Wilhelm Reich was born in Austria in 1897 and studied medicine at the University of Vienna graduating as an MD. After researching and developing psychoanalytic theory in association with Freud and others, stark differences in opinion caused a split within the association leading to Reich's pursuit of a unique treatment method which he named vegetotherapy. Persecuted in Europe for his radical treatment methods and provocative investigations of sexuality, he moved to America and set up a research institute. His investigations in natural science led him to several startling conclusions in regard to medicine and physics which he documented in many works including The Function of the Orgasm and The Cancer Biopathy. During this period in the early 1940's, Reich concluded that a natural energy which was neither electromagnetic nor nuclear was responsible for the life process and could be witnessed in the ambient surroundings and atmosphere as well as in the laboratory. Many simple and controversial experiments were performed and led to the invention of many devices for observing and controlling this energy which he named Orgone. Notable amongst these are the famous Bion experiments where innate matter was converted into simple life forms. The Orgone accumulator which concentrated this energy is still used today by many practitioners. The Cloudbuster, a device for weather modification, was extensively used by his group for dessert reclamation and is also currently used by a few modern researchers. A less understood line of research which began with the Orgone Field Meter and led to the invention of the vacor tubes and the mysterious Orgone motor claimed to utilize a omnipresent pulsatory energy for lumination, and mechanical work. His research in the 1950's brought him more and more into conflict with the US government whose MaCarthyism could find no acceptance for radical energies and controversial treatments of Cancer. Reich continued to pursue his research even after his imprisonment on contempt charges and the burning of his books and destruction of his Orgone accumulators at the hands of the FDA. Reich's work touched upon many possible alternate explanations in science and medicine which still have not moved significantly forward in spite of the leaps in technology since his time.
