Dr. Wilhelm Reich, his Orgone Theories and UFOs (1950s)

Few UFO books, or UFO encyclopedias for that matter, have taken much if any notice of the UFO observations back in the 1950s of Austrian born biophysicist and psychologist Dr. Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) and his colleagues at his laboratory in Rangeley, Maine. Reich came to America back in 1939, and in 1942, purchased 280 acres of land in Rangeley.

In 1951, Dr. Reich’s early orgone experiments seemed to have run amok. The harmful effects of a detrimental form of orgone energy (commonly referred to as DOR, or Deadly Orgone or Deadly Orgone Radiation) reportedly was released and became obvious on the people and the environment around the Maine laboratory.

As if their work hadn’t been unusual and controversial enough, lab technicians, then visitors, and finally Dr. Reich himself began to observe mysterious lights moving through the night skies of Rangeley, Maine. Dr. Reich even submitted a report to the U.S. Air Force of a UFO he and his colleague, Ilse Ollendorff had seen on the night of January 28, 1954, between 10 and 10:15 p.m. The object appeared among some trees with a mountain in the background, a fact that clearly distinguished this sighting from merely being simply stars or high-flying aircraft.

Dr. Reich had become convinced that extraterrestrial spacecraft had come to spy on his facility in the wake of the environmental problems presumably created by his experiments. However, he soon concluded that the propulsion systems of UFOs produced an exhaust that gave rise to DOR in the atmosphere. In a report to the Air Force in March 1954, Dr. Reich stated his feelings that there was in fact a link between UFOs and orgone. He described how UFOs seen with “bluish shimmering lights” were comparable to the “blue illumination” he had seen in pressure vacuum tube experiments observing orgone energy.

In the meantime, Dr. Reich had constructed his first “cloudbuster,” which consisted of several long steel tubes mounted on a pivoting device, connected by thick, flexi ble cables to a unit called an accumulator and from there extended out to an underground water source. With it in operation thick, black clouds that had reportedly hovered over Rangeley for over a year began to disperse.

Then, on the evening of May 12, 1954, noticing a bright and unusual “star,” Dr. Reich decided to try aiming his cloudbuster at it. To his amazement, the light faded out when he did this. He repeated this four times that night, and each time the anomalous light would disappear from view. Reich was reportedly quite shocked by this event and decided to refrain from any further such experiments lest he risk causing “an interplanetary war.” But from October 5 to the 9th, Reich and his staff reportly saw UFOs again above Orgonon during continued weather engineering efforts with the cloudbuster. At approx. 7 p.m., on the night of October 10, a large red light appeared in the western sky over Bald Mountian. This proved to be too much of a temptation, and the cloudbuster was aimed directly at it whereupon the light “jumped” upwards! Then, as Eva, Reich’s daughter, and the cloudbuster operator at the time watched, the light diminished in size and then sank below the horizon. Later that night, around 7:30 p.m., a yellow light appeared in the western sky and after aiming the cloudbuster at it for about two minutes it faded out. Then it, or a similar light, came back for two more visits. On the last visit it was reportedly accompanied by three other objects, with the cloudbuster again aimed at them, all four disappearing in the very same instant.

After this Dr. Reich suffered from nausea for several days. His daughter Eva felt continually dizzy and had little apetite, and even their dog Troll fell ill and wouldn’t eat. Dr. Reich concluded that DOR had been drawn in from the UFOs and had contaminated them. In fact, this seemed to become a consistent problem during such operations. Possibly one of the most severe instances happened on December 6, 1954, while Dr. Reich’s research assistant, Robert A. McCullough was operating a cloudbuster during weather engineering operations in Tucson, Arizona, an area that had been suffering a severe drought at the time. McCullough somehow sensed the presence of DOR being drawn through the tubes, just as a geiger counter steadily rose until reaching 700 counts per minute. Simultaneously, McCullough noticed a “very bitter taste”in his mouth. Then suddenly he experienced a “crippling sensation” with his right leg, and then his whole right side was paralyzed. Reich noted that at the same time there was a static on the radio, and he concluded that McCullough had drawn in DOR from an unseen UFO. Years later, independent American researchers Jerome Eden and Trevor James Constable would describe similar reactions in apparent UFO/cloudbuster incidents. (There had been many UFOs reported during the work of Reich and his colleagues in Arizona, and, in fact, in the month between December 21, 1954 and January 20, 1955, Reich and his colleagues had recorded no less than 20 separate sightings) Meanwhile, McCullough’s doctors concluded that he had suffered a stroke, and for years afterwards continued to drag his right foot.

Dr. Reich had moved to America to pursue his scientific research without interference. He had seen first-hand the dangerous and oppressive forces of the Nazis. He was certain that here in America he would be free to openly conduct his scientific studies and publish his findings. In Rangeley, Maine, he set up a laboratory and staffed it with competent scientists and researchers, and began to seek confirmation for his evolving theory concerning a vital and universal life energy he called “orgone.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration though labeled him a crackpot and a pseudoscientist when he began distributing a device he labeled an orgone accumulator, which he felt could cure cancer (among other potential benefits). The FDA had eventually ordered Dr. Reich to destroy all of his orgone accumulators. Later Reich, found in contempt of court, was thrown into prison. He died in a federal prison of a heart attack on November 3, 1957, just two days before a parole hearing.

Noted conspiracy author Robert Anton Wilson recalled in his book Cosmic Trigger, The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977), how he observed with horror back in 1957 when agents of the Food and Drug Administration dumped all of the books written by Dr. Reich into an incinerator in New York City. Wilson described how the book burning reminded him, of all things, a scene right out of Nazi Germany, yet unbelievably it was happening right here in America! He wrote that it was a kind of awakening for him about the forces of bureaucracy and bigotry operating unchecked within our own government, just as others (he noted) had been similarly awakened due to the Vietnam War, civil rights, and Watergate.

Noted British researcher Andrew Collins pointed out how Reich’s orgone theory was comparable with what is known in physics today as The Fifth Force, something believed to be the very binding factor behind the primary forces governing the space-time continuum. As to whether this possible “multi-dimensional super force” was the same one “proposed by Wilhelm Reich during the 1950s,” Collins responded, “I think the answer is firmly yes.”

Andrew Collins and British colleagues initiated scientific investigations in 1993 and 1994 to test Reich’s theories. They even used a “mini-cloudbuster” to stimulate potential UFO and paranormal activity, and participants did report odd sightings and experiences, and unexplained photographic images were obtained as well.

Refererence:

Alien Energy: UFOs, Ritual Landscapes and the Human Mind, by Andrew Collins.

Available from: Eagle Wing Books, Inc., P.O. Box 9972, Memphis, TN 38190. 2003, 248 pg., $21.95.

Website: www.eaglewingbooks.com. ISBN: 0-940829-37-1.

Originally published in England back in 1994.