Record of a Friendship

work, besides continuing his care-taking of the property. In him, Oranur

developed hidden scientific qualities, and he has become a keen observer

of the phenomena. I think he and Peter are about the only ones who

have not reacted at one time or another plaguey against Reich, blaming

him for things that we had only ourselves to blame for. I can only hope

that those of us who have come through so far will be able to continue

to help Reich rather than to hamper him in his terrific task.

I have a vague plan of coming to England some time next year, but

with things as they are, no definite plans for anything can be made

at present. We do not even know where we shall live this fall and

winter. I would very much like to see you and Ena, and especially Zoe

again, and hope that the plan will materialize. My best to the three

of you.

Summerhill School

Leiston, Suffolk

Dear Ilse,

• ••

July 31, 195 2

Reich's letter made me very sad, and yours just makes me
sadder and much puzzled. It looks as if all the doubts and fears and
hates of humanity boil down, not to glandular action in the body, but to
rays in the universe. A terrible idea, for the release of atomic rays in
a war would apparently mean a clash between them and orgone rays and
a reaction of all humanity similar to that among your small number at
Orgonon. I try in vain to see the connection between the Orgonon
reaction of emotion and the easy brutal ising of humanity, in-say-the
Gestapo, Franco Spain, Communistic hate, Negro lynching. There were
no gamma or other rays in Hitlerland.
I hate to think of you all with your miseries and frustrations in tents
and hotels. Reich may have left me behind in what he calls 1920 liberal­
ism, but he hasn't left me behind as a sincere friend, one of the few,
I fancy, who can speak to him frankly and be spoken to frankly by him,
and if that damned McCarran visa Verbol [prohibition] did not stand in
the way, I'd come over and slap him on the back and cry: "Buck up,
Reich. Let's talk it all out over a rye and a packet of Chesterfields."
IS THERE going to be a final report on Oranur? Does it mean that in
the end O. energy cannot protect against the death rays of an atomic
bomb? Is Reich a Moses who never reaches the promised land, only