bionous disintegration of matter, the discovery of orgone energy in the SAPA-bions and
then in the atmosphere. Einstein became increasingly interested and excited. Reich had
brought with him a device through which the flickering phenomena could be observed and,
in a darkened room, they made their observations. Einstein was amazed at what he saw, but
then queried: “But I see the flickering all the time. Could it not be subjective?”^13
Reich then moved on to measurable findings. He told Einstein about the tempera-
ture difference in the accumulator. Einstein replied that that was impossible, but if true it
would be a “great bombshell.”^14 He also promised to support Reich’s discovery if the find-
ings were verified. Before leaving, Reich suggested that Einstein could now understand the
rumor that he was insane. Einstein replied that he certainly could.
Reich built a small accumulator, which he took to Einstein about two weeks later.
The accumulator was put on a small table with a thermometer above it and another suspend-
ed a few feet away. Together, the two scientists observed that the temperature above the
accumulator was about one degree warmer than the temperature away from the accumula-
tor. Einstein wanted to observe the phenomenon over a period of time.
Subsequently, he wrote Reich that he had limited his efforts to the temperature dif-
ference because of his inability to exclude subjective impressions regarding the light mani-
festations of orgone energy. Initially, he found the accumulator temperature regularly high-
er than that registered at the second thermometer. However, an assistant had offered the
explanation that this difference was due to convection currents between the air over the
table and the air of the room as a whole.
Einstein then took the trouble to note a temperature difference of 0.68°C between
the air above the table top (with the accumulator removed) and the air below, due to warm
air convection from the ceiling and cooler air currents below the table. He suggested that
this process was entirely sufficient to explain the temperature difference that Reich had
observed and that Einstein had confirmed^15.
Reich reacted strongly to Einstein’s letter^16 .First,he outlined several experiments
which he had conducted to control the interpretation of Einstein’s assistant. Most decisive-
ly,he stressed that the temperature difference was even stronger out of doors, removing the
issue of “convection currents” from the ceiling.
In his twenty-five-page response to Einstein, Reich did much more than describe
his further experiments. He also expressed a deep concern, a poignant anxiety, that Einstein
might withdraw from the whole affair. “Convection currents from the ceiling” would now
join “air germs”and “Brownian movement” as convenient explanations for new findings,
without the critics’ having to take pains to deal with Reich’s answers to these explanations.
The new findings could be neatly categorized. To Einstein’s credit, he thought seriously for
a while and he experimented. But once satisfied with his own explanation, he believed the
matter “completely solved,” and showed no wish to pursue Reich’s further experiments.
In an effort to enlist Einstein’s sympathy, Reich made common cause with him—
for the first time, to my knowledge. His letter noted that it was Einstein’s concepts about the
relation ofenergy to matter that had led Reich to “smash matter” through heat and soak-
268 Myron SharafFury On Earth