prisoner, strongly protesting, for example, the lack of conjugal rights at Danbury and Judge
Sweeney’s reference to the “orgone business.” He was not released until December 12, 1957,
after having served three quarters of his one-year sentence^12.
Nothing came of Reich’s presidential appeal, so he turned his energies to preparing
for the parole hearing. He wrote a document entitled “My Unlawful Imprisonment,” which
he sent to various prison officials and to the parole board. This document maintained exact-
ly the same principles he had enunciated prior to prison, and is entirely consistent with much
that he had been saying throughout his career. However, his dominant tone was that of the
intrepid discoverer who will not recant or limit himself to Galileo’s whisper: “The earth does
move.” Thus, his 1957 eccentricities were basically no different from his errors of the late
1920s. To concentrate on his minor errors, to laugh at them or to defend them is entirely to
miss the point and to demonstrate again the “little man’s” attitude toward greatness Reich
so well described.
A few key passages from this prison document show both Reich’s continuing
grandeur and his pettiness:
I. Cosmic aspect of my discovery.
I have “done wrong” to have disclosed to mankind the cosmic primordial
mass-free energy which fills the universe. This energy rules all living processes and
the lawful behavior of celestial functions. It determines our emotions, our first
sense of orientation, judgment and balance. I have “done wrong” in having discov-
ered and made accessible the basic force in nature which for millennia was called
“God” in many tongues...
The scope of the discovery of this primal cosmic energy is of course not
my fault. I was imprisoned because my work has given the impression that either I
was a dangerous lunatic or a criminal faker to my foes; a genius and a founder of a
new hope for this world to my friends. I am neither a lunatic nor a faker. My dis-
covery obeys simple natural laws. It was anticipated by many scientists, philoso-
phers and writers...These paragraphs show Reich proud but clear. The following quotation reveals the
delusional, childish Reich:
My technological achievements in the global atmosphere have already been
adapted by special departments of the U.S. Air Force and were developed further.
I have heretofore hesitated for reasons of planetary security to call upon these
friends in the U.S. Government to clarify for the world and confirm my cosmic
energy research. ... I am certain my implicit trust in “my friends in the U.S.
Government” will never be disappointed. Working as I am at the outer frontiers
toward space they are doubtless in agreement with me that trust must be main-
tained among free men or be restored where shaken by the enemies of mankind.32 : Prison and Death: 1957 439