# Ask the guy raised in an Orgone-energy-believing household **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 4, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466 "2003-04-04T15:15:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/21 "2003-04-07T05:16:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Yllaria \* > \*\*\<\<[Reich believed that] you can create life from lifelessness by soaking autoclaved, sterilized dirt in water for a few months\>\> > > As and aside - it’s very hard to autoclave dirt and actually sterilize it. Dirt has too many intricate, deep hidey-holes.\*\* Which is one of the reasons I’m convinced that Reich’s “bions” were nothing more than infected samples containing dried-out bacteria and amoebas that took a while to reconstitute themselves in solution. (Reich’s first Bion Experiments used “sterilized” grass, which amoebic cysts are now known to cling to. The cysts would be too small to see with the conventional light microscopes Reich used, but when they were soaked in water and expanded into full-blown amoebas, Reich certainly could have seen them. To Reich, it would have looked like the amoebas were created _ex nihilo_.) In the late 1930s, a microbiologist named Kreyberg looked at one of Reich’s bion samples and said they were only common staphylococci. Reich countered by saying that this demonstrated that staphylococci could be created from lifeless matter. Reich didn’t believe that such a thing as “air infection” was possible, or that bacteria or amoebas were in the air, so he was probably pretty sloppy when it came to making sure his experimental ampoules were tightly sealed. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/22 "2003-04-07T05:58:51Z")
Have you read _[Fury on Earth](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0306805758/qid=1049695065/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-3925719-2175307?v=glance&s=books)_? If so, what did you think about it? ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/23 "2003-04-09T18:03:32Z")
Not only have I read _Fury On Earth_, I’ve used some of the material presented in it as fuel in my anti-Reich arguments. The only problem have with the book is that the author was trained in psychology/psychiatry, and knew very little of physics or chemistry or microbiology. He does admits this personal limitation of his in the book, but it still made him awfully credulous of the non-psycotherapeutic “discoveries” Reich claimed to make (e.g. bions, oranur, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/24 "2003-04-09T19:24:10Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Yllaria \* > \*\* > I once took a shot at trying to compare a patented “contamination eating” bacteria to normal soil bacteria and I couldn’t get the soil to sterilize, even in a walk-in autoclave. I ended up just testing it in consortium with the soil bacteria - which is what would be happening in the field anyway._\* Hijack: Did you try high-pressure tyndallization or high-pressure tyndallization in concert with ethylene oxide treatment? ---
**Author:** ![Mowgli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@Mowgli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mowgli)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/25 "2013-12-03T18:06:56Z")
What are your views on negative and positive energy? Also do you believe there is some truth in the Orgonite energy givers? Like the Pyramids of metal flakes/shavings, Copper coils, Quartz/Crystals? I realise it’s been a while since you’ve been on here? Cheers Mowgli ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/26 "2013-12-04T00:44:14Z")
Hello Zombie thread! Was the following link unavailable in 2003? I noticed that it hasn’t been posted yet…(Lemmy on bass for those interested.) Hawkwind… Space Ritual… Orgone Accumulator!! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/MPISXvQwm_E/maxresdefault.jpg "9. Orgone Accumulator") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPISXvQwm_E) ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/27 "2013-12-04T09:12:21Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > You can toss Velikovsky into the same basket as Reich and Jung, too. Nooooo! Velikovsky is so FUN to read! I got hundreds of hours of amusement reading his stuff [I scored a box of woo books on freecycle a few years back -I also got replacement copy of Morning of the Magician by Bergier and Pauwels - the book that interested me in alchemy. Seriously fun stuff:p] There are some really fun and interesting blogs I hit that might interest people - one debunking [Ancient Aliens](http://ancientaliensdebunked.com/), [Jason Colavito](http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog.html) does discuss all sorts of woo beliefs, [Paleobabble](http://michaelsheiser.com/PaleoBabble/) takes on misrepresentations of history, though I really get a kick out of slamming the ancient aliens. That dudes hair and body language is just so annoying [if I were trying to convince people I was in earnest I would do something about my hair and body language!] ---
**Author:** ![midsummermagic1111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@midsummermagic1111](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/midsummermagic1111)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/28 "2015-04-05T16:55:27Z")
I am kind of a middle grounder. I am open minded and interested in this kind of stuff, but try to remain grounded in sifting through the large amounts of spam. What prompted my interest in orgone energy was a spirit market event I went to where a man stuck this pvc pipe creation over my head and I felt immense energy fluctuations. He had loaded the pvc with crystals and copper … Stuff I don’t remember exactly since it was years ago … But it was definitely something real and unexpected at these events where you cross paths with energy experiments that you have to “tap into” to believe. Anyways, Ive had experiences with good reiki practitioners and a chakra reader who picked out bad energy from my aura and literally had me doubled up in tears not sure why I was crying, that make me “know” there is something very real about energy manipulation… But don’t classify what exactly the energy movement is good for and how to best utilize it. I am trying to find out what was in the pvc pipe thingy as the creator has disappeared from the information sheet I saved. My question to you is can you feel orgone energy or is it something you have to “tap into”. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/29 "2015-04-05T17:24:41Z")
> [@midsummermagic1111](#): > > I am kind of a middle grounder. I am open minded and interested in this kind of stuff, but try to remain grounded in sifting through the large amounts of spam. > > What prompted my interest in orgone energy was a spirit market event I went to where a man stuck this pvc pipe creation over my head and I felt immense energy fluctuations. He had loaded the pvc with crystals and copper … Stuff I don’t remember exactly since it was years ago … But it was definitely something real and unexpected at these events where you cross paths with energy experiments that you have to “tap into” to believe. > > Anyways, Ive had experiences with good reiki practitioners and a chakra reader who picked out bad energy from my aura and literally had me doubled up in tears not sure why I was crying, that make me “know” there is something very real about energy manipulation… But don’t classify what exactly the energy movement is good for and how to best utilize it. > > I am trying to find out what was in the pvc pipe thingy as the creator has disappeared from the information sheet I saved. My question to you is can you feel orgone energy or is it something you have to “tap into”. Orgone energy has not be shown to exist. It is complete pseudoscience, and its practices and teachings are utter bullshit. That said, PVC is known for its ability to hold a strong static electric charge. Perhaps your hair became charged with electrons, and you felt this sensation around your head, but other than that, there’s no life-force energy out there, and what probably happened was no different than rubbing a balloon on your head. (zombie thread noted) ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/30 "2015-04-05T18:43:28Z")
No questions for the OP yet, but this is a fascinating thread. Oh, and for those who haven’t seen Cecil’s column, [**here it is**](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/666/whats-the-story-on-wilhelm-reich-and-his-orgone-energy). ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/31 "2015-04-06T00:44:38Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Morning of the Magicians by Bergier and Pauwels - the book that interested me in alchemy. Seriously fun stuff 😛 Great book for crackpots and those who love them. Well, love their crackpottery. > [@](#): > > There are some really fun and interesting blogs I hit that might interest people - one debunking [Ancient Aliens](http://ancientaliensdebunked.com/), [Jason Colavito](http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog.html) does discuss all sorts of woo beliefs, [Paleobabble](http://michaelsheiser.com/PaleoBabble/) takes on misrepresentations of history, though I really get a kick out of slamming the ancient aliens. That dudes hair and body language is just so annoying [if I were trying to convince people I was in earnest I would do something about my hair and body language!] Do you mean [Giorgio Tsoukalos](http://www.ufocasebook.com/2011/giorgiotsoukalos.jpg), from the _Ancient Aliens_ show? I’m about halfway through the three hour _Ancient Aliens: Debunked_ video. I’d be further along except I have to turn it off every time he shows up. Nothing about him inspires confidence. ---
**Author:** ![get\_lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@get\_lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/get_lives)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/32 "2015-04-06T01:39:48Z")
There’s no question that there’s such a thing as emotional armoring, and that it presents itself as tension and sore trigger points. That’s pretty well-known in the massage community. When you work on a tight trigger point with a needle or finger/knuckle/etc., there can be all kinds of emotional releases. Laughter, rage, tears, etc… I’ve experienced it myself multiple times, and heard many stories from massage and posture work practitioners. I don’t know that Reich knew anything about trigger points, or good bodywork, though. I doubt he did. Most of the good bodywork stuff comes from China/India, and is centuries old. The rest has been discovered since Reich’s death, AFAIK. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/33 "2015-04-06T03:32:27Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > Some people are raised in a Catholic family. > Some people are raised in a Jewish family. > Me? I was raised in an [Orgonomy](http://www.netcom.com/~rogermw/Reich) family. > > My dad became a True Believer in various aspects of Wilhelm Reich’s worldview when I was 8 years old. My mom kinda followed along for the ride. My dad built an [orgone energy accumulator box](http://www.netcom.com/~rogermw/Reich/accumulators.html) big enough to sit in, convinced of its alleged therapeutic properties. (Reich believed that a blocked orgone energy flow within the body was responsible for everything from stuttering to sexual dysfunction to cancer.) When I was 9, the whole family went into Reichian [therapy](http://www.netcom.com/~rogermw/Reich/orgone_therapy.html) – not because we were having the kinds of real serious problems which require therapy, but because my dad believed that 70% of the population was neurotic and wanted us to be among that elite 30% that were [orgastically potent](http://home.netcom.com/~rogermw/Reich/orgastic_potency.html). (Reich believed that the only criterion for emotional health was the ability to have a really really good orgasm involving “total surrender”.) Despite being sometimes referred to as “orgone therapy”, Reich’s therapy didn’t involve any orgone energy devices. It did, however, involve some personally unpleasant practices of “working on the muscular armor”; I recount some of my experiences with this form of therapy [here](http://www.netcom.com/~rogermw/Reich/personal.html). > > For a while, I believed that [orgone energy](http://home.netcom.com/~rogermw/Reich/orgone_energy.html) was real, and that Reich’s therapy was the be-all and end-all Way to True Emotional Health [TM]. I no longer believe either of these things. Orgonomy is a pseudoscience and, despite Reich’s insistence to the contrary, has many religious elements to it. > > So … ever wanted to ask something to a former True Believer in Orgone Energy, who gave up the “family religion”? Oh wow wow :eek: is that one those conspiracy theories that disease and illness radiated bad energy and if you had energy device that radiated proper good energy it will cure the disease and illness? One of those lost city of Atlantis conspiracy energy heeling device. [![](http://www.wakingtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/WIKI-Orgone.jpg) ](http://www.wakingtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/WIKI-Orgone.jpg) This all too command in video games and lost city of Atlantis conspiracy. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/34 "2015-04-06T03:44:32Z")
> [@Abe\_Babe](#): > > I’d never even heard of Orgonomy before this. > > Did you try hard to hide this “fringe” belief from other people when you were a child? > > Did you have troubles with other kids when word got out that you or your parent’s believed in it? Abe Babe I think it is one of those lost city of Atlantis conspiracy stuff going around of lost science and technology. Like free electricity, communication device, flying craft some kind of anti-gravity they had,moving rocks and large objects with sound waves,heeling devices and such. And war or some thing happen and city got suck in the ocean. They claim modern science is too primitive to explain these forces or building these devices like flying craft using anti-gravity, sound waves to move objects and energy heeling devices. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/35 "2015-04-06T04:03:50Z")
> [@shrew](#): > > Um, yeah. I think in general I’ll avoid anyone named Reich. Hey, Robert Reich is cool! ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/36 "2015-04-06T04:04:47Z")
Huh. Are there ANY zombie threads that don’t have at least one banned member in them? ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/37 "2015-04-06T11:38:03Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Huh. Are there ANY zombie threads that don’t have at least one banned member in them? Considering how many of the most prolific SDMB posters of all time are banned, and especially in the very early years when there just weren’t as many threads period, maybe not! ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/38 "2015-04-06T14:14:54Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > \<\\> > > As and aside - it’s very hard to autoclave dirt and actually sterilize it. Dirt has too many intricate, deep hidey-holes. Not the most scientific way to describe it, but it’s true. That’s why removing dirt is so important when you’re creating sterile conditions. > > I once took a shot at trying to compare a patented “contamination eating” bacteria to normal soil bacteria and I couldn’t get the soil to sterilize, even in a walk-in autoclave. I ended up just testing it in consortium with the soil bacteria - which is what would be happening in the field anyway. > > I’m surprized it took as much as a month for evidence of life to reassert itself. In my tests it took less than a week. Although I was adding nutrients to the soil, as well as water, which might have sped growth. Are you saying that if I bake a small quantity of dirt for an hour in a 400 degree oven, some spores will still survive? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/39 "2015-04-08T21:09:35Z")
> [@get\_lives](#): > > There’s no question that there’s such a thing as emotional armoring Yes there is. > [@](#): > > Most of the good bodywork stuff comes from China/India, and is centuries old. The rest has been discovered since Reich’s death, AFAIK. What exactly do you mean by “good bodywork stuff”? Acupuncture has been disproven\*. No evidence for the Chi of China or Prana of India has been found. - In studies,sticking needles in places that ancient charts say will help does help a little. Sticking needles in random places helps the same degree. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466/40 "2015-04-08T21:18:44Z")
> [@midsummermagic1111](#): > > I am kind of a middle grounder. No, you are not. You are a True Believer. You believe in chakras, the woo side of reiki and “energy manipulation” > [@](#): > > I am open minded and interested in this kind of stuff, but try to remain grounded in sifting through the large amounts of spam. > > What prompted my interest in orgone energy was a spirit market If you were not a True Believer, why were you at a “spirit market”? > [@](#): > > event I went to where a man stuck this pvc pipe creation over my head and I felt immense energy fluctuations. He had loaded the pvc with crystals and copper … Stuff I don’t remember exactly since it was years ago . So, he could have had a device generating static electricity or some other mundane explanation. Why do you discount that and claim something supernatural? > [@](#): > > . But it was definitely something real and unexpected at these events where you cross paths with energy experiments that you have to “tap into” to believe. > > Anyways, Ive had experiences with good reiki practitioners and a chakra reader who picked out bad energy from my aura and literally had me doubled up in tears not sure why I was crying, that make me “know” there is something very real about energy manipulation… But don’t classify what exactly the energy movement is good for and how to best utilize it. > > I am trying to find out what was in the pvc pipe thingy as the creator has disappeared from the information sheet I saved. My question to you is can you feel orgone energy or is it something you have to “tap into”. There is no evidence whatsoever that orgone exists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-raised-in-an-orgone-energy-believing-household/166466.md?page=3)