ly, Why had not orgone energy been discovered long before? This question linked the phys-
ical and the psychiatric aspects of his work: the same fear that prevented the discovery of
orgone energy blocked the discovery of the child’s true nature.
Unable to penetrate to the primordial, cosmic energy, man—according to Reich—
erected two systems of thought, mysticism and mechanism, which were essentially built
around the concepts of “God” and “ether,” respectively. God was behind all subjective, spir-
itual, qualitative phenomena; the ether behind all material, physical processes. Without
intending to, Reich said, he had hit upon both the God and ether problem when he discov-
ered the cosmic orgone energy. Orgone energy, like God and ether, was everywhere and per-
meated everything. It was behind both the physical processes in nature and the perceptual
processes in the human organism. But whereas hitherto man had mechanically split up the
cosmic energy into spiritual “God” and physical “ether” and then was unable to reach either,
functional thinking discovered the cosmic orgone energy and was able to understand and
handle the concepts practically. And the same factor that throughout the centuries had pre-
vented the discovery of orgone energy, of orgastic potency, of “what it is like to be a
child”—man’s armouring—now was at the basis of the tremendous fear and hatred of
orgonomy.
With great intensity Reich spoke of the painful experience of hearing repeatedly
from people to whom he showed orgone experimentation, “Very Interesting,” and then no
more. This armoring against real-life problems, this constant, impotent “Very interesting,”
had to be overcome before any genuine progress could be made. Reich concluded by saying
that there were no authorities in the field of orgonomy. If orgonomy represented a new way
of thinking and a new science, then to ask the authorities of the old science to confirm it
was—to say the least—naive.
I never heard Reich speak so eloquently. It was as though on that night everything
came together. In his scientific thought he had advanced far enough to know exactly what
he had discovered. He had attracted a number of colleagues who, with varying degrees of
commitment and intelligence, listened attentively, giving him at least some of the response
he wanted,even though there were still far too many reactions of “Very interesting.” He was
surrounded by very good friends that evening: Neill, Raknes, Wolfe, Hoppe, and others.
There was no visible attack on the horizon to harass, distract, or infuriate him. It was one of
those precious lulls between storms.
There was extraordinarily little bitterness from Reich during the conference. It was
as ifhe were beyond bitterness. He held his own ground adamantly against the attribution
of authority to persons who had not earned it, an attribution rampant even among some of
his closest co-workers who wondered, covertly if not overtly, what “real” scientists thought
ofhis work. But there was no rancor.
In subsequent years Reich was to go on making discoveries, discoveries that were
perhaps even more important than those he demonstrated at the 1948 conference. However,
his rage was also to grow as the harassment intensified. Never again was there to be quite
the same golden sense of harmony, insight, and understanding. Never again was Reich to
24 : Personal Life and Relations with Colleagues: 1941-1950 329