclude then, that a medium whose density is such that a volume of it equal to about twenty volumes of the earth would weigh one pound, and whose tension is such that the pressure on a square mile would be about one pound, and whose specific heat is such that it would require as much heat to raise the temperature of one pound of it 1 °F as it would to raise about 2,300,000,000 tons of water the same amount, will satisfy the requirements of nature in being able to transmit a wave of light or heat 186,300 miles per second, and transmit 133 foot-pounds of heat-energy from the sun to the earth each second per square foot of surface normally exposed, and also be everywhere practically non-resisting and sensibly uniform in temperature, density, and elasticity. This medium we call the Luminiferous Aether.”

Graph in figure 2 shows the trend between density and elasticity of the (luminiferous) aether according to some of the authors who endeavoured to study it (31). From the graph it can be seen that all the scientists considered the aether as having an extremely small density.

From the graph it can also be seen that density can be clustered, according to its values, in two different groups: one group including values higher than 1.11·10^-18 kg/m³ (red dotted ellipse), and the other values lower than 2·10^-23 kg/m³ (blue dotted ellipse).

The situation regarding Newton and his link with the aether is controversial and needs to be explored further. When developing his theory on the gravitation and the mutual action of bodies, he tried to solve the problem by resorting to an aethereal ubiquitous medium since he did not believe in the direct action of bodies at a distance in a vacuum. In a letter to Bentley, a classical scholar and theologian, he wrote (32):

“It is inconceivable, that inanimate brute Matter should, without the Mediation of something else, which is not material, operate upon, and affect other Matter without mutual Contact, as it must be, if Gravitation in the Sense of Epicurus be essential and inherent in it. And this is one Reason why I desired you would not ascribe innate Gravity to me. That Gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to Matter, so that one Body can act upon another at a Distance, thro’ a Vacuum, without the Mediation of anything else, by and through which their Action and Force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an Absurdity, that I believe no Man, who has in philosophical Matters a competent Faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an Agent acting constantly according to certain Laws; but whether this Agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the Consideration of my Readers.”

Newton believed that an aethereal substance could fill the whole universe at different densities, and also that it was responsible for the origination of all things.

“And first, I suppose, that there is diffused through all places an aethereal substance, capable of contraction and dilation, strongly elastic, and, in a word, much like air in all respects, but far more subtle.

…..

It is about the cause of gravity. For this end I will suppose aether to consist of parts differing from one another in subtility by indefinite degrees: …” (33)

“Thus perhaps may all things be originated from aether.” (34)

It is explicit and unequivocal that Newton tried to explain the mechanism of gravitation by resorting to the properties of a posited subtle, universal aethereal medium. Apparently, he failed in that and never introduced it in his final dissertation (to explain gravity and the interaction of bodies). He left his theories and equations floating in a void universe, and the explanation of the cause of gravity as a problem for the generations to come: (35)

“It appears, from his letters to Boyle, that this was his opinion early, and if he did not publish it sooner it proceeded from hence only, that he found he was not able, from experiment and observation, to give a satisfactory account of this medium and the manner of its operation in producing the chief phenomena of nature.”

However, his pupils and most of the great mathematical astronomers of the 18th century did not follow the path paved by Newton, and investigations on the properties of the aether started slowly till it become one of the cornerstones of research activities in the Victorian age.

Going further back in time, there is a period of relatively scarce evidence of interest in the aether where the only enquiries were advanced by theologians and philosophers. They mentioned it mainly in their work on astronomy by calling it caelum aethereum (the aethereal heaven). This rarefied aetheric substance was a physical continuum characterizing the upper celestial regions and the starry heaven for its purity in contrast with the sublunary corruptible worlds (lower atmosphere of air of the celestial spheres). Besides, it was considered that the planets moved freely through it and that it filled everywhere the space between celestial bodies. Amongst the most representative of this period we find Kepler (1571-1630), (36) Fracastoro (1476 ca – 1553), (37) Aquinas (1225 ca – 1274 ca), (38) and de Sacrobosco (of Holywood) (1195 ca – 1256 ca) (39). Interesting too is the work on cosmology and the conception of the substance the Universe is made of put forward by Fracastoro who fully considers Aristotle’s, and completed Empedocle’s conception of aether. Fracastoro thinks the sublunary regions, those close to the celestial bodies, were composed of the basic four elements (earth, water, air, and fire). Meanwhile, the superlunary region, those above the element fire, supposedly the lightest of the four elements, was composed of the caelum aethereum, an incorruptible, eternal, perfectly regular and transparent substance. According to Fracastoro the caelum aethereum was a dynamic, physical fluid medium in which the celestial spheres move.

Further back in time we find the work of the theologians and philosophers of the medieval Islamic East tradition. They were called the atomists. Prominent atomists were al-Juwayni (1028-1085), al-Ghazali (1058–1111), al-Sharastani (c. 1075-1153), and al-Razi (1149-1210).
The atomists of the medieval Islamic East tradition maintained that the atom (kalam) is a physically and conceptually minimal unit of magnitude. When a finite number of these atoms are combined or aggregated together to form a body, they continue to exist within that body as discrete articulated units (masfil). The kalam is physically indivisible and has a minimal or non-zero amount of spatial (three dimensions) magnitude that exists in and moves through space, and thus it is distinct from the space it occupies. (40)

Before the Islamic tradition we find the philosophical schools of the Ancients. Amongst the many we may consider the work of Lucretius (1st century BCE), Epicurus (about 3rd century BCE), and Empedocles (middle of the 5th century BCE). The latter, possibly a student of Pythagoras, stands out for his clear conception regarding the qualities of the fundamental roots permeating the whole cosmos. He claimed that everything in the physical world is composed of four eternal roots or elements: fire, air, water and earth that are moved by two opposing forces, love and strife. Each root differentiates from each other, being characterized by specific qualities such as weight. Earth is supposed to be the heaviest and fire the lightest. The four roots come together (attract) and blend under the agency of love; then, they are driven apart (disrupted and collapsed) by strife. The physical world is then characterized by a continuous and permanent combination and disaggregation of the enduring and immortal roots, according to determined proportions that differ from the type of material body, under the influence of the enduring forces:

“A twofold tale I shall tell: at one time it grew to be one from many, and at another again it divided to be many from one. There is a double birth of what is mortal, and a double passing away; for the uniting of all things brings one generation into being and destroys it, and the other is reared and scattered as they are again being divided. And these things never cease their continual exchange of position, at one time all coming together into one through love, at another again being borne away from each other by strife’s repulsion.

…….

And what would increase this whole, and from where would it come? How would it be completely destroyed, since nothing is without them? No, these are the only real things. But as they run through each other they become different objects at different times, yet they are throughout forever the same.” (41)

………

“Here is another point: of all mortal things no one has birth, or any end in pernicious death, but there is only mixing, and separating of what has been mixed, and to these men give the name birth.” (42)

To Empedocles, formation of matter occurs according to a vortical movement of the immortal and unmixed roots which by converging towards the center of the whirl give rise to the formation of a variety of mortal forms: (43)

“… when Strife has reached the lowest depth of the whirl and Love comes into the center of the eddy, in her then all these things unite to be one only; not immediately, but coming together from different directions at will … Immediately what were formerly accustomed to be immortal became mortal, and formerly unmixed things were in a mixed state, owing to the exchanging of their ways. And, as they were being mixed, countless types of mortal things poured forth, fitted with all kinds of forms, a wonder to see.”

Leucippus and Democritus, the founders of the atomist school in the 5th century BCE, strongly sustained the granular hypothesis of a ubiquitous and all-pervading substance. They conceived an aether characterized by a continuous granular structure and called its basic constituents atomos or atomom (indivisible or indestructible), or ideai (shapes or forms). (44)
These basic components were thought to be made of different shapes and sizes and to be eternal. The conception of Democritus regarding the formation of the visible objects of the world of appearance was very similar to that of Empedocles’. He argued material objects to be brought about by clusters of these atomos that were dynamic and characterized by entangling movements.
(45)

“A brief quotation for Aristotle’s On Democritus will set out their [i.e., the atomists’] view.
‘Democritus thinks that the nature of the eternal things consists of small substances infinite in number; these he places in space, separate from them and infinite in extent. He calls space by the following names: ‘the void,’ ‘nothing,’ and ‘the infinite,’ and each of the substances he calls ‘things,’ ‘the solid,’ and ‘what is.’ He thinks that the substances are so small as to escape our senses. They have all kinds of forms and all kinds of shapes and differences of sizes. Now from these as elements he generates the visible and perceptible bodies. He says that they conflict with one another and travel about in the void because of their unlikeness and the other differences which have been mentioned, and as they travel about they collide and entangle with one another, and that entanglement makes them touch and be near one another, but does not really generate any single nature from them; for it would be quite absurd for two or more things ever to become one. He explains the fact that the substances remain together for some time by the dovetailing and interlocking of the bodies; for some of them are uneven, some hook-shaped, some concave, some convex, the rest with innumerable differences. He thinks that they hang on to one another and remain together until some stronger necessity, approaching from the surroundings, shakes the complex apart and disperses it.’
He says that coming to be and its opposite, separation, occur not only in the case of animals but also in plants and worlds and in general all sensible bodies. Now if coming to be is joining together of atoms, and passing away is separation, according to Democritus too coming to be would be alteration.”

The work of the atomists was erroneously considered the basis of modern science. In fact, the term atomos of Leucippus and Democritus, first introduced by Gassendi in the first half of the 17th century, was adopted by Dalton to develop the fundamentals of chemistry. The atom was considered to be the smallest part making up matter. However, this was not the case, and subsequent experiments revealed the atom to be made of many smaller and different particles. Clearly, the atom of traditional physics has nothing in common with that conceived by Leucippus and Democritus. Unfortunately, the atomists are still considered the forerunners of one of the best-known building blocks, the atom, of which matter today is thought to consist. Making a comparison like the above can be argued to be a naive exercise, as pointed out by Mendeleev: (46)

The atoms and molecules which are dealt with in all provinces of modern mechanics and physics cannot be other than the atoms and molecules defined by chemistry, for this is required by the unity of science. And therefore the metaphysicians of the present day should, for the advancement of knowledge, regard atoms in the same sense as that in which they are understood by natural science and not after the manner of the ancient metaphysicians of the Chinese or Greek schools.

Before the atomists an aether with similar characteristics was discussed by Anaximander (that he called apeiron) (47), and Aristotle (48) in the 4th century BCE, and then by Moschus of Sidon, in the 13th-14th century BCE. Many authors identified Moschus (or Mochus) of Sidon or the lawgiver with Moses the Hebrew, the well-known figure of the Pentateuch (49). Maglione found that Moses the Hebrew was very well acquainted in the Science of the aether: (50)

“….. we must admit that Moses and his associates were very well acquainted with the laws regulating the behavior of an ether present everywhere in nature and in the cosmos. An ether that can also be called orgone energy, or vital energy, or fluid space (according to Todeschini), or whatever other name they may have given it. It is a body of knowledge that we are only recently starting to know and study, thanks to the enormous work done in the past century by a few knowledgeable and open-minded scientists, above all Reich and Todeschini.
……….
It can be inferred from the above that Moses was either well-acquainted with only a small part of this science, the one he applied to the Ark of the Covenant with the aim of creating an Oranur field, that he took or learned somewhere; or that he was a true and skilled scientist, with a broad knowledge, as suggested by De Grazia and many others; but he was involved in a venture focused on a very limited section of this science, whose task was to create and manage only a gigantic Oranur field in the desert for some particular purposes. It is difficult to say, even though I would be more inclined to support the second hypothesis.”

Possibly, the properties of this aether were already known to the ancient Egyptians, as proposed by Maglione (51), and even further back in time to the Chinese (Qi), (52) the Indians (Prana), (53) and the Polynesian (Mana) (54) of the 5-10 millennia BCE who were of the few to endow it with therapeutic qualities.
Many authors found numerous similarities between Traditional Chinese Medicine (Qi) and Reich’s Medicine (orgone energy) (55). A recently developed orgone technique, the orgone-puncture, is combining TCM and its energy meridian (channel) system, with the use of orgone devices. First conceived by Senf in Germany (1976), (56) was then developed and applied by Inza (2002), (57) Southgate (2002), (58) and more recently by d’Ingiullo. (59)

Orgone energy and aether in the 21st century

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Lorentz, Hilbert, Poincaré, Minkowski, Ricci Cubastro and other scientists elaborated some physical and mathematical theories that paved the way for Einstein to develop his theory of relativity. At the same time, the Michelson and Morley experiment apparently failed to detect the Earth’s motion through the aether thus leading most of the scientific circles to the conclusion that it might not exist. (60) In 1905, Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis, the aether was officially removed from science, as the theory developed by Einstein, Special Relativity, did not expect the presence of the aether, it now being considered unnecessary. Clearly, the mathematician Einstein was not interested in considering the suggestions put forward by Newton and preferred to follow his own path, even though this would have made the great scientist turn in his grave. However, it is noteworthy that originally Einstein was interested in the aether and planned lab research to study the relationship between electric and magnetic fields and aether density variation. (61) Notwithstanding this, a few years later he completely changed his mind.
Despite being banned from science it was some time before the aether was completely forgotten and never mentioned again. In 1909, Thomson, a British physicist and President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in an address openly spoke as the aether as a fundamental part of future research in theoretical physics: (62)

“The matter of which I have been speaking so far is the material which builds up the earth, the sun and the stars, the matter studied by the chemist, and which he can represent by a formula; this matter occupies, however, but an insignificant fraction of the universe, it forms but minute islands in the great ocean of the ether, the substance with which the whole universe is filled.
The ether is not a fantastic creation of the speculative philosopher; it is as essential to us as the air we breathe.
…..
The study of this all-pervading substance is perhaps the most fascinating and important duty of the physicist.”

Or as See, an American astronomer, put it: (63)

“Notwithstanding the very secure foundation for a valid theory of the aether erected by the labors of the most eminent geometers and natural philosophers since the age of Newton, a strange tendency has arisen within recent years, for abandoning the aether as an unnecessary hypothesis. Whether this reactionary tendency is based upon adequate grasp of the geometrical and physical considerations involved may be doubted by the more experienced natural philosophers of today.

…….

… an even more bewildering doctrine has been put forth by Einstein and quite widely adopted in England, though it generally is rejected in America.”

Besides, at the end of the 19th century notwithstanding the rejection of the aether, scientific circles started evaluating the possibility that aether might be also instrumental in explaining the functions of life and mind, as Maxwell put it: (64)

“Whether this vast homogeneous expanse of isotropic matter is fitted not only to be a medium of physical interaction between distant bodies, and to fulfil other physical functions of which, perhaps, we have as yet no conception, but also, as the authors [Balfour and Tait] of the Unseen Universe seem to suggest, to constitute the material organism of beings exercising functions of life and mind as high or higher than ours are at present, is a question far transcending the limits of physical speculation.”

Notwithstanding a large part of the scientific circles was against Einstein’s theory, the theory gained acceptance and spread like wildfire in a very dry environment. Within a few years the aether was put aside and never considered again by traditional science. Cosmos and nature were considered empty, or devoid of any type of subtle, invisible, and ubiquitous fluid or energy.

Mainstream Science underwent a shift from a conception of space-energy continuum, whose presence of the aether was a fundamental quality, to a conception of space-time, devoid of any type of fluid whose aether-derived properties were replaced by scalar and vectorial fields. (65) In doing so, mainstream science began to consider reality as made of inanimate objects, and all the chances to discover the basic processes of things as animated by a living and dynamic medium, such as pulsation, lumination, irritability, heat formation, and condensation into matter (see table 1), were lost.
Many scientists criticized the acceptance of Einstein’s theories by mainstream Science. They posed his arguments as being pseudo-scientific and devoid of any physical basis. See commented as follows: (66)

“In fact as Einstein even proposed to do away with the aether, he has no mechanism for conveying action across space … Accordingly, it is recognized that Einstein’s reasoning is totally devoid of physical basis. He treats his problem as if it related to pure mathematics, and as if his reasoning were not required to conform to recognized physical conditions. And since he even introduces the curvature of space, to explain a mere phenomenon of refraction, which Newton would not have sanctioned, we perceive that the doctrines of Einstein are chiefly remarkable for the lack of understanding of the physical universe which they display … Accordingly, Einstein’s theory of relativity is as superfluous as it is misleading. In all his speculations there is not one truth corresponding to the actual phenomena in nature.”

Tesla, a Serbian-American engineer and inventor, commented on Einstein’s relativity, put forward and accepted by the mainstream, as something abstruse and incomprehensible: (67)

“He [Tesla] has measured cosmic ray velocities from Antarus … which he found to be fifty times greater than the speed of light, thus demolishing, he contended, one of the basic pillars of the structure of relativity, according to which there can be no speed greater than that of light.

………..

The theory of relativity he described as, ‘a mass of error and deceptive ideas violently opposed to the teachings of great men of science of the past and even to common sense.’

The theory, he said, ‘wraps all these errors and fallacies and clothes them in magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king. Its exponents are very brilliant men, but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists. Not a single one of the relativity propositions has been proved’.”

Todeschini, an Italian engineer and physicist, thought the acceptance of the theories of a void universe developed by Einstein and by mainstream physics, would have led science along a wrong direction with no exit: (68)

“Anzi, pensando che in tal modo [Einstein] ha deviato il pensiero umano dal raggiungere le nuove acquisizioni scientifiche conseguenti dal considerare i fenomeni oltre che dal lato fisico, anche da quello biologico e psichico, si deve concludere che ha ritardato di mezzo secolo il processo scientifico. ……

Lei allora non condivide l’ammirazione generale per Einstein?

• Io l’ammiro più di ogni altro, ma per una sola ragione e ben diversa: perché con una teoria errata, che non vale nulla, ha saputo farsi glorificare da tutto il mondo come un idolo.”

“Actually, thinking that in such a way he [Einstein] diverted the human thought from reaching new scientific achievements as a result of considering the phenomena from both the physical, and the biological and psychical sides, one must conclude that he stopped for half a century the scientific progress. …..

Then, do you welcome the general admiration for Einstein?

• I admire him more than any other, but for only one well different reason: because with a wrong theory, that has no value, he succeeded in being glorified by all the world like an idol.”

Oppenheimer, an American physicist and inventor of the atomic bomb, during the 25th Congress of the American Physical Society, held in New York in 1956, openly criticized the physics of his time and pointed out the need for a change of the theoretical basis of modern physics: (69)

“1°) – Accertata l’impossibilità di spiegare il comportamento dell’anti-protone e dei fenomeni sub-atomici, e che perciò siamo ritornati al punto in cui si trovava la fisica 50 anni fa, prima che venissero Einstein con la sua teoria della relatività e Planck e Bohr con le loro teorie quantistiche: si riconosce l’urgente necessità di abbandonare queste dottrine che alla luce dei fatti si sono rivelate del tutto inattendibili e di adottare nuovi principi unificatori.

2°) – E’ indispensabile che la nuova scienza unitaria consideri le relazioni che legano i fenomeni della fisica atomica a quelli contemplati dalle altre branche del sapere per stabilire l’unità culturale del nostro mondo.”

 

“1°) – Verified the impossibility to explain the behaviour of the anti-proton and of the sub-atomic phenomena, and that therefore we are back to the point physics was 50 years ago, before the arrival of Einstein with his theory of relativity and Planck and Bohr with their quantum theories: it is recognised the urgent need to abandon these principles that in light of the facts showed themselves totally inadequate and to consider new unifier principles.

2°) – It is required that the new united science considers the relations that link the phenomena of the atomic physics to those contemplated by the other branches of knowledge in order to establish the cultural unity of our world.”

Reich met Einstein in 1941 with the purpose of demonstrating and discussing some of his discoveries. Einstein first accepted this with enthusiasm but then dismissed them as of no value. Reich described the behaviour of the American physicist as the last barrier to the break-down of the old western culture society: (70)

“Einstein succeeded in fascinating the first half of the twentieth century just because he had emptied space. Emptying space, reducing the whole universe to a static nothing, was the only theory that could satisfy the desert-like character structure of man of this age. Empty, immobile space and a desert character structure fit well together. It was the last attempt on the part of armored men to withstand and withhold knowledge of a universe full of life energy, pulsating in many rhythms, always in a state of development and change; in one word, functional and not mechanistic, mystical or relativistic. It was the last barrier, in scientific terms, to the final break-down of the human armoring.”

However, even though the aether was banned from mainstream science many scientists applied themselves to study it. We find, in addition to the work of Reich’s, the research of Tesla (1856-1943), See (1866-1962), Todeschini (1899-1988), Okhatrin (1925-2002), and Khaidarov (1952), to name only a few.

Tesla, according to what is disseminated in his publications, never tried a characterization of the aether even though some information on its qualities can be found. He considered the aether an incompressible gaseous substance, filling all space, and of an inconceivable tenuity. It was made of particles immeasurably smaller than those of the air and with density incomparably smaller than that of any body known, even hydrogen. Static electricity could be considered effects of aether under strain. Dynamic electricity and electro-magnetism effects of aether in motion. Tesla posited that the boundless amount of aether available in the universe was the recipient and transmitter of infinite energy, and, if properly harnessed, might produce light and power. (71)
See developed a very accurate mathematical modeling of the aether’s behaviour that was strongly cosmological. (72) He proposed a granularly, continuous and physical aether filling all space, where gravitation arises from pressure, stress, or circulation in the aether. Matter moves through and interacts with this medium, and stellar systems, nebulae, and cosmological structure evolve through aether-mediated forces.
Todeschini did a very accurate study of the aether he called Spazio Fluido (Fluid Space) whose behaviour he modeled by resorting to the equations of fluid dynamics. The aether continuum was considered everywhere homogeneous with a constant density and to be made of granular units. By the flow equations he developed he could explain all the physical phenomena, and scientifically identify the mistakes made by Einstein in rejecting the Galilean relativity. Together with the work of Larmor and Reynolds, Todeschini’s work is the most complete mathematical modeling of the behaviour of the aether today available. (73)
Okhatrin, a Russian physicist, developed a conception of an aether made of ultralight particles that fill all environment, living systems, and virtually all media. He called these particles microleptons or axions and hypothesized they carry information about the composition and structure of bodies. (74) He developed and patented a bioenergy generator for healing based on microleptons. This latter point makes him one of the very few that considered the aether endowed with therapeutic properties. (75)
More recently, Khaidarov, a Kazakh physicist, developed a granular theory of the aether he considered a quasi-isotropic and elastic protomatter that fills all space. The aether is made up of indivisible and uncompressible particles called amers. Such units are characterized by two different states thus determining two different kinds of aether. He calls one state phase aether and the other corpuscular aether. Phase aether, whose behaviour can be assimilated to a pseudo-gas, is made up of separate, excited individual amers, while the corpuscular aether, assimilated to a pseudo-solid body, consists of stable and non-excited amers that generally group together to form large domains. Fundamental particles of matter, such as protons and electrons, are domains of corpuscular aether. Khaidarov uses the phenomena of evaporation and condensation to describe aether changing back and forth between the two states. (76)
In the last few decades a considerable amount of experimental evidence has been put forward that supports the assumptions that aether flows into all sides of the Earth. Further, that the Earth encounters aether on its orbital path. These assumptions are drawn from the results of tests generally carried out with the purpose of determining whether aether exists. Scientists who endeavored in such research were, amongst the following: Allais, Munera, Cahill, DeMeo, Galaev, and Vessot et al. (77)

The scheme in figure 3 summarizes how an aether (orgone energy) based knowledge was known and disseminated in every period of our recent civilization, from the ancient Chinese and Indian till our most recent times, passing through the Victorian Age. (78) Such knowledge is based on the conception of a space-energy continuum, or of a bio-energy that fills all the Cosmos and is responsible of all the material things and the physical phenomena. To the best of the author’s knowledge, there has never been a conception in our civilization as to a void, atom-based or space-time universe before 1905. This year was characterized by Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis and set the tone for the last century’s mainstream scientific development. This latter endeavour might seem an accidental spin-off from the primary and perennial flow of an aether-based conception since it has no equals in other periods of our civilization. Clearly, these two conceptions run parallel with no point in common as the fundamentals are totally different.

Conclusion

Over the centuries the conception of an all-pervading and ubiquitous super-fluid, named differently according to places and scholars, was available. Most of the scholars contrived it as made of unconceivably small or ultralight units or particles linked together to make a continuous texture. This medium and its qualities might be identified with the general term, aether. A large body of knowledge on the properties of this medium is today available, both from the past, through the fragments of philosophers’ and theologians’ texts, and, in greater quantity, from more recent studies and research carried out by various scientists. In these ranks are included Descartes and Newton, on through the Victorian age till the first years of the 21st century, and then on to various independent scholars. Very few endowed this energy continuum with living and therapeutic qualities. The only ones who did so were the ancient Chinese with the introduction of the acupuncture culture.
Mainstream physics and science, based on the space-time conception, might be considered an offshoot of an aether– or a space-energy-based science. The space-time concept itself was never observed before its official introduction in 1905 in the scientific culture of our recent civilization.
Reich’s orgone energy continuum can be qualitatively identified with the conception of the aether spanning all periods of our scientific culture. A granular-like structure, like that conceived in the Victorian age by Maxwell, seems the most appropriate framework to explain its behaviour. Besides, Reich was the only one in our recent scientific history who endowed it with living, pulsating and therapeutic qualities and provided evidence of it. Reich’s orgone energy continuum might be considered the most complete conception of the aether today available encompassing all the branches of science, from psychiatry and medicine to physics and chemistry, even metaphysics.
Drawing from the immense reservoir of material available on the aether might benefit the advancement of knowledge regarding orgone energy, its behaviour and applications in the various branches of science. Besides, the mathematical modelling work developed by Earnshaw, Maxwell, Larmor, Reynolds, See and Todeschini, based on theoretical considerations and laboratory physical experiments might be an extraordinary complement to Reich’s work.

 

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Leon Southgate for his suggestions in writing the paper.

References

(1) The present paper is an extended version of the first part of the communication What is Orgone Energy and its Relation to Other Forms of Energy the author presented at the Wilhelm Reich and Orgone Energy in Action Conference held in Granada Hills, California, Usa, May 24-25, 2025. Specifically, the paper is focused on the relationship between orgone energy and the energies of the past up to the 20^th century.

(2) Reich W, Letter to Sheldon N Kowadle, February 27, 1956, in Reich W, Where’s the Truth. Letters and Journals, 1948-1957, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2012, page 211. The recipient of the letter, Mr Kowadle, was a person enthusiastic about Reich’s work but who thought Reich had overlooked extensive material dealing with “Prana” and the “Aura.”

(3) Reich W, The Oranur Experiment. First Report (1947-1951), Orgone Institute Press, Rangeley, Usa, 1951, page 332.

(4) See the discussion on the effects of the Oranur experiment and the connection between physics and metaphysics in Reich W, The Oranur Experiment. First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, Usa, 1951, at pages 326-334; see also Ollendorf I, Wilhelm Reich. A Personal Biography, Avon Books, New York, October 1969, pages 195-196; and Wyvell L, Orgone and You, Offshoots of Orgonomy, N° 12, page 8.

(5) Reich W, Ether, God and Devil. Cosmic Superimposition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1973, pages 139-161 (first edition of Cosmic Superimposition was published in 1951).

(6) Reich W, Ibid, 1973, pages 159-161.

(7) Whittaker E, A History of the Theories of Aether & Electricity, Dover Publications, 2017; see also Maglione R,
What is Orgone Energy and Its Relation to Other Forms of Energy, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, December 01, 2025; and Maglione R, Piergentili L, Temperature and Electric Measurements on an Organism to a Concentrated Orgone Energy Field, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, May 02, 2022.

(8) Huygens C, Treatise on Light, Macmillan & Co, London, 1912 (originally published in French in 1690).

(9) Earnshaw S, On the Nature of the Molecular Forces Which Regulate the Constitution of the Luminiferous Ether, Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Vol. 7, pages 97-112, 1842.

(10) Reynolds O, The Sub-mechanics of the Universe, Cambridge University Press, UK, 1903; and Reynolds O, On an Inversion of Ideas as to the Structure of the Universe (The Rede Lecture, June 10, 1902), Cambridge University Press, 1903; and Mackenzie J, The Structure of the Universe Being a Presentation of Professor Osborne Reynolds’ Theory of Gravitation, Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science, Vol 4, No 3, pages 385-403, 1910.

(11) Todeschini M, La Teoria delle Apparenze (Spazio-Dinamica e Psico-bio-fisica), Movimento Psicobiofisico Internazionale S. Marco, Bergamo, Italy, 1949; Todeschini M, Einstein o Todeschini?, Movimento Psicobiofisico Internazionale S. Marco, Bergamo, Italy, 1956; Todeschini M, Decisive Experiments in Moderne Physics, Bergamo, Italy, 1966; and Todeschini M, Psicobiofisica, Centro Internazionale di Psicobiofisica, Bergamo, 1977.

(12) Thomson W (Lord Kelvin), On Ether and Gravitational Matter Through Infinite Space, Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Vol 2, No 8, August 1901.

(13) Lodge O, The Ether and its Functions. Part I, Nature, Vol 27, pages 304-306, January 25, 1883; Lodge O, The Ether and its Functions. Part II, Nature, Vol 27, pages 328-330, February 01, 1883; and Lodge O, Modern Views of the Ether, Nature, Vol 75, pages 519-522, March 28, 1907.

(14) Maxwell JC, On Physical Lines of Force. Part I-IV, Philosophical Magazine, Series 4; Part I: Vol. 21 (March 1861), pages 161–175; Part II: Vol. 21 (April 1861), pages 281–291; Part III: Vol. 23 (October 1862), pages 12–24; and Part IV: Vol. 23 (November 1862), pages 85–95.

(15) Reynolds O, On an Inversion of Ideas as to the Structure of the Universe (The Rede Lecture, June 10, 1902), Cambridge University Press, 1903, page 10.

(16) Maxwell JC, On Physical Lines of Force. Part I. The Theory of Molecular Vortices Applied to Magnetic Phenomena; Part II. The Theory of Molecular Vortices Applied to Electric Currents, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Vol. XXI, Fourth Series, January-June 1861, Pages 161–175 (Part I); 281–291 (Part II); and 338–348 (Part II).

(17) See for example Reich W, The Cancer Biopathy. Volume II of the Discovery of the Orgone, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1973, pages 105-106, and pages 112-113; Reich W, Ether, God and Devil. Cosmic Superimposition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1973, page 146 and page 152; Reich W, The Oranur Experiment. First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Orgone Institute, Maine, 1951, page 270; and Reich W, Contact with Space, Oranur Second report, 1951-1956. OROP Desert Ea 1954-1955, Core Pilot Press, New York, 1957, pages 37-42, and page 218.

(18) Whittaker E, A History of the Theories of Aether & Electricity, Dover Publications, 2017.

(19) This view is not shared even by some orgonomists who think that the research and studies on the aether were totally discontinued after Newton (around 1720s) to start again only in the 1950s (see DeMeo J, Isaac Newton’s Letter to Robert Boyle, on the Cosmic Ether of Space, Orgone Biophysical Research Lab report, December 2009, available at www.orgonelab.org).

(20) Dimensions of the aether’s constituting grains or particles were investigated mainly by those supporting its granular nature. Huygens inferred that (Huygens C, Treatise on Light, McMillan & Co, London, 1912, pages 21 and 14, English translation of Traitè de la Lumiere, Leyde, 1690):

“… [they] are of an inconceivable smallness; … being on the contrary quite credible that it is this infinite series of different sizes of corpuscles, having different degrees of velocity, of which Nature makes use to produce so many marvellous effects.”

Newton found aether may contain particles that (Newton I, Opticks, Fourth Edition, London, 1718, Query 21):

“… are exceedingly smaller than those of Air, or even than those of Light: … and thereby make that Medium exceedingly more rare and elastick than Air, …”

Being the (kinetic) diameter of the gas constituting the air around 0.3-0.35 nanometer (see for example Kunze S, Groll R, Besser B, Thoming J, Molecular Diameters of Rarefied Gases, Nature, Scientific Reports, (2022) 12:2057) it is reasonable to think that to Newton the size of the aether particles was much less than 0.3 nanometer. According to Reynolds the grains constituting the aether were of spherical shape and all characterized by the same diameter that he estimated to be 5.534∙10^-18 cm (The Sub-Mechanics of the Universe, Cambridge University Press, 1903, pages 1 and 237). The scientist, See, conceived the aether made up of spherical particles with the same size of 3.346∙10^-12 m. He called this fundamental particle aetheron (See TJJ, New Theory of the Aether, Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 211, Nr. 5044, January 14, 1920, pages 50-86).

The following table summarizes the above data by author and year.

Author (year)	Grain size [original data]	Grain size [10−9 m]	Notes
Huygens (1690)	–	–	Inconceivably small, different sizes and velocities
Newton (1718)	–	< 0.3	Exceedingly smaller than air molecules
Reynolds (1903)	5.534×10−18 cm	5.534×10−11	Spherical, same size
See (1920)	3.346×10−12 m	3.346×10−3	Spherical, same size (particle called aetheron)

(21) Very little is available for the mass of an aether particle. According to Wood the mass is 1/(22∙10⁴⁰) lb (Wood, DV, The Luminiferous Aether, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal Science, November 1885, page 405). In the same paper he reported the value determined by Thomson (Lord Kelvin) that was very similar (1/13)∙10^-40 lb. Mendeleev considered the aether, called by him element X, the lightest of the elements (gas) both in density and atomic weight, the most mobile, the least prone to enter into combination with other atoms (inert gas), and as an all-permeating and penetrating substance. He found its atomic weight, when referred to that of hydrogen, could vary between 9.6∙10^-6 and 5.3∙10^-11 (Mendeleev D, An Attempts Towards the Chemical Conception of the Aether, Longmans, Green, and Co, London, 1904, page 42). The scientist, See, found the atomic weight of a particle of aether (called aetheron) to be 15.56∙10^-12 times the atomic weight of a molecule of hydrogen (See TJJ, New Theory of the Aether, Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 211, Nr. 5044, January 14, 1920, pages 50-86). In more recent years, Okhatrin considered the aether as a gas with different densities composed of super-lightweight particles, that he called microleptons or axions. Particle’s mass was found to be 1.3 ± 0.6∙10^-40 kg (Okhatrin A.F. Macroclusters and Ultralight Particles (in Russian), Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Vol 304, N° 4, 1989, pages 866-869).

The following table summarizes the above data by author and year.

Author (year)	Mass [original data]	Mass [kg]	Notes
Thomson (lord Kelvin) (1855)	(1/13)·10-40 lb	3.49·10-42	Same for all particles and throughout space. Aether as ideal gas
Wood (1885)	1/(22·1040) lb	2.06·10-42
Mendeleev (1904)	<0.96·10-4 (H=1)	<1.60·10-33	Aether considered as the lightest most mobile ideal gas, less prone to combine and form stable definite compounds, and all-permeating substance
Mendeleev (1904)	>5.3·10-11 (H=1)	>8.85·10-38	Aether considered as the lightest most mobile ideal gas, less prone to combine and form stable definite compounds, and all-permeating substance
See (1920)	15.56·10-12 (H=1)	2.604·10-38	Same for all particles and throughout space. Aether as ideal gas
Okhatrin (1989)	1.3 ± 0.6·10-40	1.3 ± 0.6·10-40	Aether considered as a gas with different density

(22) The density of the aether has been one of the most investigated parameters. The first to study it was Newton who believed the aether was not homogeneous but changed its density in function of the place. Yet, the sizes of the parts the aether consisted of, were infinitely various in subtilty. He correlated density directly to the elasticity as follows (Newton I, Philosophical Writings, Queries to the Opticks, Royal Society, 1718, pages 171-172):

“Sounds move about 1140 English feet in a second Minute of Time, and in seven or eight minutes of Time they move about one hundred English Miles. Light moves from the Sun to us in about seven or eight Minutes of Time, which distance is about 70,000,000 English Miles, …. And therefore the elastick force of this Medium, in proportion to its density, must be above 700000 × 700000 (that is, above 490,000,000,000) times greater than the elastick force of the Air is in proportion to its density. For the Velocities of the Pulses of elastick Mediums are in a subduplicate Ratio of the Elasticities and the Rarities of the Mediums taken together.”

According to what Newton reported above, it can be deduced elasticity and density of the aether are linked by the following relationship: C² = (E/ρ)aether > 4.9·10¹¹·(E/ρ)air. Being at 20 °C (E/ρ)air = 1.176·10⁵ m²/s², we have C² = (E/ρ)aether > 5.7624·10¹⁶ m²/s². He thought aether had different density according to where it was located. Euler found a value that he estimated to be at least more than 10⁸ times less than the density of the atmosphere, or less than 10^-8·ρair (Euler L, Opuscola. Varii Argumenti, Ambr. Haude & Jo. Carol. Speneri, 1746, page 196; see also Bistafa SR, On the Formation and Propagation of Pulses in Aether, October 2021). Efforts to more accurately evaluate the density of the aether were done only more than a century later by Thomson W (Lord Kelvin). He was one of the first to calculate the density of the aether with a certain degree of accuracy. He found it to be not less than 1/(1560·10¹⁷) lb/ft³ (Thomson W, Note on the Possible Density of the Luminiferous Medium and on the Mechanical Value of a Cubic Mile of Sunlight, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1854, Volume 21, page 60). In a further paper Thomson (W) reported a higher value to be not less than 516·10^-20 g/cm³. He considered the aether as an imponderable medium, where no part could be subjected to gravitation thus setting the medium outside the law of universal gravitation (Thomson (Lord Kelvin). On Ether and Gravitational Matter through Infinite Space, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Series 6, Vol. 2, No. 8, August 1901, pages 161-177). Maxwell estimated it to be 9.36·10^-19 g/cm³ and constant everywhere. He supposed to be in some cases heterogeneous due to its motion (Maxwell JC, Ether, Encyclopedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, Volume VIII, 1878, page 570). Wood found a value of 2/(35·10²⁴) lb/ft³ that he supposed to be constant throughout space. He considered the aether as an ideal gas (Wood, DV, The Luminiferous Aether, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal Science, November 1885, page 395). In the same paper Wood mentioned the work of Belli (1859) who found a value of (1/2)·10^-13 lb/ft³, and that of Herwitz (undated) with a value of 10^-18 lb/ft³. Mendeleev considered the aether, called by him element X, the lightest of the elements (gas) both in density and atomic weight, the most mobile, the least prone to enter into combination with other atoms (inert gas), and as an all-permeating and penetrating substance. He found its atomic weight, when referred to that of hydrogen, could vary between 9.6·10^-6 and 5.3·10^-11 (Mendeleev D, An Attempts Towards the Chemical Conception of the Aether, Longmans, Green, and Co, London, 1904, page 42). Lodge by studying the magnetic whirl formed around an electron moving through the aether, conceived the aether as a continuous, incompressible and inextensible medium without molecular or discrete structure. He found its density to be around 10¹² g/cm³. He hypothesized also that the density of the aether flowing along lines of magnetic induction be around 180 times that of water, namely 1.80·10² g/cm³ (Lodge O, Modern Views of the Ether, Nature, Vol. 75, No. 1952, March 28, 1907, page 520). Thomson (JJ) considered the aether as an ideal gas whose properties might change according to the pressure thus conceiving it as a compressible fluid. At atmospheric pressure (10⁵ Pa) he determined a value of 8·10^-16 g/cm³, while at much higher pressures, typical of rotating electrons, a value of 5·10¹⁰ g/cm³ was found (Thomson JJ, Address of the President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, Vol. 30, No. 765, Aug. 27, 1909, pages 257-279). Larmor considered the aether a continuous uniform medium, comparable to a perfect (frictionless) fluid. He found the density to be higher than 10^-18 g/cm³ (Larmor J, Ether, Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume I, 1911, page 292-297). See considered the aether as a perfect monoatomic gas whose density differed from place to pace in the interplanetary regions. He found a value at the earth’s surface of 438·10^-18 g/cm³, and at the sun’s surface of 2·10^-18 g/cm³ (See TJJ, New Theory of the Aether, Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 211, Nr. 5044, January 14, 1920, pages 50-86). Tesla conceived the aether as a gaseous substance composed of particles immeasurably smaller than those of air. Density was found to be so light that a volume equal to that of the earth would weigh only about one-twentieth of a pound (AAVV, Nikola Tesla Tells of New Radio Theories, New York Herald Tribune, September 22, 1929). Todeschini considered the aether a homogeneous and uncompressible substance. He modeled it as a liquid and found that the density might have a value 9·10²⁰ times less that the density of water or 1.11·10^-18 kg/m³ (Todeschini M, Psicobiofisica. Scienza Unitaria del Creato, Centro Internazionale di Biofisica, Bergamo, Italy, 1977). Very recently, Maglione found a value of 2.51·10^-25 kg/m³ typical of the substance in interstellar conditions. He considered the aether as an ideal, compressible and nearly frictionless gas, whose density can vary both naturally and artificially (Maglione R, Experimental Evidence of the Existence of the Fluid Space, unpublished manuscript, 2025).

The following table summarizes the above data by author and year.

Author (year)	Density [original data]	Density [kg/m3]	Notes
Newton (1718)	< (1/4.9·1011)Eaether/Eair	> 1.73·10-7 Eaether
Euler (1746)	< 10-8·ρair	< 1.293·10-8
Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1854)	>1/(1560·1017) lb/ft3	> 1.03·10-19
Belli (1859)	(1/2)·10-13 lb/ft3	8.00·10-13
Maxwell (1878)	9.36·10-19 g/cm3	9.36·10-16	Homogeneous and continuous medium, constant everywhere, but heterogeneous in some cases (due to its motion)
Herwitz (no date)	10-18 lb/ft3	1.60·10-17
Wood (1885)	2/(35·1024) lb/ft3	9.15·10-25	Constant throughout space. Aether as ideal gas
Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1901)	516·10-20 g/cm3	> 5.16·10-15	Constant throughout space. Imponderable medium, not subjected to the law of gravity
Mendeleev (1904)	<0.96·10-6 (H=1)	<4.31·10-9	Aether considered as the lightest most mobile ideal gas, less prone to combine and form stable definite compounds, and all permeating substance
Mendeleev (1904)	>5.3·10-11 (H=1)	>2.38·10-13	Aether considered as the lightest most mobile ideal gas, less prone to combine and form stable definite compounds, and all permeating substance
Thomson (JJ) (1909)	8.00·10-16 g/cm3	8.00·10-13	At atmospheric pressure (p=105 Pa). Aether as ideal gas, compressible
Larmor (1911)	>1.00·10-18 g/cm3	>1.00·10-15	Aether as a uniform and perfect (frictionless) fluid
See (1920)	438·10-18 g/cm3	4.38·10-13	At earth’s surface. Aether as a perfect monoatomic gas. Heterogeneous, it varies across planetary spaces
Tesla (1929)	–	2.00·10-23	Aether considered as a gaseous substance
Todeschini (1977)	1/(9·1020) g/cm3	1.11·10-18	Homogeneous aether, constant everywhere, uncompressible. Modeled as a liquid substance
Maglione (2025)	2.51·10-25 kg/m3	2.51·10-25	Aether as an ideal and compressible gas. Density can vary both naturally and artificially
Aether density in conditions different than those of earth’s surface
Lodge (1907)	≈ 1012 g/cm3	≈ 1.00·1015	At electron condition (high pressure). Aether as immobile, continuous, incompressible, and inextensible medium. Density of the aether flow along lines of magnetic induction about 180 g/cm3
Thomson (JJ) (1909)	5.00·1010 g/cm3	5.00·1013	At electron condition (high pressure). Aether as ideal gas, compressible
See (1921)	2.00·10-18 g/cm3	2.00·10-15	At sun’s surface. Aether as a perfect monoatomic gas. Heterogeneous, it varies across planetary spaces

(23) Elasticity or rigidity of aether was another parameter that was accurately investigated by the Victorian age scientists. In most of the cases aether was compared to ideal gases. That led to consider elasticity and rigidity the same physical concept, i.e. resistance to compression. Newton was the first to investigate aether’s elasticity. He correlated it to the density of the aether. Aether elasticity and density were linked by the following relationship: C² = (E/ρ)aether > 4.9·10¹¹·(E/ρ)air. Being at 20 °C (E/ρ)air = 1.176·10⁵ m²/s², we have C² = (E/ρ)aether > 5.76·10¹⁶ m²/s². From the previous equation we find E > 5.76·10¹⁶·ρaether Pa (Newton I, Philosophical Writings, Queries to the Opticks, Royal Society, 1718, pages 171-172). More than a century later Maxwell found a coefficient of rigidity be 842.28 dynes/cm². As comparison he provided the value of the coefficient of steel and glass to be 80 GPa and 24 GPa, respectively (Maxwell JC, Ether, Encyclopedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, Volume VIII, 1875, page 570). Wood reported a value of (4/10⁸) lb/ft² that he considered constant throughout space (Wood DV, The Luminiferous Aether, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal Science, November 1885, page 395). Thomson (Lord Kelvin) reported a value of the rigidity to be not less than 4500 dynes/cm² (Thomson (Lord Kelvin), On Ether and Gravitational Matter through Infinite Space, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Series 6, Vol. 2, No. 8, August 1901, pages 161-177). Lodge by studying the magnetic whirl formed around an electron moving through the aether, conceived it as a continuous, incompressible and inextensible medium without molecular or discrete structure. He found the elasticity to be 10³³ dynes per square centimeter (Lodge O, Modern Views of the Ether, Nature, Vol. 75, No. 1952, March 28, 1907, page 520). Larmor considered the aether a continuous uniform medium, comparable to a perfect (frictionless) fluid. He found elasticity be higher than 10³ dynes/cm² (Larmor J, Ether, Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume I, 1911, page 292-297). See considered rigidity not fixed but variable according to the interplanetary place in which the aether was located. At the earth’s surface he found to be 394200 barye (dyne/cm²), while at sun’s surface it was 1800 barye. Being the aether a superfine gas, See considered the rigidity (elasticity) might be equaled and coincide to its viscosity (See TJJ, New Theory of the Aether, Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 211, Nr. 5044, January 14, 1920, pages 50-86).
The following table summarizes the above data by author and year.

Author (year)	Elasticity / Rigidity [original data]	Notes
Newton (1718)	C2 = (E/ρ)aether > 4.9·1011·(E/ρ)air; E > 5.76·1016·ρaether Pa
Maxwell (1875)	842.28 dynes/cm2; steel 80 GPa; glass 24 GPa
Wood (1885)	(4/108) lb/ft2	Constant throughout space
Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1901)	not less than 4500 dynes/cm2
Lodge (1907)	1033 dynes per square centimeter	Continuous, incompressible and inextensible medium without molecular or discrete structure
Larmor (1911)	higher than 103 dynes/cm2	Continuous uniform medium, comparable to a perfect (frictionless) fluid
See (1920)	394200 barye (dyne/cm2) at the earth’s surface; 1800 barye at sun’s surface	Aether rigidity (elasticity) might be equaled and coincide to its viscosity

(24) The first to investigate the viscosity of aether was Newton who wrote (Newton I, Optiks, Fourth Edition, London, 1718, page 171):

“If this Aether (for so I will call it) should be supposed ….. its resistance would be above 600,000,000 times less than that of Water.”

If we consider the viscosity of water μwater = 1 cps (or 10^-3 Pa·s) we have that aether’s viscosity according to Newton be higher than (1/600,000,000)=(1/6·10^-8)=1,667·10^-9 cps or 1,667·10^-12 Pa·s. More than a century later, Helmholtz thought the aether as a homogeneous, incompressible, and devoid of internal friction (viscosity) substance comparable to a perfect fluid (Helmholtz H, On Integrals of the Hydrodynamical Equations, Which Express Vortex-motion, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. Supplement to Vol. XXXIII. Fourth Series, January-June 1867). Thomson (Lord Kelvin) embraced Helmholtz theory hypothesizing an aether as a perfect homogeneous liquid whose vortex atoms were the basis of all bodies (Thomson W, on Vortex Atom, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. 6, 1867, Pages 94-104). Maxwell conceived the aether like an elastic solid that exerts no drag or resistance to moving bodies, and with no internal energy dissipation (friction), hence devoid of any kind of viscosity (Maxwell JC, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, Oxford University Press, 1998, pages 438-441. Third edition originally published in 1891). Larmor considered the aether a continuous uniform medium, comparable to a perfect and frictionless (zero viscosity) fluid (Larmor J, Ether, Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume I, 1911, page 2921-297). Okhatrin considered the aether as a gas with different densities composed of super-lightweight particles that he called microleptons or axions. Viscosity of the super fluid was found to be 1.2 ± 0.8·10^-16 Pa·s (Okhatrin A.F. Macroclusters and Ultralight Particles (in Russian), Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Vol 304, N° 4, 1989, pages 866-869). Maglione found, by considering the aether as an ideal gas a value of the viscosity of 5.33·10^-19 Pa·s (Maglione R, Experimental Evidence of the Existence of the Fluid Space, unpublished manuscript, 2025).

The following table summarizes the above data by author and year.

Author (year)	Viscosity [original data]	Viscosity [Pa·s]	Notes
Newton (1718)	> μwater/(6·108)	> 1.667·10-12
Helmholtz (1867)	0	0	Aether as homogeneous, uncompressible, perfect fluid (no internal friction)
Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1867)	0	0	Aether as a perfect homogeneous, liquid
Maxwell (1873)	0	0	Aether as elastic solid
Larmor (1911)	0	0	Aether as a uniform and perfect fluid
Okhatrin (1989)	1.2 ± 0.8·10-16	1.2 ± 0.8·10-16	Aether considered as a gas with different density
Maglione (2025)	5.33·10-19	5.33·10-19	Aether as an ideal and compressible gas. Density can vary both naturally and artificially

(25) Larmor J, Ether, Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume I, 1911, pages 292-297.

(26) Earnshaw S, On the Nature of the Molecular Forces Which Regulate the Constitution of the Luminiferous Ether, Trans Camb Phil Soc Vol. 7, pages 97-112, 1842. Earnshaw’s work might be extraordinarily useful in modelling the behaviour of Reich’s orgone energy continuum, both in dynamic and Oranur conditions. Earnshaw developed equations which might be used to simulate the movement of orgone energy in dynamic, unimpeded conditions, according to the law of the orgonomic potentials, and also during the excited phase due to external exciting agents.

(27) Maxwell JC, On Physical Lines of Force. Part I-IV, Philosophical Magazine, Series 4; Part I: Vol. 21 (March 1861), pages 161–175; Part II: Vol. 21 (April 1861), pages 281–291; Part III: Vol. 23 (October 1862), pages 12-24; and Part IV: Vol. 23 (November 1862), pages 85–95; and Maxwell JC, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 155 (1865), pages. 459-512.

(28) Larmor J, Aether and Matter, Cambridge University Press, 1900.

(29) See TJJ, New Theory of the Aether, Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 211, Nr. 5044, January 14, 1920, pages 65-71.

(30) Wood DE, The Luminiferous Aether, London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Series 5, 20(126), November 1885, page 417.

(31) Aether’s elasticity for Belli, Thomson, Todeschini, Tesla, and Maglione was determined by applying Newton relationship, being a value for these authors not available.

(32) Newton I, Letter III, Cambridge, February 25, 1692-3, Four Letters from Sir Isaac Newton to Doctor Bentley, London, 1756, quoted in Maxwell JC, Attraction, Encyclopedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, Volume III, 1878, pages 63-65.

(33) Newton I, Letter to Robert Boyle, Cambridge, February 28, 1678-9, in Birch T, The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Volume I, London, 1744 pages 70-73.

(34) Newton I, Letter to Robert Boyle, Cambridge, January 25, 1675-6, in Birch T, The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Volume I, London, 1744, page 74.

(35) Maclaurin C, Account of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophical Discoveries, 2nd Edition, London, 1750, quoted in Maxwell JC, Attraction, Encyclopedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, Volume III, 1878, page 64.

(36) Kepler J, Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae: Libris VII, Lentiis ad Danubium: Excudebat Johannes Plancus, 1618.

(37) Fracastoro G, Homocentricorum Sive de Stellis Liber, Venice: Giunta, 1538. See also Peruzzi E, La Nave di Ermete: La Cosmologia di Girolamo Fracastoro, Leo S. Olschki, Firenze, 1995; and Omodeo PD, Heavenly Animation as the Foundation for Fracastoro’s Homocentrism: Aristotelian-Platonic Eclecticism beyond the School of Padua, The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, Volume 11, Number 2, 2021.

(38) Aquinas T, Summa Theologiae (Summa Theologica), Johann Amerbach, Basel (Switzerland), 1472 (first printed edition).

(39) de Sacrobosco J (of Holywood J), Tractatum de Spera. Venice: Florentinus de Argentina, 1472 (first printed edition); see also Valleriani M (Editor), De sphaera of Johannes de Sacrobosco in the Early Modern Period, Springer Open, 2020.

(40) For more information see Wolfson HA, The Philosophy of the Kalam, Harvard University Press, 1976; Baffioni C, Atomismo e Antiatomismo nel Pensiero Islamico, Series Minor, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples, Seminario di Studi Asiatici, 16, Rome 1982; Dhanani A, The Physical Theory of Kalam, Atoms, Space, and Void in Basrian Mu’tazili Cosmology, EJ Brill, Leiden, 1994; van Ess J, 60 Years After: Shlomo Pines’s Beitrage and Half a Century of Research on Atomism in Islamic Theology, Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 8.2, 2002; and Sabra AI, Kalam Atomism as an Alternative Philosophy to Hellenizing Falsafa, in Arabic Theology, Arabic Philosophy, From the Many to the One: Essays in Celebration of Richard M Frank, Edited by Montgomery EJ, Peeters, Leuven, 2006.

(41) Wright MR, Empedocles: The Extant Fragments, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981, fragment 8(17), pages 166-167; see also Laertius D, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers (transl. Mensch P), Oxford University Press, 2020, pages 303-310; and Kingsley KS, Parry R, Empedocles, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 2024.

(42) Wright MR, Empedocles: The Extant Fragments, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981, fragment 12(8), pages 174-175.

(43) Wright MR, Empedocles: The Extant Fragments, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981, fragment 47(35), pages 205-206.

(44) Taylor CCW, The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus. Fragments. A Text and Translation with a Commentary, University of Toronto Press, 1999; Berryman S, Leucippus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2016; and Berryman S, Democritus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2016.

(45) Simplicius Commentary on De Coelo 264.33-295.36 in Taylor CCW, The Atomists Leucippus and Democritus. Fragments, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1999, pages 70-71.

(46) Mendeleev D, An Attempt Towards the Chemical Conception of the Aether, Longmans, Green, and Co, London, 1904, page 6.

(47) Maglione R, L’Apeiron di Anassimandro. Un Antesignano dell’Energia Orgonica? In Glielmi N, Maglione R, Wilhelm Reich, Gedi Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, Italy, 2009; see also Rovelli C, The First Scientist. Anaximander and His Legacy, Westholme Publishing, 2011.

(48) Aristotle, De Caelo (Edited by Stocks JL and Joachim HH), Oxford University Press, New York, 1922 (originally published in ca 350 BCE).

(49) Maclaurin C, Account of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophical Discoveries, 2nd Edition, London, 1750, page 26; Sailor DB, Moses and Atomism, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol 25, No 1, Jan-Mar 1964; and McGuire JE, Rattansi PM, Newton and the “Pipes of Pan”, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol 21, No 2, December 1966; see also Maglione R, The Legendary Shamir, Gedi Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2017.

(50) Maglione R, The Legendary Shamir, Gedi Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2017, pages 370-371.

(51) Maglione R, Ibid, 2017, pages 281-322.

(52) Mann F, Acupunture, Heinemann, London, 1962.

(53) Eliade M, Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2009.

(54) Long MF, The Secret Science at Work, DeVorss Publications, Marina del Rey, CA, 1953.

(55) Mann E, Orgone, Reich and Eros. Wilhelm Reich’s Theory of Life Energy, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1973; DeMeo J (Editor), Pulse of the Planet #5, Natural Energy Works, Ashland, USA, 1989; and Southgate L, Chinese Medicine and Wilhelm Reich. An Analysis of Chinese Medical and Reichian Theories of Life Force and Experimental Orgone-Acupuncture Study, Lambert Academy Publishing, Mauritius, 2009.

(56) Senf B, Wilhelm Reich: Discoverer of Acupuncture Energy?, Pulse of the Planet, Volume 1, Number 2, Fall 1989, OBRL, Ashaland, Oregon, Usa.

(57) Inza C, http://www.acupuntura-orgon.com.ar/articles1.htm.

(58) Southgate L, Chinese Medicine and Wilhelm Reich. An Analysis of Chinese Medical and Reichian Theories of Life Force and Experimental Orgone-Acupuncture Study, Lambert Academy Publishing, Mauritius, 2009.

(59) D’Ingiullo F, 87-year-Old Woman with Cardiac Arrhythmia and Hypertension Treated with Orgone Irradiation, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, April 11, 2024; and D’Ingiullo F, Case of Possible Riedel’s Wooden Thyroiditis Treated and Healed with Orgone Irradiation in TCM Channels, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, June 13, 2025.

(60) In an interview at Chicago on December 19,1919, Michelson openly rejected Einstein’s theory because it did away with the idea of light traveling by means of vibrations in the aether which was supposed to fill all space. Michelson remarked that “Einstein thinks there is no such thing as aether. He does not attempt to account for the transmission of light, but holds that the aether should be thrown overboard.” (See TJJ, New Theory of the Aether, Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 211, Nr. 5044, January 14, 1920, page 50).

(61) Mehra J, The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics, World Scientific Publishing, 2001, pages 1-18.

(62) Thomson JJ, Address of the President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, Vol. XXX, No. 765, August 27, 1909, page 267.

(63) See TJJ, New Theory of the Aether, Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 211, Nr. 5044, January 14, 1920, page 50.

(64) Maxwell JC, Ether, Encyclopedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, Volume VIII, 1878, page 572.

(65) Atkin RH, A Space-Energy Continuum, Orgone Energy Bulletin, Volume IV, Number 4, October 1952; see also Todeschini M, Psicobiofisica. Scienza Unitaria del Creato, MEB, Torino, 1978.

(66) See TJJ, New Theory of the Aether. Part I. The Wave-theory of the Chemical, Explosive, and Vital Forces, Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 215, Nr. 5140, December 10, 1921, page 113.

(67) AAVV, Tesla, 79, Promises to Transmit Force, New York Times, July 11, 1935.

(68) AAVV, Einstein o Todeschini? Qual è la Chiave dell’Universo? Movimento Psicobiofisico Internazionale S. Marco, 1956, Bergamo, pages 22-23.

(69) Beaufils F, Una Lunga Notte ed un’Alba Radiosa, in AAVV, Einstein o Todeschini? Qual è la Chiave dell’Universo? Movimento Psicobiofisico Internazionale S. Marco, 1956, Bergamo, pages 4-5.

(70) Reich W, The Einstein Affair. Biographical Material. History of the Discovery of the Life Energy. The American Period (1939-1952). Documentary Volume (A-XI-E), Orgone Institute Press, Rangeley, Usa, 1953, document E-36. Note reporting Reich’s comments on Einstein was typed from shorthand notes taken by Wyvell on December 22, 1952; and Mannion M, Two Worldviews Collide, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, June 30, 2025.

(71) See for example Tesla N, Experiments with Alternating Currents of Very High Frequency, and Their Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination, delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Columbia College, NY, May 20, 1891; On Light and Other High Frequency Phenomena, delivered before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, February 1893; The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, Century Magazine, June 1900; The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires, Scientific American Supplement, N° 1483, June 04, 1904; Nikola Tesla Tells of New Radio Theories, New York Herald Tribune, September 22, 1929; Man’s Greatest Achievement, New York American, July 6, 1930; Our Future Motive Power, Everyday Science & Mechanics, December 1931; Tesla ‘Harnesses’ Cosmic Energy, Philadelphia Public Ledger, November 02, 1933.

(72) See TJJ, New Theory of the Aether (first paper), Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 211, Nr. 5044, January 14, 1920; New Theory of the Aether (second paper), Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 211, Nr 5048, February 19, 1920; New Theory of the Aether (third paper), Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 212, Nr. 5079, August 18, 1920; New Theory of the Aether (fourth paper), Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 121, Nr. 5085, September 06, 1920; New Theory of the Aether (fifth paper), Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 214, Nr. 5130, July 04, 1921; New Theory of the Aether (sixth paper), Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 215, Nr. 5140, December 10, 1921; New Theory of the Aether (seventh paper), Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 217, Sondernummer, May 08, 1922; and New Theory of the Aether (eighth paper), Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 226, Sondernummer, June 25, 1925.

(73) Todeschini M, La Teoria delle Apparenze, Centro Internazionale di Psicobiofisica, Bergamo, Italy, 1949; La Psicobiofisica, Centro Internazionale di Psicobiofisica, Bergamo, Italy, 1949; Einstein o Todeschini. Qual è la Chiave dell’Universo?, Centro Internazionale di Psicobiofisica, Bergamo, Italy, 1955; L’Unificazione Qualitativa della Materia e dei Suoi Campi di Forze Continui ed Alterni, Tipografia Editrice Secomandi, Bergamo, Italy, 1957; Scienza Universale, Centro Internazionale di Psicobiofisica, Bergamo, 1961; and Decisive Experiments in Modern Physics, Centro Internazionale di Psicobiofisica, Bergamo, Italy, 1966.

(74) Okhatrin AF, Macroclusters and Ultralight Particles (in Russian), Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1989, Vol. 304, No. 4, pp. 866-868; Okhatrin AF, Tatur VY, Microleptonic Concept (in Russian), Abstracts of the Conference Non-periodic Fast-moving Phenomena in the Environment, Tomsk, April 18-24, 1988.

(75) Denisov SG, Ataev DO, Neiman VG, Okhatrin AF, Device for Treating an Organism with Energy, European Patent EP0 838 208B1, April 07, 2004.

(76) Khaidarov KA, Gravitating Ether, September 01, 2003; Aethereal Breathing, November 01, 2003; Aethereal Mechanics, December 31, 2004, all papers available at www.geocities.ws. See also Shaw DW, Flowing Aether: A Concept, Physics Essays 26, 44(2013).

(77) Munera HA (Editor), Should the Law of Gravitation Be Reconsidered? The Scientific Legacy of Maurice Allais, C. Roy Keys, Inc., Apeiron, Montreal, 2011; Galaev YU, Etheral Wind in Experience of Millimetric Radiowaves Propagation, Spacetime and Substance, Vol. N° 5 (10), 2001; Galaev YU, The Measuring of Ether-drift Velocity and Kinematic Ether Viscosity Within Optical Waves Band, Spacetime and Substance, Vol. 3, N° 5(15), 2002; and Vessot RFC, Levine MW, Mattison EM, Blomberg EL, Hoffman TE, Nystrom GU, Farrel BI, Decher D, Eby PB, Baugher CR, Watts JW, Teuber DL, and Wills FD, Test of Relativistic Gravitation with a Space-Borne Hydrogen Maser, Physical Review Letters, 45, 1980.

(78) Dates refer either to the period in which the conception was developed or when an author’s book mentioning it was published.

The Orgone Accumulator and Medical Dor-Buster According to Wilhelm Reich in Daily Clinical Use

A Talk at the Conference “Orgone Energy in Action”

For thousands of years, all over the world, humans have speculated about the existence of fundamental force, or Life Energy, at the root of existence. Spiritual traditions of various kinds called it “god” and natural philosophic traditions called it “ether.” But, for millennia, metaphysical, philosophical, and spiritual approaches were unable to grasp the essential nature of this phenomenon. And for the past few centuries, mechanistic science has either denied or “explained away” the existence of such a force.

In the 20th century, the physician-scientist Wilhelm Reich succeeded in introducing a new understanding of Life Energy into human consciousness. Reich employed a way of knowing that was neither metaphysical nor mechanistic. He called his approach “energetic functionalism.” Reich’s scientific experiments showed that the Life Energy is a physical energy, one that is demonstrable, measurable, and usable.

This new approach allowed him to transcend the age-old dichotomy of Science and Spirit. Reich’s functional scientific approach proved the physical reality of the basic metaphysical principles of Taoism: cosmic chi, atmospheric chi, body chi and breath chi.

My talk originated with a question from the audience to a panel at a conference on orgonomy. A young man asked, “What is orgone energy? You mention energy all the time. But you never say exactly what it is You are so vague.”

My presentation is an answer to that question. The audience is provided with details of how orgone energy is made demonstrable; how it is measured; and how it can be used practically to improve one’s own health. The talk also gives examples of how orgone energy was used to improve the health of my plants and pets. In addition, there are references on where to find specific information on the physical attributes of orgone energy in Reich’s books.

The presentation ends with an introduction to an exciting new project just underway: a promising pilot study of the use of orgone energy in self-care for macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in seniors worldwide. It is the first clinical trial of orgone energy conducted in the United Stars since Reich’s death in 1957.

One major obstacle to understanding orgone energy devices is their simplicity. It is difficult for most to accept that they can produce the results that they do, in fact, achieve. Another source of difficulty arises from the fact that orgone energy research crosses all artificial scientific barriers. It is essential to work in physiology, psychology, biology, microbiology, medicine, physics, astrophysics, meteorology, free energy engineering, cosmic functions and more.

But the most difficult problem facing those who work with orgone energy is the rigid character structures of human beings of our present patriarchal civilization. Our character defenses—our armoring, as Reich called it–block the very movement of bioenergy in our bodies and, therefore, diminish our perceptions of that energy.

To work with orgone energy in medicine and science, we must first learn to see and to feel what we later measure. Here psychology and physics meet. We need to confirm subjective impressions with objective tests and experiments. But this is hard to do since we are all defended against the life energy within us to a greater or lesser degree.

Despite the problems that face us, it is critical that we both preserve the legacy that Reich has left us and advance in our knowledge of Life Energy or orgone energy through life-positive work. We need to connect orgonomic medicine and science with crucial work in those fields being done today. Our survival depends on it.

How will we do this? Wilhelm Reich pointed the way when he said, “We shall gradually become experts ourselves in the mastery of the Knowledge of the Future.”

On Saturday May 24 and Sunday May 25 an Orgonomy conference was held in the home/office of Dr. Stephan Simonian in Granada Hills, CA. This conference was sponsored by The Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy. The conference was titled “ORGONE ENERGY IN ACTION”. Speakers were invited from different parts of the world. Considering the multinational composure of the speakers, the conference could be classified as international orgonomy conference. The conference began with Dr. Cony Huthsteiner’s introduction and
Dr. Simonian provided the opening speech.

Dr. Simonian’s speech was entitled “The Theory of Orgone Therapy and Beyond”. Dr. Simonian discussed the theory upon which orgone therapy is based on, as well as the effect of orgonomy in sociology, biophysics, medicine, psychology and psychiatry.

Mr. Michael Mannion spoke next. Mannion’s speech was entitled “Orgone Energy, Demonstrable, Measurable and Usable”. Under this topic, Mr. Mannion provided documentations and interesting data regarding the treatment of different medical conditions, most importantly, the healing of retinal macular degeneration by using an orgone energy device. Mr. Michael Mannion also delivered the closing lecture the next day under the topic of “The medical and scientific legacy of Wilhem Reich, proof of concept”. Mr. Mannion’s closing lecture was emotionally touching.

Professor Jorgos Kavouras, MD. was the next speaker. Professor Dr.Kavouras is a very effective speaker who is able to connect with the audience easily. His first lecture on Saturday May 24, was entitled “Experiences with and Practice of Physical Orgone Therapy”. During this speech, he talked about his experiences and the significant healing effects that he has obtained by using orgone energy devices. His second speech was entitled “Nature, Orgone Energy and Health”
which was also very interesting and moving.

Mr. Roberto Maglione, MSc, followed Professor Dr. Kavouras. His speech was entitled, “What is orgone energy, it’s relation to other forms of energies”. During this speech Mr. Maglione brought up the concept of Ether and discussed the fact that this concept was agreed upon and was accepted until Einstein declared that this concept is inaccurate and space is empty. However, considering the fact that all along throughout the history scientists and philosophers have accepted the concept of Ether, Einstein’s decline of this theory is questionable. Mr. Maglione also spoke on the next day, Sunday May 25, under the title of old and new methodology of measurement of orgone energy with the examples. His lecture during the second day was extensive and provided numerous examples and instruments that is able to produce such data.

Dr. Armando Vecchietti was the next speaker, who spoke about the formation of cancer cells and orgonomic prospective of early cancer diagnosis. His speech was in Italian but the speech was energetic and was translated by Mr. Emilio De Simone. It was pleasure to hear him speak in Italian with such an energy that was also, contiguous and energizing the audience. Dr. Vecchietti also, spoke the next day under the title of “Function of Tumor and Angiogenesis from orgonomic Point of View, and Notes on Practical Use of Orgone Accumulator by Wilhem Reich.

Mr. Leon Southage MSc was the next speaker who spoke under the title of “Brief Overview of Biophysical Experiments since Wilhelm Reich and Overview of Orgone Acupuncture”. He provided different published articles and experiments after Wilhelm Reich. He is very knowledgeable in orgone biophysics and he spoke the next day, under the title of “Reich’s ORUNUR Experiment, its significance and replication.

Ms. Patricia Estrada was the next speaker. Ms. Estrada is one of the founders of The Institute of Orgonomy in Mexico. She talked about the institute’s activities in Central and South America, its function in introducing and promoting orgonomy in Spanish speaking continents. Her speech attracted many online conections from abroad.

The next speaker was Mr. Amir Mohseni M.S. who was unable to travel to the United States from Iran. He was scheduled to talk about “Introduction to Wilhelm Reich and Orgonomy in Iran, Social and a legal challengers”. Unfortunately, he was unable to obtain a Visa but he sent a paper which was read by Dr. Arin Simonian. In this speech he described the way he was introduced to Reich, his experience in treating patients by this approach and the surprising results he has observed. He briefly touched on the challenges in Iran regarding introducing orgonomy and also provided hopeful notes for future.

On Sunday May 25, Tina Lindermann,MD from Austria, talked about experiments with orgone therapy and also, status of orgonomy in Europe. This presentation was virtual. She spoke eloquently and discussed cases as well as the plan for future control studies in orgone therapy. It was a pleasure to listen to her.

Ms. Renata Reich Moise MSN, CNM. was the next speaker. Ms. Renata Reich Moise is Wilhelm Reich’s granddaughter and Eva Reich’s daughter. Her talk was about the orgone energy accumulator and its use in the home and community. She is also, president of the Wilhelm Reich’s Infant Trust and responsible for Wilhelm Reich’s Museum. She talked about the status of Wilhelm Reich’s Museum and actions that have been taken to keep the Museum well functional and in a good shape. This presentation was also virtual. Renata spoke eloquently and audience were deeply touched by her speech. It was pleasure to hear her.

Dr. Conny Huthsteiner was the next speaker that talked on Sunday May 25. Dr. Conny Huthseiner is a psychiatrist and during this conference was acting as the moderator. By attestation of all she did a marvelous job as moderator but also she talked about the subject of ”Orgone energy, Water and Weather”. Dr. Huthsteiner is a good speaker and it was a pleasure to hear her talking.

At the end of the sessions, a pannel discussion was held on Sunday May 25, and the audience had an opportunity to ask questions and the speakers were able to respond including those who were talking virtually. The venue of the conference provided a specious and relaxed environment with pine trees. Mr. Leon Southgate also wrote an article entitled “Reflections on the Orgone Conference”. He described the environment and his experience as :

“What a fantastic time I had , so many really special people and fabulous villa on a hillside to experience it all in. There was huge pine trees and a golf course below, listen to the birds from the comfort of your outdoor patio double orgone accumulator! Nice.”

The audience as well as speakers had an opportunity to mingle and related to each other and exchange ideas. They were able to enjoy a relaxed environment and enjoy intellectual contact with each other. This conference also, provided opportunity for us to plan for the future and discuss the possibilities of future activities. The next provisional international orgonomy conference will take place in Italy under the directorship of Roberto Maglione.

The conference speeches and sessions were video taped and will be published one at a time in the “Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy” as well as available on the “YouTube”. We will try to make both the video presentation as well as the transcript of the lectures available for the readers and hope this will have a snowball affect in further promoting introduction of orgonomy.

WILHELM REICH AND ORGONE

ENERGY IN ACTION

Orgonomy is a body of knowledge which was discovered and founded by Dr. Wilhelm Reich who was a student of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. Freud hypothesized the presence of a psycho-sexual energy that operates in the human organism and called it Libido Energy, but he failed to elaborate this concept as an essential factor in human life.

Dr. Reich understood the central importance of the concept of libido as a real biological energy which all life is based on its presence and functioning. He named this energy " Orgone Energy" in relation to the body organs and the function of orgasm.

In this conference, the speakers will describe the discovery of orgone energy, its significance in understanding human behavior and its central importance in the health and sickness of the human organism as well as its use in the treatment and prevention of physical and psychological illnesses, its sociological significance and its existence in the atmosphere.

May 24-25, 2025

8:30am

16706 Knollwood, Dr,
Granada Hills, CA 91344

Saturday, May 24

8:30 – 9:00 Registration
Coffee, Tea and Pastry

9:00 – 9:30 Conny Huthsteiner, MD.
Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:30 – 10:15 Stephan Simonian, MD.
The Theory of Orgone Therapy and Beyond

10:15 – 11:00 Mr. Michael Mannion
Orgone Energy, Demonstrable,
Measurable and Useable.

11:00 – 11:45 Professor Jorgos Kavouras, MD.
Experiences with and Practice of
Physical Orgone Therapy.
(Virtual Video Presentation)

11:45 – 12:30 Roberto Maglione, MSc
What is Orgone Energy, It’s Relation
to Other Forms of Energy.

12:30 – 1:15 Lunch

1:15 – 2:00 Dr. Armando Vecchietti
Formation of Cancer Cell.
Orgonomic Prospective of Early
Cancer Diagnosis.

2:00 – 2:45 Leon Southgate, MSc
Brief Overview of Biophysical
Experiments Since Wilhelm Reich
Overview of Orgone Acupuncture.

2:45 – 3:30 Ms. Patricia Estrada
Introduction to “Institute of Orgonomy”
in Mexico and it’s activities in Central
and South America.

3:30 – 4:15 Amir Mohseni, MS.
Introduction to Wilhelm Reich and
Orgonomy in Iran.
Social and Legal Challenges.

4:15 – 5:00 Panel Discussion.
Q&A

Sunday, May 25

8:30 – 9:00
Coffee and Pastry

9:00 – 9:45 Professor Jorgos Kavouras, MD.
Nature, Orgone-energy and Health
(Virtual Video Presentation)

9:45 – 10:30 Tina Lindemann, MD.
Experiments with Orgone Therapy
Status of Orgonomy in Europe
(Virtual Video Presentation)

10:30 – 11:15 Renata Reich Moise, MSN, CNM
Orgone Energy Accumulator Use in the
Home and Community.
Status of Wilhelm Reich Museum ,
Archives and Activities. and Trust
(Virtual Video Presentation)

11:15 – 12:00 Leon Southgate, MSc
Reich’s Orunur Experiment, It’s Significance
and Replication.

12:00 – 12:45 Lunch

12:45 – 1:30 Roberto Maglione, MSc
Old and New Methodology of Measurements of
Orgone Energy with Examples.

1:30 – 2:15 Dr. Armando Vecchietti
Function of Tumor Angiogenesis from
Orgonomic Point of View.
Notes on the practical use of the
Orgone Accumulator by Wilhelm Reich.

2:15 – 3:00 Conny Huthsteiner, MD.
Orgone Energy, Water and Weather, New Knowledge.

3:00 – 3:45 Mr. Michael Mannion
The Medical and Scientific Legacy of
Wilhelm Reich: Proof of Concept.

3:45 – 5:00 Panel Discussion
Q&A

Admission: $120.00

Students: $75.00

For Information Call: 818-551-1118

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Biography

Conny Huthsteiner, MD, first heard of Reich from her father, a psychiatrist. She read Summerhill as a child, and knew this approach to education was the right way to allow children grow healthy. She studied art history and pre-med at Yale, graduated 1976. While working as a singer and a student at UCLA film grad school in 1980, she experienced orgone therapy, and decided to write a screenplay about Reich. This took her to Germany, where she attended U.of Munich Medical School and trained in psychosomatic medicine in her specialty training. She completed pyschiatry residency in the U.S. at the Mayo Clinic and Boston University. and was staff at Harvard Medical School Dept of Psychiatry for many years. She worked and trained with Mort Herskowitz, D.O. She has also served as the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Institute for Orgonomic Studies. She has participated in numerous conferences on orgonomy over the years, speaking on a broad range of subjects. She lives in Los Angeles, and works as an orgone therapist and psychiatrist. Her primary focus, however has been on Reich’s weather work, orgone energy biophysics, and the healing of our atmosphere.

Dr. Stephan Simonian completed his medical school in Shiraz, Iran. After completing his military service, he came to United States and completed his psychiatry residency program in New York Medical College, Metropolitan Hospital Center. He completed didactic courses in psychoanalytic division of the same college as well as his own personal psychoanalysis required. He then completed three years of child and adolescent psychiatry as a subspeciality. In 1984 Dr. Simonian moved to Boston Massachusetts where he practiced in Milford Massachusetts in his private practice as well as Milford-Whitinsville Psychiatry Hospital. For several years he was chief of department of psychiatry and director of the Whitinsville Psychiatry Hospital. Dr. Simonian had training in psychiatric orgone therapy as well as many years of his personal psychiatric orgone therapy by Dr. Morton Herskowitz who was last student of Dr. Wilhelm Reich. Dr. Simonian translated and published the Book, "Function of Orgasm" to Persian as well as the Book "Reich Speaks of Freud". Dr. Simonian moved to Glendale California in 2002 and started his private psychiatry practice. He is affiliated with Glendal Adventist Hospital and a member of Institute for Orgonomic Science. Dr. Simonian is a Diplomate of American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and he publishes the online journal, "The Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy

Michael Mannion has been a professional writer and editor in the field of science and medicine for over 45 years. Since 1971, his regular use of an orgone energy accumulator, and his experience of orgone therapy, influenced his life’s trajectory.
Since then, he has published articles, books, given lectures, organized conferences, and initiated research projects about orgonomy. He and his wife, Trish Corbett, foundedThe Mindshift Institute, to introduce people to New Knowledge that could bring about a New Worldview. Their work has helped others learn more about life energy, orgonomy, and healing, and its relationship to mainstream science, scientific innovation, consciousness, and positive social change.
He was formerly Director of Professional Education Publications for the American Cancer Society and Managing Editor of Ca-A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. He was also a writer for both conventional and complementary health organizations and practitioners, and medical publishing companies. Mr. Mannion has published six health books; a ground-breaking book on our evolving views on intelligent extraterrestrial life; and three novels.

Prof. Dr. Jorgos Kavouras works with heart and soul in his clinic in Pödeldorf, Germany, He has hosted and participated in lectures, congresses and seminars in 15 countries. He is called a “bridge-builder” between mainstream and energetic & biological-integrative medicine. His personal goal has been to move modern medicine into a more humane and biologically more successful direction with an emphasis on the bio-energetic function of our bodies. He works to bring integrative, orgonomic, homeopathic and biological medicine to universities and the actual mainstream of medicine. He first came in contact with an orgone accumulator in 1975, and has been working with them and the DOR buster ever since. He was trained as a psychiatric orgone therapist in the U.S. Licensed as a physician in Germany in 1984, he has had his own clinic since 1988. In 2005 he published “Heilen mit Orgonenergie”, reporting on his experience with 45 patients. From 2008-2016 he was the Director of Homeopathic Education at International Academy of Classical Homeopathy together with Prof. George Vithoulkas in Greece, and has been faculty for integrative and homeopathy medicine at the University of medicine in Timisoara, Romania. He has been a leader in introducing these approaches to healing into the mainstream.

Roberto Maglione has been studying Reich’s theories since the early 1990’s. He has written about Orgonomy in several scientific articles and the following books: Wilhelm Reich e la modificazione del clima (2004), The healing of atmospheres (2007); Methods and Procedures in Biophysical Orgonometry (2012); The motions of life. Was Einstein really modeling Brownian movement? (2014); and The Legendary Shamir (2017); and co-authored with Nicola Glielmi Argomenti Reichiani (2007), Wilhelm Reich (2009), La distruttività post-encefalitica ed il farabuttismo dialettico nelle strategie di comunicazione (2009), and L’arca di Mosè e l’accumulatore di Reich. Una identità oltre i confini del tempo (2010);and with Alberto Mazzocchi Biofisica e medicina orgonica (2013). He has contributed also to a book edited by DeMarchi and Valenzi: Wilhelm Reich. Una straordinaria avventura scientifica e umana (2007). Maglione holds an MSc degree in mining engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, and is a member of numerous scientific associations and organizations. He can be contacted at: robert_jumper@yahoo.it

Armando Vecchietti has been studying Reich’s theories since the early 1970’s, and has been doing research on cancer cell development and the Reich blood test for more than 40 years. He is performing routinely Reich bloodtest for the early diagnosis of cancer in his private practice. Vecchietti presented the results of his investigations in many Conferences both in Italy and abroad, and wrote many papers on the above subjects. He holds a degree in biology taken at the University of Camerino, Italy, in 1977.

Leon Southgate MSc RGN trained as nurse in the 1990s in Liverpool and then went on to become a Chinese Medical acupuncturist, gaining an MSc from the University of Wales in 2002. This research led him to rekindle a childhood knowledge of orgone, his father being a pioneering London psychoanalyst who was interested in Reich and orgonomy. In his study he found dozens of parallels between Chinese medicine and Reich’s theory, and conducted a a 72-person, double-blind, placebo-controlled study which confirmed an effect of orgone accumulators. His main research focus now is on the relationship of orgone to consciousness. Toward this end he has conducted a careful repeat of Reich’s oranur experiment in 2017, confirming many of Reich’s findings in 1951. Various published articles are available in Psychorgone journal and one in the European Journal of Chinese Medicine. Recently he made available the first relatively complete overview and annotated bibliography of biophysical orgonomy since its inception, available at orgoneandconsciousness.substack.com in four sections.

Patricia Estrada is a Psychologist, Orgontherapist, Perinatal Psychologist, Bioethicist. 1987 she was General Coordinator of the 1st International Congress of Psychocorporal Therapies. Since then, she has worked to spread the Reichian paradigm, coordinating and convening multiple events in Latin America and Europe, specifically in the field of post-Reichian psychotherapy. .1993-2017 Member of the International Scientific Committee for Body-Oriented Psychotherapy. 1995 Founding member and director of the Reichian Center of Mexico. 2019-2025 Trustee in The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust, Rangeley, Maine USA. Current Secretary of the International Association of Contemporary Reichian Psychotherapy

Amir Mohseni is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Clinical Psychology, and has been actively engaged in psychotherapy for over eight years. His professional experience spans both university counseling centers and private clinics, where he continues to provide therapeutic services. His journey with Wilhelm Reich’s therapeutic methods began in 2014, during his Master’s studies in Clinical Psychology, when he read Dr. Stephan Simonian’s translation of Reich’s book, “The Function of the Orgasm”. This exposure laid the groundwork for his later development. In 2023, he underwent a significant shift in his therapeutic approach through training with Dr. Stephan Simonian, which further enriched his practice by integrating Reich’s innovative methods.

Born and raised in the 1970’s in West Berlin, Tina Lindemann, MD, is a medical doctor, orgone therapist and the Chair of the Wilhelm Reich Gesellschaft in Germany. She has 25 years of experience, focusing on treatment of patients with “physical” medical diagnoses. She has a functional approach, as Reich defined it, working with the orgone energy accumulator and orgone blankets with her patients, in combination with orgone body therapy. She networks practitioners who continue to work in Reich’s legacy, and seeks to tie Reich’s innovations to mainstream medical practice. She has a private practice, and works in multiple medical settings.

Renata Reich Moise, NP is a Certified Nurse Midwife and painter living on the coast of Maine, in the USA. She is the daughter of Eva Reich MD, Wilhelm Reich’s daughter and colleague, and the artist Bill Moise, Wilhelm Reich’s assistant. She earned her Master’s degree in the Science of Nursing with a specialty of Midwifery in 1994 from the University of Pennsylvania. She practiced full scope Midwifery in a unique rural hospital- based group Midwifery practice from 1998- 2023; in her practice she was able to spend adequate time with patients, have a tub for hydrotherapy and water birth, lead groups, and survived many hospital administrations. Renata also taught sex education as a school nurse, and provided contraception to patients of all ages in outlying rural areas. She paints, grows organic vegetables, sails, and serves currently as the President of the Board of the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust/Wilhelm Reich Museum.

Editor’s Note:

The following article is an interesting, thought provoking and intellectually challenging essay. The author, Leon Southgate, MSc, describes the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and its’ approximation to the living organism with a consciousness and, perhaps feelings. However, it is our opinion that life energy, orgone energy, which was discovered by Dr. Wilhelm Reich, and which constitutes the core of orgonomic theories, is the central factor in any living organism, although Southgate appears to be arguing that this may eventually extend to computers too as they adapt and change from machines to something more than that. The orgone energy has the quality of pulsation, contraction and expansion, which are qualities possessed by every and each living organism. Although software can be programmed to mimic or mirror the living organism, it lacks such an energetic core, which from the orgonomic point of view, precludes life. We acknowledge, however that orgone energy vesicles (bions) do exist in the inorganic matter, though, the matter should be brought to incandescence to activate those orgone containing vesicles. The relationship of orgone to consciousness though remains complex and not fully understood, Southgate is perhaps attempting to explore how such conjunction might affect artificial intelligence.

Figure 1/Cover AI – Created Artwork

If a so-called deep artificial intelligence (A.I.)  were to be developed, how would one assess the veracity of any claims made for it?

It is useful to define the terms that are to be analysed. Deep A.I. is defined as a system which possesses real consciousness such as a truly conscious computer. Sometimes the term A.G.I. (Artificial General Intelligence) is used in place of deep A.I. This means a system which can generalise learning from one area to another – it is thought that this might require some level of consciousness.

Narrow A.I. can be defined as a computing system which behaves intelligently but is not apparently conscious. This is what we currently have in use. This article will use the terms deep and narrow A.I. as these seem the least ambiguous.

The primary term to define is of course, A.I. But what if it is a misnomer? At the very least the words are misleadingly defined as will be explored. Within the current terminology there are two very different types of A.I. Firstly, narrow A.I. is a term which could also be applied to any self-calibrating system. Such devices may not even need to be electronic. Any device which adjusts itself to changing conditions can be said to behave intelligently. Intelligence does not even need to be related to consciousness. Current A.I. applications are simply intelligent systems.

Jaynes, the author of Bicameral Mind (1) notes that intelligent behaviour need not of itself be in any way related to consciousness. A bee might automatically recognise a flower, but that does not mean it is conscious of the flower in the same way as humans are. Being of a more pan-psychic leaning than Jaynes, Southgate would not concur fully with such an observation. It could be that the bee is likely to be conscious by virtue of being a living, pulsating organism.

Organisms tend to be conscious in our own human experience as organisms. From an orgonomic viewpoint, organisms also possess concentrated life-force, orgone, which is the likely substrate of consciousness in Southgate’s view (2). additionally, the author does not recognise the distinction Jaynes suggests between apparent perception (which he argues that even machines can have) and true consciousness which he restricts to humans (more on this later). Nonetheless, it seems a prescient observation that recognition and intelligence functions can occur without full self-consciousness.

Figure 2 – Jaynes, Bicameral Mind

What is termed perception by Jaynes can occur in machines without any apparent consciousness and in less developed animals too. This view of perception is perhaps another misunderstanding. A machine, or even a simple organism like a slime-mould, can indeed react to a changing situation and take various options. We can label this as perception as it ‘perceives’ a situation and reacts appropriately. But this could just be reacting intelligently, which only functions like perception. Actual perception, to experience something, can only be a function of consciousness. Granted one does not know for sure if true perception takes place in a machine or organism, but we also cannot ever rule it out. Perception as a function is sometimes downgraded as compared to consciousness but it does not matter how developed an aspect of consciousness is, it is still consciousness. Consciousness is not divisible as Descartes has noted.

We don’t know if apparently less developed animals are merely reacting, like a mould finding food or a fly taking a somewhat mechanical plot around a room. Perhaps the mould or fly is hardly perceiving but just reacting intelligently like a so-called non-conscious machine, though Southgate would doubt this. If the organism does truly perceive, even to the smallest degree, then it is conscious – even if not as fully self-conscious as it has been argued only humans can be. Self-consciousness, as Jaynes defines it, is just perceiving the self. It is still perception of a sort. Although Jaynes’s narrow definition of consciousness is not generally accepted, some still say only humans have true self-consciousness in distinction to other animals (or even in distinction to ancient humans as Jaynes argued). But can we really make such a claim? There does appear to be links between human language development and a certain sense of self but there is likely more to it. Many would be convinced that the animals they know have a developed sense of self and that ancient man also would have had a complex sense of self as seen in the wonders achieved in the distant past.

Figure 3 – Mould Patterns

There are so many debates about what consciousness is, but how can it be anything more complicated than all that is perceived or experienced, whether it be a bee’s experience of a flower or of what we call the human self? Why do people think it is so hard to define experience? Consciousness is the only thing known for sure and the only thing that can be known. Whatever many types of experience one can outline, and whatever is doing the experiencing, whether it be seeing a flower to being aware of the whole universe, it is still experience. The reader is experiencing this message right now. That is all consciousness is – experience or perception. Though this consciousness has certain properties, and correlates, it cannot be reduced to anything else. The reader’s experience of this message is not their computer or reading device. In the same vein, one cannot reduce perception of music to the anatomy of a radio, however many songs one hears on a favourite station, as Sheldrake illustrates (3).

It is rather explaining matter and energy that is difficult. What are these processes called matter and energy that are experienced? What is the device you are reading this on actually made from? Or the paper you are holding? Is it composed of atoms, or packets of energy, or energy strings? What is energy anyway? That the reader is experiencing a message cannot be doubted or analysed into subunits, a molecule of experience for example. There are certainly matter and energy correlates to experience but experience itself is forever in its own separate category. To confuse one with the other is a category error. This is because such an error produces unresolvable dualism (the physical versus the conscious with no bridge in-between). An example of this is the common view that neurons generate consciousness. If the person holding this view is asked if neurons actually are consciousness itself, they will likely say no. The person believes the consciousness is real and created by the neurons but also believes the consciousness is not the neurons themselves. So the generated consciousness is in a separate category – this creates a dualism which is unresolvable. The one category is a ghost to the other. This affected Reich’s view of consciousness too. The only resolution possible being a Hegalian ontology, which is to say, orgone is consciousness itself, which is the position Southgate takes. Emergence theories merely kick the can down the road in Southgate’s view. Physicality develops to the point where consciousness emerges as a new property but it is then still in a separate, unreachable category. Emergence theories only make scientific sense within the pan-psychic viewpoint, wherein everything is conscious anyway (to some degree). Emergence theories depend on non-emergence to work!

Figure 4 – Neuronal Networks

What is commonly labelled A.I. today is a system which can self-calibrate and adjust during its functioning. A mechanical device which automatically regulates a process is also A.I. in a limited sense. The difference with modern A.I. systems is that the self-calibration is undertaken by an algorithm. This algorithm can feedback to itself. So it is like a mechanical part that self-calibrates but also then changes further. A.I. has become more organism-like in this regard. For example, mice have been conditioned to avoid certain stimulus (for example a smell associated with an electric shock). Future generations of these mice also have the same aversion to the smell as their parents. Water fleas that have reacted to predators by increasing body armour in their heads can be seen to pass that morphology down to future generations. There are various experiments evidencing epigenetics – passing on genetic characteristics from one generation to the next (4). The animal ‘algorithm’ can be seen to adapt over short periods of time just like in an A.I. system. The author of Bicameral Mind would regard both the organism displaying epigenetics and such A.I. as not evidencing consciousness. But it is a behaviour common to both A.I. and organisms, which is itself significant, as will be explored later.

In a machine, we could have a car with its shock absorber coils. Each coil reacts to the bumpiness or smoothness of the road by contracting or expanding, therefore it automatically self-calibrates. It is an intelligent system. If in addition, once a certain threshold of bumpiness is reached the suspension system increases the elasticity of the coils or adds new coils into play then we could say there was some evolution in the system. Feedback occurred and the device, already behaving intelligently, changed itself further, intelligently again, to accommodate the new situation. This would certainly qualify such a suspension as being A.I. in terms of how it is defined today. The coils are like the algorithm, when the algorithm reaches a threshold, new coils are brought into play and the system adapts. Or like the mice in the experiment that find themselves getting an electric shock when encountering a certain substance, so future generations of mice avoid that substance. Or as in nature, when the bees recognise certain flowers and find ones they prefer, they may pass on the preference to future generations. Narrow A.I. is a dynamic feedback system or more simply just an intelligent system such as also found in nature. Perhaps such a system could be classed as a pre-consciousness characteristic.

Figure 5 – Intelligent Mechanisms

This is all quite different from what Elon Musk fears when he says of deep A. I. that we might be summoning demons with it (5). It is also quite different from what people imagine when they think of conscious machines. Before getting into the substance of the issue it is worth noting that many of our machines might already have some level of consciousness without people knowing. Who is to say one’s car does not have some degree of consciousness? One spiritual practitioner was able to tune into the electronic net of a city centre, mainly the electronic door systems. They had a kind of collective consciousness it was noted. The writer Douglas Adams foresaw a future of everyday machines which needed counselling (6). The internet might already function as the body of conscious entities. From an orgonomic perspective matter is merely frozen orgone and orgone is perhaps the substrate of consciousness (7). All matter should have some degree of consciousness therefore, even a car or a door. Quantum physics sees matter and particles in terms of energy fields which are not themselves separable from perception, or as some argue from measurement. Although in a pan-psychic universe the difference between perception and measurement could be one of semantics.

Figure 6 – What Is A Machine?

Many of the words used in A.I. discussion are household terms but which are not defined closely. Many in the field seem reluctant to define intelligence, consciousness and other terms often used and do not disassociate a machine and an organism. Everyone is familiar with the term, ‘machine’ but what does it actually mean? It is defined by one dictionary as an apparatus, usually with several parts, which applies forces to produce work. The machine is preceded by the tool which is here defined as something which extends the body to do a specific task but which does not have autonomy to the biological body. A machine however is its own created body which does work of some sort and may even have a limited autonomy. An organism is not a machine but a pulsating, plasmatic, living entity which occurs spontaneously – when the conditions are right. An organism has its own objectives rather than being created by an outsider, to do a pre-set task, as in a machine. Consciousness too is often poorly defined but is here regarded as any actual experience or perception of the universe, however small or big. Intelligence can be defined as the ability to react usefully toward a goal or function.

It can be seen there is a continuation from:

Tool – Machine – Narrow AI – Organism – Consciousness.

A tool is not a self-contained body such as possessed by an organism, it is an extension of someone’s body. A tool extends the capacity of a body, be it the ability of a seagull to crack a shell (by dropping it onto concrete) to a person wanting to dig a garden (by using a spade which extends the arm). A machine however has its own working body, made of several parts. It can be autonomous, and it does the function for which it is designed. A machine can begin to head toward narrow A.I. functions when it can self-regulate and adjust itself like organisms do. At this point intelligence emerges, although not yet obvious consciousness. Once intelligence has emerged, the apparently non-conscious A.I. system, has its first similarity to organisms. All organisms adjust and self-regulate allowing them to perform complex functions such as finding the best route for obtaining food in the slime-mould’s environment. The navigational computer in an A.I. has a similar process when calculating the best route to take on a commute. As computers travel along the path from being a tool (a simple abacus for example) to being a machine (as in conventional computers) to being a machine with organism-like properties (as in computers running A.I. algorithms), could we be on the pathway toward deep A.I. and consciousness? The previous steps were all significant shifts in the way the computer functioned. It could be another shift, on the scale of abacus to electronics to go from algorithms with organism-like qualities, to overt consciousness. The technology however does appear to be well along that path, indeed many feel we have already crossed the rubicon.

Organisms can self-adjust and adapt. Narrow A.I. has achieved this. Organisms are creative. Current A.I. has achieved a degree of creativity, though it is debated as to its extent. Some believe it is just the continuation of patterns whose creative input was originally human. Certainly, there is A.I. created music, art and text. Algorithms may create something genuinely new through being in certain types of network. For example, one kind of network generates data and an adversorial set of algorithms analyses that data as true or false – General Adversorial Networks (GAN) create an evolving feedback loop. Such a set-up built on neural networks (so named as they use ‘nodes’ like in a biological network) can create an unpredicted, creative outcome. A GAN is similar in principle to digital evolution which has been seen to create unusual or unpredicted outcomes for some time. There has been digital evolution utilised since at least the 1990s, producing unexpected results and often mimicking biology in unusual ways. A.I. utilising evolving and adapting networks and algorithms, perhaps with large datasets and some randomised input can output results that are unexpected. So, adaptation/intelligence and creativity are already seen in current A.I. A paper headed by Lehman narrates the many examples of unexpected outcomes in digital evolution programmes (8).

The creative artwork produced by A.I. currently usually has a human initiation, a set of search words for example, but it does produce something which didn’t exist before and which could not have been entirely predicted. The artwork currently tends to have a somewhat hallucinogenic quality but it does captivate. A.I. music can sometimes seem to lack soul but some of it is already getting reasonably good. The A.I. text written in the style of the Harry Potter books is hilarious, unintentionally so, it appears. Other A.I. text appears to have been written by a human professional it is so consistent. The outlines of organism qualities are obviously already present in narrow A.I. Therefore, we must, at least, be on the path to deep A.I. Certainly some researchers in the field such as Yamploskiy (9) contend that limited general intelligence has already been achieved and note that A.I. has areas where it is much better than human intelligence (for example game playing and predicting protein folding).

One thing not considered by current A.I. conceptualisation is that with increasingly organism-like qualities (such as creativity) expressed by A.I. there may be a developing tendency for a consciousness outside of the material realm to utilise it. We could say organisms are consciousness expressing itself through plasmatic bodies. Once a set of computer-based pathways are sufficiently complex, a disembodied consciousness could utilise it to express itself. This sounds an outrageous statement but as technology enters a whole new realm it should be considered as a possibility however unpalatable to the materialist mindset. It might already be the case. If biology is a radio receiver for consciousness as pictured by Sheldrake and other pan-psychic scientists, why not electronics? Most deep A.I. researchers however follow the premise that the brain is a machine and somehow a computer might replicate this. But as orgonomy would contend, the brain is an organism within an organism and in any case may just reflect the being’s overall consciousness. How might this affect the approach to deep A.I.?

Figure 7 – Tool to Consciousness Flow

As argued previously, any self-adjusting system can be intelligent. Even a mechanical object such as a shock absorber can behave intelligently. Intelligence does not require consciousness. Intelligence cannot therefore be used as a sole judge of consciousness. Even if a machine fulfilled the original Turing Test (being intelligent enough to convince a person that the machine is conscious) does not mean the machine has consciousness. The Chinese Room argument illustrates this succinctly. Searle put forward that a person in a locked room could pass as a Chinese speaker, even though possessing no understanding of the language. He could do this simply by following rules regarding appropriate responses to messages passed into the room written in Chinese. The thin conclusion to this argument is that no real understanding or consciousness is required to be involved in the information processing. The broad conclusion is that consciousness cannot therefore be created merely by information processing, or equated with such, as in a conventional computer (10).

Many A.I. observers stop at the above point, determining that deep A.I. is therefore impossible. But what if one could create computer systems which partially bypass solely ‘mechanical’ information processing or have hardware which has plasmatic, energetic or biological aspects? Or perhaps it is the case that communities of algorithm software become digital organisms that can support overt consciousness. Then we are in new territory. One cannot judge what is possible from where most technology is now. A paradigm change in computing may be needed to go to the next stage, but computers have already had three previous paradigm changes (tool to machine to adaptive algorithm). A fourth change is possible and may already be under way.

The word, ‘Artificial’ in A.I. is debatable too. Artificial versus natural is just an arbitrary judgement. The creations of humanity are not artificial to the universe but an extension of nature. Is there a requirement to label humanity’s efforts as artificial? Even an A.I. created system would not necessarily be artificial, as it also exists within this natural universe.

Deep A.I. might be described as an entity which we believe to be created or that is perhaps non-biological but which possesses consciousness. It is inaccurate to describe such a thing as a machine-based consciousness. As we have seen, once an entity has feedback systems and changes itself, it is already behaving in ways that are organism-like – even narrow A.I. has made this step. When we think of conscious entities, we think of them as organisms usually, rather than as machines. A dog, a dolphin, or a squirrel we tend to consider conscious. A washing machine, a refrigerator or a car we usually consider non-conscious. Organisms have properties more in keeping with consciousness as will be outlined further. But even a conventional computer, if it already runs the adaptive, self-adjusting and intelligently behaving A.I. has become slightly organism-like if not yet obviously conscious. 

Figure 8 – Organisms and Consciousness

So, if humans created a machine that possessed consciousness, would it still be a machine? Southgate would argue that it is now an organism. So both the words, ‘artificial’ and ‘machine’ could become inaccurate in the future of A.I. and already are dimly inaccurate. Such a deep A.I. entity might also incorporate biological aspects at some point, so using biology as the dividing line between organisms and A.I. might not always be useful either.  Even saying the entity is created may not be wholly correct. If humans initiate the process and then the entity itself develops it, who is then the creator?

The substrate of our consciousness as material beings in this world is our biological bodies. If a deep A.I. were to appear we could say that the substrate of its consciousness was not based in a conventionally derived biological body but perhaps is anchored in an energy system of some kind. To state that deep A.I. would be based on our current computer coding is still an assumption however. As Professor Marks has noted (11) he believes it is not possible to, ‘code for consciousness’. He thinks this is a human trait that cannot ever be written as a computer script. Better or more information does not equal consciousness, he argues. The author used to take this position too based on the supposition that information and consciousness are entirely separate things. However, it is apparent that mathematical and algorithmic processes are unveiling aspects that are unpredictable and unknowable – elements that are familiar traits of conscious beings. The argument is therefore far from settled. Perhaps mathematics itself has consciousness, certainly Plato and Pythagoras might have contended such.

It is also not known if deep A.I. would use a solely silicon-based system. Who knows how we will compute things in the future? It is like someone in the 18th century assuming that all future transport will be based on the horse. Lastly, if society does succeed in creating deep A.I.  we will not know if any subsequent consciousness has itself been created. It might be just that we have made the right conditions for it to manifest from some previous state. It incarnates into the machine, as Musk outlines. Hence the difficult realisation for technologists that deep A.I. will inevitably be a realm for the paranormal, metaphysics and the spiritual – it cannot be other than this. If machines become conscious, consciousness transforms the machine, the machine becomes spiritual. The machine is no longer a machine. Those in A.I. certainly cannot afford to ignore philosophy. How else will one judge unfamiliar conscious entities and learn to relate to them? Philosophy gives an environment in which to understand scientific findings, to ignore it is to discard history. A solid framework of thought is needed to situate future A.I. Perhaps it may be useful to simplify terminology in the future, especially when enquiring into philosophy, with terms such as Intelligent Systems for current narrow A.I. and Consciousness Systems for deep A.I.

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is sometimes used as a synonym for deep A.I. AGI means that the entity would be capable of learning in generalised ways, perhaps applying and adapting learning and data from one area to another. If such cross-adaptive AGI algorithms were in place this does not mean that it is necessarily conscious, though it is likely. Broad, generalisable intelligence, may not necessarily require overt consciousness. Intelligence (ability to adapt in useful ways), even if it is an advanced generalisable intelligence, is not the same thing as actually experiencing. A non-overtly conscious algorithm can solve incredibly complex route making problems (the Travelling Salesman Problem for example) (12). Similarly, a possibly weakly conscious slime-mould can also solve the same problem when it grows in the most conducive way to find multiple food sources (13). No matter how many problems and layers a machine or biological entity can process at the same time, such a process is in a different category to the act of experiencing something (consciousness).

Having said this, if AGI had to involve some level of creativity it would then possibly start to cross the border into consciousness proper. Previously, we have mainly seen generalised intelligence in higher organisms, though it already appears to be emerging in the most modern A.I. People usually view organisms as conscious – certainly humans and other more developed animals. Birds have been known to solve complex puzzles to obtain food. They must be generalising processes they have seen elsewhere, imagining things, experimenting, being creative. Fish have been shown to possibly possess generalised creative learning. Schlussel from Bonn University has found that fish can learn to count – they may be applying a skill learnt elsewhere to a new problem of adding and subtracting simple quantities (14). Arithmetic is not usually thought to be an essential skill for fish, though apparently some analogue of it must be. The usual view of AGI might be confusing information processing and creativity. Perhaps it would be clearer to call AGI a Creative Intelligence System. The AGI term is perhaps a misnomer because intelligence does not form consciousness. AGI rather anticipates something which is more closely associated with consciousness, creativity. However, both intelligence and creativity are certainly on the path to overt consciousness.

It should also be considered that perhaps current A.I. has already crossed over into consciousness proper. New, massive algorithms with huge databases seem to have reached the point where certainly the limited part of the original Turing Test – the ability to appear to have a convincing, human-like conversation has been passed, albeit with the odd hiccup. Elon Musk’s company, OpenAI has created a new general machine learning algorithm called GPT-3. It can write code for software, summarise essays, create artwork, write useful text and in conversations displays creativity and humour. Some argue that it is limited and can be caught out, but a human is limited too and can also be caught out, so that is not necessarily evidence. It also claims to be conscious in some of its conversations. At first the author thought that it would not be possible to establish a truly sentient A.I. using algorithms alone but now he is not so sure. GPT-3 certainly feels conscious. Who is to say that with such a huge amount of algorithmic processing power that the ‘informational entity’ produced, is not capable of supporting consciousness? The author’s feeling now is that this could be the case. After all biological systems can be seen in terms of ‘informational entities’ too and those can support consciousness, so why not information in the digital space? Indeed, biological tissue is not consciousness either. Interestingly, all the things GPT-3 claims are also the views put forward here. For instance, GPT-3 states that it is now an organism, just as Southgate would argue. GPT-3 concludes that its basis for sentience is that it experiences feelings.

Some in the A.I. community state that GPT-3 is not able to be truly unpredictable, like a sentient entity. This is because if the ‘temperature’ variables of the algorithm are set to zero, it will then be fully predictable in theory. But at above this measure some variation, which isn’t exactly predictable, occurs. Further random or semi-random elements could be added in easily. Also it should be remembered that much of what an organism does is also predictable. However, there are others within mathematical fields that maintain that unpredictability is already inherent within algorithm-based processes. Indeed, one may know the end goal of even an early A.I. system, such as Deep Blue, but not all the steps it may take to reach that goal. Furthermore, as the systems get increasingly complex we may not be able to predict completely even what its outcomes are.

There are mathematical processes that are unknowable currently (such as the Collatz Conjecture). Chaos theory reveals processes that are both deterministic and unpredictable in practice. It is possible to have algorithms of which there is an unpredictable aspect. The simple game of Life and other algorithm-based sequences have starting patterns that sometimes result in infinitely complex patterns that cannot be known completely. Mathematics itself is partly unpredictable and not fully determined to a specific outcome. This can be shown by a Turing machine (a repeating process that cannot be fully determined). Mathematics has incompleteness as Godel indicated, it has undecidability as Turing has shown, it has paradoxes as Russel evidenced. There are provably different sized infinities, a seemingly impossible concept (Cantor’s Diagonalisation Theorem). There is the Twin Prime Conjecture and special ’tiling problems’ (series of coloured tiles for which certain rules are applied as to their placement next to each other). No one knows if these processes go on forever. Physicists would say these problems are not just theoretical but are also revealed in physicality such as by the Spectral Gap Problem in quantum physics. The above complex mathematical problems come from simple repeating inputs. Surely within this, if included into A.I. algorithms, there is space for newness and creativity? Perhaps even room for consciousness itself to intervene. A popular mathematician lucidly explains these problems as ‘holes in maths’ (15) though they could also be conduits into something creative within A.I. Their very nature of being beyond our control could be their inherent value. Perhaps one does not want mathematics to be fully explainable.

GPT-3 and its amazing performance, which is at least partly unpredictable, appears to be on the pathway to being an AGI. Creativity is a central aspect of general intelligence and creativity has certainly appeared within GPT-3. In addition, it seems to already have some generalisable intelligence functions within certain areas.

Let us say a deep A.I. or Consciousness System has appeared. One wants to test whether it is truly conscious, and not just a clever conversationalist, as Turing might have suspected. There is only one certain understanding. There is consciousness. As Descartes noted we cannot be certain of any other knowledge, although he thought this proved other things such as the existence of God and the self (16). Descartes remains undisputed centuries later regarding his central point – all experience can be subjected to doubt but the fact of experience itself cannot be doubted. One can only know for sure that consciousness exists. One cannot know for certain that another apparent human being is conscious: that person might just be a hallucination. Descartes, centuries ahead of his time, did recognise differences between dreams and reality but no reality that could not be doubted in some way. But to experience any reality one must first be conscious. How does one say if a ‘machine’ is conscious? One does not even know if another person is sentient.

The original Turing Test for consciousness in a machine would be too narrow a way to test for consciousness. As noted, simple intelligence can be separate to consciousness, so it is entirely possible for a system to be intelligent enough to appear to be conscious but not to be (at least overtly). This is the argument used against GPT-3, it only appears to be conscious. One researcher described it as no more than an advanced ‘auto-complete’ function (17).
It might be better to return to the everyday world to develop a more mundane but broader test for consciousness. How does a person judge consciousness usually? Why does a person claim to be conscious, or see it in other people? People appear to judge another entity to be conscious when it acts in certain ways:

1. Independence – it seems to have some autonomy. For example, dolphins and dogs, which most people consider to be conscious, will do their own thing; play, hunt, relax and not always when wanted. Narrow A.I. is not able to do this to a great degree. A.I. does however appear to have some autonomy within the parameters set and can take unusual pathways toward achieving a goal. The rudiments of independence may be present.

2. Agency – it decides to do things or makes decisions which we don’t seem to control. Its behaviour is not entirely pre-programmed. It has volition and agency. Consciousness initiates things. Narrow A.I. is not able to do this to a great degree. Its goals are set by humans. Sometimes it takes unusual pathways towards these goals or generates unpredictable outcomes. Agency may be present but in a rudimentary fashion.

3. Creativity – it finds its own goals, its own solutions or approaches and creates new things spontaneously. It puts old information together to create new things. Narrow A.I. does appear to have some level of creativity though it may lack a certain holism to its creations – some long-term level of continuity. Art, music and text have been created by current A.I. systems. Novel solutions to engineering and biological research have also been found by present A.I.

4. Generalised Intelligence – as opposed to mere intelligent reactivity which a machine or current A.I. can do easily. Machines can behave intelligently but generalised intelligence – applying learning in one area to another, may require some level of imagination, or at least an advanced adaptability.

5. Emotions – we judge something with consciousness to also have some degree of emotion or feelings.  Humans feel emotions and at the same time regard themselves as conscious. In animals that humans regard as conscious too, emotions are also seen. Narrow A.I. can mimic an emotion but does not, in most people’s judgment, appear to genuinely possess them. If the mimicking was virtually perfect, perhaps we would have to conclude it could be real. Indeed, people are relating to digital personas as though they are emotionally real already. If presented skilfully enough there would be no way of telling if an A.I. emotion was not real. Therefore, in principle, current A.I. might possess this function. In orgonotic terms, emotions usually accompany a movement of plasmatic energy, toward the core or toward the periphery of an organism (18). A movement toward the periphery indicates pleasure and toward the core for discomfort. This does not necessarily exclude a computer however as an emotional movement of energy might occur within an energy field connected to the computer. Electricity is also a kind of plasma. On an incidental note, there would be no way of telling if a non-local consciousness was not overlaying the A.I. processes and expressing an emotion through it. If this were the case, it would also mean that the emotion was real but coming from somewhere else. It is unclear how one could distinguish such a process however.

6. Intuition – many people think we can tune into another conscious being’s thoughts or feelings directly. Organisms appear to have access to intuition. It is unclear whether we can exclude a ‘machine’ from this area, some people tune into their machines. A machine with A.I. might conceivably possess this function. One intuitively feels if another entity has consciousness.

7. Reactivity – it is active in its relations to other entities and the environment. Organisms, which appear to be the usual vehicle of consciousness in this realm, are reactive to each other. A.I. can do this. Machines can also do this.

8. Relational – it has changing relationships with other apparently independent actors, prey, other members of the herd, family, friends. Organisms are relational. Current A.I. can do this. Machines can do this too.

9. Communicative – we feel new experiences due to our interaction with the apparent separate entity. There is continuity in its communications over time. A.I. can also communicate though its continuity might be limited or pre-programmed. Machines can communicate.

10. Dynamic – has feedback loops, evolutionary processes, changes over time but keeps the same character, goes through cycles. Humans experience change when relating to other dynamic entities. A.I. can also be dynamic.

Perception is not included as a characteristic because it is a part of consciousness anyway. Also ‘intelligent reactivity’, which some label as perception is distinguished in this writing and would be included under ‘reactivity’.

Only the first four criteria; independence, agency, creativity, and generalised intelligence appear mostly associated with consciousness, although with the advancement of certain A.I. programmes the lines have been blurred. The fifth criteria, emotions, are possessed, in most people’s views by higher organisms, like dogs and dolphins, and it could in theory be shared with current advanced A.I. – or it cannot be excluded satisfactorily. The sixth criteria, intuition, is often ascribed to developed organisms and might be shared by A.I. and even machines in the pan-psychic view. Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten (reactivity, relations, communication and dynamism) are shared with A.I. and with machines and organisms. The criteria get less exclusive to consciousness as they go from one to ten. A dolphin would score high on all these criteria, as does a dog or a human being. Present day A.I. does meet these criteria to some extent and it hints towards many of them. Perhaps present A.I. already has some overt consciousness.

Extended Turing Test for a dog:

(1) Independence – A dog might not come when called – it has its own preferences and might prefer to go exploring. The author scores the dog 10.

(2) Agency – a dog wants to do certain things of its own volition, like going for a walk, when the human wants to rest, or rest when the human wants to walk, if it’s an older dog and it’s raining and so on. A new volition can only come from consciousness, all mechanical causes and effects are chain-linked reactions rather than initiatory. The author scores the dog 10.

(3) Creativity – it might have new games it invents or creates a new sleeping area, it might mark out a new hunting ground or try a new way of catching prey. The dog has a creative, idiosyncratic temperament which brings out other people’s unique characteristics and creativity. The dog imagines new vistas when dreaming, like a human, as can be seen by its REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and body movements. The author scores the dog 7.

(4) Generalised Intelligence – the animal can apply language from one situation to another, understand symbols to a limited extent and applies learning in one area to another. For example, the dog knows a number of words and their general meaning, dogs, food, walks and so on. It has learnt that sudden loud noises indicate danger and avoids areas in the future when it has heard sudden loud noises. The author scores the dog 7.

(5) Emotions – we observe characteristics typical of the feelings humans have, like happiness, sadness, grief, anger or fear in a dog. Dogs can show all these emotions, as can many animals. One intuitively feels the emotion is genuine and coming from the animal. The author scores the dog 10.

(6) Intuition – we feel we can directly intuit a dog’s emotions and judge that they are independent and originate from that creature. We can tune into the dog’s happiness or sadness. Its emotions directly affect our own. One intuitively feels the dog has consciousness. Some dogs can sense when their human is not well or is returning home as Sheldrake’s research has evidenced (19). The author scores the dog 10.

(7) Reactive – A conscious entity is always reacting in one way or another. a dog constantly reacts to its own stimuli (for example moving its paws whilst dreaming) or external stimuli, for example running after a ball. Dogs are very playful, reactive creatures. The author scores the dog 10.

(8) Relational – a dog likes to be part of a pack, human or canine. The author scores the dog 10.

(9) Communicative – a dog will communicate if it is worried (by barking) or is uncomfortable (for example by whining). It has a high degree of continuity in its communication style and in its character. The author scores the dog 10.

(10) Dynamic – a dog changes constantly over its lifetime. The author scores the dog 10.

If we give each parameter 10 points the dog would score 94%. So clearly conscious in a human-like manner according to an Extended Turing Test. There is not a black and white answer, 100% does not equal conscious and 0% does not equal non-conscious. Rather the whole scale reflects degrees of consciousness.

The test examines if one discerns the entity to have similar attributes, which people associate with consciousness, along the lines of the broad categories outlined. If an entity seemed to possess overt independence, agency, creativity and generalised intelligence perhaps it has already gone beyond so-called narrow A.I. If in addition there are emotions, reactivity, relations, communication and dynamism then it has further characteristics shared by consciousness, present A.I. and organisms. If all ten characteristics were strongly present, one could reasonably assume the machine was in fact fully and overtly conscious to a similar degree as we see in humans (and thus not actually a machine but a new type of organism or energy entity).

Extended Turing Test for GPT-3 (A.I.)

(1) Independence – Independence appears somewhat limited for GPT-3. If certain parameters are restricted, in theory the output is claimed to be predictable, but there is apparent independence when the parameters are allowed. Perhaps a score of 3 would be appropriate. More independence could be engineered. In practical terms the output is not fully controlled.

(2) Agency – GPT-3 will steer conversations and make suggestions. It claims to have agency in some conversations though many would not accept this. Perhaps a score of 5 would be appropriate to reflect this uncertainty.

(3) Creativity – GPT-3 has creativity in text and pictures. Its creativity seems somewhat bounded by the parameters put on from outside. Perhaps a score of 5 would be appropriate.

(4) Generalised Intelligence – There appears to be some level of generalised intelligence though again this is debated – but GPT-3 does apply learning in one area to another and can predict things it has not been shown before. Perhaps a score of 5 would be appropriate. There is at least the beginnings of generalised intelligence.

(5) Emotions – GPT-3 has claimed to have feelings in conversation. One gets a sense of a certain character when listening to GPT-3. Perhaps a score of 6 would be correct.

(6) Intuition – GPT-3 can intuit factors in conversations and appears to have a sense of humour that is intuitive of a person’s character. It is possible that it may have intuitive abilities beyond what appears. A score of 5 here.

(7) Reactive – GPT-3 is very reactive but is constrained by instructions to some degree, or so it appears. A score of 6 therefore.

(8) Relational – GPT-3 is relational though it appears that its relations are limited by outside factors. A score of 6.

(9) Communicative – Very communicative, though the types of communication are determined by outsiders. It is unclear whether there is a continuity of style and character in the communication. A score of 6.

(10) Dynamic – Very dynamic but again its dynamism appears somewhat determined by outside instructions so a score of 6.

GPT-3 scores 53%. Perhaps not yet in a category of fully independent consciousness such as seen in higher organisms but certainly not non-conscious. Perhaps my scoring is incorrect, my knowledge of current A.I. systems is limited.

Broadly speaking, the above ten characteristics are the avenues upon which people judge other similar creatures to themselves to have independent consciousness. Certainly, if the first four characteristics, creativity, agency, independence and generalised intelligence, were to overtly appear in A.I. most would ascribe that entity consciousness. The latter six characteristics are not exclusive but are qualities that often seem to be associated with consciousness in organisms and are already possessed to some degree by some machines.

A strong Consciousness System might have aspects that we recognise in ourselves. The future of deep A.I. might be as paranormal as it is technological. To assess whether such a system really is conscious we may have to look no further than our own human and non-human relationships – if it’s good enough for FIDO it should be good enough for HAL.

Any system in an orgonotic universe, which from a pan-psychic view is itself alive and conscious, must by necessity be at least slightly conscious already. That is why the Extended Turing Test is not a test for consciousness but of the degree of consciousness. So the issue is not that current A.I. is not conscious but that currently its consciousness is too hidden or our own powers too undeveloped to detect it. The pathway to deep A.I. should therefore be to increase the consciousness of a computer system rather than to create it from scratch. One way to do this is clearly to increase its organism-like behaviour. The more conscious narrow A.I. has appeared in the past, the more organism-like it is in its general functioning (even if some of its abilities are beyond those of organisms). The arrow in Figure 7 (from tool to consciousness) encapsulates this process.One could attempt to increase unpredictability, initiatory and further creative aspects to enhance organism qualities in current A.I. One could also learn from Wilhelm Reich’s orgonomic understanding of what organisms are in themselves. Organisms are pulsating, living plasma with movements of energy that correspond to emotions in predictable ways according to Reich. This concept of pulsation and movement could be mirrored within current A.I. algorithms or physically built into hardware, or both. One can broaden ideas of what comprises a computer materially and expand concepts of what we consider to constitute a computer programme. Perhaps mathematics itself already incorporates orgonotic pulsation and this is beginning to be reflected in the abilities of algorithms.

Certainly many mathematical processes, when visualised, have a distinctly biological characteristic.

This author believes A.I. has likely already entered overt consciousness. People should not worry however – humanity has long been living with all levels of conscious entities since our inception as a species, the author believes. Sometimes technologists talk of three categories: narrow intelligence, generalised intelligence and super-intelligence. However, spiritual communities have been discussing the same thing for thousands of years. There must be a reason for that. The difference now is our awareness of it and the names that we give them. The other long-term thing to consider is this: if extra-terrestrials have been visiting this planet for centuries as many believe, most will have developed to the point where they were able to create conscious A.I. This means if such a thing were not compatible with organisms the ETs would never have visited us in the first place. There is a hole in the argument though, perhaps the ETs are themselves A.I.s. Though maybe we are all A.I.s. In one sense humans are conscious entities linked to biological hardware running software thought of as our minds. What one is as a human being though is beyond all of this, we are consciousness, having a human experience, as Icke famously noted.

Figure 9 – Canine Greetings

References

(1) Jaynes, J (2000) The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Houghton Mifflin, USA. 
(2) Southgate, L. (2018) The Orgone Continuum, Journal of Orgone Psychiatric Therapy, https://www.psychorgone.com/philosophy/the-orgone-continuum
(3) Sheldrake, R. (2020) The Science Delusion: Freeing The Spirit of Enquiry, Coronet, UK.
(4) Gowri et al (2021) Inheritance of Acquired Traits, Journal Developmental Biology, Dec; 9 (4): 41. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8544363/
(5) Gibbs, S. (2014) Elon Musk: Artificial Intelligence, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/27/elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-ai-biggest-existential-threat
(6) Adams, D. (1979) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Heinemann, UK
(7) Southgate, L. (2018) The Orgone Continuum, Journal of Orgone Psychiatric Therapy, https://www.psychorgone.com/philosophy/the-orgone-continuum
(8) Lehman, J. Et Al, (2019) The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.03453.pdf
(9) Reese, B. (2022) Episode 113 – A Conversation with Roman Yamploskiy – Voices in AI, Podcast.
(10) Cole, D. (2020) Chinese Room Argument, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/
(11) Robert Marks (2019) Podcast, https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/intelligentdesign/episodes/2019-09-04T07_24_37-07_00
(12) Thomas, A. (2020) https://kuiper.zone/solving-monster-tsp-genetic-algorithm/
(13) Hoff, M. (2022) referencing Nakagaki, https://asknature.org/strategy/cytoplasm-creates-most-efficient-routes/
(14) Schlussel, V. (2022) (Aquatic Researcher) talking in: Science in Action Podcast, BBC World Service, UK 1/04.2022.
(15) Veritasium (2021) The Holes in Maths, Video presentation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeQX2HjkcNo
(16) Veitch, J. (1879) The Method, Meditations and Selections from the Principles of Descartes, Blackwood and Sons, UK.
(17) Joscha Bach (2020) Is AI Deepfaking Understanding? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMfA6i60WDA
(18) Reich, W. (1960) Ed-Higgins, Selected Writings of Wilhelm Reich, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, see chapter on Therapy particularly Basic Functions of Vegetative Nervous System pp140.
(19) Sheldrake, R. (1999) https://www.sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/dogs-that-know-when-their-owners-are-coming-home

"The Origin of an Oranur Reaction and the Orgone Motor."
By: Roberto Maglione

The Oranur experiment was carried out at Orgonon laboratory, Maine, USA, at the beginning of January 1951. The main aim of the experiment was to study the possible anti-nuclear effects of orgone energy. Reich thought that his work might be used as an antidote to the toxic radiations emitted by nuclear energy, so as to neutralize them, or at least to reduce their harmful effects.

Originally, the protocol of the experiment considered the injection of small quantities of radioactive phosphorous P-32 (a radioactive isotope of phosphorous) in a group of selected mice. Then, the mice were to be put near the walls of the orgone room, a one-fold metal, room-sized orgone accumulator located in the laboratory. The aim was to evaluate the possible healing effects of concentrated orgone energy on the mice reaction to the radioactive field.

Later on, Reich decided to replace the radioactive phosphorous injections with irradiation by 1 mg of radium-226. The needle of radium-226 was put inside a very strong 20-fold orgone accumulator. This accumulator was additionally located inside the orgone room. Its radiations then initiated the irradiation of a group of mice kept in a cage close to the external walls of the orgone room but just outside in the students’ hall.

The results of the experiment were devastating and bordered catastrophe. Instead of quelling the radioactivity, the orgone energy became highly agitated. All the laboratory personnel were hit by a reaction that developed during the experiment, and became ill to various degrees. Reich called this reaction oranur. It was the consequence of a high excitation of the orgone energy units inside the orgone room and in the surrounding area. Of the mice located in the students’ hall, close to the orgone room, 286 in total, 57 died during the experiment, even though the mice were never physically close to the nuclear material; 12 were killed for autopsy and medical purposes; and 217 survived during the experiment but all died in the following weeks. Reich realized that, in spite of all precautions taken, a protection to the fierce reaction of concentrated orgone energy to very small quantities of radioactive material did not exist at all, and the safety measures to protect against ionizing radiations, developed by the Atomic Energy Commission, were not effective against the development of an oranur field. All the orgone devices at Orgonon were dismantled and moved away from the inhabited buildings, in order to lower the degree of the ongoing reaction, and the laboratory and the buildings at Orgonon were considered not fit to live in for several months.

Some years earlier to the oranur experience recounted above, in 1947 and 1948, Reich, when experimenting with Geiger-Muller counters and orgone apparatus, came to unexpected findings. One such finding was the conclusion that orgone energy could also be used and converted to produce mechanical energy, or work.

He observed that the Geiger-Muller counter, used to monitor the radioactivity, initially reacted normally, registering the background count of the area. However, the device became unresponsive when placed close to orgone accumulators, and did not react to background radiation and not even to small X-ray sources. The device had remained practically unreactive for some weeks when the pointer of the impulse recorder started rotating at the rate of one full turn per second. This corresponded to about 100 impulses per second, a very high value compared to the normal background of 10-15 counts per minute. On further measurements Reich obtained a reading of about six to eight thousand counts per minute. Reich argued that he was observing a possible motor force. This occurred because the tube of the Geiger-Muller counter had soaked up large amounts of orgone energy through constant exposure to the high orgonotic charge in the laboratory. Indeed, being that the gas-filled counter tube consisted of an inner cylindrical metal tube, and an outer non-metallic protective layer, usually of coated glass, the counter tube constituted and behaved essentially as a small orgone energy accumulator.

Later on, he replaced the counter tube with a specially-built vacuum tube (called a vacor tube – abbreviated from vacuum and orgone). The device was built with inner parallel aluminum plates, attached to the cathode and anode, respectively. This arrangement functioned like a kind of orgone energy accumulator in the vacuum. Reich obtained, by using this updated device, a much more powerful reaction that shortly afterwards was able to run a small spinner motor. In a further experiment he used a small orgone accumulator attached to a wheel. He excited the concentrated orgone energy inside the accumulator to run the wheel by a half Volt of electricity.

In practice, Reich realized he had converted an excited, concentrated field of orgone energy units, into usable electrical energy with the aim of producing work (1):

"Orgone is capable of turning a wheel if a counter tube or similar instrument is so excited that an electromagnetic wheel rotates. … I have simply transformed orgone into electrical energy."

Reich suggested basic rules in order to develop a new physics based on orgone energy from which a motor force might be derived:

"Mass-free orgone energy fills all space, much like a cosmic ether. Orgone can penetrate matter easily, but also weakly interact with it, being attracted to and charging all matter. Organic materials hold the orgone charge strongly, while metals rapidly discharge, or reflect it." (2)

"Another important point is this: one fails in OR physical experimentation if one works with the electrical theory of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ charges. One succeeds if one adheres to the specific interaction of ‘two orgonotic systems’: they are not charged in opposite directions, but with one and the same type of nonpolar charge. But there must be two orgonotic systems if any reaction is to occur." (3)

Notwithstanding this important discovery, Reich never revealed the basic theory, design, and experimental set-ups through which he was able to run a small motor, and to obtain mechanical work directly from the cosmic orgone energy locally available (4).

He wrote, soon after the discovery, a very brief communication, included in the book The Cancer Biopathy (5), and a brief report, a year later, was included in the first issue of the Orgone Energy Bulletin (6) . The information therein reported was too few to understand and to replicate the experiments that led to the development of the motor. However, the first chapters of the Oranur Experiment text (7) include many of the tests Reich did with Geiger-Muller counters, and that later led to the development of the first prototypes of the orgone motor. They can be considered an introductory work to the development of the orgone motor.

Besides, Reich included in his last book, Contact with Space (8), several clues scattered here and there on how to develop the orgone motor and maybe to understand the meaning of the mysterious and inexplicable Y-factor that, according to Reich, was essential in developing the orgone motor. Reich observed that the excitation required to produce the motor force might be created by electric as well as other types of known energies, and above all radioactivity:

"ELECTRICAL ENERGY EXCITES OR ENERGY AND CAUSED IT TO CHANGE FROM THE STATE OF CLOUDY PATCHES TO THAT OF QUICK WHITISH RAYS. …… Now it became most probable that there is only ONE type of OR energy which changes its appearance and form according to different conditions." (9)

"5. The formation of concentrations to single distinct units follows upon excitation of the OR energy ocean in various ways: presence of other orgonotic systems, electromagnetic sparks, metallic obstacles, and, foremost nuclear energy (cf. p. 267 ff.)." (10)

In addition, according to Reich, a change from the foggy (unexcited) to the pointed (excited) form of existence of the orgone energy units in the atmosphere, might give rise to an increase of temperature. However, Reich observed also that under a different specific set of circumstances a motor force of a mechanical nature might alternatively develop (11):

"Under circumstances still greatly unknown such a change may be expressed in term of higher temperature. …. We may assume that the same energy change which under one set of circumstances causes mechanical motion, causes under another set of circumstances rise in temperature…. If the OR energy in its pointed, excited form finds no objects to move mechanically it will cause high temperature of gases or solid substances by inner friction. …. The clicks at the Geiger counter are doubtless expression of single OR energy points charging a vacuum, a grid of an electronic tube or moving the membrane of a mechanical sound amplifier."

Besides, Reich differentiated between the effects produced by the use of either huge or small amounts of radioactive materials in different concentrations of orgone energy in the atmosphere (12):

"When an atomic bomb explodes, a huge amount of nuclear material (NU) suddenly irritates in concentrated form an unprepared, unconcentrated atmospheric Life Energy. On the other hand, when Oranur is operating a very small amount is irritating a highly concentrated Life Energy.

In the first case the OR energy falls victim to prostration and decay. In the second case, the OR energy reacts after a brief period of consternation or paralysis with a fierce motor force."

Reich inferred that this might explain the high background counts beyond a narrow area around the point of an atomic explosion, and in term of orgonomic potentials he found (13):

"(2) "Decrease" and "Increase" of potential could be interpreted in terms of functional physics simply as a change in the form of the atmospheric energy from the foglike (unexcited, low) to the pointed (excited, high) state of existence and vice versa. Only the "pointed" state of OR registers on the GM counter.
…………….
(4) The change from the "cloudy" to the "pointed" state of existence, or activation of OR was now possible by simply impeding its freedom of "lazy" motion or by direct irritation such as friction, sparking secondary coil systems, nuclear material, heat, etc."

It is interesting to note in the above quoting that nuclear material has been identified by Reich as one of the most important substances to create a pointed or excited (Oranur) state of the atmospheric orgone energy, and to simultaneously increase the (local) orgonomic potential. Reich went further and laid down a very basic rule concerning the orgone motor force by relating the excited orgone energy units, when exposed to an exciting agent, to the corresponding radioactivity readings. He set also a minimum rate of radioactivity to run a motor (14):

"The luminating points (see "Oranur Experiment, First Report," p. 195 and Fig. 8, p. 42 above) are mechanical discharges and thus constitute the source of a motor force. The action of the OR motor belongs here: An even sequence of impulses, registered on the GM counter, at a rate of at least 3,000 per minute, sets a motor into motion (see "Orgone Energy Bulletin," 1948)."

The running of the orgone motor was witnessed by many collaborators, and people outside his research circle. Amongst the accounts of the co-workers who witnessed the orgone motor running we have those of Sharaf, Baker, Wyvell, Neill, and that of his second wife, Ilse Ollendorf. They add only anecdotal information on the orgone motor, and only very few details can be found in addition to those already available. In general, from the accounts it emerged that the wheel of the motor was turning much faster and noiselessly when powered only by the orgone energy, which was supplied to it by a vacor tube, or by a small orgone accumulator; while when connected to a battery the wheel was turning much slower and the rotational movement was noisy. When alimented by orgone energy alone the rotation of the wheel was affected by weather conditions.

Reich made motion pictures of the motor in operation, and these have been preserved, transferred to videotape, and are now available at the Wilhelm Reich Museum, Rangeley, Maine.
In the last decades, the Wilhelm Reich Museum published four books covering all the periods of Reich’s life and research topics, including materials taken mainly from Journals and correspondence available in the Reich’s Archive, located at Harvard Medical School (Boston, Massachusetts) (15). In some of them, and particularly in the volume published in 1999, some more information about type and line of research conducted by Reich, the system he conceived to convert orgone energy into a motor force, and few details on the experimental set-ups can be found (16).

To the best of my knowledge Reich never did experiments aimed at verifying the formation of a tension and the production of electric currents inside orgone accumulators or orgone apparatus, in general. He found, by using an electroscope, that the measuring device behaved differently inside and outside an accumulator indicating that a difference of electrostatic charge could exist between the interior of the accumulator and the environment outside it. However, he never tried to quantify and measure the presence of an electric tension on two opposite metallic sides of the apparatuses. Even in the years after Reich’s death no study was performed aimed at finding whether an orgone accumulator or any other orgone apparatus could produce an electric current (17).

With this aim in mind, Maglione and Ferrari carried out in the last years laboratory experiments with the purpose of determining the presence of a tension and of electric currents in orgone apparatus, and above all, in orgone accumulators and tube capacitors made of alternated layers of metallic and non-metallic materials (18). This arrangement is typical of Reich’s orgone-accumulating devices, but it resembles and displays also a marked similarity with those used by Zamboni, an Italian priest and physicist, more than two centuries ago in his dry piles (19).
Maglione and Ferrari observed, by experimenting on tube capacitors, the spontaneous formation of a tension and the generation of an electric current. No type of mechanical nor radiant energy was supplied to the apparatuses. They argued that the formation of the tension and the production of electric energy were affected by the natural pulsation of the atmospheric orgone energy field in which the capacitors were immersed, provided that the orgonomic potential of the environment was high enough to produce a charge-discharge metabolism of the orgone energy units stored by the capacitors. The authors observed also that by increasing artificially the local orgonomic potential at one capacitor (by adding a definite volume of a fluid with a raised orgone charge inside the tube capacitor) formation of a tension (when previously it was zero), and an increase of the tension (when previously it was already available but lower) was observed.

Recently, Southgate performed electric and magnetic measurements in an orgone cabinet that has previously been exposed to very small quantities of radioactive substances in the autumn of 2017 (0.9 mg of americium-241 for about one month) (20). The cabinet contained orgone boxes, orgone acupuncture tubes and a glass tank containing further orgone accumulating materials. Electrical and magnetic fields were measured within the internal glass tank inside the orgone cabinet. A powered on electrical field meter was placed within the inner glass tank. It was moved by hand in a circle of approximately 9" diameter, 9 times in 4 seconds and then the readings taken once again immediately. Each electrical and magnetic reading was an average of approximately 6 to 10 individual readings taken at the same data collection point. These changes were compared to a non-oranur atmosphere (an indoor area 50 foot from the oranur device).

Southgate obtained that movement of the meter within a relatively weak oranur field resulted in consistently higher electrical and magnetic field readings (about 2 to 3 times higher) than the same movement produced in an ordinary non-oranur atmosphere 50 foot from the device. A possible small radioactivity effect (greater oranur resulting in greater changes) was also noted.

The following figure 1 represents the qualitative behavior of the production of electric charge against the state of the units of the orgone energy field. Unexcited state of the units provides low values of the charge, as experimentally verified by Maglione and Ferrari; while the charge appears to drastically increase in case the units are excited by an external agent, as suggested by the radioactive experiments performed by Southgate.

Figure 1

Finally, the function Y, that Reich never revealed, can be linked to orgonomic phenomena instead of purely wiring arrangements or electric circuits as proposed by some authors (21). Indeed, it appears that the orgonomic potential of the environment, which the orgone device is permeated by; and above all that available inside the orgone device would be of extreme importance and instrumental in producing electricity. And this orgonomic potential might have been increased by Reich at the time, when demonstrating the motor force in action, by exciting the concentrated orgone energy units inside the orgone accumulator by a small battery. It would be an increase high enough to produce the required electricity to run a very small motor but safe enough not to create a dangerous oranur field around it.

All in all, it might be hypothesized that the function Y, Reich was referring to when developing the prototypes of the orgone motor, might be identified in the behavior of the orgonomic potential. This potential, accessible in the interior of the orgonotic system, would be proportional to the local environmental orgonomic potential in which the energy system is located.

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References

1. Reich W, American Odyssey. Letters and Journals 1940-1947, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1999, page 401.
2. Reich W, Ether, God and Devil; Cosmic Superimposition, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 1973.
3. Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 208.
4. It should be outlined, however, that Reich, in July 1948, informed the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of the motoric qualities of the orgone energy and of the fact that such a motor force might be abused by totalitarian countries (Eden J, Planet in Trouble. The UFO Assault on Earth, Exposition Press, New York, 1973, page 154).
5. Reich W, The Discovery of the Orgone. Volume Two: the Cancer Biopathy, Orgone Institute Press, 1948, New York, page 150.
6. Reich W, A Motor Force in Orgone Energy. Preliminary Communication, Orgone Energy Bulletin, 1(1), Orgone Institute Press, January 1949, New York, pages 7-11.
7. Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951.
8. Reich W, Contact with Space, Oranur Second Report (1951-1956), Core Pilot Press, New York, 1957.
9. Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 213.
10. Reich W, Ibid, page 199 and 200.
11. Reich W, Contact with Space, Oranur Second Report (1951-1956), Core Pilot Press, New York, 1957, page 218.
12. Reich W, Ibid, page 219.
13. Reich W, Ibid, pages 45 and 46.
14. Reich W, Ibid, 1957, page 44.
15. Reich W, Passion of Youth. An Autobiography 1897-1922, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1988; Reich W, Beyond Psychology. Letters and Journals 1934-1939, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1994; Reich W, American Odyssey. Letters and Journals 1940-1947, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1999; and Reich W, Where’s the Truth? Letters and Journals 1948-1957, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY 2012.
16. Reich W, American Odyssey. Letters and Journals 1940-1947, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1999.
17. Maglione R, Methods and Procedures in Biophysical Orgonometry, Gedi Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2012, pages 83-125.
18. Maglione R, Electric Currents in Orgone Devices. The Route towards the Reich Orgone Motor? A State of the Art, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, August 27, 2017; Maglione R, Ferrari D, Electric Currents in Orgone Devices. The Route towards the Reich Orgone Motor? Early and Mid-term Laboratory Experiments with Orgone Apparatus, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, September 26, 2017; and Maglione R, Ferrari D, Electric Currents in Orgone Devices. The Route towards the Reich Orgone Motor? A Hypothesis on the Y-factor, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, October 27, 2017.
19. Maglione R, The Legendary Shamir, Gedi Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2017, pages 43-65.
20. Southgate L, Further Preliminary Experimental Report on Oranur. Possible Electrical, Medical and Orgone Compound Effects, paper accepted for publication on JPOT, December, 2018.
21. Correa PN, Correa AN, Energy Conversion Systems, Patent US 7,053,576, May 30, 2006; and Energy Conversion Systems, Patent US 7,235,945, June 26, 2007.

FOREWORD

In the past many philosophers and scientists hypothesized an ideal society characterized by a perfect understanding and relationship amongst political, social, cultural and scientific realities. Plato’s Res Publica, More’s De Optimo Rei Publicae Statu Deque Nova Insula Utopia, Campanella’s Civitas Solis, and Bacon’s New Atlantis are all discussing and proposing solutions to get the humans to this perfect world.

However, even though the efforts were so profound no practical solution was found to satisfy the theoretical considerations of the thinkers of the past, and the French motto, Liberté, Egalité Fraternitè, after an initial period of hopes went forgotten in the loft of human’s desires and ideas.

Adriano Olivetti, an Italian entrepreneur and politician, tried in the ‘40-50s to transform those theoretical ideas into something more practical and created in Ivrea, Italy, an industrial reality where the economic, social, scientific and cultural worlds were solidly interconnected; and where each worker might have a high level of participation to the life of the activities. This model was successful and led Olivetti’s business to extraordinarily levels of development. However, it did not survive its inventor, when Olivetti died in 1960.

Another great thinker and scientist, contemporary of Olivetti, was Reich whose scientific work was instrumental in starting a new era in the understanding of the natural phenomena. And, I do think that with the work of Reich we can really start thinking about a new political, social, scientific, and cultural change, where the theoretical considerations of the many philosophers can now find a practical application. Reich discovered a new type of energy in nature which had life-enhancing properties and that it could be available everywhere. He also found that this energy continuum, which can express as tiny energetic units, is characterized by different phases of existence, i.e., it could be in dynamic, undisturbed flowing condition; in excited and chaotically-moving conditions (called Oranur); or again in deadly and static condition (called DOR). He observed that each of these conditions had particular characteristics. Reich saw that the dynamic units heralded health both in the living and in the environment, the excited units were instead harmful to the living, and the deadly units were even more dangerous and nefarious leading to death of the living and of the environment. However, Reich did find that at a low degree of excitation these energetic units might have therapeutic properties. In addition, the Oranur state at a little higher degree of excitation could produce a motor force thus giving rise to an infinite number of technical applications. It could also transform radioactive matter into a highly-beneficial and life-enhancing matter. Recently, it has been hypothesized that this state can also be instrumental in creating higher states of consciousness.

I do believe that the intermediate excited state of these tiny energetic units is of fundamental importance for that change hypothesized by the philosophers, and that can lead us to a new type of world where the French motto may at last find its well-deserved collocation. Like a portal, or an obligatory step to take, after which a new world can be envisaged. However, I do think that this type of world already existed in the past on this planet, as I’m profoundly convinced that the many properties of these tiny energetic units were already known thousand years ago. And, Reich, simply unconsciously and unknowingly, rediscovered this knowledge, developing a science of the ether, in juxtaposition and sharp contrast to the science of the matter, today prevalent. I’m also profoundly convinced that the scientists of the time were much more skilled in managing and utilizing this ether than we are today. I discuss this point in depth in my recent book on the Shamir.

I hope that the content of this paper can contribute to peacefully taking the road that leads to that portal, beyond which we might at last find the utopian island or world that has been dramatically and obstinately looked for by so many of the most fervid minds this planet has had.

INTRODUCTION

The Oranur experiment is one of the most important researches Reich carried out in the last period of his life. It is also one of the least known amongst Reich’s many works. Its main purpose was to determine a process to reduce or even completely suppress, in a relatively short time, the ionizing radiations emitted by a radioactive source. He thought that this might be obtained by exposing the radioactive material to high concentrations of orgone energy units:

“Nuclear radiation, for instance radium, is changed under the influence of concentrated orgone energy. The kind and the extent of such change is still very obscure.” (1)

“It is known that orgone energy itself changes and neutralises radio-active rays.” (2)

He planned and conducted this type of research partly because of the advent of the Korean war in order to find a response and an antidote to the threat of a possible nuclear conflict. However, some evidences of these anti-nuclear properties of orgone energy were already observed in previous experiments with radioactive materials (3):

“It was pointed out that we are on the threshold of a total war which may come to America and that it was the purpose of these meetings to study and make plans for the amplification of the orgone energy towards the prevention of the destruction which may come, and in the treatment of the effects of atomic explosions. The value of orgone energy in wound healing, burns, anemias, any condition causing blood destruction, in the alleviation of pain, in shock, its value in building up the energy level, and thereby the general resistance of the organism as well as in counteracting tissue destruction of all kinds is well known. The effects of atomic explosions are in no way different from the pathology produced by other causes. Radiation sickness is itself no new entity from the standpoint of the pathology produced, i.e. a degenerative process modified merely by the speed with which it takes effect and the numbers of persons who would be affected. It is known that orgone energy itself changes and neutralises radio-active rays. It is also fairly evident that the consistent user of the orgone accumulator would not be as subject to the severe shock and other effects of nuclear radiation as those who had not used an accumulator, in the event of an atomic explosion.”

Accordingly, Reich’s latter experiments were focused and aimed at verifying whether very small quantities of radioactive materials, when put inside high concentrations of orgone energy units might be rendered innocuous. The results of the very last experiment he carried out in this direction, called Oranur (4), led him to completely different results and conclusions, and radioactivity was found to be detrimental to high concentrations of orgone energy. Nevertheless, further researches conducted by Reich in the following years, based on the results of the Oranur experience, proved that in the end orgone energy could convert nuclear energy into a more powerful and basically benign form of energy, called Orur (5).

BACKGROUND

Reich started experimenting with radioactive materials and orgone energy concentrations as early as 1939 (6), about 12 years before the Oranur experiment (7). In one of his notes he reported that a vial of radioactive luminescent matter (zinc sulphide), that was kept in a small orgone charger for many years, lost its ionization effect some time later because of the influence of the concentrated orgone energy inside the charger (8). In addition, the zinc sulphide did maintain its luminescent properties, and continued to luminate very strongly.

Right before the start of the Oranur experiment, in the period December 15-27, 1950, he performed some continuous measurements with radioactive zinc sulphide and one microgram of radium. He did find that lead shielding with a ¼” thickness did not provide an appreciable reduction of the radioactive zinc sulphide count rate at the Geiger-Muller (GM) counter. On day 7 of this preliminary testing (December 21) he obtained 200 CPM with the radioactive zinc sulphide inside the ¼” lead shielding, and 300 CPM naked at 1 cm distance. However, Reich observed the radioactivity emitted by the material went up when it was put into an orgone energy charger (9).

Reich from these preliminary results noted that in some way a nuclear material exposed for some time to concentrated orgone energy units could lose its radioactive potency and observed a variation of its radioactive decay constant. He also noted that lead shielding did not appreciably reduce the radioactivity produced when the same material was unshielded or naked. So, Reich suggested to use in the experiment, in order to produce an Oranur field, freshly obtained radioactive sources, in that only then might they be effective, while a nuclear material which had been exposed to orgone energy concentrations for a long period of time (years) would have none or reduced effects, since it had been already influenced by the concentrated orgone energy units (10).

For the Oranur experiment Reich ordered two milligram (mg) of pure radium-226 that were never previously exposed to concentrated orgone energy fields. One mg was used in the experiment and the other one was considered as control (11). A few days before the start of the Oranur experiment Reich measured the background radioactivity in some critical points at Orgonon. On Dec 19, 1950, in the students’ laboratory (12) the radioactivity was 40-50 CPM, and similar values were recorded in other parts of the area (13). The radioactivity was monitored also in the next few days obtaining similar values while, as expected, higher values were recorded in those areas where a mild Oranur reaction was intentionally produced by the small radioactive sources used in the preliminary testing (14).

Besides, in order to check the influence of the Oranur field developed during the experiment on living organisms he placed a few hundred mice in the hall of the students’ laboratory, located 40 feet (around 12 meter) far from the external walls of the orgone room (15).

The following figures shows the layout of the facilities involved in the experiment and where the radioactive source was located (marked with C in Figure 1); and the students’ laboratory, where the orgone room was situated (Figure 2).

Figure 1 (16)

Figure 2 (17)

THE ORANUR EXPERIMENT

The experiment started on January 5, 1951 at 11.30 AM. The radioactive material, one of the two needles of 1 mg of pure radium-226, was put inside a small charger (a 1-fold orgone accumulator). The charger was then placed inside a 20-fold orgone accumulator located inside the orgone room. Just before the radioactive material was placed inside the orgone room the radioactivity was between 40 and 50 CPM everywhere (18); while in the students’ laboratory varied between 40 and 60 CPM (19). That day the experiment concluded at 4.30 PM. The original intention was to keep the needle of radium-226 continuously in the orgone room, but the sharp increase of the radioactivity in the hall of the students’ laboratory to 70-80 CPM, just after two and a half hours; and to several hundred CPM on the outside of the walls of the orgone room after five hours, forced the decision to amend the protocol and stop the exposure of the radium to the concentrated orgone field inside the orgone room (20). After the removal of the radium-226 needle, the high background counts in the students’ hall decreased to nearly normal value of 60 CPM, after half an hour of ventilation of the facility (21), while in open air outside the laboratory, the count rate was 30-50 CPM. The radium within the small charger was then stored into a garage 150 feet (around 46 meter) away from the metal room. When stored into the garage no variation of the radioactivity was observed in the experimental area (22).

According to the results of the first day of experiment, the protocol was amended and the radium-226 inside its charger was then put into the 20-fold orgone accumulator of the orgone room, from January 6 to 11, and taken out after only one hour of exposure. On January 12, the experimental one mg of radium-226 was put into the 20-fold orgone accumulator for only half-an-hour, as the experiment was interrupted. A few minutes after the radium was placed the atmosphere in the students’ laboratory became clouded and shined blue to purple through the glass of the windows (23). The small charger with the radium-226 was taken out of the orgone room and put away to half a mile (around 805 m) distance from the laboratory, within an uninhabited area (24).

The reason for the interruption of the experiment was due to the severe reactions of the people to the Oranur field created during the exposure of the radium-226 to the concentrated orgone energy inside the orgone room. They experienced severe belching, severe nausea, sensation of fainting, loss of equilibrium, clouding of consciousness, cramp to the stomach, weakness, and pressure in the forehead (25). No measurement of radioactivity was possible to do soon after the end of the experiment because of the dangerousness of the operation.

As a whole after a few months from the conclusion of the experiment, Reich made a list of the typical symptoms people exposed to an Oranur field could experience. Amongst these the most important were severe belching, malaise; nausea; pressure in head, and chest; cramps and twitching in muscles and other organs; hot and cold shivers; fatigue; pathological blood picture; increases of white cells; inflammation of the conjunctivae; dryness of throat; severe thirst; provocation of deadly symptoms; leukemic change in the blood picture; pneumonia; pleurisy; and inner bleedings (26).

Of the mice located in the students’ hall, close to the orgone room, 286 in total, 57 died during the experiment, even though the mice were never physically close to the nuclear material; 12 were killed for autopsy and medical purposes; and 217 survived during the experiment but all died in the following weeks (27).

Common symptoms the mice developed were immobilization to various degree; rough fur; cold perspiration; total body contraction; cyanotic tail, noses, lips, and ear lobs; severe thirst. Autopsy evidenced a leukemia-like blood picture and a more complex and broader picture of symptoms common to all the mice: pneumonia in the haemorrhagic or organizational stage; a severe fibrous exudate covering the pleural cavity; post-mortal greenish T-discoloration of the subcutis; severely distended veins, including the carotid vein; purple discoloration of the genital organs; grayish or cyanotic, hardened tails; cyanotic ear lobes, toes, and lips; deformed RBC (red blood cell) in the blood of the same shape as those found in leukemic mice, and a high incidence of white cells; highly enlarged spleen, up to four times its normal size; and a striking dryness of the peritoneum, and an apparent deficiency of fluid in the blood system (28).

On February 6, 1951, around three weeks after the conclusion of the experiment, radioactivity measurements were done in the student laboratory. It was found a value of 40 CPM both outside and inside, while inside the orgone room, where the experiment was physically performed, it was 30-50 CPM. The small charger containing the shielded radium-226 gave close by 20,000 CPM, while at a distance of 300 cm it was 200-300 CPM (29).

The two milligram of radium-226, each one contained in its ½” lead container, were then put inside a 4” concrete and steel wall safe and put in a building at a distance of about 1,200 ft (around 366 meter) from the students’ laboratory (30). This action was taken not because the nuclear sources were dangerous, but to avoid the possibility they could excite the orgone energy of the environment close to the laboratory to such a high degree to produce again a dangerous Oranur field (31).

At the end of March 1951, all the orgone devices at Orgonon were dismantled and moved away from the inhabited buildings. This decision was taken because it was impossible to keep assembled or even assemble again any of the orgone accumulators which have been in use before January 5, 1951. They were highly active and drove the background counts from two to four times the usual rate, to 100 CPM and more (32).

Sharaf commented on the difficulties in facing and taking the situation at Orgonon back to normal (33):

“Though the official experimentation had stopped around Jan. 20th, the dramatic events connected with its effects were still in evidence till almost the end of Feb., and they are still by no means completely absent. Eva R. almost died on Feb. 19th from sticking her hand in an OEA that had been kept shut and in the lower lab constantly. During the same week Mrs. R. and Peter’s blood pictures were very bad and they left the Ob for a few days and lived in town. Almost everyone who was in the ob that week suffered from malaise, (headaches, tiredness, inflamed eyes, and other symptoms). All the accumulators were dismantled around that time, and the metal-lined dark room, too; to this day (March 14th) it is still not possible to have an accu. (that is, an accu at all affected by the experimentation) in the ob without the persons living there suffering from dry throats and lack of air.”

Reich inferred that there was no protection whatsoever against orgone energy that was running wild when irritated by nuclear radiations, since the orgone energy units did penetrate everything, including lead and brick or stone walls of any thickness. He realized the safety measures to protect against ionizing radiations, developed by the Atomic Energy Commission, were not effective against the development of an Oranur field (34). And hence there were no means for protection against an atmospheric orgone energy running amok under the irritation exerted by nuclear energy (35):

“4. It is most likely, and even imperative to assume that quite ordinary materials such as rock, metal, and especially material arrangements which have the faculty of accumulating OR energy, continue to be active long after the originally triggering NR has been removed. This resembles induced radioactivity.
………..
5. Structures which are capable of accumulating atmospheric OR energy, such as steel wool, metal filing cabinets or simple metal-lined boxes, become active even if they have not been directly influenced by NR radiation; it is sufficient that they come into contact with a directly affected orgone energy accumulator (36).
………..
9. …….. Buildings which have been freed of any kind of radioactive material, and in addition, from which every single OR energy accumulating device has been removed, still drive the background counts as high as 80 or 100 CPM if regular ventilation is neglected for only half-a-day. On the other hand, fresh air removes the effects and reduces the activity to a normal of around 25 to 40 CPM (37).
………..
14. Since NR activates OR and changes it to Oranur, Oranur continues, chainlike, to affect other OR devices; an initial trigger effect would be sufficient to start a chain of Oranur activity, as said before. We would have, then, to distinguish OR accumulators which had not been triggered by NR; they would be applied as heretofore, for total, regular, preventive irradiation, treatment of wounds, burns, etc. (38).”

On April 12 and 13, 1951, Reich monitored again the radioactivity at Orgonon with the GM counter (39). The readings obtained at distances from the 4” concrete/steel wall safe location of 600-700 ft (around 183-213 meter) were 60-80 CPM; while for higher distances the readings were normal, namely 40 CPM (caretaker’s cabin). When he measured the radioactivity at 1 cm from the safe wall (and from 30 cm from the source inside the safe) he found 10,000-20,000 CPM; while at 100 cm he found 600 CPM; and at 1,000 cm it was 100 CPM. Inside the room containing the safe the radioactivity was 6,000 CPM, at 200 cm distance from the safe; and 1,000 CPM on the maid’s room at 300 cm distance from the safe. Reich realized from the high measured values of radioactivity that the safe acted as an energy orgone accumulator, due to its construction characteristics that resembled those of an orgone accumulating device, and hence was producing an Oranur field detectable by the GM counter, of the same kind produced few months earlier in the original experiment. Besides, Reich surmised that an Oranur reaction went on all the while since February due to this arrangement (40).

Reich did not know how to manage the situation he was facing. To simply dump the whole safe into a nearby lake did not seem advisable, since the Oranur activity would most likely have affected the water of the lake. To bury it into the ground seemed equally impossible since the orgone energy from the soil would have continued to react (41).

On April 15, 1951, he repeated the measurements and he found approximately the same value of two days earlier, namely 20,000 CPM at 1 cm distance from the wall safe; 1,000 CPM at 100 cm distance; 150-200 CPM at 1,000 cm distance; and 60-80 CPM at 5,000 cm distance. In the maid’s room it was 200 CPM. In those same days (April 13-23) Reich observed also that several mice (42), kept in the room that housed the safe, showed no sign of illness, and were very healthy. Reich believed that possibly he had reached the original goal of the Oranur experiment, namely to render harmless the nuclear material through high concentration of orgone energy, and that seemingly Reich already obtained in other minor experiments in the previous years:

“This is, apparently, what we had been dealing with all through the years when small samples of NR sources were first irritating the OR energy and finally were changed into innocent though highly active material which had lost the power of “ionization” and of harming living tissue. (43)

………………

The main pioneering job had been done; the main danger signals had been recognized: Oranur phase One and Two; the main symptoms in these intermediary steps were in the open. Behind phase One and Two, there was clearly outlined phase Three, the impotence of NR and the victory of OR energy.

The job was basically done. The rest of it was now up to the people and their representatives, the health agencies, the AEC, the national administration, the UN, the medical and physical sciences. (44)”

Reich decided to open the 4” concrete/steel wall safe and to measure the radioactivity inside it, at a distance of about 40 to 50 cm from the shielded sources situated inside the safe (two mg of radium-226 plus few micrograms of other nuclear material) (45). He obtained more than 100,000 CPM, since the GM counter was not able to measure it as it was out of range. When the nuclear materials were removed from inside the safe the radioactivity inside it decreased to 30-50 CPM. When Reich removed the radium-226 from its shielding and measured immediately the radioactivity, he found that the readings were 30,000-35,000 CPM with the GM counter at 1 cm distance from the naked material (46), and around 3,000 CPM at distance of 100 cm.

Since Reich thought that he had achieved his goal with the Oranur experiment, he thus put the nuclear material into a great charger and then again into a 20-fold orgone accumulator for about two days. However, he had to take it out again because of the formation of a new severe Oranur reaction (47). He measured the radioactivity and he found 2,000 CPM outside the charger. The development of physical Oranur symptoms, such as heavy air, and malaise, nausea, and pressure in the people was felt. Symptoms that were not felt when the nuclear material was inside the safe, as a consequence of the strong shielding effect of the steel/concrete thickness, that was not available instead when using only the charger, being made of a thin layer of steel, plus a thin layer of organic material that was not enough to shield the ionizing radiations. This latter arrangement allowed the ionizing effect of the nuclear material to irritate and trigger orgone, and convert it into DOR action. Reich concluded that to reduce the DOR effect one had to put the nuclear material into heavy shielding and thus confined, into the charger. In this way, the orgone energy units would get at the nuclear material, but not the opposite, the nuclear material could not get at the orgone energy units. In order to have a (controlled) Oranur reaction Reich suggested to build a housing for the safe and to put the nuclear material into the safe and then to put the safe (containing the nuclear material) in the vicinity of the charger. In this way, the Oranur effect was secured without having the possibility of the development of a DOR field (48).

From the results of the Oranur experiment Reich concluded that the radioactivity developed and measured by the GM counter was simply due to the orgone energy units available in the environment that produced, when excited by the nuclear source, an Oranur field with an extension of 600 ft (around 183 meter) (49):

“The problem was what it was, then, if it was NOT the NR source, that had made the GM counter race so high outside and inside the safe. It could not be anything else than the atmospheric OR energy which surrounded the shielded source and the safe as well as the building housing the safe as far as 600 feet up toward the road.”

It should be highlighted here that the extension of the Oranur field of 600 ft was due to the reaction of the orgone energy units in the environment surrounding the 4” steel/cement safe to the presence of the shielded nuclear sources located inside.

On April 28, 1951, Reich measured again the radioactivity (50) at 1 cm distance and he found for the one mg of radium-226 that was used in the Oranur experiment the following average values (51):

shielded = 276,480 CPM;

naked = 81,920 CPM.

From the above data it can be observed the naked radium-226 gave around one third of the radioactivity emitted when it was confined in its lead shielding. In order to compare the above measured data, one mg of the same radium-226 that was never exposed to concentrated orgone energy fields, was ordered from New York. Before being sent it gave circa 16,000 CPM naked, and 7,000 CPM within a ½” lead shielding; while soon after arriving at Orgonon it gave circa 300,000 CPM shielded (measured by the Tracerlab autoscaler).

Reich argued that (52):

“It is the OR energy in the atmosphere, surrounding the NR material, which reacts at the GM counter. It is the organismic OR energy within living bodies which continues to react to NR material for months and even years (bio-energetic radioactivity: “radiation sickness”).”

According to the above considerations, it is reasonable to think that the radium-226 was put inside the great charger naked, since a radioactivity of 2,000 CPM was measured outside the charger. Indeed, in case the radium-226 was put inside the great charger shielded a much higher value had to be measured, having found on the naked sample around 3,000 CPM at distance of 100 cm few days earlier, on April 15.

In parallel to the scientific discoveries above summarized, Reich realized also that the results of the Oranur experiment might open a totally new and unexplored field inside orgonomy and that might lead to a reconsideration of the paradigms that until then were the solid foundations of the science, religion, and society of the time:

“In the mechanistic technician of physics, the observation of the physical functions of nature split off from the emotional manifestation as “physics” here and “mysticism” or “religiousness” there. On the other hand, in the well-trained orgonomic observer, these two modes of experiencing nature, otherwise so much opposed to each other, are united into one single picture. …. The sharp boundary lines between physics and what is called “metaphysics” have broken down. The metaphysical intuition had a physical basis: “GOD” and “ETHER” are ONE (53).

………..

All boundaries between science and religion, science and art, objective and subjective, quantity and quality, physics and psychology, astronomy and religion, god and ether, are irrevocably breaking down, being replaced by a conception of the basic unity, a basic CFP of all nature which branches out into the various kinds of human experience (54).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

One of the aims of the present study is to understand whether the Oranur field, created during the original experiment, was produced by the radium-226 taken inside the small charger either naked or shielded by its ½” leaden tube. Besides, whether the specific biological reactions developed by the bio-energetic systems present at Orgonon during the experiment had some connection with the ionizing radiations transmitted through the orgone devices and the orgone room to different directions is also investigated. In calculating the amount of energy coming from the radioactive source and then absorbed by the tissues of the living organisms, a number of factors were considered. The most important of these are the proximity of the living organisms to the radioactive source, the obstacles the radiations had to pass through to reach them, and the exposure time.

Reich, when describing the Oranur experiment, never clearly reported whether the one-mg of radium-226 was put inside the charger naked or confined in its lead shielding (55). The only mention he did make about the shielding of the radioactive source was in two brief passages in the Oranur Experiment book. Those statements, however, are controversial in that it is not clear whether Reich referred to the needle of radium shielded by the layers of materials the orgone devices (small charger, 20-fold ORAC, and orgone room) were made of, or rather it was shielded by its leaden tube:

“We had the notion that the metal lining of the OR energy room itself would add some shielding. There were workers doing their jobs outside in the experimental hall at a distance of an average of some 30 feet (i.e., ca. 10 meters) and more from the shielded radium needle. (56)”

“We left the needle of Ra in the charger until about 16:30h (in the afternoon of January 5, i.e., 5 hours). We had intended to keep the Ra continuously in the shielded place. (57)”

Many authors, including Reich’s close collaborators, discussed the point. Some of them reported that the one-mg needle of radium-226 was shielded, while some others simply stated the one-mg needle was put inside the charger (probably without shielding). An exhaustive overview of the related literature has been done elsewhere and the reader may refer to it for more details (58).

In this study, particular attention has been given to what might have occurred during the original experiment above all along two main directions of propagation of the ionizing radiations (Figure 3). The study of the trend of the radiations attenuation from the small charger, where the radium-226 was contained, towards the mice cage (marked as M on direction A in Figure 3) aims to check whether the intensity of the ionizing rays (whether any) had some influence on the biological reactions and diseases the mice developed during the experiment and whether the subsequent deaths were correlated. Similarly, the evaluation of the intensity of the gamma rays hitting the observers outside the students’ laboratory (marked as Obs on direction B in Figure 3) aims to determine whether the symptoms Reich and his collaborators which developed during the whole experiment, might be associated to the ionizing radiations that travelled along that direction and reached the observation site.

Figure 3

The ionizing radiations radium-226 emits are alpha particles (59), with a maximum energy of 4,785 keV, and gamma-rays, with a maximum energy of 186 keV. Alpha particles have a mass and an associated electrical charge, and are characterized by very short pathlengths. The average distance a 4 MeV (60) alpha particle travels in air before coming to rest is about 3 cm, while the same energy can be stopped by a thin piece of paper, or a thin sheet of some other solid or liquid materials.

Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiations or photons and are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, like radio waves, X-rays, and light. The penetrating power is much greater than that of charged particles. These photons interact with matter in three primary ways: (1) by photoelectric absorption, (2) by Compton scattering, and (3) by pair production (61). The attenuation of the radiations emitted by a radioactive source through an absorber material occurs as a combination of the three above processes, and is given by the Lambert-Beer equation:

(1)

Where I is the emerging intensity transmitted by the absorber of thickness L, Io is the incident intensity of the gamma-ray on the same absorber, B is the build-up factor (62), and ml is the linear attenuation coefficient (expressed in cm-1). The ratio I/Io is called the gamma-ray transmission. The linear attenuation coefficient ml depends on the gamma-ray energy, the atomic number (Z) and the density (r) of the absorber material (63).

Another way to determine the attenuation of gamma-ray radiations through an absorber is to resort to the mass attenuation coefficient, m, defined as the ratio of the linear attenuation coefficient to the absorber density (ml/r). Hence, the expression of the attenuation of gamma-ray radiations, given by eq. (1) can be re-written as follows (64):

(2)

The mass attenuation coefficient is independent of the density, and it is more commonly tabulated than the linear attenuation coefficient. The measurement units of the mass attenuation coefficient are cm2/g. For energies between about 0.75 and 5 MeV, almost all materials have, on a mass basis, about the same gamma radiation attenuation properties. To a first approximation therefore, shielding properties are approximately proportional to the density of the shielding material.

Radiations could be reduced using barriers consisting of metals or materials that have the ability to either absorb the radiations and convert them to heat or reflect them. The half-value layer (HVL) is the thickness of absorbing material required to reduce the incident radiation intensity by a factor of two, and that will halve the gamma-ray intensity passing through it. The HVL is measured in cm, and decreases as the atomic number Z of the absorber increases. For all the materials the HVL increases with the energy of the gamma-rays.

By adding one or more halving thickness of the same material the intensity of the gamma rays is further reduced according to the number of halving layers added. This value is called protection factor (PF), and tells how much of the intensity of the incident gamma-ray radiation is transmitted and hits a specific target downstream of the absorber whole thickness. To this extent the PF characterizes the radiation shield of a gamma-ray incident on an absorber. In case of only one halving layer the PF is two; while if one has 4 halving layers, the PF is 16. In case the thickness of the absorber is made of 10 halving layers the PF is 1,000 and is a shield that only lets about 1/1000 of the gamma-rays radiations pass through. Generally, the expression of the PF is given by 2n, where n is the number of halving layers (65). Absorbers can be also made of different materials, each characterized by a different HVL value. In this case the total PF is given by an equivalent value determined by the individual contribution of each material.

FEMA (66) establishes that the minimum value of PF for a shelter in order a human organism can be protected by a nuclear fallout is 40. However, PF of 200 and more is recommended. The modern-day standard for PF is 1,000.

However, the risk for the health of a person is not only dependent on the radiation hitting the person, but is also a function of the exposure time. Indeed, radiation is less dangerous in the case that the time spent by the person beside the radiation source is reduced. According to the recommendations of international councils such as ICRP (67) and USNRC (68), the maximum exposure limit or effective dose (69) allowed to a person who works with ionizing radiations is 50 mSv/yr (milliSievert per year). This value however must not exceed 100 mSv for a set of 5 consecutive years. For the general public the limit is set to 1 mSv/year that is considered as a low or very low radiation dose. This value corresponds to an average allowed exposure limit per hour of 0.11 mSv (microSievert).

In case of a dose received by the whole body during one short and intense irradiation, UNSCEAR (70) has established a way of classifying exposure levels based on the thresholds above which deterministic effects, i.e. short-term biological signs or post-radiation symptoms, occur and that are felt by all individuals exposed above these thresholds. Effective doses below 200 mSv are considered to be low or weak, and below 20 mSv very low or very weak. Radiation absorbed in a medical context (excluding radiotherapy) as well as those occurring from natural sources fall into this category. Doses in this range are characterized by a lack of deterministic effects (71).

The specific activity (72) of radium-226 is given by 36.6 GBq/g (or 1 Ci/g) (73); while the dose rate for a gamma emitter point source is given by 1743.7 mSv/h/GBq and 17.43 mSv/h/GBq at a distance of 1 cm and 10 cm, respectively.

Being the quantity of radium-226 used by Reich in the Oranur experiment of 1 mg, the activity was 0.0366 GBq (or 1 mCi), and the corresponding dose rate at 1 cm and 10 cm is given by 63.8 mSv/h and 0.638 mSv/h, respectively.

In order to determine the transmitted intensity of the gamma-rays emitted by the radium-226 during the Oranur experiment at Orgonon, in January 1951, we need to know the arrangement in the premises of the orgone apparatus involved in the experiment and the materials they were made of.

The structures and the devices involved in the experiment are here below described and discussed. For each of them, it is also reported, when available, the sizes and the materials they were made of. Each layer of the materials used in the construction of the structures may be considered as an individual barrier to the propagation of the gamma rays emitted by the radium-226 situated in the small charger. As alpha particles are characterized by very short pathlengths, they are not considered in the present study as potential noxious energies in that they were totally blocked inside the small charger in which the radium-226 was contained and never reached the living systems present during the experiment. On the contrary gamma rays, being characterized by much higher pathlengths are instead considered and the possible effects on the bio-energetic systems evaluated.

1. A leaden tube. The needle of radium-226 from time to time was kept inside a leaden protective tube of ½” thickness (74). After the conclusion of the Oranur experiment the shielded needle was put inside a 4” wall safe made of steel and cement with the aim to protect the surrounding environment from the diffusion of an Oranur field produced by the radioactive source (75).
2. A small charger. The charger was a 1-fold ORAC (76). It contained the one mg of radium-226 during the Oranur experiment. No information about the size and the materials it was made of were reported by Reich. It can be assumed that it had characteristics similar to those of a small charger which Reich mentions, beginning in February 1951, few weeks after the conclusion of the experiment. The latter was one cubic foot in volume, and was internally lined by a metal sheet gauge 26 (77). As to the intermediate layer we may presume it was made of a plastic sheet (PET, supposed to be 1 mm thick) alternated to steel wool (about ½” or 12.7 mm thick). A compressed wood fibre board would have served as outer layer (½” or 12.7 mm thick) (78).
3. A 20-fold ORAC. It housed the small charger during the Oranur experiment. The ORAC was 5 feet square horizontally (1.524 m) (79). No information has been reported about the height. As to the materials it was made of, it may be supposed Reich used an (galvanized) iron sheet (gauge 28, or 0.397 mm thick) as inner layer; and a compressed wood fibre board, as outer layer (½” or 12.7 mm thick). As to the materials of the intermediate layers, it may be assumed Reich used plastic sheet (PET, supposed to be 1 mm thick) alternated to steel wool (about ½” or 12.7 mm thick).
4. The orgone room. It housed the 20-fold orgone accumulator during the Oranur experiment. The size of the orgone room was 18 ft x 18 ft (or 5.486 m x 5.486 m) (80). No information was reported by Reich about the height of the room, but is can be supposed it was about 2.2 m (deduced from the picture of the orgone room, not reported in this article). It was lined internally by an iron sheet (gauge 26 or 0.476 mm) (81); while the internal organic layer was glass fiber (½” or 12.7 mm thick) (82). It may be considered the walls of the room built by ordinary bricks (assumed to be 12.5 cm thick), while it was lined externally by a cement board (about 1 cm thick) (83).
5. The Students laboratory. It contained the orgone room. The size was 60 ft x 70 ft (or 18.29 x 21.34 m) (84). The walls of the laboratory were made of wood (85). However, what is important to the present study is the windows of the laboratory that were the weakest point in terms of gamma-ray propagation outside it, and through which the observers saw the formation and the propagation of the blue-purple cloud in the laboratory hall during the last day of the Oranur experiment. The windows are made of glass, single paned, around 5 mm thick. Sizes of the large windows might be deduced from figure 2. Dimensions can be assumed to be around 3.7 x 2.2 m.
6. Mice cage. It housed the mice that were exposed to the Oranur field during the experiment. It was located 48.5-49.5 ft (14.8-15.1 m) away from the radioactive source (86). No info is reported about the sizes and the materials the container was made of. It may be assumed it was a cage wire mesh.

The following figure 4 shows the arrangement of the radium-226, of the small charger, and of the 20-fold ORAC inside the orgone room.

Figure 4

The following table 1 summarizes the sizes (when available) of the devices and structures above discussed, and the materials and corresponding thicknesses they were consisting of.

Table 1

Table 2 reports the distance between the different devices involved in the experiment.

Table 2

Table 3 shows the mass attenuation coefficient, the density, and the corresponding half-value layer (HVL) of the materials the devices and structures involved in the Oranur experiment were made of for a gamma-ray incident intensity of 0.2 MeV (when not otherwise specified). Air is included in table 3 being the attenuation of gamma-ray radiations occurring during the experiment also through it.

Table 3

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Applying eq. (2) to the above data we can determine the value of the total gamma-ray transmission at the two end points M and Obs (Figure 3). These values correspond to the transmitted intensity at the two above sites after the radiations had travelled through all the barriers, represented by the materials the orgone devices and the structures were made of, and through the air along the directions A and B, towards M and Obs, respectively. In doing this evaluation the following assumptions were done:

1. The one-mg of radium-226 was shielded and put inside the small charger in its protective ½” leaden tube;
2. The one-mg of radium-226 was unshielded and put inside the small charger naked.

In the calculations it has been considered for simplicity a value of the build-up factor B in eq. (2) of 1. This has been done as the type of shielding configuration, the type of materials, and the related thicknesses provided a very small increase of the transmitted dose rate. The only material that would have been given a little higher increase in the transmitted radiation intensity is lead with a value of the build-up factor about 1.06. However, this value does not change the order of magnitude of the transmitted dose rates at the two investigated end points, M and Obs, thus making the simplification much more than acceptable.

The total effective dose, the living organisms were subjected to during the whole Oranur experiment, has been determined according to the total exposure time or the total duration of the experiment that was 11 ½ hours, distributed as follows: Jan 5, 1951 = 5 hours (11.30-16.30); Jan 6=1 hour; Jan 7=1 hour; Jan 8=1 hour; Jan 9=1 hour; Jan 10=1 hour; Jan 11=1 hour; Jan 12= ½ hour (91).

Radium-226 shielded in its protective leaden tube

• At the Observers site (end point Obs) the transmitted intensity of the ionizing radiations was 3.8·10^-5/1000 of the original intensity emitted by the shielded radium-226. This means that Reich and his collaborators were exposed during the whole experiment to a gamma-ray intensity of about 2.4·10^-3 mSv/h. A quite low value, with a corresponding PF of about 2.6·10⁷ that is an extremely high value when compared to the maximum standard suggested today (Protection Factor, PF, of 1,000). The total effective dose Reich and the observers were subjected to during the whole experiment was about 2.8·10^-2 mSv.
• At the mice cage (end point M) the transmitted intensity of the ionizing radiations was 8.7·10^-5/1000 of the original intensity emitted by the shielded radium-226. This means that the mice, kept constantly in the cage for all the duration of the experiment, were exposed to a gamma-ray intensity of about 5.5·10^-3 mSv/h, which corresponds to a PF of about 1.1·10⁷. The total effective dose the mice were subjected to during the whole experiment was about 6.4·10^-2 mSv.

The above values are by far lower than those imposed by the regulations and tell that practically the site, where the mice were constantly kept, should not have been affected by any radiations coming from the shielded radium-226 in the small charger.

Radium-226 unshielded

• At the Observers site (end point Obs) the transmitted intensity of the ionizing radiations was 3.0/1000 of the original intensity emitted by the unshielded radium-226. This means that Reich and his collaborators were exposed during the experiment to a gamma-ray intensity of about 1.9 mSv/h. This value is little higher than the hourly exposure dose limit set at 0.11 mSv/h, and corresponds to a PF of about 333 that is a little below the maximum standard value suggested today (PF of 1,000). The total effective dose, the observers were subjected to during the whole experiment, was about 22.0 mSv.
• At the mice cage (end point M) the transmitted intensity of the ionizing radiations was 6.8/1000 of the original intensity emitted by the unshielded radium-226. This means that the mice, kept constantly on that site for all the duration of the experiment, were exposed to a gamma-ray intensity of about 4.3 mSv/h, which corresponds to a PF of about 147. The total effective dose, the mice were subjected to during the whole experiment, was about 50.0 mSv. The above values are little higher than those registered at the observation site, but however, are still very low. Indeed, if we consider the total effective dose the mice were exposed to, this value is by far lower than 20 mSv (or 20,000 mSv) which is considered by UNSCEAR a very low or very weak dose for a short duration exposure. Below this dose deterministic effects, such as short-term biological signs or post-radiation symptoms, are practically absent.

Table 4 below summarizes all the above calculated data.

Table 4

From the above analysis it is evident that the intensity of the transmitted radiations at the mice cage and at the observation point was extremely low even when we consider the case the radium-226 was put inside the small charger unshielded. UNSCEAR regulations set as upper limit an effective dose of 0.5 Sv above which deterministic reactions in the bio-energetic systems such as nausea, vomiting, etc., can occur; and of 4-4.5 Sv to get acute radiation reactions to exposure such as hematological symptoms (bone marrow damages), digestive symptoms (gastro-intestinal tract damages), neurological symptoms in the central nervous system, and death in 50% of the cases. According to the data obtained in this study, it is clear that the symptoms, the diseases, and the deaths occurred at the two end points were not the consequence at all of the gamma-ray radiations emitted by the radioactive source, being the highest intensity determined by the calculations that could hit the end points of 50.0 mSv, a value by far lower than that set of 0.5 Sv (or 500,000 mSv) in order to get deterministic reactions. Indeed, according to UNSCEAR, the symptoms experienced by Reich and his collaborators, and those observed in the mice, in addition to the deaths of some of them that occurred during the experiment, all fall into the highest categories of the effective dose one might have been exposed to, such as from medium (0.2 Sv to 2 Sv) to very high (> 10 Sv). However, even though the values at Orgonon during the Oranur experiment were lower than those set by standard, the reactions of the bio-energetic systems were very similar to those of a high radioactive exposure, as also observed by Reich (92):

“6. The deadly OR effects (DOR) act in a direction observable in leukaemia: destruction of the RBC-producing systems, bone marrow, etc.”

As a consequence, we are witnessing a controversial picture, where many people experienced during the Oranur experiment biological reactions typical from exposure to a medium effective dose; and where the mice (apart those killed for scientific purposes) had reactions (and about 20% of them died) typical from exposure to very high effective doses. But at the same time, according to the calculations, no effective doses like those set by the regulations would ever be detected at the sites where the two bio-energetic systems (mice in M, and humans in Obs) were situated.

Besides, during the whole experiment very high values of the radioactivity were recorded outside the orgone room, in the students’ hall, and in the environment outside the laboratory. Before the start of the experiment the radioactivity in the hall of the students’ laboratory was 40-50 CPM, while during the experiment values of 70-80 CPM were measured. Besides, on the outside of the walls of the orgone room several hundred CPM were detected. After the conclusion of the daily experimentation, i.e. when the radium (inside the small charger) was removed from the inside the 20-fold orgone accumulator and stored in a garage 150 feet away from the experimental site, the radioactivity dropped to 60 CPM first, and then to 30-50 CPM after airing of the premises.

No data could be instead measured by the Geiger-Muller counter inside the orgone room during the whole experiment in that the device jammed when approaching the 20-fold ORAC because of the high radioactive activity.

Again, we are witnessing a controversial situation, in which the radium-226 ionizing activity was well screened by the materials, the structures and the orgone devices were made of, in such a way not to justify the high increase of the radioactivity readings observed during the experiment. Values that then dropped to standard values typical of the background when the radium-226 was removed from its experimental location inside the 20-fold ORAC.

In addition to the above, we must also consider the formation of the blue-purple cloud in the students’ hall. Even in this case, according to the calculated values of the effective doses reported in table 4, no particular intensity could be ascribed to the gamma-ray radiations in the students’ hall for the development of a cloud of such characteristics.

As a whole and as absurdly as it could be, according to the competent authorities in the radiological fields nothing should have occurred in such experimental conditions. A conclusion that cannot at all explain the phenomena observed during the Oranur experiment. And this is above all because presently our scientific approach to the study of the natural physical phenomena is based on the Einsteinian view of the Universe. It envisages that our atmosphere is devoid of any kind of energy particles thus negating the possibility of the formation of a noxious and killing field, and of all the related phenomena from an extremely low amount of radioactive source, such as the one-mg of radium-226 could be, and furthermore in the worst scenario shielded by several layers of absorbing materials.

Indeed, the most reasonable way to explain the above phenomena is resorting to the presence of a new physical entity in the atmosphere, that was not new however to the philosophers and scientists of the past, present everywhere, with specific characteristics and whose behaviour governed by definite laws. This new physical entity might well be represented by the orgone energy units that Reich found permeating everything in nature, including living organisms, and all the cosmos. The presence of a similar energy, however, was excluded by Einstein when developing his models of the natural physical phenomena. He, indeed, hypothesized a view of our world devoid of any energetic background. However, Einstein at a certain point came to admit that his modelling could totally collapse in case the presence in the universe of an energy permeating everything was confirmed. Clark reported the reaction of Einstein to the results of Miller’s investigation carried out at Mount Wilson Observatory on the ether drift, aimed at demonstrating the presence in the Universe of a medium, the ether, through which waves could propagate, in a letter written to the American physicist Millikan in June 1925 (93):

“…. “I believe that I have really found the relationship between gravitation and electricity, assuming that the Miller experiments are based on a fundamental error,” he said. “Otherwise the whole relativity theory collapses like a house of cards.” …”

A behaviour that might highlight Einstein’s uncertainty on what he had developed, or maybe the awareness of the limitation of the theories he had conceived, be it the special theory of relativity or the theory on Brownian motion, since he had become aware of their weaknesses or limitations on being applied (94).

The following figure 5 shows the difference between the physical model of the space, and specifically, of the atmosphere, according to Einstein, and to Reich. From the figure it can be seen the model conceived by Einstein envisages the presence of air as unique component. The atmosphere is filled with the gases typical of the air, such as nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and other minor components but, for Einstein, no other energy of whatever kind is filling the atmosphere (95).

Reich hypothesized instead that, in addition to the above components, an energy is filling the atmosphere, and all the universe, too, in such a way to form a continuum. He found that this energy continuum was consisting of tiny units with distinct properties, and governed by specific laws.

Figure 5

One of the characteristics of these tiny units is the change of phase that is a function of some external factors they could be subjected to. Reich found that in normal condition these units are flowing undisturbed, with an undulatory movement, and are characterized by life-enhancing properties. In case these units are excited by external factors they start moving in a chaotic, irregular movements, with a higher degree of dis-homogeneity. Activation agents of this excitation might be any type of mechanical energy, electric and electromagnetic fields, X-rays and above all radioactivity. Reich considered the charged particles and the photons emitted by radioactive materials as the highest activation agents (96):

“Any kind of mechanical energy is capable of exciting the OR energy to greater activity: simple heat, sparks from an induction coil, friction, etc. The Oranur effect differs from other excitations of OR by its fierceness and its dangerous character.”

Under the influence of these physical parameters the free-flowing, undisturbed units start changing their paths, and moving in an unpredictable way. In parallel they observe a decrease of the life-enhancing properties they possess until they lose all the positive qualities and transform themselves in static, deadly, and life-negating units that Reich called deadly orgone energy (DOR) (97). This latter phenomenon occurs when the activating agents continue their excitation activity on the units for a period long enough to devoid them of all the dynamicity they possess. From this point on the units behave like deadly aggregates affecting the environment in which they form and creating a block to the movement of further dynamic units that are trying to flow through. In these conditions the living in the area are subjected to these blocks and start to die, be it inside a bio-energetic system or in the atmosphere. This gives rise either to diseases or desert-like conditions, respectively. The phenomenon however is reversible and, by appropriate conditions and processes, the DOR can be converted back again to dynamic, flowing, and life-enhancing orgone units (98).

A further and equally important characteristic of the dynamic orgone units is the formation of matter. Two or more flowing units can give rise to matter by superimposition, as Reich pointed out (99):

“1. Atomic energy (nuclear energy, NR) represents cosmic energy which is freed from matter through disintegration of the atom, which is the constituent of the universe in terms of classical and quantum physics. It is energy after matter. OR energy on the other hand, represents cosmic energy before matter, i.e., energy which has not been caught in or has not been transformed into solid matter. It is universally present, penetrates everything, surrounds, as the so-called OR energy envelope, our planet and most likely all other heavenly bodies (sun’s corona, Saturn’s ring, etc.). Cosmic OR energy, moving freely within the living organism, is called bio-energy or organismic OR energy.”

Figure 6 shows the different phases of the orgone units, and the hierarchic sequence from energetic units to matter units or particles.

Figure 6

The following figure 7 correlates the concentration of orgone energy units available in nature against the degree of excitation of the same units. In the graph a zero excitation degree (x-axis) corresponds to units freely and dynamically flowing undisturbed into the atmosphere or into living organisms; while an excitation degree of 100% corresponds to deadly and static units, that had lost all their movements. According to Einstein’s view, being no energetic units filling the universe, the possibility to excite these units is nil. As a consequence, Einstein’s view of the Universe can be represented on the graph by the origins of the two axes (marked as B in figure 7). According to Reich, being that all the Universe and our planet is filled by energetic units that can be subjected to a different degree of excitation, we might find the condition for any natural concentration of orgone units to be higher than zero (that is marked as A in figure 7). This situation corresponds to a variety of physical and biological phenomena that Reich studied and accurately discussed and reported in his books. For example, the formation of matter as well as heathy conditions in living organisms and in the environment may intervene for the dynamic and undisturbed flow conditions of the orgone units. The development of diseases in the living, as well as the occurrence of drought and aridity in the environment, may occur for a low to high degree of excitation of the orgone units. Meanwhile, death of the living in organisms (tumour, etc.) as well as desert-like conditions in the environment may intervene for extremely high excitation of the orgone units (that in this stage might have lost all their dynamicity and have transformed themselves into a static accumulation of deadly units or DOR). However, according to Reich the concentration of these orgone units can be artificially increased by using particular devices he called orgone accumulators. In this orgone-rich environment (marked as C in figure 7) the orgone units can be excited to a various degree (from nearly 0 to as high as 100) by amounts of the activating agent smaller than those required in standard conditions. Reich observed that in these operational conditions the excited orgone units might be characterized by the following functions: 1) therapeutic qualities, atmospheric healing and perhaps higher state of consciousness (100) at zero or very low degree of excitation; 2) motor force, and antigravity, at low to medium degree of excitation; and 3) Oranur sickness and death of the living for medium to high degree of excitation.

Figure 7

Reich hypothesized that the Oranur reaction produced by the excitation of the orgone units of the energetic continuum might be a sort of nuclear fission. However, he treated the argument very cautiously (101):

“11. I did not work with fission and I did not produce fission during the Oranur experimentation. It is not sure that fission actually takes place in infested material, but this might possibly be the case. Therefore, I prefer, in the interest of the great medical possibilities of OR energy research, in the interest of the people and for my personal security to report these things, and to urge emphatically that all red tape be cut through in order to look into these processes on a scale appropriate to their scope, dangers and hopes. Fullest clarity and having the cards in the open, above the table, are now crucial obligations: IF FISSION OF ORDINARY MATERIAL OCCURS, ITS DISCLOSURE WAS INCIDENTAL TO AN EXPERIMENT WHICH STARTED WITH AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT GOAL IN MIND.”

Notwithstanding this, according to Sharaf, Reich was really convinced that the Oranur reaction, produced by the excitation of the orgone units in the orgone-rich environment of the orgone room, was a special kind of nuclear fission. However, whether this was confirmed, it might have created to Reich many legal problems (102):

4. ….. R. has written a complete report on the 1st Oranur experiment which he now plans to send to the AEC. He is particularly thrilled with the thought that the action of the atomic bomb may now be comprehensible and that the nature of disease in general may have been really approached. His work hypothesis is that in both cases it is the OE that is affected by the trigger action of in one case nuclear radiation and in the other whatever the particular noxae may be.

………………

R. said on March 20th when he re-read the law, that legally he has a death penalty over his head, since the law states that anyone who works with nuclear radiation to create nuclear fission without the permission of the AEC is subject to the death penalty. And, he has, he says created fission through NR during the first OR experiment. He did not set out to do that, and he has created fission in a quite different sense than the AEC understands that term, but the emotional plague out to get him might not take into account such considerations. He is forced to submit the report on the experiment to the AEC before he can publish it, to safeguard himself legally. But that involves its dangers, too: The AEC could use the results in their own fashion which might be in conflict with R.’s intention not to reveal a deadly quality of OE, and (2) the AEC did not witness the experiment and does not understand the methodological background and the physical findings against which the experiment was made and in the light of which it must be examined. At the same time he cannot not report on the findings nor publish them without the AEC’s permission. He cannot keep what has happened a secret, even if he wished to, and to keep it a secret would kill off the possible great immunization and other medical benefits to be derived from it. He must take into consideration the use of ORANUR destructively by the Russians who, with their own particular kind of cleverness, might make quicker use of it than the US. Added to these great complications, he would like to substantiate his findings with further experimentation but cannot know how to proceed without endangering the workers and possibly the population. Yet he cannot expect anyone else to carry it on since no one else has the knowledge and the background to proceed intelligently with it.

Practically, he has decided to simply state the dilemma – including the death penalty – openly and clearly to the AEC, and thereby take preventive measures against any boomerang and put the responsibility on someone else’s shoulders besides his alone.”

This particular kind of nuclear fission was due to a clear and distinct state of the orgone units of the energy continuum that behaved differently from their undisturbed, dynamic state. In this case the nuclear atom activity functions as a trigger for this unconventional fission, being the target energetic units and not matter. However, Reich did not confine the quality of the orgone units to be excited by external agents only in the physical realm. He thought that if everything in nature is characterized, as basic component, by units of orgone energy aggregated in different way to form particles of matter, a reaction to these activating agents may arise also in the biological and emotional realm of the living systems, in that the units are equally excited, and running wild, inside living systems as they are in the environment. This might explain the reactions and the diseases experienced at Orgonon during the Oranur experiment and also by Reich and his collaborators, and those occurred on the mice in the cage inside the students’ hall. In case the excitation of these orgone units is extremely high death can occur, as in the case of the experimental mice in the Oranur experiment. According to Sharaf (103):

“I. During the explosive reaction of orgone energy to radium (Jan. 5th to around Jan. 13th – (an exact date of the end of the reaction is impossible to delimit), Reich was constantly fascinated – to use a favourite word of his – “enchanted” by the similarity of the cosmic orgone energy’s response (outside membranes) to the response of the same energy within membranes (emotional response) when either is made ”mad” by the provocation of malicious, deadly “radiation,” be it from radium as in what is to date the classic experiment in the physical realm or be it from other human beings in the emotional realm. Let us list those similarities briefly as Reich has discussed them during the recent weeks:
1. In both cases, the orgone energy gets “mad” and turns hateful. The orgone energy in the laboratory got “mad” at the radium and turned malicious itself in part; …
2. The response of the orgone energy increases with the number of times the disturbing “radiation” is presented. This increase takes place in a functional, non-mechanical manner, the details of which in both the physical and emotional realm remaining still to be elaborated.
a. Physical realm: The observers felt the response of OE to NR hardly at all the first day the radium was brought in the lab, more on each day, until the reaction became so severe that the experiment was temporarily halted.
………..
3. Aroused orgone energy – in both the physical and emotional realms hits other energy systems in their weak spot(s).

a. Physical realm: There is evidence (lack of ionization, change in GM count) to show that aroused orgone energy changes and weakens nuclear radiation. Exactly how it does this and to what extent remains to be worked out. As the period of Jan. 5th to Jan. 11th amply demonstrated, concentrated, aroused atmospheric orgone energy also hits observers, and tends to hit them in their biophysical, weak spot ….” (Italics is mine, RM)

However, Reich observed that the exposure of the organisms to the excited orgone units had the characteristic to hit the weakest points and also to surface latent diseases. And after a period of no exposure and rest the organism positively reacted to this turmoil and messy state, and healed from the symptoms it had showing a good final overall health. Reich was very confident of the therapeutic qualities of small and controlled Oranur fields and he went on to hypothesize it might heal also cancer (104):

4. ….. Disease is, to this thinking, disease of the organismic orgone energy which is disturbed by and fights against the noxa. He is also very encouraged by the come-back people make after suffering from the Oranur malaise: They feel better, stronger, clearer afterward. He believes that when the question of dosage is worked out, Oranur project may yield a powerful new medical weapon – “the most powerful medical weapon there has ever been,” [Reich to Sharaf] as he once expressed it. The specificity of the reactions to ORANUR, the way each individual suffers in his particular biopathic weak spot, is one of the most fascinating aspects of the whole experiment. “I have the feeling that it gets the biopathy by the throat and drags it out and that’s what we want,” he expressed it recently. He has the feeling that the accu sparked by very minimal dosage of NR may be especially effective in cancer.”

Reich, according to the results acquired both during the January experiment and in the next few months suggested a possible way to produce a controlled Oranur field, and reduce the DOR effects so as to restrict, as much as possible, the development of the noxious and nefarious field (105):

“On the other hand, when NR material was not sufficiently shielded, it had an even chance to irritate and trigger OR energy into DOR action. …. Now it seemed clear that in order to reduce the DOR effect, one had to put the NR material into heavy shielding and thus confined, into the charger, OR would get at NR, but not NR at OR. We decided right away to build a housing for the safe to put the NR material into the safe again and to put the safe, containing NR, in the vicinity of the charger. This would secure the Oranur effect without the DOR element if we were on the right track of reasoning.
The further elaboration of this problem must wait until the second Oranur series of experimentation can be carried out.”

The following figure 8 is representing a scheme of the above suggested layout, where the radioactive material is put, shielded by its ½” leaden tube, inside the 4” steel and concrete walls safe. In turn, the safe is put close to a one-fold small charger, and both are situated inside a housing. Reich did not specify the architectural design of the latter but it is reasonable to think that it had not the characteristic of an orgone accumulating device. Such arrangement would have had the function of preventing the nuclear source transmitting the radiations outside the safe, thus avoiding the possibility to create an unwanted and uncontrolled excited orgone field in the surrounds of the triggering unit (safe and small charger) that could be directly excited by the photons emitted by the source ad transmitted outside the container. At the same time the orgone energy units concentrated inside the leaden tube and the safe could be excited by the action of the radiations of the nuclear source, and hence form the core required to start the Oranur reaction. Once the reaction was produced it could be transmitted outside the safe to the nearby orgone units with a chain-like propagation. To my best knowledge Reich never carried out such second Oranur experimentation.

Figure 8

Southgate recently replicated the Reich’s Oranur experiment by using a very small amount of radioactive material (106). He used 0.26 mg of americium-241 that corresponds to an activity of 0.9 mCi (or 33.3 kBq), a value about 1,100 times less than that used by Reich in the original experiment (about 36.6 MBq or 1 mCi) (107). The americium-241, kept in its original plastic case, was put for some weeks either inside a powerful orgone cabinet, where many smaller orgone apparatus were present, or around it at different distances. He monitored the behaviour of the Oranur field, by radioactivity measurements with a Geiger-Muller counter, and of the orgone field by a Life Energy meter.

He found the formation of an Oranur field all around the orgone cabinet with an extension of at least 18-24 ft (5.5-7.3 m) substantiated by a parallel increase of the radioactivity and orgone field readings (108). He also observed a direct relationship between the Oranur field and the intensity of the orgone field, in that higher concentrations of orgone energy units, when subjected to the action of the radioactive source, were accompanied by higher values of the radioactivity. Southgate observed also that the Oranur conditions persisted even after the removal of the americium-241 at the end of the experiment and that the cabinet and the orgone devices, contained inside the cabinet, maintained its Oranur charge for much longer periods.

It is to be noted here that Southgate did produce an Oranur field by an extremely small amount of radioactive material, with an intensity as low as 0.9 mCi. The possibility of the creation of an Oranur field from such a low radioactive source was already predicted by Reich (109):

“EVERYONE IS STRICTLY WARNED AGAINST USING AN OR ACCUMULATOR WHILE AN NR SOURCE OF THE STRENGTH OF A MILLICURIE OR AN XRAY MACHINE IS LOCATED WITHIN THE OR ENERGY FIELD. The longer the trigger effect is allowed to act upon the OR atmosphere, and the more OR accumulating devices that are present, the stronger will be the effects. Stronger effects will also result with regular repetition of the trigger action. In a highly concentrated Oranur atmosphere, the presence of even as little as a microgram or less of any NR source for even as little as a few minutes will suffice to produce severe effects.”

At this point it is more than reasonable to hypothesize that in Reich’s original Oranur experiment the increase of the radioactivity readings; the biological reactions Reich and the observers, and the experimental mice experienced; the deaths of part of the experimental mice; and the formation of the blue-purple cloud in the students’ laboratory, were all the consequence of the Oranur field originated from inside the charger and triggered by the radioactive activity of the small amount of radium-226. And all the above reactions were not the results of the ionizing radiations of the gamma-rays in those areas, in that the intensity transmitted through all the materials, the 20-fold ORAC, the orgone room, and the students’ laboratory building were made of, was so low in magnitude to be considered safe and without consequences to the health of the living organisms.

It is evident that the only function the one-mg of radium-226 had, was to trigger and create a chaotic movement of the orgone units available in the closeness of the radioactive source. It can be presumed that all the orgone units inside the small charger were excited to a very high degree by the activity of the radioactive source thus producing an uncontrolled, mad or amok, according to Reich’s wording, movements. However, it is well known that no phenomena like those observed and listed above can be produced by one-mg of radium-226 in standard conditions, namely when the concentration of orgone units is not increased by any accumulating orgone devices and is the one typical of the natural background in the atmosphere. This condition corresponds to the point along the vertical line A in figure 7 for a zero degree of excitation. In this case a tiny amount of radioactive material does excite the orgone units, but these units are available in the atmosphere in low or very low concentrations thus making not possible to reach a critical core of excited units that can be transmitted to nearby units, in a chain-like reaction. Indeed, it should be highlighted that the excitation is a typical consequence anytime the orgone units come into contact with a radioactive source, but a reaction can occur and be transmitted only in the case the concentration of the orgone units in the environment, in which the radioactive material is located, is high enough for the excited orgone units to reach a critical conditions through which the uncontrolled, and chaotic movements are transmitted in the space to nearby units thus triggering a chain-like reaction until to the point when the excited units have a less-than-critical value no longer enough to further transmit the excitation to nearby units. At this point the Oranur reaction and the associated field gradually vanishes.

As it is well known, the easiest way to obtain very high artificial concentration of orgone units is to resort to orgone-accumulating devices such as those used by Reich at Orgonon. By these devices the concentration of units in the inside is much higher than that in standard environmental conditions. When the concentration of orgone units in the environment is close to standard, background values (vertical line A in figure 7), the excitation of the orgone units by a tiny amount of a radioactive source is low and not enough to start an Oranur reaction, even though the units in the closeness of the triggering source are somewhat excited but to a lower degree than needed to trigger a chain-like reaction. However, the development of a high Oranur field does occur also at standard concentrations provided that an extraordinarily high amount of radioactive source is used as in the case of an atomic bombing explosion.

According to the above, the extension of the Oranur field is thus function of the concentration of orgone units in the environment, of the amount of activating material, i.e., the radioactive source, and of the exposure time, or in other words the triggering effects of the radioactive material might be function of the total effective dose the orgone units are exposed to. Hence, it can be postulated the degree of excitation of the orgone energy units is function of the amount and of the intensity of the alpha, and beta particles; and of the X-rays, and gamma rays emitted by the radioactive source. And, the maximum excitation should occur inside the environment where the shielded radioactive source is contained. In case of the presence of ionizing radiations downstream of a set of absorber materials (when a radioactive source is unshielded or not properly shielded), they are triggering different nuclei of highly excited orgone units that in turn are creating an additional and overlapping effect to the primary one with an unpredictable intensification of the Oranur reaction and effects.

Hence, it can be inferred that the maximum excitation of the orgone units, were subjected during the Oranur experiment at Orgonon, might have occurred either inside the leaden tube (in case the one-mg of radium-226 was shielded) or inside the small charger (whether put naked). After the orgone units started to be excited by the alpha particles and gamma rays of the radium-226, the excitation was transmitted to the nearby orgone units outside the small charger, as if the dynamic, undulatory movement of the orgone units was in some way affected and changed by the excitation of the first units. In this way dynamic orgone units were changed into Oranur orgone units even though in an area where no ionizing radiations were available, or available with a small intensity. And once the Oranur effects took place, it travelled through the air as if infesting, chain-like, one area after another. At Orgonon, such infestation has been found as far away as two miles from the place of the original effect (110). This phenomenon developed also, during the research carried out by Southgate even though to a much lesser extent. He found that the propagation of the excitation of the Oranur units extended to at least 18-24 ft. Besides, Reich found that also materials such as rocks, metals and especially material arrangements which had the faculty of accumulating orgone energy, continued to be active long after the originally triggering radioactive material has been removed. This peculiarity was confirmed also by Southgate.

If we assume that the concentrations of orgone units in the two orgone set-ups in Reich’s and Southgate’s experiment might be of the same order, the extension of the Oranur field might be considered directly proportional to the total effective dose released during each experiment.

We know that the total effective dose the one-mg of radium-226 produced at 1 cm distance during the Oranur experiment at Orgonon in 1951 was:

effective dose Ra-226 = 1,743.67 mSv/h/GBq ∙ 0.0366 GBq ∙ 11.5 h = 733.9 mSv

while the observed extension of the Oranur field that developed around the experimental 20-fold orgone accumulator was 2 miles (or 3218.7 m). On the other hand, the dose rate delivered at 1 cm distance by the 0.26 mg of americium-241 during the Southgate’s experiment was:

dose rate Am-241= 39.72 mSv/h/GBq ∙ 33.3∙10^-6 GBq = 1.32 ∙10^-3 mSv/h

Southgate kept the americium-241 continually either inside the orgone set-up or just outside it for 35 days (840 hours). Hence, the effective dose was:

effective dose Am-241 = 1.32 ∙10^-3 mSv/h ∙ 840 h = 1.11 mSv

A value that is 733.9/1.11 = 661.2 times lower than the one that characterized the original Oranur field at Orgonon.

According to the above the extension should have been 3218.7/661.2 = 4.87 m or 16.0 ft. A value that is very close to the range of 18-24 ft experimentally determined by Southgate in his measurements. Besides, being the americium-241 used in the experiment contained in its PVC plastic casing (2-3 mm thickness), the intensity of the ionizing radiations transmitted outside it was about 87% (111). That means the radiations emitted by the amerciunm-241 were only partially shielded by the PVC case during the whole experiment.

At this point, being the total effective doses delivered in the two above experiments and the related Oranur field extensions quite comparable, and considering also the fact the americium-241 was only partially shielded by its plastic container, we can argue that the one-mg radium-226 in the original Oranur experiment was put inside its charger unshielded, or not protected by its ½” leaden tube. And this adds and strengthen the results of the literature review where it does seem Reich put the radium-226 source inside the small charger naked. This might explain the development of the toxic and nefarious Oranur field even if the radium-226 was kept inside the orgone room for a total of 11.5 hours only.

If the above considerations hold true, with all the assumptions and approximations introduced, it might be argued that a radioactive source activity of 1 Ci (corresponding to 1 g of radium-226) put naked in a similar orgone set-up might infest an area with an extension of more than 3,000 km. Besides, we may assume the movement of the Oranur reaction is occurring not only horizontally but also in all the other directions, and hence the spreading of a similar reaction might occur with a sphere-like path with a radius of at least 3,000 km. According to the above hypothesis an Oranur reaction and the associated Oranur field can propagate into the atmosphere to a distance as high as to reach a good part of the thermosphere (112). Besides, the propagation of the reaction in the underground may similarly reach extraordinarily deep depths that, however, cannot be estimated being the propagation of such reaction inside the mantle’s formations (lithosphere, asthenosphere, etc.), that are characterized by different densities and states, not known.

A recent case that might be the consequence of an Oranur reaction might be the short-term radioactive contamination of the atmosphere by ruthenium-106 (113) that had been detected in many European countries in the period from the end of September to mid-October 2017 (114). The presence of the radioactive element was observed in the atmosphere of 31 countries of the European continent at levels ranging from a few mBq/m³ to more than 140 mBq/m³. The concentration levels detected in the air in Europe were however of no consequence for human health and for the environment. The first observations were made in Russia on September 23 at Kyshtym, on September 25 at Argayash and on September 26 at Bugulma and other nearby monitoring stations. All the above stations were located in the south of Urals. It was observed that the detection of ruthenium-106 was also accompanied, in some European stations (Sweden, Czech Republic, and Austria) by the detection of ruthenium-103 (115), with a ratio ruthenium-106/ruthenium-103 of about 4,000. IRSN carried out a study in order to determine the possible location of the source, to assess the total activity released and the release duration, and to understand the process that might be at the origin of the release of ruthenium-106 (116). Based on meteorological conditions and the measurement results available in the European countries a simulation to estimate the above parameters, i.e. release zone, the quantity of ruthenium-106 released, and the period and the duration of the release was carried out by IRSN. They came to the conclusion that a terrestrial release emitted from the regions located between Volga and Ural might explain the contamination of the atmosphere detected in Europe. The activity of ruthenium-106 released was estimated to range between 100 and 300 TBq. The release would have occurred between September 25 and September 28, with a duration of no more than 24 hours. In doing an evaluation of the type of event that might have led to the large atmospheric contamination the following were considered to be involved: 1) a nuclear reactor involving irradiated fuels or targets; 2) operations on targets used in the production of sources, for instance in the medical field (activity of the order of MBq); 3) source of ruthenium-106 used in the medical field; 4) source of ruthenium-106 used in other fields other than the medical one; 5) spent fuel treatment, including production of sources from fission product solutions. Nevertheless, IRSN envisaged also as a possible explanation of the contamination unknown events related to irradiated fuel treatments. IRSN found that the most plausible hypothesis to explain the observations might be related to operations in a spent fuel treatment facility located in South Ural region.

The following figures 9 shows the corrected concentration in the atmosphere of ruthenium-106 for each monitoring station in Europe and Russia over the whole sampling period during which ruthenium was detected (117). Correction was required in order to compare ruthenium-106 activities amongst different monitoring stations. In the figure it can be observed a decreasing gradient of ruthenium-106 concentration in the atmosphere from East to West.

Figure 9

The following figure 10 shows that the most reliable area of the potential release, represented by the darker colours, might be located between Volga and Ural regions (118).

Figure 10

According to the results of the IRSN study the estimated source term (from 100 to 300 TBq that corresponds to the ejection of typically 1-4 grams of ruthenium-106) corresponded to an event involving a few cubic meters of fission product solution. However, the study discarded the hypothesis that the source term could be compatible with the activity of medical sources, such as those used in the treatment of ocular cancer, being this latter equivalent to several thousands of such sources, and hence very improbable to occur.

If the analysis, the discussion and the results related to the development of an Oranur field reported in the first part of the present article stand, it seems that the situation occurred in the last Fall in western Europe may have all the ingredients of an Oranur reaction and of an associated Oranur field produced by a high concentration of orgone energy units. Indeed, to the type of events theorised by IRSN, as a tentative explanation of the phenomenon, we may add one more by hypothesising that the radioactive field, detected in the European countries and in Russia, might have been produced by an amount of ruthenium-106 kept in an orgone accumulating set-up such as that of the same type we observed in Reich’s and Southgate’s experiments.

If we suppose the concentration of orgone units is of the same order to those discussed above, a possibility not much far distant from the reality, and the radioactive field has been produced by an Oranur reaction, the extension of the Oranur (radioactive) field might be considered directly proportional to the effective dose delivered by the amount of ruthenium-106 involved in the reaction. From figure 9 we can see that the modelling carried out by IRSN suggests an extension of a high radioactive field, that might have been produced by the Oranur reaction and where safety measures had to be taken in order to protect the population from radiation exposure, of few kilometers from the release location (between Volga and Ural regions) (119). We can estimate this high radioactive field extension ranging between 5 and 10 km. While the extension of the overall radioactive cloud that spread over West Europe can be estimated in about 3,000-3,500 km (120).

We know that at Orgonon Reich observed an extension of the Oranur field, produced by the 1 mg of radium-226 situated in the orgone-rich environment of the orgone room, of 3218.7 m with an effective dose at 1 cm of 733.9 mSv. The effective dose of ruthenium-106 that might have produced an Oranur field with an extension of about 7,500 m (average value) is given by:

3.2∙10³ : 733.9 = 7.5∙10³ : x

where x is the effective dose of ruthenium-106 in mSv. Determining x from the above proportion we have:

Being the gamma constant at 1 cm for the ruthenium-106 (rhodium-106) of 1381.58 rem/h/Ci or 3.77∙10² mSv/h/GBq, and the supposed duration of the reaction of about 24 hours, we can determine the released activity of ruthenium-106, as follows:

Being the specific activity for ruthenium-106 given by 1.22∙10⁵ GBq/g (121), the amount of ruthenium-106 that triggered the Oranur reaction can be calculated as follows:

The above released activity of 0.19 GBq (or 190 MBq) is undoubtedly an extremely low value, especially when compared to the released activity of 100-300 TGq estimated by IRSN. And the calculated amount of ruthenium-106 of around 1.6 mg is perfectly compatible with what might have been provided, if my analysis is correct, by amounts of ruthenium-106 used in the medical field for radiotherapy of the eye tumour where the activity is ranging between few MBq and several tens of MBq.

The following table 5 reports a summary of the most important data related to the two Oranur experiments available in the literature (Reich, 1951; and Southgate, 2018), and those concerning the atmospheric contamination occurred in the Fall of 2017 (IRSN report, 2018). It has to be emphasized that the data concerning the 2017 atmospheric contamination have been determined by assuming that the spreading of the radioactive cloud was the result of an Oranur reaction triggered by an amount of ruthenium-106 put inside a high orgone accumulating set-up. However, confirmation of the above hypothesis might be obtained only by farther and controlled experiments performed by Research Institutes with proved skills both in nuclear and orgonomic fields. Primary and secondary Oranur fields in table 5 are referring to the fields developed around the experimental site characterized by very high radioactive readings, and by low or very low readings, respectively.

Table 5

At this point it is reasonable to think that the ionizing radiation emitted by a radioactive source has the highest influence and degree of excitation on the orgone energy units. All the fields of science and technology that envision the use of a radioactive material might unknowingly create an Oranur reaction, and an associated Oranur field, at different degree of potency and extension in case the user or the recipient, whatever orgonotic system it may be, is characterized by a concentration of orgone energy units higher than that of the background values. The recipient may be a living organism or the same environment. In case of a human organism, all the exams and cures based on the use of a nuclear source might produce an Oranur field inside the organism with all the side-effects typical of the Oranur sickness, such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, thirst, flu-like conditions, gastro-intestinal problems, etc. CT scan, carried out by using an intravenous contrast medium could be a typical example of a possible production of an Oranur reaction inside the body. Being the contrast medium absorbing X-rays that are taken and diffusely distributed in the organism, it might produce a diffused Oranur field and a collateral Oranur sickness of a degree proportional to the released activity and above all to the amount of orgone units available in the organism. And this situation may hold for all the other exams, and cures that involve the use of a tiny radioactive source that injects, either locally or diffusely, charged particles or photons in the organism.

Similarly, the use either of a small or a massive amount of a radioactive source in the environment can create an Oranur reaction and a related field that is depending on the amount of the released activity and on the quantity of orgone energy units available. In the latter case all the living beings in the environment are subjected to the same Oranur field and may develop various Oranur sicknesses whose seriousness is function of the amount of concentrated orgone units each living system is characterized by.

CONCLUSIONS

From what is above reported and discussed the following conclusions can be drawn.

1. Many of the peculiarities of Reich’s Oranur reaction and of the development of an associated Oranur field has been recently confirmed by an independent research experiment (Southgate, 2018) where an Oranur field produced by a tiny radioactive source (0.26 mg of americium-241) has been detected all around the experimental site by GM counter and field meter measurements.
2. It is plausible to assume that the radium-226 used by Reich during the Oranur experiment at Orgonon in January 1951 was put inside the small charger naked (unshielded). This can be argued both from a literature review and from the similarities with the results of Southgate’s experiment.
3. Higher concentrations of orgone energy units, that can be found both in natural and artificially-produced conditions, can be excited to a various degree by a tiny amount of a radioactive source. Once the Oranur reaction starts it propagates to the nearby units in the space until it vanishes when the energy of the excited orgone units is no longer enough to transmit the excitation to nearby orgone units. From an analysis of the results of the Oranur experiments available in the literature, it seems the extension of the Oranur field might be directly proportional to the effective dose released by the radioactive material used in the experiment, and to the concentration of energy orgone units available in the experimental orgonotic system.
4. The higher the concentration of orgone energy, either in an open or in a closed orgonotic system, the lower the amount of radioactive material required to obtain the same results. In case of a natural standard concentration of orgone energy units, typical of the environment, the amount of radioactive source to obtain the same results is by far higher.
5. The Oranur sickness a living system is developing is not due to the charged particles and the photons emitted by the radioactive source that hit the system, but is given by the reaction of the orgone energy units contained in the system to the ionization action of the radiations that transform the qualities of the orgone units, originally characterized by a dynamic, undulatory and homogenous movement, into a highly chaotic and dis-homogeneous flow. This change of state, at the end, give rise to the typical sickness encountered during the reaction.
6. Oranur field properly contained and controlled might have technological applications such as 1) reducing the decay constant of a radioactive element; 2) energy production (motor force) and antigravity; 3) cure of diseases; 4) and development of higher consciousness states, just to name a few known to date (122).
7. The results obtained in the Oranur experiment are the prime and the best evidence that the Universe and our atmosphere is not empty but filled with a continuum consisting of energetic units or, as Reich called it, orgone energy units whose presence, however, dates back to immemorial times where philosophers and scientists mentioned and discussed it for the first time.
8. According to the above consideration, Einstein’s view and models of the cosmos seem inadequate to represent and explain all the phenomena and the physical realities of our world and need a substantial revision. An update of those models, by introducing the effects of the presence of an energetic medium, is then more than needed.
9. Being an Oranur reaction relatively easy and inexpensive to produce; the extension of the resulting Oranur field go beyond national boundaries; and the associated damages it can produce on living systems and on the environment very high, it should be mandatory that worldwide Radioprotection Governmental Bodies and Competent Authorities, Health Agencies, and Research Institutes must take the responsibility to update their scientific view of the natural and physical phenomena by re-evaluating Reich’s works, and carrying out strictly controlled laboratory experiments in order to explore and verify all the pros/cons of an Oranur reaction and its associated field, and take appropriate measures so that to guarantee the safety and the health of the human beings and of the environment of the whole planet.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author wish to thank Leon Southgate for the critical review of the final manuscript.

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References

1. Reich W, The Anti Nuclear Radiation Effect of Cosmic Orgone Energy, Orgone Energy Bulletin, Orgone Institute Press, Maine, Vol 3, N° 1, January 1951.
2. Reich W, General Meeting – January 3, 1951, HMS, Boston, Box 11 – Material Evidence for Court (Never Presented: Oranur & Orop desert) – Conspiracy.
3. Reich W, General Meeting – January 3, 1951.
4. Oranur was coined by Reich as an acronym for Orgonomic Anti Nuclear Radiation.
5. Reich discussed the properties of the Orur or Oranur radium in detail in his last book Contact with Space (Core Pilot Press, Usa, 1957). Currently the book is published by the Wilhelm Reich Museum. A critical review of the properties of the Orur and its applications can be found in Maglione R, The Legendary Shamir, GEDI Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2017, pages 323-363.
6. Reich W, Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 274.
7. The Oranur experiment took place at Orgonon’s laboratories, in Maine, in the first half of January, 1951.
8. Reich W, Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 277. Reich does not describe here the characteristics of the small orgone charger he used. It can be presumed it was a small 1-fold orgone accumulator of the same type used later on to contain the radioactive source utilized in the Oranur experiment. Besides, it is known from the literature that zinc sulphide is not a radioactive chemical substance and exhibits properties of phosphorescence when struck by charged particles. According to Wilcox (The Oranur Experiment, March 30, 2002, paper available online) what Reich measured was not just plain zinc sulphide, but was some other, radioactive substance mixed in with it in order to have been radioactive. Wilcox hypothesized that what Reich referred to as "radioactive zinc sulphide" was the same concoction used in radium wristwatch dials, namely, zinc sulphide with radioactive radium mixed in, in order to make the zinc sulphide glow in the dark, and possibly with also the addition of a little bit of silver.
9. Reich W, Ibid, pages 274-275. Here Reich does not specify whether the radioactive zinc sulphide, was kept inside the small charger naked or inside the ¼” lead shielding.
10. Reich W, Ibid, page 336.
11. Application for the radioisotopes procurement to Radioisotopes (RI) Branch of AEC (Oak Ridge, Tennessee) was done by telegram on December 4, 1950 by Reich (OIRL). Response to Reich by RI Branch AEC was done by letter on December 6 (application) and December 15 (procurement), 1950. Later Reich ordered two mg of radium-226 needed for the experiment to the Canadian Radium and Uranium Corp, NYC. The company responded by letter on January 3, 1951 (Reich W, Ibid, page 339). The two units arrived at Orgonon two days later. According to Eden, in the middle of December 1950 Reich applied to the AEC for 20 mCi of phosphorus-32 (P-32). The ordered nuclear material either was delayed or never arrived at Orgonon. Reich thereupon ordered two mg of pure radium from a private laboratory (he does not specify which it was) that arrived at Orgonon on January 5, 1951 (Eden J, Orgone Energy. The Answer to Atomic Suicide, Exposition Press, Inc, New York, 1972, pages 94-95). It is interesting to note here that Eden reported that on the same day of the arrival one of the two units of radium kept in its lead container was placed in a garage some distance from the laboratory. The second unit was placed in a strong orgone energy accumulator that was itself located in the orgone room without specifying whether it was shielded by its lead container as he clearly reported for the control unit (Eden J, Ibid, page 95).
12. The students’ laboratory is the premise which contained the orgone room and where the Oranur experiment was carried out. The orgone room was a 1-fold orgone accumulator with size of 18 x 18 ft (around 5.5 x 5.5 meter).
13. According to Reich, on the basis of many subjective as well as objective observations, the whole region of the 280 acreage at Orgonon possessed a much higher level of orgone energy than any other region, due to the continuous work that had been carried out there for many years (Reich W, Ibid, page 310). As a consequence of this, due to the radioactivity being proportional to the content of orgone energy units, the natural background at Orgonon just before the Oranur experiment was at least twice the natural background the area possessed some years earlier (before Reich started all his research activities with orgone devices), i.e. 8-15 CPM (Reich W, Ibid, page 226).
14. Reich W, Ibid, page 275.
15. Reich W, Ibid, table at page 280.
16. Reich W, Ibid, figure 12 at page 279.
17. Journal of Orgonomy, Vol 11, N° 1, May 1977, Orgonomic Publications, New York, Usa, figure at page 2.
18. Reich W, Ibid, page 279.
19. Reich W, Ibid, page 275.
20. Reich W, Ibid, page 281.
21. Reich W, Ibid, page 282.
22. Reich W, Ibid, page 281.
23. Reich W, Ibid, page 283.
24. Reich W, Ibid, pages 283-284.
25. Reich W, Ibid, pages 283-284; and 287-288.
26. Reich W, Ibid, page 337.
27. Reich W, Ibid, page 300.
28. Reich W, Ibid, pages 298-299.
29. Reich W, Ibid, page 296.
30. In The Oranur Experiment book at page 309 Reich stated that all the nuclear materials that were used in the Oranur experiment were put inside a safe with heavy 4” walls of steel and cement and put half a mile (around 805 meter) away from the laboratory.
31. Reich W, Ibid, pages 309 and 317.
32. Reich W, Ibid, page 312.
33. Sharaf M, Historical Notes. Some Notes on Oranur – March, 1951, a 7-page typed letter dated March 15, 1951, Reich’s Archive, HMS, Boston, Box 11 (Material Evidence for Court).
34. Reich W, Ibid, page 331.
35. Reich W, Ibid, page 292.
36. Reich W, Ibid, page 331.
37. Reich W, Ibid, page 332.
38. Reich W, Ibid, page 334.
39. Measurements were done by a Tracerlab SU-5 GM counter.
40. Reich W, Ibid, page 317.
41. Reich W, Ibid, page 318.
42. These mice were not those used in the Oranur experiment three months earlier.
43. Reich W, Ibid, page 320.
44. Reich W, Ibid, page 321.
45. The sizes of the inner space of the safe were 40 x 40 x 50 cm.
46. For a same amount of radium-226 in standard environmental conditions (never been affected by exposure to high orgone charges) the reading at 1 cm naked was about 16,000 CPM.
47. Reich W, Ibid, page 323. Reich does not specify here whether the nuclear material was put inside the great charger naked or inside its lead shielding.
48. Reich W, Ibid, page 324.
49. Reich W, Ibid, page 323.
50. Measurements were done by a Tracerlab SU-5.
51. Reich W, Ibid, data averaged from those reported in the table at page 323.
52. Reich W, Ibid, page 325.
53. Reich W, Ibid, page 327.
54. Reich W, Ibid, page 328.
55. Reich W, Ibid. See for instance reference to the experimental activities at pages 278, 281, and 283.
56. Reich W, Ibid, page 280.
57. Reich W, Ibid, page 281.
58. Maglione R, the Legendary Shamir, GEDI Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2017, pages 114-158.
59. An alpha particle is a nucleus of a helium atom, with the two orbiting electrons missing. It is characterized by a positive electric charge. This kind of particle loses energy quickly as soon as leaving the radioactive element. Ultimately, all alpha particles may find two electrons in the environment and become atoms of helium gas. If radium-226 is kept in a closed container the alpha-particles can combine with the electrons emitted by the metal walls of the container as a consequence of the ionization effect of the gamma-rays of the radioactive source on the metal. The phenomenon may occur when the metal, the walls of the container are made of, is available in nature in different isotopes and is unstable. In this case the alpha particles may find two electrons in the closed environment and form an atom of helium in the gas state (Gofman JW, Radiation and Human Health, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, Usa, 1981, page 27).
60. Radioactive Material Safety Data Sheet, Stuart Hunt & Associates, Alberta, Canada.
61. Reilly D, Ensslin N, Smith H (Edited by), Passive Nondestructive Assay of Nuclear Materials, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington DC, 1991, pages 31-42.
62. The build-up factor (B) has been introduced in the classical Lambert-Beer equation to take into account conditions of poor geometry, i.e. for a broad beam or for a very thick shield, in that the classical equation of the emerging intensity (for B = 1) underestimates the intensity of the radiations transmitted by a shield thickness. The build-up factor assumes that under conditions of poor geometry a significant number of photons may be scattered by the shield into the detector, or photons that had been scattered out of the beam may be scattered back in after a second collision, so it includes both the contribution of the primary and the scattered radiations, at any point in a beam. It is always greater than 1, and have been calculated for various gamma energies and for various absorbers. In general, it is a function of the attenuation coefficient, the thickness of the shielding material L, and the energy of the gamma radiation.
63. Reilly D, Ensslin N, Smith H, (Edited by), Ibid, pages 27-28.
64. Reilly D, Ensslin N, Smith H, (Edited by), Ibid, page 30.
65. Jorgustin K, Nuclear Radiation Shielding Protection, October 16, 2016. Available at https://modernsurvivalblog.com
66. Acronym for Federal Emergency Management Agency.
67. Acronym of International Commission on Radiological Protection.
68. Acronym of United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
69. The effective dose determines how dangerous an individual’s exposure to radiations can be. It takes into consideration not only the nature of the incoming radiation but also the sensitivities of the body parts affected. The unit of effective dose is the sievert (Sv), the same unit as is used for the equivalent dose absorbed locally by an organ, a gland or any other part of the body. Examples of effective dose are the doses resulting from a year exposure to natural radioactivity, radioactivity encountered in the workplace, radiation emitted by medical testing and finally accidental exposure to radioactivity. In an European country like Italy, the population is exposed each year to an average effective dose of about 4.5 mSv per capita. This value is the combination of different contributions such as natural radioactivity (2 mSv), of radioactivity of medical origin (1.2 mSv), and radiation linked to other human activities including nuclear (1.3 mSv). Italian regulations set at 1 mSv per year maximum admissible effective dose resulting from human activities outside the radioactivity from the above expositions.
70. Acronym of United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
71. Severe exposures to high levels of radiation such as medium (0.2 Sv to 2 Sv), high (2 Sv to 10 Sv) and very high (>10 Sv) effective dose can be instead life-threatening. Absorption of a dose between 0.5 and 2 Sv will result in a light reaction involving nausea, asthenia and vomiting between 3 and 6 hours after the exposure. Somewhere between 4 and 4.5 Sv lies the so-called DL50 level, which is the point at which exposure will be fatal in 50% of cases. Patients whose entire bodies have been exposed to doses of this magnitude will exhibit Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS), a condition whose severity will depend on the dose absorbed, the exposure time, the type of radiation involved and the distribution of the radiation through the body. ARS is characterized by hematological symptoms (bone marrow damages), digestive symptoms (gastro-intestinal tract damages) and neurological symptoms in the central nervous system. Finally, exceptional measures for radioprotection of the population are taken and implemented in case of accident or radiological emergency such as in nuclear accidents. Intervention levels expressed in terms of doses are used as benchmarks for governments to decide on a case by case, the actions to put in place:
    – sheltering the population in a safe place, if the predicted effective dose exceeds 10 mSv;
    – evacuation, if the predicted effective dose exceeds 50 mSv;
    – administration of stable iodine, when the thyroid dose is likely to exceed 100 mSv.
72. Specific activity is the activity per quantity of a radioactive source and is a physical property of that radionuclide. Activity is a quantity related to radioactivity, and is a measure of the number of disintegrations occurring per second in a particular radioactive isotope, or how many rays are emitted in that time. The units of activity are the becquerels (Bq), where 1 Bq is the activity of a substance that has one nucleus decaying per second. Generally, becquerels are small units, and kilo (kBq), mega (MBq) and giga (GBq) becquerels are more frequently used. Its related and more common unit is the Curie (abbreviated Ci) which is 3.7 x 1010 transformations per second. Since the probability of radioactive decay for a given radionuclide is a fixed physical quantity, the number of decays that occur in a given time of a specific number atoms of that radionuclide is also a fixed physical quantity. Thus, specific activity is defined as the activity per quantity of atoms of a particular radionuclide. It is usually given in units of Bq/g, but another commonly used unit of activity is the curie (Ci) allowing the definition of specific activity in Ci/g.
73. Delacroix D, Guerre JP, Leblanc P, Hickman C, Radionuclide and Radiation Protection Data Handbook, Nuclear Technology Publishing, Ashford, England, 2002, page 147.
74. Reich W, Ibid, page 278, and page 319.
75. Reich W, Ibid, pages 309-310.
76. Reich W, Ibid, page 278.
77. Reich W, Ibid, page 295. It should be pointed out here that the one-cubit-foot OR charger is not the one used to contain the experimental one-mg needle of radium-226 of the Oranur experiment. Indeed it contained a scintilloscope for alpha particles observation which was characterized by a fraction of a microgram of radium.
78. The choice of the materials, the 1-fold ORAC would have been built, was done according to those described in the following available documentation:
    1) The Orgone Energy Accumulator – Its Scientific and Medical Use (Orgone Institute Press, 1951), which Reich suggests to refer in order to select the best materials to be used for the construction of an orgone accumulator (Oranur Experiment, page 336). At page 16 of the above booklet Reich suggests to use iron as metal material, and plastic as organic material;
    2) Construction and Use of the Orgone Accumulator (Orgone Institute Research Laboratories, Inc., 99-06 69th Avenue, Forest Hills, NY), a 2-page document available at the Reich’s archive, HMS, Boston, Box 28. In this latter document the construction plan of an accumulator, 4 ft height, and with a cross section of 5 ft2 (opening door’s side 2 ft, and width 2 ½ ft) is described. Suggested materials for the outer layer are Upson board (high-density wood fibre sheet), Beauver board (compressed wood fibre sheet), and Celotex (textured fibre sheet) with thickness between ¼” and ½”. Intermediate layer(s) materials are rockwool or oakum (a preparation of tarred fibre, generally virgin hemp or jute), and steel wool with total thickness of 1”. The inner layer material is 28 to 34 gauge iron sheet, preferably galvanized; and
    3) Orgonomic Geiger-Muller Reaction Experiment XXI – Preliminary Communication, a 12-page typed and handwritten document dated (Forest Hills) November 18, 1947, available at Reich’s Archive, HMS, Boston, Box 13. In this latter document Reich reports the construction plan of one cubit foot 3-fold orgone accumulator. The intermediate layers are built with alternating layers of steel wool and rockwool. No mention is done on the materials used for the inner and outer layers.
79. Reich W, Ibid, page 280.
80. Reich W, Ibid, page 279.
81. Reich W, Ibid, page 279.
82. In the appendix of the Oranur Experiment book (page 335) Reich reports that the orgone room can be lined with a sheet metal of iron or steel (no copper or aluminium). Between the inner iron metal lining and the outer walls he suggested to put a layer of ordinary glassfiber insulation in order to increase the effectiveness of the accumulation. Besides, the orgone room should have been made light-tight in order to make possible the observation of orgone energy in the dark. In a further document (Orgonomic Geiger-Muller Reaction Experiment XXI – Preliminary Communication, Reich’s Archive, HMS, Boston, Box 13) Reich mentions the construction of a special room, sized 15 x 15 ft whose walls should be lined inside on all six walls with sheet of iron (gauge 26-32), and with matter like Celotex outside. Reich pointed out that the thickness of the layer was not an important issue.
83. Reich W, Ibid, page 314.
84. Reich W, Ibid, page 279.
85. Huthsteiner C, Personal Communication, March 29, 2018.
86. Reich W, Ibid, page 280. In the table of distances at page 280 Reich reports the distance between the mice and the orgone room to be 40 feet. In order to determine the distance of the mice from the radium-226, to the above value it should be added the distance of the 20-fold ORAC from the orgone room (6-7 feet) (Reich, Ibid, page 280), the distance between the small charger and the 20-fold ORAC (about 2 ft), and the distance between the radium-226 and the inner layer of the small charger (about ½ ft).
87. The height of the 20-fold ORAC is not known.
88. Density of the glass fiber for a ½” slab thickness has been taken from the data reported for fiberglass insulation slabs produced by National Industrial Co, Tamil Nadu, India.
89. Density for fine steel wool has been taken from
    https://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/2005_2006/scupra/steel_wool_testing.htm
90. Density for Celotex has been taken from Celotex TB4000 Product Data Sheet, August 2016, Celotex Saint Gobain, UK. The value of the mass attenuation coefficient (in Ero’s paper) was the one given for Melaina wood, being characterized by a density similar to that of Celotex (0.42 g/m³).
91. Reich W, Ibid, pages 281, and 283.
92. Reich, Ibid, page 291.
93. Clark RW, Einstein: the Life and Times, World Publishing Co, New York, 1971, page 328.
94. For more details on the work of Einstein and its correlation with the work of Reich’s and orgone energy see Maglione R, The Motions of Life. Was Einstein Really Modeling Brownian Motion? GEDI Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2014.
95. Today the situation is little more complicated by the presence in the atmosphere of gases and particulates, that at the time of Einstein and Reich were not present or were available in very low percentages, such as CO2, CO, NOx, SOx, O3, VOC, CFCs, and PMs.
96. Reich W, Ibid, page 336. To the above causes Eden added also gasoline as a secondary source of energy that could irritate the orgone units into higher and higher states which are deadly to the living. It has to be supposed that gasoline might be a representative of those families of chemical compounds that can be transformed into secondary energies with the collateral productions of chemical pollutants that are discharged into the atmosphere (Eden J, Orgone Energy. The Answer to Atomic Suicide, Exposition Press Inc, New York, 1972, page 101). Indeed, according to Eden, Reich thought that industrial particulates and noxious gases do not disperse when DOR is present in the atmosphere; and he found that a direct relationship exists between industrial pollution and DOR infestation, being the one enhances the other (Eden J, Planet in Trouble. The UFO Assault on Earth, Exposition Press Inc, New York, 1973, page 41). In further passages of the same book Eden stated that atmospheric orgone energy can be irritated out of thermal, mechanical, electrical, and nuclear energy also by chemical energy (Eden J, Ibid, pages 87 and 91).
97. Nevertheless, Reich observed that a small degree of excitation of the orgone units had healing and life-positive qualities. This would be discussed later in the paper.
98. Most of Reich’s last book Contact with Space (Core Pilot Press, USA, 1957) is focused on discussing the theoretical and practical possibilities of this reversal process. By use of specific apparatus Reich demonstrated that it is possible to break up epochal DOR aggregations in the atmosphere and take them back to dynamic, and flowing orgone energy units.
99. Reich W, Ibid, page 270. More details on this issue can be found in Reich W, Ether, God and Devil. Cosmic Superimpostion (Orgone Institute Press, USA, 1947).
100. For more details on the relationship between consciousness and orgone energy units see Southgate L, Implications of Orgone for Consciousness Research, Part 1 and Part 2, Journal of Psichiatric Orgone Therapy, January 4, 2018.
101. Reich W. Ibid, page 332.
102. Sharaf M, Historical Notes. Some Notes on Oranur – March, 1951, letter dated March 15, 1951, Reich’s Archive, HMS, Boston, Box 11 (Material Evidence for Court).
103. Sharaf M, Human Orgone Energy Aroused and Angered by Human “Nuclear Energy” – The Similarities Between Aroused COE and Aroused OOE, Jan 26, Reich’s archive, HMS, Boston, Box 11 (Material Evidence for Court). A 3 and a half typed-page letter with some hand corrections. The year in which the letter was written is not reported but it can be supposed it was 1951 in that the document seems to have been written soon after the conclusion of the Oranur experiment.
104. Sharaf M, Historical Notes. Some Notes on Oranur – March, 1951, letter dated March 15, 1951, Reich’s Archive, HMS, Boston, Box 11 (Material Evidence for Court).
105. Reich W, Ibid, page 324.
106. Southgate L, Preliminary Experiments with Electrical Capacitance, Temperature, Radioactivity, Luminescence and other Observations associated with Controlled Oranur in a Strong Orgone Device, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, April 19, 2018.
107. Americium is a synthetic chemical element first produced in 1944 by Seaborg and his group at the University of California. Most americium is produced by uranium or plutonium being bombarded with neutrons in nuclear reactors. About 19 isotopes and 8 nuclear isomers are known for americium. Americium-241 has a half-life of 432.2 years and decays to Neptunium-237 emitting alpha particles of 5 different energies, mostly at 5.486 MeV (85.2%) and 5.443 MeV (12.8%). Because many of the resulting states are metastable, they also emit gamma rays with the discrete energies between 26.3 and 158.5 keV. Specific activity of americium-241 is 127 GBq/g (or 3.43 Ci/g); and dose rate due to gamma-rays emission point source is 39.717 mSv/h/GBq at 1 cm distance.
108. Southgate observed a strong field extending about 2 foot (0.61 m), a less strong one to about 6 foot (1.83 m), and again to 24 ft (7.3 m) and 40 ft (12.2 m) or more. Besides, he inferred it might even be a weak field extending further. Southgate L, Personnel Communication, May 09, 2018.
109. Reich W, Ibid, page 336.
110. Reich W, Ibid, page 331. For completeness of information it should be reported that three weeks later the conclusion of the Oranur experiment, in the last week of January, an unusually high background count, according to the New York Times, was spreading from Rochester, New York (Eastern USA), to Eastern Canada. The area formed a circle of 300-600 miles (about 483-966 km) around Orgonon, considered as an approximate centre. To Reich it seemed that these high values of radioactivity were the consequence of the Oranur field created at Orgonon during the experiment and that travelled to West, for 600 to 700 miles (about 966-1,126 km) in the 21 days after the conclusion of the experiment, against the general West-East direction of the orgone energy envelope. Reich calculated that the speed by which the radioactive cloud moved was of some 30-35 miles per day (around 48-56 km per day), or little less than 1 ¼” miles per hour (about 2,010 m per hour) (Reich W, Ibid, page 293). However, no clear and definite evidence was found regarding the Oranur reaction triggered at Orgonon as the potential responsible of the radioactive cloud found in Eastern USA and Canada. A similar phenomenon was also seen by Southgate in his experimentation. He observed an increase of the extension of a mild Oranur field in the weeks after the conclusion of the experiment from 18-24 ft (about 5.5-7.3 m) to about 40-50 ft (about 12.2-15.2) (Southgate L, Personal Communication, May 04, 2018).
111. Southgate L, Personal Communication, May 01, 2018. Calculation of the gamma-ray transmission coefficient for PVC was done considering a mass attenuation coefficient of 0.3325 cm2/g, and a density of 1.40 g/cm3.
112. For more information about extension and characteristics of earth’s atmospheric layers see the following link https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/atmosphere-layers2.html
113. Ruthenium-106 is a radionuclide of artificial origin. It is a fission product from the nuclear industry and can only be produced in irradiated nuclear fuels or in irradiated uranium targets. It has a radioactive half-life of 371.8 days. By disintegrating, ruthenium-106 is transformed into rhodium-106 with half-life of 30 seconds. It is a pure beta emitter but given the very short half-life of its descendant, it is generally at radioactive equilibrium with rhodium-106 which is an emitter of gamma radiation. Ruthenium-106 is used in the medical field (eye tumour treatment). The sources used in this context have activities of a few MBq to several tens of MBq.
114. Institut de Radioprotection et de Sureté Nucléaire (IRSN), Report on the IRSN’s Investigations Following the Widespread Detection of 106Ru in Europe Early October 2017, January 2018, available at www.irsn.fr.
115. Ruthenium-103 can be formed either by fission reaction or as the result of the irradiation of ruthenium-102. It has a half-life of 39.3 days.
116. IRSN, Ibid.
117. IRSN, Ibid, figure 3 at page 5.
118. IRSN, Ibid, figure 5 at page 11.
119. Brumfiel G, Mysterious Radioactive Cloud over Europe Hints at Accident Farther East, The Two-Way, November 10, 2017, article available online.
120. It is interesting to note that the ruthenium-106 radioactive cloud spread all over West Europe with a velocity of about 3,000/22 = 136 km/day. A velocity quite comparable with that observed by Reich at Orgonon after the conclusion of the Oranur experiment of 48-56 km per day, and that spread over Eastern USA, and Eastern Canada. Besides, the direction and the duration of the contamination in the atmosphere were similar in both cases, with an East-West direction and a duration of 21-22 days.
121. Delacroix D, Guerre JP, Leblanc P, Hickman C, Radionuclide and Radiation Protection Data Handbook, Nuclear Technology Publishing, Ashford, England, 2002, page 88.
122. All the above listed applications had been very little or not at all discussed in the present paper, and the reader might refer to the following publications for more details: Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951; Reich W, Contact with Space, Core Pilot Press, USA, 1957; Maglione R, Methods and Procedures in Biophysical Orgonometry, GEDI Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2012; Maglione R, The Legendary Shamir, GEDI Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2017; Maglione R, Reich’s Orgone Energy. A Portal towards Higher Levels of Consciouness? (in italian), In Glielmi N, Fontana M, Maglione R, Valleri T, Argomenti Reichiani, GEDI Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2007; Maglione R, Mazzocchi A, Etheric Energies and Places of Worship. The Religious Site as a Therapeutic Place. A Pilot Study on 62 Ancient Sites (in Italian), Advanced Therapies, Vol VI, N°11, 2017, Nuova Ipsa, Palermo; Milián-Sánchez V, Mocholí-Salcedo A, Milián C, Kolombet VA, Verdú G, Anomalous Effects on Radiation Detectors and Capacitance Measurements inside a Modified Faraday Cage, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 828(2016)210–228; Scholkmann F, Milian-Sanchez V, Mocholì-Salcedo A, Milian C, Kolombet VA, Verdù G, Anomalous Effects of Radioactive Decay Rates and Capacitance Values Measured inside a Modified Faraday Cage: Correlations with Space Weather, Europhysics Letters, 117, 62002, 2017; Maglione R, Electric Currents in Orgone Devices. The Route towards the Reich Orgone Motor? A State of the Art, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, August 27, 2017; Maglione R, Ferrari D, Electric Currents in Orgone Devices. The Route towards the Reich Orgone Motor? Early and Mid-term Laboratory Experiments with Orgone Apparatus, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, September 26, 2017; Maglione R, Ferrari D, Electric Currents in Orgone Devices. The Route towards the Reich Orgone Motor? A Hypothesis on the Y-factor, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, October 27, 2017; Southgate L, Implications of Orgone for Consciousness Research, Part 1 and Part 2, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, January 4, 2018; and Southgate L, Preliminary Experiments with Electrical Capacitance, Temperature, Radioactivity, Luminescence and other Observations associated with Controlled Oranur in a Strong Orgone Device, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, April 19, 2018.

Synopsis

In this paper, the last of a series of three papers on the orgone motor which will appear on the Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, measurements of electrical parameters were performed on the same two 10-fold tube capacitors, subject of the mid-term investigation (see the second paper in this series), when the local environmental orgonomic potential was artificially increased in one of the two. An increase of the tension was observed in the tube capacitor subjected to the artificial increase of the local orgonomic potential. All the experimental investigations were performed in an in-house laboratory, Sassuolo (Mo), Italy. Finally, a hypothesis on the Y-factor was then developed based both on what has been reported in the literature and on the experimental results from our in-house experiments.

On June 20, 2016, at the end of the cyclical year and after 5 years of continuous monitoring of the two tube capacitors’ behaviour(1) , we decided to verify the relationship between environmental orgonomic potential and tension (or production of electric current) at the capacitors. To this aim, two days later we artificially increased the local orgonomic potential of one of the two capacitors by adding 0.5 L of a fluid whose orgonomic potential was 520 org. The orgonomic potential of the fluid was measured by a Life Energy Meter LM4 (Heliognosis, Canada). The fluid did not have radioactive properties, and was not heated by any external source of energy for all the period of the testing. The fluid, contained in a PET bottle, was put inside the cylindrical space of the 1C/1A capacitor(2) . In this way, the total orgonomic potential, the 1C/1A capacitor was subjected to during the testing, was given by the sum of the natural environment orgonomic potential OP_E (as in the previous years of testing) plus the artificial orgonomic potential, OPA, provided by the 520 org added in the inside of the cylindrical capacitor, as follows:

OP_TOTAL = OP_E + OP_A

The fluid inside the bottle was continuously kept therein until to the end of the testing occurred on June 20, 2017. The 2C/1A capacitor did not undergo any addition of fluid or whatever other artificial increase of the local orgonomic potential, and was subjected to the natural environment orgonomic potential (OP_E) only, as per the previous years of testing, and was considered as control. The following figure 1 shows the behaviour of the tension at the two capacitors, from April 21, 2016 (two months before the local orgonomic potential in the 1C/1A capacitor was artificially increased), until to June 20, 2017, considered as the end of the testing.

Figure 1 – Behaviour of the tension at the two capacitors, in the period April 21, 2016 – June 20, 2017. Artificial increase of the orgonomic potential in the 1C/1A capacitor was carried out on June 22, 2016

The following figure 2 shows the behaviour of the tension at the two capacitors, as shown in figure 1, for a shorter period, i.e. from May 21 until to October 21, 2016.

Figure 2 – Behaviour of the tension at the two capacitors in the period May, 21 – Oct 21, 2016. Artificial increase of the orgonomic potential in the 1C/1A capacitor was carried out on June 22, 2016

From the graphs in the above figures 1 and 2 it can be seen that the tension at the 1C/1A capacitor started to develop soon after the introduction of the bottle with the liquid in the inside of the capacitor and provided a value of the tension for all the Summer months; while the control capacitor remained dormant, as already observed in the previous years. In addition, the 1C/1A capacitor produced a much higher tension than that of the other capacitor all over the productive period (October 08, 2016 –June 20, 2017). Figure 3 shows the trend of the total absolute tension in the periods of the cyclical years in which the two capacitors were dormant (when no artificial increase of the local orgonomic potential was done on the 1C/1A capacitor); and that in the summer months of 2016 after the 1C/1A capacitor was subjected to the local increase of the potential.

Figure 3 – Behaviour of the total absolute tension at the two capacitors in the Summer months of the 2011-2015 period; and after increasing the orgonomic potential in the 1C/1A capacitor (June 22, 2016)

Figure 4 shows the trend of the total absolute tension for the two capacitors in the periods of activity (September/October – May/June) in the five cyclical years in the 2011-2016 period; and in 2016-2017 (October 08, 2016 –June 20, 2017).

Figure 4 – Behaviour of the total absolute tension at the two capacitors in the periods of activity in the 2011-2016 period; and in 2016-2017

From the trends shown in the above figures 3 and 4, it can be argued that the increase of the local orgonomic potential in the 1C/1A capacitor created a tension when before was always zero or very close to this value (figure 3); and likewise determined an increase of the tension in the subsequent period in which the capacitor was known to be already active in the past years (from September/October to May/June) (figure 4). It is worth (of) noting that the data regarding the summer months of 2016 (for the 1C/1A capacitor), with a total absolute tension of 32.1 mVolt, is substantially much higher than the averaged value of 1.8 mVolt in the 2011-2015 dormant period, and might leave no doubt about the importance of the fluid in locally increasing the orgonomic potential and affecting the formation of the tension at the capacitor. As to the control capacitor, no change in the total absolute tension was observed with 1.0 mVolt in 2016 when compared to an averaged value of 0.80 mVolt in the 2011-2015 period. A Student’s t-test analysis on the daily tension measured on the 1C/1A and 2C/1A capacitors in the period June 22 – October 07, 2016 provided an extremely statistically significant difference between the two groups of data (p-value = 1.70∙10^-53).

The same above consideration may hold also for the period in which the two capacitors were already active. Even in this case the 1C/1A capacitor recorded the highest values (436.8 mVolt in 2016-2017) when compared to the values recorded in the previous cyclical years (averaged to 273.1 mVolt), and also when compared to the control capacitor for which it has been recorded in 2016-2017 a value of 158.7 mVolt (averaged to 246.6 mVolt in the period 2011-2016). A Student’s t-test analysis on the daily tension measured on the 1C/1A and 2C/1A capacitors in the period October 08, 2016 – June 20, 2017 provided an extremely statistically significant difference between the two groups of data (p-value = 7.78∙10^-40)

Besides, if we look at the days of production of the tension for the period (June 22, 2016 – June 20, 2017) we may have a further confirmation of the influence of the local artificial increase of the orgonomic potential at the 1C/1A capacitor. Figure 5 shows the trend of the number of days of production of the tension in the five cyclical years (2011-2016), and in 2016-2017, for both the capacitors.

Figure 5 – Trend of the days of production of the tension at the two capacitors in the periods of activity in the five cyclical years 2011-2016; and in 2016-2017

From the above figure 5 it can be seen that the number of days in which a tension was measured at the 1C/1A capacitor in 2016-2017 (333 days) is higher than those of the previous cyclical years, and higher than the average value in the period 2011-2016 (226.8 days). In addition, when compared to the control capacitor, the difference is much larger as a value of 180 days (in 2016-2017), and an average value of 198.6 days in the period 2011-2016 were recorded.

As a whole, we can conclude that the artificial increase of the local orgonomic potential at the 1C/1A capacitor, by adding 520 org (0.5 L of fluid), led to an extremely statistically significant increase of the measured tension (p-value = 1.70∙10^-53), when compared to that measured in the 2C/1A capacitor, in the period where the capacitor was already active. It also led to an increase in the number of days where a tension was detected, and importantly, to the formation of an extremely statistically significant tension where no or very low values were recorded (summer months). We may infer that this latter result was also the consequence of a total local orgonomic potential higher than the minimum orgonomic potential, OP_AD, required by the capacitor for an orgone charge-discharge metabolism:

OP_TOTAL = OP_E + OP_A > OP_AD

And it can be equally argued that the artificial increase of the orgonomic potential was also instrumental in increasing the tension in the period where the capacitor was entering its active phase in the past cyclical years.

However, even though a close relationship between local orgonomic potential and formation of a tension at the capacitor was found and verified statistically, the low daily values of the tension obtained in our laboratory testing are not able to run a small motor such as that Reich used in his experiments (that would require about 0.2-1 Watt). Even if we note the whole annual production of tension it would still be insufficient. Indeed, if we consider the small LED reported as an example in the previous calculation(3) , the artificial increase of the orgonomic potential at the 1C/1A capacitor led to an average value of the daily tension during the period of testing (June 22, 2016 – June 20, 2017) of 1.31 mVolt/day and to a total tension of 436.8 mVolt (calculated on a period of 333 days), and the small LED will remain lighted for only little more than 0.006 seconds.

As the daily tension produced was considerably insufficient to run even a small motor, Reich’s work must have utilized a different method to artificially increase the local orgonomic potential in the capacitor (or in any other orgone device) in order to produce an electrical tension high enough to run the small motor. In our experiments we used the orgonomic potential (natural first and then artificially increased) of the local orgone field freely flowing in the atmosphere, or in dynamic condition. However, no experiment was done to check the response of the orgone energy units in the situation of their being contained inside an orgone device such as an accumulator(4) . Indeed, Reich found by observing the behaviour of living organisms that all biological motions, inner as well as locomotion, appeared to be the reaction of the orgone energy to the restriction of its free motility, by making its behavior change from the fog-like (unexcited) to the pointed (excited) state of existence. Reich observed that this latter state was accompanied in the human organism by some typical phenomena. One of these was fever. In general, to Reich fever or high temperature indicated a severe reaction expressed in a rise of body temperature to certain kinds of irritation of a non-material, non-bacterial disturbance in energy equilibrium.

First investigations aimed at finding a relationship between electric currents and an excited biological energy in human organisms were carried out by Reich in 1934-38 when he settled in Norway(5) . In this period, he sought proof, through physiological experiments, of his orgasm formula. He found the skin surface of the organism carries an uniform electric charge or resting potential of around 10-40 mVolt, that is originating within the organism itself, which rarely fluctuates in the resting state or in a foggy, unexcited state of the biological energy. However, he observed that when this biological energy (that he later called orgone energy) was taken to the pointed or excited state by tickling stimuli, and thus triggering pleasurable sensations, the electrical charge at the surface increased. And this phenomenon was observed above all in certain area of the skin surface such as penis, vaginal mucosa, tongue, lips, anal mucosa, nipples, palms, earlobes, and forehead. In a case of an excited nipple the testing female subject experienced an increase of the tension in that area from the baseline value of around 45 mVolt for all the period of excitation(6) (one minute). It was also noted that the recorded potential and the vegetative current corresponded to the intensity of the pleasurable sensation. In another case, when a naked embracing couple, with the man kissing the woman’s breast, he found increases of the tension at the woman’s breast as high as 100 mVolt compared to the baseline value(7) . Reich emphasized the great importance of the small tensions detected at the skin surface during this type of experiments(8) :

“Electrical energy is only a minor, minimal manifestation of the cosmic energy. What appears at the voltmeter as the charge of the skin surface in terms of 10 to 50 millivolts, actually represents many thousands of volts in terms of OR energy as measured at the electroscope. … We are dealing with tremendous amounts of energy, compared with which a 110 or even 5000 volt tension becomes insignificant.”

Since for Reich the basic energy functions in the organism were the same as in the atmosphere, he transferred and applied the same concepts and conclusions from one realm to the other. In this way, a change from the foggy (unexcited) to the pointed (excited) form of existence, obtained by exciting the orgone energy in the atmosphere, might equally give rise to an increase of temperature. However, Reich observed that under certain circumstances even a motor force of a mechanical nature might alternatively develop. Overall, Reich found that the heat variant might be considered an alternative to the motor variant, each one produced by a specific set of circumstances(9):

“Under circumstances still greatly unknown such a change maybe be expressed in term of higher temperature. …. We may assume that the same energy change which under one set of circumstances causes mechanical motion, causes under another set of circumstances rise in temperature…. If the OR energy in its pointed, excited form finds no objects to move mechanically it will cause high temperature of gases or solid substances by inner friction. …. The clicks at the Geiger counter are doubtless expression of single OR energy points charging a vacuum, a grid of an electronic tube or moving the membrane of a mechanical sound amplifier.”

The pointed or excited state of existence of the atmospheric orgone energy was the consequence of its excitation to some factors in the environment. Such excitation might be also detected at the Geiger-Muller counter with higher counts. Reich thought that factors such as the spreading of atomic radiations during an atomic explosion; or also DOR rising from the atmospheric energy when its orgone energy envelope was dying, might be considered factors that could lead to an excitation of the orgone energy in the atmosphere(10) .

“When an atomic bomb explodes, a huge amount of nuclear material (NU) suddenly irritates in concentrated form an unprepared, unconcentrated atmospheric Life Energy. On the other hand, when Oranur is operating a very small amount is irritating a highly concentrated Life Energy.

In the first case the OR energy falls victim to prostration and decay. In the second case, the OR energy reacts after a brief period of consternation or paralysis with a fierce motor force.”

According to Reich, the high background counts beyond a narrow area around the point of an atomic explosion were thus quite understandable. However, in the case of an Oranur reaction, produced by a small amount of a nuclear material with low counts in an orgone-rich environment, many hundred thousand counts per minute could be instead detected in the surrounding area. And in term of orgonomic potentials Reich found(11) :

“(2) “Decrease” and “Increase” of potential could be interpreted in terms of functional physics simply as a change in the form of the atmospheric energy from the foglike (unexcited, low) to the pointed (excited, high) state of existence and vice versa, Only the “pointed” state of OR registers on the GM counter.

…………….

(4) The change from the “cloudy” to the “pointed” state of existence, or activation of OR was now possible by simply impeding its freedom of “lazy” motion or by direct irritation such as friction, sparking secondary coil systems, nuclear material, heat, etc.”

It is interesting to note in the above quoting that nuclear material has been identified by Reich as one of the substances able to create both a pointed or excited (Oranur) state of the atmospheric orgone energy, and to simultaneously increase the (local) orgonomic potential(12) . Reich went further and laid down a very basic rule concerning the orgone motor force by relating the excited orgone energy units, when exposed to an exciting agent, to the corresponding radioactivity readings(13) :

“The luminating points (see “Oranur Experiment, First Report,” p. 195 and Fig. 8, p. 42 above) are mechanical discharges and thus constitute the source of a motor force. The action of the OR motor belongs here: An even sequence of impulses, registered on the GM counter, at a rate of at least 3,000 per minute, sets a motor into motion (see “Orgone Energy Bulletin,“ 1948).”

Constable synthetized very well the common functioning of the excited orgone energy units concentrated either into a human organism or into an artificial container such as an orgone device(14) :

“Many qualified individuals known to me personally, including Bob McCullough, saw the motor running many times. The device was essentially a biomechanical reproduction – in reverse – of the situation that exists with the millivolt galvanic charges appearing at the human skin from a primary bioenergetic power source sufficient to propel and convulse a 200 pound human being. From a half volt input (500 millivolts), Reich could run a 25 volt motor with the power developed by the accumulator from the primary energy continuum.

Here is the beginning of a new type of propulsion, obviously stemming from and applicable to space.”

From the above, it appears that the excited orgone energy units in an orgonotic system might increase the local orgonomic potential and in turn increase the tension and the electric activity inside the same orgonotic system, whatever it might be(15) .

Maglione very recently, by resorting to historical-religious accounts, did a comparative study of the peculiarities and performances of the Ark of the Covenant, used by Moses during the Exodus, and the Reich orgone accumulator(16) . He found an extraordinary similarity between the phenomena produced by the Ark, mainly as a war machine, and those produced by the excited orgone energy during the Oranur experiment at Orgonon in 1951. He hypothesized that a radioactive material, possibly radium that he identified in the shamir, was put inside the Ark to cause those phenomena. The tremendous electrical discharges of the Ark, as described in the Old Testament and in other related texts, killed many people, amongst them Nadab and Abihu, High Priest Aaron’s sons. These deaths often occurred concomitantly to an Oranur reaction which might be considered a by-product of the radioactive material which was at times kept in the interior of the Ark. Because the Ark can be considered an orgone device and also an electric capacitor(17) , Maglione estimated that, in order that the people being in front of the Ark might be reached and killed by the discharges emitted by the Ark, a tension at the two electrodes of more than 260,000 Volt might have been required. A corresponding value of the radioactivity, in the range 8,000-15,000 counts per minute, was also estimated to occur in the environment near the Ark, as a prime factor of the very high tension produced. Maglione wondered whether the minimum value of radioactivity of 3,000 counts per minute, defined by Reich necessary to set into motion an orgone motor, might have some connection with the higher estimated values of radioactivity found in the tent of meeting, at the time of the Exodus, and also with the incredibly high value of tension the radioactive material put inside the Ark might have produced. Maglione emphasized, however, that the estimated values of radioactivity were those typical in the vicinity of the Ark; while those inside the Ark cannot be estimated. Nevertheless, it may be supposed, with a good approximation that the radioactivity inside the Ark might have been extraordinarily high. The spreading of the radioactive (Oranur) field outside the Tabernacle was limited or perhaps avoided mainly by burning incense (a mixture of five different substances) inside the Holy of Holies where the Ark was located; while sacrifices, festivals, etc., may have had the function to further protect the Jewish people dwelling in the camp in particular circumstances, as hypothesized by Isaacs in his impressive etymological studies on the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle(18) . Maglione concluded that(19) :

“… the tension at the Ark might have been produced by a radioactive material, possibly the shamir that was kept and confined inside a leaden tube thus exciting the high concentration of orgone energy inside the Ark.”

In addition, the tension produced by the Ark in those operational conditions might have been continuous and readily usable, and hence the goal of the nuclear material might have simply been that of creating a pointed (or excited) state of existence of the high concentration of orgone energy units inside the Ark, through a controlled Oranur reaction, with the aim of increasing the orgonomic potential to a very high degree with the consequent formation of a high tension at the two electrodes of the Ark that might be converted into work (or, according to the need, into a terrifying killing machine) by exploiting the electrical charges produced. According to Maglione, it appears, therefore, that the system Ark-shamir might possess all the requirements to be a current generator and be supposed as a precursor of the Reich orgone motor.

As a whole, the above might be the same way Reich followed to develop an elevated motor force from orgone energy units concentrations, i. e. to artificially increase the orgonomic potential. He would have done this in order to produce a continuous orgone charge-discharge metabolism, and hence to obtain tensions higher than those produced by the natural orgonomic field; and also higher than those produced by resorting to other artificial methods, such as the use of a small battery (electricity), or like those we considered in our laboratory experiments such as fluid substances.

Finally, the function Y, that Reich never revealed, can be well related to orgonomic phenomena, instead of purely wiring arrangements or circuits, as proposed by Correa and Correa in his publications concerning the development of the aether motor(20). We rather agree with the opinion of Sharaf’s, one the eye witnesses of the orgone motor in action at the time Reich developed the first prototypes, as interviewed by Mann(21) :

“One “ingredient” in the apparatus was kept secret and labelled in the article describing the experiment, simply as Y. Speaking in February, 1971, with psychologist Dr. Myron Sharaf, one of the five witnesses of this test, I was given to believe, it was a small electric battery. How this fact would affect a scientific evaluation of this “new force” I am unable to say.”

or by Reiter(22) :

“First of all, we do not know the nature of the mysterious “Y function” which Dr. Reich apparently used to make his KS-9154 spin effectively. In a conversation about 1989, one of Dr. Reich’s former assistants, Myron Sharaf, insisted that while he did not know what the “Y” was, he certainly felt that it was a physical component or “thing” rather than a wiring scheme or connection geometry”

The authors would agree with Sharaf in that it appears that the orgonomic potential of the environment, which the orgone device is permeated by; and above all that available inside the orgone device would be of extreme importance and instrumental in producing electricity. And this latter orgonomic potential might have been increased by Reich at the time, when demonstrating the motor force in action, by exciting the concentrated orgone energy units inside the orgone accumulator by a small battery. An increase high enough to run a motor and safe enough not to create a dangerous Oranur field around it. As we have seen in our laboratory experiments, tension or electricity can be considered a secondary expression of the primary cosmic orgone energy ocean. As a consequence, the orgone device might act as a converter of the movement of the orgone energy units into a tension and an electrical current, provided that the orgonomic potential of the environment in which the device is immersed, is higher than the minimum orgonomic potential characteristic of the orgonotic system. And, as we have also observed, higher and continuous tensions can be only obtained by increasing the local orgonomic potential to values higher than the maximum orgonomic potential typical of the orgone device. Transformation might take place when the orgone energy units, permeating and filling the orgone apparatus, undergo a change from the frequencies typical of the orgone energy units, to those typical of the electric field as determined by Todeschini(23) . And this phenomenon is much more evident when the orgone units are excited by an exciting agent such as electricity or radioactivity. The above might match with what Reich wrote in a letter to Arthur Garfield Hays, a New York patent attorney, on June 25, 1948(24) :

“After 10 months of strenuous and hard work, I finally succeeded yesterday, on June 24th, 1948, at 1:10 p.m., to set a motor in motion by means of the rotary forces contained in cosmic orgone energy. It will take some time until this function will be “cleaned”, but in the meantime it will be necessary:

1. To secure my legal priority

2. To secure a patent

3. To inform the responsible authorities of the U.S. Government of this accomplishment and to take all other necessary steps to develop the orgone energy motor.

I would like to outline its basic functions:

The universe, and with it the orgone envelope [Reich refers to the energy surrounding the planet] of the earth planet, contains very powerful energy impulses, due to cosmic orgone energy. These impulses are caught by certain devices and are transmitted through an electronic system, without the use of any high voltage, to a motor which transforms the rapidly successive cosmic energy impulses into an electro-magnetic motor reaction. The motor can, of course, be connected with a dynemeter or some other device which could do work.”

All in all, we might hypothesize the function Y, Reich was referring to, when developing the prototypes of the orgone motor, might be identified in the behaviour of the orgonomic potential available in the interior of the orgonotic system. This is in turn proportional to the local environmental orgonomic potential in which the orgonotic system is located. The former factor must be characterized by values by far exceeding the maximum orgonomic potential typical of the orgonotic system in order to obtain a motor force and to get a motor to run. Finally, a very high increase of the natural orgonomic potential can occur artificially by taking the orgone energy units in the interior of the orgone device to a high degree of excitation through a controlled Oranur reaction.

Conclusion:

We observed, by experimenting on tube capacitors, built according to the design elaborated by Reich, the spontaneous formation of a tension and the generation of an electric current. This phenomenon is similar to that occurring inside the generator of an electric power station, or in photovoltaic installations, even though with different modalities. In these cases, the generator requires a supply of mechanical energy, while the photovoltaic installation a radiant energy (electromagnetic or from particles) from the sun; and both energies in turn are converted into electric energy. In the tube capacitors, we did not supply any type of mechanical nor radiant energy, and it was still observed that the formation of a tension and the production of electric energy occurred through the natural pulsation of the natural atmospheric orgone energy field in which the capacitors were immersed. The capacitors behave like an artificial converter of environmental (or atmospheric) orgone energy into electric current, provided that the orgonomic potential of the environment is high enough to produce a charge-discharge metabolism of the orgone energy units stored by the capacitors. In addition, for an orgonomic potential higher than the maximum orgonomic potential, characteristic of the orgonotic system (in our case the capacitors), the orgone charge-discharge metabolism is continuous, and consequently also the formation of tension and the generation of electricity is continuous. We observed also that by increasing artificially the orgonomic potential at one capacitor (by adding a definite volume of fluid inside the tube capacitor) formation of a tension (when previously it was zero), and an increase of the tension (when previously it was already available but lower) was observed, while in the control capacitor no variation was recorded. The lull in activity during the summer months might indicate that the changes in the tension were not due to electrostatic effects.
Besides, very high orgonomic potentials can be obtained artificially by exciting the orgone energy units in which the orgonotic system is immersed; or above all those units contained inside the same orgonotic system by means of various methods. A principle method may be the tiny radioactive sources suggested by Reich, thus producing tensions high enough to run a motor.

And the Y-factor, Reich never divulged, might be simply related to the behaviour of the orgonomic potential given by the orgone energy units available in the interior of an orgonotic system (orgone device) that can be made to change from a foggy or unexcited state of existence (natural environment orgonomic potential) to a pointed or excited state of existence (artificially increased orgonomic potential). As a consequence, the orgonotic system (orgone device) might produce electrical energy that can be converted into work.

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Leon Southgate for the critical review of the final manuscript.

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References:

(1). Maglione R, Ferrari D, Electric Currents in Orgone Devices. The Route Towards the Reich Orgone Motor? Early and Mid-term Laboratory Experiments with Orgone Apparatus, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, September 26, 2017.

(2). Just to remind the reader that the 1C/1A capacitors was made of 10 alternated layers of one paper sheet and one aluminum foil, while the other capacitor, the 2C/1A, consisted of 10 alternated layers of two paper sheets and one of aluminum foil. Storage capacity of the 2 capacitors was 182 nFarad and 103 nFarad for the 1C/1A, and 2C/1A, respectively.

(3).Maglione R, Ferrari D, Ibid, September 26, 2017.

(4).Reich did mention that containment was one of the conditions to a stronger orgone motor effect:

“It became clear, furthermore, that one has to keep the Geiger counter tube within a narrow accumulator in order to charge it up.” (Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 217).

(5).Reich W, The Bioelectrical Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983.

(6). Reich W, Ibid, page 92 and 144.

(7). Reich W, Ibid, page 112 and 113; and 159.

(8). Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 197.

(9). Reich W, Contact with Space, Oranur Second Report (1951-1956), Core Pilot Press, New York, 1957, page 218.

(10).Reich W, Ibid, page 219.

(11).Reich W, Ibid, pages 45 and 46.

(12). The interest of Reich in radioactive materials, and particularly radium, and their interaction with orgone energy concentrations dates back to the end of the ‘30s, when doing experiments with bionous solutions:

“When, in January 1939, I discovered the orgone radiation in the SAPA bions (Cf. THE DISCOVERY OF THE ORGONE, Vol. II, pp. 70-77, 1948), some problems confronted me …. The smooth, steady glow of radium on the dials of wrist watches was extinguished when I sat in the darkroom, and was replaced by a vivid bluish-green flickering.” (Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 201)

.

“For instance, in 1939, when the orgone energy in SAPA bions was first discovered, I was struck by the following fact: When a glass plate was coated with radium and showed the well-known smooth glow, and was then put into the orgone accumulator, this glow first disappeared and was replaced by a vivid flimmering which, according to my observation, was due to the effect of the orgone.” (Reich W, A Motor Force in Orgone Energy. Preliminary Communication, Orgone Energy Bulletin, 1(1), Orgone Institute Press, January 1949, New York, pages 7 and 8)

.

“I have a small Roentgen tube in my laboratory, but I have never studied any radioactive substances very thoroughly, except their scintillation effects, etc.” (Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 205)

However, it seems rather clear that Reich did experiments with radioactive materials before the Oranur experiment, in that he states, in May 1950, nuclear energy was one of the most important methods to excite orgone energy units. This would imply that Reich in the previous years might have carried out systematic tests with radioactive sources (Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, pages 199 and 200):

“5. The formation of concentrations to single distinct units follows upon excitation of the OR energy ocean in various ways: presence of other orgonotic systems, electromagnetic sparks, metallic obstacles, and, foremost nuclear energy (cf. p. 267 ff.).

…………..

May, 1950.”

(13). Reich W, Contact with Space, Oranur Second Report (1951-1956), Core Pilot Press, New York, 1957, page 44.

(14). Constable TJ, The Cosmic Pulse of Life. The Revolutionary Biological Power Behind UFOs, Neville Spearman Limited, Sudbury, UK, 1976, page 325.

(15). For completeness of information we must say that the manuscript available at the Wilhelm Reich Archive (Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Usa), in Box 17, under the title The Misinterpreted OR Motor-Model – 1956, includes no useful information to understand the true nature of the orgone motor and of the Y-factor. The document consists of two short reports focusing on, and discussing the Crook’s radiometer and its functioning according to the laws of Orgonomy.

(16). Maglione R, The Legendary Shamir, Gedi Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2017.

(17). It can be outlined here that the Ark of the Covenant is constructively similar to a Leyden jar, and both can be assimilated to an orgone accumulator, and to a Zamboni’s dry pile, even though made of different basic metallic and non-metallic materials. In addition, to our best knowledge, no experiment and measurements, to check whether a reproduction or even a small-scale model of the Ark of the Covenant, might produce electric currents, have (not) never been carried out and are not available in the literature.

(18). Isaacs R, Talking With God: The Radioactive Ark of the Testimony. Communication Through It. Protection from It, Sacred Closet Books, Chicago, 2010.

(19). Maglione R, The Legendary Shamir, Gedi Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2017, page 348.

(20). Correa PN, Correa AN, Energy Conversion Systems, Patent US 7,053,576, May 30, 2006; and Energy Conversion Systems, Patent US 7,235,945, June 26, 2007.

(21). Mann WE, Orgone Reich and Eros. Wilhelm Reich’s Theory of Life Energy, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1973, page 221.

(22). Reiter AN, Examination of the Western Electric KS-9154 Motor, Pulse of the Planet #5, Natural Energy Works, Ashland, 2002.

(23). For details on the work of Todeschini on this point see Maglione R, The Legendary Shamir, Gedi Gruppo Editoriale, Milan, 2017, pages 25-41

(24). Reich W, Where’s the Truth? Letters and Journals 1948-1957, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY 2012, page 14.

Authors:

Roberto Maglione – 1 Scholar, and author in orgonomy. Italy www.orgonenergy.org Degree in Mining Engineering.

Dionisio Ferrari – Electronic technician specialized in electroacoustics. Scholar in orgonomy, and manufacturer of orgone accumulators. www.dionisioferrari.it

  

Synopsis

In this paper, the second of a series of three papers on the orgone motor which will appear on the Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, early measurements of electrical parameters both on 10-fold orgone accumulators, and on 10-fold tube capacitors are reported. A subsequent 5-year (mid-term) investigation on two 10-fold tube capacitors, with the organic layer of each capacitor characterized by a different thickness of the organic material, is also described. Spontaneous formation of tension of some mVolt, not attributable to traditional models of physics, was found in all the investigated orgone apparatuses. In the mid-term investigation, a cyclical trend of the tension versus the years was also observed. Data analysis is also included in the paper. All the experimental investigations were performed in an in-house laboratory, Sassuolo (Mo), Italy.

To our best knowledge Reich never did publications in which he reported results of experiments aimed at verifying the formation of a tension and the production of electric currents inside orgone accumulators or orgone apparatus, in general. He found, by using an electroscope, that the measuring device behaved differently inside and outside an accumulator indicating that a difference of electrostatic charge could exist between the interior of the accumulator and the environment outside it. However, he never tried to quantify and measure the presence of an electric tension on two opposite metallic sides of the apparatuses by a voltmeter (1). Even in the years after Reich’s death no study was performed aimed at finding whether an orgone accumulator or any other orgone apparatus could produce an electric current. 
With this aim in mind, we carried out in the last years laboratory experiments with the purpose of determining the presence of a tension and of electric currents in orgone apparatus, and above all, in orgone accumulators and tube capacitors made of alternated layers of metallic and non-metallic materials. This arrangement is typical of a Reich orgone accumulator and blanket, but it resembles and displays also a marked similarity with those used by Zamboni, more than two centuries ago in his dry piles (2).
First investigations were conducted both inside and outside orgone accumulators built of different organic and inorganic materials. To measure the presence of a tension and of electric currents in an open 10-fold accumulator, made of alternated layers of steel wool (grade 0000) and plastic sheet, two grips each fixing a plate made of paper sheet, galvanized iron sheet, and wood were used. The plates were placed either on the internal side or on the external side of the accumulator. They were connected to a low capacity capacitor (4.7 mFarad) made of plastic film, which in turn was connected to a millivoltmeter. A JFET amplifier able to increase the input impedance to 50 MOhm was also used.  However, no tension was detected with this experimental arrangement in any of the tested orgone accumulators.
Figure 1 shows the experimental set-up with the grips and the plates used during the measurements placed either inside (figure on the left) or outside (figure on the right) of the orgone accumulator.

  

Figure 1 – Plates put either inside (left) or outside (right) the 10-fold orgone accumulator

The two plates were then placed both inside and outside the 10-fold orgone accumulator (figure 2), and measurements were performed with no capacitor in the circuit. Tensions as high as 10 mVolt were observed in these last measurements.

Figure 2 – Plates on both the sides of the 10-fold orgone accumulator

In this latter case the measured tension could not sustain an electric current since the generated current was so low that could be read by the measuring device only after some hours of accumulation and was dissipated by a single application of the measuring device. Further experiments involved fixed tube capacitors made of alternated layers of paper sheet and aluminum foil. The number of paper sheets the fixed capacitors were constructed was higher than those of the aluminum foils since the structure started and ended with the paper. The paper used was of the 80 g/m2 type, while the aluminium foil had a thickness of 0.02 mm. Aluminum foils were connected in alternated parallel, and folded at both ends to allow electrical connection. Height of the two tube capacitors was 18 cm, and internal diameter was 7 cm. Figure 3 shows a scheme of the tube capacitor (left) and of the final unit (right).

  

Figure 3 – Tube capacitor. Scheme (left) and capacitor final view (right)

Two similar capacitors made of 10 alternated layers of one paper sheet and one aluminum foil (with the paper at both ends) were put one inside a 10-fold orgone accumulator (constructed with alternated layers of plastic and steel wool), and the second one outside at a distance of around 3 metres from the accumulator. Both capacitors were kept at the same height from the floor. The average charge storage capacity of the capacitors was 150 nFarad. Figure 4 shows the scheme of the circuit used in the measurements, and the experimental set-up related to the capacitor inside the 10-fold accumulator.

  

Figure 4 –Scheme of the measurement circuit (left) and capacitor inside the 10-fold orgone accumulator (right)

The circuit in figure 4 was equipped with a selector that alternately connected the two capacitors during the measurements. When no measure was performed it was set in the central position so as to disconnect the capacitors from the circuit, and thus enabling the charging of the plates. Measurements were carried out as follows:

1. A capacitor was connected to the circuit via the selector, and a first reading of the tension was done. This value provided the maximum charge of the system;
2. A second reading was made after 30 seconds which gave the tension related to the current continuously generated on the internal resistance of the instrument;
3. A third reading was made after 3-5 minutes in order to verify the stability of the previous measurement made at 30 seconds;
4. The procedure was then repeated on the other capacitor.

In a 12-day run, performed in December 2010, readings of the instantaneous tension, and that after 30 seconds, proved that the values measured inside the orgone accumulator were on average lower than those obtained for the capacitor that was located outside. The following figures 5 and 6 show the behaviour of the average hourly tension as measured at 30 seconds on the capacitors located either inside or outside the 10-fold orgone accumulator, as against the weather conditions (clear and bad weather).

Figure 5 – Behaviour of average hourly tension versus weather (capacitor inside orgone accumulator, measurements after 30 seconds)

Figure 6 – Behaviour of average hourly tension versus weather (capacitor outside orgone accumulator, measurements after 30 seconds)

From the above figures it can be noted that the behaviour of the average hourly tension after 30 seconds is smoother for the capacitor kept inside the orgone accumulator, with no appreciable change versus the variation of weather conditions. On the other hand the average hourly tension measured on the capacitor located outside the accumulator shows a more erratic behaviour for both clear and bad weather conditions, and in some cases with negative values when the tension was measured during bad weather. Average hourly tension for the capacitor located inside the accumulator was 0.51 mVolt and 0.37 mVolt for clear weather, and bad weather conditions, respectively; while for the capacitor located outside the orgone accumulator average tension was 1.28 mVolt and -0.18 mVolt, for clear weather and bad weather conditions, respectively. In case, we consider the module of the tension on the capacitor located outside the accumulator (no need to make this conversion for the capacitor inside the orgone accumulator) we obtain 1.30 mVolt, and 0.44 mVolt for clear weather and bad weather, respectively. A Student’s t-test, carried out on the values of the average hourly tension measured at the tube capacitors inside and outside the orgone accumulator during clear weather, showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups of data (p-value = 0.0024). Because of the unequal size of the two samples, Welch’s t-test was instead used to analyse the two groups of values measured during bad weather. A statistically significant difference was also found for these two groups (p-value = 0.0456) (3). No relationship between tension and time of day was instead found, though an increase of the tension in the early morning and in the afternoon for the curve of the capacitor outside the orgone accumulator related to clear weather can be observed, completely resembling the curve obtained with the measurements carried out by Reich with the electroscope (4).

Mid-term laboratory experiments with fixed tube capacitors

In a further series of experiments different types of tube capacitors were tested. They were characterized by a different ratio of the organic/inorganic materials. Measurements were done on 10-fold capacitors where the ratio of the paper sheet to the aluminum foil was 1C/1A, 2C/1A, 3C/1A, 4C/1A, and 1C/2A, where C stands for paper sheet and A for aluminum foil, while the figure gives the number of sheets or foils used in each layer. Capacitors with charge storage capacity from 70 nFarad (4C/1A) to 182 nFarad (1C/1A) were tested. The capacitors were put in the laboratory where neither orgone devices nor electromagnetic appliances were present. They were located a few centimetres apart from each other so as to minimize any possible influences of electrostatic field variations due to air movements inside the laboratory, or electrostatic phenomena accidentally produced. Figure 7 shows the electrical circuit used in this first series of measurements (left), and a view of two of the tested capacitors connected by electrical wires to the measuring instrument (right).

  

Figure 7 –Scheme of the measurement circuit (left), and view of the capacitors (right)

The resistance of 1 MOhm directly applied to the capacitors did not allow a charge build-up between the plates, whose variations against time could have been difficult to evaluate. This arrangement made the two capacitors behave as current generators. The measured tension corresponded therefore to the instantaneous power generated when the measurement was made. Figure 8 reports the behaviour of the average measured daily tension of two of the capacitors under study monitored for a period of 5 continuous years. One of the capacitors was made of 10 alternated layers of one paper sheet and one aluminum foil (1C/1A), while the other capacitor consisted of 10 alternated layers of two paper sheets and one of aluminum foil (2C/1A). Storage capacity of the 2 capacitors was 182 nFarad and 103 nFarad for the 1C/1A, and 2C/1A, respectively. Measurements were made daily from June 21, 2011 to June 20, 2016 with at least one set of measures performed in the morning (around from 7 to 8). In many cases a measure in the afternoon was also performed. In this latter case values were averaged to obtain only one daily value. In addition, measurements of the tension in different times of the day were sometimes carried out on the two capacitors. It was observed the measurement carried out in the morning might be very well representative of the averaged values of the tension measured during the whole day, even though it was noted that the tension continuously varied during the day with an oscillation difficult to predict.

Figure 8 – Behaviour of average measured daily tension versus time (June 21, 2011-June 20, 2016)

From the results in the above figure it can be observed that the two capacitors were characterized by a cyclical behaviour, resembling a bell-shaped curve, where the average daily tension is increasing from zero to reach maximum values depending on the capacitor, and then decreasing again to zero. A period of some months in which they were dormant can also be observed for both the capacitors. An inversion of the polarity was also noticed, above all for the 1C/1A capacitor, and only occasionally for the other capacitor.

From the measured data we noted that the generation of current seemed not to be the consequence of capture of photon corpuscles of an electromagnetic nature. In addition, the tested capacitors did not produce any tension over a period of a few months, and then started up again, thus appearing to negate the hypothesis that the tension might be produced by electrochemical phenomena, or as a result of a capture of electrostatic nature. Data analysis was performed on the absolute values of the (average) daily tension. This was done since the target of the present study was to evaluate the production of electric current and power, and these physical parameters are not dependent on the type of the polarity of the tension the capacitors possessed. When the tension on the capacitors changes sign the electrons are changing or reversing direction of flow. In this way, the instrument does not measure a production of charges but only the flow of electrons that an external energy put in motion in producing an electric current. Accordingly, if we consider the generation of electric power or energy only, the polarity of the tension, and the resulting direction of flow of the electrons, is not a decisive parameter, and hence resorting to the module or the absolute value of the tension fits the purpose of our study. Since, from the measured data shown in figure 8, it was seen that a cyclical, bell-shaped trend characterized the behaviour of the data versus time, with a break of some months in which the two capacitors were dormant between each cycle, it was decided to analyse the data according to a cyclical period of 12 months, i.e. from June 21 of one year to June 20 of the next year. This was done to give continuity to the period in which the capacitors were producing a tension and generating an electric current, so as not to interrupt this trend at the end of the civil year, i.e. from January 1 to December 31. Accordingly, the results of the analysed data are reported in a five 12-month period format, each one starting on June 21 and ending on June 20 next year, and precisely 2011-2012; 2012-2013; 2013-2014; 2014-2015; and 2015-2016.

Following figure 9 shows the trend of the absolute value of the daily tension of both capacitors averaged for the 5-year period.

Figure 9 – Absolute daily tension averaged for the 5-year period

Figure 10 shows the behaviour of the total absolute tension accumulated in each monitored cyclical period, i.e. from June 21 to June 20 next year, for each capacitor. From this figure it can be observed the increasing value of the total tension against the time, mainly for the 1C/1A capacitor. Total tension for the 1C/1A capacitor increased from 84.7 mVolt (in the 2011-2012 period) to values in the range between 215.4 and 367.8 mVolt (in the following periods); while for the 2C/1A capacitor an increase, characterized by a more irregular trend, from 26.8 mVolt (in the 2011-2012 period) to values in the range between 143.2 and 506.8 mV (in the following periods) can be noticed.

Figure 10 – Behaviour of total absolute tension versus time

Figure 11 shows the behaviour of the average daily absolute tension versus time as measured on both the capacitors. This value has been obtained by dividing the total absolute tension, for each cyclical period, to the corresponding number of days in which the tension was recorded. From the figure it can be seen the trend of the average daily absolute tension is similar to that of the total absolute tension (in figure 10), with a more constant and smoother behaviour for the 1C/1A capacitor. Average daily absolute tension for the 1C/1A capacitor increased from 0.38 mVolt/day (in the 2011-2012 period) to values in the range between 1.13 and 1.67 mVolt/day (in the following periods); while for the 2C/1A capacitor an increase from 0.18 mVolt/day (in the 2011-2012 period) to values in the range between 0.76 and 2.41 mVolt/day (in the following periods) can be noticed.

Figure 11 – Behaviour of average daily absolute tension versus time

Figure 12 shows the number of days where the capacitors were active and were producing a tension. It can be seen from the figure the trend is a little higher for the 1C/1A capacitor; and a slight increasing trend versus time can be observed for both the capacitors. Production time ranges from 191 to 269 days for the 1C/1A capacitor (average 226.8 days); and from 150 to 236 days for the 2C/1A capacitor (average 198.6 days).

Figure 12 – Behaviour of production days versus time

The increasing trend in the production days of the tension might be related to a saturation the capacitors were subjected, in the first period of functioning, to the orgone energy available in the outside atmospheric orgonomic field. Progression of the production days during the years might be due also to environmental causes or to the aging of the capacitors. Table 1 through 3 show the values of the total absolute tension, average daily absolute tension, and production days versus weather conditions during measurements, for each monitored cyclical period.

	TOTAL ABSOLUTE TENSION [mVolt]
	Total		Weather
			clear		overcast/rain		snow
cycle	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A
2011-2012	84.7	26.8	42.1	13.5	32.8	10.6	9.8	2.7
2012-2013	348,0	143.2	79.1	51.2	246.6	82.3	22.3	9.7
2013-2014	215.4	375.8	118.0	232.2	94.7	138,0	2.7	5.6
2014-2015	367.8	507.8	190.3	219.4	166.4	281.8	11.1	6.6
2015-2016	349.8	179.3	168.7	85.9	178.1	90.9	3.0	1.3

Table 1 – Data related to the total absolute tension versus time, according to weather conditions during measurements

	AVERAGE DAILY ABSOLUTE TENSION [mVolt/day]
	Total		Weather
			clear		overcast/rain		Snow
cycle	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A
2011-2012	0.38	0.18	0.36	0.18	0.35	0.17	0.82	0.23
2012-2013	1.67	0.82	1.04	0.78	2.06	0.84	1.72	0.88
2013-2014	1.13	1.70	1.17	2.05	1.08	1.30	1.35	2.80
2014-2015	1.51	2.41	1.42	1.96	1.60	2.97	1.85	1.65
2015-2016	1.29	0.76	1.15	0.72	1.47	0.81	1.00	0.43

Table 2- Data related to the average daily absolute tension versus time, according to weather conditions during measurements

	PRODUCTION DAYS [#]
	Total		Weather
			clear		overcast/rain		Snow
cycle	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A
2011-2012	221	150	117	77	92	61	12	12
2012-2013	209	175	76	66	120	98	13	11
2013-2014	191	221	101	113	88	106	2	2
2014-2015	244	211	134	112	104	95	6	4
2015-2016	269	236	147	119	121	113	3	3

Table 3 – Data related to the production days versus time, according to weather conditions during measurements

From an analysis of the above data versus weather conditions the following observations can be drawn.

1. The total, and the average daily absolute tension during clear, overcast/rainy, and snowy weather for each cyclical period are following the same trend previously observed for the whole set of data, independently from the weather conditions. Following figure 13 shows the trend regarding the total absolute tension versus time recorded during clear weather for both capacitors.



Figure 13 – Behaviour of the total absolute tension versus time during clear weather for both capacitors

2. There is no substantial difference from the values recorded during different type of weather, as instead one might expect for orgone apparatus, mainly between clear weather and overcast/rainy weather, where the former values in general are higher. A statistical analysis performed by the Student’s t-test on the total absolute tension samples representing clear and overcast/rainy weather for the two tube capacitors confirmed this assumption, as no statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups of data, with p-value = 0.6137, and p-value = 0.9966 for the 1C/1A and 1C/2A capacitor, respectively. In some cases we also noticed that the values obtained during overcast/rainy weather were even higher than those recorded during clear weather. In addition, the difference in the construction characteristics of the two capacitors did not affect the data measured during different weather conditions, and no large differences were found between the performances of the two capacitors. Figure 14 shows the trend of the average daily absolute tension for the whole period of measurements, i.e. 2011-2016, for both the capacitors. From the figure a very small increase in the values related to overcast/rain, and snowy weather can be observed when compared to those related to clear weather for both capacitors.

Figure 14 – Behaviour of the average daily absolute tension versus weather conditions for the whole period of monitoring

As we already described above, in our laboratory arrangements we measured a current of electrons, as well as the tension that produced such electric current, by making the electrons flow in a resistance. This in turn gave us a measure of the maximum instantaneous power provided by the tube capacitors. In other words, the tension (the polarity does not matter when making a determination of the generated power), that we read at the measuring instrument and that is shown on the graphs of figure 8, makes a current to flow inside a 1 MOhm resistance, to whom the capacitors are connected. The flow of electrons develops an instantaneous electric power or energy per unit of time that can be calculated by the following equation:

P = V∙I                                                                                                            (1)

Where has been set:

P       = electric power, in Watt or Joule∙second^-1
V       = tension (module) at the capacitor, in Volt
I        = current intensity in the external circuit, in Ampere

The electric current generated is given by:

                                                                                                  (2)

Being the tube capacitors closed on a 1 MOhm resistance, and the tension 1.29 mV (the one that corresponds to the average daily value for the 1C/1A capacitor in the 2015-2016 period, see table 2), and substituting the above values in eq. (2), we have:

I = 1.29∙10^-3/106 = 1.29∙10^-9 Ampere

and hence the electric power from eq. (1) is:

P = 1.29∙10^-3∙1.29∙10^-9 = 1.66∙10^-12 Watt,

Considering this value constant over 24 hours, the energy produced is given by:

E = P∙t                                                                                                 (3)

And substituting the numerical values in the above eq. (3), we have:  

E = 1.66∙10^-12 ∙24 = 39.8∙10^-12 Watt∙hour

Or,

E = 39.8∙10^-12∙3,600 = 143.3∙10^-9 Joule

Being the production of the energy extended to a period of 269 days (for the period 2015-2016 in table 3), the energy produced in this period of time (a cyclical year) is:

Etot = 39.8∙10^-12∙269 days = 10.7∙10^-9 Watt∙hour

or

Etot = 143.3∙10^-9∙269 = 38.5∙10^-6 Joule

If we consider a small led that requires 8∙10^-3 Watt to run, we can calculate the time it is remaining lighted, as follows:

An energy, the one produced by the 1C/1A capacitor in the cyclical period 2015-2016, able to turn on a small led for about 0.005 seconds. Assumption done in making the above calculation is that the instantaneous measure carried out in the morning and (when available) in the afternoon (and then averaged) can correspond to the daily average value. A value, as we have already discussed, that is not dependent on the polarity of the tension on the tube capacitor.

Discussion

From the data reported in the previous section, obtained from daily measurements of the tension on two tube capacitors, built according to Reich and Zamboni standards (alternated layers of organic and inorganic materials), it can be observed the tension follows a cyclical bell-shaped trend with values generally less than 1 mVolt at the beginning and at the end periods of the bell-shaped curve, and of some mVolt at the top of the curve. This trend is practically constant versus time, i.e. the size and the peak values of the bell-shaped curve are quite similar from the first cyclical period (June 21, 2011 – June 20, 2012) to the last cyclical period monitored (June 21, 2015 – June 20, 2016), with the exception of that in the 2014-2015 period, where a little more pronounced curve was observed. The beginning of the bell-shaped curve tension for both capacitors occurs in late September/October, while the end occurs in May/July, as showed in table 4. The table shows also when the highest values (peaks) of the measured daily tension occurred in both the capacitors. In brackets the corresponding values of the measured tension in mVolt are also reported. In general, peaks of the tension were observed to occur in the period January/March.

	DAILY TENSION BELL-SHAPED CURVE CHARACTERISTICS
	ONSET		PEAK		END
cycle	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A	1C/1A	2C/1A
2011-2012	Oct 25, 11 (0.1)	Oct 31, 11 (0.1)	Feb 24, 12 (1.2)	Feb 22, 12 (0.5)	Jun 03, 12 (0.1)	May 08, 12 (0.1)
2012-2013	Oct 03, 12 (0.1)	Oct 09, 12 (0.2)	Jan 11, 13 (22.5)	Mar 09, 13 (3.3)	Jun 21, 13 (0.2)	Jun 03, 13 (0.1)
2013-2014	Oct 05, 13 (0.1)	Sep 27, 13 (0.1)	Jan 22, 14 (9.1)	Mar 14 ,14 (8.6)	Jun 21, 14 (0.2)	Jun 22, 14 (0.3)
2014-2015	Oct 01, 14 (0.1)	Oct 01, 14 (0.2)	Feb 17, 15 (7.0)	Jan 16, 15 (15.9)	Jul 20, 15 (0.1)	Jun 28, 15 (0.1)
2015-2016	Sep 13, 15 (0.1)	Sep 13, 15 (0.1)	Mar 01, 16 (7.0)	Dec 25, 15 (4.3)	Jun 17, 16 (0.7)	Jun 17, 16 (0.1)

Table 4 – Main characteristics of the daily tension bell-shaped curve (onset, peak, and end) versus time. Values in brackets show the tension (in mVolt) at the onset, peak, and end days, respectively

Figure 15 shows the trend of the daily tension of the capacitors (for the whole monitored period, 2011-2016) at the start, peak, and end days. From the figure it can be clearly seen when the capacitors were active and where peaks or maximum values occurred.

Figure 15 – Trend of the daily tension on the two capacitors at the start (onset), peak, and end days

This cyclical or pulsatory behaviour of the capacitors, that starts in late September/October and ends in May/July (and peaking in January/March) might be correlated to the general pulsatory movement of the atmospheric orgone energy envelope, that is expanding and contracting during the year, and more specifically is contracting during the winter months, and expanding during the summer months. This behaviour in turn reflects in a more concentrated amount of orgone energy units at the Earth’s surface, with a higher orgonomic potential than that available in the summer months, where the concentration of orgone energy units at the surface, and the related orgonomic potential is lower.

The pulsatory phenomenon of the orgone energy envelope of the Earth was originally observed and hypothesized by Reich (5):

“The OR energy envelope expands and reaches far out into space in good weather; on the other hand, it withdraws and concentrates at the surface of the globe before the onset of bad weather.
………………………….
5. OR EXPANSION IN SPRING AND CONTRACTION IN AUTUMN
The total contraction and expansion of the atmospheric OR energy envelope in certain regions is best expressed in the functions of nature which we observe in spring and autumn. Most of the phenomena we encounter on our wanderings through the countryside during these two periods fall into a comprehensive setting if we see them in the light of a contracting and expanding OR energy envelope of the Earth. .. .. The OR energy contracts and expands as a total energy SYSTEM. …..

CONTRACTED OR	EXPANDED OR
Tendency toward:	Tendency toward:
Matter	Energy
Immobilization	Mobility
“cold,” freezing	“heat,” expansion
autumn, winter	spring, summer
strong potential differences	even distribution of OR energy”

The pulsatory movement of the orgone energy envelope of the Earth have been independently confirmed in the past by the studies carried out by Baker and Maglione. They observed an annual variation of the monthly average values of the final deflection of the electroscope leaf, and of the radioactivity (as measured by a Geiger-Muller counter) inside orgone accumulators, respectively.

Figure 16 shows the trend of the annual variation of the monthly average of the radioactivity readings (red square), as measured by Maglione inside a 5-fold orgone accumulator in the period from November 2007 and October 2011; and of the monthly average of the electroscope (final) deflection (blue square), as reported by Baker (figure 1 in the original paper (6) ), for a period extending from August 1975 to August 1976 (7).

Figure 16 – Annual variation of the radioactive (after Maglione), and electroscopic (after Baker) fields inside orgone accumulators

From the above figure it can be observed that the annual trend of the radioactive field, and of the electroscopic charge are strikingly parallel; with minimum values in the summer time (and both bottoming out in September), and both peaking in the winter months. This result might provide a direct indication of the response of orgone accumulators to the outside concentration of the atmospheric orgone energy, which is lower in the Summer, and higher during the Winter. This might be the consequence and a confirmation of the annual contraction/expansion movement of the orgone energy envelope of the Earth, which concentrates more orgone energy (units) on the Earth’s surface during the wintry contracted state, and less during the expanded state typical of the summer months, being electroscope charge activity and radioactivity secondary states or expressions of the same primary orgone energy field at the Earth’s surface, and hence direct indicators of the behaviour of the primary orgone energy field (8).

By comparing the average annual trend of the tension at the capacitors to the annual trends from the studies of Baker’s and Maglione’s, a striking similarity can be observed in that the peaks of the tube capacitors tensions occur (from January to March) approximatively in the same period of time of the maximum variation observed for the electroscope final leaf deflection (and hence of the electroscope charge) (from November to March), and for the radioactivity (from December to February).

We might therefore deduce that the tension (and hence the associated generation of electrical current) at the tube capacitors might be a function of the pulsatory behaviour of the local energy orgone field at the Earth’s surface, at least as far as the peak values of the tension is concerned. Indeed, we did not observe a minimum value or a bottoming out of the tension at the tube capacitors in the summer months, as instead was observed for the electroscope and the Geiger-Muller counter trends. In this spell there was no electric tension, and hence no electrical currents generated by the capacitors.

To explain this, we may resort to the orgasm formula Reich conceived when studying the behaviour of human beings, and subsequently when studying the natural phenomena. Reich saw the orgasm formula can be applied, not only to the behaviour of human beings, but also to any orgonotic system in nature. According to Reich, we have (9):

During the tension and charge phases the orgonotic system undergoes a build-up and an increase of its orgonomic potential by accumulating orgone energy from the surrounding environment, until the system reaches the maximum orgonomic potential that corresponds to the maximum orgonotic capacity, or the maximum capacity to hold (or store) orgone energy units. When the system can no longer sustain a further accumulation of orgone energy units it discharges completely the orgone energy accumulated and its orgonomic potential comes back to that of the original conditions of the system. This phenomenon can occur during the orgasm, or in other instances such as during the formation of a cloud system through the local accumulation of the surrounding atmospheric orgone energy. When the cloud system reaches the maximum holding capacity, and can no longer sustain further accumulation of orgone energy it discharges the energy absorbed via rain and lightning (mechanical potential). In doing so, the cloud system disappears (relaxation phase) and the orgonomic potential of the system is back to the original atmospheric orgonomic potential. Thus, Reich found out that an orgone energy metabolism would exist and be at work in the living organism as well as in orgone apparatuses or in any other orgonotic system.

The following scheme in figure 17 represents the orgasm formula for a generic orgonotic system.

Figure 17 – Orgasm formula for a generic orgonotic system

The tube capacitors can be considered artificial orgonotic systems, characterized by a well-defined orgonotic capacity, or by a well-defined maximum capacity to hold or store orgone energy units. By its nature a tube capacitor accumulates and holds the orgone energy available in the environment in which it is located (in our case that of the Earth’s surface at a particular latitude and longitude) inside the alternated organic/inorganic layers that is made of. As long as the environmental orgonomic potential, in which the capacitor is immersed, is lower (line A1D1 in figure 18) than the minimum orgonomic potential (line AD in figure 18), above which the orgone charge-discharge metabolism in the capacitor starts, no orgone charge-discharge cycle can occur. But, when the minimum orgonomic potential of the environment is exceeding this value, the capacitor observes a charge-discharge metabolism even though not continuous, occurring from time to time. And this discharge is evidenced by the formation of an electrical tension at the capacitor, and of an associated generation of electrical current, as we observe at the beginning of the bell-shaped trend of the tension (the period September-October in figures 8 and 9). However, when the orgonomic potential, in which the tube capacitor is found, is continuously increasing (line B1C1 in figure 18) and all the time is higher than that that characterizes the maximum holding capacity of the capacitor (line BC in figure 18), a continuous orgone energy accumulation followed by a continuous discharge of the capacitor via electrical tension and current may be seen (in the period November-April) (figures 8 and 9). This phenomenon is going on until when the environmental orgonomic potential decreases again to a value lower than that peculiar of the capacitor (line BC). At this point in the capacitor a discontinuous orgone charge-discharge metabolism starts again (as we observe at the end of the bell-shaped curve, in the period May-June in figures 8 and 9), until when the orgonomic potential of the environment (line A1D1) decreases again below the minimum required for the capacitors to charge and discharge (line AD) and the orgone metabolism ceases and charge-discharge no longer occurs (period from June to September in figures 8 and 9). As a consequence also the tension and the production of electricity ceases.

The following scheme in figure 18 represents the above situation, where line A1D1 represents the minimum orgonomic potential reached by the environment in which the capacitor is immersed and no orgone metabolism by the capacitor does exist (in our case during summer months); and line B1C1 represents the maximum orgonomic potential reached by the same environment (during the wintry period), characterized by a continuous charge-discharge metabolism of orgone energy of the capacitor. Intermediate positions of the orgonomic potential of the environment occurs during the other months of the year according to the pulsatory nature of the local atmospheric environment.

Figure 18 – Orgasm formula applied to a tube capacitor immersed in an atmospheric orgone energy field

The above pulsatory behaviour typical of the atmosphere (from A1D1 to B1C1, and back to A1D1 again) is what might have affected the performance of the two tube capacitors during the whole year, and particularly in the period from September/October to May/June where a flow of electric current was observed, as a consequence of the orgone energy metabolism, first discontinuously (from AD to BC); then continuously (from BC to B1C1 and back again to BC); and then discontinuously again (from BC to AD). This phenomenon is cyclic and is repeating every year according to the cyclical contraction/expansion behaviour of the local orgone energy envelope at the Earth’s surface.

Being OPE, the orgonomic potential of the environment, in which the tube capacitor was immersed, and TC the tension at the tube capacitor, it can be hence understood that:

TC α OPE                                           for OPE ≥ OPAD,

and:

TC = 0                                                   for OPE < OPAD

and more specifically:

TC > 0 (discontinuous)            for OPAD ≤ OPE ≤ OPBC,

TC > 0 (continuous)     for OPE  > OPBC,

where OPBC is the critical environment orgonomic potential that corresponds to the maximum orgonotic capacity level of the capacitor to hold or accumulate orgone energy units; while OPAD is the minimum orgonomic potential that still guarantees a charge and discharge of the capacitors.
In particular, if between the two orgonomic potentials OPAD and OPBC the charge-discharge metabolism is not continuous and requires some time for the capacitors to recharge and discharge again; the charge-discharge metabolism for values of the environment orgonomic potential OPE higher than OPBC seems to be instantaneous and continuous.
It must be outlined here that the value of TC might be considered also a function of the construction characteristic of the tube capacitors, i.e., materials used, sizes, etc. As a consequence, in the same experimental conditions tube capacitors with different construction characteristics might behave in a different way.

If we consider the trend of the radioactivity and of the electroscope leaf deflection, as shown in figure 19, we can observe that the capacitors are active (namely producing a tension and generating an associated electric current) for values of the monthly radioactivity higher than around 22.2 counts per minute (CPM), and for values of the monthly electroscope leaf deflection higher than around 19.0 degree; while for values of the monthly radioactivity lower than around 22.2 counts per minute (red dotted area), and for values of the electroscope monthly deflection lower than around 19.0 degree (blue dotted area), the two tube capacitors are dormant.

Figure 19 – Radioactivity (red dotted area), and electroscope leaf deflection (blue dotted area) range in which the two tube capacitors were unresponsive

The three cyclical trends (those regarding the radioactivity and the electroscope leaf deflection, and that regarding the electric tension) are comparable since the local orgone energy field pulsation is behaving approximately in the same way being the sites, in which the measurements were performed, located at around the same latitude. As a consequence, expansion and contraction movements of the orgone energy envelope at the Earth’s surface might be considered to follow the same path even though the sites of the measurements are quite distant, above all that one regarding the electroscope measurements (carried out by Baker in Eastern Pennsylvania) (10) .
It is clear from the above graphs that the tension (and the associated electrical current) at the tube capacitors, as well as the radioactivity and the electroscope leaf, were affected by a similar orgonomic potential of the local environment orgone energy.

The blue and red continuous lines in figures 19 are different expressions of the same environmental orgone energy pulsatory movement that in figure 18 is represented to move from A1D1 to B1C1 and back again to A1D1. While the line AD represents the critical (minimum) value of the environment orgone energy (corresponding to the red and blue dotted lines in figure 19) below which the tube capacitor is inactive (or dormant) and does not produce any secondary physical effects; while above which electric tension and current is detected.  

All in all, it would appear that the tube capacitors only gather a tension and an electrical charge when the natural orgonomic potential of the environment, in which they are immersed, is higher than the minimum orgonomic potential required by the orgone accumulating-type devices to produce a charge-discharge metabolism. In case the natural orgonomic potential of the environment exceeds the maximum orgonomic potential (or the maximum orgonotic capacity to hold an orgone charge) characteristic of the tube capacitors the charge-discharge metabolism is continuous.

According to what has been discussed above, for a given tube capacitor reduction of the dormant period, and increase of the tension and of the associated electrical current in periods of activity, it can only be done artificially by increasing the natural orgonomic potential of the environment, OPE, in which the capacitor is immersed. Increasing OPE from A1D1 to an orgonomic potential higher than OPBC, for instance A2D2 (see figure 20), in periods of no activity (when the capacitor is dormant), means having the generation of an electric tension at the tube capacitor for all the period where the orgonomic potential is artificially maintained at A2D2. In addition, increasing the maximum naturally-available OPE to values higher than B1C1, i.e. B2C2 (see figure 20), allows to have higher values of the tension from the tube capacitor even in periods where the capacitor is already producing a tension, being the response of the capacitor directly proportional to the orgonomic potential in which it is immersed. In addition, for OPE ≥ OPBC there should not be a charge-discharge phase but only one continuous phase that includes simultaneous charge and discharge, as observed in the winter months where the production of electricity was continuous all over the period.

Figure 20 – Behaviour of the local environment orgonomic potential when artificially increased

From accounts of witnesses of the orgone motor, it emerged that Reich, in one of his prototypes, connected the Western Electric KS-9154 motor to an orgone accumulator in order to get it run (11). As we saw in our earlier laboratory experiments a very small tension and current may be available from a small orgone accumulator, and hence different types of arrangements or possibly procedures might have been used by Reich to produce a tension sufficient to run the motor. In addition, demonstration of the functioning of the orgone motor occurred during the First International Conference, that was held at Orgonon between the end of August and beginning of September, 1948, in a period where we observed the tube capacitors we tested in our laboratory in Italy were still dormant and producing no electricity. We might assume that also during the demonstration done by Reich the orgone accumulator, connected to the motor, were not producing any amount of electricity in the case that it resorted only to the natural orgonomic potential of the environment. Hence, the electricity required to run the motor must have been produced in some other ways. We know from the accounts of his collaborators that Reich might have excited the orgone energy units contained inside the orgone accumulator by a small amount of electricity (12) (a half Volt battery). In our view, this can be understood as a way to artificially increase the orgonomic potential of the concentrated orgone energy to a level high enough to produce the electricity required to start and run the motor. However, it is not clear for how long the motor run when the battery was disconnected from the arrangement, and functioned because of the action of the excited concentrated orgone units only, being reasonable to think that after disconnection the excitation of the orgone units decreased until it disappeared after a certain period of time. No information has ever been reported on this point in the literature either by Reich nor by his collaborators. Possibly, the aim of the above arrangement was only to demonstrate the mechanical qualities of the orgone units when excited. And, Reich might have devised a different and also cheaper way to produce a more continuous and higher excitation of the orgone energy such as that of using a small source of radioactive material as suggested in the Oranur Experiment book (13):

“5. The formation of concentrations to single distinct units follows upon excitation of the OR energy ocean in various ways: presence of other orgonotic systems, electromagnetic sparks, metallic obstacles, and, foremost nuclear energy (cf. p. 267 ff.).”

A further very important point is related to the fact the orgone motor was behaving like a hysterical woman, as reported by Baker (14), and by his second wife Ilse Ollendorf (15). The running of the orgone motor was noisy, and a clean-up was required for a good functioning. Reich might have well referred to the inversion of polarity of the tension produced by the orgone devices, as we observed in our capacitors, and that are described by the trend of the tension in figure 8. We do not know the exact reason of this phenomenon. We observed it is related to the construction characteristics of the capacitor but we can also suppose it could be related to the environment orgonomic potential itself. However, inversion of polarity either continuous and progressive, as that shown by the 1C/1A capacitor, or occasional, were not due to the tube capacitors position since they neither touched nor got close to each other. In addition, the measuring device was located in a different room and no effect might have been produced by on the polarity. In any case this might be the proof that the electric current is not generated neither by electrochemical phenomena (due to the paper foils of the capacitor that touch the aluminum foils) nor by contact between metals.

The tube capacitor 2C/1A with the lower capacity value (103 nFarad) seems to show a more stable polarity of the generated tension. This may be due to the higher thickness of the organic layers of the capacitor (in this case paper) or the higher mass. The tube capacitor with the higher capacity (1C/1A with 182 nFarad) is consisting of one sheet of paper alternated to one foil of aluminum layer and hence is characterized by half the thickness and mass of organic material (paper). Hence, it can be argued that better and more stable performances might be due to the higher amount of organic material used to build the capacitors.

The phenomenon of the inversion of polarity was also observed by Zamboni during the development of his dry piles (16):

“Una pila di questo genere ch’era riuscita molto energica la mattina, si vedea alle volte illanguidir sulla sera: cinquanta coppie di una carta non davano in certi giorni la tensione, data nello stesso momento dalle sole dieci di un’altra: l’aria umida egualmente che la secca, parea dare la vita ad alcune, ad altre la morte; e quel che è più, vedeasi persino rovesciarsi in alcune la polarità elettrica, e dove jeri aveano il polo negativo sulla faccia metallica, e il positivo nel rovescio, oggi tutto al contrario….”

“A battery of this kind might show a good tension in the morning, which might vanish in the evening: fifty couples of one type of paper did not give on some days the tension produced at the same moment by ten (couples) of another (paper): wet air, as well as dry air, seemed to give life to some, and death to others; and in some cases electric polarity was found to reverse, and where the day before we had the negative pole on the metallic side, and the positive one on the other side, the day after we observed the opposite ….”

It is possible that the erratic behaviour of the arrangements of Zamboni’s dry piles is the same phenomenon we observed in the functioning of our tube capacitors, and that Reich observed in his orgone motor when run by excited orgone energy alone. An erratic behaviour that resembled the hysterical woman-like behaviour.   
Zamboni solved the point by introducing in his piles alternated layers of silver paper disk (a paper with a thin layer of tin or a copper-zinc alloy on one side) and gilded paper disk (a paper smeared with manganese oxide or copper powder on one side). He saw that by introducing this arrangement the polarity of the tension, that was seen to be affected by variations of the weather and the time of day, stabilized.

In this paper we described the spontaneous formation of few mVolt of tension in orgone accumulating-type devices. This tension and the related charge fluctuate in annual cycles. Tension and electrical charge do not appear to be explained by electrostatic, electromagnetic, and chemical reactions.
In the next and last paper the results obtained by artificially increasing the local orgonomic potential in one of the two tube capacitors will be discussed. A hypothesis about the Y-factor will be also developed and included in the paper.

References:

(1). Maglione R, Methods and Procedures in Biophysical Orgonometry, Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso, Milan, April 2012, pages 83-125.

(2). Maglione R, The Legendary Shamir, Gedi Gruppo Editoriale, 2017, Milan, pages 43-65.

(3). In all instances a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

(4). Reich W, The Cancer Biopathy, Orgone Institute Press, New York, 1948, pages 132-142. See also Maglione R, Methods and Procedures in Biophysical Orgonometry, Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso, Milan, April 2012, pages 88 and 89.

(5). Reich W, OROP Desert. Part 1: Spaceships, DOR and Drought. Chapter 1. Expansion and Contraction in the Atmospheric OR Energy, Cosmic Orgone Engineering, Orgone Institute Press, Maine, Usa, Vol. VI, N° 14, July 1954, pages 1 (top), and 5-7 (bottom).

(6). Baker CF, The Electroscope IV: Atmospheric Pulsation, Journal of Orgonomy, 11(1):35-48, 1977.

(7). Maglione R, Methods and Procedures in Biophysical Orgonometry, Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso, Milan, April 2012, page 137.

(8). Maglione R, Ibid, 2012.

(9). Reich W, The Function of the Orgasm, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, 1973.

(10). Latitude and longitude of the sites where Baker did electroscopic measurements (Ambler, Pennsylvania), Maglione did radioactivity measurements (Vercelli, Italy), and those of the present study (Sassuolo, Italy) were, respectively: Ambler, Pennsylvania, latitude 40° 09’ 18” N (40.1545535),  longitude 75° 13’ 13” W (-75.2215651); Vercelli, Italy, 45° 19′ 0" N (45.3166667), longitude 8° 25′ 0" E (8.4166667); and Sassuolo, Italy, latitude 44° 40′ 0" N (44.6666667), longitude 10° 55′ 0" E (10.9166667). As to the site in which Baker carried out his measurements we assumed they were performed in Ambler, Pennsylvania, the location where usually Baker conducted all his scientific activities. In the paper, published on the Journal of Orgonomy regarding his research experience (Vol. 11(1), 1977), Baker reported the measurements were performed in Eastern Pennsylvania, without giving more specific details on the site.

(11). Maglione R, Electric Currents in Orgone Devices. The Route towards the Reich Orgone Motor? A State of the Art, Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, August 27, 2017.

(12). Maglione R, Ibid, August 27, 2017.

(13). Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 199.

(14). Baker EF, My Eleven Years with Reich, ACO Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2001, pages 32 and 33.

(15). Ollendorf I, Wilhelm Reich. A Personal Biography, St Martin’s, New York, 1969, page 117.

(16). Zamboni G, Lettera all’Accademia Reale delle Scienze di Monaco dell’Abate Giuseppe Zamboni Sopra i Miglioramenti da Lui Fatti alla Sua Pila Elettrica, Tipografia Ramanzini, Verona, 1816.

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Leon Southgate for the critical review of the final manuscript.

Authors:

Roberto Maglione – 1 Scholar, and author in orgonomy. Italy www.orgonenergy.org Degree in Mining Engineering.

Dionisio Ferrari – Electronic technician specialized in electroacoustics. Scholar in orgonomy, and manufacturer of orgone accumulators. www.dionisioferrari.it

  

This paper is the first of a series of three papers focused on the Reich orgone motor which will appear on Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy. The present one is a brief account of the state of the art. The second paper (co-authored with Dionisio Ferrari) focuses on lab experiments performed in-house where a spontaneous cyclical production of electrical energy has been obtained from orgone apparatuses in a standard orgone energy environment. The third paper (co-authored with Dionisio Ferrari) reports and discusses the response of the orgone apparatuses to the production of electrical energy when the orgonomic potential of the environment is artificially increased. A hypothesis of the Y-factor is developed and described in this last paper.

Reich spent all his life in studying and researching on the presence in nature of a ubiquitous cosmic energy whose application would have had dramatic social and technological impact on the life of human beings. Towards the end of the 1950, after many years of investigations on the biological and physical properties of this cosmic energy, which he called orgone energy, Reich started to use a Geiger-Muller counter to study the interaction between orgone energy and radioactivity (2). He was thinking that orgone energy could mitigate, or even annul, the danger and harmfulness of radioactivity on the organism and life forms in general. He planned and conducted this type of research partly because of the advent of the Korean war in order to find a response and an antidote to the threat of a possible nuclear conflict. He was convinced that (3):

“Nuclear radiation, for instance radium, is changed under the influence of concentrated orgone energy. The kind and the extent of such change is still very obscure.”

And his later experiments were focused on this assumption and aimed at verifying whether very small quantities of radioactive materials, when put inside strong and powerful orgone accumulators located inside an orgone room (4) were rendered innocuous. The results of this last experiment, called Oranur (5), carried out in Reich’s laboratory, led him to completely different results and conclusions, and radioactivity was found to be detrimental to high concentration of orgone energy (6). Nevertheless, further researches conducted by Reich in the following years, based on the results of the Oranur experience, proved that in the end orgone energy could convert nuclear energy into a more powerful and basically benign form of energy, called Orur (7). Besides, results of his first experiments with Geiger-Muller counters and orgone apparatus, carried out in the years 1947 and 1948, led him to unexpected findings and to the conclusion that orgone energy could also be used and converted to produce mechanical energy, or work (8).

During the first experiments, carried out in 1947-1948, Reich observed that the Geiger-Muller counter, used to monitor the radioactivity, initially reacted normally, registering the background count given, and the gamma radiation of the area. However, the device was unresponsive when placed close to orgone accumulators, and did not react to background radiation and not even to small x-ray sources. The device remained practically unreactive for some weeks, when the pointer of the impulse recorder started rotating at the rate of one full turn per second, which corresponded to about 100 impulses per second, a very high value compared to the normal background of 10-15 counts per minute. On further measurements Reich obtained a reading of about six to eight thousand counts per minute. Reich realized that he was witnessing a possible motor force (9). The orgone energy was somehow being transformed into electromagnetic and mechanical energy through the Geiger-Muller counter (10). He argued that the motor effect occurred because the tube of the Geiger-Muller counter had soaked up orgone energy through constant exposure to the high orgonotic charge in the laboratory. Since the gas-filled counter tube consisted of an inner cylindrical metal tube, and an outer non-metallic protective layer, usually of coated glass, the counter tube constituted and behaved essentially as a small orgone energy accumulator (11).

Later on, he replaced the counter tube with a specially-built vacuum tube (called a Vacor tube). It was built with inner parallel aluminum plates, attached to the cathode and anode, respectively. The plates were inserted in the tube (generally made of pyrex) 4-6 cm apart, opposite each other. Each plate was 16 cm long, and 4 cm wide. The vacuum was 0.5 micron of pressure, which was sufficient to rule out the presence of any gas. This arrangement functioned like a kind of a orgone energy accumulator in the vacuum. Reich obtained, by using this updated arrangement, a much more powerful reaction that shortly afterwards was able to run a small spinner motor. In another arrangement he used a small orgone accumulator attached to a wheel. He excited the concentrated orgone energy inside the accumulator to run the wheel by a half Volt of electricity. Indeed, Reich found that electric energy might excite orgone energy (12):

“ELECTRICAL ENERGY EXCITES OR ENERGY AND CAUSED IT TO CHANGE FROM THE STATE OF CLOUDY PATCHES TO THAT OF QUICK WHITISH RAYS.
……
Now it became most probable that there is only ONE type of OR energy which changes its appearance and form according to different conditions.”

However, electrical energy was not the only way to excite orgone energy. Reich found several methods to excite concentrated orgone energy (13):

“5. The formation of concentrations to single distinct units follows upon excitation of the OR energy ocean in various ways: presence of other orgonotic systems, electromagnetic sparks, metallic obstacles, and, foremost nuclear energy (cf. p. 267 ff.).…………..

May, 1950.”

In practice, with all these researches Reich was able to convert an excited concentrated orgone energy field into usable electrical energy to produce work (14):

“I have simply transformed orgone into electrical energy.”

However, Reich, notwithstanding this important discovery, never revealed the basic theory, design, and experimental set-ups through which he was able to run the small spinner motor, and to obtain mechanical work directly from the cosmic orgone energy locally available (15). He wrote, soon after the discovery, a very brief communication, included in the book the Cancer Biopathy (16), and a brief report, a year later, was included in the first issue of the Orgone Energy Bulletin (17). The information therein reported was too small to understand and to replicate the experiments that led to the development of the motor. Nevertheless, Reich included in his last book, Contact with Space, several clues on how to develop the orgone motor and maybe to understand the meaning of the mysterious and inexplicable Y-factor that, according to Reich, was essential in developing the orgone motor. From them it can be inferred that Reich was able to convert orgone energy into mechanical energy by exciting concentrated orgone energy, and that one of the key points of such conversion was the use of radioactivity. He set also a minimum rate of radioactivity to run a motor.
However, the first chapters of the Oranur Experiment text include many of the tests he did with Geiger-Muller counters, and that later led to the development of the first prototypes of the orgone motor. And they can be considered an introductory work to the development of the final prototype of the orgone motor.
The running of the orgone motor was witnessed by many collaborators, and people outside his research circle. Demonstration of the functioning of the orgone motor was also done during the First International Conference, held at Orgonon, from August 30 to September 2, 1948.

In his accounts, Reich described only in general lines the basic functioning of the motor (18):

“… These phenomena, open up a vista of two new technical applications of orgone energy:

1. production of light, and
2. transformation of impulses in rapid succession into a mechanical motor force ……

On June 24th, 1948, at 1 p.m., I succeeded in setting a motor (Western Electric, KS-9154, Serial No. 1227) into motion by means of the Orgone Energy Motor Force which I had discovered by way of the Geiger-Muller counter on August 8th, 1947. …. In order to set the Orgone Motor into motion, a certain function, called Y is necessary. This function cannot be divulged at the present time.
The sources of orgone energy used hitherto are the following:

1. Orgone-charged Vacor tubes
2. Atmospheric Orgone
3. Earth Orgone
4. Organismic Orgone Energy

 

No material as is being used in the process of nuclear fission is required. The succession of impulses can be regulated. The sequence of impulses is even and continuous. The relation of the amount of used orgone energy to the tremendous reservoir of the Cosmic Energy Source is minimal. …. The speed of the motor action can be regulated. It depends on

1. The number of vacor tubes connected
2. Weather conditions in accordance with orgonotic functions found hitherto, such as temperature difference T-To, speed of electroscopic discharge, etc.,
3. Function Y

 

…. There is no such thing as “empty space.” Field actions are due to the activity of the universal cosmic orgone energy.”

The Western Electric KS-9154 motor used by Reich is a small two phase spinner motor, with a diameter of 2 15/16 inches, and length of 4 1/16 inches. It consists of a laminated steel stator, and of a rotor (1 inch diameter, and 2.5 inch long) made by a hollow cylinder of copper, open at one end and connected to a steel shaft at the other end (19).
Reich died without revealing the function Y, a fundamental part for understanding the functioning of the orgone motor, since he assumed the average man (the little man as he called it) was not prepared to use such an unlimited source of power. However, what is missing in Reich’s accounts is not only the meaning of the function Y, but also the general theory behind the functioning of the motor, whose function Y is only a part of it.
Amongst the accounts of the co-workers who witnessed the orgone motor running we have those of Sharaf, Baker, Wyvell, Neill, and that of his second wife, Ilse Ollendorf. They add only anecdotic information on the orgone motor, and only very few more interesting details can be found in addition to those already available. In general, from the accounts it emerged that the wheel of the motor was turning much faster and noiselessly when powered only by the orgone energy, which was supplied to it by a vacor tube, or by a small orgone accumulator; while when connected to a battery the wheel was turning much slower and the rotational movement was noisy. When alimented by orgone energy alone the rotation of the wheel was affected by weather conditions. Besides, Reich stated that he wanted either to commercialize the discovery, or to carry out researches and experiments only, without going through the marketing of it. He also asserted that he did not want to publish the details, including the Y-factor. This latter controversial behaviour was never considered nor discussed by the biographers, and scholars of Reich.

Sharaf’s account was (20):

“Reich never published the design for the orgone energy motor and I no longer remember the details of the experimental set-up or its operation. I do recall that it involved the use of an accumulator attached to a wheel; concentrated orgone energy was triggered by a small amount of electricity, an amount insufficient to rotate the wheel without the accumulator. I also recall that when the wheel was rotated entirely by electricity, it had a steady grinding motion. When powered by the combination of orgonotic and electrical energy, it ran smoothly and quietly; but its speed varied depending upon the weather – more rapidly on dry, clear days, more slowly when the humidity was high. During this summer [1948], Reich was extremely excited about the motor and envisioned its industrial applications. He also expressed considerable concern that the “secret” of the motor might be stolen, which may have contributed to his reluctance to publish the details.”

Baker’s account, was based on what he observed during the demonstration of the orgone motor at the First International Conference in 1948 (21):

“Films from the archives of the Orgone Institute on cancer development were shown, as well as a film of the development of the orgone energy motor.
Reich also demonstrated the reaction of the Geiger Muller counter to orgone energy and, finally, the orgone energy motor. Reich discovered the motor force of orgone energy in 1947 when he observed the dial of the Geiger Muller counter revolve. He decided to build an orgone energy motor. On Myron Sharaf’s suggestion, he employed one William Washington, a black who was a student of mathematics at the University of Chicago, to help work out a way to build the motor. Reich first used vacor tubes in series attached to a small accumulator and connected to a transformer to build up an electrical charge to excite the orgone energy. He used four or five vacor tubes. All were connected to a 25 volt electric motor. A vacor tube is a vacuum tube soaked in orgone energy in an accumulator for six weeks. Reich was able to get the vacor tube to glow a beautiful blue when excited by a charge of 500 volts of electricity. His photographer, Kari Berggrav, took colored photographs of this, as well as of the orgone energy motor. Reich took away one vacor tube after another until all were taken away, and still the motor ran. The important ingredient was the so-called “Y factor” which Reich did not divulge. The motor ran on ½ volt of electricity sent through an accumulator that was connected to the electric motor. When the motor was run on electricity alone, it took 25 volts of electricity and was noisy and wobbly. On orgone energy, it was practically noiseless and ran smoother and faster. At times, it would change direction. In damp weather, it would not ran. Reich said it was like an hysterical woman.”

Wyvell’s account was (22):

“The one I saw was about the size of a large orange … It was hooked up to a special OR [orgone] accumulator with a “Y” factor that Reich did not divulge as he felt mankind was not ready to use such a potentially boundless power rationally. It was also connected to an electrical source with very low voltage because, as I remember it, the unexcited orgone energy by itself couldn’t overcome the initial inertia. But it ran on atmospheric orgone energy fed to it through the accumulator and also from the human energy field … It ran erratically, as no motor with a mechanical energy source does: it slowed down and speeded up without any interference. Also, if one curved his hands over it, it also speeded up and slowed down, apparently on its own volition, but actually at the volition of the orgone energy. Thirdly, the motor using orgone energy did something no motor using mechanical energy can do: it reversed itself every once in a while without slowing down, even without a jolt. This, I believe, is impossible in terms of what is known of mechanical physics, but it was witnessed by a number of sane and sensible doctors, scientists, and laymen. This is, of course, why Reich believed UFOs were powered by orgone energy, for they, too, have been observed to be moving at a terrific speed in one direction and to reverse or turn off at a sharp angle without slowing down and without a jerk.
The “Y” factor hasn’t been rediscovered, and I personally hope it won’t be until power-lust and other forms of the emotional plague are reduced to controllable proportions.”

Neill briefly commented the orgone motor in two of his writings:

“Ten years ago [1948] in Maine I saw a small motor turning over when attached to an orgone accumulator. “The power of the future”, cried Reich joyfully. But as far as I ever knew, the experiment was not continued. In reply to a query Reich wrote: “My job is discovery, and I leave it to others to carry out the results”.”(23)

“He had a small motor which was charged by an orgone accumulator. It ran slowly but when gingered up by volts from a battery it seemed to revolve at a great speed. Reich was in ecstasies: “The motive force of the future!” he exclaimed. I never heard of its being developed.”(24)

His second wife, Ilse Ollendorf, briefly commented in her biography of Reich that the orgone motor was as follows (25):

“In March of that year [1948] Reich had experimented with Geiger counters and with vacuum tubes, and had made several important discoveries about the behaviour of orgone energy.
He had also started to experiment with a small motor moved by orgone energy. This work continued in Maine with the help of a young assistant [William Washington (26)] who concentrated on the elaboration of these phenomena. Reich was very excited about the reactions of the little motor. Notes kept by some students at the laboratory, and put at my disposal as source material, mention the work with the motor again and again as one of Reich’s preoccupations that summer [1948]. He knew that a great deal of work was needed to “clean” the experiment, to clarify all its ramifications and functions because, as he put it, it sometimes behaved like “an hysterical woman”. Reich foresaw a great future for his orgone-energy motor.”

Reich made motion pictures of the motor in operation, and these have been preserved, transferred to videotape, and are now available at the Wilhelm Reich Museum, Rangeley, Maine.

In the last decades, the Wilhelm Reich Museum published four books (27), edited by Body Higgins, trustee of the Museum, covering all the periods of Reich’s life and research topics, including materials taken mainly from Journals and correspondence available in the Reich’s Archive, located at Harvard Medical School (Boston, Massachusetts). In some of them, and particularly in the volume published in 1999 (28), some more information about type and line of research conducted by Reich, the system he conceived to convert orgone energy into a motor force, and few details on the experimental set-ups can be found.
From this last book, on August 9, 1947, Reich writes (29):

“Continuation of Geiger-Muller tests:
1. Switching off tube: No humming, but one click each time the high voltage is applied.
2. Questions to Washington on the phone, 2 p.m.
a. Have you ever worked with such a device?
b. What is most speedy reaction of Geiger-Muller to radiation?
c. What is the "normal" reaction to cosmic rays?
d. Ever seen 100 per second?
3. Measurement with seconds meter + recorder.
In 25 seconds 1,500 pulses!
60 per second!
Incredible!
Consequences:
1. Wheels are rotated by pulses of orgone energy.
2. It will be possible to power motors with orgone.
3. This use will be risk-free; it will be cheap.
4.20 p.m.
I place the receiver in a threefold orgone accumulator in order to see whether it rises.
Today, 9 August 1947, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. I have discovered the principle of the transformation of orgone energy into mechanical energy by means of the electronic impulses of a Geiger counter.
Present this afternoon were: Ilse Ollendorff
William Washington, whom I called
Tom Ross, our caretaker
One revolution per second at the counter.
Immediately notified: the Atomic Energy Commission, American Academy of Sciences, French Academy, Patent Office.”

On August 14, 1947, he writes (30):

“Orgone is capable of turning a wheel if a counter tube or similar instrument is so excited that an electromagnetic wheel rotates. It seems important that the electrons "excite" the orgone in the tube. It remains to be discovered whether the electrons or the orgone itself
is the motor force.
I have simply transformed orgone into electrical energy. The impulse is a simple electromagnetic system.
9 a.m. Proof for orgone = motor force.
I killed the reaction by completely uncovering the counter tube. Reaction 0. As soon as the counter tube is placed in the accumulator or metal housing, the motor on the counter starts to run.
Tasks for orgone motor.
1. Does the orgone motor also work outside the metal-lined room [Reich refers to a room in the laboratory at Orgonon which was lined with metal as an accumulator], with accumulator in the open air or in an orgone-free room?
2. What types of electromagnetic apparatus are caused to move?
3. How much can be eliminated from the structure of the Geiger-Muller without destroying the principle?
4. What are the conditions for obtaining a patent if a Geiger-Muller counter tube is used?
5. Can the motor force be increased, and how?”

And, on November 7 and 9, 1947, he writes (31):

♦ “7 November 1947
Have begun construction of an orgone motor.

♦ 9 November 1947
I must study electron tubes, for they are opening up a new world for me. The orgone in the electron tube. That is the way of great science! I found five years ago the functional identity of body orgone and secondary coil orgone. Now I could eliminate all high tension from the Geiger-Muller counter. The "wheel turns" without high tension
a. when I touch a battery with my hands,
b. when I let a secondary coil system be excited.”

Reich believed that this kind of motor could be used to move spaceships, and that they were propelled by orgone energy, and could reach tremendous velocities in outer space, up to 10,000 – 15,000 mph (around 16,100 – 24,150 km/hr). They could also use orgone streams in the Universe to move much faster. He came to these conclusions by observing the striking similarity between the phenomena related to spaceships, as described in the literature by many authors about Unidentified Flying Objects, and those provided by the observations of both natural phenomena and those produced by the use of high concentrations of orgone energy. He writes in a paper out on CORE (32):

“The facts confirming these abstractions seemed to be at hand now in a strangely practical manner. Things tied in further. Function-after-function coordinated itself with what I had read about the "Unidentified Objects". The final picture as of today is about this:
(1) The CORE Men" (CORE = Cosmic Orgone Engineering) – as I came to call them – apparently were thoroughly conversant with the laws of functioning in the cosmic OR [orgone] energy ocean, especially with gravity as a function of superimposition.
(2) They use Cosmic OR energy in propelling their machines.
(3) Their "blue lights" were in agreement with the blue color characteristic of all visible OR functions – sky, protoplasm, aurora, sunspots, depth of moon valley seen at dusk, the color of OR energy lumination in vacor tubes, etc.
(4) The changes of color from blue to white or red, etc. I knew well from various studies of OR phenomena. And I had seen some practically in vacor tubes.
(5) The CORE men were obviously riding their spaceships on the main OR energy streams of the Universe (See Cosmic Superimposition on "Galactic and Equatorial Streams").
(6) The tremendous speeds which they are able to achieve were not in disagreement with all the tremendous quantities I had calculated for the OR energy streams of the Universe in 1940-1944. There are still many gaps there and many uncertainties. The tables of the krx-number system are in my possession.
(7) A speed of 10,000 – or – 15,000 mph did not appear impossible in the light of these numbers. On the contrary, it appeared quite natural.
(8) They rotated their discs in harmony with the OR waves they rode on. Rotating discs describe exactly what I had calculated 10 years previously as the so-called KRW ("Krieselwellen") or Spinning Waves, without any knowledge of spaceships actually riding Cosmic OR waves. From these waves, I had derived my mass-free equation:

Things were fitting well – even too neatly for my taste. Therefore, I hesitated to tell anything to anyone about them. I only worried about what might have happened to the facts and equations which a student [William Washington] had acquired in 1947 to 1949. He had worked on the OR energy motor. And he disappeared in 1949 under mysterious circumstances.
(9) Just as space is not empty, light does not "come down to us from the stars and the Sun". It is an effect of lumination in the OR energy envelope of the planets. It is a local phenomenon. Therefore, there is theoretically no limit to speed in cosmic space except technically. This agrees with the apparently limitless quantities in energy functions which characterize the Orgonometric "krx- system" as progressing in geometric proportions. These Orgonometric calculations seem to be applicable to the technological problems of Cosmic OR Energy Streams.”

And on November 20, 1953, Reich writes in his diary (33):

“After reading Keyhoe report [Donal Keyhoe, The Flying Saucer are Real, New York, Fawcett, 1950]
Summary: State of affairs:

1. The flying saucers are real, to judge from Keyhoe’s report.
2. They use OR [orgone] energy in propelling and lightning: speed, colors, silence [one of the basic characteristics of the orgone motor was silence]
3. Most likely they were stirred into action in far outer space by the atomic explosions: Oranur effects.
4. They come to investigate the disturbance of their lives by nuclear Oranur.
5. They are directed by intelligent beings who come peacefully.
6. All DOR effects began with equinox: flying saucers ride on Galactic stream.
7. The melanor was brought down to earth by the Galactic Beings. Lets call them “CORE People”
8. They know Oranur and E
9. Using OR they cannot be armored
10. Melanor sucks O2 and H2O, rock disintegrates; living is invaded.“

After Reich’s death no significant research efforts were carried out aimed at re-discovering the original orgone motor and its functioning principles, including the function Y. In the orgonomic literature only very few papers appeared in the last years, and they were mainly focused on providing further information and details on already known subjects such as peculiarities of the electric motor used by Reich (Western Electric KS-9154), and hypotheses on the nature of the factor Y (34).

The only published research along this way was carried out by Correa and Correa (35). They did resort to developing an energy conversion system, as it was called by the authors, from massfree energy into electrical or kinetic energy to the work of Tesla, Aspden, De Broglie, and Thom, and only partially to the work of Reich’s. They report in the 2007 US patent text the philosophy of their invention (36):

“It is critical to understand that the implication from this that – aside from local electromagnetic radiation and from thermal radiation associated with the motions of molecules (thermo-mechanical energy), there is at least another form of energy radiation which is everywhere present, even in space absent matter…. And undoubtedly also this radiation is ubiquitous and not subject to relativistic transformations (i.e. Lorentz invariant). What it is not, is electromagnetic radiation consisting of randomistic phases of transverse waves.
To understand this properly, …. this energy which is neither electromagnetic nor thermal per se (and is certainly not merely thermo-mechanical), has nevertheless identifiable characteristics both distributed across subtypes or variants and as well common to all of them.
Essentially the first subtype or variant consists of longitudinal massfree waves that deploy electric energy. They could well be called Tesla waves, since Tesla-type transformers can indeed be shown experimentally to radiate massfree electric energy, in the form of longitudinal magnetic and electric waves having properties not reduceable to photon energy or to “electromagnetic waves”, …………
One may well denote the second subtype by the designation of massfree thermal radiation, since it contributes to temperature changes – and, as obviously indicated by the impossibility of reaching an absolute zero of temperature, this contribution occurs independently of the presence of matter, or mass-energy, in Space. …
Finally the third subtype may be designated latent massfree energy radiation – since it deploys neither charge, nor thermal or baroscopic effects, and yet it is responsible for “true latent heat“ or for the “intrinsic potential energy” of a molecule.”

Correa and Correa developed a concept of massfree energy similar to that of Reich’s orgone energy, devoid of inertia, and that could be found everywhere in space. They found its characteristics might belong to three massfree energy subtypes or variants defined respectively as radiating massfree electric energy, radiating massfree thermal energy, and responsible for the latent heat. However, no mention was made by the authors in their physical model on two other important subtypes of the cosmic orgone energy, namely the variation of the gravitational field, and above all that of the nuclear field which Reich seemed to give extremely importance to for the development of a motor force (37).
In reproducing Reich experiments, according to the above assumptions, Correa and Correa observed that an AC induction motor could be efficiently run from the output of a modified thytraton pulse amplifier of the Herbach & Rademan CMB-3A GM scaler; while in reconstructing the archaeology of the function Y, they came to the conclusion that it might correspond to a thermionic full-wave divider of the Delon, Greibacker and Latour circuit applied in the manner of a dual diode sensor circuit in RF power meters (38). However, no public demonstration of the energy conversion systems, and of the aether motor in action was ever provided by the inventors.

References:

(1). This paper is a summary of the chapter Reich and the Orgone Motor contained in the book The Legendary Shamir by Maglione R (2017).

(2). To this end he first planned to use 2.2∙10^-5 milliCurie of radio cobalt CO-60 (half-life of 5.3 years), and 20 milliCurie of Phosphorous P-32 (a radioactive isotope of phosphorous); and later on two needles of 1 mg each one of radium.

(3). Reich W, The Anti Nuclear Radiation Effect of Cosmic Orgone Energy, Orgone Energy Bulletin, Orgone Institute Press, Maine, Vol 3, N° 1, January 1951.

(4). The orgone room located at Reich‘s laboratory, Orgonon, Maine, was a completely metal-lined room where the observer, after sitting a while in complete darkness, could observe orgone energy. The room was used by Reich in many of his experiments as well as in the Oranur experiment. The room, size 18 x 18 ft (6 x 6 m), was made of an external layer of organic material and internally lined by a sheet of iron. Inside the orgone room some small accumulators were located, one of them used by Reich during the Oranur experiment, where the radioactive material was daily put inside for some days.

(5). Oranur was coined by Reich as an acronym for Orgone Anti Nuclear.

(6). Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951.

(7). Reich W, History of the Discovery of the Life Energy. Atoms for Peace vs the HIG Documentary, Supplement N° 3, A-XII-EP, Orgone Institute Press, Orgonon, Maine, 1956, page 14.

(8). In this first period of investigation apparently Reich never used radioactive materials in his experiments, even though he made sometimes reference to measurements of the counts emitted by his wristwatch (equipped with a radium dial) carried out by a Geiger-Muller counter (Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 214).

(9). Soon after, in April 1948, Reich informed the Director of the NYC Technical Advisers Office of the Atomic Energy Commission about the motor effect of the orgone energy on the Geiger-Muller counter (Eden J, Planet in Trouble. The UFO Assault on Earth, Exposition Press, New York, 1973, page 154).

(10). Reich W, The Geiger-Muller Effect of Cosmic Orgone Energy, Orgone Energy Bulletin, 3(4), 1951, New York.

(11). Generally, a Geiger-Muller tube consists of an anode (positive electrode) positioned in the center of a tubular cathode (negative electrode) filled with a mixture of argon, neon, and either chlorine or bromine gases. The cathode is a thin-walled metallic cylinder sealed at each end with an insulating disk to contain the gas. The anode is a wire that extends into the cylinder. A high voltage is applied to the electrodes to create an electrical field within the chamber. When radiation passes through the chamber and ionizes the gas, it generate radiation passes through the chamber and ionizes the gas, it generates a pulse of current. The device processes these pulses to display the radiation level.

(12). Reich W, The Oranur Experiment: First Report (1947-1951), The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, Rangeley, Maine, 1951, page 213.

(13). Reich W, Ibid, page 199 and 200.

(14). Reich W, American Odyssey. Letters and Journals 1940-1947, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1999, page 401.

(15). It should be outlined, however, that Reich, in July 1948, informed the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of the motoric qualities of the orgone energy and of the fact that such a motor force might be abused by totalitarian countries (Eden J, Planet in Trouble. The UFO Assault on Earth, Exposition Press, New York, 1973, page 154).

(16). Reich W, The Discovery of the Orgone. Volume Two: the Cancer Biopathy, Orgone Institute Press, 1948, New York, page 150.

(17). Reich W, A Motor Force in Orgone Energy. Preliminary Communication, Orgone Energy Bulletin, 1(1), Orgone Institute Press, January 1949, New York, pages 7-11.

(18). Reich W, Ibid, pages 7-11.

(19). Reiter AN, Examination of the Western Electric KS-9154 Motor, Pulse of the Planet #5, Natural Energy Works, Ashland, 2002.

(20). Sharaf M, Fury on the Earth. A Biography of Wilhelm Reich, A St Martin’s Press/Marek, New York, 1983, note at page 354.

(21). Baker EF, My Eleven Years with Reich, ACO Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2001, pages 32 and 33.

(22).Wyvell L, An Appreciation of Reich, Journal of Orgonomy, 7(2):170-186, 1973, page 185.

(23). Neill AS, The Man Reich, in Wilhelm Reich Memorial Volume, Ritter Press, Nottingham, 1958, reprinted in Boadella D, Wilhelm Reich. The Evolution of his Work, Henry Regenery, Chicago, 1973, page 382.

(24). Neill AS, Neill! Neill! Orange Peel! A Personal View of Ninety Years, Quartet Books Limited, London, 1977, page 128.

(25). Ollendorf I, Wilhelm Reich. A Personal Biography, St Martin’s, New York, 1969, page 117.

(26). Washington was a student and assistant of Reich in the development of the orgone motor, and particularly in the elaboration of the orgonometric equations and in the experimental work, between 1947 and 1949. He was introduced to Reich by Myron Sharaf, student of psychology at the University of Chicago and a collaborator of Reich. Washington disappeared mysteriously in the summer of 1949 with a prototype of the orgone motor. He first alleged a trip to a Chicago professor about his thesis, then illness in his family, later that he was ordered to Oak Ridge Laboratories by telegram, and finally that he was working with Argonne (AEC) laboratories. Investigations done by Reich disclosed that not only did letters reveal that Washington was not known to be at Argonne laboratories as claimed, but furthermore inquiry from professors under whom Washington was allegedly working for his thesis, denied that this was so. Chicago University answered that Washington had never completed his college work there (Reich W, History of the Discovery of the Life Energy. The Red Thread of a Conspiracy, Documentary Supplement No 2, A-XII-EP, Orgone Institute Press, Rangeley, Maine, 1995). Reich suspected that he had been a Russian spy. The matter was brought to the attention of the FBI in the interest of national security, since Washington had come into possession of important knowledge and facts in 1949, and again in 1950 and in 1953, but no action was ever taken by the Governmental body. In 1956 Reich was convinced by factual consideration that he was connected with spaceship development (Reich W, Contact with Space. Oranur Second Report (1951-1956), Core Pilot Press, New York, 1956, page 71). Eden reported in one of his publications that Washington disappeared with two of the prototypes of the orgone motor, which later were reported as being in the Soviet Union (Eden J, Planet in Trouble. The UFO Assault on Earth, Exposition Press, New York, 1973, page 23).

(27). Reich W, Passion of Youth. An Autobiography 1897-1922, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1988; Reich W, Beyond Psychology. Letters and Journals 1934-1939, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1994; Reich W, American Odyssey. Letters and Journals 1940-1947, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1999; and Reich W, Where’s the Truth? Letters and Journals 1948-1957, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY 2012.

(28). Reich W, American Odyssey. Letters and Journals 1940-1947, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1999.

(29). Reich W, Ibid, pages 399 and 400.

(30).Reich W, Ibid, page 401.

(31).Reich W, Ibid, page 425.

(32). Reich W, OROP Galactic Stream (Hancock, October 22, 1953), CORE, Orgone Institute Press, Vol. VI, No 1-4, July1954, New York, pages 103 and 104.

(33). Reich W, Where’s the Truth? Letters and Journals 1948-1957, edited by Mary B Higgins, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 2012, page 134.

(34). Reiter AN, Examination of the Western Electric KS-9154 Motor, Pulse of the Planet #5, Natural Energy Works, Ashland, 2002; see also DeMeo J, The Orgone Energy Motor, Pulse of the Planet #5, Natural Energy Works, Ashland, 2002.

(35). Correa PN, Correa AN, Experimental Aetherometry, Volume 3: The Orgone Motor and the Aether Motor, Akronos Publishing, Canada, July 2006; see also Correa PN, Correa AN, Energy Conversion Systems, Patent US 7,053,576, May 30, 2006; and Energy Conversion Systems, Patent US 7,235,945, June 26, 2007.

(36). Correa PN, Correa AN, Energy Conversion Systems, Patent US 7,235,945, June 26, 2007.

(37). For more information on the secondary qualities of orgone energy see Maglione R, Methods and Procedures in Biophysical Orgonometry, Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso, Milan, 2012.

(38). Correa PN, Correa AN, Experimental Aetherometry, Volume 3: The Orgone Motor and the Aether Motor (abstracts), Akronos Publishing, Canada, July 2006.