Orgone & Orgonomy

[Henry Chai <chai%utflis%toronto.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>]

WARNING: rather long article on Orgonomy, cloudbusters etc.

Well, I finally got around to look more closely at "Orgone" and related
stuff.  I started first by locating "A Book of Dreams" by Peter Reich. 
When I went to get the book from one of the campus libraries, (the Science
& Medicine library) I noticed that there are several other books on
or by Wilheim Reich.  Then I looked at the call number of "A Book of
Dreams", which was RZ 460.R43, and saw that all the other books have
RZ 460 as the first part of the call number.  According to the 
Library of Congress' (LC) book classification scheme, RZ 460 is used 
for books on "Orgonomy", which is classified under the heading
"Miscellaneous Systems of Medicine".  Next I turned to the Dewey
Classification System of books.  The call number for books on Orgonomy
is 615.856, and its heading is "Miscellaneous Therapies: Controversial
and Spurious Therapies -- including Orgonomy; quackery e,g, Perkinism".
So now we know where it fits!  I have looked into Encylopaedia  
Brittanica but there is no reference to Orgonomy.  The Random House
Dictionary, however, defines orgonomic energy.

As I started to go thru "A Book of Dreams" and "Wilheim Reich and Orgonomy"
by an Ola Raknes, the first thing I noticed was that Reich's home was
called "Orgonon" and not "Organon".  So why did KB use "Organon"?
It seems unlikely that it's a mistake.  Also "Organon" refers to a work
by (I think) Aristotle; could there be a connection somehow?

Next thing I found was the amazingly simple principles employed for
the Cloudbuster and the Orgone Accumulator.  The former is nothing
but an arrangement of telescopic metal tubes.  Here I must quote two
properties of orgone, the "life energry":

1. Organic substances attract and absorb orgone energy
2. Metallic substances attract and repel or reflect orgone energy

("attract and repel"?  this is the type of stuff you expect from an
"Orgonomist", of which said author of the book, Dr. Raknes, is one)

So the metal tubes will absorb orgone energy and will send this
energy into the insides of the tube, which lead to water (for some
reason water is a good absorber of orgone).  When a tube is aimed
at a cloud, the orgone energy will be absorbed and the cloud will be
dissipated (busted).  But if the cloudbuster is pointed at regions
where there is no cloud, clouds nearby would be charged with orgone
and/or moisture, so when the clouds are overcharged it would rain!

As for the orgone acculmulator, it is just a box with an outer layer
of organic substance, e.g. wood, and a metallic inner layer.  The wood
will absorb orgone from the air, and the metal will in turn abosrb orgone
from the wood, then send it into the inside of the box.  So if you sit 
inside the box, you'll be charged with orgone.  If there is another
person inside the box with you, after a while you'll see each other glow
with a bluish shimmer -- sky-blue is the characteristic color of orgone.
(and that is the very reason that the sky is blue!)
And to correct Doug, radium is NOT a CATALYST of orgone.  If orgone
is irradiated, it will trun into DOR  -- 'deadly orgone', which is brownish
black in color, and needless to say it's bad for you.

All of this sounds out of this world, doesn't it? I have some trouble 
reading "Wilheim Reich and Orgonomy" because the author's tone is so
serious, he seems to be saying "Hey! this is all ture! I've seen it
happen.  I can't understand why some people refuse to believe it
when it's so obvious!  And the FDA, they said they used scientific
equipment to prove the non-existence of orgone, yet they refuse to
give the details of the experiments.  They must be making it up!"
I found many of the "experiments" or "observations" described in the
book to be totally unscientific.  However, I'll try to finish it
and I'll keep everyone posted if anything else interesting comes up.  
(that is, everyone who has stayed with me so far :-)

--
Henry Chai
a humble student at the Faculty of Library and Information Science, U of Toronto
{watmath,ihnp4,allegra}!utzoo!utflis!chai