make rain in Arizona than in New England. He described himself at one point as being
“angry” that he was not more successful. Again, there was the dual urgency for scientific
achievement and for dispelling the injunction some way, somehow.
By January 1955, there was considerable rain in the Southwest, which Reich attrib-
uted to his operations. One day the humidity at Tucson Airport rose to 96 percent. Most of
the evidence Reich presented for the increase in rainfall is anecdotal. There is no careful eval-
uation of the amount of precipitation during the period of his efforts compared to the
amount of precipitation in previous years.
January 1955 was also the month of a fateful decision taken in the Northeast.
Silvert had a large truckload of accumulators and literature shipped from Orgonon to his
own address in New York City. From there, he was later to distribute both accumulators and
literature. The rationale for Silvert’s action was that the previous November Judge Clifford
had declared that the injunction pertained only to Reich, Ilse Ollendorff, and the
Foundation, not to the orgonomic physicians unless they acted in concert with Reich. Yet
these actions made Silvert along with Reich a defendant in the later trial for contempt of the
injunction.
Silvert and Reich argued subsequently that Silvert acted on his own and that Reich
knew nothing about his decision prior to the shipment ofthe materials.I find it hard to
accept such a version. It seems incredible to me that Reich knew nothing about the plan.
That would be inconsistent with the Reich I knew, for whom no event connected with
orgonomy could be viewed with anything less than close attention. Had Silvert genuinely
taken it upon his own to act as he did without prior consultation with Reich, Reich would
probably have had nothing to do with him thereafter.
Bill Moise never knew exactly what went on between Reich and Silvert, but his best
reconstruction of events was that Silvert did discuss the transfer in advance with Reich.
Moise believed Reich took the position that if Silvert carried out his plan, he was acting on
his own responsibility^44. In short, Reich gave a qualified green light. I also would speculate
with some confidence that Silvert pushed hard for the particular course of action he fol-
lowed.Later, Reich was to say privately that Silvert wanted to kill him. But it was unfair of
Reich to blame Silvert then and unfair of Reich’s followers now to blame Silvert for the dis-
astrous legal course Reich pursued. If Silvert’s “hard-line” policy prevailed over more mod-
erate advice, it was ultimately Reich who chose which advice to follow.
Shortly before Silvert’s action, an FDA agent, along with a federal marshal, visited
“little Orgonon” on December 30, ostensibly to see if Reich was manufacturing accumula-
tors on the property.Reich refused to see the inspector, telling the marshal that he wanted
nothing to do with the FDA,though he had nothing against the marshal or the marshal’s
office. Reich erroneously attributed the FDA’s visit to its desire to gather information about
the Orur, which had arrived a few weeks earlier^45.
During this period, Reich was making many assumptions about his work and about
people,some ofwhich would prove realistic while others were the irrational products of old
psychic conflicts exacerbated by current emotional stress. Unfortunately, Reich never had
402 Myron SharafFury On Earth