Wilhelm Reich’s Other Secret
The first of Reich’s secrets is a known unknown. It is known that the secret exists and its subject matter but not its exact content. It is about the Y Factor – the secret aspect of the orgone motor. It may be that this Y Factor is a small radioactive entity. This may have been used to stimulate the orgone accumulators connected in series to the small electrical motor that Reich apparently managed to power directly with orgone. A hypothesis is that the motor might be enabled by an oranur field (energised orgone) created in reaction to the radioactive source. Such a process would create a substantial increase in the orgone potential inside the accumulators. The resulting field may then convert directly into electrical energy. See the following papers by Maglione and Ferrari for more information (1). Other researchers such as Sharaf and Mann believed that the Y Factor might have been an electrical stimulus (2). It is also possible that the Y Factor was both electrical and radioactive. It could be too that the energised orgone simply amplified a conventional electrical input.
Reich himself stated that no materials, “as in nuclear fission” were used with the orgone motor (3). This is an odd wording and he also makes contradictory statements regarding radioactive substances. For example, he states that radioactive substances did not show any effects at Orgonon (this is prior to the oranur experiment). However, he also notes, in the same paper, orgone effects upon radium from as early as 1939, such as extinguishing the glow of radium and replacing it with a blue shimmering (4). Reich mentions the changes in his radium dial watch and was aware, in the 1940s, that radioactive radium increased the orgonotic potential.
Photos Courtesy Maglione, The Legendary Shamir (2017).
Figure 1
The Orgone Room & Small Motor
The motor effect itself was first noted in a Geiger counter apparatus when a fast rotation of the dial of the counter occurred in the orgone room using a highly orgone charged Geiger counter tube on August 8th 1947. Sometimes Reich referred to the discovery as August 9th as he did not even begin to comprehend what he had found until repeating it the following day (5). In a letter on the 14th of August, Reich asks if the Geiger counter motor effect would work outside the orgone room, so it looks likely it first occurred there (6). A very high orgone charge within the glass tube of the Geiger counter is required to evince a motor effect (though later the orgone vacuum tubes were found to be even stronger). Reich’s laboratories had a raised elevation in pristine countryside, there was a large orgone room and many orgone devices nearby, probably there was a small residual oranur effect (which Reich may not have known about at the time) and lastly the tubes were charged up surrounded either by close fitting accumulators or by the supplied metal sleeve which could be removed before discharging (7).
It took Reich some 9 months to modify the reaction enough to power a small electrical motor. The motor, as pictured in Figure 1, was run in the orgone laboratory via a series of orgone vacuum tubes and orgone accumulators after an initial catalyst, possibly electrical and/or radioactive. As the orgone electrical motor effect was witnessed and testified to by a number of Reich’s close colleagues (including Dr Sharaf and the English educator AS Neill) it appears likely that it was located for the most part in the large hall. The hall is about 15 feet from the orgone room. The charge of the orgone room strongly extended into the nearby laboratory hall in any case. William Washington, the student who mysteriously disappeared, took an orgone motor with him for further study during his vacation. Therefore, presumably it worked outside of the large orgone room. Washington had got the job at Orgonon (as physics assistant) under false pretences and may well have been secretly working for someone else.
Although Reich sometimes referred to his functional equations on gravity as secret, as far as is known, the US Air Force was given the complete details of his gravitational equations via ATIC (Air Force Intelligence) at Wright Patterson AFB (Air Force Base). Reich had a meeting with senior military officers at the base, a USAF physicist and a civilian UFO specialist to report his findings on UFOs and cloudbusters on the 14th of October 1954 (8).
His two books written in prison are effectively secret or lost as they were stolen. Also his archives are somewhat difficult to access openly since the fifty year sequestration period stipulated by Reich expired in 2007. Perhaps careful guardianship is still warranted however. An academic researcher can apply for limited access to certain box files or parts thereof, but full access is restricted to one or two custodians.
However, aside from these considerations, what is very little known is that Reich had written about a second secret. In a letter from prison, Reich stated the following,
‘I carry two great secrets with me of which no one knows. One day the whole story will be told.’ (9).
As background to this second secret, this author believes that Reich probably met with President Eisenhower in 1955. This might explain why he sometimes maintained that someone was either trying to protect him from dangerous factions (whilst he was in prison) or that he could shortly be vindicated and released. But it is here relevant to the possible second secret.
In the research for Jerome Greenfield’s book, Wilhelm Reich Vs the USA, (10) it was heard that a servant of a family in Maine had commented on seeing President Eisenhower meet with Reich in June 1955. Reich was well known in the area around his Orgonon laboratories and he maintained mostly friendly relations with local people. Reich was a distinctive looking, very Germanic character and was familiar to many in the Maine area. It is quite feasible that the servant, tasked with looking after the Eisenhower party, recognised him. On the other hand, it is quite possible that Reich’s doctor colleagues would not have been aware of this meeting as he spent most of that summer alone at Orgonon whilst most of the doctors were in the New York area. Reich had a strong sense of civic responsibility, perhaps too strong, given what happened to him and his treatment by certain authorities. But he likely would not have directly told the doctors of any meeting with the president. Gladys Wolfe, one of the wives of Reich’s doctor colleagues, commented that Reich had mentioned to her he was expecting a visit from the president. He later wrote of a smiling high government official but not directly of President Eisenhower. Perhaps Reich had let some details slip to Mrs Wolfe in a moment of excitement: Reich knew he was a genius and understandably, was most unhappy at his general exclusion from the scientific world. Upon later questioning, the servant said she was no longer certain it was Reich (who met Eisenhower) but fear about possible consequences of her earlier reports may well have clouded her judgement, in fact this seems very likely. Altogether it appears probable that Reich met President Eisenhower between the 22nd and 27th of June 1955 in Maine whilst the President holidayed there (11). The reason the President may have met him can perhaps be explained by a scene from the 1956 movie, The Earth Vs The Flying Saucers (12).
Figure 3
Reich Lookalike in Film, Dr Alberts
In this movie the earth is saved from hostile UFOs because a group of scientists, studying what little they had gleaned of the unusual science behind the UFOs, had invented an acoustic-electrical device. It looked quite a lot like a cloudbuster (see Figure 2). The devices have the same handwheel as the cloudbuster. They are mounted on the same kind of truck and they are about the same size. The Reich cloudbuster is made up of 5 or more 9- to 12-foot-long pipes grounded into water and not a double tube on a dish as pictured in the movie but the similarities are still striking, The device in the movie can make UFOs wobble and crash. Reich had discovered that the real cloudbuster, presumably withdrawing the orgone energy which may power the UFOs, could also make them unstable and appear to flicker or wobble. It seems likely that the movie was based on Reich’s work. One of the movie scientists even looks a little like Reich (above far left in Figure 3). It is an enjoyable movie, with good characters.
Reich wrote, ‘Two "Stars" to the west, faded out, several times, when cosmic energy was drawn from them’ (13). This was in 1954. He goes on to describe how, ‘Tonight for the first time in the history of man, the war waged for ages by living beings from outer space upon this earth (with respect to DOR, Drought and Desert) was reciprocated with ORANUR with positive result’ (14).
The possible effect of cloudbusters on UFOs was noted multiple times by Reich.
The UFOs at times reciprocated with hostile energy. An assistant at one cloudbusting operation led by Reich was affected by a UFO resulting in symptoms for some weeks. Reich reported what appeared to be two direct attacks upon cloudbusting operations by UFOs. One was an unusually hostile rainstorm and DOR conditions (‘even the deserts were dying’ said McCullough). This apparent weather attack seemed to centre on a truck driven by Robert McCullough that was involved in the cloudbusting operations in Arizona. This was reported to Reich, who was possibly under surveillance in Washington DC at the time. It appeared the intelligence officers were particularly interested in this message which was ferried off by car immediately according to Reich’s reports (he was aware of possible intercept room below him in the hotel). The other incident was a DOR attack during cloudbusting upon the same person (McCullough) which resulted in partial paralysis symptoms for over a month. These were carefully resolved with interventions from Reich and others. The operator remained highly sensitive to DOR energy however and had to be monitored in further cloudbusting operations once he was well. This would certainly tie in with the long-lasting effects of oranur observed by this writer (also noting that oranur can create DOR). Both the above incidents were accompanied by visual sightings of UFOs. McCollough’s medical incident was not reported to conventional doctors as they would have confused the orgonomic diagnosis of anorgonia (chronic withdrawal of orgone from a body area) with symptoms of neurological stroke and subsequently treated him incorrectly (15).
Jerome Eden, an Idaho-based cloudbuster researcher, who like Reich maintained the hostile UFO view, was struck by a lightbeam from a UFO during a cloudbusting operation which made him bed-bound for a week with radiation poisoning symptoms (16). Perhaps the UFOs changed from the 1950s and 1970s to more recently. In the 1950s and up until the mid to late 1970s it appeared there was an acute worldwide DOR problem. Eden noted that tornados and various DOR type weather conditions had some correlation to UFO flaps. This would support a DOR/oranur hypothesis such as held by Reich and Eden regarding UFOs. Both reported that UFOs appeared to be releasing DOR energy and attacking cloudbusting operations. Eden used to quote Reich’s hostile UFO hypothesis on the front page of every Eden Bulletin, an orgonomic, cloudbusting and UFO newsletter: ‘The Planetary Emergency due to invasion of the earth’s atmosphere from outer space, requiring orgonomic basic research, is acute and critical.’
Eden noted many hostile UFO interventions against military sites and vehicles around the world, including US, USSR, Europe and even a whole base in Brazil (17). It is not clear how much of this worldwide DOR effect was man-made however, extensive nuclear explosive testing was still ongoing at this point according to reports.
On the other hand, such UFO hostility was not found by Demeo during his worldwide cloudbusting operations in the 1980s and later (including Kansas, Arizona, Israel, Eritrea, Greece and Cyprus). He did note a definite attraction of cloudbusting operations for UFOs though. On a number of occasions Demeo reported that cloudbusting operations were monitored by UFOs from a distance. On one dramatic occasion there was even a clear close encounter with a UFO during cloudbuster monitoring at night. The cloudbuster had been left to function unattended in a remote rural location. The encounter happened when Demeo went to check on the device. However he did not find any hostility from them or note any environmental effects at this or other times. He was careful not to point the cloudbuster at any unknown objects. Demeo also had an earlier close encounter with a UFO (before beginning his cloudbusting period) when he lived near a military and nuclear site in Florida. This area had regular jet scrambling, apparently to chase unknown objects. Demeo was one of a number of researchers to observe this in the area. On one occasion at this time Demeo first encountered a UFO disc close up. It was landed (100 metres away approximately). It quickly took off and disappeared. This was also witnessed by his then partner who was somewhat perturbed by it (18). It is well known in research circles that UFOs are attracted to nuclear sites and monitor military bases.
Not only UFOs but Air Force planes had taken a detailed interest in the earlier cloudbusting work of Reich at Orgonon in Maine and in Arizona (see Contact with Space/Selected Writings). Both the USAF and the CIA were aware of Reich’s activities in this area. Demeo and Eden registered their cloudbusting weather healing work with the NOAA (National Oceanographic Association of America) but the organisation ‘lost’ or ignored all cloudbusting paperwork.
Reich’s wife Ollendorf quotes his legal brief in her biography, ‘only Orgone energy could help in case of interplanetary war to protect our planetary security against invaders from outer space.’ She also relayed, ‘the US Air Force was in possession of all information regarding the use of Orgone Energy in possible repulsion of outer space invaders; they knew about the motor run on cosmic Orgone Energy and about the entire involvement of this energy in space travel.’ (19). (Italics mine).
This might explain why the British military are reported to have had cloudbusters at the Bentwaters-Woodbridge Air Force Base as documented in Left at East Gate (20). Their inappropriate use could have been associated with an unusual ‘tropical hurricane’ affecting southern England and London in 1987, since reclassified as a ‘cyclone with hurricane force winds’. However, the hapless TV weather reporter at the time, Michael Fish, never lived it down (that he failed to predict it). The author lived in London during this weather event and has never, before or since, seen wind remotely like it in England. Large flexible trees, the height of a two storey house had their uppermost branches curved all the way down to the pavements. The next day, everywhere there was fallen trees. Twice cloudbusters have been reported to have steered hurricanes in the USA so it is not inconceivable that a powerful bank of cloudbusters could inadvertently create such weather in the UK. Hurricane Edna in 1954 was steered away from the mid-Atlantic states area by Reich. Hurricane Doria was steered away from East coast landfall by Dr Richard Blasband in 1967 (21).
It should also be noted that there did appear to be an increase in DOR around UFO activity at least until the late 1970s. US, European and USSR military may well have believed there was a hostile presence from some UFO factions at that time. A further complication is that it is possible some earth groups, both friendly and hostile, termed breakaway groups more recently, may have been developing UFO type technology from the WW2 period onwards. Perhaps early earth UFOs, if they existed, had poor energy shielding. To return to the UFO hypothesis, there was even entire military bases exchanging fire with UFOs as mentioned in Brazil but also in the Mediterranean, with the same being filmed and broadcast on Italian TV on September 28th 1976 (22). Missiles from the ground were easily destroyed with laser-like beams from a large UFO. Officials as senior as General McArthur, head of the Allied military in the East during WW2, explicitly warned of a coming UFO-earth war – not in a UFO journal but in the NY Times, October 9th, 1955 (23). One could hardly get a more senior military official without going to the US President. The NY Times would be the world’s most mainstream publication at that time. There is also indirect evidence of US-USSR cooperation on the issue reported by Eden and presumably elsewhere.
Reich’s Second Secret
So in conclusion, it is suggested that Reich’s second secret concerned a weaponization of the orgone with which Reich would at the least have had advisory participation, if not some actual practical involvement. It could be as little as guidance, perhaps passed on to President Eisenhower directly in Maine, on how to use the cloudbuster as a weapon against UFO activity. Or it could be as much as some further unknown development of orgone technology. It would appear some such activity took place and constitutes Reich’s second secret. Seeing Reich’s depression during the summer of 1955 it would have been unlikely that he was directly involved in any USAF work as this would have given him a sense of purpose that was missing from his life at that time, as the forces of darkness increasingly encircled him. However, it would be consistent with his belief that someone in power was looking out for him and believed in his work. So it appears that even this belief of Reich’s had a rational basis.
Acknowledgement
Thanks are extended to Roberto Maglione for extensive editorial advice and assistance.
References
1) Maglione, R. (2017) The Legendary Shamir, robert_jumper@yahoo.it. See also Maglione, R. and Ferrari, D. (2017) Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, Electric Currents in Orgone Devices (part 1-3), and Maglione, R. (2019) Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, The Origin of an Oranur Reaction and the Orgone Motor.
2) Mann, E. (1973) Orgone, Reich and Eros, Simon and Schuster pp221 (quoting Sharaf).
3) Reich, W. (1949) A Motor Force in Orgone Energy, Orgone Energy Bulletin, V1, N1 pp11.
4) Reich, W. (1949) A Motor Force in Orgone Energy, Orgone Energy Bulletin, V1, N1 pp7. (Galen Winsor, the early US nuclear plant engineer also reported blue glows when plutonium reaches critical mass).
5) Reich, W. (1947) The Oranur Experiment First Report, Geiger Effect of Cosmic Or Energy, pp206 (first encountering the motor effect), pp214 and 215 (early knowledge of radioactive effects upon orgone and on orgone potential).
6) Reich, W. (1999) American Odyssey (Ed. Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Fund), Simon and Schuster pp401.
7) Reich, W. (1947) The Oranur Experiment First Report, Geiger Effect of Cosmic Or Energy, pp217.
8) Reich, W. (1957) Contact With Space, CORE Pilot Press, pp 81-82. (Reich met with Colonel Wertenbaker Deputy Commander, Captain Hill, Dr W. H. Byers, Air Force physicist and Harry Haberer, civilian, a UFO researcher for USAF. Reich got on well with both the military officers but felt Captain Hill in common with himself, did not trust the physicist).
9) Ollendorf, I. (1969) Wilhelm Reich, A Personal Biography, Smashwords Ebook Edition, pp 145.
10) Greenfield, J. (1974) Wilhelm Reich vs. the U.S.A, Norton.
11) Baker, E. (1983) My Eleven Years with Reich, Journal of Orgonomy, Vol 17, No. 1 pp 38 (quoting Greenfield, J. Wilhelm Reich Vs The USA).
12) The Earth Vs The Flying Saucers, Movie, 1956, Accessed April 2023, original black and white version, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceNCruqvbRo
13) Reich, W. (1957) Contact With Space, CORE Pilot Press, pp3.
14) Reich, W. (1957) Contact With Space, CORE Pilot Press, pp37. (DOR is Reich’s term for Deadly ORgone energy, which is dying life energy. Oranur is Reich’s term for excited orgone – usually facilitated by slight radioactive stimulation – ORgone Against NUcleaR).
15) Reich, W. (1957) Contact With Space, CORE Pilot Press, see pp138 and pp180.
16) Eden, J. (1977) Abduction Cases, Eden Bulletin, Vol 4, N2, pp18.
17) Eden, J. (1977) Brazilian Fort, Eden Bulletin, Vol 4, N4, pp17-18.
18) Demeo, J. (2002) My UFO Observations, Pulse of the Planet, N5, pp246 (early close encounter near nuclear plant/military base), pp248 (close encounter with UFO during cloudbusting).
19) Ollendorf, I. (1969) Wilhelm Reich, A Personal Biography, Smashwords Ebook Edition, pp 143.
20) Warren, L., Robbins, P. (1997) Left at East Gate: A First-Hand Account of the Bentwater-Woodbridge UFO Incident, its Cover-Up, and Investigation, Cosimo Books, 2005.
21) Maglione, R. (2007) Healing of Atmospheres, Orgone Biophysical Research Lab, Ashland, 2007, pp52
22) Eden, J. (1977) Eden Bulletin V4, N4 pp17 (Brazilian Air Base attacked by UFO) and Eden, J. (1977) Eden Bulletin V4, N3 pp19 (Italian film of firefight over a Mediterranean missile base with large UFO aired on Italian TV, station not specified).
23) NY Times, October 9th, 1955, Quoted in Eden, J. (1977) Untitled General Notes, Eden Bulletin, Vol 4, N3, pp13. (“The nations and the world will have to unite, for the next war will be an interplanetary war. The nations of the earth must some day make a common front against attack by people from other planets.” – Gen. McArthur).