The Orgone Energy Accumulator (ORAC)

This text is included in the book "ORGON- die Lebensenergie" and in the book "Der Orgon-Energie-Akkumulator und weitere Orgongeräte nach W.R"

The orgone energy accumulator was developed by Dr. Wilhelm Reich in 1940 in the USA. This device was both the result of many years of scientific findings and medical research and observations and the starting point for extensive further researches by Reich and his associates as well as other scientists and physicians. The orgone accumulator represents the central development of orgonomy, the science of cosmic, original energy, life energy or orgone energy, as Reich called it after he had discovered and scientifically defined it.

Today, more than 80 years later, the functioning and possible applications of orgone energy are still largely unknown to the general public. Those who are familiar with the name Wilhelm Reich generally know that Reich has done research on orgone energy, but often not much more. This chapter is therefore intended to explain basic functions of orgone energy and the orgone accumulator. It should enable the interested layman and scientists of other fields to handle the concentrated orgone energy properly and responsibly.

This chapter is largely based on the text published by Reich in 1951, The Orgone Energy Accumulator - It's Scientific and Medical Use. I also use information from Reich's standard orgone medical work The Discovery of Orgone, Vol. 2, The Cancer. Another important source is Myron Sharaf's Reich biography Fury on earth.

This article also contains a lot of material from the book Der Orgon-Akkumulator nach Wilhelm Reich, which I published in 1983 with the pseudonym "Jürgen F. Freihold". I had translated the Reich text The Orgone Energy Accumulator - It's Scientific and Medical Use and wanted to publish it in German. Reich had given only very general information about the construction and functioning of the orgone accumulator in his standard work The Cancer biopathy  and otherwise had left no exact information about dimensions, materials, method of manufacture and application. The attempts to manufacture and use orgone accumulators according to these specifications were therefore largely unsuccessful. Only through a patient of Dr. Hoppe, a physician and co-worker of Reich, who had continued to practice orgone medicine in Israel even after Reich's death, I got exact construction details. Through him I also learned that Reich had written a simple construction manual, but it had not yet been published. The Wilhelm Reich Museum in Orgonon, Maine, U.S.A., has meanwhile published this construction manual and sells it as a photocopy.

Unfortunately, I did not get the rights to Reich's text The Orgone Energy Accumulator.... at that time. The legal administration of Wilhelm Reich's inheritance, the "Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Fund", refused to grant the rights, arguing that only large publishers would be interested. However, since the large publishers who published Reich at that time were not interested in the text for economic reasons, it remained unpublished in Germany until today.

I therefore decided to republish the information from this text as a whole and wrote the book Der Orgon-Akkumulator nach Wilhelm Reich. I myself had been making orgone accumulators since 1977, and so I published my information about the construction as well, as well as a first detailed report of my experiences.

I consider the publication of this book, which I had already distributed in photocopied form from 1980, to be one of the decisive steps in the revival of the medical use of ORAC.

 

Wilhelm Reich had built altogether about 250 orgone accumulators (according to the data of Myron Sharaf, who has done corresponding research). I myself have built considerably more devices in more than 45 years. About 4000 copies of my book Der Orgon-Akkumulator nach Wilhelm Reich were sold. The book Orgon and DOR was sold about 10.000 times. In addition, several other authors have published building instructions, e.g. in 1976 Bernd Laska in the Wilhelm Reich Blätter. The construction manual in the Reich biography of David Boadella, has unfortunately not been translated correctly into German, so that considerable errors are contained in it. The book by James DeMeo the Orgone-Accumulator Handbook, which also contains building instructions, was published in autumn 1994 and sold in three editions until the beginning of 1995. The building instructions in it are also so faulty that it is hardly possible to work according to them. The only usable construction manual is currently published in the book by Heiko Lassek Orgontherapie - ein Handbuch der Lebensenergie-Medizin (ISBN 978-3934391239). It is an updated construction manual from my book Orgon and DOR.

In 1951, when Reich published his text The Orgone Energy Accumulator... he envisioned that medical orgonomy would evolve from the standard of the time. Orgonomic knowledge had become relatively widespread only because of Reich's publications, without any advertising or other journalistic support.

 

The discovery of orgone energy "did not enjoy a sudden, meteoric echo in the general public. In accordance with its bioenergetic functions, it asserted itself rather like a tree grows and not like a glistening flash of lightning. Nor did it suffer the evil fate of meteoric disappearance from public view" (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator - It's Scientific and Medical Use, p. 9).

 

Just in the USA, where Reich had worked, the orgone accumulators disappeared completely after Reich and his co-workers had been sentenced to destroy all orgone devices and after the whole orgonomic literature had been burned. No doctor dared to practice orgone medicine again in the USA until today - but probably less for criminal reasons, but because an accident or death in accidental connection with the ORAC would bring ruinous civil claims.

Basic functions of the orgone energy and the orgone accumulator

Wilhelm Reich discovered an original energy, the cosmic primordial energy, which exists before any formation of matter and which, in conjunction with solid matter and water, constitutes life. Therefore he also called it life energy and called it "orgone", with which he referred to the terms "organic" or "orgasm". He consciously distinguished it from other energy concepts such as those of "ether", "prana" or "od", since these terms were afflicted with further ideological ideas and thus were not defined purely scientifically. Furthermore, Reich documented the authorship of his discovery with the creation of this artificial word, which he rightly considered to be a revolutionary scientific achievement.

Reich was already active as a young man, at the age of 22, in Freud's circle as a psychoanalyst. From the very beginning he was concerned with the sexual function and considered Freud's concept of drive energy, the "libido", not only as a linguistic metaphor, like most of his colleagues, but from the very beginning as energy in the physical sense, which would also have to be verified as a physical reality.

It was not until years later, after he had largely separated himself from traditional psychoanalysis, that he carried out sensational experiments in Norway in the late 1930s in which he sought to prove that libido is electrical body energy, demonstrating clear electrical voltage changes in pleasure and fear reactions. However, the electrical model did not satisfy him, because the detected bio-electricity, although corresponding to the emotional reactions, could not be considered as the sole source of energy of the organism because of its relatively small quantity.

At the same time, Reich undertook his bion experiments in Norway. He found that protozoa form spontaneously from hay, sand, soil and all kinds of chemical substances when the material decomposes (e.g. by the action of heat) and is mixed with water. According to Reich's observations, the formation of protozoa does not occur via "air germs", as classical biology unprovenly postulates, but in a bubble-like decay of the substances, which spontaneously cluster together into heaps and which begin an autonomous movement. These bubbles, which Reich called "bions", form a preform of living beings. In a further developmental step, classifiable unicellular organisms emerge from them.

Since all organic matter decays into bion forms when it dies, Reich assumed that micro-organisms are in a constant state of form transition, i.e. that even within a living organism, unicellular organisms are constantly emerging, such as bacteria, fungi or protozoa. In his time, such ideas were considered absurd and famous bacteriologists tried to ridicule Reich publicly, which they succeeded in doing in Norway, thus decisively contributing to Reich having to abandon his bionic research and his bioelectrical experiments and move to the USA. Today, Reich's then revolutionary biological ideas are still not generally accepted, but there is a growing number of natural scientists who have confirmed Reich's discoveries in other ways. The transition between different species of micro-organisms, e.g. the emergence of bacteria from decaying fungi, etc., is today scientifically discussed as pleomorphism and also accepted in wide circles.

On these preparations and in the rooms where Reich observed them, he noticed a bluish radiation. Reich wanted to exclude that it was electromagnetic waves and placed the preparations in a metal box, which happened to be insulated with wood on the outside. Here, however, this radiation phenomenon became more intense and it remained visible even without the preparations in the box. In a wooden box without an inner metal layer, the radiation phenomena were not visible.

In addition to the blue-gray swaths, Reich could see flashes of light and small, fast-moving "spinning top" waves. All these phenomena seemed to be both subjective, because he could see them even with his eyes closed, and objective, because they could also be magnified with a magnifying glass.

This energy, moreover, had definite organismic reactions. Thus, the skin reddened slightly when he placed the preparations - on a quartz glass slide - on the skin for some time and during microscopic observation Reich and others who observed bion cultures microscopically contracted violent conjunctivitis.

Much later, when Reich discovered these energy phenomena also in the atmosphere, he decided to assume an independent physical energy.

 

"In Maine, Reich began looking at individual stars through a wooden tube. By chance, he pointed the tube at a dark blue space between the stars. To his surprise, he saw a vivid flicker, then flashes of fine light. The closer he got to the moon, the less intense the phenomena appeared. They were most pronounced in the darkest parts of the sky among the stars. It was the same flickering and flashing he had so often observed in the box. A magnifying glass used as an eyepiece in the tube magnified the rays. Suddenly, the mystery of the flickering in Reich's box was solved. The explanation was simple: if there were no cultures in the box, the energy in it came from the atmosphere. So the atmosphere contained an unknown energy.

Reich made visual observations of this energy, including magnification of the phenomena, to rule out the possibility that they were merely subjective sensations. However, these experiments were never conclusive enough to withstand critical scrutiny." (Myron Sharaf, Fury on Earth)

Reich's method of cognition was fundamentally different from the prevailing mechanistic-mystical view of nature. He called it "energetic functionalism". It is the method to look at nature from the functional point of view of the living, not to see it rigidly mechanistically like a machine or automatic process and not mystically, i.e. to project natural functions into supersensible, spiritual or divine realms.

The energetic functionalism includes the natural functions of the observing being, i.e. the investigating human being, in the observation. The naturally feeling scientist therefore understands his own organism, feelings and emotions as the most important tools with which he understands nature. Therefore, he must keep his biological functions, his natural perceptive and expressive abilities in order just as he does other tools with which he works. A person who is afraid of his own vital functions will have difficulty in looking at himself and nature from the living point of view, and he will tend to adopt and hold rigid, mechanical concepts about natural functions, and he will repress into mystical realms of "faith" everything that he cannot explain to himself in this way.

"The observations at Mooselookmeguntic Lake signified a moment of supreme realization for Reich. For the first time he allowed himself to believe unreservedly that he was observing a radiation independent of SAPA cultures, and also - although he could prove it with nothing - independent of subjective light phenomena. Only when he felt that he was dealing with an energy outside the body, even outside matter at all, he could separate himself from the more conventional terminology for an energy in the body - libido, bioelectricity - and call his discovery "orgone energy". (...)
Moreover, the experience at the Mooselookmeguntic meant the sharpest possible contrast to the science of the time. Only ten months earlier, on October 11, 1939, Roosevelt had received the letter from Einstein urging the development of an atomic bomb, since Hitler was most likely working with all his might in the same direction. This letter set in motion the historic Los Alamos project. And Reich fought his lonely battle with the most primitive equipment and with "silly" observations in dark cellars and over a lake. He often emphasized this contrast: on the one hand, all the overwhelming intellectual and technical effort devoted to the "death rays"; and, on the other hand, the primitive means with which he set out to discover the "life rays" without any outside help. Nevertheless, this contrast should not obscure the fact that there are great similarities between Reich's approach and traditional science. Reich was not inferior to any other scientist in his efforts for objective measurements. His visual observations certainly could not stand as "decisive experiments." So he was soon toturn to verifiable hypotheses and repeatable experiments." (Myron Sharaf, Fury on Earth)

This short and rough overview of some important stages of orgonomy should give an impression of the context in which the orgone accumulator was developed. The scientific field entered here is so extensive that, after Reich, no scientist has been able to conduct research that is even remotely broad. Because of the difficult access to orgonomy for most "normally neurotic" people via the understanding of their own biological functions, especially their own sexuality, it seems understandable that only a few scientists uncompromisingly support Reich's findings.

Observable functions of orgone energy

The orgone energy surrounds everything, all living beings consist of it, it makes up in the connection with solid matter and water the part which gives life to matter. People live in such dense connection with this energy that they hardly perceive it spontaneously and find it difficult to recognize orgone functions separately from themselves.

Spinning waves: If you look at the blue sky and focus it at about 2 meters, after a few seconds you will see many bright, dancing points of light moving in circles. The longer you look, the more clearly you can see them. By the gyroscopic waves, which can be seen by almost every person who tries this, the at the same time subjective and objective nature of orgone energy can be understood very well. It is not possible to tell where this phenomenon takes place, whether in the retina of the eyes, on the conjunctiva or in the atmosphere in front of the eyes. Boadella writes about this:

"If such phenomena, as Reich described them, are indeed to be seen in the sky, how is it then, one can rightly ask, that other people have not already written about it? (...) Everyone, who looks into the sky in this way, can see these light spots, and yet very few people perceive them, if one does not explicitly draw their attention to them. In the annals of the natural science no representation of these light dots is found. The question does not seem trivial whether they are artificial products of the human eye (endoptic phenomena) or attributes of the earth's atmosphere (exoptic phenomena), as Reich believed; neither the human biology nor the meteorology textbooks provide us with information about these phenomena. They have never been studied because scientists do not usually sacrifice their precious time to stare into the darkness, into empty metal boxes, or into the blue sky." (David Boadella, Wilhelm Reich, p. 162f.)

Orgone flicker: The wave-like flickering and trembling that can be seen over roads, over lakes, mountain peaks, especially with binoculars, or in film footage taken with extreme telephoto lenses, is commonly referred to as "heat waves." However, their function has nothing to do with "heat." They appear even at 30 degrees below zero and are not detectable on some hot days. Heat waves, as heated air rises, would rise from the bottom up; indeed, this phenomenon can be observed above a heated stove top. But these waves move from west to east in the direction of the earth's rotation, only faster than it. Moving air is not visible, wind can only be seen through moving things like leaves or swirling sand. What we observe here is the movement of the Earth's orgone field.

Sky Blue: According to Reich, blue is "the specific color of orgone energy inside and outside the organism" (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator... p. 15) The blue of the sky is the orgone energy shining in the atmosphere. Where DOR, a solidified form of orgone is in the atmosphere, it does not shine at all more or less. There the sky, especially on the horizon, shines whitish, hazy, and with stronger concentration gray to brown and violet. In the deserts DOR is seen as blackish layers, like smoke or exhaust fumes.

Also the bions appeared under the microscope with a light blue shining energy field and a photo of the earth seen from space makes the atmosphere of our planet look very similar to the energy field of a bion.

The green of the plants is composed of the earthy yellow-brown colors of the plant material and the blue of the orgone energy. If the life - the energy and the water - withdraws from the green leaves, they become yellow or brown. The "red" blood cells are also green under the microscope when blood is observed alive (alo not dyed). Fireflies and luminescent wood glow blue, as do St. Elmo's fire and the northern lights. Observation of orgone energy in a dark room lined with metal, an orgone room, shows that spontaneously glowing bluish swaths fill the room.

How the orgone accumulator works

"The orgone accumulator is a device so materially arranged that life energy present in the atmosphere of our planet can be captured, accumulated, and used for scientific, educational, and medical purposes." (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator..., p. 12)

"This mechanism of concentration is based on two facts:
1. organic matter of any kind attracts orgone to itself and holds it. Conversely, orgone-containing material attracts and holds small organic particles.
2. metallic materials, especially iron, attract orgone but quickly repel it. Conversely, orgon-laden metal repels metallic particles." (Wilhelm Reich, The Cancer, p. 128).

Although in principle organic material attracts orgone, however, this also applies to a whole range of substances which are considered inorganic in the chemical-physical sense and yet have this property. Reich explains in this regard:

"Material that is a good insulator of electrical energy, or , what amounts to the same thing, a poor electrical conductor, is well capable of absorbing orgone energy" (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator..., p. 16).

These properties of metal and insulator are brought to bear in the orgone accumulator by using insulator on the outside and metal on the inside. Through this arrangement, orgone is absorbed and stored on the outside and absorbed and quickly passed on by the metal on the inside. By the arrangement of the materials the repulsion happens predominantly into the interior. If metal and insulator are placed in several layers one after the other, always metal inside and insulator outside, the ability of the device to concentrate orgone energy is increased. One layer each of metal and insulator are called a "double layer". The more double layers an orgone accumulator has, the more it accumulates orgone.

An obvious, but so far not yet proven or experimentally reproduced thought is that not the number of layers is decisive, but the area where energy storage and conductors touch. According to this, the finer and thinner the inner layers are spread, the stronger an orgone accumulator would be. For me it sounds plausible that it is not the number of layers - after all the orgone accumulator does not know how many layers it has - but the contact area where an energy accumulator passes the orgone energy to the metal into the inner space.

For the strength of the accumulation, however, a whole series of other factors are of decisive importance besides the number of layers of the device:

Orgone charge of the atmosphere: the atmosphere close to the earth has a very different high charge. Optimal is a high charge in the area of the cumulus clouds, the fleecy or fair weather clouds in the near earth area, which pile up as high as possible and stand out as sharply as possible from the deep blue sky surrounding them. The horizon is clearly visible and distant hills, mountains or forests appear bluer the farther away they are. The charge is very low when the sky is pale blue to gray in color and no clouds or only blurry differentiable clouds can be seen near the earth. The horizon is discolored white to gray-brown and blurred in the haze.

Humidity: Water binds orgone energy, and therefore the lower the relative humidity, the less the atmospheric energy is bound to water, i.e. "freer". According to Reich, 40-50% relative humidity are good conditions for accumulation. The worst possibility would be 99% relative humidity, which would correspond to fog.

Geographical latitude and the height above sea level: with the height above sea level the binding of orgone energy to air decreases, so it is also "freer" the less it is bound to matter. Thus, an orgone accumulator is most effective in space. Also at the equator the orgone accumulator is more effective, because the earth is not completely round, but at the equator somewhat broader (like a humming top). Therefore the orgone charge is higher there relative to the poles. (Practically, however, mostly not, because in the tropics the relative humidity is very high and in the desert areas the orgone charge is very low).

Size of the accumulator relative to the organism: The inner metal walls of the orgone accumulator should have a small distance from the organism. The larger this distance becomes, the more difficult it is for the energy fields of the organism and the accumulator to create a superposition. Thus, the optimum is always a small accumulator relative to the organism, which exactly envelops it without having to touch the walls.

Number of accumulators standing together: The more orgone accumulators there are in a building, especially if they stand close together or are even placed inside each other, the stronger the effect of each accumulator. Reich had set up a room in his orgone laboratory as an "orgone room." One chamber was completely lined with metal inside, and in this large single-layer accumulator were many more both medical orgone accumulators to sit in, and experimental accumulators for physical and biological experiments and measurements. Each individual device had a stronger effect in the orgone room than alone in other surroundings.

The organismic effects of the orgone accumulator

The effects of the orgone accumulator on organisms are based on certain biological and physical properties of orgone energy. The orgonomic potential, the degree of charge of an energetic system, e.g. an organism or the atmosphere or an orgone accumulator, always flows from the weaker to the stronger system.

The orgone accumulator is an artificially created energetic system. Due to its arrangement in the form of an energy bubble, it has an energy system quite similar to that of an organism. In terms of atmosphere, it is the stronger system.

"With respect to the accumulator, the organism is the stronger energy system. Accordingly, the enclosed body creates a potential from the inside to the outside. Biophysically speaking, the living organism forms the first system, and the accumulator surrounding it forms the second, enclosing orgonotically radiating system. The energy fields of the two systems make contact and after some time, depending on the bioenergetic strength of the system within, both -the living organism and the energy field of the accumulator- begin to 'radiate', i.e. they become excited, and, making contact, they propel each other to higher levels of excitation." (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator..., p. 27)

The orgone accumulator thus enables the organism to absorb considerably more orgone energy than would be possible without its use. There is no other method that would have a similar or equal effect. Nevertheless, it can be said that other treatments also include certain aspects of orgone charging - sauna, sunbathing, massage, acupuncture, medication. Often the purpose of these treatments is to strengthen the body's own energy, to excite, to increase the body's defenses. Nevertheless, only individual aspects of the charge in the orgone accumulator are always addressed. The specific of this charge, which also has specific effects, is the excitation and superposition of two, (if you count the earth atmosphere, also three) energy systems, which leads to the fact that the organism can absorb considerably more energy than without the apparatus. The experience that comes closest to this excitation of energy systems is the energetic fusion in the genital sexual embrace of two lovers.

"In the orgone accumulator we now have at last an adequate medical and prophylactic device at our disposal to deal effectively with what is usually and helplessly called DISPOSITION OF DISEASE. This disposition is something very concrete: IT IS LOW BIOENERGETIC LEVEL AND WEAK ENERGY CHANGE IN ORGANISM." (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator... p. 34)

Chronic underloading and overloading of the organism

Every organism has a certain optimal charge capacity, the ability to absorb a certain amount of orgone energy. If this capacity is not filled, one speaks of orgonotic undercharge. If an organism is charged higher than its capacity requires, it is called overcharge. Both chronic undercharge and overcharge lead to "biopathies".
Myron Sharaf writes about this:

"He used this term "biopathy" to cover a whole range of diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, and schizophrenia. He meant that the root cause of such degenerative diseases is the chronic under-functioning of the organism's biological energy. These ailments must be distinguished from infectious or bacterial diseases, because the development of biopathies depends mainly on the emotional life of the patient. (...)
Reich considered the orgone accumulator as possibly the most important weapon in the battle of health care. The orgonotic charge of the blood could lower the disposition to disease on a broad basis and combat a large number of diseases based on weakened defenses." (Myron Sharaf, Fury on Earth)

Nowadays we can assume that the majority of the population is chronically undercharged, a small part chronically overcharged. Only very few people are energetically healthy.

The "radiation", the specific experience in the orgone accumulator

The "radiation", the energetic contact between the energy fields of the orgone accumulator and the organism, is the specific sensual experience during the charge in the accumulator, a very pleasant, intimate feeling of expansion, which grasps every single cell of the body and accordingly has versatile manifestations, from a slight tingling sensation on the skin, through stimulated intestinal activity, to cosmic feelings of flow, reminiscent of the deep merging in orgasm, but equally reminiscent of the feeling of fresh infatuation or the first warming sun in spring.

Indeed, there are clear parallels between the feeling of sitting in the gentle spring sun and the feeling of orgonotic radiation in the orgone accumulator. Not that one is the same as the other or even that both are interchangeable, but there is a certain similarity of body experience. The same is the feeling that "something" warm flows in and penetrates the organism from all sides and spreads as a physical feeling of joy to the last cell.

This phase of radiance, which is always experienced as positive, beneficial (even if some people shy away from this intimate "touch" for emotional reasons and then reject the orgone accumulator), should be extended as long as it is experienced as beneficial. Reich described this feeling as a "gentle glow" or as a "delicate glow on the skin".

"Lust", according to Reich, is a basic function of the living, in which the vegetative nervous system stretches and the tissues expand and every cell of the body fills up plump with energy and fluid. In this sense, the use of the orgone accumulator can be described as pleasurable and this is how the radiation is mostly experienced.

Wilhelm Reich calls the use of the orgone accumulator "medical application" and he is right with it, if one understands the influence on the organism quite generally as medical. Nevertheless, there is a difference between a purposefully medical application of the orgone accumulator as "medical treatment" and an application for the general bioenergetic charging. The borders are fluent, however, this difference must be made both factually (medical treatment as influence on certain illnesses) and legally (only physicians and other certified healers may instruct the medical application).

However, one should not neglect that the use of the orgone accumulator is a very pleasurable thing and most people who use it do so not only to strengthen themselves in the medical sense, but because the "radiation" is such an intimate experience. Wilhelm Reich and the orgonomic physicians of his time almost did not present this sensually attractive aspect of the use of the orgone accumulator, which is quite understandable in view of the unobjective press campaigns against Reich and orgonomy. What the sensationalist press published in salacious, distorted statements about the "sex box" was true in a very neurotic, distorting way. Reich himself, like many others, used the orgone accumulator because it was so much fun, not because it would have been sensible. Reich had a severe heart condition and he was very highly charged, if not chronically overcharged, at least in the last years after the Oranur experiment. So it may even have been unreasonable of him to continue using the accumulator, and I can only imagine that he did not want to give up these incomparable sensory experiences. The fact that he did not emphasize this aspect of the charge in the orgone accumulator may also be due to the fact that it was important to him to establish the orgone accumulator as a medical device in the professional public.

Extraordinary sensory impressions in the orgone accumulator

Since nerve cells are also excited, there are special sensations at the level of all sensory experiences that can occur, but do not have to. These sensory experiences occur mainly in the first phase, when the organism has not yet reached its optimal charge capacity and the nevensystem has not yet become accustomed to the regular high charge. Neurons react only to the change of stimuli, that is, the sudden appearance or absence of a sensory impression. Thus, in the orgone accumulator, nerve cells may be stimulated and activated outside their normal function. Thus, there are tingling, tickling and heat perceptions on the skin, flashes of light and a slight bluish glow in the dark accumulator, a slight roaring in the ears, salty or "electric" tastes on the tongue, and a distinct metallic, fresh smell. Each of these perceptions can occur spontaneously even without an orgone accumulator, as the partial sudden high charge of individual parts of the body can also occur naturally.

Optimal charging and overcharging

The ability of living organisms to increase the charge potential can be explained from biological-energetic connections. Energy absorption always takes place, mainly through the skin and through respiration. The organism can adapt to this higher atmospheric energy level in situations where more free energy is available, i.e. in dry, clear weather. It instinctively exposes itself to the "good weather" by then liking to be outdoors and moving around. If there is less orgone energy available in the atmosphere - i.e. in damp, cloudy weather, in fog and rain - it protects itself and tries to hold onto the stored energy as long as possible. This ability of the organism to adapt to the different energetic nature of the atmosphere leads to a higher charge in the orgone accumulator. Here, so to speak - in the energetic sense - there is always "good weather" compared to the immediate environment.

The process of charging is theoretically infinite, practically at some point the organism reaches its limits by developing the feeling of "overcharging".

"A sensitive person will have 'had enough' after some time. This is explained by the fact that, in a truly self-regulating way, the organism absorbs only as much orgone energy as it needs. One should not compare orgone irradiation with mechanically filling up a barrel with water; the idea that the more energy one 'pours' into the organism, the better is wrong. After a certain level has been reached, the perceptions become unpleasant.
Pressure in the head, slight nausea, general malaise and dizziness are the most common signs that the overcharge has set in. One simply leaves the accumulator, and, if one has had too much, goes out into the fresh air and the signs of overcharge quickly disappear." (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator, p. 30)

With the orgone accumulator as an instrument for the absorption of concentrated orgone energy, it is therefore possible to supply the organism with more energy than it is able to tolerate from its charge capacity. In order to prevent such an overcharge it is completely sufficient to rely on one's subjective perception. Up to now, there is no other way to detect overcharge.

In order to understand the organismic function of overload, the comparison with food intake lends itself. In eating, too, there is the unmistakable feeling of having "had enough" before one's well-being is significantly impaired. Here, too, the organism acts in a completely self-regulated manner, and disturbances only occur if one overrides the self-regulation, either willfully or through an emotional maladjustment, and ignores the warnings of the organism. Only in exceptional cases it can make sense to disregard the organismic warnings, i.e. in case of illness one will fast even if one is hungry or in case of famine one will eat more than is necessary for survival. Just as one experiences how one feels when one has eaten too much, one will experience what too much orgone charge means, and if one is able to act rationally, one will prevent the overcharge in the future.

The experience itself is generally harmless if one does not expose oneself to it for hours at a time or already has a severe overcharge illness. Therefore, one should definitely avoid sleeping in an orgone accumulator or under an orgone blanket. Overcharge is comparable to a mild sunstroke (without the skin burns, of course), which is in fact also an overcharge disease.

After an overload, go for a walk in fresh air, preferably with the wind blowing, or take an extended lukewarm bath in the tub. Water, as I said, is able to attract and bind energy. In case of severe overcharge or even after DOR contacts, it is good, as James DeMeo advises, to take a full bath after adding a pound each of sea salt and baking soda to the water.

The dosage of the accumulator sessions

How long should one sit in the orgone accumulator? Almost daily I hear this question and so far there was only one answer, that one should observe his perception attentively to find out when the overcharge starts. As long as the sensations are pleasant, it is good to use the accumulator.

Some people first experience the radiance with a little fright when they are "touched", which in fact many people have not experienced for a long time. However, this experience is also generally so fine that many are rather disappointed because the sensation is perhaps not as bombastic as in the imaginings that one has made before.

In the first period it is best to go into the orgone accumulator often and not for too long, i.e. several times a day for 20 to 30 minutes. The organism then learns faster to deal with the new energetic situation than if you go in once for a long time.

Of course, it is very good to have the opportunity to discuss this new, unfamiliar experience with someone who knows what you are talking about and can help you express your first perceptions.

Those who are very undercharged may not have any special perceptions at all during the first sessions. The organism must then first recover energetically, it may need some time to get used to the charge in the orgone accumulator. It is then good to go in often and briefly.

Only long-term and regular charging in the orgone accumulator ensures charging to one's optimal energetic level and only continued use can then maintain this. How often and how long this should be then varies greatly from person to person. It can be 30 minutes a day or 5 minutes every three days. You have to try it out.

Factors influencing the orgone charge in the accumulator

The number of double layers

At the beginning of the research of the medical effects of the orgone accumulator, Wilhelm Reich was initially of the opinion that only three-layer devices should be used without medical supervision. However, Dr. Walter Hoppe used 20-layer orgone accumulators already in the fifties and he recommended his psychiatric patients to use 10 to 20-layer devices at the end of the seventies. Stronger devices sometimes charge much faster, so people who have a rather weak energy system or who are using an accumulator for medical reasons may do better with a 10-layer or stronger device. Those who tend to be overcharged (e.g. people with cardiovascular disease) or who are prone to overcharging should rather use a 3- to 5-layer device.

The perceptibility of the specific phenomena has not necessarily something to do with the strength of the device, but primarily with the disposition of the organism and other, more atmospheric conditions. Some people perceive more even in weaker accumulators than in stronger ones. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the body's energy system in the weak accumulator has to make more "own effort" to maintain the excitation.

Especially doctors and alternative practitioners who want to put their patients into orgone accumulators are often faced with the problem of wanting to treat both weakly charged and overcharged patients. So they would actually have to set up a strong orgone accumulator and a weak one to be able to treat the patients optimally.

To solve this problem, you can go to the ORAC with an organ blanket, which significantly intensifies its effect.

The atmospheric situation

The second important factor is the charge of the atmosphere. One should get into the habit of taking a look at the sky and noting the humidity when one goes into the accumulator. The differences are impressive and easy to understand if one has become knowledgeable. Once again, a high orgone charge shows up in towering fleecy clouds that stand out sharply against the deep blue sky. The horizon is clearly visible, distant hills and clumps of trees are tinted blue rather than whitish. Relative humidity should be as low as possible.

The time of day

The orgone charge of the atmosphere is highest around noon. It is lowest during dusk and dawn, and at night it is much lower than during the day.

The energetic disposition of the own organism

One's own basic energetic situation is always also decisive for the charge in the orgone accumulator. Those who have spent the day in the open air on a clear, energetically highly charged day will experience the orgone accumulator quite differently than those who have worked in an open-plan office under fluorescent tubes and in front of screen devices. If one is energetically poisoned, one should first "detoxify" oneself. (See the article "The Energy Robbers").

As I have already described, the basic charge of the organism is decisive for how long one needs to achieve an illumination. Those who have a high energetic level, who are "vital", will charge quickly. Those whose bioenergetic level has dropped will possibly need a few sessions to achieve an illumination and those who are already overcharged will experience the overcharge symptoms very quickly, within a few minutes.

Does every human being need an orgone accumulator or can one already have the optimal charge level? As I have already described, the ability of the organism to absorb higher energy quantities is based on biophysical laws (charge as "nice weather"). Therefore, those who are organismically and energetically healthy to a large extent, who move a lot in the open air in a healthy environment, who live in harmony with themselves and the social and natural environment, have good conditions to be healthy. Just these vital people can use the higher energetic charge in the accumulator particularly well. So it would be nonsensical to think that one does not need the accumulator because one is "healthy". On the contrary, those who have a well-developed basic energetic situation know particularly well the advantages of the charge in the orgone accumulator, know when a session in the accumulator is useful and above all: those who have a well-developed energetic system will appreciate the pleasure factor that comes with the radiation in the accumulator. Wilhelm Reich and all his co-workers have used the orgone accumulator not only for medical-therapeutic reasons, but also because it is fun and adds an additional pleasure to life.

The emotional disposition

There are people who cannot use the orgone accumulator for emotional reasons. The basis of a defensive attitude is generally the "Lustangst", as Reich called the fear of great emotional excitement, of sexuality and especially of the orgasm. The very intimate energetic "touch" in the orgone accumulator is often experienced by very congested people as too direct, so they become afraid. Other characters start making silly jokes or seemingly factual arguments against the accumulator. Many refuse to even consider putting themselves in it, others absolutely want to put all kinds of people in it, except themselves, according to the motto: what helps others will eventually convince me, and when everyone is healthy, I will be too.

Too much enthusiasm for the orgone accumulator, even before one has used it, can also be a defensive attitude. I think a healthy skepticism towards something you don't know yet is appropriate. It is best to be open-minded and let your own experiences and results convince you.

One should also avoid trying to persuade people who do not want to use the accumulator to do so. This often hides an insecurity of the person who tries to convince.

I also think it is very problematic to want to put people into the orgone accumulator because you are convinced it will benefit them. Only doctors who are appropriately qualified should offer treatments. I experience it again and again that worried relatives want to get an orgone accumulator for their sick relative. Often this does not go well. People should not be incapacitated unless they really no longer have power over their decisions. Even those who are suggested a treatment by the doctor can still refuse it.

Geographical and cosmic factors

The closer to the equator and the higher in the mountains you are, the stronger orgone accumulators work. Other factors that bring a stronger orgone charge of the atmosphere are increased sunspot activity, full moon and new moon.

Weather and environmental factors

Each weather situation brings a specific orgonotic charge of the atmosphere. Before a thunderstorm the effect of the accumulator is possibly completely cancelled. Likewise, fog or extreme DOR weather conditions can impair the charge in the orgone accumulator or make it completely impossible. One should follow his feeling here and also - in order to be able to judge such critical border situations - train his perceptions in the orgone accumulator from the outset.

The ideal place to set up an orgone accumulator is a wooden hut on a sunlit forest meadow, far away from nuclear power plants, nuclear and other weapons depots, high-voltage power lines, X-ray facilities, busy roads, factories of any kind, TV, radio, radar and telephone transmitters, without TV, computer screens, fluorescent tubes or even without any electrical device and without a radio telephone. If possible also still without chemical environmental poisons from the agriculture and with as small a DOR load as possible. Whoever finds such an environment can consider himself lucky.

All these factors can, if they occur very strongly, make the use of an orgone accumulator difficult or even impossible. The strength or concentration of the environmental interference must be assessed by everyone for himself, mostly this can only remain subjective. Only one thing should be considered: The charge in the orgone accumulator is the amplification of an energetic process that is constantly taking place between the organism and the atmosphere anyway. So if the orgone accumulator has a toxic effect because of certain environmental influences, then this environmental situation is unsuitable for living beings even without accumulator and strictly speaking it is lethal.

I would refuse for me and my family to live, e.g., closer than 500 meters to a high-voltage power line, less than 20 km from a nuclear power plant, closer than 2 km from a radio or TV station, or in a house where an X-ray facility (e.g., from a dentist) is in operation. I could also not imagine living near a desert, e.g. in the whole Mediterranean area, where a DOR atmosphere prevails the predominant time. Every person has to weigh up for himself in which environmental pollution he has to or wants to live and then decide whether he could operate an orgone accumulator there. If the answer is negative, my advice is to look for a new place to live soon. For more on the assessment of the environmental situation, see the chapter "The Energy Predators".

Clothing and other factors

When using the orgone accumulator, one should be as lightly dressed as possible, since heavy clothes, especially those made of wool and plastic, form a superfluous insulating layer that may delay the charging process. Since the body temperature usually rises somewhat and one thus develops a feeling of warmth, light clothing is recommended anyway. However, on the other hand, there is no reason to go in completely unclothed. The organism is used to clothing and can normally integrate it into its energy system. If the accumulator is located in a cold room, one can start out dressed warmer and gradually take off the clothes as it is comfortable.

It is absolutely not advisable to go into the accumulator sweating or sweating profusely, as this can cause the plates to mist up. (It is also better not to take hot, steaming drinks inside because of the increase in humidity). The humidity immediately condenses on the relatively cold plates and this can absorb the charge almost completely, so that you have to let the orgone accumulator dry inside before you can use it further.

One should also have shoes on (sensibly clean slippers), since the floor plate oxidizes fast from the sweat of the feet. Therefore, one should also not necessarily walk on stockings into the orgone accumulator, since these do not stop the sweat. If it is important that the floor plate does not oxidize, you can put a sheet metal or wire grid (made of galvanized iron or steel) in it, as they are offered as doormats. This is also recommended at doctors' offices or where accumulators are used by many people.

It is essential to enter the orgone accumulator with clean hands. Sweaty hands, greasy fingers, soiling by food, drinks etc. are also very unfavorable. Galvanized metal sheets often react very violently with oxidation, so that they quickly become dull when they come into contact with grease and sweat. Dirty sheets with handle marks, etc., should be cleaned as soon as possible. If cleaning agents have to be used, they must be wiped with a damp cloth without all detergents, since detergents, alcohol, etc. leave a fine organic film on the sheet metal. A relatively residue-free grease solvent is acetone. However, this must also be wiped off with a damp cloth.

I am often asked whether rings, earrings, watches etc. should be taken off in the orgone accumulator. In principle I believe that these objects, if they interfere in the orgone accumulator, can also have no good effects otherwise.

Possible impairment due to information transfer in the accumulator

Recently, I have repeatedly encountered people whose sensitive perception of energetic structures and processes - e.g. through clear visual perception or through clear emotional perceptions - has made me aware of the problem of possible information transfer in the accumulator.

After the use of orgone accumulators or orgone blankets, an energy pattern can possibly remain in the device, which could be transferred to a subsequent user. As said, this observation is a purely subjective, sensory and emotional perception, which is scientifically nict verified.

Recently, more and more medical concepts have come into the public eye, in which treatment is carried out by means of pure information transfer, e.g. homeopathy or radionics. The common feature of these methods is that organisms are not treated with gross material information (e.g. in the form of chemical drugs or even herbs), but the information is transmitted subtly via a carrier medium.

Recently, there are even attempts to use orgone energy as a carrier medium for information transfer. I think this aspect is an important approach. There are still unexplored connections between acupuncture, homeopathy, Bach flowers, Mora etc. and orgonomy. I only find it regrettable that in this context the very clearly defined criteria of orgonomic medicine, derived from orgonomic-functionalist science, usually fall by the wayside. One should not "use" orgonomy and at the same time throw its scientific foundations overboard. But that would be another topic.

I could well imagine that an organism - e.g. a seriously ill patient - leaves an energy pattern in an orgone accumulator. The relatively strong energy field of the patient and the weak one of the orgone accumulator merge and form a common strong energy body that can absorb a lot of energy from the atmosphere - this is as far as Reich's orgonomic medicine goes. It is quite conceivable that this energy body contains the structure of the one who is currently in the accumulator. Since the orgone accumulator itself maintains a weak energy field, it could be that it carries the pattern of the last user for a certain time.

Especially those who, as doctors or alternative practitioners, put many different users in the accumulator, should consider cleaning the device regularly after use with a damp cloth.

Counterindicated diseases and treatments

In general, the charge in the orgone accumulator is harmless as long as one avoids strong overcharges, because the orgone charge is an endogenous biophysical function and not foreign radiation energy. Counter-indicated are all diseases that indicate chronic overcharging. Then the use of strong orgone accumulators must be discouraged and it would make sense to monitor an accumulator application orgone-medically.
Signs of chronic overcharging are:
- long lasting strongly increased blood pressure;
- diseases due to vasoconstriction;
- hysterical characters (in the sense of Reich's characters);
- uncured heart defects;
- brain tumors;
- arteriosclerosis;
- Stroke (not using an accumulator even long after the acute attack);
- Skin inflammations;
- Ocular conjunctivitis;
In all these cases, the orgone accumulator should not be used at all during acute symptoms of illness, and after recovery from symptoms, if at all, it should be used only in very short sessions and in very weak (3-layer) devices. Reich writes about this:

"The length of the sessions can be slowly increased from time to time until one is sure that no collapse ... which can be caused by a sudden contraction. Bursting of blood vessels, vegetative shocks, suspension of heartbeat are quite possible if in such cases overcharging with, for example, 20 times accumulator happens. There has been no death due to overcharging so far in 10 years of using orgone energy, but the possibility cannot be completely excluded. One should be especially vigilant in the case of high blood pressure, as it may react to the expanding vagotonic influence of orgone energy with a sudden increase rather than a decrease in pressure." (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator..., p. 43)

Counter-indicated are all treatments with strong allopathic drugs, especially antibiotics and cortisone. These drugs are, among other things, organismic poisons, which are supposed to regulate certain bodily malfunctions. One may think what one wants of them - if one carries out such a treatment, it must be kept up accordingly to the end. The organism reacts to poisons with defense reactions. In the orgone accumulator this defense is strengthened under certain circumstances considerably, so that one can bring oneself by a simultaneous application of the orgone accumulator into the situation to have fought and diminished the medicamentous protection, without having already developed a strong immune defense. Moreover, treatment with immunosuppressive drugs (cortisone) and simultaneous treatment with the orgone accumulator, which strengthens the immune defense, would be the application of mutually canceling measures. Reich wrote about this:

"Never mix orgone treatment with other, chemical treatments. Orgone energy is a powerful force. We do not know what consequences such a mixture can have. (...) Vitamins, iron compounds for ingestion, penicillin and other drugs of biological origin are compatible with orgone energy. On the other hand, even the smallest amount of inorganic components such as sulfonamides should not be administered under any circumstances, either externally or internally, since they inhibit the regeneration process that has been initiated by orgone energy" (Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator..., p. 36/41).

 

So, when using the orgone accumulator, one should use natural healing methods if possible. If one starts allopathic treatments, one should be so careful to ask a doctor qualified in orgone medicine to what extent the treatments support or hinder each other, or interrupt the orgone treatment as long as one takes chemical medications about whose interactions with a concentrated orgone treatment are unknown.

In any case, radioactive irradiation is contraindicated. After an X-ray treatment, nuclear spin tomography or radiation therapy, one must wait a few (at least three) days before using the orgone accumulator again, otherwise an organismic oranuric reaction could occur.

Shooter and other orgone accumulator constructions

Wilhelm Reich has developed a small orgone accumulator, which has the function to treat small body regions like cuts, burns, fractures etc. specifically.

The charge is transferred from the inner sheets to the outside through a "BX-Cable", a metal hose made of galvanized iron, coated with plastic on the outside. Funnels made of galvanized iron can then be attached to the end of the hose, in the size corresponding to the body part to be treated. Without such an additional contact surface, the shooter acts as a point radiator.

The mode of action of the orgone shooter corresponds completely to that of the large orgone accumulator. The two energy fields, i.e. the strong body energy field and the relatively weak field at the inner plates of the shooter merge with each other and the organismic orgone field of the treated person is charged.

The use of the Shooter is recommended when the treatment of individual weakened body regions or of injuries of any kind would already be so time-consuming that it would not be possible to use the large orgone accumulator for such a long time without the danger of overcharging. Overcharging by the Shooter is hardly to be feared. It is also not possible to use the Shooter as a "substitute" for the large accumulator, because only the latter can lead to the whole-body radiation of the energy fields and provide the corresponding experiences. Some very highly charged people can feel the Shooter, but the charge is nowhere near the level of the large accumulator. It is therefore misleading for those who first want to use the Shooter on a trial basis, so to speak, before using a large accumulator, to try to compare the way the two devices work. This is because the Shooter's effect is often quite disappointing, especially for those with a relatively weak charge.

It is therefore highly recommended to use the Shooter in conjunction with the large accumulator. This is because the more highly charged the total accumulator is, the better it absorbs energy from smaller parts of the body. That is why I install a Shooter in every standard accumulator, which is included in the seat. For this purpose it is quite sufficient to line the inside of the bench with sheet metal in such a way that a metal space is created, from which a metal hose leads out. Thus, during the session in the orgone accumulator, the shooter can be used selectively on smaller parts of the body.

You can also use this bench shooter outside the orgone accumulator if you lead the metal hose through the slightly opened door to the outside and then sit in front of the orgone accumulator. This construction may seem a bit provisional, but this shooter is very strong because the charge of the large accumulator is available.

Unlike the large orgone accumulator, the Shooter is more of a medical device whose use in case of illness belongs in the hands of trained doctors and alternative practitioners. Private medical use should be limited to the treatment of minor wounds, such as cuts and abrasions, minor burns, etc., which one would not otherwise have treated by a doctor. But the application is worthwhile. On the one hand, if one takes the time, one can study the very amazing healing powers of orgone energy. On the other hand, one can avoid the various complications often associated with "normal" healing processes. How effective such wound treatment is depends on whether one takes the time to treat the body part long enough. This "long enough" is an undefined quantity that depends on all the factors I have already listed above, especially on the bioenergetic level of the person who wants to treat. So, in any case, one should have a fair amount of patience.

Often such local treatments also produce quite amazing results, e.g. after tooth extractions or gum treatments or other minor surgeries, which can often have quite painful after-effects.

The shooter can be used as a small accumulator for experiments, e.g. sprout experiments or for charging drinking water or food.

The orgone accumulator: scientific and public responsibility

Wilhelm Reich worked from 1922 on the sexual and libido functions of human beings and from 1939 until his death in 1957 on the research of orgone energy. He always put himself and his work uncompromisingly in the service of the living and never subordinated himself to commercial interests or a "career". He separated from persons and institutions that demanded scientific "compromises" from him, and there were many of this kind of separations in Reich's scientific becoming. To many, he seemed peculiar in his inflexibility and stubborn adherence to his own objectives, and rumors were circulated - especially by disappointed former friends and collaborators - about his state of mind and supposedly unqualified scientific work.

Hardly any scientist of the 20th century has been attacked as much as Wilhelm Reich. His books were burned not only by the Nazis but also at the instigation of the American Food and Drug Administration. A spiteful press, maliciously distorting the facts, has literally hunted down this researcher in Norway and in the U.S., who did not develop bombs or warfare agents, but who discovered life energy and a simple device that helps people support life functions. The U.S. judiciary banned the orgone accumulators and all his literature because Reich declared the court not competent to rule on natural laws and he consequently refused to play the game of legal tricks. When Reich then disregarded the verdict against him, he was sentenced to two years in prison in another trial. In this second trial he could no longer defend himself substantively concerning the orgone energy and about the fact of disregarding the first verdict there was no doubt - so he, almost sixty years old, was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Reich had already been seriously ill with heart disease since the Oranur experiment. The atmosphere in prison was very detrimental to his condition and a few days before his early release he died of heart failure.

Reich himself has always explained the hostility against his work and against his person with the fear of people of the knowledge of their own energetic and sexual nature. For neurotically severely ill people, who fear their own natural life functions, there is nothing worse than when a scientist deals with human sexuality, the orgasm, the sexuality of children and adolescents and with the physical energy which works behind the life functions.

Wilhelm Reich himself has said that he has discovered "far too much". He always regretfully stated that the abundance of the material to be worked out and the unmanageability of what still had to be researched, let him work out only excerpts and rough outlines of what would have been possible and what would have been necessary. The approach of orgonomy is of such a fundamental nature that the entire natural science, humanities and social science would have to be looked at anew.

At a time when the most diverse esoteric and alternative scientific models are pushing into the public sphere and the established natural science is trusted less and less, orgonomy is having a very difficult time. This branch of science is uncompromisingly oriented to the scientific method of work, even if it understands the living as the basis of all knowledge, and it rejects all mechanistic and mystical approaches. It happens today that orgonomy is either not trusted at all or that it is trusted in an almost uncritical mystical way. It is dismissed as humbug or offered as a doctrine of salvation by people who do not have the slightest idea about it.

Wilhelm Reich's orgonomy is unpopular and will certainly remain so, because the demands on the rationality and seriousness of those who deal with it are very high. Whoever makes jokes about sexual matters or fearfully avoids any mention of sexual topics; whoever is afraid of the vitality of children and adolescents and whoever thinks that it is natural for young, healthy people to live ascetically; whoever prefers to trust a display instrument rather than sensual perception or whoever believes that a god has determined what we may and may not know; who thinks that a person who lovingly embraces another without having a license to do so from a social institution is a pig and who renounces sexuality for life because of misunderstood notions of fidelity is a hero - who thinks like this or similar will have difficulties with orgonomy, the science of the living.

Wilhelm Reich has taken strict care that his work is not misused for unserious practices and that no one presumes to hold pure opinions about orgonomy that have not been acquired through orgonomic work and proper knowledge.

"It happens again and again that orgonomic discoveries elaborated with diligence and carefully presented are met by pure "opinions" which have no basis in observation or experiment. When such opinions are expressed by a chemist or physician, the layman accepts them as an "authority" decision, no matter whether the opinion is based on observation or not. This is how a false public opinion develops.
Since "authority" is abused in this way in the interest of dishonest business practices or politics, we must insist that whoever expresses an opinion about the medical or other application of orgone energy first prove that he has observed the ... rules for the observation of orgonotic functions. (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator..., p. 44)

Both in terms of his therapeutic developments and the misuse of his name, his warnings and demands were not unjustified.

After his death, those who relate to his work in terms of content have split in many directions. Many of those who are or were strictly orgonomically oriented have formed sectarian groups. Some sincerely claim to be the only qualified orgone therapists and flatly accuse others who are equally serious in their work of being frauds. Reich's legacy is natural science, social science and humanities knowledge that "belongs" to no one, even if some claim it does. I would simply like to ask the reader here to be critical and to look self-appointed "authorities" in the matter of Wilhelm Reich and orgonomy on the fingers and in the publications.

And one more thing: Don't ask any doctor, therapist or alternative practitioner what he thinks about the orgone accumulator. A serious person will admit that he has no criteria of evaluation, but unfortunately only few bring up this strength of character. Thus, most will react dismissively, which is certainly not a wrong reaction given the many indefinable devices that are on the "alternative medicine" market. But it makes sense to ask someone who knows what they are talking about.

"A physician is not an authority on the orgone accumulator unless he has diligently studied the accumulator, used it regularly, felt the subjective reactions, and measured the objective functions. Therefore, there are no other authorities in the field of orgonomy except those who have continuously studied orgone energy functions." (W. Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator..., p. 45)

Reich wanted to make sure that those who produce and sell orgone accumulators and also those who use them, i.e. all those who benefit from orgonomic science, also participate financially in orgonomy. Therefore, he did not sell orgone accumulators at first, but only rented them. This rental represented a not insignificant part of his income for the maintenance of Orgonon, his scientific institute in Rangeley, Maine. Myron Sharaf describes that Reich could have raised considerably more income with therapy hours and with scientific teaching. But Reich also emphasized the more symbolic act that each of the beneficiaries would have to make a contribution to Orgonomy, however small.

"Orgone energy can be had like water or air and it is available in unlimited quantities. All that needs to be done is to provide the user with a mechanism to concentrate it; that, as has been shown, is the accumulator. Conditions must be created so that even the poorest people can afford the concentrated orgone energy.
So it is the responsibility of those working orgonomically to make orgone energy available to the greatest number of people possible. But there is also a responsibility of those who benefit from orgone energy to help secure the future of orgone energy research! In particular, it is necessary to prevent ruthless exploitation of orgone energy, both through ruthless profiteering and indifference to research on the part of the beneficiaries. ...
There is no intention to create a monopoly on the production of orgone accumulators. On the contrary, no such monopoly would be acceptable. Manufacturers can take over the construction of the orgone accumulator on a larger scale for a reasonable fee and at a reasonable profit for each accumulator. Plans are also underway to provide information for those who wish to build their own accumulator. (Wilhelm Reich, The Orgone Energy Accumulator..., p. 45/46)

I myself have been manufacturing orgone accumulators as well as other orgonomic devices since 1977, strictly according to the specifications Wilhelm Reich issued for their construction. Correctly constructed orgonomic devices are a central prerequisite for the continuation of Reich's scientific and medical work, as it is done here in Germany by the Wilhelm Reich Institute in Berlin, among others. I also try to follow Reich's guidelines as clearly as possible in my information, production and sales work. Thus I attach importance to the fact that each prospective customer first receives material about orgonomy, from which he can see what an orgone accumulator is, how it functions and how it is used. For the production and sale I charge, as Reich demanded for orgone devices, "reasonable profits", which are very different from those of other medical device manufacturers. In addition, I do not engage in advertising.

I mean to act in this way in the sense of Reich. I would be very happy if others who manufacture orgone devices would also act according to these criteria.