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\lline{\hl Orgone Liberation}
\lline{by Ray Reich}

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Wilhelm Reich lived from 1897 until 1957, when he died in the Federal
Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The German National Socialist,
Soviet and United States governments burned and banned his books. The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration and American Medical Association waged
a relentless campaign to erase Dr. Reich's life work. Angered by his
criticisms of the ties between the AMA and major pharmaceutical
companies and intellectually threatened by his revolutionary science of
orgone energy, they succeeded in having Reich arrested and his writings
destroyed. Now, over thirty years since, the science and philosophy of
orgone energy is taking root in North America.

Utilizing a variety of methods of analysis, including psychology,
biology and political science, WR examined the pivotal force emotional
expression and sexual gratification wield in human behavior and
interaction. Expanding the parameters of psychoanalysis established by
his teacher Sigmund Freud, WR developed character analysis;
incorporating the character and character resistances of the individual
seeking therapy into the therapeutic process. He paid careful attention
to how his patients communicated with him, verbally and otherwise; He
understood their mannerisms, characteristics and idiosyncrasies all as
facets of emotional expression. Through extensive work at the many free
mental health clinics he opened in German working class neighborhoods
during the late 1920's and early 1930's, WR discovered that emotional
suppression inhibiting orgone streaming was common place. He saw
neurosis not as isolated instances of mental imbalance but rather as the
normal state of living in industrial-capitalist society. Interruptions
of orgone streaming result in physical and psychological ailments and
are intimately associated with emotional and psychic traumas.
Recognizing the interplay of internal and external forces, WR determined
that dysfunctional and authoritarian family structures, sex negative
morality, the suppression of emotional expression and the subsequent
repression of instinctual sexual gratification frustrates the orgone
streamings; creating emotional armoring as well as sexual anxiety, fear
of pleasure and orgastic impotence. He understood this as happening in
the person as well as society as a whole. The inability to give oneself
completely to what WR termed ``the genital embrace'' means that that
energy, repressed and frustrated, remains inside the body. The orgasm
stifled by fear re enforces the fear in the form of armoring; the
physicalized trauma at the root of the repression. Compounding stress
brought about by economics, political and cultural oppression
traumatizes the body further, weakening the immune system and
manifesting as particular dis-eases personally, as neurosis and cancer.
and politically, as social irrationalism, reactionary culture and
fascist government.

In his landmark study, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, WR illuminates
the power of fascism and its appeal to humans. Unlike Marxist, leftist
or progressive ideologies, this analysis understands fascism not as a
political belief, party or as a condition imposed on the masses, but
rather as ``\dots the organized political expression of the structure of the
average (wo)man's character, a structure that is confined neither to
certain races or nations nor to certain parties, but is general and
international.''( p. xiii) WR distinguishes three autonomous layers of
the person. The surface layer of polite social interaction, the deep
biologic core and an intermediate layer composed of cruel, envious and
sadistic impulses. This middle layer is formed by the power of what is
repressed and serves as the foundation for reactionary tendencies and
fascist government. It was this layer that the National Socialists, the
Brown Shirts and the Japanese Fascists touched in people. The central
layer distorts the natural impulses of the biologic core while the
surface layer masks them beneath a veneer of civility and
liberal/progressive politics.

To touch the core of one's being, to experience the free streamings of
orgone energy and life impulses is the revolutionary potential inherent
in Reichian therapy. Until we are truly free of reactionary morality,
sexual repression and emotional suppression we are each living a
distortion, in danger of succumbing to the dis-eases of cancer and
fascism. Empowering the biologic core at the root of our life impulses
requires the disintegration of the character and emotional armoring
locked tight within and around us, as well as creating social and
economic conditions responsive to our life energy; Personal
transformation as political revolution.

WR developed an array of breathing techniques which, practiced
consistently, stimulate streaming of orgone energy in the body. The
effect, a tingling flowing within the body, is the natural sensation of
the body at the point of orgasm, when one is able to surrender to the
genital embrace and completely release the sexual energy without
tension, fear or guilt. While most of the breathing techniques should
be done with a competent Reichian therapist, one in particular can be
done alone and as often as desired. Lying face up on the floor, or a
relatively hard surface, with your head on a soft pillow, breathe for a
few minutes. Soon, a deeper, more natural and relaxed breathing pattern
will emerge. Bend your legs at the knees, with the weight on the souls
of your feet and as you inhale push back with your hips and the back of
your head, arching your back. While exhaling, lift you hips and head
from the floor. After several minutes the streamings may become
apparent, tingling in the face, currents in the legs; perhaps muscle
spasms or energy blocks will be felt. Pay attention to whatever
emotions, memories, fears and thoughts come to mind; you may want to
write them down to see if particular patterns arise if you are doing the
exercise regularly. It's helpful to do this exercise for at least ten
minutes.

WR also had patients doing facial exercises, literally making faces and
appropriate noises. Our faces are masks which conceal a myriad of
emotions, feelings and reactions, displaying only those expressions
which are socially acceptable. With facial and sound exercises you are
literally shifting and disintegrating the facial armoring. Other
techniques include primal screaming with certain physical motions and
sitting in WR's most famous creation, the Orgone Accumulator Box. The
orgone accumulator is comprised of alternating layers of organic and
inorganic material, such as wood and steel wool, and as the name
implies, accumulates healthy orgone energy when built and used properly.
When sitting in the box the orgone energy is taken into the body,
charging the life energy and aiding in the healing process. Orgone
accumulating devices such as the box, blanket and wand must be used only
in certain conditions and if you are interested in constructing an
accumulator please read The Orgone Accumulator Handbook by Dr. James
DeMeo, available for \$10.95 from Natural Energy Works, PO Box 864, El
Cerrito, California 94530, usa.

Before substantial work with orgone energy can be accomplished, a
foundation in orgonomics is necessary. WR's discoveries are not taught
in schools nor is the full breadth of orgonomics as a living method of
analysis, synthesis and revolution being employed to confront the
varied and interconnected problems we are facing today. The only way to
learn orgonomics is to teach ourselves. Small study groups seem to be
the most ideal way to discuss WR's writings, gain a living knowledge of
orgonomics and to eventually incorporate it into daily living. Hopefully
this pamphlet will inspire people to read WR and seek out others who are
equally as interested.


``Only you yourself can be your own liberator'' 

-- Wilhelm Reich



RE:SOURCES:

The Function of the Orgasm (Discovery of the Orgone, volume 1) The
Cancer Biopathy (Discovery of the Orgone, volume 2) Children of the
Future: On the Prevention of Sexual Pathology Ether, God and Devil The
Invasion of Compulsory Sex-Morality The Mass Psychology of Fascism The
Sexual Revolution.

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\item{\blob} The American College of Orgonomy P.O. Box 490, Princeton, NJ 08542

\item{\blob} The Wilhelm Reich Museum P.O. Box 687, Rangeley, Maine 04970

\item{\blob} New Energy Works PO Box 864, El Cerrito, CA 94530

also of interest:

\item{\blob} Audre Lorde: The Cancer Journals Sister Outsider

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