Heathen Drifter

2011-06-09T21:11:00.001-03:00

numa família originária de imigrantes. Avós portugueses pelo lado paterno e pelo lado materno os avós foram cria da primeira geração de imigrantes italianos. Ambas famílias vieram para o Brasil com o sonho de fazer a América. Seus avós portugueses vieram para o Brasil na leva de imigrantes do período salazarista. Pelo lado italiano as informações não são detalhadas, mas it acredita-se que vieram da Campania, segundo registros de nascimento dos tataravós encontrados na cidade de Belvedere Marítimo, os relatos variam no meio dos remanescentes da vasta família.
No entanto, o aspecto fisionômico da família fez com que alguns de seus membros a acreditar em alguma ascendência Normanda num passado remoto. Outros porém indicam a presença de uma mistura e tipos originários das regiões alpinas (o que explicaria a presença de olhos azuis em alguns descendentes atuais da família de origem italiana) e também pela linhagem (uma vez que sendo originários da região próxima à Galícia Espanhola, possuem também compleição e olhos, possivelmente semelhante aos dos antigos visigodos, ocupantes medievais da Península Ibérica). Todos esse aspectos interessantes só poderiam ser evidentemente comprovados mediante um genomico estudo. De outro modo, essas suposições não passam por ora de mitos, muito bem articulados que passam de geração em geração. Mas com toda certeza a narração desse mitos desenvolveu uma veia artística e cultural entre os familiares que pode ser encontrada em vários de seus integrantes.
A família Cicogna, que ao registrar os seus filhos após o desembarque no Brasil acabou por adaptar esse nome pela grafia Ciconha, conforme a pronúncia do português. Dizem alguns que esse nome é de uma família de origem nobre. Essa interpretação parte do fato de haver sido encontrado um brasão da antiga heráldica, que representa uma família com o desenho de uma cegonha. Mas na verdade, o mais provável é que seja derivado de alguma família de judeus convertidos ao cristianismo, pois era muito comum que os recèm-convertidos adotassem sobrenomes de animais.
Entretanto, a família de origem portuguesa têm um nome realmente nobre, que remonta aos tempos da instauração do Império. O brasão representa um Leão e o nome deriva esse nome de Nuno, e o sufixo "es", indica um patronímico. Nuno foi um dos fundadores de Portugal, não era um fidalgo e sim um guerreiro, conta-se que após uma batalha decissiva contra os mouros, ele retirou-se para um mosteiros cristão afim de orar pelos seus filhos espirituais que venceram a batalha. Posteriormente, Pedro Nunes, renomado Cosmógrafo, autor do Tratado da Esfera, livro fundamental para orientação dos descobrimentos de ultra-mar portugueses. Ele é hoje considerado um cripto-judeu, assim como seu amigo Luís de Camões. Isso deduz-se pela leitura da interpretação da obra de Jorge de Sena sobre os Lusíadas. Mas, a verdade, o nome Nunes é muito em todo Brasil. Por isso, é muito difícil amalgamar - todos os que possuem esse nome - em uma única família.

2011-06-09T21:10:00.002-03:00

Luís César Nunes was born in 1961 at Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro State - Brasil, and raised on a family of origin of immigrants. Portuguese grandparents on the paternal side and the maternal side the grandparents were creating the first generation of Italian immigrants. Both families came to Brazil with the dream of making America. His grandparents came from Portugal to Brazil in the wave of immigrants from the time of Salazar. On the Italian side the information is not detailed, but it is believed to have come from Campania, the second great-grandparents'birth records found in the town of Belvedere Marine, reports vary among the remnants of the vast family.
However, the physiognomic aspect of the family made some of its members to believe in some Norman ancestry in the distant past. But others suggest the presence of a mixture and types originating in the alpine regions (which would explain the presence of blue eyes in some current descendants of the family of Italian origin) and also by the strain (as originating in the Galicia region near the Spanish, also have eyes and complexion, possibly similar to the ancient Visigoths, who occupied the medieval Iberian Peninsula). All these interesting aspects of course could only be proven by a genomic study. Otherwise, these assumptions are not yet myths, very well articulated that pass from generation to generation. But surely the narration of myths developed an artistic streak and cultural contacts between relatives that can be found in many of its members.

The family Cicogna, that in registering their children after landing in Brazil turned out to adapt this name by spelling Ciconha as the pronunciation of Portuguese. Some say that this name is a family of noble origin. This interpretation stems from the fact of having been found an ancient heraldic crest, which represents a family with a drawing of a stork. But actually, the more likely is the derivative of a family of Jewish converts to Christianity because it was very common for the newly converted adopt surnames of animals.
However, the family of Portuguese origin have a really noble name, dating back to the establishment of the Empire. The crest is a lion and the name derives its name from Nuno, and the suffix "s" indicates a patronymic. Nuno was one of the founders of Portugal, was not a gentleman but a warrior, he recounts that after a decissiva battle against the Moors, he retired to a Christian monasteries in order to pray for his spiritual children who have won the battle. Later, Pedro Nunes, renowned Cosmographer, author of the Treatise of the Sphere, an essential book for the guidance of ultra-sea discoveries of the Portuguese. He is now regarded as a crypto-Jew as well as his friend Luis de Camoes. That it appears by reading the interpretation of the work of Jorge de Sena on Lusiads. But, the truth, the name is very Nunes throughout Brazil. So it is very hard to combine - all who have this name - in a single family.
All these voices are natural storytellers. He has lived most of his life between Florianópolis in Santa Catarina State, Petrópolis and Rio in Rio de Janeiro State. Trained as a Geographer and Teacher, he has taught at Schools in both States, while emerging over the years as one of the South American's visionary contemporary voices. Nunes is the author of twenty one books of poetry, Science and Geography, fiction, nonfiction narratives and essays, including Strabonos Geographikon, (Lulu, Rio, 2006), Dharmaraja (Lulu, Rio, 2007), and Atlantic Drift (Lulu, Rio, 2006). He is founding member of ArtScience.

The Mandala of Buddha Heruka

2010-11-25T22:00:00.000-03:00

2009-05-01T22:39:00.000-03:00

2009-04-26T20:34:00.001-03:00

Eu gostaria de saber o significado da primeira noite de um homem.
Isso é algo transcendental ou simplesmente mais uma elocubração psicoanalítica.
Bem, talvez seja isso e mais um pouco.
Algo me diz no sentimento de amar.
É uma sensação que perdura por algum tempo.
Sua emoção acontece e nos leva ao choro.
O choro é de alegria.
A beleza de tudo.
Tudo que se transforma do amargo ao doce.
Parece que as coisas não são mais as mesmas.
Talvez o próprio perceber o que mudou já gere a emoção.
Isso é assim.
Como tudo era ruim e como subitamente tornou-se engraçado.
Tudo começa a fazer parte de mais um pouco.
O pouco que havíamos esquecido.
O pouco que transforma tudo em algo diferente.
É como o pigmento que faz a cor da tinta.
Sem ele nosso quadro seria opaco.
私は男の最初の夜の意味を知っていただきたいと思います。これは何かを超越または単なるelocubração psicoanalíticaされています。まあ、おそらくこれがもう少し。何か私の愛の感情だ。それはしばらく続くような感覚です。自分の感情を我々と泣いて発生する。と喜びの涙。すべての美しさ。すべてのことを甘くて苦いとなります。それは同じことをされていないようだ。現在は変更されていますおそらく、非常に感情を管理図。そのためです。どのようにし、突然変な不良となった。ためにはもう少しの一員になることを開始します。私たちは、ほとんど忘れてしまった。何か他には、すべてが変わり、ビット。は、顔料インクの色を作るように。なく、これを我々の枠組みの不透明される。
I would like to know the meaning of the first night of a man. This is something transcendental or just another elocubração psicoanalítica. Well, perhaps this and a little more. Something tells me the feeling of love. It is a feeling that lasts for some time. His emotion happens to us and crying. The tears and joy. The beauty of it all. All of that becomes bitter to sweet. It seems that things are not the same. Perhaps the very figure which has changed now manages the emotion. That is so. How bad it was and how suddenly it became funny. It starts to be part of a little more. The little we forget. The bit that turns everything into something else. Like the pigment that makes the color of ink. Without it our framework would be opaque.
Je voudrais connaître la signification de la première nuit d'un homme. C'est quelque chose de transcendantal ou d'une autre elocubração psicoanalítica. Eh bien, peut-être, et un peu plus. Quelque chose me dit que le sentiment de l'amour. C'est un sentiment qui dure depuis un certain temps. Son émotion qui nous arrive, en pleurs. Les larmes et la joie. La beauté de tout cela. Tout cela devient amer sucré. Il semble que les choses ne sont pas les mêmes. Peut-être le chiffre qui a tout changé gère l'émotion. Il en est ainsi. Comment il a été mauvaise et comment il est devenu tout à coup drôle. Il commence à faire partie d'un peu plus. Le peu que nous oublier. Le peu que tout se transforme en autre chose. Comme le pigment qui rend la couleur de l'encre. Sans elle, notre cadre serait opaque.
Ich würde gerne wissen, im Sinne der ersten Nacht eines Mannes. Das ist etwas, transzendentale oder nur ein weiteres elocubração psicoanalítica. Nun ja, vielleicht und ein wenig mehr. Etwas sagt mir, das Gefühl der Liebe. Es ist ein Gefühl, das dauert einige Zeit. Seine Gefühle passiert mit uns und weinen. Die Tränen und Freude. Die Schönheit des Ganzen. All das wird bitter bis süß. Es scheint, dass die Dinge sind nicht das gleiche. Vielleicht ist die Zahl, die sehr verändert hat nun verwaltet die Emotion. Das ist so. Wie schlimm es war und wie plötzlich wurde es lustig. Es beginnt zu Teil ein wenig mehr. Das Wenige, was wir vergessen. Das Bit, das alles in etwas anderes. Wie das Pigment, das die Farbe der Tinte. Ohne sie wäre unsere undurchsichtig.
Vorrei sapere il significato della prima notte di un uomo. Questo è qualcosa di trascendentale o semplicemente un altro elocubração psicoanalítica. Beh, forse questo e un po 'di più. Qualcosa mi dice il sentimento d'amore. E 'una sensazione che dura per un po' di tempo. La sua emozione accade a noi e grida. Le lacrime e di gioia. La bellezza di tutto questo. Tutto ciò diventa amaro al dolce. Sembra che le cose non sono le stesse. Forse la cifra che molto è cambiato ora gestisce l'emozione. Che è così. Come è stato male e come è diventato improvvisamente divertente. Si inizia a far parte di un po 'di più. Il piccolo si dimentica. I bit che trasforma tutto in qualcosa di diverso. Come il pigmento che rende il colore di inchiostro. Senza di esso il nostro quadro sarebbe opaco.
Me gustaría saber el significado de la primera noche de un hombre. Esto es algo trascendental o simplemente otro elocubração psicoanalítica. Bueno, quizás esto y un poco más. Algo me dice que el sentimiento de amor. Es una sensación que dura algún tiempo. Su emoción que nos sucede y llorando. Las lágrimas y la alegría. La belleza de todo. Todo ello se convierte en amargo a dulce. Parece que las cosas no son las mismas. Tal vez la propia cifra que ha cambiado ahora maneja la emoción. Eso es así. Lo malo que era y cómo de repente se convirtió en divertida. Que comienza a ser parte de un poco más. Lo poco que se olvide. El poco que todo lo convierte en algo más. Al igual que el pigmento que hace que el color de la tinta. Sin ella nuestro marco se opaca.

2009-04-26T19:20:00.000-03:00

あなたの微妙な体の私の静脈に入る
ルイスセサル最も美しい事である　まあ誰かが私に有能である

2009-04-25T22:57:00.005-03:00

the time is proud of himself. The most I can do is not feel fear. what might happen? death vira'quer you want or not. The interlude that awakens not console my soul. there is something wrong in the air. that love is this that pretends to be and still preserves something? anyone? to another situation? yes, something seems to be saved. and this seems to be something, when in fact it is only cutivado for someone. the ghost is someone who is in my and your head. strange that create false realities that call for love. a false reality is that it only makes sense when you know there is something hidden by another one.

o tempo tem orgulho de si mesmo. O mais que posso fazer é não sentir medo. o que poderá acontecer? a morte vira´quer se queira ou não. O interlúdio que desperta não consola minha alma. há algo de falso no ar. que amor é esse que finge se dar e preserva ainda alguma coisa? para alguém? para outra situação? sim, algo parece estar guardado. e esse algo parece ser dado, quando na verdade é apenas cutivado para alguém. o alguém é o fantasma, que está na minha e na sua cabeça. estranho esse criar falsas realidades que chamam de amor. uma realidade falsa é aquela que só faz sentido quando há algo oculto sabido por um outro alguém.
il tempo è fiero di se stesso. Il più che posso fare è non sentire la paura. cosa potrebbe succedere? morte vira'quer si desidera o meno. L'interludio che risveglia la console non la mia anima. c'è qualcosa che non va in aria. che l'amore è ciò che pretende di essere, e conserva ancora qualcosa? qualcuno? situazione di un altro? sì, qualcosa sembra essere salvato. e questo sembra essere qualcosa, quando in realtà è solo cutivado per qualcuno. il fantasma è qualcuno che è nella mia e la vostra testa. strano che creare false realtà che chiama per amore. realtà è un falso che ha senso solo quando si sa c'è qualcosa di nascosto da un altro.

die Zeit ist stolz auf sich. Die meisten kann ich tun, ist nicht das Gefühl, Angst. Was passieren könnte? Tod vira'quer Sie wollen oder nicht. Das Zwischenspiel, dass nicht-Konsole weckt meine Seele. Es ist etwas in der Luft. dass die Liebe ist, dass ein solches zu sein und noch immer etwas? anyone? zu einer anderen Situation? ja, etwas zu sein scheint gesichert. und das ist wohl auch etwas, obwohl es nur für jemanden cutivado. der Geist ist jemand, der in meinen und deinen Kopf. merkwürdig, dass falsche Realitäten, für die Liebe. eine falsche Realität ist, dass es nur sinnvoll, wenn Sie wissen, gibt es etwas versteckt durch ein anderes.

時間を自分自身に誇りを持っています。私にできることはできますが、ほとんどの恐怖を感じるではありません。何が起こるのでしょうか？死vira'querするかどうかだ。コンソールではなく自分の魂を呼び起こすの幕あい。空気中の何かが間違っている。愛が、この問題を保持しているふりはまだ何か？誰ですか？別の状況は？はい、何か救われるようにします。実際にはこのときだけcutivadoさせるために何か、と思われる。と、幽霊になっているのかは、私とあなたの頭です。偽の現実を作成するには、奇妙な愛を求める。虚偽の事実がある場合のみ、別の何かを知っている意味が隠されているのです。
le temps est fier de lui-même. Le plus que je puisse faire est de ne pas ressentir la peur. ce qui pourrait arriver? mort vira'quer vous souhaitez ou non. L'interlude qui éveille console pas mon âme. il ya quelque chose dans l'air. que l'amour est ce qui prétend être, et encore quelque chose? anyone? à une autre situation? oui, quelque chose semble être sauvés. et cela semble être quelque chose, alors qu'en fait, il est seulement cutivado pour quelqu'un. le fantôme est une personne qui est et dans ma tête. étrange que de créer de fausses réalités qui font appel à l'amour. une fausse réalité, c'est qu'il n'a de sens que lorsque vous savez qu'il ya quelque chose caché par un autre.
el momento se siente orgulloso de sí mismo. La mayoría de lo que puedo hacer es no sentir miedo. lo que podría suceder? vira'quer que desea la muerte o no. El interludio consola que no despierta mi alma. hay algo mal en el aire. que el amor es lo que pretende ser y aún conserva algo? alguien? a otra situación? Sí, algo parece estar salvado. y esto parece ser algo, cuando en realidad es sólo cutivado para alguien. el fantasma es alguien que está en mi y tu cabeza. extraño que crear falsas realidades que requieren de amor. una falsa realidad es que sólo tiene sentido cuando saben que hay algo oculto por otro.

2009-04-07T21:59:00.000-03:00

2009-04-05T23:25:00.000-03:00

2009-03-23T00:16:00.000-03:00

2009-02-16T01:09:00.000-02:00

2009-02-16T01:07:00.000-02:00

2009-02-16T01:04:00.000-02:00

2009-01-26T22:17:00.002-02:00

Geography

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/home.html
http://tripatlas.com/Geography
http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/62
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Soja
http://www.netsaber.com.br/resumos/ver_resumo_c_989.html
http://encyclopedie.snyke.com/articles/stoicisme.html
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ENS-Object-EN/ENS-objet-EN.htm
http://www.spa.ucla.edu/dept.cfm?d=up&s=faculty&f=faculty1.cfm&id=251
http://www.gallup.com/poll/election2008.aspx
http://web.mit.edu/18.06/www/
https://commerce.gallup.com/summits/leadership/default.asp?ID=549
http://www.intellectual-property-management.com/geographical_indications.htm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gwk/
http://www.museumca.org/picturethis/1_8.html
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Greece/description_greece_volcanics.html
http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/stanley.html
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gwk/research/nyos.html
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/thehumananimal/
http://academicearth.org/lectures/plato-republic-i-ii

2009-01-24T22:05:00.002-02:00

Philosophy of Mind

http://philosophy.uwaterloo.ca/MindDict/
http://www.smithsrisca.demon.co.uk/mental-philosophy-glossary-AB.htm
http://psychcentral.com/maniaquiz.htm
http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/bookI/defI1.html
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3056283
http://www.friesian.com/science.htm
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_decons.html
http://define.com/view
http://www.ometeca.org/HTML/conf2005/Rivera-Barnes.htm
http://mypages.surrey.ac.uk/pss1su/lecturenotes/lgu/piaget/piaget1.html
http://skeptically.org/minther/id6.html
http://www.conceptmaps.it/KM-Questioning-eng.htm
http://www.graphic.org/brainst.html
http://www.psychohistory.com/originsofwar/02_whymalesaremoreviolent.html
http://www.psychohistory.com/reagan/rcontent.htm
http://www.jpb.com/creative/brainstorming.php
http://www.psychohistory.com/
http://web.ceu.hu/phil/farkas/HPM
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/psychoanalysis/freud.html
http://www.formalontology.it/heidegger-aletheia.htm
http://www.formalontology.it/site-map.htm
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/plato/p71so/index.html

2009-01-20T20:11:00.000-02:00

2009-01-20T18:20:00.000-02:00

2009-01-12T12:43:00.001-02:00

2009-01-06T01:11:00.000-02:00

Dans la guerre que vous devez obéir. Qui ne sait pas ne peut pas les satisfaire. Et vous devez savoir que les trois heures du matin n'est pas un très bon moment pour discuter de une relation. Si les choses vont mal, ils se détériorer si les gens à résoudre sabotage simplement les autres. si vous avez eu une sorte de problème en matière de moi, ce n'est pas le temps de discuter, parce que j'étais fatigué et désireux de attendre, d'autant plus inquiet au sujet de ce qui a pu arriver. L'obéissance est seulement une règle de l'étiquette et l'éducation des gens n'ont pas l'habitude de destratar leurs hôtes à la maison. Vous êtes offensé avec très peu, mais vous ne comprenez pas leur infraction. Il est très facile à mettre l'autre à la désagréable situation de devoir dire que le bien sûr, et vous avez violé la confiance que je vous ai donné tous. Cela a été son mépris. S'il vous plaît ce n'est pas la victime à leurs amis, de dire la vérité: vous est venu à ma maison pour trois heures du matin, a ouvert la porte de sa copie, après deux jours seulement et il se dit, avec un soupçon de rhum, qui était dans la volaille, lorsque vous, ou au moins m'a informé qu'il y aurait. Si vous voulez appeler quelqu'un un imbécile appel, mais au moins, est plus délicat. Ce n'est pas moi qui souhaite avoir un type de la relation de famille, qui comprend de vivre ensemble. C'est le problème, et non la chose plus de Platon, où Aristote est très perdre la grâce, parce que ce qui a été encantado est triste quand elle est nécessaire. Je pose la question: pourquoi pensez-vous J'ai été obligé d'accepter de leur manque de sincérité? Vous avez voulu que je vous obéissent , mais est d'utiliser le drapeau contre mon autoritarisme supposé que je requis vous restez tranquille à ce moment-là, car il n'est pas temps de discuter une fois J'ai dû réveiller à 5h30, mais vous, bien sûr, a toute la journée libre à jouer et de jouer. Ne pensez-vous pas que votre argument est très inégale. Il est l'argument de la fille de tous les mimada qui n'ont jamais eu à faire dans la vie difficile et de savoir que seulement exigent le respect, mais jamais lui donner en retour. Je pense que c'est assez, et j'ai des raisons aussi que nous n'avons rien d'autre à parler. Soyez heureux et, s'il vous plaît, laissez-moi plaisir.

2008-12-28T13:49:00.001-02:00

THE THREE PRINCIPLE PATHS
I bow to the high and holy lamas.
1. As far as I am able I shall explain the essence of all high teachings of the Victors, the path that their holy sons commend, the entry point for the fortunate seeking freedom.
2. Listen with a pure mind, fortunate ones who have no craving for the pleasures of life, and who to make leisure and fortune meaningful strive to their minds to the path which pleases the Victors.
3. There is no way to end, without the pure reunciation, this striving for pleasent results in the ocean of life. It is because of their hankering life as well that beings are fettered, so seek reunciation first.
4. Leisure and fortune are hard to find, life is not long; think it constantly, stop desire for this life. Think over and over how deeds and their fruits never fail, and the cycle's suffering: stop desire for the future.
5. When you have meditated thus and fell not even a moment's wish for the good things of cyclic life, and when you begin to think both night and day of achieving freedom, you have found reunciation.
6. Reunciation though can never bring the total bliss of matchless Buddhahood unless it is bound by the purest wish; and so, the wise seek the high wish for enlightenment.
7. They are swept along the four fierce river currents, chained up tight in past deeds, hard to undo, stuffed in a steel cage of grasping "self," smothered in the pitch-black ignorance.
8. In a limitless round they are born, and in their births are tortured by three sufferings without a break; think how your mothers feel, think of what is happening to them, try to develop this highest wish.
9. You may master reunciation and the wish, but unless you have the wisdom perceiving reality you cannot cut the root of cyclic life. Make efforts in ways then to perceive interdependence.
10. A person is entered the path that pleases the Buddhas when for all objects, in the cycle or beyond, he sees that cause and effect can never fail, and when for him they lose all solid appearance.
11. You have yet to realize the thought of the Able as long as two ideas seem to you disparate: the appearance of things- infallible interdependence; and emptiness- beyond taking any position.
12. At some point they have no longer alternate, come together; just seeing that interdependence never fails brings realization that destroys how you hold objects, and then your analysis with view complete.
13. In addition, the appearance prevents the existence extreme; emptiness that of non-existence, and if you see how emptiness shows cause and effect. You will never be stolen off by extreme views.
14. When you have grasped as well as essential points of each of the three principal paths explained, then go into isolation, my son, make efforts, and quickly win your ultimate wish.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/psydead.htm

http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/nav/n.html_973813482.html#mahamudra

http://www.lifepositive.com/Spirit/world-religions/buddhism/tilopa.asp

http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/nav/eb_toc.html_1490130894.html
http://www.kagyu-asia.com/l_mila_1_index.html
http://www.dalailama.com/page.180.htm
http://www.kagyu-asia.com/l_tilo_t_song_mahamudra2.html
http://www.kagyu-asia.com/t_heart_sutra.html#second
http://rightsfortibet.freeservers.com/tsongkhapa.html
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/depend.htm
http://www.buddhanet.net/multimedia.htm
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/heartstr.htm
http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/dhammapada-01.html
http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/emptiness.html
http://www.123exp-read.com/t/00284205670/
http://www.silcom.com/~eclarson/heartsutra/hs.html
http://www.chagdud.org/pt/dakini/

2008-12-18T01:42:00.001-02:00

No one would accuse the ancient Egyptians of not having very well honed imaginations. Statuary of gods often depicted half animal, half human forms, but the Egyptians also found in their creativity fantastic animals of a different sort. Essentially, they took parts of various animals in order to create a whole not found in nature. Hence, here we will consider only creatures without human parts, even though both such creatures, for example, appear in the same context at times such as on magic wands. Usually, such animals were considered demonic according to our modern concepts, though in fact the Egyptians seem not to have made nearly so specific distinctions between demons and gods.
The composite animal body was usually only the tentative representation of a divine, supernatural power. The Egyptians seem to have considered these animals to be real, since they were often represented as living in the wild, among antelopes and lions, in the deserts surrounding the Nile River Valley. This is perhaps not as strange as it might seem, for even today, many believe in bigfoot and the lock ness monster. In Egypt, at a time when folks must be considered as very superstitious, hunters were said to have supposedly caught sight of such animals at times in the distance, though of course they never captured one (It should also be remembered that the Egyptians developed alcoholic beverages at an early date).
Even as early as the Predynastic period, we find carved on luxury objects probably of royal origin, scenes depicting fantastic animals mingling with wild, real world animals. These may be found on ceremonial slate palettes, ivory plaques and ivory knife handles, particularly found at Hierakonpolis or from nearby Naqada in Upper Egypt. Most of these early depictions were of winged, falcon headed griffins, leopards with long, winding necks and other accompanying animals that are usually considered to be inspired indirectly from models found in Mesopotamia.
Later during the Middle Kingdom, these animals were depicted on the walls of tombs belonging to some high officials at Beni Hasan and Bersheh in Middle Egypt. Also during the Middle Kingdom, the name of the capital city of the Mier nome (province), el-Kusiyeh, when written in hieroglyphs had two serpopards back to back, their necks held by a man.
It should be noted that Beni Hasan and el-Kusiyeh were about 65 miles apart and thus had some frequent contact. Bersheh and Beni Hasan were the starting points for the desert road that led to the Red Sea coast, the Sinai peninsula and to Nubia. Hence, the officials at Beni Hasan were charged with inspecting the these roads and were therefore doubtless in contact with the nomads from the Eastern Desert. It is likely that their interest in these animals derived from their contacts with these Eastern Desert dwellers and their beliefs of curious desert animals much like early sailors and their sea monsters.
These same officials also ventured into the eastern desert to hunt, and were very proud of their knowledge of the desert. One nomarch (governor) had, on the walls of his tomb at Beni Hasan, a detailed hunting scene depicting fantastic animals, though they were apparently not hunted like the real world variety. On these very walls were also an inventory of real birds, produced in color, with their names, so this official probably thought of himself as somewhat of an expert on zoological knowledge. However, within this list were also fantastic animals indicating that he perceived them to be a part of the natural environment.
From the beginning of Egyptian history, there was a religious significance to hunting beyond the Nile valley. Hunting in the desert became symbolic of subduing and taming the hostile forces that threatened the fertile Nile and thus Egyptian civilization. These fantastic animals became actors in this protective hunt for the benefit of Egypt.
However, fantastic animals were not always depicted in scenes of hunting. At Beni Hasan and Bersheh in at least three tombs, they appear in a context of daily life and in the company of domestic animals such as monkeys and dogs. There is one scene in which a winged griffin is portrayed as so similar to the dogs playing nearby that it can be distinguished only because of the wings on its back. In another scene at Beni Hasan, a colorful griffin, accompanying a man and a dog, bears a collar and what seems to be a leash. The text in this scene, as well as another describing a griffin at Bersheh, refer to it as a sgt (saget). This was probably not the name of the animal but rather a designation for the so-called domesticated griffin. It has been suggested that these griffins were in fact dogs that were disguised to look like griffins. Those who make this suggestion also think that the purpose may have been to transform an ordinary hunting dog into a ferocious, ceremonial or legendary hunter, as well as enhancing the prestige of its owner.
Also during the Middle Kingdom, composite animals were also illustrated on what are called magical wands. These wands were made from hippopotamus ivory (tooth), and reworked into simple curved blades. In at least one scene, the fantastic animals are included in a procession of demons. Text accompanying these images indicate that the animals were thought to have magical and protective powers. Most of these objects belonged to the elite, many of whom came from Thebes or Lisht, the two most prominent power centers of that time. However, some were also found in locations such as Naqada, Hierakonpolis and other cities of Middle and Upper Egypt. Both the demons and the fantastic animals were associated with religious and mythological beliefs that had their origins in the areas around Beni Hsan However, magic wands were also found in Palestine (at Gaza and Megiddo) and in Nubia (at Kuban and Kerma), so it has been suggested that those people shared an interest in the same demons and fantastic animals. In fact, at Kerma during the Middle Kingdom, animals and demons, including winged giraffes, which were very similar to those depicted on magic wands, were also used as inlay motifs in local artifacts. A study of these items has shown that the Egyptian wands and the Nubian inlays were related both on historical and mythological grounds.
A magic wand from ancient Egypt, with a Serpopards (shown inset)
In ancient Egypt, what we call demons were not necessarily evil, nor were the fantastic animals portrayed in their midst. Many demons had protective qualities and by their strange appearance, frightened any kind of malevolent beings. Magic wands were frequently offered to women, and particularly to young mothers, in order to protect them and their children against other demons bearing sickness. However, those fantastic animals found depicted in tombs probably served a similar purpose of protecting the owner during the afterlife when the he or she had to cross border zones guarded by dangerous beings.
After the Middle Kingdom, such animals were more scarcely illustrated. Only the winged griffin appears during the New Kingdom, during a period when Egypt was in close contact with Near Eastern populations and borrowed some religious features from them. During the New Kingdom, griffins were also associated with hunting scenes, but in some cases, they hauled the chariot in which there was a young god, particularly Shed, whose task was to chase and kill dangerous desert animals.
Even though we have gaps where extant documentation does not record fantastic animals, they were probably present throughout Egyptian history, and there images remained in use during Roman times as hieroglyphs, examples of which can be found in the inscriptions on the temple of Esna (in Upper Egypt and dating from the second century AD). Fantastic animals continued to be thought of as beneficial powers up until the Christian period in the Roman era. Then, their silhouettes were used in hieroglyphic script to write the sacred name of Osiris, which further demonstrates their benevolent rather than evil nature.
Serpopards
The serpopard had a feline body, a very long neck and the head of a leopard. It alone was thought to attack other animals. At times when this animal was depicted in pairs, there necks were intertwined (but not always). An obvious example of such can e found on the Narmer Palette. Pairs of Serpopards in Mesopotamia were also depicted with interwoven necks. When depicted on magic wands, this animal frequently has a serpent in its mouth, and rarely also wears a collar. We know of no other representations of this animal other than those on the Narmer Palette, magic wands and in some hieroglyphs (such as the name of Kusiyeh).
A variation in the appearance of the Serpopard occurs at Beni Hasan and at Bersheh, where they are depicted with a feline body but its head and neck are that of a snake. These were called sedja, which probably means "one who travels afar".
Griffins
Griffins had a stout feline body and the head of a falcon on a short neck. They were most often winged, but not always. On the early monuments, they are depicted with wings that are horizontal and parallel to the back of the animal in a very similar manner to those represented in Mesopotamia. However, at Beni Hasan in the tomb of Khnumhotep II, a variant occurs with V-shaped wings, a slender and speckled body and a longer neck. Here, the beak of the falcon is less pronounced. Between the wings is the head of a human. This particular variant, wearing a collar and occasionally shown with a leash, was very common on magic wands. However, this type of griffin is not found after this later in Egyptian history.
The variety of griffin that is stout does reappear occasionally as an image of the war god Montu or as a hieroglyph in texts at the temple of Esna. As Montu, it is wingless, while as a hieroglyph, it has wings. The ancient Egyptian word, srf or sfrr, which may be borrowed from a foreign language, was used to label figures of the animal in Beni Hasan. The term also appears in text of various periods, including a Middle Kingdom religious spell in the Coffin Texts. Another term for the griffin was "one who tears to pieces", which was used in the Coffin Texts and in Bersheh. However, this griffin had a short neck, a stout body and what looks like a feather crown.
Beginning in the New Kingdom, we find a new winged type of griffin with a slender canine body and a vulture's or eagle's beak. It seems to have originated in a particular form of griffin with a Seth-animal head which was depicted once during the Middle Kingdom on a toilet artifact. The New Kingdom variety sometimes continued to be represented with a Seth-animal head. This was the animal that pulled the chariot of Shed, the young savior god, and the term for this creature meant "the swift one", stressing its capability to haul Shed's chariot at a great speed.
As an artistic emblem for the display of royal power, as with the sphinx, the king sometimes assumed the appearance of a huge terrifying griffin, and is rendered trampling underfoot the traditional enemies of the country. In fact, during the New Kingdom pendants and other works showed both the normal griffin and the griffin with the head of a man as in the case of a chest belonging to Tutankhamun.
Other Fantastic Animals
Another fantastic animal of ancient Egypt was a double-headed bull, which was pictured once on both a palette and a magic wand. However, several other animals remain somewhat fuzzy in their classification. One animal among those illustrated at Beni Hasan was almost identical in all respects to the canine that was usually considered to be the manifestation of the god Seth. However, while its general stance was that of a dog or other canine animal, it had triangular ears and an elongated snout, together with an arrow in the guise of a tail. This animal was also represented on magic wands where it wore a collar. The collar is also evident from carefully engraved hieroglyphic examples of the Seth-animal inscribed during the Old Kingdom. In texts related to this animal, it is not known called Seth, and was known as a desert dweller. A group of these Seth-animals (a modern term) was also supposed to haul the solar bark.
Occasionally, we do find other fantastic animals, though their representations seem to be very limited and we have very little if any texts that provide us much information on their nature. A good example of an object that contains a few additional fantastic animals, though also griffins and Serpopards is the ancient "Two Dog Palette" discovered at Hierakonpolis.
Other composite animals may have belonged to this group of fantastic animals, but grew into a higher form of gods. For example, a hippopotamus with a crocodile back and tail, Taweret, though represented on magic wands, was beginning in the New Kingdom, a great goddess, worshiped in temples with her own cult.

2008-12-18T01:37:00.000-02:00

While the Egyptians seem to have known, crossed and visited the Sinai even before the dynastic period, we have found little evidence of their building activities in the region. Of course, inhabitable areas are usually small, and scarce, and so have been inhabited and built upon continuously over the ages. It is probable that what was built has been built over many times. Today, wondering through the Sinai and viewing its unusual landscape, it is not difficult to imagine a land rich in minerals. Egyptians discovered its mineral wealth very early on, perhaps at the beginning of the dynastic period. Archaeologists have found that the very earliest known settlers in the Sinai, about 8,000 years ago, were miners. Drawn by the region's abundant copper and turquoise deposits, these groups slowly worked their way southward, hopping from one deposit to the next. By 3500 BC, the great turquoise veins of Serabit el-Khadim (Khadem) had been discovered.
The Mines
The ancient mining complex of Serabit el-Khadim lies on a small plateau north of modern Al-Tor. It is located about halfway down the western coast, around 40 kilometers due east of Abu Zanima, and about ten miles from Wadi Mughara. It was one of the most important sites for the Egyptians on the peninsula. Today, it is not difficult to reach the Serabit el-Khadim area, though the trip must be made by jeep. There are no paved roads to the base of the mountain. From a parking area, one takes a well marked path that has an elevation gain of over 2600 feet above sea level and is somewhat rigorous Although many of the region's pharaonic reliefs were destroyed by a British attempt to re-open the mines in the mid-nineteenth century, along the path to the temple are a number of engravings that were written by the ancient minors. Some of the most interesting portray the ships that would carry the turquoise to Egypt. There is also an excellent bas relief of King Sekhemkhet on the east face of the plateau, revealing him smiting Egypt's enemies. Other antiquities are found along the path, including ancient tunnels, miner's huts and stele.
Serabit el-Khadim, a large, systematic operation was set up that would flourish for thousands of years. It was important enough to the Egyptians that a number of policing actions and protective measures were taken to protect the mines throughout most of Egypt dynastic period To mine the turquoise, the Egyptians would hollow out large galleries in the mountains, carving at the entrance to each a representation of the reigning pharaoh who was the symbol of the authority of the Egyptian state over the mines. A huge quantity of turquoise over that period was mined, carried down the Wadi Matalla to a garrisoned port located at el-Markha (south of Abu Zenima), and loaded aboard ships bound for Egypt. The turquoise was then used both for jewelry and to make color pigments for painting.
The Temple
A general view of the temple site at Serabit el-Khadim
The temple at Serabit el-Khadim, though really only scattered ruins, is one of the few phraonic monuments we know of in the Sinai. In 1905, Flinders Petrie investigated the site, and found the famous proto-Sinaitic script", which is believed to be an early precursor of the alphabet. These scripts were hieroglyphic signs used to write the names of the West Semitic names of the people who worked the mines, and keep account of their labors. They developed an Alef-Bet with which they could record their Proto-Canaanite language. The script they developed is called Proto-Sinaitric (First-Sinaitic) and the language was a Pan-Canaanite language often called Old Hebrew
Hieroglyphic signs were used to write their West Semitic names and keep correct accounts of their days of labor. This was a great motivation for them to learn the sound signs that phonetically articulated their names. Very soon they had an Alef-Bet with which they could record their Proto-Canaanite language. The script they developed is called Proto-Sinaitric (First-Sinaitic) and the language was a Pan-Canaanite language often called Old Hebrew
The Serabit El Khadim temple looks like a double series of steles leading to an underground chapel dedicated to the Hathor Goodness. Much of the temple's large number of sanctuaries and shrines were dedicated to Hathor, who among her many other attributes, was the patron goddess of copper and turquoise miners. It is the only temple we know of built outside mainland Egypt and mostly dedicated to Hathor. The earliest part of the main rock cut Hathor Temple, which has a front court and portico, dates to the 12th Dynasty The temple was probably founded by Amenemhet III, during a period of time when the mines were particularly active. The 12th Dynasty was a period of considerable mineral wealth for Egyptians and some of the finest jewelry from Egypt's past have been discovered in the tombs of 12th Dynasty women.
A number of scenes portray the role of Hathor in the transformation of the new king, upon ascending the throne, into the deified ruler of Egypt. One scene, for example, depicts Hathor suckling the pharaoh. Another scene from a stone tabled depicts Hathor offering the pharaoh the Ankh.
This older part of the temple was enlarged upon and extended by none other then Queen Hatshepsut, along with Tuthmosis III and Amenhotep III during the New Kingdom. This was a restoration period for the mining operations after an apparent decline in the area during the Second Intermediate Period. These extensions are unusual for a temple in the manner in which they angled to the west off of the earlier structure.
On the north side of the of the temple is a shrine dedicated to the pharaohs who were deified in this region. On one wall of the shrine are numerous stele. A little to the south of the main temple we also find a shrine dedicated to the god of the eastern desert, Sopdu, which is smaller then the northern shrine.
As a Tourist Destination
Serabit el-Khadim is not a particularly easy place to find or to reach. Indeed, one will probably not find it without the aid of a knowledgeable guide and then, some stemma is needed to reach the actual site of the temple. The local tribes are responsible for protecting the site from looting and are open to assisting tourists and hiring out as guides. Furthermore, a significant segment of the route leading to the area off of the western Sinai coastal highway is not paved. One must climb up a long series of steps to the top of a mountain and then trek back along mountain ridges. It takes about two hours for the average person to reach the temple. Bring lots of water, as there is none to be found along the route. As a pharaonic tourist attraction, Serabit el-Khadim is not nearly as spectacular as many of the Nile Valley sites, though the surrounding area is interesting. It should be considered more of a trek adventure than a pure pharaonic sightseeing tour

2008-12-18T01:36:00.000-02:00

El-Arish Revisited
Copyright © 1986 by Sean Mewhinney (df736@freenet.carleton.ca).Originally published in Kronos XI:2 (Winter, 1986).
Were there ever duller legendsAnd a more senile phantasy!-- Gaston Maspero
Late in the last century an unimposing shrine of Ptolemaic times was found at el-Arish (see map), overturned to serve as a cattle-trough. The inscription had suffered accordingly, but some 74 lines yet remained. In this text Velikovsky saw a parallel Egyptian account of the Exodus, confirming the plague of darkness and the miraculous parting of the Sea of Passage. He believed that useful historical information could be elicited from it, by means of which the pharaoh of the Exodus and the route taken by the fleeing Israelites might be identified.

Figure 1: Map of the Sinai showing the location of El-Arish.
My interest was aroused in the el-Arish inscription because, in many respects, it provides an excellent example, not only of how not to analyze a text, but how not to conduct a scholarly debate. This text has been the subject not only of fairly lengthy discussions by Velikovsky in two of his books, but also of attacks and counter-attacks by his critics and defenders. In spite of the fact that a number of important points have been raised about its interpretation, the two sides have been able to agree on virtually nothing concerning the nature and significance of this inscription, and because every discussion of the sources to date has been incomplete, the issues may still be clouded by a certain doubt
The text has been translated several times. 1 There are two full publications with text and translation. The first was made by F. L. Griffith in 1890 in English; the other by Georges Goyon in French in 1936. These are the sources used by Velikovsky. Some of the differences between these two versions have a bearing on Velikovsky's interpretation. He does not consistently follow either translation, but relies now more on one, now more on the other. Both are reproduced here for reference, side by side.
In the biblical account, following the plagues of blood, frogs, lice, flies, a disease of the cattle, boils, hail, and locusts, comes the plague of darkness:
And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. 2
Writing in Worlds in Collision, Velikovsky finds in the el-Arish inscription "the same description of the darkness as Exodus 10:22," and he quotes:
The land was in great affliction. Evil fell on this earth.... There was a great upheaval in the residence.... Nobody could leave the palace [there was no exit from the palace] during nine days, and during these nine days of upheaval there was such a tempest that neither men nor gods [the royal family] could see the faces of those beside them. 3
Velikovsky continues his comparison on the following page:
That both sources, the Hebrew and the Egyptian, refer to the same event can be established by another means also. Following the prolonged darkness and the hurricane, the pharaoh, according to the hieroglyphic text of the shrine, pursued the "evil-doers" to "the place called Pi-Khiroti." The same place is mentioned in Exodus 14:9: "But the Egyptian pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh ... and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-ha-khiroth." The inscription on the shrine also narrates the death of the pharaoh during this pursuit under exceptional circumstances: "Now when the Majesty fought with the evil-doers in this pool, the place of the whirlpool, the evil-doers prevailed not over his Majesty. His Majesty leapt into the place of the whirlpool." This is the same apotheosis described in Exodus 15:19: "For the horse of pharaoh went in with chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them." 4
On a later page in the same volume, Velikovsky returns to this subject again, quoting this line from Psalm 66: "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads...", which he interprets as signifying the
tossing of the Egyptian host into the air by an avalanche of water... referred to also in the Egyptian source I quoted before: on the shrine found in el-Arish the story is told of a hurricane and of a prolonged darkness when nobody could leave the palace, and of the pursuit by the pharaoh Taoui-Thom of the fleeing slaves whom he followed to Pi-khiroti, which is the biblical Pi-ha-khiroth. "His Majesty leapt into the place of the whirlpool." Then it is said that he was "lifted by a great force." 5 .
Velikovsky discussed the el-Arish inscription again in greater detail in Ages in Chaos, published two years afterward, and what he had to say about it there will be examined later on. The opening shot in the controversy over the interpretation of this text, so far as I am aware, was fired by Howard Margolis in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Margolis' review article was written in reaction to the September, 1963 issue of the American Behavioral Scientist, which eventually grew into a book, The Velikovsky Affair. In April, 1964, Margolis' article appeared under the title "Velikovsky Rides Again." The opinions in it are interesting and forcefully expressed, but this was no masterpiece of scholarship. Margolis was careless and overconfident. The article is sprinkled with misspellings. And not only did he reveal no sensitivity to the issue of intellectual freedom, Margolis used insulting language not calculated to establish communication with Velikovsky's supporters. He opened by stating that "Velikovsky's work, as clearly as anything can be in this world, is plain hokum." Here is the gist of his analysis:
Except in the most general way, Velikovsky offers no explanation of how it is possible that things could happen the way he suggests.... As a consequence, there are limited opportunities for a technical argument with Velikovsky.... As a result, Velikovsky must be met on his own chosen ground, with an examination of his use of the "accumulated records of human experience." ....as anyone who spends a few hours in a library checking Velikovsky's sources will discover, Worlds in Collision is, if nothing else, a matchless compendium of how you can prove anything if you are only careless enough. If you wish to find refutation of Velikovsky's arguments, you have merely to look up the sources he cites in his footnotes. 6
The only specifically named sources that Margolis looked up were the el-Arish inscription and Augustine's City of God, with the former getting most of his attention. Unfortunately, Margolis was not aware of Velikovsky's later comments in Ages in Chaos, and he looked only at Griffith's translation. He went on to raise some very serious charges:
Now if you look up the actual inscription, you notice some curious things: for example, the two incidents of the storm and the leap into the whirlpool are not sequential, as Velikovsky presents them. They are described as taking place at widely different places at widely different times with no relation between them, and they involve not the same king, but two diferent kings, neither of them named Taoui-Thom. There is no mention of the pharoah [sic] pursuing the fleeing slaves to Pi-Khiroti, or any other place. In fact, there is no mention of fleeing slaves. But there is mention of a place called Pekharti, which Velikovsky alters into Pi-Khiroti, so making it more similar to the place actually mentioned in Exodus, Pi-ha-Hiroth, which Velikovsky has altered into Pi-ha-Khiroth, further enhancing his evidence. But Pekharti is not the name of the place near the whirlpool. It is the place where a king (not the king who leaps into the whirlpool) catches and rapes a lady. Furthermore, the king does not leap to his death when he jumps into the whirlpool; rather, to quote from the inscription, "his legs became those of a crocodile, his head that of a hawk with bull thorns [sic] upon it: he smote the evil doers in the Place of the Whirlpool." In fact, the whole inscription has nothing to do with historical events at all, but is about the mythological god-kings of Egypt, from whom the Pharoahs [sic] were to claim descent, and the king who leaps into the whirlpool after his enemies is none other than Ra, the great sun god of Egypt. 7
The reaction to this attack at the American Behavioral Scientist was sharp. ABS editor Alfred de Grazia wrote to the editor of the Bulletin, threatening to take legal action if he did not repudiate "the many distortions in Margolis's article." 8 Eric Larrabee was promised space in the Bulletin for a reply and then denied it. Velikovsky was invited to submit a rebuttal, but he "would not consent to enter into debate with Margolis on matters of Hebrew and Egyptian philology and palaeography." 9 Instead he submitted "Venus, a Youthful Planet," which was rejected. In its October issue, the American Behavioral Scientist counter-attacked. Under the heading "Notes on 'Scientific' Reporting," de Grazia reprinted Margolis' article in its entirety, followed by an itemized list of 54 alleged "tricks and errors" in it, keyed to the text. Here de Grazia denied every single accusation Margolis had made over Velikovsky's handling of the el-Arish inscription, point by point, and he accused Margolis of giving "a preposterous and irrelevant account of the...text."
My scorecard does not tally with de Grazia's. 10 But Margolis really came to grief over the rendering of one place name, a name which occurs only once in the text. Griffith rendered it "Pekharti". At issue is whether Velikovsky was guilty of misrepresenting the evidence to make his identification with the biblical Pi-ha-Khiroth look better. Here Margolis was made to look ridiculous and hopelessly out of his depth. Whether he was or was not ignorant "of the elementary French required to read" Goyon, as Ralph Juergens asserted, he did not do so, and in Goyon's version the place is "Pi-Kharoti". In Worlds in Collision Velikovsky did change the spelling to Pi-Khiroti (or Pi-khiroti) without explanation, but in Ages in Chaos, he tacitly corrected that to Pi-Kharoti, adding in a note that "The vowels in the translation of the Egyptian text are a conjecture of the translator: the name can also be read Pi-Khirot." 11 This may be perfectly true, though at least the translator's conjecture is presumably based on a knowledge of Coptic, while Velikovsky's was not. Yet this is a small point, and the name is similar enough to the Pi-ha-hiroth of Exodus 14:9 that they could well be the same place.
In Worlds in Collision Velikovsky spelled the biblical locality "Pi-ha-khiroth"; in Ages in Chaos as "Pi-ha-hiroth", with "Khiroth" beside it in brackets -- all very proper. "Ha", he explained, is merely the definite article in Hebrew. Margolis was lectured by de Grazia for not knowing
that het and khet are two different letters in Hebrew (as in Handel and Bach, they are pronounced differently); he argues as if the original text of the Old Testament was written in King James Version.... "Ha" is in Hebrew what "the" is in English; Margolis should have known this or, at least, read it in the footnotes of Worlds in Collision, or in Ages in Chaos. 12
As I mentioned, de Grazia denied all the rest of Margolis' allegations, too. His arguments will be examined later. But for the readers of The Velikovsky Affair, which appeared two years later, it was Ralph Juergens who raked Margolis over the coals again: "His vulgar and thoroughly irresponsible article...is filled with misrepresentation and misquotations, jeers and sneers, [and] bald statements of unfounded charges..." 13 But Juergens had more to say about events behind the scenes than about the contents of the el-Arish text or the points under dispute. 14 According to Juergens, "From the confused arguments presented by Margolis the only facts to emerge are that he does not understand that Egyptian was written without vowels and that he is not even aware of the use of 'ha' in Hebrew as the definite article." 15
In another essay in the same volume, Livio Stecchini called Margolis' piece "an outrageous caricature of historical documentation." According to Stecchini, Margolis "mis-quoted passage after passage, referred to statements that did not exist, submitted erroneous translations, and subverted the most elementary rules of linguistics." 16
Recently, in his Velikovsky's Sources, Bob Forrest took up the el-Arish text again and, quite independently, made many of the same points made earlier by Margolis: that there is no mention of fleeing Israelites, only of invaders, that the pharaoh is not drowned, he becomes "a tower of strength," that "Pekharti is the place where Seb seizes Tefnut by force, not, as V. Has it, the place where pharaoh catches up with the 'evil doers'," 17 and that
Whereas V. Has the hurricane and the darkness, the pursuit to Pekharti, and the events at the Place of the Whirlpool, as connected incidents in the life of the same pharaoh, Taoui Thom, the shrine itself has them as distinct incidents in the lives of three different pharaohs. 18
Forrest, like Margolis, consulted only Griffith's English translation. (Later, Forrest got an English translation of Goyon's French version, and considered rewriting his discussion, but abandoned the project.) Although aware that Velikovsky also dealt with this text in his Ages in Chaos, Forrest confined his comments to the treatment in Worlds in Collision. Is Griffith's translation so different from Goyon's that dependence upon it could account for these gross discrepancies? Did Velikovsky present any new argument in Ages in Chaos that would cast everything in a new light?
Velikovsky's introduction to the section "Pi-ha-Khiroth" in Ages in Chaos has a rather defensive ring, as though he were responding to criticisms directed against his earlier discussion in Worlds in Collision, or perhaps anticipating a challenge. Velikovsky called Goyon's rendition "a new attempt to translate the text," which, he said, "deserves...a new definitive translation." According to Velikovsky, "Not even the sequence of the text is conclusively established." 19 If this were so, he might feel justified in rearranging the narrative in a different order from that followed by the translators. But one cannot shift the various episodes around freely. We are not dealing with a pile of fragments. The text is heavily damaged, but what remains is in one piece.
The shrine itself was hollowed out from a single block of stone. It stands about four and a half feet high. (See fig. 2.) Originally it was fitted with doors, and probably contained a statue. The text is on the outside -- on the back and both sides. The section on the right-hand side is almost entirely destroyed, but the other two sections are well-preserved except at the very beginning and end of each line. I use "left" and "right" here in the ordinary sense: from a point of view facing the shrine. Griffith uses these terms with a reversed orientation: looking outward from the shrine.

Figure 2: Shrine at El-Arish
In his introductory description of the shrine, Goyon follows the usage adopted here, and labels the sections: A (left side), B (right side), and C (back). But to the reader's confusion, during the course of his translation he reverts to the same terminology as Griffith, so that on page 29 section B is labelled "left side". Nevertheless, Griffith and Goyon follow the same order, no matter how the sections are labelled.
Since the panel on the right-hand side is almost entirely destroyed, it is merely a question of whether panel A precedes panel C, or vice versa. That the first alternative is correct seems obvious enough just from reading the first lines of each panel. But the correct sequence can be established in another manner, which will be mentioned in a moment.
This "strange text," Velikovsky wrote,
has been regarded as rather mythological, though kings, residences, and geographical places are named and an invasion of foreigners described. The names of deities appearing in the text are royal cognomens.... In this inscription the name of King Thom is written in a royal cartouche, a fact that points to the historical background of the text. 20
This is a rather naive argument. The Egyptians pictured their gods as being ruled by kings, just as they themselves were. In primeval times, they believed, Egypt had been ruled by gods, living on earth among men. These facts are well known.
It is inconsistent for Velikovsky to take gods here to be historical personages, when ordinarily, he takes them to be planets. Osiris, for example, is supposed to represent Saturn, while Isis, Horus, and Amon are names for Jupiter, according to Velikovsky. 21 But who are the deities whose names appear in the text?
We have Shu, the son of Ra or Atum, Tefnut, and Geb, son of Shu. In the theological system of Heliopolis, Atum or Ra was the primeval creator. His offspring, Shu and Tefnut, were the first couple. From their union arose Geb and Nut, or earth and sky (who in turn produced Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus). Atum-Ra, Shu, and Geb succeed one another as rulers of creation. The same order of succession is followed in our text, which confirms that panel C follows panel A.
Where does Velikovsky's "King Thom" fit in? In Worlds in Collision (p. 88) he was "Taoui-Thom"; in Ages in Chaos, "Thom" or "Thoum". None of these spellings appears in either translation. Griffith's "Tum" is Goyon's "Toum' (pronounced the same). The insertion of an "h" accentuates its similarity to the "Pithom" of Exodus. And Taoui? "In Ages in Chaos," wrote Velikovsky, "evidence will be presented to identify the pharaoh of the Exodus as Taoui Thom, the last king of the Middle Kingdom. He is Tau Timaeus (Tutimaeus) of Manetho... The name of his queen is given in the naos of el-Arish as Tephnut." 22
Actually, "Taoui" is not part of this name at all: "Hy-taoui" is the name of the royal palace of the XIIth Dynasty, south of Memphis, as Goyon explains in a note. Velikovsky joined these two unrelated elements with a hyphen and created another form, "Tau Timaeus," intermediate between this combination and Manetho's "Tutimaeus". Velikovsky must have had another look at the text before releasing Ages in Chaos, as in that book we find only the forms "Thom" and "Thoum".
But Tum is merely a variant form of Atum: Tum, Atum, and Ra are used interchangeably in the text. At the very beginning of his translation, Goyon notes that "in the continuation of the narrative, the first king of the universe is sometimes Ra, sometimes Toum." Cartouche or no cartouche, none of these names is any more historical than the others.
Another of Velikovsky's conjectures was more fortunate, however. The Tum of the el-Arish text is the same name found in the inscription which helped Edouard Naville to identify the biblical Pithom with Tell el Maskhuta, in the Wadi Tumilat. 23 Only it is the name of a god, not a man. Velikovsky wrote that in the inscription a pharaoh suffers "the same apotheosis" as in the book of Exodus. The word "apotheosis" was artfully chosen. But if this means anything at all, it must mean that he met his death by drowning in the Sea of Passage. According to Velikovsky, the text "narrates the death of the pharaoh during this pursuit [of the Israelites] under exceptional circumstances," and he quotes a passage from Griffith's translation. Here is that passage, with all omissions restored (C, lines 21-23):
Now when the majesty of Ra Harmachis [fought] with the evil-doers in this pool, the Place of the Whirlpool, the evil-doers prevailed not over his majesty. His majesty leapt into the so-called Place of the Whirlpool?
(Velikovsky's quotation stops at this point.)
His legs became those of a crocodile, his head that of a hawk with bull's horns upon it: he smote the evil-doers in the Place of the Whirlpool? In the Place of the Sycamore.
Velikovsky was right about the "exceptional circumstances," but the text has nothing to say about the death of this pharaoh. Indeed, his magical transformation seems to have made him invincible.
Griffith's "Place of the Whirlpool" may have suggested to Velikovsky "the death of the pharaoh in the whirling waters," 24 but Griffith himself was unsure of his reading: It is followed by a question mark, and he noted, "The reading of this name is unknown." The place in question is Goyon's Yat-Desoui, not Pi-Kharoti. It is written (With minor variations). Goyon translates it as "the hill of the two knives." This pool seems to have been an artificial construction in the temple compound of Yat-Nebes ("the Place of the Sycamore"). Czerný describes a similar pool found at Hermopolis:
In Hermopolitan theology, Hermopolis itself was the place where the primordial hill first appeared and thus the first step towards the creation of the universe was made. It formed there a sacred district, rectangular and surrounded by a high wall within which was the replica of the scene of creation: a lake called "Lake of the Two Knives" representing Nun, and in it the "Island of Flames" with a hill. 25
What the significance was of the two knives, I do not know. At any rate, whatever the correct reading of this name may be, Velikovsky would need a waterspout, not a whirlpool, to toss "the Egyptian host into the air."
No such detail is mentioned in the book of Exodus, but that is what Velikovsky reads into this line from Psalm 66: "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads." It is true that verse 6 clearly alludes to the Sea of Passage: "He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot." But a number of different images are presented to the mind's eye in this psalm, and taken in its context (verses 10-12), this phrase suggests something quite different:
For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
Rather than horses and chariots tossed into the air, the men riding over the heads of the Israelites suggests to me the image of people being trampled by horses. This is one of the torments by which the Israelites were tried, like the net of verse 11. Velikovsky takes the walls of water suspended on either side of the fleeing Israelites quite literally. According to him they were suspended by some kind of electromagnetic attraction of the planet Venus, rushing together when a tremendous electrical discharge passed between Venus and the earth. When these two walls of water met, "the force of the impact threw the pharaoh's army into the air." 26 It is hard to see what kind of physical force could have separated the waters into two walls lining the Israelites' path of retreat. 27
In any case, the text does not say that a pharaoh was "lifted by a great force" at Pi-Kharoti. Margolis wrote that "It is the place where a king (not the king who leaps into the whirlpool) catches and rapes a lady." He was ridiculed for this by de Grazia, who questioned his mental health:
The notion that the king raped a lady may be appealing to the subconscious of Mr. Margolis, but is not mentioned in either translation of the text. Anyhow the "lady" talked about in the text was the King's mother. (Of course, nothing is impossible.) 28
Is there no rape in either translation? Here is Griffith's version (C 3-4, 6):
Then Seb saw [Tefnut] and loved her greatly, his heart desired her: he wandered over? The earth in search of? Her in great affliction.... Then the majesty of [Seb met her] he found her in this? Place which is called Pekharti?: he seized her by force.
It may be that when Geb seized Tefnut by force, his intentions were entirely honorable, but there is little doubt of what Griffith thought he had in mind. (Budge captioned this section "Gebb Forces his Mother Tefent"; and Roeder, "Geb Rapes [vergewaltigt] his Mother Tefênet.") Instead of inquiring into the state of Margolis' subconscious, should we not ask why de Grazia denied the plain sense of Griffith's words? Goyon's rendering of lines 3-4 is rather different:
Behold, Geb saw his mother who loved him very much. His (Geb's) heart was neglectful of her. The land......for her in great affliction.
But line 6 is essentially the same:
Then the Majesty of ..... Behold, he found her in this place called Pi-Kharoti and he carried her off by main force.
The last part of this in French is "voici qu'il l'enleva de vive force." Here is where Velikovsky got the idea that a pharaoh was "lifted by great force." Enlever has several different meanings -- to carry off, abduct, lift, or translate to heaven. My dictionary translates l'enlèvement des Sabines as "the rape of the Sabine women." De vive force is a stock phrase meaning "by main (or brute) force." The clause is in the active voice. That l'enleva is followed by de vive force makes it perfectly plain that an act of personal violence is signified. In Goyon's version, Geb (if it is he) is certainly grim about it. Perhaps he only removes Tefnut to allow his own succession to take place. Juergens' crack as to Margolis' "ignorance even of...elementary French" seems ironically misplaced. But it is not merely a question of linguistic competence.
The end of line 4 says that "The Majesty of Shu flew to heaven with his companions. Tefnut remained at the place of his coronation at Memphis." Now one can see why "apotheosis" was such an artfully chosen word. Ra or Tum is the "pharaoh" who leaps into the pool before battling the invaders from the east, Geb is the "pharaoh" who seizes Tefnut by force, and Shu, who also participates in the battle, is the "pharaoh" who flies up to heaven. But he certainly doesn't drown or die in the battle, since at the beginning of the last panel, C, the text tells us that Shu took "for himself the whole earth. No one resisted before his face. No other god was in the mouth of his troops." Shu's flying up to the sky also seems to have inspired Velikovsky's mistranslation of l'enleva de vive force.
Right after Geb grabs Tefnut, there follow nine days of storm and darkness, during which no one can leave the palace. Then Geb appears "crowned on the throne of his father Shu." Remember that according to Velikovsky, "Following the prolonged darkness and the hurricane, the pharaoh... pursued the 'evil-doers' to 'the place called Pi-Khiroti'." The actors, scenes, and sequence of events are all mixed up. Velikovsky added more to this in Ages in Chaos:
In the midst of the savageries of nature, "his majesty of Shou" assembled his hosts and ordered them to follow him to regions where, he promised, they would again see light: "We shall again see our father Ra-Harakhti in the luminous region of Bakhit." 29
Notice that the text does not say they would again see light, it says they would see "our father Ra-Harakhti in the luminous region of Bakhit." As Griffith explains in a note, Bakhit was the mythical mountain on the eastern horizon where the sun rose. And in fact, Yat-Nebes, Shu's destination, was on the eastern frontier of Egypt. It makes sense to say that they would see Ra there if he is recognized as a solar deity. This passage, of course, occurs at the very beginning of the story, long before the storm and darkness. Velikovsky continues:
The inscription... relates that after a time a son of the pharaoh, "his majesty Geb," set out himself. "He asks information....' The eyewitnesses from neighboring abodes "give him the information about all that happened to Ra in Yat Nebes, the combats of the king Thoum." All who accompanied the prince were killed by a terrible blast, and the prince, "his majesty Geb," sustained burns before he returned from his expedition to seek his father, who had perished. 30
Geb was Ra's grandson, not his son. Velikovsky's "eyewitnesses from neighboring abodes" are the gods who accompany Geb everywhere. Velikovsky tells us that at the time of the Exodus, petroleum fires rained down from a comet. 31 Was this the "terrible blast" that burned Geb? Not according to the text: When Geb reaches out to take the royal uraeus from its coffer, the cobra on it magically comes to life and spits venom, inflicting the "burns".
Without any mention of the children of Israel, the parallel to Exodus rests on an extremely slender basis. The text does speak of a people called the children of Apopis who invaded Egypt from the east, sacking all the towns that lay in their path. In Goyon's opinion, the story of their attack was inspired preeminently by memories of the Hyksos invasion. But Velikovsky pressed them into service as fleeing Israelites. When Ra goes forth to meet the invaders in battle, this becomes "the pursuit by the pharaoh Taoui-Thom of the fleeing slaves."
But in Velikovsky's reconstruction of ancient history, the Exodus coincided with the invasion of the Hyksos. So ironically, in view of Velikovsky's assertion that anti-semitism began with a confusion between these two peoples, the children of Apopis do double duty as both fleeing Israelites and invading Hyksos.
Stitching together excerpts from lines 10 and 26 of panel C, although years are said to have passed during the interim, Velikovsky has Geb making "an attempt, entirely unsuccessful, to communicate with 'the foreigners and the Amu,' that they leave the country." 32 This is supposed to refer to a time when the Hyksos controlled lower Egypt. Actually, though, the text says that Geb sent messengers to bring the foreigners to him from their own land.
Earlier, I agreed that "the name [Pi-Kharoti] is similar enough to the Pi-ha-hiroth of Exodus 14:9 that they could well be the same place." If Pi-ha-hiroth was a real place in Egypt, there is no reason it should not be mentioned somewhere in an Egyptian text. But I cannot agree that
The question... as to where the Sea of Passage was, can be solved with the help of the inscription on the shrine. On the basis of certain indications in the text, Pi-ha-Khiroth, where the events took place, was on the way from Memphis to Pisoped. 33
For unfortunately, the event which took place at Pi-Kharoti -- Geb's abduction of Tefnut -- has nothing to do with the story of the Exodus. Velikovsky hedged somewhat by stating that "the topographical distribution of sea and land did not remain the same as before the cataclysm of the days of the Exodus," 34 but he conjectured that the Sea of Passage was Lake Serbon (actually a lagoon on the Mediterranean coast, east of the Delta). There, he wrote, "on the bottom of the sea where the spellbound Israelites saw the upheaval of nature" lies the comet, or dragon, Typhon. "In the same pit of the sea lie the pharaoh and his hosts." 35 But if Pi-ha-hiroth was on the way from Memphis to Pi-Soped, it was nowhere near Lake Serbon, since Pi-Soped has been identified with Saft-el-Hennah in the Wadi Tumilat from inscriptions found there. 36
CONCLUSIONS
In the preface to Worlds in Collision, Velikovsky described the method he would use:
The task I had to accomplish was not unlike that faced by a psychoanalyst who, out of disassociated memories and dreams, reconstructs a forgotten traumatic experience in the early life of an individual. In an analytical experiment on mankind, historical inscriptions and legendary motifs often play the same role as recollections (infantile memories) and dreams in the analysis of a personality. 37
Velikovsky claimed that ancient traditions had been watered down in the retelling to repress disturbing memories of terrible catastrophes. Or in his words, "Man disfigures the past to purge it of anything that violates his need to have harmony and stability." 38 He mused: "If we could help this witness on the stand -- the annals of ancient Egypt -- to remember some vast catastrophe, we might perchance obtain a precious clue to an obscure problem..." 39 -- namely the date of the Exodus. We have seen how this method was applied in one example. The witness needed a great deal of help.
Velikovsky prided himself on his memory, boasting that "Sometimes I quote from books that I read as a child and have not seen for seventy years." 40 Yet his memory played strange tricks. All too often, the "disassociated memories" are Velikovsky's own.
His interpretations of the el-Arish inscription are so obviously, blatantly wrong in so many particulars that it is hard to see why there should have been any controversy over the facts of the case, excepting only minor details. We find names altered and combined, words mistranslated, characters confused with one another or split into two, and events set in the wrong time and place. To permit Velikovsky to make the associations he does, one would have to take a sledgehammer to the shrine, smash it to bits, and reassemble the pieces in a different order. Mistakes such as these are characteristic of Velikovsky's writings, so much so that they might be called "Velikovskian slips." Most of the sources used by Velikovsky are not quoted so extensively. Commonly, he juxtaposes snippets from sources of different periods and cultures, so that for the most part we are dealing with isolated elements. The connections that Velikovsky draws, while generally not impossible, continually stretch the limits of plausibility. But in this case the snippets are taken from the same text, and it is easy to see how the constructions imposed upon them violate the order of the text.
Rejecting Velikovsky's treatment of the el-Arish text will not bring all his theses crashing down. But the method -- a sort of "free association" in which a whole complex of ideas is summoned up by an isolated word or phrase -- must be rejected as well.
More deplorable even than this example of textual analysis was the manner in which criticisms of it were received. In an honest debate, when one's opponent scores a point, you concede it, assess the damage to your case, and go on to discuss other points. A dishonest debater denies any error or misrepresentation and draws attention away from the issue by making countercharges.
Margolis accused Velikovsky of taking unconnected incidents out of their proper sequence in the text and combining them. In his "Notes", de Grazia labelled this "False. It is fairly certain on its face that the document tells one story and the events are described as parts of the story: tempest, darkness, Pi-Kharoti, battles of King Tum, the apotheosis in the surges of the whirlpool."
Margolis charged that "the two incidents of the storm and the leap into the whirlpool.... Involve two different kings, neither of them named Taoui-Thom." To this de Grazia gave a very cagy answer: "Thom = Toum = Tum."
We saw that all the personages named in the el-Arish text are gods and goddesses. Margolis charged that "the whole inscription has nothing to do with historical events at all, but is about the mythological god-kings of Egypt." De Grazia had an ingenious answer to this:
The text deals with some local events that contributed to the fame of the sanctuary.... A struggle against 'rebels' ... accompanied by terrific physical disturbances.... So catastrophic that the story... took on the style and characters of the standard Egyptian myth of creation. For this reason the events are ascribed to god-kings of the Egyptian myth of creation.
But if the style and characters are indistinguishable from the standard Egyptian myth of creation, what historical elements are left by which we may know that this is a work of history and not mythology? This is pure rationalization.
It was also a common practice of ancient Oriental historical annals to change defeats into something else. Here too the text seems to explain away a defeat: "When the Majesty of Ra was fighting the enemies in this water of Lake Yat Desui, the rebels did not reveal a military power [?!] against His Majesty. When His Majesty made contact with Lake Yat-Desui, he took the form of a crocodile..." 41
In other words, when the Egyptian redactor says that Ra turned into a hawk-headed crocodile and so forth, he means to express that pharaoh was drowned in a tidal wave. De Grazia accepts this as the "apotheosis" of Exodus 14.
De Grazia thought so well of his 54 notes that he later reprinted them in a collection of essays. 42 Many people, among them myself, were introduced to the ideas of Immanuel Velikovsky by the little book called The Velikovsky Affair. All that one can gather there from the essays of Juergens and Stecchini about Margolis' discussion is that he was a hopeless incompetent who made "ad hominem" attacks on Velikovsky. According to the proponents of the concept of "collective amnesia," Velikovsky's works aroused a storm of resistance and denial because he uncovered secret truths which are too traumatic for the critics to face. In Mankind in Amnesia, Velikovsky dismissed Margolis as an "ignoramus" and critiques such as his as "an emotional reaction against that which may bring awareness of the cause of mental disturbance." 43
Granted that among Velikovsky's critics have been many who misrepresented facts and used irrational arguments. To expose them is a public service and a positive contribution to the discussion of the issues. But how do Velikovsky's defenders react when the criticisms are valid? One doesn't need any scholarly apparatus to see in a common-sense way that something is fundamentally wrong with Velikovsky's treatment of the text. In this case the resistance and the irrational denials came from the Velikovskian camp. What are the truths that they were unable to face? In Mankind in Amnesia, Velikovsky also gave us a very concise definition of a condition called "psychological scotoma": It "is an inability to observe certain phenomena or to recognize certain situations though they are obvious to other persons. A man may not see an evident fact or not recognize an obvious situation, though his intelligence and rationality should produce an immediate realization and proper reaction." 44 This puts me very much in mind of the man who could see the mote in his brother's eye, but could not cast out the beam from his own eye.
In this case the proper reaction would be to confess that Velikovsky badly garbled the el-Arish text, that it will not serve as a parallel to Exodus, and to begin a major task of reassessment.
Footnotes
1. Francis L. Griffith, The Antiquities of Tell el Yahûdîyeh and Miscellaneous Work in Lower Egypt during the Years 1887-1888, (London, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1890), pp. 70-74; Günther Roeder, Urkunden zur Religion des Alten Ägypten, (Jena, Diederichs, 1915), pp. 150-156; E. A. Wallis Budge, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, (N.Y., Blom, 1972 reprint of 1934 London ed.), pp. 438-444; Georges Goyon, "Les Travaux de Chou et les tribulations de Geb d'après le naos 2248 d'Ismaïlia," Kêmi, Vol. 6, (1936), pp. 1-42. There is also a partial translation in Gaston Maspero, History of Egypt, tr. M. L. McClure, (London, Grolier Soc., n. d.), Vol. I, pp. 242-245.
2. Exodus 10:21-23.
3. Worlds in Collision, p. 59.
4. Ibid., p. 60.
5. Ibid., pp. 87-88.
6. Howard Margolis, "Velikovsky Rides Again," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, (April, 1964), p. 39.
7. Ibid., pp. 39-40.
8. Ralph E. Juergens, "Aftermath to Exposure," in Alfred de Grazia, ed., The Velikovsky Affair, (Hyde Park, N.Y., University Books, 1966), p. 65.
9. Ibid., loc. cit.
10. Nor did Henry Bauer's. See his Beyond Velikovsky, (Univ. Of Illinois Press, 1984), pp. 241-242.
11. Ages in Chaos, p. 44, note 15.
12. Alfred de Grazia, "Notes on 'Scientific' Reporting," The American Behavioral Scientist, (October, 1964), pp. 15-16.
13. Juergens, op. cit., pp. 62-63.
14. De Grazia goes over the matter in more detail in his Cosmic Heretics, reproducing some of the letters exchanged. (Princeton, Metron, 1984). See especially pp. 256 ff.
15. Ibid., p. 63.
16. Livio C. Stecchini, "Astronomical Theory and Historical Data," in The Velikovsky Affair, pp. 135-136.
17. Bob Forrest, Velikovsky's Sources, Part 3 (privately published, 53 Bannerman Ave., Prestwich, Manchester, 1982), 209.
18. Ibid., p. 210.
19. Ages in Chaos, pp. 39-40.
20. Ibid., loc. cit. "Regarded as rather mythological" is an amazing understatement. Gaston Maspero was moved to say, "Were there ever duller legends and a more senile phantasy!" Op. cit., p. 245.
21. Immanuel Velikovsky, "On Saturn and the Flood," Kronos V:1 (Fall, 1979), pp. 4 and 6; idem., "My Challenge to Conventional Views in Science," Kronos III:2 (Winter, 1977), p. 6.
22. Worlds in Collision, p. 82, note 3.
23. Edouard Naville, The Store-city of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus, (London, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1903), plate 7a and passim.
24. Ages In Chaos, p. 43.
25. Jaroslav Czerný, Ancient Egyptian Religion, (London, Hutchinson, 1952), p. 44. A lake with a similar name is mentioned in the Book of the Dead.
26. Worlds in Collision, p. 87.
27. On another page, Velikovsky says that the Mediterranean "broke into the Red Sea in an enormous tidal wave." Ibid., p. 73.
28. De Grazia, op. cit., p. 16.
29. Ages in Chaos, p. 42.
30. Ibid., p. 44.
31. In the section "Naphtha" in Worlds in Collision, pp. 53-58.
32. Ages in Chaos, p. 44.
33. Ibid., p. 45.
34. Worlds in Collision, p. 69.
35. Ibid., p. 82. Since according to Velikovsky, Venus was the comet Typhon, this should not be taken too literally. Perhaps he thought that a piece from the planet broke off and landed there. The idea that the Israelites followed the narrow strip of land between Lake Serbon and the Mediterranean in their flight from Egypt was put forward in the last century by Mathias Schleiden and by Heinrich Brugsch, and is mentioned in Naville's Store-city, passim.
36. Edouard Naville, The Shrine of Saft el Henneh and the Land of Goshen, (London, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1888), passim.
37. Worlds in Collision, p. viii.
38. Mankind in Amnesia, p. 46. Cf. Worlds in Collision, pp. 298 ff.
39. Ages in Chaos, p. 22.
40. In his closing address at the 1974 University of Lethbridge Symposium. Earl R. Milton, ed., Recollections of a Fallen Sky, (Lethbridge, Alberta, Unileth Press, 1978), p. 153.
41. Goyon has, "Les rebelles ne montrèrent aucune vaillance contre Sa Majesté," that is, they did not show any valor against His Majesty. "Reveal a military power" was a blind guess. "Elementary French," indeed!
42. The Burning of Troy, (Metron, 1984).
43. Mankind in Amnesia, p. 88.
44. Ibid., p. 10.

Translators' Notes
(I have included only such of the translators' notes as seem relevant.)
F. L. Griffith
Georges Goyon
"The majesty of Shu was as a good? King of heaven, earth, and the underworld, of water and winds, of the primeval waters, of hills and of the sea, [giving] all regulations upon the throne of his father Ra Harmakhis as triumphant. Now behold the majesty of Shu was in [his] palace in Memphis: his majesty said to the great cycle of nine gods which followed him, "Come now, let us proceed to the Eastern 1 [horizon], to my palace in At Nebes, 2 and see our father Ra-Harmakhis in the Eastern horizon: let us pass? [thither] by the canal (??), let us employ ourselves? in ordering our palace at At Nebes." Then they did according to all that his majesty decreed:
Gouvernement de Chou
[Or donc] la Majesté de Chou était le parfait roi du ciel, de la terre, de l'enfer, de l'eau, des vents, des eaux primordiales, des montagnes et de la mer. .2. [faisant] toutes les lois sur le trône de son père Râ-Harakhté 1 devenu juste de voix. Or donc la Majesté de Chou se trouvait en sa résidence de ...3.... à Memphis. Sa Majesté parla auprès de la grande Ennéade des dieux qui était à sa suite: "Allons marchons vers ....4.... de l'est, vers ma résidence de Yat-Nebes. 2 Nous verrons notre père Râ Harakhté dans la région lumineuse de Bakhit, 3 nous circulerons dans le fleuve ...5.... et nous passerons du bon temps à notre cour de Yat-Nebes." Alors ils agirent selon tout ce que Sa Majesté avait ordonné.
The majesty of Shu [proceeded] to his palace in the House of the Aart. Then were built all the apartments? Of Hat Nebes 3 [like] heaven upon its four supports: then was built the house of Sepd anew for(?) the majesty of Shu, it is the temple that he loves; [account of] all its arrangements as to the points to which it faced, whether towards the south the north the west or the east: the temples were erected [in] all the [pla]ces where they had been: eight chapels were made on the left, eight on the right, eight in the court? of the Eastern Horizon: This [temple belongeth] to Shu in his name of Sepd lord of the East: the face of each of these chapels was towards its fellow: [they were] the apartments? [of the] great cycle of nine gods, and of the lesser cycle, of the gods who attend on Ra and the gods who attend on Shu: moreover there were built enclosures for Shu in [Hat Nebe]s? surrounding his temple: (now) the face of this temple was towards the East, the sun's rising; and those (deities) who dwelt [in the places of] the temples of each nome dwelt in it, in case? the nome should fall into confusion, let one explain? this arrangement: [the enclosure of Hat?] Nebes reached to Hat Nebes on its north, and its face was towards the South: the temples were on [its] sides and their faces [were] towards the East: a pool was on its South side, a pool on its North side: a great storehouse? of [....] was in front of this temple reaching to Per Art. Now Per Art was of the time of? Ra: the majesty of Shu placed his staff upon the At [... and it became] a sacred locality in At Nebes, its southern face was towards the Per Art: gods, goddesses, men, and all flesh (animal creation?) had not entered it [to] see the secrets in the horizon: it (the privilege?) was granted in the time of Ra, who made a great wall standing around it of [....] cubits on its four sides, 20 cubits high, 15 cubits thick. As to the sacred lake in At Nebes it was [.....] cubits [....] of At Nebes: Shu himself digged it in the time of the majesty of Ra: its arrangement was not seen nor sealed? to [gods--goddesses?] men and flesh: A circuit was set up on every side of it, of 190 cubits (in length), 110? cubits in its breadth [.... cubits] in height, 15 cubits in thickness: separating all temples from? it by mysterious and secret work? in [....] Then came the majesty of Shu and raised up At Nebes even as the sky is fixed, and all its temples even as the horizon. Now it happened that [he] departed [to be enthroned] as king of the gods in At Nebes, at the time that he ascended? the throne of Harmakhis.
Les Constructions de Chou à Hat-Nebes.
6. Quand la Majesté de Chou fut allée à sa résidence à Pi-Yarit, 4 voici que l'on construisit toute la crypte de Hat-Nebes 5 [solide] .7. comme le ciel sur ses quatre supports. Voici que l'on construisit à nouveau Pi-Soped pour la Majesté de Chou. C'est là son temple qu'il aime plus que tout. .8. Tous ses plans furent faits d'après ce qui était en face au sud, au nord, à l'ouest, à l'est. On éleva le temple .... .9. toute place qui existait. On fit huit pavillons sur la droite, huit sur la gauche, huit dans le parvis de "Akhit jabtit." Ce [magasin] .10. appartint pour la Majesté de Chou en son nom de Soped, seigneur de l'est. La face de ces pavillons était tournée vers son sembable qui était parmi eux. Les cryptes [appartenaient]? à la .11. grande Ennéade des Dieux, à la petite Ennéade des Dieux, aux dieux de la suite de Ra et aux dieux de la suite .12. de Chou. Avec cela l'on construisit les sanctuaires de [Hat-Nebes]? aux environs de son temple. Ce temple faisant face à l'Est [où] brille le soleil. Etaient les habitants .... .13..... temples où chaque nome était représenté. Pour le cas où les nomes venaient à être troublé, on montrait le plan .14. de Hat-Nebes, pour Hat-Nebes sur son nord. Sa face était tournée vers le sud. Les temples des dieux qui étaient dans le territoire [de Hat-Nebes]? .15. leur face était vers l'est. Un bassin existait au nord. Une grande allée de ... .16. en face de ce temple jusqu'à Pi-Yarit.
Quant à Pi-Yarit, c'est le visage de Râ. Ayant apporté la canne de la Majesté de Chou à Yat-[Nebes]? .17.. [qui devint]? la butte sacrée dans Yat-Nebes, dont la face sud était la face de Pi-Yarit. Ni les dieux, ni les déesses, ni les hommes, ni les animaux n'y entrent pour voir .18. ses mystères. C'est son palais datant du temps de Râ qui a fait les grandes murailles dressées dans son territoire ayant [x] coudées .19. sur ses quatre côtés, 20 coudées de haut et 15 coudées de large.
Quant au lac sacré dans Yat-Nebes, il était ...... .20...... de Yat-Nebes. C'est Chou lui-même qui l'a creuse au temps de la Majesté de Ra. Ni les dieux .21. ni les déesses, ni les hommes, ni les animaux, ne l'avaient vu, ni n'avaient scellé ses plans. Une enceinte s'élevait dans tout son territoire mesurant 190 coudées [de long] et 110 coudées de large; les murs: 20 coudées .22. de hauteur et 15 coudées d'épaisseur. 6 On y fit toutes les fonctions des temples. Ce sont les travaux secrets dans..... .23.
Ainsi la Majesté de Chou éleva Yat-Nebes solide comme le ciel et tous ses châteaux comme l'akhit. Il arriva ... .24..... comme roi des Dieux dans Yat-Nebes. Il avait parachevé le trône d'Harakhté.
Then the children of the dragon Apep, the evil-doers [of Usheru?] and of the red country 4 came upon the road of At Nebes, invading Egypt at nightfall........ now these evil-doers came from the Eastern hills [upon] all the roads of At Nebes:
Attaque des enfants d'Apopis.
Mais alors les enfants d'Apopi, les rebelles qui sont dans .25. Oucheron 7 et dans le désert, ils vinrent par les chemins de Yat-Nebes, fondant sur l'Egypte à la tombée de la nuit ... .26.... sur l'Egypte. Ils ne conquéraient que pour détruire. Tout lieu qu'ils saccageaient sur l'eau, sur terre, ils devenaient [abandonnés]? ... .27...... par tous les habitants à cause de cela. Ces rebelles, donc, ils venaient des montagnes de l'Orient sur .28. tous les chemins de Yat-Nebes. 8
then the majesty of Shu, the gods who attend Ra and the gods who attend Shu caused [to be fortified?] all the places around At Nebes: these places were since the time of Ra when the majesty of Ra was in At Nebes...... At Nebes they are the mighty walls of Egypt repelling the evil-doers when Apep penetrates? to Egypt: the gods who are in them are the defences of this land, they are the supports of heaven that watch? the ... of the eternal horizon: they are the throne? of Shu in Hat Nebes: those who dwell in the places in At Nebes they raise the land ....... Per Sepd: they are the spirits of the East to ... Ra Harmachis they elevate Ra to heaven in the morning upon? the pillars of heaven: they are the possessors of the Eastern hills: they are the rescuers of Ra from Apep. Account of all the [places] around Hat Nebes together with the gods who are in them: the Place of the Whirlpool? 5 in At Nebes is a pool upon the East of Hat Nebes in which the majesty of Ra proceeded." (Another pool is mentioned on the East of Hat Nebes.)
Mesures de défense.
Voici que la Majesté de Chou plaça les dieux qui suivent Râ et les dieux qui suivent [Chou] .29. sur toutes les buttes qui se trouvent dans le territoire de Yat-Nebes. C'étaient les buttes du temps de Râ, du temps où la Majesté de Râ était dans Yat-Nebes . .30... pour Yat-Nebes. Ce sont les grands murailles de l'Egypte qui repoussent les rebelles lorsqu'Apopis entreprend l'attaque? .31. de l'Egypte. Les dieux de ces buttes sont le rampart de cette terre, ils sont les quatre piliers du ciel, la garde? .... .32.... de l'horizon éternel, le trône de Chou dans Hat-Nebes. Ceux qui résident dans les buttes de Yat-Nebes, ils sont les frappeurs de la terre ..... .33..... magasin. Ils sont les Ames de l'Orient à ..... de Râ Harakhté. Ils sont les soutiens de Râ au ciel et dans l'autre monde .... .34.... du ciel. Ils sont les maîtres des montagnes de l'Est, défendant Râ contre Apopis, connaisant toutes les .... .35.... dans le territoire de Hat-Nebes, avec les dieux qui les habitent Yat-Desoui, 9 dans Yat-Nebes c'est le lac .... .36.... est de Hat-Nebes, dont sortit la Majesté de Râ, pour se battre avec les compagnons d'Apopis .... .37..... dans Yat-Nebes, l'est de Hat-Nebes, c'est le lac ..... dans Hat-Nebes.
Pl. xxvi. 1, 2. The fragments of the inscription show that the list of localities was continued on the left side.
Côté gauche B.
Le texte de 37 lignes qui couvrait le côté gauche du naos est presque entièrement détruit, mais ce qui reste suffit pour montrer que ce texte faisait suite directement au texte A et que l'énumération commencée à la fin de A se poursuivait dans les premières lignes de B.
Pl. xxv. (back). "Now it came to pass that the majesty of Shu obtained the whole land, none could stand before him, no other god was in the mouth of his soldiers? [but sickness came upon him?] ..... confusion seized the eyes? he made his chapel .... evil fell upon this land, a great disturbance in the palace, disturbed ...... those who were of the household of Shu.
Texte C. Dos.Révolution au palais de Chou. 10
............. avec Chou? prenant pour lui la terre entière. On ne résistait pas devant sa face. Aucun autre dieu n'était dans la bouche de ses troupes ..... .2.... ses ..... furieux de face au regard impérieux. Il avait fait son pavillon avec le concours des méchants. Le mal tomba sur cette terre. Il y eût une grande révolution dans la résidence. Les rebelles .3. portèrent le dèsordre aux habitants de la demeure de Chou.
Then Seb saw [Tefnut] and loved her greatly, his heart desired her: he wandered over? the earth in search of? her in great affliction. 6
Intervention de Geb.
Voici que Geb vit sa mère qui l'aimait beaucoup. Son coeur (de Geb) était négligent après elle. La terre ... .4... pour elle en grande affliction.
The majesty of Shu departed to heaven with his attendants: Tefnut was in the place of her enthronement in Memphis. Now she proceeded to the royal house of Shu in the time of mid-day: the great cycle of nine gods were upon the path of eternity, the road of his father Ra Harmakhis. Then the majesty of [Seb met her] he found her in this? place which is called Pekharti?: he seized her by force: [the palace was in great [affliction]. Shu had departed to heaven: there was no exit from the palace by the space of nine days. Now these [nine] days were in violence and tempest: none whether god or man could see the face of his fellow.
Départ de Chou.
La Majesté de Chou vola vers la ciel avec ses compagnons. Tefnout resta dans le lieu de son couronnemnt à Memphis. .5. Elle se rendit vers la demeure royale de Chou à l'heure de midi. La grande Ennéade des dieux se trouvait sur le monde(?) d'éternité qui est le chemin de son père Harakhté. .6. Alors la Majesté de ..... 11 Voici qu'il12 la trouve en ce lieu appelé Pi-Kharoti 13 et voici qu'il l'enleva de vive force. .7. Ce fut une grande révolution dans la résidence. C'était Chou qui montait au ciel. Il n'y eut aucune sortie du palais pour une durée de neuf jours, et pendant ces .8. neuf jours de révolution ce fut une tempête telle que ni les hommes, ni les dieux ne voyaient la face de leur prochain.
The majesty of Seb came forth appearing? upon the throne of his father Shu: every royal dwelling? did him homage. Then after 75 days Seb proceeded to the North country: Shu had flown up to heaven, the great chief of the plain at the head of his city?? the prince of the hills ... came? he went not to Heliopolis: moreover? certain Asiatics carried his sceptre, called Degai, who live on what the gods abominate; behold he went to the East of Usher: He entered the house of the Aar the Eastern gate? of At Nebes:
Règne de Geb.
La Majesté de Geb parut couronnée sur le trône de son père Chou, et tous les habitants .9. de la résidence baisèrent la terre devant lui. Après 75 jours Geb se rendit dans le Delta et Chou volait au ciel, par-dessus la terre, au devant de son fils ainé à travers les montagnes [de l'Orient] .10. Il n'alla pas à On avec comme compagnons des voleurs de sceptre, appelés Dagai, qui vivaient de ce que les Dieux abominent. Et voici qu'il passa .11. à l'est d'Oucher. Il fit son entrée à Pi-Yarit qui est la porte orientale de Yat-Nebes.
he discussed the history of this city with the gods who attended him [and they told him] all that happened when the majesty of Ra was in At Nebes, the conflicts of the king Tum in this locality, the valour of the majesty of Shu in this city, the deeds of Shu in .... the [wonders] of the goddess Ankhet done to Ra when he was with her: the victories of the majesty of Shu, smiting the evil ones, when he placed her (the serpent) upon his brow. Then said the majesty of Seb I also [will place] her upon my head even as my father Shu did.
Geb prend une grande décision.
Il demande des informations concernant cette ville aux dieux qui étaient à sa suite. .12. Ils lui donnèrent des informations sur tout ce qui était arrivé à Râ dans Yat-Nebes, les combats du roi Toum en ce lieu, la vaillance de la Majesté de Chou en cette ville, les hauts faits de Chou en [ce nome] .13. les victoires de l'uraeus vivante pour la Majesté de Râ qui était avec elle, les actes excellents de la Majesté de Chou quand il frappait les ennemis en la plaçant sur sa tête. Et voici que la Majesté de Geb dit: "Moi [aussi] .14. je la placerai sur ma tête, comme l'a fait mon père Chou."
Seb entered Per Aart together with the gods who were with him: then he stretched forth his hand to take the case in which [Ankhet] was: the snake came forth and breathed its vapour upon the majesty of Seb, confounding him greatly: those who followed him fell dead: his majesty? burned with this venom? his majesty proceeded to the north of At Nebes with this burning of the uraeus Hert Tep,
L'Accident de Geb.
Puis Geb entra à Pi-Yarit avec les dieux qui l'accompagnaient. Voici qu'il allongea le bras pour saisir le coffre qui contenait l'uraeus .15. vivante. Mais alors le serpent "fils de la terre" sortit et son souffle fut vivant contre la Majesté de Geb avec une trés grande rage pour elle. Tous ceux qui étaient avec lui moururent et la Majesté de .16. ce dieu fut brûlée. Sa Majesté traversa vers le Nord de Yat-Nebes ayant toujours la brûlure que lui avait faite: celle-qui-est-sur-la-tête.
then his majesty reached the fields of henna 7 but [his majesty] was not healed? then he said to the gods who followed him, "Come! let this Aar (cap? or wig?) of Ra be brought here." [They said to him: "Nay] let thy majesty go to see its mystery: it will heal his majesty [of that which is?] ... upon thee": behold the majesty of Seb had the Aart placed upon his head in? the Per Aart and had made for it a box of real hard stone (or metal), it was hidden in [this?] place, namely, the Per Aart near the sacred Aart of the majesty of Ra: then was healed this heat in the limbs of the majesty of Seb.
Guérison de Geb.
Voici que Sa Majesté atteignit la prairie des plantes henou 14 et cette brûlure n'était pas guérie. .17. Voici qu'il dit aux dieux qui l'accompagnaient: Faites apporter la perruque de Râ! ....... [ils dirent: "....] de là pour que Ta Majesté aille voir ses secrets. Elle guérira Ta Majesté .... .18..... ta bouche.
Voici que la Majesté de Geb fit prendre la perruque sur sa tête jusqu'à Pi-Yarit. On fit fabriquer pour elle un coffre en pierre véritable qui fut caché dans [ce] lieu [sacre?] .19. de Pi-Yarit, dans le territoire de la perruque divine de la Majesté de Ra.
Ainsi guérit cette brûlure des chairs de la Majesté de Geb.
Now years passed after this, then this Aart of the majesty of Seb was taken [back] to the Per Aart in? the At Nebes: it was carried to the great lake of Per Aart: (the place of the whirlpool? is its name) to wash it: behold this Aart became a crocodile: when it reached the water it became Sebek in At Nebes.
Now when the majesty of Ra Harmachis [fought] with the evil-doers in this pool, the Place of the Whirlpool, the evil-doers prevailed not over his majesty. His majesty leapt into the so-called Place of the Whirlpool? his legs became those of a crocodile, his head that of a hawk with a bull's horns upon it: he smote the evil-doers in the Place of the Whirlpool? in the Place of the Sycamore: the Aart of Seb also in its turn did after this sort.
Miracle de la perruque de Râ.
Des années passèrent sur ces événements .......... .20. d'emporter cette perruque de la Majesté de Geb à Pi-Yarit dans Yat-Nebes. .....On l'emporta au grand lac de Pi-Yarit appelé Yat-Desoui. .21. pour la laver. Voici que cette perruque se changea en crocodile. Elle prit contact avec l'eau, elle devint le Sobek de Yat-Nebes. Lorsque la Majesté de Râ-Harakhté combattait .22. avec les ennemis dans cette eau de Yat-Desoui -- les rebelles ne montrèrent aucune vaillance contre Sa Majesté -- Sa Majesté prit contact avec Yat-Desoui, elle prit la forme d'un crocodile ..... .23. il eut une face de faucon, les cornes d'un taureau sur sa tête. Et il frappait les ennemis dans Yat-Desoui à Yat-Nebes. .24. Voilà ce qui concerne les faits de la perruque de la Majesté de Geb.
Now the majesty of Seb appeared in the seat of the crocodile gods, of Sebek-Ra, of Shu, of Seb, and of Osiris-Ra, upon the throne of his father Shu as king of gods of men and all flesh, in heaven, earth and the underworld, water, hills, winds, the ocean and the rocks:
Puissance de Geb.
Et alors, la Majesté de Geb se leva en la place des quatre crocodiles, Sobek-Râ, Chou, Geb, Osiris-Râ, sur le trône de son père Chou, comme roi de tous les dieux, déesses, .25. hommes, animaux dans le ciel, la terre, les enfers, les eaux primordiales, les montagnes, les vents, la mer et les pierres.
his majesty was in his castle of Ruling the Two Lands in the Land of Henna? his majesty had sent messengers to summon to him the foreigners and Asiatics from their land. Now the majesty of Seb said to the great cycle of nine gods that accompanied him, "What did my father Shu when first he appeared upon the throne of his father Atum, when the majesty of Shu was in his castle in At Nebes."
Geb interroge les dieux.
Comme Sa Majesté se trouvait à sa résidence de Hy-Taoui15 dans la terre des plantes henou .26. Sa Majesté avait envoyé une expédition pour lui amener les étrangers et les Amous de leurs pays. Alors la Majesté de Geb dit auprès de la grande Ennéade des Dieux qui était derrière lui .27. "Qu'à fait mon père Chou depuis le commencement de son règne sur le trône de son père Atoum?"
This cycle of nine gods said to the majesty of Seb: "When thy father Shu appeared upon the throne of his father Atum, he smote all those who injured his father Atum: he slew the children of Apep: he made all the enemies of his father Ra to shrink. Now after he had given refreshing shade? to the two lands, to the gods and mortals who followed Atem, lord of the Northern? Anu, he brought water to the cities, he ordered the nomes, he raised up the walls of Egypt, he built the temples in the South country and the North":
Les dieux exaltent l'ouevre de Chou.
Cette Ennéade dit auprès de la Majesté de Geb: .28. Depuis que ton père Chou était sur le trône de son père Atoum, il battit tous les rebelles de son père Atoum en massacrant les enfants d'Apopis et il remit à la raison tous les ennemis de son père Râ et après que .29. l'air fut refroidi, que les terres furent séchées, que les dieux et les humains eurent formé la suite d'Atoum seigneur d'On du Sud, il irriga les villes, fondant les nomes, et il dressa les murailles de l'Egypte, construisant .30. les temples dans les pays du Sud et du Nord.
the majesty of Seb said to these gods, "Tell me the places which were made in the time of the majesty of Ra which he set up over the land: also tell me the nomes which the majesty of Shu formed (lit. built) in his time: I will proclaim? the places of the time of the majesty of Ra in all the nomes formed by the majesty of [Shu]. For I shall form them anew, I desire to make them in my reign." They read before the majesty of Shu, out of the hieroglyphics ..... myriads of?? localities proclaimed by the majesty of Ra in all the nomes which the majesty of Shu formed and registered in writing in the time of the majesty of Atum when he was [on earth?] and at the time that Shu ascended the throne of his father Ra, and at the time that Seb ascended the throne of his father Shu. Names of? the places themselves? the nomes according to their names excepting the nomes formed by the majesty of Ra in his time.
(LIST OMITTED)
Geb inventorie les fondations de Chou.
La Majesté de Geb dit à ces dieux:
Vous me direz les lieux qui existaient au temps de Râ, que Sa Majesté fit élever sur la terre .31. et vous me direz ces nomes que la Majesté de Chou a construits en son temps. Et moi j'appellerai les lieux qui sont du temps de la Majesté de Râ dans les nomes qu'a construits la Majesté de Chou. .32. Je les construirai à nouveau, car je veux faire en sorte qu'elles existent de mon règne.
On se mit à lire en présence de la Majesté de Geb dans les lettres divines. .33. Des milliers de fondations et des millions de lieux qu'appela la Majesté de Râ dans tous les nomes que la Majesté de Chou avait fondés, avaient été mis par écrit au temps de la Majesté d'Atoum quand il était sur .34. terre, jusqu'au couronnement de Chou sur le trône de son père Râ, et jusqu'au couronnement de Geb sur le trône de son père Chou. Les lieux eux-mêmes disaient les nomes par leur nom, excepté les nomes que la Majesté de Râ avait construits de son temps:
Notes for Griffith
Notes for Goyon
1. Or the horizon of Bekhat. Bekhat was the mountain from which the sun rose. At Nebes was particularly the city of the rising sun....
2. The place of the Sycamore? Sanctuary of the city of Goshen.
3. The house of the sycamore?
4. The desert on the north-east border.
5. The reading of this name is unknown.
6. Or for a long time.
7. Henu plant : in l. 25 the district is called the "land of the henu." The modern name of Goshen, Saft el henna, suggests a meaning: large quantities of henna, Lawsonia inermis, are grown there now. The henu plant was used in the treatment of stings or snake-bites (cf. Pap. Ebers 29, 11), and the name occurs even in the Pyramid Texts as of a green plant or shrub (Pyr. Teta 1. 100)...
1. Dans la suite du récit, le premier roi de l'univers est tantôt Râ, tantôt Toum.
2. "La butte du jujubier." Il sera constamment question dans le récit de cette résidence et des sanctuaires voisins de Pi-Yarit, de Hat-Nebes, de Pi-Soped dans la région de Saft el Henneh, à l'est de Zagazig, où se trouvait primitivement le naos.
3. 3ht Bhtt, une des nombreuses expressions qui désignent l'est.
4. Pr í3rt et parfois írt = domaine de la perruque, car d'après la vignette gravée dans l'intérieur í3rt est c'est-à-dire une perruque. Pi-Yarit est au voisinage immédiat (au sud d'après A, 17) de Yat-Nebes.
5. Ht Nbs "le chateau du jujubier." Il n'est pas facile de voir, à cause des lacunes du texte si Yat-Nebes est une partie de Hat-Nebes, ou si ces deux lieux sont indépendants. En tous cas ils sont voisins.
6. Cette enceinte n'a à la verité que des dimensions assez modestes, à peu près celles du petit temple d'Anta à San el Hagar. D'après la description qu'on vient de lire et les renseignements qu'on trouve dans la suite, voici, avec toutes les réserves d'usages, comment on peut envisager le plan de cette région.

7. Oucheron, localité non identifiée dont le nom signifié "sterile, sec."
8. Le récit de cette attaque s'inspire du souvenir des invasions venues de l'Est, et, en particulier, de l'invasion des Hyksos, qui ont suivi le Ouadi Toumilat, saccagé les premières villes qu'ils rencontrèrent et parmi elles en premier lieu Pi-Soped, avant d'atteindre Memphis.
9. Yat-Desoui "la butte des deux couteaux." Cf. Gauthier I. 50.
10. Il est assez difficile de rattacher les événements dont il va être question à ceux qui étaient rapportés dans le texte A non seulement parce que le texte B est presque complètement perdu, mais parce que les lignes 1 et 2 du texte C sont elles-mêmes endommagées. Le nom du personnage qui était devenu si puissant et qui apporta la révolution dans la résidence royale fait défaut. Il est probable que Chou, après l'attaque des enfants d'Apopis ne réussissait pas à remettre de l'ordre dans l'univers et que son ennemi ou peut-être un de ses alliés le détermine à abdiquer.
11. Ici un espace non gravé.
12. parait bien une erreur de scribe pour . [i.e., "she" for "he" -- S.M.]
13. N'est connu que par cet exemple; sans doute peu éloigné de Saft el Henneh ou sur la route de Memphis à Pi-Soped.
14. shthnw "la prairie des plantes hnw." C'est une plante de marais non identifiée, qui devait être fort répandue en Egypte, puisque le signe hn est devenu le déterminatif général des noms de plantes. Il n'est pas certain du tout que hnw soit le lawsonia inermis qui fournit le henneh (Cf. Loret, La Flore pharaonique, 2e éd. No. 134), mais on peut supposer que le surnom de Saft el Henneh vient de shthnw.
15. Hy-taoui est la résidence des rois de la XIIe dynastie au sud de Memphis, souvent cité dans cette histoire. La terre des plantes henou mentionée ici ne doit pas être confondue avec la prairie des plantes henou dont il a été question précédemment.
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Last modified by pib on October 28, 2003.

2008-12-18T01:35:00.001-02:00

Archaeologists have found that the very earliest known settlers in the Sinai--they arrived about 8,000 years ago--were miners. Drawn by the region's abundant copper and turquoise deposits, these groups slowly worked their way southward, hopping from one deposit to the next. By 3500 BC, the great turquoise veins of Serabit el-Khadem had been discovered.
At the same time, the kingdoms of Egypt became united under its first pharaohs, and these great rulers soon turned their eye eastward. By about 3000 BC the Egyptians had become masters of the Sinai mines, and at Serabit el-Khadem they set up a large and systematic operation. For the next two thousand years, great quantities of turquoise were carved from Serabit el-Khadem, carried down the Wadi Matalla to the garrisoned port at el-Markha (just south of Abu Zenima), and set aboard boats bound for Egypt. For the Egyptians, the brilliant blue-green stone served myriad purposes: scarabs were carved from it, and the bright mineral enamels of powdered turquoise were used to color everything from fine statuettes to bricks.
To mine the turquoise, the Egyptians would hollow out large galleries in the mountains, carving at the entrance to each a representation of the reigning pharaoh--a symbol of the authority of the Egyptian state over the mine and its yield. Although many of the region's pharaonic reliefs were destroyed by a British attempt to re-open the mines in the mid-nineteenth century, the excellent bas relief of Pharaoh Sekhemkhet on the east face of Gebel Maghara survives. Also at Serabit el-Khadem are the ruins of a temple dedicated to Hathor, containing a large number of bas-reliefs and carved steles.

2008-12-18T01:32:00.000-02:00

Egypt's 18th Dynasty that established the New Kingdom is, to most people interested in Egypt, a dynasty of stars. It is the dynasty of Tutankhamun who was a fairly minor king, but perhaps the best known of any of the pharaohs. It was also the dynasty of the well known Akhenaten, and of Queen Hatshepsut.
The founder of this Dynasty is less well known to the general public, but unquestionably of major importance to Egyptian history. He was Ahmose I, during who's reign Egypt was finally and completely liberated from the Hyksos. Various scholars attribute different dates to his reign, but he probably became ruler of Egypt around 1550 BC at the age of 10, and ruled for a period of around 25 years before his death (examination of his well preserved mummy suggest he was about 35 when he died).
Ahmose I (Amosis to the Greeks) was given the birth name Ah-mose (The Moon is Born). His thrown name was Neb-pehty-re (The Lord of Strength is Re). He was probably a boy when he assumed the thrown, having lost his father Seqenenre Taa II and his brother Kahmose within three years of each other. His mother was Queen Ashotep, a powerful woman who was perhaps his co-regent during his early years.
Egyptologists believe that during his very early reign, little was probably accomplished and perhaps the Hyksos may have even gained some ground, recapturing Heliopolis. However, by the end of his first decade in power, we know from an Autobiography of Ahmose, son of Ibana, a naval officer from El-Kab, that he laid siege on Avaris (The tomb of Ahmose Pennekheb, another soldier also records the campaigns). This was a long battle interrupted by the need to put down insurrections in already liberated territories, but appears to have been successful sometime between his 12th and 15th year as ruler. Afterwards, he attacked the southwest Palestinian fortress of Sharuhen in a six year siege that would finally put an end to Hyksos control of Egypt.
A Stele of Ahmose I
Next, he turned his attention to Nubia (Kush) and, while Kamose (his predecessor) may have gained some ground prior to his death, Ahmose I pushed the boundaries south to the Second Cataract. Here, he established a new civil administration at Buhen probably initially headed by a Viceroy named Djehuty.
Ahmose I's Battle Ax
Apparently, while Ahmose I was in Nubia, former Hyksos allies again attempted a few uprising in the north lead by an arch enemy of Kamose named Teti-en. In this instance, Ahmose I's mother, Ahhotpe, was probably responsible for putting down the rebellion and for this she was awarded the gold flies, an award for valor that was found on her mummy in her intact tomb at Thebes.
After Ahmose I's campaigns in Nubia, he once again returned to Palestine during his 22nd year in power and may have fought his way as for as the Euphrates, according to information on a stela of Tuthmosis I.
Ahmose I married his sister, Ahmose-Nefertiri, who became Egypt's first great God's Wife of Amun, and had a number of children including:
Merytamun - eldest daughter of Ahmose-Nefertari (died young)
Tair - daughter of Kasmut
Satamun - 2nd daughter of Ahmose-Nefertari (died infant)
Sapair - eldest son of Ahmose-Nefertari (died young)
Saamen - 2nd son of Ahmose-Nefertari (died infant)
Aahotep - 3rd daughter of Ahmose-Nefertari (Queen)
Amenhotep I - 3rd son of Ahmose-Nefertari (King)
Satkames - 4th daughter of Ahmose-Nefertari (died aged ~30)
Henttameh- daughter of Thenthapi
Ahmose - daughter
We also know from Ahmose, son of Ibana that he supported his reign and rewarded local princes who had supported the Theban cause during the Second Intermediate Period by gifts of land (as recorded in Ahmose, son of Ibana's tomb at el-Kab). We also know that he initiated some temple building projects, notably at Abydos. However, though we know he reopened the Tura limestone quarries, little survives of his construction apart form a few additions to the temples of Amun and Montu at Karnak. However, a recent Dutch-Egyptian team of archaeologists believe they may have unearthed the remains of Ahmose's palace in the Al-Dabaa area in the Sharqiya Governorate of Egypt, a location that was probably the ancient Hyksos capital.
Pyramid of Ahmose I
He was buried in the Dra Abu el-Naga area, but his tomb has yet to be found. His actual mummy was found in the Deir el-Bahari cache. He did have a cenotaph at South Abydos, consisting of a cliff temple and a pyramid and temple on the edge of the Nile valley. The pyramid which measures about 70 meters square is the last known royal example built in Egypt. Some battle scene decorations within the pyramid may have depicted his wars with the Hyksos. In these scenes are some of the earliest representation of horses in Egypt.

2008-12-18T01:29:00.002-02:00

When Ahmose (reigned from c1550 – 1525 BC) became king, Egypt was in crisis. It was occupied in the north and threatened in the south. It was a shadow of its former self. But by the time he died, Ahmose had liberated his country and started the new Egyptian empire. Egypt, once a powerful kingdom, was sandwiched between two enemies when Ahmose was born. In the north, the land of the pyramids was occupied by the Hyksos people, whose king had declared himself pharaoh. To the south, Egypt was threatened by the warlike Nubians.
This was the first time that Egyptian land had ever been under foreign rule. As a result, a civilization that had already existed for 1,500 years was threatened with extinction. At the time, Ahmose’s elder brother, Kamose, had become king following the death of their father, Seqenenre Taa I. The Hyksos had brutally killed Seqenenre Taa I, along with his entire army. Kamose’s brief reign Kamose was keen to avenge their father’s death and reunite Egypt. To have foreign occupiers on their land was a humiliation they could not bear. Although many Egyptians did not want to fight, war became inevitable after Kamose’s men intercepted a message from the Hyksos to the Nubians, inviting them to join forces and conquer what was left of Egypt. Only 10 years old, Ahmose watched Kamose lead the Egyptian army north against the Hyksos. They captured the first Hyksos town they encountered and headed on to the Hyksos capital, Arvaris. But just when they were about to push the Hyksos out of Egypt, Kamose died, leaving the Hyksos in northern Egypt.

Click on the image for a gallery viewThe boy kingFollowing Kamose’s death, Ahmose became Pharaoh, but he was still a boy. His mother, Ahhotep, ruled as regent and educated her son in his future duties. Ten years later, Ahmose was ready to take on the Hyksos and avenge the deaths of his father and brother. He marched on Arvaris, defeated the Hyksos and liberated Egypt from foreign occupation. This was a great victory. Ahmose was now pharaoh of a united Egypt that stretched from the borders of Nubia in the south, to the Mediterranean in the north. When he got back home to Thebes, Ahmose was a hero and was worshipped as a god. But running the Hyksos out of Egypt was just the beginning: Ahmose wanted to build a powerful Egypt. Good as gold This required money, so Ahmose traveled south to Nubia, home to some of the richest gold mines in the ancient world. In a series of battles, Ahmose’s Egyptian army defeated the Nubians and their king in another great victory. By the time of his death, Ahmose had reunited Egypt. He had expanded its borders beyond the Sinai desert in the north-east and deep into Nubia in the south. He had also given it financial security – laying the foundations for a new empire and a golden age.

I’ve “lightly” watched about the first half of The Exodus Decoded, and on the positive side I must say that it is as heavy on slick production value as it is light on reliable content. Visually, the program is engaging and entertaining. Unfortunately, all that entertainment value is squandered on content that just won’t hold up. I’m not going to try to address all of the issues raised (and mishandled) in ED in a single post. Instead, I’ll treat them one by one, roughly in the order that they are raised in the program itself.
Jacobovici’s “schtick” is rather staggering when you think about it. He, and filmmaker James Cameron, who introduces the program, claim that biblical scholars have missed “clues” to the historicity of the exodus, clues that are “hiding in plain sight.” Later in the program, Jacobovici gets more brash; he accuses scholars of “ignoring” evidence that is “staring them in the face.”
In the first segment of the program, Jacobovici presents what he calls “Exhibit A” in his case: the Ahmose “Tempest” Stela. According to Jacobovici, the Tempest Stelaâ€”which is apparently not on public display anywhere, but according to Jacobovici is in storage in a Cairo museumâ€”tells a story remarkably similar to the biblical story of the ten plagues. In Jacobovici’s view, this confirms Ahmose himself as the Pharaoh of the exodus.
The Tempest Stela (I will call it this in preference to “Ahmose Stela,” since another stela of Ahmose is known) is a relatively little-known artifact, and not all that much has been published about it. The American Theological Library Association database lists only one journal article about it: Malcolm H. Wiener and James P. Allen, “Separate Lives: The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Theran Eruption,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 57 (1998) 1â€“28. This “article” is really a juxtaposition of two essays, one by Allen and one by Wiener. We’ll return to Wiener’s contribution later in this series, as appropriate to the structure of The Exodus Decoded, and focus our attention first on the essay by Allen. (By the way, the fact that the essays by Wiener, of the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, and Allen, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was published in JNES puts paid to Jacobovici’s assertion that scholars from different disciplines have failed to recognize the clues relevant to verifying the exodus because they “don’t talk to each other.”) Incidentally, the Tempest Stela was badly broken over the years, but reconstruction is aided by the curious fact that the Tempest Stela contained the same inscription on both sides.
First, the propsâ€”both in the sense of “praise” and in the sense of objects used to enhance a video production. Jacobovici’s production team has done a really attractive job of reconstructing the Tempest Stele. Jacobovici’s version looks like it has some gaps in the wrong places, and is a little disproportionate (height to width), but is nevertheless a very nice-looking and near-accurate piece of work, even if the glowing amber “missing pieces” are a bit cheesy.
Reconstruction of the Tempest Stela from The Exodus Decoded
Drawing of the Tempest Stela from Wiener and Allen, JNES (1998)
Unfortunately, Jacobovici’s skill in interpreting the Tempest Stela falls far short of his effects staff’s skill in visually reconstructing the stela. Recall that Jacobovici’s thesis is that the Tempest Stele describes the biblical ten plagues from an Egyptian point of view, and that therefore Ahmose is the Pharaoh of the exodus. There are numerous problems with this thesisâ€”taking it no further than this simple equation. My analysis here is very much dependent on Allen’s description of the stela in JNES 57; anything I say about the stela here should be understood to come with an implied “According to Allen in JNES 57″ attached.
When evaluating all of this, it’s important to keep the time frame in mind throughout the entire discussion. After all, one of Jacobovici’s major claims that the scholars are dating the exodus at least a century and a half too late. The customary dating for Ahmose’s reign is c. 1550â€“1525 BCE. Allen dates the Tempest Stela to Ahmose’s first regnal year; the date itself was once in what is now a lacuna in the text, so Allen’s reconstruction might be inaccurate, but he makes a good case for it on the basis of content, orthography, and the physical dimensions of the lacuna. Thus, if the Tempest Stela can be connected to the ten plagues, the plagues would have happened sometime in the period 1550â€“1525 BCE, with a good case being made for 1550 itself. Keep this in mind throughout this entire series of posts.
A critical question for Jacobovici’s case is whether or not the description of the calamity in the Temple Stela really resembles the biblical description of the ten plagues. Here’s the description of the calamity from the Temple Stela, as translated by Allen (lines 6â€“10 on the face of the stela, 8â€“12 on the reverse):
[Then] the gods [made] the sky come in a storm of r[ain, with dark]ness in the western region and the sky beclouded without [stop, loud]er than [the sound of] the subjects, strong[er than â€¦, howling(?)] on the hills more than the sound of the cavern in Elephantine. Then every house and every habitation they reached [perished and those in them died, their corpses] floating on the water like skiffs of papyrus, (even) in the doorway and the private apartments (of the palace), for a period of up to [â€¦] days, while no torch could give light over the Two Lands.
Allen comments on the nature of the tempest:
The main features of the storm were apparently torrential rain; darkness; and loud noise, probably from the thunder or wind, or both. The text does not note the duration of the deluge, but its aftermath is described as lasting for a period of several days or even weeks. It evidently occasioned large-scale flooding, property damage, and loss of life; the mention of “the east and west (banks)” being denuded of “covering” [in later lines than those quoted aboveâ€”RCH] suggests that it also washed away large sections of cropland.
So here’s what we have: the Tempest Stele of Ahmose describes a massive thunderstorm that results in darkness (from the cloud cover, I suppose) and a flood that does not abate for several days, or even weeks. How closely does this resemble the biblical description of the ten plagues? There are indeed some meteorological phenomena in the ten plagues: in particular, the fourth seventh plague consists of hail, lightning, thunder, and rain, and the ninth plague, darkness, may have been meteorological (I think the “tangible darkness” of Exodus 10:22 is meant to evoke thoughts of a terribly thick sandstorm; note that the third and sixth plagues also involve airborne particulate matter, dust and soot). None of the other biblical plagues are overtly meteorological, and the Tempest Stele says nothing about water turning to blood (the first biblical plague; a surprising omission, if it relates to the plagues, since an abundance of water is the pressing problem in the Tempest Stela). There is no mention on the Tempest Stela of swarms of frogs (second plague), gnats (or mosquitoes, third plague), flies (fourth plague), or locusts (eighth plague). Ahmose’s PR agent (a.k.a. the stela’s author) says nothing about any diseases on livestock (fifth plague) or humans (sixth plague). There are indeed corpses floating around on the Tempest Stela, but there is no hint that these are limited to the firstborn (tenth plague), nor was the cause of their death mysteriousâ€”they were killed in the storm, or drowned in the subsequent flood. Note well that the biblical plagues story does not say anything about a flood in connection with the ten plagues, not even the plague of hail, and the Tempest Stela does not mention hail.
By now it should be clear that Jacobovici’s claim that the Tempest Stela of Ahmose reports, from an Egyptian perspective, the same events as the biblical ten plagues story hangs by the slimmest of threads. The Tempest Stela’s catastrophe could, at most, be seen as vaguely parallel to the plagues of hail and darkness, but even here there are enough significant differences to cast serious doubt on the suggested parallel. To try to connect the Tempest Stela with the ten plagues story as a whole, one must suppose either that the Tempest Stela (whose inscription dates within Ahmose’s twenty-five-year reign, as does the catastrophe itself) presents an exaggerated version of only one of ten catastrophes, or perhaps a mangled conflation of two of them, or that the biblical version (whose linguistic properties are characteristic of an era hundreds of years later than any proposed time frame for the exodus) presents a vastly expanded list of plagues based on a single, albeit devastating, thunderstorm. Neither of these scenarios, though, is what Jacobovici proposes. What it boils down to is simply this: The story of a devastating thunderstorm is just not the same as the story of the ten plagues. There is no compelling link between the text of Ahmose’s Tempest Stela and the biblical story of the exodus.
I would be remiss if I did not address one other issue, even though the foregoing analysis should be enough to demonstrate that Jacobovici’s suggestion of a link between the Tempest Stela and the book of Exodus hasn’t a leg upon which to stand. Jacobovici is unduly impressed by the fact that a line in the Tempest Stele refers to “god” in the singular, rather than “gods” in the plural. The exact phrase that seems to have caught Jacobovici’s attention is in line 10, “Then His Incarnation said: ‘How much greater is this than the impressive manifestation of the great god, than the plans of the gods!’” (Allen’s translation) Jacobovici seems to want to interpret this as Ahmose attributing the catastrophe to “the great god”â€”singularâ€”over against the “gods”â€”pluralâ€”of Egypt. But this is a misreading of the text. It is patently clear from line 6 (see above) that Ahmose attributes the storm to “the gods”â€”plural. Moreover, carefully reread the line just quoted. It says, “How much greater is this than the impressive manifestation of the great god, than the plans of the gods!” It does not say, “How much greater is this the impressive manifestation of the great god, than the plans of the gods!”â€”as it is misquoted on the Exodus Decoded web site (follow the link then click on part 4). This is very important, because Ahmose is contrasting “this”â€”the catastrophic stormâ€”with both “the impressive manifestation of the great god” (singular) and “the plans of the gods” (plural). As Allen explains,
The key to the meaning of this clause appears to lie in the parallel theme of “the great god,” on the one hand, and “the gods,” on the other, which is sounded throughout the stela. Ahmose’s explicit response to the stormâ€””How much greater is this than the impressive manifestation of the great god, than the plans of the gods!” (ll. 10 F, 14 B)â€”indicates that both “the great god” and “the gods” were considered agents of its occurrence. The description of his subsequent actions follows the same pattern: first he returns to Amun’s presence in Thebes, thenâ€”following measures taken for the relief of the countryâ€”he orders restoration of “the templest that had fallen to ruin in this entire land.” The pair of clauses in ll. 6 F and 14 B are probably to be understood in the same light: as parallel statements of the theological basis for the storm. In the mind of the Egyptians, the catastrophe was evidently seen as a manifestation of Amun’s desire that Ahmose return to Thebes and of the gods’ demand that he turn his attention to the state of their temples.
Ahmose wasn’t referring to Israel’s God when he marveled at the severity of the storm. “The great god” is Amun, who is explicitly mentioned in line 3 of the stela, if Allen’s reconstruction (following W. Helck, Historische-biographische Texte der 2. Zwischenzeit und neue Texte der 18. Dynastie, 1975) of “A[mun-Re, lord of thrones of the Two Lands] was in Thebes” is correct. And again, notice that Ahmose says that the severity of the storm was greater than the manifestation of the great god (Amun). Allen comments,
Unusual as it is, the notion of events exceeding the original intent of their divine author has a literary parallel of sorts in the story known as “The Destruction of Mankind,” which describes the sungod’s efforts to stop the slaughter of human beings begun by Hathor on his orders.
Â In other words, Ahmose isn’t floored by some great god from out of nowhere who was more impressive than “the gods”; rather, he seems to think that the catastrophe overran the original divine plan. (By the way, this theme is known in the Bible too; see Isaiah 10:5â€“11.)
In sum, Jacobovici’s thesis of a parallel between the Tempest Stela and the biblical story of the ten plagues simply doesn’t hold water. Only a willful blurring of vision, or very careless interpretation of the surface sense of both texts, can lead anywhere near such a conclusion.
This post has dealt only with that portion of The Exodus Decoded that runs from the beginning of the program to the first commercial break (as broadcast on the History Channel on August 20, 2006). I’ll be back in a later post with comments on the second segment of the broadcast.

2008-12-18T01:18:00.001-02:00

The Exodus Decoded: An extended review, part 2
On August 20, 2006, the History Channel aired the US broadcast premiere of Simcha Jacobovici’s “documentary” The Exodus Decoded. Last week, I posted an extended review of the first segment (i.e., everything up to the first commercial break). Now I’m ready to consider the second segment (everything between the first and second commercial breaks).
In the first segment, Jacobovici presented the Tempest Stela of Pharaoh Ahmose as “Exhibit A” in his case. The Tempest Stele describes a major thunderstorm and subsequent flooding. Jacobovici argues that this description parallels the biblical ten plagues. In my review of segment 1, I discussed various reasons why the proposed Tempest Stela/ten plagues parallel is devoid of merit. However, in segment 2 Jacobovici (naturally) presupposes that the parallel is valid, so he focuses his attention on Ahmose himself in the second segment.
Jacobovici’s “Exhibit B” is the embalmed corpse of Ahmose himself. Obviously, Ahmose’s corpse does not in itself provide any link whatsoever to biblical events, or to any historical events at all, for that matter. It’s just a dead body, remarkably well-preserved, of course. By putting the corpse on-screen, though, Jacobovici cleverly puts “flesh” on the bare bones of his “decoding” job. While the camera plays over Ahmose’s mummified face, Jacobovici’s voiceover declares:
Here is the man who confronted Moses. Can it be that Ahmose’s father remembered the Israelite prince he grew up with, and when he gave his son his Egyptian name “Ahmose,” “the moon is born,” he chose the name because of a play on words? In Hebrew, “Ahmose” means “the brother of Moses.”
Please remember that, up to this point, Jacobovici’s only evidence that Ahmose is the pharaoh of the exodus comes from the very weak attempt to draw a parallel between Ahmose’s Tempest Stela and the biblical story of the ten plagues. That’s it. During the commercial break, “possiblies” and “maybes” have turned into certaintiesâ€”a slick rhetorical trick, but trickery nonetheless.
The suggestion that Ahmose’s name might be a play on words is, well, rather silly. In the first place, it seems that the “play” is achieved only by piping the Egyptian name through English and then into Hebrew. I am not skilled in reading hieroglyphics, and I am therefore dependent on others’ expertise in this matter, but according the Audio Pronunciation Guide for The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History (a college world history textbook by Richard W. Bulliet et al., published by Houghton Mifflin) and several dictionaries that I consulted, this pharaoh’s name is pronounced ah-mohs, not akh-moh-se, as Jacobovici consistently pronounces it in The Exodus Decoded. Jacobovici seems to have taken the English spelling Ahmose, “transliterated” it into the Hebrew spelling ××— ×ž×©×”, and then proposes an ancient Egyptian word play based on his own mispronunciation of the Pharaoh’s name.
Jacobovici asks, “Can it be that Ahmose’s father remembered the Israelite prince he grew up with …?” This question implies that Ahmose’s father, Seqenenre Taa II, grew up with “an Israelite prince,” undoubtedly Moses, and then named his son “brother of Moses,” an appelation that would have been more accurately applied to the father than the son in this scenario. According to the biblical storyline, Moses’s adoptive Egyptian mother was the daughter of the current pharaoh, making the current pharaoh his adoptive grandfather. The book of Exodus is remarkably vague on all this, but it could be reasonable to assume that by the time Moses grew to adulthood and killed the Egyptian taskmaster, prompting his flight to Midian, that his pharaonic grandfather had died and that his adoptive father or uncle had assumed the throne. However, in the absence of any sort of data about this individual, it seems equally reasonable to assume that he had not. In order to make the subsequent discussion easier to follow, I will use “case 1″ as shorthand for the idea that Moses’s adoptive grandfather was the pharaoh who sought to kill him according to Exodus 2:15, and “case 2″ for the idea that Moses’s adoptive grandfather had already died and been succeeded by Moses’s adoptive father or uncle, who then would be the pharaoh seeking to kill Moses according to Exodus 2;15. If the pharaoh of the exodus was the son of the pharaoh during whose reign Moses fled Egypt, as seems to be implied by Exodus 2:15 and 4:19, that would make the pharaoh of the exodus Moses’s adoptive father or uncle in case 1, or Moses’s adoptive brother or cousin in case 2. Both Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments and DreamWorks’s The Prince of Egypt take out a generation, making Seti I the Pharaoh who sought to kill Moses and Ramses II the Pharaoh of the exodus and Moses’s adoptive brother. Jacobovici’s treatment though, adds a generation. If Ahmose were indeed the pharaoh of the exodus, and if Seqenenre Taa II had named Ahmose after Seqenenre’s adoptive brother, the “Israelite prince” Moses, that would make Ahmose, the pharaoh of the exodus, Moses’s Egyptian nephewâ€”a relationship that just doesn’t fit the biblical storyline unless you stick in another generation in between Exodus 2:15 and 4:19.
On multiple counts, then, Jacobovici’s attempt to coordinate Egyptian history with the biblical exodus story by means of Pharaoh Ahmose falls apart.
But it gets worse.
After cutting away from Ahmose, Jacobovici takes his camera crew to the site of the Hyksos capital, Avaris, in the Nile delta region. After a catena of largely irrelevant video, Jacobovici plays a brief clip of Charles Pellegrino opining that the Hyksos expulsion and the biblical exodus are the same event, told from different points of view. It’s worth noting that Charles Pellegrino is neither a biblical scholar nor an ancient Near Eastern historian nor an Egyptologist. He is billed in The Exodus Decoded as an “author.” His web site describes his “eclectic literary works.” Pellegrino’s books include, according to an Amazon.com search:
Return to Sodom and Gomorrah, in which Pellegrino (according to his web siteâ€”I haven’t read the book) argues that the biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah reflects the real-life events of the eruption of Thera (Santorini)
Unearthing Atlantis: An Archaeological Odyssey to the Fabled Lost Civilization, in which Pellegrino tries to redate the destruction of Atlantas from 9000 years before Plato to 900 years before Plato, and connects it withâ€”you guessed itâ€”the eruption of Thera (Santorini)
Ghosts of the Titanic
Ghosts of Vesuvius
The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History, forthcoming in March 2007 and co-authored withâ€”you’ll never guessâ€”Simcha Jacobovici
Pellegrino has also written a number of novels. Clearly, Pellegrino is a prolific writer, and based on the reviews it appears that he is a skilled and engaging writer. Even so, Pellegrino’s track record suggests an overly large preoccupation with the Thera (Santorini) volcano and a tendency to turn unsubstantiated speculations into books.
The real experts are those whose views Jacobovici downplays or dismisses. Immediately after the Pellegrino clip, Jacobovici tells his audience,
But most scholars say that the Hyksos and the Israelites cannot be equated because the Hyksos left Egypt hundreds of years before Moses was born. These scholars also say that the chronology of ancient Egypt cannot be tampered with.
Then Bill Deverâ€”an actual Syro-Palestinian archaeologist, though not an Egyptologistâ€”is shown on one of Jacobovici’s floating blue screens. Dever says:
You can play with Egyptian dates. You can move them up maybe ten years and down ten years, but you can’t move up and down fifty or a hundred years. That’s not possible. And yet many people try to do that. They try to adjust chronology to fit their predetermined notion of biblical history. You can’t do it.
Dever should have said “You can’t do it successfully,” because of course adjusting Egyptian dates by remarkable leaps is exactly what Jacobovici goes on to try to do. Jacobovici answers the virtual Dever as follows:
But maybe we have to. What if scholars are placing the exodus in the wrong time period? Imagine the confusion if in the future scholars date World War II to the 1990s. They’ll never find any evidence that it actually happened.
With this silly little remark, Jacobovici displays either ignorance of or complete disregard for the way historians and archaeologists actually work. The image conjured up by Jacobovici’s comment implies that scholars sit around and come up with a date for some past event, jump in a time machine to go check out that date, and if they find no evidence for it in the proposed date, conclude that it never happened. Baloney. If those future scholars somehow misunderstood their data and couldn’t find evidence of World War II in the 1990s, they would undoubtedly reassess their data and keep looking in other candidate periods. Archaeologists and historians attempting to reconstruction ancient Near Eastern history do the same thing. Moreover, it’s not normally the case that historians and archaeologists who study the ancient Near East sit in their studies, decide on an event to investigate, and then go looking for data. Particularly with contemporary archaeologists working in Syria-Palestine, the procedure is more often to pick a site and carefully excavate it to learn as much as possible about the site’s inhabitants at as many periods of occupation as can be discerned. It’s filmmakers and authors like Jacobovici and Pellegrino who pick specific events, form a speculative scenario, and then try to find data to bolster their case.
Jacobovici continues: “Currently, most scholars date the exodus to 1270 BCE, during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II. But some scholars are now breaking with that consensus.” Note Jacobovici’s use of the word “now.” He wants you to believe that arguments against an early- to mid-thirteenth century date for the exodus are a new thing that he is helpfully bringing to public attention. But they’re not. The dating of the exodus to the thirteenth century BCE did not emerge by, say, a vote over beer one night at a restaurant down the street from Chicago’s Oriental Institute. It is quite true that the large majority of those scholars who still maintain an interest in dating the exodus date it to the first half (or middle) of the thirteenth century. This “consensus” has emerged from a careful consideration of the available evidence. To give you just a few “bullet points”:
The Amarna letters give us a picture of a robust, if fractious, “Canaanite” (our term, not theirs) culture in the fourteenth century BCE, with no signs of Israelites anywhere.
The “explosion” of hill country settlements features “four-room” pillared housesâ€”a style of architecture still in use in seventh-century Jerusalem, and often taken as a sign of Israelite or “proto-Israelite” ethnicity (e.g., by the aforementioned Bill Dever, and also by Israel Finkelstein, despite other disagreements between these two Syro-Palestinian archaeologists)â€”appear in the archaeological record right around 1200 BCE, and not earlier.
The first mention of a people group called “Israel” in the region later occupied by the Iron Age kingdom of Israel (whether in the Palestinian highlands or in Transjordan is debated) is found on the Merneptah Stela, erected c. 1209â€“1207 BCE.
Scholars who want to find the exodus in history look to the thirteenth century not out of prejudice, and not out of a failure to consider alternatives, but because that is where the archaeological evidence leads.
Jacobovici’s example of a scholar who “break[s] with that consensus” is, by the way, John Bimson, who has been arguing unpersuasively for such a redating for more than twenty-five years (see his Redating the Exodus, Sheffield Academic Press, 1981). There is nothing new here. Bimson’s views have been tested and rejected by the scholarly majority on their merits. For Jacobovici to trot Bimson out as a brave renegade “now” departing from scholarly consensus is disingenuous, and plays with dates like the sparkly things at the end of a kaleidescope.
But that’s exactly what Jacobovici is good at: treating a difference of several decades as if it were nothing. Note the not-so-sleight-of-hand that Jacobovici next tries to pull next (yes, I am intentionally using language that evokes the image of a “con man,” and you will shortly see why):
Professor Bimson’s calculations move the exodus from its present date to 1470 BCE, less than 100 years from the traditional date for the Hyksos expulsion. These are too close to write off as a coincidence. So we have a new date for the exodus: approximately 1500 BCE.
Then, after a one-liner from Donald Redford on a floating blue screen, Jacobovici repeats: “All right. Our new date for the exodus is 1500 BCE.”
Amazing.
Less than five minutes earlier, when discussing hypothetical stupid scholars from the future, Jacobovici presented a variance of fifty years in the dating of Word War II to the 1990s instead of the 1940s as an intolerable source of hopeless historical confusion. Now, however, Jacobovici is ready to “round off” Bimson’s date of 1470 BCE to 1500 BCEâ€”a thirty year variance! Let’s just lay this out plainly. Jacobovici wants to associate together the following events:
The storm described in the Tempest Stela, which seems to pertain to Ahmose’s regnal year, c. 1550 BCE
The expulsion of the Hyksos, dated by various Egyptologists as early as Ahmose’s fourth regnal year (c. 1546 BCE) or as late as his fifteenth year (c. 1535 BCE)
The Israelite exodus from Egypt, dated by John Bimson to c. 1470 BCE, by 1 Kings 6:1 to c. 1440 BCE, and by Jacobovici’s “scholarly consensus” to c. 1270 BCE)
In short, Jacobovici’s reconstruction does not use plausible dates for any of the artifacts or events he wishes to bring together. The tempest described on the Tempest Stela predates the expulsion of the Hyksos by anywhere from three to fifteen years, which itself predates Bimson’s date for the exodus by sixty-five to seventy-six years, but Jacobovici splits the difference and rounds off all these dates to 1500 BCEâ€”and wants to be taken seriously when he, a filmmaker, departs from scholarly “consensus.” He should have listened to Dever.

2008-12-18T01:14:00.000-02:00

Can any evidence be found in the museums of the world for the historical existence of Moses? Just who was the Egyptian princess who claimed him as her own son? And who was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and who was his first born son that died in the 10th plague?
First let's look at what we know about Moses from scripture.
Moses died at age 120 (about 1405 B.C.)
Deu 34:7 And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
After the exodus, Moses and Israel wandered in the wilderness 40 years:
Num 32:13 And the LORD'S anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the LORD, was consumed.
So Moses was 80 at the time of the first Passover and exodus from Egypt.
The first Passover and Exodus is dated by the reign of Solomon
1 Ki 6:1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.
With Solomon's 4th year estimated at 967/966 B.C. - 480 years earlier places the Exodus at about 1445 B.C.
Moses spent 40 years in Midian / Madian:
Acts 7:29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.Acts 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
So Moses was 40 years old when he smote the Egyptian (about 1485 B.C.):
Acts 7:23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.Acts 7:24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
So Moses was born about 1525 B.C., and the daughter of the reigning Pharaoh (Tutmoses I) who found him in the Nile was princess Nefure, who later became known as Queen Hatshepsut, Pharaoh of Egypt.
Moses Born
Moses 40

Moses 80

Moses 120
1525 B.C.
1485 B.C.

1445 B.C.

1405 B.C.
Ex 2:1-10
Acts 7:23-24
Acts 7:29-30
1 Ki 6:1
Num 32:13
Deu 34:7
Found by Pharaoh's daughter
Moses killsthe Egyptian
40 Years spentin MidianPharaoh dies(Ex 2:23)
Leads Exodus from Egypt
40 Years spent in the wilderness
Dies in Moab
Tutmoses I(had no son's,only a daughter)
HatshepsutTutmoses II
Tutmoses III
Tutmoses IV(not first born)
Akhenaten(changes religion)

Pharaoh
Moses
Ahmoses(the moon is born)
Founder of the 18th dynasty. Defeated the Hyksos and regained all Egypt. Initiated building work at Karnak

Amenhotep I(Ammun is pleased)
Tutmoses I(born of Thoth)
Son of Amoses.
Aaron, brother of Moses is born (about 1533 B.C.)
This is the pharaoh who issued the decree that all the infant sons born to the Israelites were to be thrown into the river Nile, but that infant girls were permitted to live. (Exodus 1:22)
Moses born (about 1525 B.C.) and found in the Nile in Memphis (Ex 2:5-9) Moses named by Princess Nefure (Hatchepsut)(Ex 2:10).
"Senmut" is another Egyptian name given to Moses when he came to live at the palace.
The third king of the 18th Dynasty Tutmoses I was a commoner by birth. He had married Ahmose, a sister of Amenhotep I, and was named king when the king died childless.
Tutmoses I had no sons, but was the father of Nefure (Hatshepsut), the princess who is the most likely candidate for having found Moses in the Nile.
In Serabit El-Khadim there was erected a stele in the 11th year of reign. It bears the image of Princess Neferure and it is to her, oddly enough, that the regnal years are ascribed. She is accompanied by her steward Senenmut [Moses], bearing a fan.
A.H.Gardiner, T.E.Peet and J.Cerny, The Inscriptions of Sinai, Part II (Oxford, 1955) pp.151-152.
First Pharaoh buried in the Valley of the Kings.
Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was powerful in speech and action. (Acts 7:22). Moses declines to become Pharaoh when Tutmoses I dies. (Heb 11:24)
Tutmoses II
22 years - Moses32 Years his successor.
Senmut/Tutmoses II (Moses) is groomed to become pharaoh. He is the architect of Deir El Bahri, the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut.
Another name for Moses: Hatshepsut Xnem Amen (offspring of Hatshepsut by the god Amen).
Princess Nefure
Daughter of Tutmoses I. It is thought she was about age fifteen when her father died.
Hatshepsut married her half-brother, Thutmose II, who had a son, Thutmose III, by a concubine/minor wife (Mutnofret). Co-ruled with Tutmoses III who was only a child when Tutmoses II died. Tutmoses III was the illegitimate son of Tutmoses II (not a son of Hatshepsut).
The last that we hear of Senenmut (Moses) is in year 16 of Hatshepsut's reign.
Moses when 40 years old slays an Egyptian (Ex 2:12) and flees Egypt (Ex 2:15) because pharaoh (Moses replacement) wanted to kill him.
At Deir El Bahri, there is a wall which depicts the birth of the future heir to the throne, one scene shows a baby boy in the arms of Hatshepsut-the infant Moses!
Tomb No. 71 at Deir El Bahri was first of two tombs intended for Moses (Senenmut). Tomb No. 353 was the second, but work stopped when he fled Egypt, and the tomb remains unfinished.
In 1488, six years prior to her death, all official records of Hatshepsut ceased.
After Moses leaves for Midian he is replaced by the half brother of Hatshepsut, whom she marries. The half brother takes over the title of Tutmoses II, which used to be Moses' title.
Tutmoses III
Amenhotep II
Pharaoh when Mosesfirst fled Egypt.
Assumed the position of Pharoah with the demise of Hatshepsut. (Moses was his competitor for the position of pharaoh). Tutmoses III was "The Napoleon of ancient Egypt and captured over 350 cities.
Moses in Midian
Hatshepsut's royal wall paintings in her mortuary temple at Deir el Bahri were defaced, and her statues were destroyed, because of the hatred Tutmoses III had for her and Moses.
Images of Senmut (Moses) also defaced by Tutmoses III, the childhood rival of Moses.
Amenemhab mentions the month and the day of Tutmoses III death: "The last day of the third month of the second season ... He mounted to heaven, he joined the sun: the divine limbs mingled with him who begat him." According to James Henry Breasted, founder of American Egyptology, this translates to the 17th of March, 1450 BC.
Exodus 2:23 states: "During that long period, the king of Egypt died...".
Tutmoses IV
Pharaoh of the Exodus
Pharaoh of the Exodus. He was not a first born son, or else he would have died in the tenth plague too.
He was the second born son of Amenhotep II. The Dream Stela of Thutmose IV, found between the front paws of the Sphinx, indicates he was not the firstborn legal heir to the throne, that he killed his firstborn brother to take the crown. The stele was used to legitimize the murder by claiming it was directed by the Sphinx in a dream.
Thutmose IV/Amenhotep III may have perished with his army while pursuing Moses into the Red Sea. (Ex 14:27-28, Psa 136:15)
Moses returns (Ex 4:19) after 40 years in Midian (Acts 7:30) and leads Israel out of bondage after the first born of Egypt dies at Passover. (Ex. 12)
Destruction of Jericho at about 1407 BC. According to "New Bible Evidence" by Sir Charles Marston, the scarab and pottery found in Jericho indicate it was destroyed at the time of Amenhotep III.
TutankatenTutankamun
In an inscription on a statue of a lion dedicated by Tutankhamen to the temple of Soleb, he calls Amenhotep III his father.
First born son of Pharaoh struck dead by the 10th plague of God!(Ex 12:29)
Supposedly reigned from an age of only 9 until his death at about 18. Dies "mysteriously". Actually was only the heir apparent to the throne (Crowned Prince) that may have co-reigned with his father in his later years.
Tomb found in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter in 1922, said to be a "cursed" tomb. His burial looks rushed, and in a tomb generally too small - not designed for a reigning pharaoh's burial.
Akhenaten
Akhenaten abruptly abandons the worship of the previous gods of Egypt.
Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, symbolizing the change from Amun worship to monotheistic Aten (Sun) worship. (Moses showed the former gods of Egypt to be powerless, hence the change to monotheism)
Shifted his capital from Luxor to a new capital Akhetaten.
His wife was the famous Nefertiti which means 'maiden of joy'.
In a song written by Akhenaten to his god, there are seventeen verses which correspond with Psalm 104.
Statues of the infant Moses (Senmut)and Princess Nefure (Hatshepsut)
SENMUT AND NEFERU-RAEgyptian Museum, Cairo
SENMUT AND NEFERU-RAfrom KarnakMetropolitan Museum of Art, in New York
Egyptologists claim the infant in these statues is princess NEFERU-RA and the adult is Senmut, her vizir, but when she claimed Moses as her son, he became the child heir-apparent to the throne of Egypt. The child wears the serpent on the forehead and lock of hair on the right side of the head that designates a prince of Egypt! It is Moses!
SENMUT AND NEFERU-RABerlin Museum
The Princess and Moses
As Moses grew to adulthood in Egypt, he assumed the title of Tutmoses II as heir to the throne of Egypt, but when he left Egypt after committing murder, he was replaced, and another man assumed that title. But statues of Moses as an adult apparently do still exist! On the left below is Moses as a child, and on the right is Moses as an adult, as Thutmoses II, prince of Egypt, before he left Egypt for Midian!
SENMUT AND NEFERU-RAEgyptian Museum, Cairo
Statue of TUTMOSIS II (Moses)Egyptian Museum, CairoNote the Semitic nose!

2008-12-16T20:28:00.000-02:00

A prosexual drug or nutrient is any substance that can improve sex or sexual health. The compounds covered in this book can enhance sex drive, erection, frequency of orgasm, intensity of orgasm, stamina, vaginal lubrication, skin sensitivity, personal enjoyment of sex, and even intimacy and emotional intensity. They may also effectively treat sexual difficulties such as premature ejaculation, loss of interest, impotence, and difficulty achieving orgasm. We do not propose a method of hyping up your sex drive with drugs at the expense of some other aspect of your health. Our orientation is more holistic. In fact, the new prosexual drugs and nutrients usually improve overall health. Many of the compounds discussed have a wide range of health benefits and have been shown in scientific studies to: enhance immune function, slow aging , alleviate depression, assist fat loss, improve memory, and more. Better Sex Through Chemistry will be particularly useful for those of you who are healthy but just don't function as you once did (when you were, presumably, a wild, uncontrollable animal.) In other words, you have some degree of age-related sexual decline. This is where prosexual drugs and anti-aging medicine overlap, and is the most exciting material we cover. Better Sex Through Chemistry will also be useful to those of you suffering from the negative sexual side effects of common prescription drugs (such as the antidepressants). Prozac, for instance, often causes some decrease in sex drive and interferes with the ability to achieve orgasm. There are some interesting possibilities for using prosexual drugs or nutrients to compensate for this side effect. You might also take a close look at the chapter on deprenyl, a prosexual drug that is also used to treat depression. (These issues should be discussed with your doctor.) Better Sex Through Chemistry is a practical and scientific book. We explain how each drug or nutrient works, how to use it, and how to obtain it, including detailed discussions of dosages, possible side effects, and precautions. We have also included many colorful stories of people who have used prosexual drugs to improve their sex lives and overall health. Sex and Overall Health Sexual health is inseparable from overall health. If you improve your general state of health, you will invariably improve your sex function. In this book, we propose ways to improve your overall health and, in the process, enjoy the positive sexual "side effects." We believe, however, that the connection between sex and health is a two-way street. In other words, enhancing sexual vitality and improving your sex life will also have a positive impact on your overall health. While we can't prove this proposition, there have been many individuals and cultures throughout history whose approach to health has reflected a similar point of view. The ancient Chinese Taoists, for example, used an extensive array of herbal aphrodisiacs to increase sexual energy, believing that this practice would enhance overall health. In fact, the Taoists understood the flow of sexual energy within the human body as the very basis of physical and mental well-being. The intricate and exquisite Chinese ars erotica based on this principle were intended originally not to increase pleasure in sex, but to generate vitality for practitioners and extend lifespan. Channeling and modulating the flow of sexual energy was, in fact, believed to be the key to immortality. This belief in the primacy of sexual energy is expressed in the yin/yang symbol portraying the interplay of masculine and feminine forces as the fundamental principle of cosmic creation. In Tantric Yoga, the locus of latent universal life-force in the human body is depicted as a snake coiled three times around a lingam, or phallus, at the base of the spine. Many schools of Yoga center their practice on the release and distribution of this energy, known as kundalini, for purposes of bodily purification and spiritual enlightenment. Tantrists view the kundalini as closely connected to sexuality. One of the ways it is activated and channeled is through ritualized sexual conjugation; and the culmination of the kundalini process is imaged as the union of a lover and her beloved. The renegade psychologist Wilhelm Reich viewed blockages to the free flow of sexual energy—which he called orgone—as the origin of neurosis. He eventually put forward the idea of orgone as a universal, pervasive cosmic energy. All three of these schools of thought place sexuality at the very root of well-being; and to one degree or another, even at the root of being itself. And all of them suggest using sexuality as a starting point for improving overall health. In conventional medical circles, sexual health is understood to be a key indicator of an individual's overall health. Some doctors ask patients about their sex lives (along with questions about sleep patterns, eating habits, etc.) when seeking a picture of their general condition. The close relationship between sex function and other aspects of health is dramatically demonstrated by several of the prosexual drugs discussed in this book. For example:
Deprenyl is a prosexual drug. It also slows the progression of Parkinson's disease, enhances the mental acuity of Alzheimer's patients, extends the lifespans of laboratory animals, effectively combats depression, and more. How does it perform such a wide range of functions? By enhancing the activity of dopamine, a brain chemical that plays key roles in sex, aging , mood, cognition, and many other processes.
Bromocriptine is another prosexual drug. It can also help you lose weight. How? Largely by reducing levels of prolactin in the body. Prolactin naturally increases with age and is often to blame for age-associated impotence in men.
Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a prosexual drug for most people. It can also help you build muscle tissue, burn off fat, and sleep better. It works partly by triggering the release of growth hormone from the pituitary gland.There are, incidentally, some drugs which may temporarily amplify certain aspects of sex function but are not particularly good for you in the long run. For example: amphetamine (speed) to increase sex drive, methaqualone (Quaaludes) to facilitate male erection, alcohol to release inhibitions, and MDMA (ecstasy) for intimacy and bonding. These substances may have their place, but would probably result in detriment to overall health—and therefore to sexual function—if used more than intermittently. Love Potions—Not! Many readers will already have noticed that we have not referred to prosexual drugs as "aphrodisiacs." This decision reflects our desire to avoid the limitations and negative connotations of a term that we feel is largely obsolete. Most dictionaries define an "aphrodisiac" as a substance or preparation that increases sexual desire. While most of the compounds discussed in this book can have this effect, this definition is far too limited to encompass the wide variety of effects and benefits that can be obtained from prosexual substances. Furthermore, the word "aphrodisiac"is closely associated with the phrase "love potion." The latter term, which brings to mind images of witchcraft, magic, and foul-tasting brews, refers to a concoction which causes the person who ingests it to become sexually or romantically inclined towards the person who has prepared it. We know of no substances that can function in this manner. Our Research Methods The research for this book included a large number of on-line searches of computerized medical databases for references to the "sex effects" of various drugs. In the process, we downloaded over ten megabytes in summaries of scientific papers—a volume of information that would fill about fifty books of this size. Additionally, we tracked down and read stacks of papers in full text, interviewed about 100 people for their personal anecdotes, and, of course, experimented on ourselves. To our surprise, there is quite a bit more hard scientific data than we expected. Nevertheless, there are many substances that seem very promising in terms of prosexual properties that have not yet been fully explored in a scientific manner. Because we feel that our readers should know about these substances too, we have chosen not to base all of our entries in this book on purely scientific evidence. However, we feel strongly that readers should also know what kind of evidence is being used whenever a claim about a substance is made. We have therefore attempted throughout this book to state clearly the type of the evidence upon which all claims are based. In deciding whether a substance was worthy of inclusion, we considered the following types of evidence: Controlled studies The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with human subjects is accepted by the scientific community as the most reliable and conclusive method for gathering information on the properties of drugs. Unfortunately, relatively few studies of this kind have been performed in the area of prosexual effects. In this type of study (hereafter referred to as a controlled study for brevity), researchers attempt to control as many factors and conditions as possible that might effect the outcome of the experiment and the objectivity of the data gathered. This kind of study attempts to account for the well-known placebo effect, a phenomenon in which some subjects report a drug effect even though they have merely been given a dummy pill or injection—a placebo. In this scenario, the subject only believes they have been given the actual drug. Double-blind studies divide experimental subjects into two groups: those receiving placebo, known as the control group; and those receiving the medication being tested. Consider the example of an experiment designed to test the efficacy of a substance in treating depression. A certain percentage of people suffering from clinical depression will improve without treatment over a given period of time. To the extent that the placebo effect applies to depression, a slightly greater percentage of subjects administered placebo will report signs of improvement. In order for a medication to be proven effective by the study, the percentage of subjects taking the drug that show improvement must be significantly greater than the percentage showing improvement in the control (placebo) group. Double-blind studies are devised to prevent psychological factors from affecting the way subjects report data and the way that researchers gather and document it. Neither the researchers conducting the experiment nor the patients themselves know which people are receiving placebo and which are receiving the substance being tested (hence the phrase "double-blind"). The placebo effect is thought to result from the patient's belief that he or she is taking a medicine that will have a particular effect, and would therefore not occur if the patient was aware that the substance was a placebo. Furthermore, the ignorance of the researchers prevents their prejudices and assumptions from biasing the information they report—for instance, tending to dismiss or overlook signs of improvement in the placebo group while exaggerating such signs in the group being administered "the real thing." Animal studies In many cases scientific studies have been conducted which demonstrate the effects of certain substances on sexual behavior in animals. In the absence of equivalent human studies, there is no certainty that these substances will have similar effects in humans. Nonetheless, such evidence is sometimes strongly suggestive. For example, Deprenyl, a relatively new drug gaining in popularity as a smart drug and life-extender, has been scientifically proven to have marked effects on the sex lives of rats. Deprenyl significantly increases the mounting frequency of middle-aged and older male rats (meaning that they have sex more often). Furthermore, rats given Deprenyl remain sexually active for a much longer portion of their lifespan, and the drug even revitalizes the sex lives of older rats who had previously ceased to be sexually active. This scientific evidence for prosexual effects of Deprenyl derived from animal studies is accompanied by a large body of anecdotal evidence suggesting that the drug's sexual properties do in fact extend to humans; many corroborative reports have come from those who originally began using deprenyl for other purposes. Deprenyl is therefore a substance worthy of inclusion in this book in spite of the lack of scientific evidence regarding its sexual effects in humans. Anecdotal evidence Anecdotal evidence consists of stories, reports, and personal testimonies. Such evidence can come from books, magazine articles, letters, journals documenting informal personal research, and verbal communications. The authors have also gathered a great deal of new anecdotal evidence in their research for this book by way of the numerous, often extensive personal interviews already mentioned. Some of the original impetus for this book came from the large number of anecdotal reports received in response to the smart drugs books concerning the beneficial sexual effects that readers had derived from many of the substances featured in those books. Informed speculation Sometimes a substance has been proven to affect the physiological systems that underlie and support our sexual interests and capacities. For instance, a substance may increase the levels of one of the hormones involved in sexual attraction and arousal. Such evidence is strongly suggestive that the substance in question would have prosexual properties, but scientific studies conclusively demonstrating effects on sexual function and behavior may not yet have been performed. This category alone offers somewhat indirect evidence for prosexual effects, but can constitute part of a strong argument that the substance will be found to demonstrate such properties. When this kind of evidence is accompanied by strong evidence from another category—such as anecdotal evidence—we have chosen to include it in this book. An Example of How a Substance was Selected Sometimes there is strong anecdotal evidence that a substance has prosexual value—and even a theoretical basis for understanding why or how it could function in this manner (informed speculation)—but no direct scientific confirmation. Such situations apply to many substances which seem to hold great promise as prosexual drugs. For example, we have found no controlled studies investigating GHB for prosexual properties. However, those who have used GHB consistently report powerful prosexual results (anecdotal evidence). Additionally, we know from controlled studies that GHB boosts levels of acetylcholine, considered to be one of the body's natural prosexual chemicals. From this evidence we can infer that GHB is likely to have prosexual qualities (informed speculation). Taking into account all of these categories of evidence, we decided that GHB was clearly worth including. Other Considerations Various factors in addition to the categories of evidence discussed above also played significant roles in our selection process. Those substances which appeared to be potentially beneficial to large numbers of people were favored over those which seemed likely to benefit only a relatively small group. Safety issues, of course, were of paramount importance: all of the compounds included feature extraordinarily high safety profiles. Other aspects of overall desirability were also taken into account. For instance, most men would no doubt prefer to take a few pills every day to enhance their erectile capacity than risk the eventual scarring of their genitals through long-term use of anti-impotence compounds that must be injected. (Several of these are currently being researched and publicized). Availability and legality were also important factors. The New Sexual Chemistry By no means do we intend to address sex as if it were an exclusively biochemical issue. For many if not most people, love, intimacy, bonding, communication, tenderness, and even spirituality are essential for good sex. (It is not without reason that sex is called "making love," even when there is ostensibly no love involved.) We recognize that sex occurs in this broader context. We intend this book to be just as useful for people who find these elements important as for people who wish to concentrate their drive towards better sex in the somatic, sensory, hedonic dimension. While we do not believe that sex is purely or exclusively biochemical, we do wish to emphasize that even the elements of sexuality that are usually thought of as non-physical do have a physical dimension. When this book deals with the more psychospiritual aspects of sex, it will do so mostly—but not exclusively—from the perspective of their largely neglected biochemical angle. As science is clearly demonstrating, we can no longer ignore the biological aspects of the psychological and spiritual dimensions of human experience. For example, as a Time magazine cover story from early 1993 explains, scientists have made breakthroughs in understanding the biochemistry not just of sex, but of love and romance. And in the bestselling book Listening to Prozac, a prominent psychiatrist convincingly argues that this popular new "wonder drug" not only alleviates depression, but changes personality itself. This chemical is clearly acting as an effective biochemical agent of change in an arena of human existence previously relegated to the realm of the "purely" psychological. As you will see, particularly in the case histories in this book, it is even possible to access and alter, biochemically, realms of sex such as intimacy, communication, and bonding. While popular endeavors towards better sex have explored psychology, culture, and even spirituality, they have tended to ignore the inner workings of the body. This oversight, of course, has not been absolute. But even the exceptions tend to prove the rule: the ways in which physiology has been included in our search for better sex only reveal the extent of its general exclusion. Medical science has addressed sexual dysfunction with drugs and penile implants for male impotence, but its vast reserves of relevant information are usually forgotten when the goal becomes one of moving beyond the rudimentary competence of our sexual hardware towards a deeper level of sexual fulfillment. The "discovery" of the G-spot was perhaps most remarkable for the fact that this anatomical font of female pleasure had for so long been overlooked—and the professional debate as to whether it actually existed raged on even as untold numbers of women were already enthusiastically exploring its benefits! It is clear, then, that biology and biochemistry have been at best unwelcome guests in our considerations of sex and romance. This is probably because science, at least in the eyes of most, is just not sexy, and certainly not romantic. When someone says something like, "love is just a chemical reaction" (hoping, perhaps, to put the pain of heartbreak into some sort of perspective), we usually consider him or her to be expressing a cold, cynical, and pessimistic viewpoint. The equation of love or sex with biology is thought to take the mystery, the romance, and the nobility out of sexuality, leaving lovers the hapless victims of inflexible, impersonal physical laws. As it was put in the Time magazine article mentioned above, "most of us would just as soon not know" about the biological underpinnings of our romantic and sexual lives. But even as we attempt to avoid the unavoidable, we implicitly acknowledge it in a myriad of ways. Recognition of the biochemical dimension of our sexuality is deeply embedded in colloquial vocabulary. When we ask a friend for a report on last night's first date, all he or she has to say is "no chemistry," and we nod sagely, knowing exactly what is meant: this first date will also be the last. When it comes to an issue as important to us as our sex and love lives, we like to believe that we're in control. And if we can't convince ourselves that we are, apparently we'd prefer to believe at least that we're being buffeted about by mysterious spiritual or mystical forces that are more exciting and romantic than equations on a blackboard or the latest issue of Scientific American. "Biology is destiny," reads a famous aphorism. When it is applied to sexuality, the truth that this quotation expresses has apparently been widely equated with pessimism. This reaction is based on the assumption that we're "stuck" with our biology—so if sex and love are in any fundamental way biological matters, there's little we can do to take charge of or improve these arenas of our lives. Such reasoning is no doubt the primary source of our tendency to deny the biochemical dimension of sex and romance. The Time article mentioned above perpetuates this point of view, stating that scientific knowledge of the biological underpinnings of love raises the "specter of determinism," implying that if our sex and love lives can be scientifically understood, somehow they can't be changed. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Ironically, by refusing to consider, let alone embrace, the chemical element of love, we throw away the key to a sexual treasure chest whose inventory of potential gifts to our sexuality continues to expand as time passes.

2008-12-16T20:16:00.002-02:00

WILHELM REICH AND ORGONE ENERGY:LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD

Sparks of Life: Darwinism and the Victorian Debates over Spontaneous Generation and The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology—opened the conference with a presentation entitled “The Historic Context of Reich’s Laboratory Work: From Biomedical Research of the 1930s to the Present Day”. Dr. Strick introduced his talk with a question: Why do Reich’s theories sound so foreign in the context of mainstream biology and medicine? He answered this by describing the context in which Reich’s theories emerged and the various approaches scientists were taking toward biology and medicine at that time.
According to Strick, by the late 1920s the casual observer (with an eye toward Reich’s work) would note three approaches:
That of the mechanistic mainstream which was already emerging as the dominant approach. This approach looks at the body, basically, as a machine, i.e., it is governed by chemical and biological processes in which all things are explained in mechanistic terms in the same manner that mainstream science explains nonliving systems.
Neo-vitalism which was then dominated by theories of Driesch and posited that living things are governed by an “entelechy”, i.e., a force not accessible to mechanistic laboratory investigations.
Reich’s approach which was looking to develop a synthesis of the mechanistic mainstream and neo-vitalistic approaches.
In time, the gap between Reich’s approach and that of the mechanistic mainstream widened. Dr. Strick pointed out two major discoveries of Reich’s which led to this: the discovery of bions in 1939 and the discovery of atmospheric orgone in 1940. In light of these discoveries, the connections between Reich’s approach and that of the mechanistic mainstream had become difficult to see. This gap widened even further in 1953 with the publication of Watson and Crick’s paper on the structure of DNA and the turn toward overwhelmingly molecular approaches by the mainstream.
At this point, Dr. Strick backed up a bit and explained the foundations of Reich’s approach—which, in time, developed into the science of orgonomy. Dr. Strick stated that Reich had drawn upon the following research approaches:
Freud’s libido theory, i.e., the idea that there is a specific biological sexual energy.
The theories of various schools that represent non-mechanistic versions of materialism (especially dialectical materialism).
Opposition to over-simplistic Mendelian genetics, i.e., the idea that everything—including behavior and disposition—is inherited, and inherited by simple Mendelian patterns. Dr. Strick argued that Mendelian genetics was strongly influenced by the eugenics movement which was strong not only in Nazi Germany but also in the United States (e.g. Margaret Sanger successfully courted the eugenics movement in order to gain support for the birth control movement which she championed).Dr. Strick also remarked on neo-Lamarckianism, whose last prominent advocate of was Paul Kammerer, an instructor of Reich’s at the medical school in Vienna. It was noted that neo-Lamarckianism was more popular with the Left in Austria (as opposed to the eugenics movement which tried to tie—via Mendelian genetics—sloth, alcoholism, prostitution, etc. to inherited genetic traits). Paul Kammerer’s ideas were later bastardized in the theories of the Soviet geneticist T.D. Lysenko—a scientist basically ignored in the West after denouncing Mendelian genetics as “reactionary and decadent” at a Russian conference in 1948, i.e., he was espousing dialectical materialist biology.
Energeticist “field” theories in embryology, especially for the understanding of cell mitosis. Dr. Strick pointed out that Gurvitch had proposed that mitosis is governed by a type of radiation which he called “mitogenetic radiation.” (These theories later came into play when Reich experimented with bion cultures, specifically the SAPA-bion cultures). Gurvitch’s theories greatly influenced Reich’s theories of bioenergetics. The theory of “relative sexuality,” developed by Max Hartmann, provided further support for his view that sexual attraction was a bioelectric phenomenon. Hartmann had published a paper on the subject in 1931 which Reich read in 1933. Dr. Strick argued that Reich’s interest in energeticist theories was further bolstered by the concept of conservation of energy. Reich wondered that if heat can be converted to electricity, then what was going on at the biological level. Was there some other type of energy, perhaps something analogous to libido energy that Freud had described? However, although there had been early advocates of a specific biological energy (i.e. Kammerer and Benjamin Moore), by 1939 Reich was one of a very small minority interested in understanding these energetic phenomena.Another scientist who influenced Reich’s thoughts on energeticism was Otto Warburg who had studied how energy is released from food. Later Warburg studied cancer cells and posited that cancer develops when cells produce energy anaerobically instead of aerobically.Finally, Dr. Strick mentioned Friedrich Kraus’s “fluid theory of life” described in a hard-to-find book published in 1926. All of the scientific thought mentioned above—which was coming out of Germany—was basically quashed with the rise of Nazi fascism or lost in WWII and its aftermath.
Origin of life studies and theories relevant to spontaneous generation would have a tremendous impact on the bion experiments. Reich had been led to this field of thought—most famously championed by Bastian in his debates with Pasteur in the late 1800s—by his own work with the bions in 1936-39.
In terms of opposition to Reich, his investigation into the origin of life—compounded with his earlier advocacy of abortion rights and contraceptive rights—did little to endear Reich to the mainstream. And if the above was not enough to make Reich’s theories unpopular, consider the rest of the equation: the study of the function of the orgasm.
Next, Dr. Strick distributed a handout in which he had sketched a flow-chart detailing the progression of Reich’s thought and that of mainstream mechanistic materialism. Of significance, Strick pointed out, was the influence of the Rockefeller Foundation on the direction that research into biology and medicine would take in the early 20th century. Warren Weaver, director of the Natural Sciences Division at the Rockefeller Foundation, basically sat on the only substantial pot of money available to scientists for research funding following the stock market crash in 1929. This meant that during the Depression years, unless you were able to convince Warren Weaver that your research was worth funding, you either had to finance scientific research on your own (as Reich was forced to do via his therapeutic practice) or go without. Weaver’s allegiances did not align with the type of work Reich was doing. He was more interested in physics, chemistry, and mechanistic biology, especially the theory of macromolecules, which led to molecular biology—an area of research with which Reich was not necessarily in tune. As a result, the mechanistic mainstream became the de facto mainstream, and scientists like Reich, Pijper, Kraus, and Gurvitch were marginalized.
By 1939 or soon afterward, Reich came to the realization that he was doing something totally original--a notion reinforced by the fact that he was no longer being acknowledged by those who had influenced his thought. As Reich moved further from the mainstream with the discovery of atmospheric orgone in 1940, his subsequent experiments—involving the orgone energy accumulator, the 1951 Oranur Experiment and the discovery of DOR, and the invention of the cloudbuster—placed him in a position that went well against the grain of conventional biology and medicine.
With the subsequent FDA injunction, the destruction of Reich’s printed works in a New York City incinerator, and Reich’s imprisonment and death, Reich’s discoveries and scientific approach were left to be championed by a handful of his students—a fact further complicated by the squabbles that plagued the orgonomic community after Reich’s death.
Strick definitely provided those of us in attendance with a context for understanding Reich’s work. As the conference would progress, many would share thoughts as to how orgonomy and those interested establishing its relevance within the mainstream (and in alternative medicine circles) might best move forward at this moment in time.
On Monday afternoon, Dr. Bernard Grad—a biologist who had studied bions with Reich—gave a presentation entitled “Memories of Working with Reich: Opportunities and Obstacles for the Future of Reich’s Biological Work”. Dr. Grad first met Reich in September of 1949. Impressed, Reich had asked Grad to stay on for a time and observe the research being conducted at Orgonon. Grad watched as the T – To experiment was replicated and made his first observations of atmospheric orgone energy. Still somewhat skeptical, Dr. Grad approached the fledgling science of orgonomy cautiously.
He stated that he would often compare the conflicting perspectives of orgonomy and mechanistic science. For example, he pointed out that mechanistic science claimed the sky was blue due to the refraction of light in the atmosphere (blue being the shortest wavelength and thus the color that the eye sees); whereas orgonomy stated that the sky was blue due to the presence of orgone energy which had demonstrated a blue glow in orgone-charged vacuum tubes and in the orgone accumulator. After a year of observations, Dr. Grad eventually came down on the side of orgonomy.
Dr. Grad explained that he last met with Reich in 1954 or 1955. However, his interest in the work pioneered by Reich continued. He was most taken by Reich’s work with the bions and he set about attempting to replicate Reich’s experiments. Much of this experimental work was undertaken during “free time” at the lab at which he was employed. Working alone for fear of being ostracized by his colleagues, Dr. Grad carried out a number of experiments with bion cultures. He began by adding and subtracting different variables to the basic bion culturing experiments.
At this point in his presentation, Dr. Grad shared a number of slides with the attendees. Of especial interest were those of bions he had cultured via the combination of chemical compounds. Many in attendance were impressed by the bions Dr. Grad had cultured from calcium carbonate, i.e., the idea that chemicals in solution could produce bions that exhibited the same characteristics Reich had observed when working with grass infusions.
All in all, it was wonderful to hear about Reich and the activities at Orgonon during Reich’s day from someone who was there. It was also very interesting to see how one of Reich’s students moved forward with the pioneering bion experiments after Reich’s death.

Morton Herskowitz, D.O., gave a talk entitled “Remembering Reich”. Dr. Herskowitz is a practicing orgone therapist in the Philadelphia area, President of the Institute for Orgonomic Science, and author of Emotional Armoring: An Introduction to Psychiatric Orgone Therapy. He began his presentation by describing his first encounter with Reich’s writings: as a young medical student he had been lent a copy of The Sexual Revolution; profoundly impressed that he had discovered a thinker who was addressing many of the questions he had about psychoanalysis and was providing elucidation and thoughtful answers, Herskowitz sought out Reich with the intent of entering into therapy with him. At this time Reich was still living in Forest Hills, a somewhat affluent suburb of New York City. Herskowitz recounted with humor his first impressions of Reich, of his home in Forest Hills, and how he had hoped that their interaction would focus squarely on psychoanalysis since he had doubts about Reich’s theories of orgone energy. Of course, he stated, this was a fruitless wish, for when Ilse answered the door, Reich appeared in his lab coat and almost immediately asked him what he thought of orgone energy.
Dr. Herskowitz said that Reich was very serious during therapeutic sessions. There was no small talk. He charged fifty dollars a session. And Herskowitz shared many humorous anecdotes about Reich. When Reich moved permanently to Rangeley, Maine in 1950, Herskowitz began making the 14-hour drive from Philadelphia to continue his therapy.
Herskowitz commented on Reich’s effective use of metaphors. As an example, he referred to the metaphor Reich used in his essay “The Emotional Plague,” which Reich included as Chapter 12 in the third edition of Character Analysis (1949):
The circulation of steam in the steampipes of a factory is an unquestioned precondition of the factory’s operation. However, the workers in a factory hardly give a moment’s thought to the circulation of the steam. Their attention is completely concentrated on their work. The energy engendered by the steam is “not everything” in the factory. There are other important interests, e.g., the manufacture of machines and similar things. Let us imagine that all of a sudden one or more steam valves became clogged. The flow of energy engendered by the steam would cease immediately. The pistons would stop; the wheels would no longer turn; work would be out of the question. All the workers would have to direct their attention with dispatch to the obstructed flow of steam in the pipes. All thinking would be centered on one question: how a regulated circulation of steam could be reestablished in the quickest way. Let us further imagine that some workers began to argue about this situation as follows: “This confounded theory of heat exaggerates the role of steam. Sure, it's true that steam is necessary, but it's far from being everything in this factory. Don't you see that there are other things to worry about? What about the economy?” In a breakdown like the one described, these “brainstorms” would merely be laughed at, and one would quickly attempt to eliminate the basic disturbance in the circulation of the steam before turning one's thoughts to “other things”. It would serve no purpose to consider the interests of economy when the steam valves are clogged.
This example illustrates the nature of the sexual problem in our society. The flow of biological energy, i.e., sexual energy, is disturbed in most people. The biosocial mechanism of society therefore functions poorly and sometimes not at all, and we have irrational politics, irresponsibility on the part of masses of people, biopathies, homicide—in short, the emotional plague. If all people fulfilled their natural sexual needs in a natural way, there would be little talk of the sexual problem; there would be no sexual problem. Then one would be justified in contending that there are “also other things”.
One attendee asked Dr. Herskowitz about Reich’s enthusiasm for treating psychological problems via the body, i.e., by sometimes choosing to treat the physical manifestations of character armor rather than the psychic root. This person wondered if orgonomy would reach a point where it was no longer necessary to talk through problems, if everything could be addressed through “body work”. Dr. Herskowitz replied that some things simply must be talked though—he specifically mentioned guilt. He did, however, attribute some of Reich’s enthusiasm for body work to the reliance of the Freudian school of thought on “excessive talk”.
Someone else asked if Dr. Herskowitz ever used the DOR-buster in therapy. He replied that he tried using it, but abandoned it because he was a poor judge of its effectiveness.
Finally, Dr. Herskowitz was asked about his impressions of Reich’s attitude toward the FDA trial. Dr. Herskowitz stated that he thought that Reich had underestimated the judge and felt that, had Reich addressed the specific charges against him instead of taking issue with the fact that scientific research should not be judged by a court of law but rather by the scientific method, he might have won the case. The fact is that Reich took the stand that he did, and what is done is done. It is for us to move forward upon the groundwork that Reich worked so hard to lay.
The afternoon session ended with one of the attendees asking both Dr. Herskowitz and Dr. Grad to share their thoughts on what it was like to be back in the Conference Building, which, in Reich’s day, had housed the Student Laboratory and the Orgone Room in which the Oranur Experiment was carried out.
Dr. Grad recalled coming up to Orgonon after the Oranur Experiment and experiencing the conditions at that time. He mentioned that the 20-ply accumulator—into which the radium needle used in the experiment was placed—had been removed from the Orgone Room and taken to the middle of a nearby field. Grad talked of the negative physical reactions he experienced simply by approaching the 20-ply accumulator.
Dr. Herskowitz mentioned the building’s fireplace and recalled other humorous anecdotes. It was truly a treat to hear tales of Reich from those who had enjoyed such rich relationships with the man.
Tuesday evening there was a reception at the Orgone Energy Observatory on top of the hill. Attendees gathered to meet the presenters and to tour the Observatory and view its many exhibits.

A joint presentation by physicians Conny Huthsteiner, M.D. and Ron Maio, D.O. entitled “A Proposed Clinical Study to Test the Effectiveness of Orgone Blankets in the Treatment of Burns.” Dr. Huthsteiner is a psychiatric orgonomist with a private practice in Boston, Vice President of the Institute of Orgonomic Science in Philadelphia, and a member of the staff and faculty at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Maio is a professor and Associate Chair of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, Director of the University’s Injury Research Center, and Assistant Dean for Research Regulatory Affairs for the University’s medical school.
Dr. Huthsteiner began the talk by describing the principles of ORAC construction. She then read a case history from the recently published book Heilen Mit Orgonenergie [Healing with Orgone Energy] by Jorgos Kavouras, M.D., a presenter at the 2004 Summer Conference. This book includes over 40 case studies, collected over the past 25 years, involving Dr. Kavouras’s medical use of the orgone accumulator and medical DOR-buster.
Dr. Maio then outlined their proposed study of the treatment of burns with orgone blankets. He began by describing current social and medical attitudes toward alternative medicine. He attributed the growing openness to orgone research to increased interest in alternative medical treatments. He added that for many years medical practitioners (and members of the scientific community in general) have been opposed to using orgone energy in treatment because there is so little research supporting it. Yet ironically, he stated, the reason there is so little research supporting it is because many are not open to funding or supporting research associated with orgone energy. In short, there is a vicious cycle that must be broken to move orgone research forward. That is one of the goals of the proposed study.
The study, as outlined by Maio and Huthsteiner, will include two groups of 50 burn patients; each patient will be given a blanket in addition to traditional treatment. The blankets given to one group would be orgone blankets; the blankets given to the other would be “sham” blankets. One attendee suggested there be a third group that was not given any blanket to use as a control for any sort of placebo effect. Dr. Maio agreed that this would be a good idea. The groups with the blankets would use them for 30 minutes twice a day. The primary measurement taken would be the length of time it took for the wound to heal. Secondary measurements would include infection rate, pain control, and functional outcomes, i.e., would the use of the orgone blanket lead to increased or decreased motility of the affected region compared with those using no blanket or the “sham” blanket.
Dr. Maio stated that the real challenge lay in explaining the mechanism by which the blankets work. This would require describing the mechanics by which the orgone energy blanket functions. Some of this would come into play in approaching potential funding sources as well as gaining approval for the study from the Internal Review Board at the University of Michigan (if, indeed, the study were to be conducted at the University of Michigan). Dr. Maio also mentioned that, given the ORACs past history with the FDA, steps might have to be taken to earn an exemption—something he felt shouldn’t be too much of a problem given the non-invasive nature of the ORAC.
Dr. Maio also made a few suggestions that would help move medical orgonomy forward. These included encouraging more collaboration between orgonomic societies, the creation of international partnerships (e.g. with Dr. Kavouras), the establishment of a national or international congress on medical orgonomy, and the development of a medical network for the discussion of medicinal applications of orgone energy.
The conference attendees were very enthusiastic and offered a number of suggestions to the researchers regarding approaches to the study and how to control for random variables. Some felt that while Dr. Huthsteiner and Dr. Maio should definitely give thought to the numerous variables and control for as many as reasonably possible, what was imperative was that the study move forward, and that if a well-planned study could make it into a mainstream medical journal, this might help to create new opportunities for further follow-up research involving medicinal applications of orgone energy.
The excitement generated by listening to this proposal piqued many attendees’ imaginations. Hopefully, Dr. Huthsteiner and Dr. Maio will return to Orgonon to discuss their progress at a future conference.
Wednesday afternoon, conferences attendees were invited to join Kevin Hinchey (Associate Director of the Wilhelm Reich Museum) for a 2-3 hour hike up Bald Mountain. The hike was very enjoyable and afforded the intrepid hiker with a remarkable view from atop the summit tower of the Rangeley Lakes region. This included a magnificent panorama of Mooselookmeguntic Lake, where Reich first observed atmospheric orgone energy in the summer of 1940.

In 1988, Theirrie Cook founded Orgonics, a company that makes and sells orgone accumulating devices. She first encountered Reich’s writings in 1971 while working as a Leftist organizer in Berkeley. She had wandered into Cody’s Books and noticed a copy of The Mass Psychology of Fascism laying on a display table. From there, her interest led her to other books by Reich, and she eventually entered into therapy with Myron Sharaf, a student of Reich’s and author of Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich, and, later, other orgone therapists.
From 1988 to 1992, Orgonics only produced orgone blankets. The company began building orgone accumulators in 1992. Presently, Orgonics produces ORACs ranging from 3-ply to 20-ply, various sizes and strengths of orgone blankets, and a number of other orgone accumulating devices.
With regard to the quality of charge, Theirrie made a number of points. The most important consideration when considering quality of charge is the materials used for construction. For instance, aluminum and copper are not suitable for construction of an ORAC, which Reich noted. The best material is carbon steel; however, since pure carbon steel is prone to rust (and wiping down the metallic surfaces of an ORAC with a damp cloth remove DOR and restores a fresh charge), Theirrie uses galvanized steel—i.e. zinc-coated carbon steel—which will not rust. She stated that there is even some anecdotal evidence that galvanized steel has a positive affect on unwanted skin blemishes—a fact that she attributed to the zinc coating. Theirrie mentioned two other companies that make devices similar to orgone accumulators: Scenar and Nyvatex. Theirrie cautioned against using the devices sold by these companies. The “healing blankets” produced by Scenar are made with palladium which, Theirrie stated, does not work nearly as well as steel; and the Nyvatex Health-Mat is made with aluminum which Theirrie considers a “toxic” metal. To demonstrate the effectiveness of accumulators built with different metals, Theirrie cited experiments on seedlings and suggested anyone interested in “objectifying the subjective” consider doing the same.
Theirrie also shared her thoughts on the different types of organic material she prefers to use in the construction of ORACs and orgone blankets. For blankets she recommends acrylic felt for the outside covers. The inside layering is made with sheep's wool batting and imported, oilless steel wool. Even though wool and cotton can produce a good orgone charge, they also attract and hold moisture (i.e. they are hydroscopic) which can diminish the charge. The acrylic felt does not hold moisture, holds a good "static", or orgone charge, is non-allergenic, and also soft to the touch which is why it makes a good outer cover. She noted, however, that polyesters and vinyls do not seem to have the same positive qualities as acrylic.
With regard to Oranur and DOR (i.e. Deadly ORgone), Theirrie said that as a result of the Oranur Experiment, we know that radioactivity irritates orgone energy. As such, she recommended that ORACs and orgone blankets not be stored or used near television and computer screens containing cathode ray tubes (CRTs), fluorescent lights, or any device that generates ionizing radiations. She reported it was John Ott, the pioneering researcher on light, who discoverred the CRTs emit low-dose x-rays. She recommended a book by Ralph Graeub entitled The Petkau Effect which discusses the negative effects of low-level radiation on living things. Theirrie emphasized that orgone is also a living thing. She also warned against using an orgone blanket in conjunction with an electric blanket. Never do it, she implored.
Finally, Theirrie talked about the use of orgone accumulating devices in therapy or medical treatment. First, she reiterated that which Reich had stated numerous times: that it is important to remember that most physical diseases have a psychological component and vice versa. As such, treatment of a physical illness with an ORAC may require concomitant character analytic therapy. Emotions often come to the fore while using the ORAC and may even result in resistance to using the device. In addition, Theirrie emphasized that it is important to detoxify in conjunction with ORAC use—especially when using the ORAC to treat physical biopathies. Theirrie then shared a number of anecdotes and personal testimonies from those who have used the ORAC.
Theirrie concluded her talk by addressing the factionalism within the orgonomic community. She stated that if orgonomy is to move forward, then researchers and proponents of orgonomy need to work to break down the barriers between the various camps and bring an end to the backbiting and rumor mongering. She did not state that the various orgonomic groups would agree on everything, just that, if they didn’t agree on this or that point, then differences of opinion should be resolved via healthy debate.
Kevin Hinchey, Associate Director of the Wilhelm Reich Museum, gave the Thursday afternoon talk entitled “Wilhelm Reich and Orgone Energy: A Survey of the FBI and FDA Files”. While the FDA files on Reich have been accessible to the public for many years, Reich’s FBI file was declassified only recently in February 2002 via the Freedom of Information Act. Although, as one might imagine, many names and addresses mentioned in the documents remain blacked out.
Kevin began his presentation by citing recent articles and book excerpts which—nearly 50 years after Reich’s death—continue to repeat distortions about Reich and the orgone energy accumulator, i.e. that the accumulator could cure cancer and/or restore orgastic potency for those who used it.
Kevin then provided some basic background information: Reich left Oslo for the United States on August 19, 1939, on the last ship to leave Norway before WWII broke out. He arrived in New York nine days later on August 28th. The FBI file on Reich (which consists of approximately 800 pages) was begun in December 1939. These records were accumulated somewhat sporadically and reflect the on-again/off-again interest that the FBI had taken in Reich. The FDA file on Reich was opened in August of 1947 in the wake of a Mildred Brady article that appeared in New Republic, which painted an inaccurate and sensationalized portrait of Reich and his work with the orgone accumulator. These records contain thousands of pages, since the FDA’s interest in Reich would continue unabated from the time its investigation began.
Kevin discussed the FBI files first. The earliest mention of Reich in the FBI files was on December 7, 1939. State Department interest in Reich had been piqued because of his affiliation with the German Communist Party, and the FBI was asked to investigate. These previous ties to the Communist Party would later become a major issue. Months later, the State Department and the FBI interest in Reich was piqued again when Reich initiated efforts to bring his second wife Elsa to America. Again, Reich’s previous ties to the Communist Party were of concern to the FBI as was, to an extent, his involvement with the New School for Social Research in New York City. As a result of these early investigations, Reich’s name was placed on a list for possible “custodial detention” in the event that hostilities broke out against the United States.
On December 12, 1941—several days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s declaration of war against Japan, Germany and Italy—Reich was taken into FBI custody on suspicion of being an “enemy alien”. Reich was incarcerated for twenty-four days on Ellis Island. Seventeen pages in the FBI file document the lengthy investigation that took place during his incarceration, which included interviews with well over a dozen people throughout New York City. In these pages, Kevin stated, one first sees the seeds of distortion being planted relevant to Reich’s medical work, in particular, the claim that he had bragged of a “cure for cancer”—a claim unsubstantiated in any of Reich’s published materials. Reich was eventually released.
In 1949, following up on complaints from Maine residents, the FBI conducted another investigation into Reich’s activities. Another was conducted in 1950. By this point, Reich had already begun corresponding with the Atomic Energy Commission (his first contact with the AEC was in 1947 regarding his discovery of a possible motor power in orgone energy.) But the AEC had concluded rather quickly that Reich’s science was unsound. It is disheartening to know that a man who had so much respect for American democracy and who made every effort to keep the government abreast of his research was, ironically, considered a threat and a fraud.
The FDA investigation, as mentioned, was precipitated by an article in the May 26, 1947 issue of New Republic magazine, entitled “The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich”. In response to the allegations made in the article, the FDA sent an investigator named Charles Wood to Rangeley. Kevin described Inspector Wood’s first visit with Reich in the Student Laboratory. Inspector Wood then talked with a number of Rangeley residents including Clista Templeton, who had taken over the responsibility of building orgone accumulators from her late father, Herman Templeton, the first caretaker at Orgonon. Without Reich’s permission, Ms. Templeton gave Inspector Wood a complete list of ORAC users. The FDA would go on to contact many individuals on this list. hoping to find a dissatisfied ORAC user for legal action against Reich.
Kevin then read a number of personal accounts collected by Inspector Wood. These accounts are marred by Inspector Wood’s editorializing and insinuation. For example, oftentimes the word ‘disciple’ is used when describing Reich’s co-workers. And the physical ailments of several accumulator users are sometimes described as probably “imaginary.” Also evident is Inspector Wood’s drive to uncover negative testimonials to help build up the FDA case against Reich. But there were few negative comments about the accumulator, and none substantial enough to use in court.
Of particular interest is the relationship that developed between Inspector Wood and Ms. Templeton. The two eventually married. Ms. Templeton, of course, stopped building ORACs, but one would have to wonder if this did not constitute a conflict of interest of sorts for Inspector Wood. According to correspondence in the files, Wood’s superiors in Washington D.C. saw nothing wrong with him marrying one of his informants.
In 1951, Reich conducted the Oranur Experiment in which he placed a small quantity of radioactive radium into a 20-ply orgone accumulator—which itself was housed in the Orgone Room in the Student Laboratory—in order to study the interaction of the two energies. Reich had informed well over a hundred state and federal government agencies of his intentions prior to the experiment, including the President of the United States, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and the FBI. He did not, however, inform the FDA—although the FDA learned about it shortly afterwards, and apparently called for a meeting with the AEC which was held on August 20, 1951.
The FDA’s account of this meeting with the AEC—in which the FDA was provided access to the AEC’s file on Reich—allowed Kevin to piece together a detailed chronology about the government’s reaction to the Oranur Experiment. In the end, the AEC decided that Reich had either fabricated the Oranur Experiment, that he exaggerated the effects, and/or that he misunderstood the cause of the effects witnessed.
Attendees then asked questions and made comments. Dr. Maio pointed out that research methodology was still in its infancy in the 1950s. This, he posited, might explain the shoddy (at least by today’s standards) methodology of the FDA in conducting their own experiments into Reich’s claims regarding medicinal applications of the ORAC. It was pointed out by Dr. Huthsteiner (who, as a student, worked at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor) that one of the laboratory’s researchers hired to investigate the ORAC was not considered very competent by his peers. And doubts were expressed about the competence of 22-year old young Robert Spitzer who the FDA considered calling as a witness against Reich, according to an FDA report that Kevin Hinchey presented. (Spitzer went on to become a psychiatrist, and was the subject of a January 2005 article in the New Yorker which repeats distortions and slanders about Reich and the orgone accumulator.) Given all of this, one is inclined to draw the conclusion that either there was never any intention of giving Reich’s ideas a fair hearing, or that any attempts to replicate Reich’s experiments by the FDA were hampered by sub-par research methodology conducted by unqualified or negatively prejudiced researchers.
Thursday evening was devoted to recollections about Reich and life at Orgonon by Kathy Steward, daughter of Tom Ross, the caretaker at Orgonon while Reich was alive. For several years, Kathy and her parents lived at Orgonon in the cabin now known as Bunchberry. Her parents, Tom and Bea Ross, were instrumental in helping Mary Higgins open the property as The Wilhelm Reich Museum several years after Reich’s death. For many years, Kathy has been one of the Museum’s tour guides.
Kathy brought along some photos and passed them around the room, photos which provided glimpses of life at Orgonon while Reich was alive and afterward. There was a picture of Reich’s original tomb (a cinder block affair that rested next to the museum where one now finds the original prototype of the cloudbuster), pictures of Kathy with Peter Reich, many shots of the Orgone Observatory and Student Laboratory (including one after an enormous snowstorm), and a few shots of Reich’s German shepard, Troll.

The Conference’s final session on Friday morning was a Roundtable Discussion involving those presenters still on hand: Dr. Conny Huthsteiner, Dr. Ron Maio, Theirrie Cook, and Kevin Hinchey. (Dr. Jim Strick, Dr. Bernard Grad, and Dr. Morton Herskowitz had already left.).
Each presenter summed up his or her own feelings and reflections on the future of orgonomy, in line with the overall theme of the conference: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Dr. Huthsteiner spoke first, emphasizing the fact that growing interest in alternative medicine could translate into increased openness to medical application of orgone energy. She also noted the growing interest in the opening of the Reich Archives in late 2007 or early 2008. Now, she said, was the time for orgonomy to become “unstuck,” and she stated that she saw the field growing in the next five years.
Theirrie Cook spoke next and emphasized opportunities for new research in orgonomy, citing growing interest in astrobiology, ether science, energy medicine, and issues related to sexuality. To elucidate, she pointed out that the bion experiments have practical applications in the field of astrobiology and that orgone energy has relevance to ether science and energy medicine. Regarding sexuality, Theirrie pointed out that too often it is the first aspect of Reich’s work to be abandoned. Which is unfortunate, she said, since sexuality forms the groundwork of our understanding of orgone energy and its study was the avenue by which Reich happened upon the discovery of the orgone.
Theirrie encouraged the physicians and researchers involved in orgonomy to join professional organizations, pursue grants, write articles for publication, and make presentations at appropriate conferences. As an example, she pointed out that Dr. James DeMeo had recently been invited to speak before the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the most prestigious scientific associations in the United States and publishers of the journal Science. She also mentioned the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSEEM) and the Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE). Finally, Theirrie emphasized the need to establish a presence in the scientific community; to establish networks of and open avenues for communication among orgonomists; to locate sources of funding for level-headed, trustworthy researchers in the field; and to move forward with intent and to be resilient in the face of opposition.
Dr. Ron Maio then spoke. He worried that, in his case, his specialized focus might be an issue—and could be for other researchers as well—especially in light of Theirrie’s comments about keeping the big picture in mind. Or, as one attendee eloquently put it, the “red thread” that runs through Reich’s work and which ties his psychoanalytic work into his study of the bions, the discovery of the orgone, and the development of cloudbuster, etc. Dr. Maio emphasized his earlier point regarding the need for collaboration, to break down the barriers between the various orgonomic “camps”. He stated that there is a need to develop awareness of the ways in which bio-energetic research informs orgonomy—especially when compiling literature reviews for paper submissions.
Dr. Maio also mentioned his concerns about possible reaction to research involving orgone energy from review boards and sources of funding. Specifically, he worried that these individuals and groups might become distracted by the issues of sexuality inherent in orgonomy. Theirrie stated that she felt there was no getting around it and that it was imperative that one have a response ready. Kevin added that while one should have a response ready, the researcher must stay on message and keep the focus on the project at hand—for example, discussion of the proposed study of the treatment of burns with orgone blankets should focus on just that, the treatment of burns with the orgone blanket, and should not devolve into an impromptu evaluation of the role of orgasm in psychic health.
Finally, Dr. Maio mentioned how good laboratory work now would lay the groundwork for openness to future research. This led to a brief discussion of the value of perhaps taking an “indirect” approach, to frame orgonomic research in a language that is not strictly orgonomic. The question then arose as to when this “indirectness” would become subterfuge. It was agreed that the crux of this line of thought lay in the use of the word “orgone”.
As the meeting drew to a close, many in attendance—especially those without scientific backgrounds—asked what they could do to help. Mary Higgins pointed out that the best way to support The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust and the Wilhelm Reich Museum is financially. When the Trust and the Museum receive the support, Reich’s legacy is enriched via the museum displays, the continued publication of primary materials, the preservation of archival materials, and by providing a logical hub for ongoing discussion of Reich and orgone energy.

2008-12-16T20:08:00.002-02:00

REICH’S CONCEPT OF SELF-REGULATION
“Free, self-regulated behavior fills people withenthusiasm, but at the same time terrifies them.” – Wilhelm Reich, The Function of the Orgasm
The term “self-regulation” is widely used today in many different contexts. An Internet search first brings up scores of references to the current debate on the “self regulation” of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Further exploration reveals that the term is frequently used in business and medicine to denote the “self regulation” of those enterprises as opposed to governmental regulation.
In the field of psychology, the phrase “self regulation” is common, but it has quite different meanings among the various schools. The term is also popular with many complementary health practitioners and those involved in “New Age” activities. However, it is not really clear what people mean by the phrase.
What exactly does the term “self regulation” mean? The American Heritage Dictionary defines “self regulating” as follows:
Regulating one’s self or itself
Regulating itself automatically
By using the term to definite itself, the dictionary offers little help. But despite this general lack of clarity about “self-regulation,” Wilhelm Reich was specific about his definition of the term. For him, self-regulation is not a philosophical premise, a psychological principle, or an educational theory. It is a biological function. This five day Conference at Orgonon explored the meaning and application of the term as Reich defined it.

Self-Regulation – A Biological Function
Sparks of Life: Darwinism and the Victorian Debates Over Spontaneous Generation. Dr. Strick defined exactly what Reich meant by self-regulation, namely that it is a natural function of the organism related to genital life. Strick emphasized that Reich’s definition of self-regulation was scientific, and not moral or philosophical. He pointed out that in Character Analysis (first published in 1933), Reich reported that patients who were able to move from a neurotic to a genital character structure began to demonstrate self-regulating behavior.
This change was inextricably connected with the re-establishment of the natural function of genitality in these patients, as evidenced by the presence of “orgastic potency” which is the capacity to discharge an amount of energy in orgasm equivalent to that which has built up in the body, i.e., the capacity to maintain a balanced energy economy. Reich found that successful therapy led not only to the disappearance of neurotic symptoms, but to a basic change in a patient’s whole being. Reactions to love, work, and social living became fundamentally different.
Reich reported that such patients began to live in a self-regulating manner, creating their own lives. To Reich, pleasure and gratification in sexual life is the foundation of self-regulation. The biological function of self-regulation is rooted in an organism’s capacity to experience full orgastic gratification.
Strick also emphasized that Reich saw the prevention of neuroses as the answer to our social problems, not the individual treatment of neurotic illness. Strick noted that to this day we suffer from a vast ignorance about the nature of infants and infancy, about human sexuality in general, and the function of the orgasm in particular.
In his remarks on the Orgonomic Infant Research Center (founded by Reich in 1949), Strick said that Reich recognized that problems of character structure among armored human beings made it extremely difficult even to study the function of self-regulation. Because of the armoring, people shrink from it.
Strick urged that today’s adults be modest about what they can accomplish. “We have failed,” he said. “A new generation needs to find its own way.” Reich’s conclusion that armored people’s hatred of the living is the biggest obstacle to understanding, working with, and learning about the living. Today, many sincere people want to create a better world, but they are unaware of Reich’s crucial discoveries, such as the existence of human armoring. “If we fail to understand that we are armored,” Strick observed, “we will not understand what Reich is writing about.”
And consequently we will fail in our attempts to change the world for the better.

Man’s Right to Know

Problems in Popularizing Orgonomic Knowledge

Among the topics discussed was the problem of popularizing orgonomic knowledge. Crucial questions arose:
How can one make such new knowledge accessible to people without distorting or flattening it out?
How can the average, theoretically untrained social worker, physician, or educator learn to use orgonomic knowledge?
Reich believed that an understanding of self-regulation as a scientific term had already been distorted.
To Reich, natural functions are in themselves self-regulatory. Self-regulation is present in every living substance, in every cell, organ, and organism. It is present in atmospheric and cosmic functions as well. However, in the human being of today, self-regulation is absent. The human animal has lost its ability to produce and live out of its own inner nature. Reich told his students that it was imperative that they keep these facts in mind at every step of their work. It would be essential for them to be able to distinguish a self-regulatory function from a function imposed on the organism.
For future generations a profound discussion of vital questions about human social development; the nature of the newborn; the capacity of human beings for self-regulation; the problems faced by unarmored organisms in an armored world; the dilemma of armored organisms attempting to raise unarmored children; and the daunting obstacles that face anyone who attempts to work in this area.
The discussion on the audiotape moved on to a more focused look at the OIRC that was being planned at that time. Reich told his listeners that it was essential to understand both their own base of operation and that from which the public was operating. He urged those at the meeting to go slow, to resist any impulses to “save the world.” Reich spoke powerfully about how the armoring results in both a great fear of natural genitality and a great dream of paradise and salvation by a Fuehrer of one kind or another. The expectation of salvation, he said, was ravaging the planet.
Again and again, Reich posed key questions: What is natural? What do we need to do to protect the natural in the child? What impedes the natural in the child? To find answers to these questions, it is necessary to begin with the needs of the child, the needs of the living in the child. Reich stated that he did not want to start a “Save the Babies” movement. In fact, he didn’t want to start any kind of political movement. Instead, he wanted to observe children and learn how to keep the living going. He also reminded those at his meeting that he wanted co-workers, not admirers. “If I succeed in fascinating you, you will soon shout ‘Heil Reich.’ That is exactly what I don’t want. I want to defend the living in the child.”

Energy and Music
Musician and jazz pianist Andy Kahn provided an unusual look at a part of Reich’s life that has not received much attention: his love of music, and the connection between the compositional structure of music he loved and his scientific work. In preparing his remarks, Mr. Kahn spent time in Reich’s study and library, combing through Reich’s private record collection.
Mr. Kahn demonstrated musically how the function of “tension and release” in musical composition was related to the function of “tension and charge” in Reich’s orgasm formula. Kahn brought his ideas to life by playing passages on the piano and playing pre-recorded music to clarify the musical techniques he was verbally describing.
Mr. Kahn is a charming and engaging speaker. By the end of the evening, everyone had a new appreciation for the relationship between the compositional Tension-Release technique at the heart of the music that gave Reich great pleasure (notably compositions by Beethoven) and the scientific Tension-Charge formula at the heart of the orgasm function and the pleasure function in general.

Genitality in Children
Mary Higgins read two remarkable papers by participants in the OIRC. The first, written by a mother who was involved in the project, was originally delivered at Orgonon over fifty years ago and described the genital games of children. She and her physician husband wanted to raise their child in a self-regulatory manner, and they understood that genital games are a vital part of childhood.
The mother reported that her four-year old son played genital games freely with his friends, and her home became an unofficial center for the children’s games. However, gradually the sex-negative attitudes of the children’s parents became evident. The mother described the love that existed between her son and a little girl his age. She noted that the children’s genital play regulated itself. The children moved back and forth from sexual games to other games as they desired. They were completely open about their play. Neither manifested the secretive, guilty, worried behavior of armored children who engaged in genital play.
The mother also told about the difficulties her son experienced in his interactions with armored playmates and the problems she and husband—as well as their son—encountered with intolerant adults. There seemed to be a constant sex-negative barrage surrounding and damaging the children. Grandma, aunts and uncles, parents, and even deliverymen were part of this barrage. It became apparent that parents who wish to raise their children in a sex-positive manner have to be as assertive in their positive views of sexuality as the sex-negative world is in expressing its point of view.
The paper by this brave young mother is astounding in its directness and its loving description of the genital games of children. It was a truly eye-opening report, one that probably could not be published anywhere today. The presentation of this paper was followed by a discussion among the Conference attendees.
Then a second audiotape was played of a discussion that took place among those who had been present at the young mother’s initial presentation of her paper at Orgonon.
After a break, Ms. Higgins shared another report from the OIRC. Unlike the first paper, this document revealed how wrong things can go when adults to don’t understand their own motivations, when they make ideals out of living functions and attempt to impose them on children.
This paper described what happened when two children were brought together for the express purpose of enabling them to experience genital contact and games. The adults who had arranged this meeting had completely misunderstood the natural self-regulation functions of children’s genital games and friendships, or the fact that biological functions cannot be forced or arranged artificially.
This report made it painfully clear how dangerous preconceived and distorted notions and ideals about genitality and “healthy children” can be for children.

A Look Back at the Orgonomic Infant Research Center
Recalling this project and the activities associated with it, she spoke movingly of Reich’s warmth, responsiveness, and empathy toward those he had chosen to work with him and in whom he saw potential. “He tried to make the best of what was around him,” she commented.
But the workers’ deficiencies gradually undermined the project. There was a tendency on their part “to use jargon or vague terms while Reich persistently searched for precise descriptions, minus preconceptions, of what was really happening.” They were “constantly searching for an ideal—the ideal mother, the ideal healthy behavior, the ideal self-regulating child…Reich constantly warned against those expectations.”
And then there was the loneliness of working in the world. The speaker recalled Reich’s gentleness and kindness in a conversation in which he encouraged her to “go the lonely way. Accept your loneliness. It’s part of your training…It sounds more frightening than it is. It is most interesting. Be glad you are in it.” But when she saw him for the last time in the Fall of 1951, Reich shared his growing concern about the project. Shortly thereafter, it was discontinued.
“The OIRC was a formidable, probably impossible undertaking then, as I think it would be now,” she said. “I think Reich knew it, but hoped against hope, made the effort, and paid.”
With great honesty she admitted that her disappointment at its failure was tempered by a “sense of relief—relief that I would no longer be working with childhood genitality, orgone energy, these frightening manifestations of the Living. References to what Reich called ‘the terror of the living’ appear constantly in records of the OIRC, and in the end it was more comfortable to return to the workaday world and live one’s life within the safety of its constraints.”

Bensalem, the Experimental College:The Possibilities and Limits of Self-Regulation in an Authoritarian Society
This fascinating look at “self-regulation” in action at an experimental New York City college was given by Michael Mannion, co-founder of The Mindshift Institute and author of numerous books, including Project Mindshift: The Re-Education of the American Public Concerning Extraterrestrial Life.
The late 1960s and early 1970s were a time of great experimentation in education. One attempt at a new form of education was the creation of Bensalem, The Experimental College. It was founded by a classics scholar and a Jesuit priest, and was a full four-year college at conservative Fordham University. Students and faculty had equal votes in deciding such important issues as the governing structure of the school, the faculty to be hired, and the students to be admitted. Bensalem evolved into an institution in which no person had power over any other person. Although the students and faculty were unaware of it, daily life in Bensalem became a living example of what Reich called “self-regulation.” This crucial biological function often was evident as much by its absence as by its presence.
Each person in Bensalem had an opportunity to help create the school, actively shape his or her educational experience, and become his or her authentic self. It attracted many people from around the world and inspired great enthusiasm. However, the experimental college was a living example of Reich’s observation that “Free, self-regulated behavior fills people with enthusiasm, but at the same time terrifies them.”
A large percentage of those who came to Bensalem experienced deep, unexpected anxiety while at the school because they did not have the capacity to function in a self-regulatory manner in an open environment. Many could not admit this to themselves and sought scapegoats whom they could blame for their difficulties. Nearly half of the students left the experiment and returned to traditional schools.
But some young people struggled to change and become their true selves. They learned to function in a non-authoritarian environment and created their own lives based on their needs. Many had sexual lives that differed greatly from monogamous marriage. Adults and children and students lived together in new family structures that were the antithesis of the authoritarian family. Students and teachers, both single and married, formed communes and lived in economic structures that contrasted sharply with our capitalist consumer society.
The Bensalem Experience showed that there is great promise in such radical experiments if those creating them are aware of human armoring and its limiting impact on human beings. It is also vital that all involved have an understanding of the biological function of self-regulation. If such knowledge is absent, certain individuals can still flourish and develop in a non-authoritarian environment like Bensalem. However, others will not benefit and may even be harmed. Without an accurate understanding of self-regulation, institutions like Bensalem will not thrive and will not have a positive effect on the larger society.

Writing a Book on Wilhelm Reich
Tperils of writing psycho-biography; the dreams and nightmares he had while writing his book, in which Reich is very unhappy with the biography; his use of “hermeneutics” (the science and methodology of interpretation of texts, especially Scriptural) in his assessment of Reich’s writings; and his attempts to philosophically evaluate Reich’s conceptual framework.

2008-12-16T20:06:00.001-02:00

BIOGRAPHY
“I am well aware of the fact that the human race has known about the existence of a universal energy related to life for many ages. However, the basic task of natural science consisted of making this energy usable. This is the sole difference between my work and all preceding knowledge.” — Wilhelm Reich, Archives of the Orgone Institute
In the 1930s, Wilhelm Reich, M.D.—an Austrian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and scientist—discovered a powerful, new biological energy, and for the next two decades devoted his life to the investigation of its laws and properties. Reich confirmed the existence of this energy in the human body, verified its presence in the atmosphere, developed instrumentation to observe and collect it, and harnessed it for a variety of purposes from cancer treatment to motor power to weather experimentation.
Reich called his discovery “orgone energy.” But, sadly, it was a discovery that the world was not ready for.
REICH’S EARLY YEARS(1897 – 1918)
“I was born in a small village as the first son of not unprosperous parents.” — from Passion of Youth
Wilhelm Reich was born on March 24, 1897 in Galicia, in the easternmost part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Ukraine. He grew up in the Bukovina on a large farm operated by his father. His first language was German, and until 1938 he was an Austrian citizen.
According to The Bibliography of Orgonomy—prepared at Orgonon in 1953 under Reich’s supervision—his “interest in biology and natural science was stimulated early by the life on the farm, close to agriculture, cattle-farming, and breeding…Between his 8th and 12th years, he had his own collection and breeding laboratory of butterflies, insects and plants under the guidance of a private teacher. The natural life functions, including the sexual function, were familiar to him as far back as he could remember, and this may well have determined his strong later inclination as a bio-psychiatrist toward the biological foundation of the emotional life of man, as well as his biophysical discoveries in the fields of medicine, biology, and education.”
Until he was 13 years old, Reich was educated at home by tutors. His mother, to whom he was devoted, committed suicide in 1910 after his father discovered she had had a brief affair with one of the tutors. Reich’s father died four years later from tuberculosis, leaving seventeen-year old Reich to direct the farm work on his own without interrupting his studies at the German high school he was attending.
That same year, 1914, the first World War broke out. Soon Russian troops swept through the Bukovina. Reich narrowly escaped being sent to Russia as a hostage, and had to flee his home. Later he wrote, “I never saw either my homeland or my possessions again. Of a well-to-do past, nothing was left.” (Passion of Youth) He joined the Austrian Army in 1915, served as a lieutenant from 1916-1918, and was at the Italian front three times, experiencing what he called “the war as a machine.”
In 1918 the war finally ended. Germany and Austria were defeated, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken up, and the Bukovina became part of Romania. Alone, homeless and intellectually starved after four years of war, Reich entered the Medical School at the University of Vienna.
REICH, FREUD, AND THE LIBIDO (1918 – 1934)
“It is sexual energy which governs the structure of human feeling and thinking.” — from The Sexual Revolution
As a war veteran, Reich was permitted to complete the six-year course in four years, and he passed the 18 Rigorosa in 18 medical subjects and received “excellent” (ausgezeichnet) in all the pre-medical subjects. He graduated and received his M.D. degree in July 1922.
During his last years of medical school, Reich did post-graduate work in Internal Medicine at the University Clinics of Ortner and Chvostek at University Hospital, Vienna. He continued his postgraduate education in neuro-psychiatry for two years (1922-24) at the Neurological and Psychiatric University Clinic under Professor Wagner-Jauregg (who would win the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1927). Reich also worked for one year in the disturbed wards under Paul Schilder. Additional postgraduate studies included attendance at polyclinic work in hypnosis and suggestive therapy at the same University Clinic and special courses and lectures in biology at the University of Vienna.
Most significantly, however, while still in medical school Reich attained membership in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association in October 1920. As an undergraduate, his recognition of the importance of sexuality had drawn him to the work of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was a new discipline which had emerged from Freud’s startling insights into the causes of mental illness. Reich soon became one of the most active younger members of Freud’s inner circle, and was considered one of Freud’s most promising students.
Reich began his private psychoanalytic and psychiatric practice in 1922. He was the First Clinical Assistant at Freud’s Psychoanalytic Polyclinic in Vienna (under the directorship of Dr. Edward Hitschmann) from its establishment in 1922 to 1928; Vice Director of the Polyclinic, 1928-1930; and Director of the Seminar for Psychoanalytic Therapy at the same institution. As a member of the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Institute in Vienna (1924-1930), he gave lectures on clinical subjects and bio-psychiatric theory. He conducted research on the social causation of the neurosis at the Polyclinic from 1924, and at mental hygiene consultation centers in various districts in Vienna (Sozialistiche Gesellschaft feur Sexualberatung und Sexualforschung), centers which he founded and led from 1928 to 1930. Reich’s extensive clinical work and research ultimately led to conflicts with Freud.
Freud had discovered that neuroses are caused by the conflict between natural sexual instincts and the social denial and frustration of those instincts. Freud had also hypothesized the existence of a biological sexual energy in the body. He called it “libido,” and described it as “something which is capable of increase, decrease, displacement and discharge, and which extends itself over the memory traces of an idea like an electric charge over the surface of the body.”
But as the years passed, Freud and his followers diluted much of this concept, reducing the libido to little more than a psychological energy or idea. By 1925, Freud had concluded that “the libido theory may therefore for the present be pursued only by the path of speculation.”
Reich’s clinical work convinced him otherwise. He devoted himself to matters of technique in an attempt to overcome the limitations of psychoanalysis in treating neuroses. And in doing so he observed that sexual energy is more than just an idea, and that sexual gratification, in fact, alleviated neurotic symptoms. He discovered that the function of the orgasm is to maintain an energy equilibrium by discharging excess biological energy that builds up naturally in the body. If that discharge function is disturbed—as it proved to be in all of his patients—this energy continues to build up without adequate release, stagnating and fueling neurotic disorders. Reich also discovered that in psychic disturbances, this biological energy is bound up not only in symptoms, but more importantly, in the individual’s characterological and muscular rigidities—what he called “armor.”
Reich’s orgasm theory set him apart from his colleagues, because it indicated that the libido was a real physical energy that possibly might be measured quantitatively. Reich’s clinical work also led him to develop new therapeutic techniques to eliminate the patient’s character and muscular armor and allow for the flow and discharge of this bio-energy to achieve what he called “orgastic potency,” the capacity for total discharge of sexual excitation in the genital embrace.
But the widespread existence of sexual misery forced Reich to conclude that the solution to the problem of neuroses wasn’t treatment, it was prevention. “You have to revamp your whole way of thinking,” Reich said, “so that you don’t think from the standpoint of the state and the culture, but from the standpoint of what people need and what they suffer from. Then you arrange your social institutions accordingly.” (Reich Speaks of Freud)
Freud, on the other hand, maintained that culture takes precedence, that sexual instincts must be adapted to the existing social structure. These conflicting positions would lead to an eventual break between Reich and Freud.
Reich also devoted much of his time and money educating working class people about the essential role of sexuality in their lives. “I had six clinics in Vienna where people came and received advice once or twice a week…To provide medical and educational help was its purpose.” (Reich Speaks of Freud) To reach the greatest number of people, he worked within the Socialist and Communist parties in Vienna, and later in Berlin, to promote sex education, birth control, divorce rights, and better housing. Reich recalled that in Berlin there were about fifty thousand people in his organization in the first year.
Reich was also very outspoken about Germany’s turbulent political climate. Unlike most members of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Association, Reich openly opposed the rise of the Nazi Party. But Reich’s activities exacted a high price. In 1933 he was denounced by the Communist Party, forced to flee from Germany when Hitler came to power, and expelled from the International Psychoanalytic Association in 1934. Reich called these events “catastrophes which threatened my personal, professional and social existence.”
BIO-ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTS, BIONS,AND THE DISCOVERY OF ORGONE ENERGY(1934 – 1939)
“The discovery of orgone energy was made through consistent, thorough study of energy functions, first in the realm of the psyche, and later in the realm of biological functioning.” — from Ether, God and Devil
Reich traveled to Scandinavia where, despite incessant bureaucratic interferences, he managed to continue his research. In Oslo, while continuing to teach and develop his therapeutic techniques, Reich undertook a series of laboratory experiments to verify the existence of a physical biological energy expressed in the emotions.
Using human subjects, Reich was able to demonstrate a charge at the skin’s surface directly related to feelings of pleasure and anxiety. This charge would increase when a subject felt pleasure, and decrease during feelings of unpleasure. From this, Reich concluded that pleasure is the movement of biological energy toward the periphery of the organism, while anxiety is the movement of this energy toward the center. Reich initially assumed that biological excitation of living matter might be electrical, but the results of these experiments indicated otherwise. For example, the biological energy that Reich measured moved in a slow, wave-length fashion, in contrast to electromagnetic energy which moves much faster. Reich wondered if similar energy processes existed in more basic life forms.
This led Reich to conduct laboratory experiments in which he used time-lapse motion picture equipment affixed to microscopes with over 3000x magnification to record the development of protozoa. During these experiments Reich discovered that under certain conditions, sterilized and unsterilized substances—grass, blood, sand, charcoal and foodstuffs—disintegrate into pulsating vesicles that often exhibit a bluish color. Reich observed internal motility in these vesicles, an effect of energy. He called these vesicles “bions,” after the Greek word for “life.”
Reich’s research also revealed that certain bions exhibited a strong radiation phenomena, and that these bions could kill bacteria and cancer cells. This radiation confirmed the existence of an energy that did not obey any known laws of electricity or magnetism. Reich called this energy “orgone,” because its discovery had evolved from his investigation of the orgasm function, and because this energy could charge organic materials. When Reich published his findings, the scientific and psychiatric communities responded with a vicious year-long attack in the Norwegian press.
In the wake of this attack, and the inevitability of a second world war, Reich began to look to America as the future home for his work. Theodore Wolfe, M.D.—a representative of American psychosomatic medicine who had come to Oslo to study with Reich—was instrumental in arranging for Reich’s emigration. When Reich was invited to teach at the New School for Social Research in New York City, the U.S. State Department finally issued him a visa in the summer of 1939. On August 19, Reich sailed for America on the last ship to leave Norway before World War II broke out.
REICH’S FIRST YEARS IN AMERICA(1939 – 1947)
“There was no doubt of the existence of an energy possessing extraordinarily high biological activity. It remained only to discover what its nature was and how it could be measured.” — from The Cancer Biopathy
Reich settled in the Forest Hills section of New York City; taught courses at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan (“Character Formation: Biological and Sociological Aspects” and “Clinical Problems in Psychosomatic Medicine”); began publishing his books in English; trained American physicians in his therapeutic techniques; and pursued his investigations of orgone energy. This research included:
treating cancer mice with bion injections
developing a cancer serum from bion cultures
finding a way to isolate and collect orgone energy from bions in order to study its functions and make it more usable
And since orgone radiation from the bions seemed to permeate all substances, Reich was constantly confronting questions about the origins of this energy. Where did orgone energy come from?
The Orgone Energy Accumulator (1940)
To isolate and collect orgone from bion cultures, Reich relied on the results of several laboratory experiments. These experiments demonstrated that organic or non-metallic materials—such as cotton, wool or plastic—attract, absorb, and hold the energy. Metallic materials —like steel and iron—attract the energy and quickly reflect it in both directions. On the basis of these findings, Reich constructed small boxes with alternating layers of organic and metallic materials, with the inner walls lined with metal. By looking through a specially designed lens inserted into a wall of each box, one could observe orgone radiation from the bions within the enclosure. These “orgone energy accumulators” also revealed an unexpected phenomenon: the appearance of orgone radiation inside the enclosure even without the presence of bion cultures.
Reich now faced the daunting possibility of having discovered a biological energy that seemed to be everywhere, while still pondering the perplexing question of where orgone energy originated. In Maine, he would soon find the answers.
Reich and Rangeley, Maine (1940)
In the summer of 1940, during a camping trip to New England, Reich discovered the beautiful Rangeley Lakes region. While staying in a small cabin on Mooselookmeguntic Lake (the largest of the Rangeley Lakes), Reich’s observations of the night skies verified the existence of orgone energy in the atmosphere. This discovery of atmospheric orgone was a major thrust forward in Reich’s research. And with its low humidity and clean air, Reich realized that the Rangeley region provided an ideal environment for this work. (In contrast, since water and high humidity absorb and hold orgone energy, the summer weather in New York City made it difficult to carry out his experimentation.) Later that year, Reich purchased a cabin on Mooselookmeguntic Lake where he returned in the summers to continue his experiments.
The Accumulators and Medical Orgone Therapy
Meanwhile, back in New York, the accumulator quickly became an increasingly vital tool for Reich’s research. The accumulator’s organic layers attracted the atmospheric energy which was directed inward by the metal layers. Any energy reflected outward by the metal layers was immediately re-absorbed by the organic material, attracted back to the metal, and directed toward the inside of the box. The result was a higher concentration of orgone energy inside the box. The more layers, the stronger the concentration.
This accumulation of energy can be verified in a number of ways. For example, a constant temperature difference exists between the air above the box and the surrounding air, contradicting the Second Law of Thermodynamics. There also exists a slower electroscopic discharge rate in the higher orgone concentration inside the accumulator than is demonstrated by an electroscope outside the box.
The accumulator now allowed Reich to test the effects of orgone radiation on cancer mice without resorting to bion injections, by simply placing the mice inside the metal-lined enclosure. Because his results with cancer mice were so promising, Reich decided to test the effects of orgone radiation on humans. He constructed accumulators large enough for a person to sit in, and in 1941 began experimental treatments with cancer patients.
They were all terminal cases. Reich promised no cure nor charged any money, as shown by the affidavit that his patients and/or their family members were required to sign:
“I state herewith that I came to see Dr. Wilhelm Reich for possibly helping the case of my _____ who suffers from cancer. I came because I was told of the experiments that Dr. Reich has made with cancer mice and human beings. Dr. Reich did not promise me any cure, did not charge any money, and told me that only during the last few months has he tried the orgone radiation on human begins who suffer from cancer. Death or abscesses could occur as a consequence of the disease. I told Dr. Reich that the physicians have given up the case of my _____ as hopeless. Should death or abscesses occur during the time of the experiment, it will not be because of the treatment.” (The Cancer Biopathy)
Over a period of time, the patients showed marked improvement: relief of pain, healthier blood condition, weight gain, and the shrinkage and elimination of tumors. Despite these positive results, the patients died, reinforcing Reich’s conviction that cancer is a bio-energetic shrinking following emotional resignation, and that the tumors themselves are not the disease, but merely a local manifestation of a deeper systemic disorder. Once again, Reich’s focus became prevention.
Orgonon – A Permanent Home for Reich’s Work
In November 1942, Reich purchased an old farm a few miles from his cabin in Maine. The 160-acre property of fields, forests, and hills bordered a small lake known as Dodge Pond, and commanded stunning views in all directions. Reich called the property “Orgonon,” and envisioned it as a permanent home for his work.
In 1945, a Student Laboratory was built at Orgonon. Three years later, construction began on the Orgone Energy Observatory which included additional laboratory facilities, Reich’s library and study, and outdoor observation decks to observe and study atmospheric orgone energy phenomena. Funding for these buildings and for Reich’s research came exclusively from his own income as a physician and teacher, and from loans and contributions from students.
By 1947, after less than eight years in America, Reich’s work was attracting considerable interest as orgone research expanded into new areas of psychiatry, medicine and biophysics. One of Reich’s most significant new developments at Orgonon was the discovery of a motor force in orgone energy from the atmosphere, a scientific breakthrough with enormous practical implications.
As Orgonon continued to grow, Reich’s dream for a home for his work was slowly becoming a reality. Sadly, it was a dream that would not be fulfilled.
THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION’SCAMPAIGN AGAINST REICH(1947 – 1957)
“The more success I have, the more I sense that I am in mortal danger. And the more successful I become, the less they will be inclined to spare me. It can hit me at any place and at any time.” — Diary entry (June 14, 1947), from American Odyssey
In 1947 an article entitled “The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich” appeared in New Republic magazine. Authored by freelance writer Mildred Edie Brady, it was filled with distortions and innuendos about Reich’s sexual theories and orgone research. Brady’s most inflammatory claim was that Reich was building accumulators of orgone energy “which are rented out to patients who presumably derived orgastic potency from it.”
Implying that Reich was a danger to the public, Brady challenged the medical authorities to take action against him. Two months later, the article was brought to the attention of the Food and Drug Administration. The result was a ten-year campaign by the FDA designed to destroy Reich’s work. The FDA focused on the orgone energy accumulator which Reich and his physicians were using experimentally with patients. Convinced that the accumulator was being fraudulently promoted as a sexual and medical device, FDA agents spent years interviewing Reich’s associates, physicians, students and patients, looking for dissatisfied users. None were ever found.
As the FDA’s investigation continued, so did Reich’s work.
Reich and the Cloudbuster
Reich continued to develop new ways to visualize, measure, and harness orgone energy from the atmosphere. The cloudbuster, for example, was an experimental instrument that could affect weather patterns by altering concentrations of orgone energy in the atmosphere. It comprised a set of hollow metal pipes and cables inserted into water, creating a stronger orgone energy system than that in the surrounding atmosphere. Water, which strongly attracts and absorbs orgone, draws the atmospheric orgone through the pipes. This movement of orgone from a lower to a higher energy system was used by Reich to create clouds and to dissipate them.
Reich used the cloudbuster to conduct dozens of experiments involving what he called “Cosmic Orgone Engineering (C.O.R.E.).” One of the most notable occurred in 1953. During a long drought that threatened the Maine blueberry crop, several farmers offered to pay Reich if he could bring rain to the parched region. The weather bureau had forecast no rain for several days when Reich began his cloudbusting operations. Ten hours later, a light rain began to fall. Over the next few days, close to two inches fell. The blueberry crop was saved, and in local newspaper articles the farmers credited Reich.
The Injunction
In February 1954, the FDA filed a Complaint for Injunction against Reich in the Federal Court in Portland, Maine. The Complaint declared that orgone energy does not exist, and asked the Court to prohibit the shipment of accumulators in interstate commerce and to ban Reich’s published literature which they claimed was labeling for the accumulators.
After considerable thought and discussion of this matter, Reich responded with a lengthy letter to Judge John Clifford, explaining that he could not appear in Court, since doing so would allow a Court of law to judge basic scientific research. He wrote:
“Scientific matters can only be clarified by prolonged, faithful bona fide observations in friendly exchange of opinion, never by litigation... Man’s right to know, to learn, to inquire, to make bona fide errors, to investigate human emotions must, by all means, be safe, if the word FREEDOM should ever be more than an empty political slogan.
Furthermore, Reich asserted, if his painstakingly elaborated and published findings
“...over a period of 30 years could not convince this administration, or will not be able to convince any other administration of the true nature of the discovery of the Life Energy, no litigation in any court anywhere will ever help to do so. I, therefore, submit, in the name of truth and justice that I shall not appear in court as the ‘defendant’ against a plaintiff who by his mere complaint already has shown his ignorance in matters of natural science.”
Judge Clifford did not accept Reich’s letter as a valid legal response, and on March 19, 1954, a Decree of Injunction was issued on default as if Reich had never responded at all. But the Injunction itself was even more excessive than the initial Complaint:
it ordered orgone energy accumulators and their parts to be destroyed
it ordered all materials containing instructions for the use of the accumulator to be destroyed
it banned a list of Reich’s books containing statements about orgone energy, until such time that all references to orgone energy were deleted
After the initial shock, Reich continued his research, traveling to Arizona to experiment with the cloudbuster in the dry desert environment. While he was there, and without his knowledge, one of Reich’ students—Dr. Michael Silvert—moved a truckload of accumulators and books from Rangeley, Maine to New York City, a direct violation of the Injunction.
As a result, the FDA charged Reich and Silvert with criminal contempt of court. Following a jury trial, both men were found guilty on May 7, 1956. Reich was sentenced to two years in federal prison, Silvert was sentenced to a year and a day. The Wilhelm Reich Foundation—founded in Maine in 1949 by students and friends to preserve Reich’s Archives and to secure the future of his discovery of the Cosmic Life Energy—was fined $10,000.
While Reich appealed his sentence, the government carried out the destruction of orgone accumulators and literature. In Maine, several boxes of literature were burned, and accumulators and accumulator materials either destroyed or dismantled. In New York City, on August 23, 1956, the FDA supervised the burning of several tons of Reich’s publications in one of the city’s garbage incinerators, including titles that were only to have been banned. Among the materials burned were:
Orgone Energy Bulletin (12,189 copies)
International Journal of Sex Economy and Orgone Research (6,261 copies)
Emotional Plague Versus Orgone Biophysics (2,900 copies)
Annals of the Orgone Institute (2976 copies)
The Oranur Experiment (872 copies)
Character Analysis
Cosmic Superimposition
Ether, God, and Devil
Listen, Little Man
People in Trouble
The Cancer Biopathy
The Function of the Orgasm
The Mass Psychology of Fascism
The Murder of Christ
The Sexual Revolution
This destruction of literature constitutes one of the most heinous examples of censorship in United States history.
On March 8, 1957, Reich signed his Last Will and Testament. Among its stipulations was the establishment of The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Fund as the legal entity charged with operating Orgonon as The Wilhelm Reich Museum; protecting, preserving, and transmitting his scientific legacy to future generations; and safeguarding Reich’s Archives.
All appeals denied, on March 12, 1957—two weeks shy of his 60th birthday—Wilhelm Reich was temporarily incarcerated at the Danbury Federal Penitentiary in Connecticut. On March 22, he was taken to the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He died there of heart failure on November 3, 1957, and was buried at Orgonon.
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT OF WILHELM REICH
1923-1934
Orgasm theory and technique of Character Analysis
1928-1934
Respiratory block and muscular armor
1923-1934
Sex-economic self-regulation of primary natural drives in their distinction from secondary, perverted drives
1930-1934
The role of irrationalism and human sex-economy in the origin of dictatorship of all political denominations
1934
The orgasm reflex
1935-1936
The bio-electrical nature of sexuality and anxiety
1936-1939
Orgone energy vesicles (bions)
1936-1939
Origin of the cancer cell from bionously disintegrated animal tissue, and the organization of protozoa from bionously disintegrated moss and grass
1937
T-bacilli in sarcoma
1939
Discovery of the bio-energy (Orgone Energy) in sand packet (SAPA) bions
1940
Discovery of Orgone Energy in the atmosphere
1940
Invention of the Orgone Energy Accumulator
1944
Invention of the Orgone Energy Field Meter
1940-1945
Experimental orgone therapy of the cancer biopathy
1945
Experimental investigation of primary biogenesis (Experiment XX)
1945
Method of Orgonomic Functionalism
1947
Emotional Plague of man as a disease of the bio-energetic equilibrium
1949-1950
Orgonometric equations
1951
Hypothesis of cosmic superimposition of two orgone energy streams as the basis of hurricanes and galaxy formation
1947-1951
Anti-nuclear radiation effects of Orgone Energy
1951-1952
Discovery of DOR (Deadly Orgone Energy) and identification of its properties, including a specific toxicity (DOR sickness)
1951-1954
Identification of Melanor, Orite, Brownite, Orene; and initial steps toward pre-atomic chemistry
1952-1955
Use of “reversed” orgonomic potential in removing DOR from the atmosphere in cloudbusting and weather control
1954-1955
Theory of desert formation in nature and in man (the emotional plague) and demonstration of reversibility (OROP Desert Ea and the Medical DOR-Buster)
1954-1955
Theory of disease based on DOR accumulation in the tissues
1950-1957
Equations of gravity and anti-gravity
1951-1957
Development and practical application of Social Psychiatry
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ORGONOMY - GLOSSARY OF TERMS
A new scientific discipline must employ new terms if old ones are inapplicable. Orgonomy introduced the following new terms:
ANORGONIAThe condition of diminished or lacking orgonity (q.v.).
ARMORSee character armor, muscular armor
BIONSEnergy vesicles representing transitional stages between non-living and living substance. They constantly form in nature by a process of disintegration of inorganic and organic matter, which process it has been possible to reproduce experimentally. They are charged with orgone energy (q.v.), i.e. Life Energy, and may develop into protozoa and bacteria.
CHARACTER An individual’s typical structure, his stereotype manner of acting and reacting. The orgonomic concept of character is functional and biological, and not a static, psychological or moralistic concept.
CHARACTER ANALYSISOriginally a modification of the customary psychoanalyatic technique of symptom analysis, by the inclusion of the character and character resistance into the therapeutic process. However, the discovery of the muscular armor necessitated the development of a new technique, namely vegetotherapy. The later discovery of organismic orgone energy (bio-energy) and the concentration of atmospheric orgone energy with an orgone energy accumulator necessitated the further development of character-analytic vegetotherapy into an inclusive, biophysical orgone therapy. (See physical orgone therapy, psychiatric orgone therapy)
CHARACTER ARMORThe sum total of typical character attitudes which an individual develops as a blocking against his emotional excitations, resulting in rigidity of the body, lack of emotional contact, and “deadness.” Functionally identical with the muscular armor.
CHARACTER, GENITALThe un-neurotic character structure which does not suffer from sexual stasis, and therefore, is capable of natural self-regulation on the basis of orgastic potency.
CHARACTER, NEUROTICThe character which, due to chronic bio-energetic stasis, operates according to the principle of compulsive moral regulation.
EMOTIONAL PLAGUEThe neurotic character in destructive action on the social scene.
MUSCULAR ARMORThe sum total of the muscular attitudes (chronic muscular spasms) which an individual develops as a block against the breakthrough of emotions and organ sensations, in particular anxiety, rage, and sexual excitation.
ORGASMThe unitary involuntary convulsions of the total organism at the acme of the genital embrace. This reflex, because of its involuntary character and the prevailing orgasm anxiety, is blocked in most humans of civilizations which repress infantile and adolescent genitality.
ORGASTIC IMPOTENCEThe absence of orgastic potency. It is the most important characteristic of the average human of today, and—by damning up biological (orgone) energy in the organism—provides the source of energy for all kinds of biopathic symptoms and social irrationalism.
ORGASTIC POTENCYEssentially the capacity for complete surrender to the involuntary convulsion of the organism and complete discharge of the excitation at the acme of the genital embrace. It is always lacking in neurotic individuals. It presupposes the presence or establishment of the genital character, i.e. absence of a pathological character armor and muscular armor. Orgastic potency is usually not distinguished from erective and ejaculative potency, both of which are only prerequisites of orgastic potency.
ORGONE ENERGYPrimordial Cosmic Energy, universally present and demonstrable visually, thermically, electroscopically, and by means of Geiger-Mueller counters. In the living organism: Bio-energy, Life Energy. Discovered by Wilhelm Reich between 1936 to 1940.
ORANUR (Orgone Energy Against Nuclear Radiation)Denotes orgone energy in a state of excitation induced by nuclear energy (DOR denotes Deadly Orgone Energy).
ORGONE THERAPY(See physical orgone therapy, psychiatric orgone therapy)
ORGONITYThe condition of containing orgone energy; the quantity of orgone energy contained.
ORGONOMETRYQuantitative orgonomic research.
ORGONOMIC (‘ENERGETIC”) FUNCTIONALISMThe functional thought technique which guides clinical and experimental orgone research. The guiding principle is that of the identity of variations in their common functioning principle (CFP). This thought technique grew in the course of the study of human character formation and led to the discovery of the functional organismic and cosmic orgone energy, thereby proving itself to be the correct mirroring of both living and non-living basic natural processes.
ORGONOMYThe natural science of the cosmic orgone energy.
ORGONOTICQualities concerning the orgonity of a system or a condition.
PHYSICAL ORGONE THERAPYApplication of physical orgone energy concentrated in an orgone energy accumulator to increase the natural bio-energetic resistance of the organism against disease.
PSYCHIATRIC ORGONE THERAPYMobilization of the orgone energy in the organism, i.e. the liberation of biophysical emotions from muscular and character armorings with the goal of establishing, if possible, orgastic potency.
SEX-ECONOMYThe body of knowledge within Orgonomy which deals with the economy of the biological (orgone) in the organism, with its energy household.
STASISThe damming of Life Energy in the organism, thus the source of energy for biopathy and irrationalism.
STASIS ANXIETYThe anxiety caused by the stasis of sexual energy in the center of the organism when its peripheral orgastic discharge is inhibited.
STASIS NEUROSISAll somatic disturbances which are the immediate result of the stasis of sexual energy, with stasis anxiety at its core.
WORK DEMOCRACYThe functioning of the natural and intrinsically rational work relationships between human beings. The concept of work democracy represents the established reality (not the ideology) of these relationships which, though usually distorted because of prevailing armoring and irrational political ideologies, are nevertheless at the basis of all social achievement.

2008-12-16T19:53:00.002-02:00

BOOKS BY REICH (IN ENGLISH)

AMERICAN ODYSSEY
This work chronicles, letters and journals 1940-47, Reich's first years in America. They were years of prodigious accomplishment in which he developed the orgone energy accumulator, the so-called box; published his first books in English; made breakthroughs in his investigation of orgone energy in social pathology, physics, astronomy, and cancer; and interested none other than Albert Einstein in testing his theories. America brought a new marriage, a son, a new group of students, and a new laboratory. But these were years of fierce struggle as well: the denial of an American medical license, the refusal of a patent on the orgone accumulator, and, finally, a slanderous article that would incite the Food and Drug Administration to the dogged attack on Reich that would continue until his death in a prison cell ten years later.

BEYOND PSYCHOLOGY
Composed from letters and journals in Reich's archives, Beyond Psychology records his pioneering laboratory experiments to verify the reality of the pleasure function and his discovery of an unknown energy that exists in all living matter. It records, too, the anguish of a man unafraid to speak his truth in the face of attack and defamation, even though it cost him his profession, his homeland and his adopted country, his wife and two children, and his lover.

THE BIOELECTRICAL INVESTIGATION OF SEXUALITY AND ANXIETY
"How deeply is the function of the orgasm rooted in biology?" is the question addressed here. Sections include: "The Orgasm as an Electrophysiological Discharge," "Sexuality and Anxiety," and "The Bioelectrical Function of Sexuality and Anxiety", Reich's detailed report on the physiological investigations undertaken in Norway (1935-36) in which he sought experimental proof for his orgasm theory.

THE BION EXPERIMENTS
On the Origin of Life
THE Bion Experiments represents a cornerstone in Reich's scientific development. It documents a series of experiments conducted in Oslo in 1936-37 in which Reich applied the formula of tension-charge-discharge-relaxation, derived from his research on the orgasm function, to the microscopic biological world, thereby opening a route to an understanding of the origin of life. This work is divided into two parts: the first, a detailed report on the experiments; the second, Reich's conclusions and an exposition of his research method.

THE CANCER BIOPATHY
The Discovery of the Orgone ,Volume TwoReich's contribution to an understanding of cancer is based on his years of clinical, social, and laboratory study of human emotions and his discovery of the specific energy processes manifested in them. A detailed account of this discovery forms the opening chapters of the book, providing the experimental and theoretical basis for the later chapters in which he presents his findings on the emotional background of the disease, the crucial role played by inadequate sexual functioning that causes a general devitalization and shrinking, the origin of the cancer cell, experimental therapy with laboratory animals and human beings, and, finally, the problems and possibilities of prevention.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS
This third edition of Reich's classic study of human character not only presents the essential first steps, taken between 1928 and 1934, from psychoanalysis to the bioenergetic study of the emotions, but adds three later papers: "The Emotional Plague," "The Expressive Language of The Living in Orgone Therapy," and "The Schizophrenic Split," an extensive case history of a paranoid schizophrenic. This case history will convince the reader that the organismic orgone energy is the physical reality that corresponds to the merely psychological concept of "psychic energy."

CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE
On the Prevention of Sexual PathologyIn this gathering of his writings on children (1926-1952), Reich demonstrates the impact of the environment on infant and child development from the perspective of his knowledge of biological energy functions. Many articles are drawn from studies made in the Orgonomic Infant Research Center, a project initiated by Reich in 1949 to study newborn and infants.

CONTACT WITH SPACE
PUBLISHED shortly before his death, Contact With Space details his expedition to Arizona, 1954-55, to study the processes involved in desert development. It also describes his experiences with unidentified flying objects and his concern that they may play a role in the growing desertification of our planet.

EARLY WRITINGS
Volume One (1920-25)
Clinical studies by the youthful psychoanalytic pioneer that demonstrate clearly his sex-economic approach to neurosis and the importance of the energy principle, which unites all aspects of his work. These early writings include "Drive and Libido Concepts from Forel to Jung," "Concerning the Energy Drives," "Specific Forms of Masturbation," and "The Impulsive Character." They are an integral part of the development that led to the discovery of orgone energy.

ETHER, GOD AND DEVIL / COSMIC SUPERIMPOSITION
There is a great excitement and interest today in what is described as the "paradigm shift" in science. Humanity's understanding of the universe and its place in it is changing dramatically. Ether, God and Devil (1949) and Cosmic Superimposition (1951) are two groundbreaking books that initiated the current paradigm shift long before the concept was popularized in Thomas Kuhn's 1962 work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and the later works of such best selling authors as Fritjof Capra, Gary Zukav, Timothy Ferris, and many more. In Ether, God and Devil, Reich describes his process of thinking - which he called orgonomic functionalism - and shows how the inner logic of this objective thought technique led him to the discovery of the cosmic orgone energy.In Cosmic Superimposition, Reich steps out of our current framework of mechanistic-mystical thinking and comes to a radically different understanding of how man is rooted in nature. He shows clearly how the superimposition of two orgone energy streams - demonstrable in the human genital embrace and in the formation of spiral galaxies - is the common functioning principle in all of nature.Together, these two works usher in a fundamentally new view of humanity, nature, and man's place in the cosmos.

THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGASM
The Discovery of the Orgone , Volume One
The book Reich chose to introduce his work to the American audience. It summarizes his clinical and scientific work from its roots in the Vienna Seminar on Sexology and his first contact with Sigmund Freud to the laboratory experiments in Oslo which confirmed his orgasm theory and led to the discovery of a radiating biological energy, the orgone.

GENITALITY in the Theory and Therapy of Neurosis
Reich first presented the major aspects of his clinical findings on the significance of genitality for the theory and therapy of neurosis in 1927. Published in German as Die Funktion des Orgasmus, the work was dedicated to Freud, who found it "valuable, rich in clinical material as well as in ideas."In 1937, and again in 1944, Reich made extensive revisions for a second edition of this work in which his early thinking on the function of the orgasm was brought into line with his later biophysical discoveries. Genitality is the first publication of this second revised edition. Its title has been changed to avoid any confusion with Reich's later work published in English as The Function of the Orgasm(1942).

THE INVASION OF COMPULSORY SEX-MORALITY
Repudiating Freud's idea that sexual suppression is an essential component of human society, and drawing on clinical experience and the anthropological work of Morgan, Engels, and Malinowski, Reich scrutinizes the relationship of socio-economic living conditions and the formation of human character structure. This study of the invasion of compulsory sexual morality into human society was Reich's first step in approaching an answer to the problem of human mass neurosis.

LISTEN, LITTLE MAN!
With illustrations by William SteigThis heart felt "talk" to the little, average man was Reich's answer to the gossip and defamation that plagued his career. Its sharp criticism combines with an abiding confidence in the "tremendous unmined treasures" that lie in the depths of human nature.

THE MASS PSYCHOLOGY OF FASCISM
In this work Reich has applied his clinical knowledge of human character structure to the social and political scene. He understands fascism as the expression of the irrational character structure of the average human being whose primary, biological needs and impulses have been suppressed for thousands of years. The social function of the suppression and the crucial role played in it by the authoritarian family and the church are carefully analyzed. Reich shows how every form of the organized mysticism, including fascism, relies on the unsatisfied orgastic longing of the masses.

THE MURDER OF CHRIST
The Emotional Plague of Mankind , Volume OneIn this profound and moving work, Wilhelm Reich explores the meaning of Christ's life and reveals the hidden, universal scourge that caused his agonizing death - the emotional plague of mankind. Here, also, the lesson of the murder of Christ is applied to the contemporary social scene. The tragedy of Reich's own death points up the fact that the problems presented in this book are acute problems of present-day society.

PASSION OF YOUTH
Reich's life, no less than his work, was provocative and instructive. In narrative and diary, Reich recalls his childhood and youth on a farm in the Bukovina, his experiences in World War I, and his life as a student at the medical school of the University of Vienna. His diaries record his encounter with Freud and the growth of his conviction that sexuality is the core about which all social life and the inner life of the individual revolves.This book abounds in turbulent emotions and the passion of youth, providing a rare glimpse into the process through which great men develop.

PEOPLE IN TROUBLE
The Emotional Plague of Mankind , Volume Two

Reich describes his observations and experiences in European socio-political movements between 1927 and 1937 from which his insights into the dynamics of irrationalism emerged. The importance of Karl Marx's work and its distortion by communist politicians plays an important role in Reich's account, as does the political activity in the International Psychoanalytic Association which led to his expulsion from that organization in 1934. The Norwegian press campaign against his biological experiments is also discussed in this autobiographical work.

RECORD OF A FRIENDSHIP
The Correspondence of Wilhelm Reich and A.S. NeillWilhelm Reich and A.S. Neill, the founder of the English experimental school Summerhill, first met in Norway in 1936. They remained friends for over twenty years until Reich's death in 1957. Though they were separated for most of those years, a steady exchange of letters kept their friendship alive. These letters which describe their activities, thoughts, their pains and pleasures, form the record of a friendship between two remarkable men.

REICH SPEAKS OF FREUD

THE core ofhis book is a tape recorded interview of Reich conducted in 1952 by a representative of the Sigmund Freud Archives. Speaking in a manner both simple and concise, Reich discusses the personally tragic but scientifically vital implications of his relationship with Freud, a relation between two pioneers who continue to profoundly influence social and scientific thought.The book has an extensive documentary supplement containing pertinent extracts from Reich's writings as well as previously unpublished materials from his archives, including letters to Freud, Adler, Ferenczi, and others involved in the early struggles for and within psychoanalysis. It also includes documents revealing the unrelenting hostility of psychoanalysts towards Reich.

SELECTED WRITINGS
An Introduction to OrgonomyThe ideal introduction to Reich's work. This anthology gives a view of the entire sweep of Reich's work. It presents chapters on the orgasm theory, orgone therapy, the actual discovery of the orgone, orgonomic functionalism, orgone physics, and the emotional plague. It also includes Reich's Response to the FDA Complaint for an Injunction and the injunction itself, as well as a glossary, bibliography, biographical note, and a resume of Reich's scientific development.

THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION
Toward a Self-regulating Character StructureReich's groundbreaking critique of prevailing conditions and conflicts in sexual living is essential if we are to understand whether the "sexual revolution" was a passing upheaval in the 1960's or whether that term, coined by Reich, applies to a basic, ongoing change in our emotional, social, and economic existence.

2008, The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust

2008-12-16T19:41:00.002-02:00

What is Orgone Energy & What is an Orgone Energy Accumulator?

DISCLAIMER

Author's Statement:The following is a presentation of Wilhelm Reich's (at right) discoveries, observations, and theories about orgone energy in reference to the orgone energy accumulator and it's uses. In no way, is the information presented on this website intended to be a substitute for professional medical help but is provided only as an aid in understanding the discoveries of Wilhelm Reich and the ideas behind the functioning of the orgone energy accumulator. A trained, professional health practitioner should always be consulted for any medical problem. Orgonics™ is not associated with any group or individual other than the sole proprietor of the company. References to books and other researchers is given as additional sources for information as a service to readers. Orgonics™ is not advocating or responsible for any claims made by the authors of the materials or websites referenced.
One thing I want to be very clear about: at no time did Wilhelm Reich ever claim that the orgone accumulator "cured" anything. During the period when he was treating people with orgone accumulators, he was extremely cautious about either himself, or his colleagues, falling into the illusion that they had discovered a remedy for the ills of mankind. More than anyone, even today, he understood the origins of what he called "biopathic" illnesses as rooted in the social and emotional misery of people's everyday lives. Reich always acknowledged that his case studies were limited in number; not nearly enough to be definitive, and he always stressed his failures and the remaining questions that required additional research. Having said this, it is also true that the decades-long, pioneering research Reich did accomplish, points to promising directions in which the alleviation, and certainly the prevention, of particular biopathies may someday be possible. I must stress that:
Orgone accumulator devices are experimental; they are not medical devices, and not a substitute for professional medical care. If you have a medical condition, please consult a health care professional.
In modern, western culture, "energy medicine" is a rather new phenomena with homeopathy one of the first forms. In older, Asian cultures, energy medicine has been practiced much longer as in acupuncture and other forms of Traditional Chinese Medicine. How the different approaches can be understood and possibly integrated is unknown. How Reich's discovery of orgone energy and the orgone energy accumulators will be part of these newer discoveries and older practices is also not fully known. Only systematic research will be able to reveal the answers to the many questions that remain.
I am presenting here only a very abbreviated history of Reich's discoveries. In the near future, a fuller account will be given. At the end is a bibliography and resource list where you can find additional information about subjects that I only touch upon. However, because of the amount and importance of information here, I recommend you print these long pages out rather than try to read them off the computer screen.
Theirrie CookSole ProprietorOrgonics

The Connection Between the Mind and Body:Functional Identity
Orgone energy was originally observed by Wilhelm Reich, MD, a psychoanalyst in the late 1920s, as a bio-electrical charge whose flow within the body could be visibly seen as waves passing through his clinical patients as they were experiencing intense emotional breakthroughs. (1) Later, in the 1930s, to confirm his visual observations, Reich was able to objectively measure the movements of this energy by using a very sensitive millivolt meter with sensors attached to the body to record subtle bio-electric charge. He found the energy flowed from the inside body core to the outside surface (towards the world) when a person felt pleasure or expansion; and conversely, it flowed from the surface to the interior (away from the world) during states of anxiety, fear, and contraction. (2)
Reich also noted that the conditions of expansion and contraction affected a person, not only emotionally, but down to the autonomic nervous system, to the cellular, and even chemical levels. (3) States of expansion produce parasympathetic conditions associated with dilation of the blood vessels and increased circulation, pain relief, better digestion and peristalsis, lower blood pressure; and the stimulation of potassium and lecithin production; along with creating a sense of well-being, and sexual excitement. States of contraction, however, produce sympathetic effects: constricted blood vessels, less blood flow, and often pain. In addition, the contracted condition increases blood pressure and heart beat rate, adrenaline flow and cholesterol; it inhibits digestion and blood supply to the genitals and is associated with the emotions of anxiety and "stress".
The ability of the body to expand and contract and not become "stuck" in one mode, created what Reich called the pulsation of life which distinguished the living from the non-living. This pulsation of expansion and contraction also followed a specific four-beat rhythm:Tension - Charge - Discharge - RelaxationReich observed this energy pattern within the organs of the body: from the beat of the heart, to peristaltic movements of the intestine, the bladder, and especially obvious in the sexual function of orgastic discharge. He called this pulsating pattern the function of the orgasm or the Life Formula.
Symbol of Orgonomic Functionalism; Unity and Antihesis:(below)Reich used this symbol to express the idea that what often appear to be intrinsically opposing forces are often opposite expressions that come from a common source. To fully understand those expressions, it is important to understand their common functioning principle (CFP). In the case below, the symbol is used to express the common source of both bodily expansion and contraction as two different expressions of the autonomic nervous system, which together, create pulsation.
The Basic Antithesis of Vegetative Life FunctionsParasympathetic = Expansion, "Towards the World"Sympathetic = Contaction, "Away from the World"
SympatheticParasympathetic
Autonomic Nervous System
Bions and Biogenesis
To better understand the flow and functions of this bio-energy, Reich sought to observe the simplest life forms: microscopic protozoans. He made a startling discovery while preparing a grass infusion ( soaking dry grass in water) which he was told by a biologist would produce the protozoans. Curious to see the actual formation of a protozoa, Reich microscopically observed the swelling grass daily as it underwent decomposition. He saw small, round, blue-glowing vesicles form along the grass edges. It was these small vesicles, which he later called bions, that broke free, regrouped into clumps, formed outer membranes, and eventually swam off as amoebas and paramecium. Further, he found that sterilizing the preparations only accelerated the biogenesis, the creation of living organisms from matter. (4)
A. Vesicles inside a disintegrating blade of grass. 1500X (illustration)B. Bions breaking free of grass and clumping.C. Clumps of bions with a membrane formed around them and internal movement.D. The same organism in a contracted and elongated form: pulsing back and forth.These organisms were observed to swim freely, develop a mouth, and "eat". Some of these organisms stopped returning to the spheroid shape, retaining the elongated shape, and developed further into amoeba.Reich made movies of this process of biogenesis in the mid 1930s.
While further studying the formation and function of the bions, Reich found that they could be made from disintegrating inorganic matter as well as organic and could even be placed on a nutrient media and grown as a culture. One such culture of bions produced from heated sand, had very unusual properties: in the dark, the culture dishes radiated a soft blue color; when held in the hand, a "prickling" could be felt; nearby small lab tools became magnetized; skin of the lab workers became tan under their clothing and when a small amount of the culture was placed next to bacteria, the strongly radiating bions would immobilize and kill them.
Discovery of Orgone Energy
Reich strongly suspected that the sand bions gave off a radiation. To isolate the culture dishes from other sources of possible radiation, Reich built a wire Faraday cage and covered it with cotton and wood. After placing several culture dishes inside and looking through a small opening, he observed flashes of light and bluish vapors inside the box. These visible signs of radiation came definitely from the bion cultures. Even more remarkably, when he took the culture dishes out, the visible effects of this radiation were still seen - even after dismantling, washing, and reassembling the cage. Reich quite accidentally found the radiation that was emanating from the culture dishes was also present, independently, in the atmosphere and could be concentrated within a metal-lined enclosure. He called this radiation orgone energy. (5)
Accumulating Orgone Energy
Reich found that organic materials attracted and held orgone energy; and metal attracted and then rapidly repelled it. By designing an enclosure, similar to the Faraday cage, lined on the inside with metal and made with alternating layers of organic and inorganic materials, he discovered that atmospheric orgone energy was accumulated and concentrated inside. He called this device an orgone energy accumulator. Within the box-like enclosure, the orgone energy given off by an inside metal wall is attracted to the opposite metal wall which again repels it. This creates an oscillation of the orgone energy particles inside. The layering of organic material with metal creates a higher concentration. He experimentally objectified this discovery by observing that the temperature inside an orgone accumulator was higher than inside a control device or outside air temperature. Also, an electroscope which is a device that can be charged with "static" electricity, discharged more slowly inside of an orgone accumulator than outside. These two experiments confirmed that there was "something different" about the atmosphere inside of an orgone accumulator that didn't conform to standard physics. Through many years of careful, experimental research, Reich was able to define the basic properties of orgone energy: (6)
* it fills all space and is everywhere* it's mass free and is the primordial, cosmic energy* it penetrates matter, but at different speeds* it pulsates and is observable and measurable* it has a strong affinity and attraction to/by water* it is accumulated naturally in the living organism by ingesting foods, breathing, and through the skin* the mutual attraction and excitation of separate orgonotic systems result in the merging, or superimposition, of the systems; and the emergence of a new system* orgone energy is negatively entropic: highly charged orgone systems attract lesser charged, which Reich described as the orgonotic potential* orgone energy is excited by secondary energies such as electromagnetism and nuclear energy* when it is concentrated, orgone energy often has a blue-to-violet color.
The Interaction of the Orgone Energy Field of a Person Sitting Inside of An Orgone Energy Accumulator.

The outside, atmospheric orgone energy (dotted lines) is attracted to, and penetrates the inside of the orgone accumulator, making contact with the person's own energy field; the two fields interact, causing lumination.
Orgone Energy in the Body
When Reich was studying the bions, he also observed that red blood cells, when not fixed and stained, also disintegrate into bions like the grass in water. In addition, when red blood cells are looked at in an alive state, an energy field is visible around them and Reich felt they were the carriers of orgone energy as well as oxygen throughout the body. He further observed that when people were ill, the energy field around the blood cells was smaller, and they broke down more rapidly into either bions or numerous, smaller T-bacilli that indicated a toxic condition in the body. ("T" stands for "tod"; the German word for death.) If the production of large amounts of T-bacilli continued, they, in turn, were not only a result, but became a cause of furthering the disease process.
The whole human body generates an energy field, often called an "aura". Normally, we replace used-up orgone energy by eating foods which break down into bions through digestion; also, breathing that takes in orgone energy directly from the atmosphere into the lungs and blood; and the skin absorbs orgone energy, especially when exposed to sunlight, which Reich felt was a major source of orgone energy radiation in the atmosphere. (7) These sources refuel the energy at the biological core and the tension-charge-discharge-relaxation metabolism throughout the body. In a healthy individual, these functions are uninhibited.
The Biopathies
Reich knew from his character-analytic work with patients (8), that most people, mainly because of anxiety, suppress emotions and block their energy flow. We do this by inhibiting our breathing and tensing muscles that prevent a complete pulsation of charge and discharge in our bodies. When the shallow breathing and spastic muscles become chronic, a contractive state sets in and the amount of orgone energy in the body is diminished. Consequently, the orgone field around the red blood cells decreases, the plasma in the cells shrinks, and they more quickly breakdown into the toxic T-bacilli. The entire body is further weakened and becomes susceptible to illness. Reich termed this underlying crippling of the energy functions and the weakening of the body a biopathy. The root word "bio" means life, and "pathy" means disease or suffering. Various physical disorders are only symptoms, or expressions, of this deeper energetic disturbance that affects the body all the way down to the cellular level.
Reich identified two main biopathies which result from a blocking of energy functions. One is the cardiovascular biopathy in which the body's biological core continues to produce energy to the fullest extent and sexual functioning remains alive. However, when the energy hits the contracting blocks, the person reacts with outbreaks of anxiety or anger. Physical symptoms include excessive heart rate, overactive thyroid, diarrhea, etc.
The other biopathy is the shrinking biopathy which occurs when the biological core reduces its energy production and sexual excitation and emotions become weaker and weaker; chronic resignation sets in, fatigue, and an energy suffocation of the cells and tissues. This depletion of cellular energy leads to an accelerated breakdown, an auto-infestation of T-bacilli, and, if prolonged, the appearance of anemia, immune system dysfunctions, degenerative illnesses, and cancer cells.
Another condition, which can occur in both the cardiovascular and shrinking biopathies, is the sudden, excessive clamping down of the energy functions in the body which can directly and severely reduce the amount of energy available from the core to the rest of the body. When this condition becomes chronic, it can become part of the shrinking biopathy; or it can occur only when a person experiences severe sexual anxiety. Reich called this condition anorgonia.
Reversing the Shrinking Biopathy
Even a healthy individual's blood contains some T-bacilli. However, healthy red blood cells and tissues normally break down into the strongly radiating blue bions and the tendency toward disintegration into T-bacilli is fought off; the few that exist are immobilized by the stronger bions. Reich felt that the disposition to disease can be determined by the biological resistance of blood and tissue - the orgonotic potency of the body - against the kind of living decay seen when large amounts of T-bacilli appear. Reich felt this was identical to the concept of "immunity". The key to restoring health is to slow the rate of cellular breakdown and change the cell's disintegration from a T-bacilli reaction to a bion reaction. The way to do this is to increase the energy charge in the red blood cells and tissues; the means to do this is to increase the energy charge in the whole body.
Methods to increase an individuals charge include the encouragement of deeper breathing; physical exercise is helpful here, too. The quality of food is also important as studies of the bionous breakdown of food show that more naturally nutritious foods tend to break down into bions; and heavily processed foods produce more T-bacilli. Exposure to fresh air and sunshine also increase energetic charge.
In this regard, emotional therapy is additionally helpful, if not always essential, to aid in releasing the spastic muscles and inhibitions that led to the chronic holding to begin with. And this is often the hardest work. However, if the currently high sales of anti-depressants, stimulants, and Viagra are any indication, the emotional problems Reich observed are still widespread. He saw the biopathies as both a result and cause of our social and family practices that daily recreate the emotional and physical misery.
The Function of the Orgone Accumulator
When a person uses an orgone accumulating device, the energy field of the user and the energy field of the device make contact, excite each other, and the two fields luminate, creating an even stronger charge. Since a human being has the higher energy charge, the user attracts and absorbs the energy from the accumulator into every part of their body. The increased absorption of the same bio-energy that is in the body helps the body to expand, thereby reducing the contractive state and promoting natural pulsation.
The restoration of the parasympathetic response improves the flow of blood to tissues and organs which allows them to function better, resist damage and recover easier from injury; it promotes cellular growth, eases tension and pain, assists digestion and peristalsis, improves appetite when this is impaired, increases core body temperature and can impart an emotional sense of well-being. The orgone accumulator helps the body to help itself by supplying concentrated orgone energy
In studies using laboratory mice, Reich (and other researchers since) found that the orgone accumulator had a remarkable affect on wounds and burns. In addition, because of the stimulation of the expansive parasympathetic response, the symptoms of "shock" could be affected.
Reich believed that the main contribution of his discovery of the orgone energy accumulator was aiding in the prevention of severe biopathic disturbances.The increased orgone energy recharges the red blood cells and tissues which may reverse the cellular degeneration from a T-bacilli reaction to the healthier bion reaction, thereby improving the entire body's resistance. However, depending upon the severity of the biopathy, this is not necessarily an easy thing to do. The liver and kidneys can have difficulty eliminating the products of degenerative tissues and cells. Detoxifying programs can be especially helpful in relieving this problem. (9)
Today, we have many environmentally provoked cancers where the chronic damaging of tissues can create a localized T-bacilli reaction which can eventually develop into a tumor. Reich noted even in these situations, that the spreading of a tumor was always preceded by the accelerated degeneration of tissue into bions and especially T-bacilli: cancer never spread into healthy tissue.

Who Can Use an Orgone Accumulator?
Orgone energy accumulators can be used by almost everyone. However, Reich noted that people with certain blocked, high energy conditions should either be very cautious or not use an orgone accumulator. An initial increase in heart beat rate often occurs when using an orgone accumulating device. Even though this increased rate usually subsides, often to a lower rate than before use, nevertheless, it can cause harmful stress to already damaged hearts. People with the following heart ailments should not use an orgone accumulator, or only under very close supervision: decompensated heart disease, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis or heavy obesity.
In addition, people with the following blocked, high energy states should NOT use an orgone accumulator: brain tumors, glaucoma, epilepsy or people who suffer from apoplectic attacks
Preliminary experience indicates that caution be used with people suffering from ALS or MS.
Conditions that can worsen with orgone accumulator use are skin inflammations, rashes, and conjunctivitis.
Within the last twenty years, two double-blind experiments using orgone accumulators were performed at medical universities in Germany and Austria. (10) The results confirmed some of Reich's findings: the subjects using the orgone accumulator recorded both higher core body temperatures and also, initially, a faster heart beat rate. In addition, most reported feeling a sense of well-being and various effects associated with a stimulation of the parasympathetic system.
Individuals with very low energy or shrinking biopathies should use the stronger accumulators. How often and for how long a person should use an orgone accumulator is a question that concerns both the energetic strength of the user and the accumulator. A person with robust energy may use a 3 ply accumulator once a week for 10 minutes or only when they are feeling especially tired. An average person may use it twice a week for 15 to 20 minutes, or only when needed. A weaker or aging person may use a 5 ply every other day for 20 minutes, or only when needed; and someone with a severe shrinking biopathy may use a 7 or 10 ply for 20 minutes to an hour every other day for a month. There is no mechanical rule as to how long or when to use an orgone accumulator and it is something the individual needs to work out for themselves.
After using an orgone accumulator for some minutes, a warmth, relaxation and sometimes a prickliness may be felt. The skin may flush and sweat develop. There is a feeling of a "soft glow", and of well-being. When these sensations are no longer felt, or there is a sudden urge to do other things, the session should end. Some people who have very low energy fields may take a month or more of use before they are recharged enough to feel these effects.
When using an orgone accumulator, a person wears as little clothing as is comfortable so that the energy can more easily penetrate the skin. However, being fully clothed is also just fine as the energy will penetrate the clothing, too; it will just take a little longer for the charge to build.
Overcharge Conditions
There is the possibility of becoming overcharged by using the orgone accumulator for too long a time during a session, or too often. The body can only take in so much energy; when this capacity is exceeded, an overcharge is felt. The symptoms of overcharge are a dizziness, pressure in the head, headache, and slight nausea. Simply ending the session and resting in fresh air will quickly dissipate the overcharge. Soaking baths can help reduce the charge also.
Another sign of overcharge is when a person has been using an accumulator daily, notices their energy improving, but they also find it difficult to get to sleep at night or they become constantly flushed in the face, or chronically irritable. If this occurs, cutting back either the amount of time in a session, or not using it every day can alleviate this problem. It is not advisable to continually become overcharged and better to use an accumulator for short sessions, several times a day, than for one over-extended time.
It may also be the case that an orgone accumulating device should not be used long term, every day for months, and especially, years on end; but only when needed for short periods. Even if the user continues to feel benefits after daily long-term use, an overcharge may be present that is not readily felt and that may disturb the natural pulsation of the body. In addition, if a person has a physical problem, using an orgone accumulator will impart more energy, but this may not be solving the underlying problem that caused the lack of energy to begin with. Continual, daily use of an orgone accumulator for months can possibly develop chronic overcharge conditions and should be avoided.
Emotions such as anger, anxiety or sadness can also be stimulated by using an orgone accumulator. These feelings surface when the building energy charge hits a block that can provoke an emotional discharge. An increased energy charge can also create sexual feeling much as cardiovascular exercise can; but it is not a "cure" for orgastic impotency or other neuroses: only emotional therapy can fully address these problems.

Right:
3 Ply Orgone Accumulatorshowing the inside metal walls,a Shooter/Charger Box for the seat,and a Chest/Leg Board folded andleaning against the wall.

Conditions for Properly Using an Orgone Accumulator
Three factors influence the outcome of orgone accumulator use: One, which has already been discussed, is the energetic condition of the user and whether or not a biopathy is present and how severe it is.Another is the quality and strength of the orgone accumulating device and how often it is used.And the third is the energetic environment in which an orgone accumulator is used.
Strength, Materials and Quality of the Orgone Accumulator
The construction of an orgone accumulator is basically the layering of organic and metal materials, with a metal layer closer to the body to repel and direct the energy towards the user. The direction of energy flow is always from the outside organic layer, to the inside which is covered with a metal material. Orgone accumulators are made in various shapes and sizes, out of different materials, and therefore serve a number of functions as you will see on this website.
Materials: The materials used to construct an orgone accumulator are very important for they will contribute to the quality of the orgone charge. Reich used rock wool or fiberglass for his organic layers, as well as certain plastics because he found these materials not only held a charge well, but they also did not tend to hold onto moisture which can decrease the charge. However, polyesters, polyurethane and styrofoams were found not to be good materials to use.
Orgonics has found that natural sheep's wool batting also holds a good orgone charge, does not hold onto moisture as cotton does, and gives a "softer", yet more penetrating charge than the fiberglass. In addition, sheep's wool is not hazardous to work with. Orgonics also uses acrylic felt which is a carbon-based, petroleum product. Acrylic, unlike vinyl or polyesters does not cause a kinesthetic weakening of the muscles; it also holds a strong orgone charge and doesn't hold onto moisture.
Reich also found that it is very important to only use iron-based metals such as carbon steel wool or galvanized steel sheet. The human hemoglobin (blood) molecule is composed of carbon and iron, and carbon steel(iron) is therefore more compatible with charging human and mammalian blood. Other metals, such as aluminum or copper can create an orgone charge, but they appear unhealthy for humans and animals and should not be used.
The number of alternating layers of organic and metal material, determines the strength of the energy charge. The increase in charge can be subjectively felt, and also objectively measured by temperature variations and the rate of electroscopical discharge. A layer consists of both organic and metal and is referred to as a ply. The increase in charge is not in direct proportion to the increase in layers as a 10 ply may be only 2-1/2 times as strong as a 3 ply. However, the 3 ply may create more than 5 times the concentration of orgone energy than in the surrounding atmosphere and is often more than adequate for the average user.
The Energetic Environment
Since the orgone accumulator concentrates atmospheric orgone energy, the quality of the atmosphere is very important to its functioning. Orgone accumulators work best on dry, sunny days when the charge in the atmosphere is strong. The time between noon and 3:00 seems strongest. On cloudy or rainy days, the orgone charge is held in the clouds, off the surface of the Earth, and so the charge of the accumulator will be less. The charge is also less at night when the sun's direct radiation is gone. An orgone accumulating device can still be used under these conditions; it will just take longer for a charge to build up. Full moon nights, though, can be quite energetic. Also, orgone accumulators are stronger at higher altitudes and closer to the equator.
There are days when the atmospheric energy seems "dead"; these days are marked by extreme haziness; sometimes accompanied by excessive heat and dryness. Animal life as well as people seem sluggish and "out of sorts". Reich identified this kind of atmosphere, especially marked by a certain quality to the haziness, as a condition caused by deadened orgone energy that has become toxic. It literally drains the life and moisture out of living things. He called this toxic energy dor: for deadly orgone energy. We are not sure of all the sources of this toxic energy as it is not the same as sulfite-based air pollution. However, it is observed all over the world, especially in association with deserts. When this dorish haze is present, it is best not to use an orgone accumulator, and after it passes, to air out the accumulator in fresh air, or wipe down the metal walls with water to restore a fresh charge. (11)
Above: Hazy "dor" conditions visible in a countryside setting where there are not any sulphite pollution sources such as factories or heavy auto traffic. Note the lack of deep blue sky color and a dullness to the vegetation even though this is a clear, sunny day. Severe dor conditions are when the stand of trees beyond the field would only be barely visible due to heavy dor haze.
Reich also found that strong secondary energies can irritate the orgone accumulator creating an unpleasant, agitated energy reaction called oranur. Reich discovered this reaction while he was experimenting with radioactive materials. (12) The orgone energy went into a frenzied state that irritated and severely overcharged people. If prolonged, the oranur reaction can eventually deaden the healthy orgone, creating a hazy dor condition. The oranur reaction can also occur in the presence of strong electromagnetic fields. In particular, cathode ray guns not only give off strong EM fields from their transformers, but the electron beam itself is so highly charged that it can give off low-dose x-rays. (13)
For these reasons, it is extremely important not to use or store an orgone accumulator near operating TVs, fluorescent lights or CRT computers. Nor should they be used around x-ray machines, radioactive smoke detectors, or within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor. Living near electrical transformer stations, microwave towers and other high-powered energy carriers is not advisable whether you have an orgone accumulator or not. In addition, due to high EM fields, orgone accumulators should not be used near electric sparking motors, air ionizing machines, microwave ovens, or with electric blankets. Strong chemical fumes also disturb the orgone energy. Normal incandescent light bulbs or household appliances do not generate very high EM fields and are usually not a problem on or off.
Strong electromagnetic and radioactive fields are harmful to living things whether or not an orgone energy accumulator is present. Remember, the human body is an orgone energy system, too, and is affected by these radiations even though we may not directly feel them. This is observed especially in children who often become over-excited when they start to watch TV (oranur reaction); however, if their exposure is prolonged, they soon tire and become the "couch potato" (dor condition). Orgonics sells various energy detection meters to help determine the quality of the energy environment so that changes can be made to clean it up.
Where to Place and Store Orgone Accumulating Devices
The large, sit-in, full size orgone accumulator boxes generate a strong orgone field both inside and out, as overtime, a field can develop around it. For this reason, it is best to locate them in an outside covered area where they will remain dry and have a good circulation of fresh air to help maintain their charge. An enclosed back porch, unused garage, or a dry out-building are good locations. If an accumulator must be placed within a home, an unused room, with good ventilation and no orgone irritating equipment will work. Basements can be used as long as they are dry, have good ventilation, and the accumulator is not placed near electrical boxes, furnaces, etc. Frequently wiping down the metal walls with water, or placing a bowl of water inside an accumulator when it's not being used, will help to maintain a fresh charge and discourage an overcharge build-up.
If an indoor room, apartment, or house does develops a stuffy, irritable, overcharged feeling, the area should be immediately ventilated, the accumulator's metal walls wiped down with water, and if possible, the accumulator should be temporarily relocated outside the living area. The Orgonic's full-size accumulator is mounted on wheels to easily move, and it also easily assembles and disassembles for quick relocation.
Industrial, urban environments contain an atmosphere that is often chemically polluted and saturated with EM fields. It still might be possible to have an orgone accumulator in such an environment; however, special precautions must be taken. The room a large orgone accumulator is located in, should be seldom used and have absolutely no orgone irritating devices like computers, fluorescent lights or electric heaters. The room should have constant, good ventilation. A bowl of water should be placed inside the accumulator when not in use and the walls wiped down at least weekly to maintain a healthy charge. Numerous houseplants also help keep the atmosphere in the room fresh. If the room or apartment does become overcharged, there should be a contingency plan for a relocation of the accumulating device so that the charge in the home can return to normal.
I should note that some people, usually with low energy, report the presence of an accumulating device in their home as "energizing and soothing"; however, others have great difficulty tolerating the additional charge and it can be harmful to them. With the increases in high energy solar storms, nuclearized areas, and dor weather emergencies, it is often advisable to store all orgone energy devices outside the living area when not actually being used.
Blankets, Shooter/Charger Boxes and Other Orgone Accumulators
When a full-size accumulator is either too much or inconvenient, a smaller orgone accumulating device can provide the needed energy charge. Blankets are portable and are layered in such a way as to direct the energy from the outside surface to an inside one that goes next to the body. They provide a "softer" energy charge; though the 7 ply blankets can have as strong a charge as the 3 ply, full-size accumulator. The blankets also enable the user to lie down and some, like the belts, can be wrapped around specific areas to bring relief.
The Shooter/Charger Box which is the seat in the full-size Orgonic's accumulators, is also sold separately. It can be used to charge or "structure" water. The alteration in the quality of the water is confirmed by a change in the readings of a spectrophotometer as well as biological seed experiments which show a greater growth in treated seeds versus untreated. Wine has also been "aged" in orgone charger boxes and wine tasters seemed to confirm a smoother taste. Some people even charge food and clothing. However, objective experiments have not been done to confirm these reported changes. The Shooter is a metal, cloth-covered funnel that is inserted into the Charger by an attached hollow metal cable. The orgone energy is then drawn out and can be directed to irradiate local areas, either on the human body, pets, or plants.
Below:A 7 ply orgone blanket in construction showing the layers of wool batting and steel wool.An especially thick layer of steel wool that is felted into a material goes under the light green cover side that will go next to the body. This better directs the flow of orgone energy from the outside to the side that will go next to the user.
Orgone Accumulators are Experimental
Since Reich's death, individual researchers have undertaken experiments with animals and plants to further define and verify the positive effects that Reich reported with orgone energy. (14) This living energy has been called a "universal, dynamic ether"; acupuncturists call it "chi"; a physicists' idea of a "neutrino ocean" describes some of its features; the new class of organisms called "Archaea" touch upon the function of bions, and astro-biologists come close to acknowledging the possibility of biogenesis. No one before or since Reich has been able to so comprehensively objectify the existence and functions of this primordial energy and also develop practical devices that enable us to use it in simple, yet remarkable ways. Sometimes it is said that Reich discovered "too much" and therefore he can't be right. Naturally inquisitive, he followed a "red thread" of inquiry and astute observation that lead from one discovery to another; never assuming that he "already knew" anything completely. His work was only the beginning; much still remains to be learned and discovered. Reich lifted a curtain and revealed a universe waiting to be explored.

Comment by Wilhelm Reich about the importance and function of orgone energy in the body:
"If you assume that the material atom particle is the basic unit of the universe, including life, then you are also correct in assuming that the chemical compounds you find in a specific disease are building stones of that particular disease."However, you are fundamenatlly wrong in concluding thus if it is conclusively shown that all subjects of chemistry are SECONDARY products of primary MASSFREE energy functions in the living organism. The chemical compound one may find in schizophenia or cancer is not its "cause" or "sources of existence"; it is merely a by-product of the disease process. As a by-product, it may also contribute SECONDARILY to the development of the disease picture."Arteriosclerosis, for example, shows hard deposits in the walls of the blood vessels. But these deposits are not the cause of arteriosclerosis. It is one of its secondary characteristics. To understand the disease process "arteriosclerosis" we must learn to know what kind of dysfunction in the PRIMAL ENERGY METABOLISM is responsible for the production of this deposit. Could it be that chronic contraction of blood vessels will necessarily change certain massfree PREATOMIC OR[orgone] functions - such as DOR into Melanor and then possibly into calcium mass? This opens the door for us to the functional, PRE-ATOMIC, bio-energetic aspect of disease."
Wilhelm Reich in editorial notes to Rocky Road to Functionalism, by Robert McCullough, CORE, Vol. VII, Nos. 3-4, Dec. 1955

2008-12-16T19:41:00.001-02:00

What is Orgone Energy & What is an Orgone Energy Accumulator?

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