Wilhelm Reich's discovery of "bions" - life energy

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.

- the above excerpted from  http://www.wilhelmreichmuseum.org/biography.html