133 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
133 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
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(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2)
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Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
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Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
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PO BOX 1031
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Mesquite, TX 75150
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There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS
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on duplicating, publishing or distributing the
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files on KeelyNet!
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April 17, 1991
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REICH2.ASC
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The following item appeared in the _NEW TIMES_ tabloid in Miami,
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Florida. It was taken from a column called "The Straight Dope".
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The NEW TIMES ("Miami's News and Arts Weekly") is an artsy, liberal,
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alternative newspaper. Some of its columns are rather off-beat,
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including "The Straight Dope", where readers write in and ask
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various formidable or abstract questions (such as "What is the
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nature of Light?", or, "Why do we have two eyes and not three?").
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The answers given to these question, while techinically correct, are
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usually written in a cynical or derisive tone.
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Having said that, here is the item:
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From the _New Times_
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Vol. 5, N0. 46
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Miami, Florida
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March 6-12, 1991
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pg 8.
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Question:
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I've always cast a jaundice eye on the shenanigans of scientific
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fringe groups. But my eye is a little less yellow when I look
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at Wilhelm Reich.
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Reich claimed to have discovered a life energy he called
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"orgone" back in the Thirties. He made a device that supposedly
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accumulated the energy, the "orgone accumulator" (ORAC), and
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another that allegedly could manipulate it in the atmosphere
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called a "cloudbuster".
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Some MDs who still subscribe to Reich's theories publish the
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_Journal of Orgonomy_. I remember one article claiming tomato
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plants grown inside an ORAC produce more and larger tomatoes.
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There's a meteorologist names James DeMeo who does research on
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the cloudbuster.
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Plus (and this is the ultimate evidence) Kate Bush sang a song
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about the cloudbuster on her Hounds of Love album. Seeing as
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you're the last word on subjects like this, what's the last word
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on orgone? Yes, no, or maybe? - S.S.
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Page 1
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The reply:
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How about "sheesh"? I fail to see what a self-described skeptic
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could find appealing about the work of Wilhelm Reich, one of the
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classic scientific screw-balls.
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Reich claimed that 1) he had done battle with alien spaceships,
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2) he could produce clouds and create rain with his cloudbuster,
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and 3) his orgone boxes could cure (or at least ameliorate)
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everything from cancer to the common cold.
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He believed living cells arose spontaneously from inorganic
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matter; that cancer cells are actually protozoalike critters
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that have tails and can swim like fish; and that orgone energy
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is what makes the sky blue and causes heat shimmer.
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Even his terminology was nutsy. UFOs he called EAs, for Energy
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Alpha. The alien spaceships gave off DOR, for Deadly ORgone.
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The aliens themselves he called CORE men, for Cosmic ORgone
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Engineering.
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Reich was an intelligent, charismatic man who seems to have had
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only the most tenous grasp of reality. He was a cherished
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associate of Freud in his early years and made some useful
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contributions to psychoanalytic theory. But his ideas became
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more and more eccentric over time and he was eventually expelled
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from the International Psychoanalytic Association.
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He wound up in the U.S. and from then on it was orgone morning,
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noon, and night. Reich convinced a great many people, including
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a few scientists like the aforementioned DeMeo, who claims he
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ended a drought with a cloudbuster.
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To this day there are several orgonomic societies. But the
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mainstream view has always been that Reich is a quack and that
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his ideas have no scientific basis. One of his orgone boxes, in
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fact, is on display in St. Louis's National Museum of Quackery.
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In 1956 Reich was convicted of shipping orgone boxes across
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state lines in defiance of a court order obtained by the Food
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and Drug Administration. He was sent to prison, where he died of
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a heart attack in 1957.
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But his ideas, such as they are, live on. A summary of Reich's
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career by science writer Martin Gardner may be found in the fall
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1988 "Skeptical Enquirer"; for a full-length treatment check out
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_Fury on Earth_ by Martin Sharaf. - Cecil Adams
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If you have comments or other information relating to such topics
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as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the
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Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page.
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Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.
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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
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Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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If we can be of service, you may contact
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Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346
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