Orgone Biophysical Research Lab
OBRL Summer Seminars - Report
http://www.orgonelab.org/events.htm
This year, OBRL hosted three weekend seminars (on "Saharasia and Primitive Peaceful Societies", "Bions, Biogenesis and the Reich Blood Test" and "The Orgone Energy Accumulator") and a 3-week Independent Study program. Participants included students and professionals from across the USA and Alaska as well, with others from Australia, France, Greece, Germany and Mexico. While attendance was low this year (we did not mail around our usual printed flyers) this made for a more focused and attentive group with a greater interaction. This year also saw the employment of new measuring equipment at OBRL, notably new computer data-acquisition systems allowing for long-term measurment and recording of data from various apparatus, which was put to good use in various demonstrations.
* Cross-Cultural Studies
During the "Saharasia" seminar, following open discussions and case study examples of peaceful societies, lively discussions were held making relative comparisons of human armoring and social violence as they exist in the modern world. Using a quantitative matrix derived from the various social factors used in preparing the original World Behavior Map (see p.73 of "Saharasia"), and by consensus open discussions among the international group in attendance at the seminar, the following regional computations were made:
Extreme Matrist (unarmored) and Peaceful = 0 minimum
Trobriand Islanders, Muria, Mosuo, Etc. = 0
Scandinavian nations = 1
Greece = 1.5
Germany today = 1
Germany during the Hitler years = 7
Australia = 2.5
USA = 3
Israel = 3
Palestinians (West Bank, Gaza) = 10
Saudi Arabians = 10.5
Extreme Patrist (armored) and Violent = 14 maximum
It should be noted, the group was composed of individuals from both conservative and liberal backgrounds, though nobody was what Reich's evaluations would call a "political character". The social factors used to determine these values were: female premarital sexual taboos, segregation of adolescent boys (from girls), male genital mutilations, bride price, polygamy, marital kin-residence, post-partum sexual taboos, descent, land and property inheritance, high god belief, class and caste stratification, and slavery (kidnap or female). For any given variable, each nation was rated with either a "yes" or "no", or mixed "yes and no" where appropriate, with each "yes" obtaining one point, and each "yes and no" obtaining half a point. The margin of error is probably around 1 point.
The class exercise produced only preliminary results, and an effort is underway to produce a regional analysis for the entire world, in a much more rigorous manner. But the preliminary computations suggest that the regional matrist-patrist values presented on the World Behavior Map in my book Saharasia -- which reflected social conditions around the world during the period c.1850 - 1940 and which excluded European-derived culture in Oceania and the New World -- remains a reasonably accurate descriptor of the human condition today. Certainly, the social violence found in the Arab-Muslim world, across Saharasia proper, remains at very high levels (as expressed against their own countrymen, against other Arab-Muslim cultures, as well as against Westerners and Israelis).
For more details, see "Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence, In the Deserts of the Old World", by James DeMeo
http://www.saharasia.org
* Microbiology
Various demonstrations of Reich's original experiments on the microscopical bions were made for the class, and observations were made of protozoans developing from clumps of bions in various stages of development. Motile round bionous clumps, slowly rotating and developing towards new living creatures, were observed and videotaped. Blood and its degenerated forms were also observed in both brightfield and darkfield, and displayed on the TV monitor for the class. Dr. Richard Blasband came in from California to assist in the presentation of the weekend laboratory seminar. We now have sufficient video footage to produce an excellent DVD on the seminar, and hope to do so once OBRL obtains decent video/DVD editing and recording equipment. Bion micro-photos from previous year's seminars were published in Pulse of the Planet #5.
http://www.orgonelab.org/cart/xpulse.htm
* The Orgone Energy Accumulator
Demonstrations were made of basic orgone accumulator construction materials and principles, and students made extended observations in the orgone accumulator darkroom. Special luminescent materials kept inside the darkroom allowed observation of "heat-wave" scintillations and movements which were magnified and studied. Anomalous light within glowing high-vacuum "vacor" tubes, charged up in the accumulator for several years now, were also demonstrated. A photo of this effect was previously published on the cover of "Pulse of the Planet #5: Heretic's Notebook".
http://www.orgonelab.org/cart/xpulse.htm
A new To-T apparatus, demonstrating the anomalous heat production within a three-ply orgone accumulator (as compared to a thermally-balanced control enclosure) was on display, showing a near-constant positive To-T, of from 0.05 to 0.25 - degree C. higher temperatures within the accumulator than in the control, around the clock. The new To-T apparatus and experiment was designed specifically to answer objections against the classical thermodynamic issues regarding creation of a matched control enclosure of nearly-identical thermal resistivity and heat capacity. The new To-T apparatus also overcame problems observed in other similar experiments with respect to "thermal lag" and upper-surface heating by incident infra-red radiation. The preliminary results suggest the upper-chamber To-T is prone to serious artifacts (such as overhead IR-radiation which warms the upper metal surface of the accumulator over the control), while the interior measurements of a sealed accumulator and control, with multiple layerings or plys, will yield a real and consistent To-T. This work continues and eventually will be published, but we can announce that this very positive result which appears to answer and overcome all of the known classical thermodynamic objections.
Another seed-sprouting experiment was carried out by the Independent Study students, showing an approximate 40% increase in seedling growth inside the accumulator as compared to a control enclosure. The students run this experiment each year, to convince themselves of the reality of orgone energy and the power of the orgone accumulator. Results of prior years' result of this experiment, with photographs and statistical data analysis, were also published in Pulse of the Planet #5.
http://www.orgonelab.org/cart/xpulse.htm
* Life Energy & Earth Energy Fields
Demonstrations were made of an early prototype of Reich's original orgone field meter, as well as with the new experimental Life-Energy Meter made in Canada by Mr. Dave Marett. Observations with the latter device clearly demonstrated human energy fields and relative fields of various foodstuffs, but suggested quantitative use of the device is highly dependent upon precise control procedures and laboratory technique, similar to those required for sensitive pH meters.
http://www.orgonelab.org/cart/ylemeter.htm
Seminar participants in the Independent Study course reconstructed one of Wilhelm Reich's apparatus, for "experimental demonstration of the Earth's attractive force while it's orgone energy field is luminating" as described in the article "Orgonomic Functionalism in Non-Living Nature" (in Orgonomic Functionalism, Vol.6, p.2, 1996). The apparatus worked as described by Reich, with a flat metal disk of around 10" diameter suspended in balance over an 8" hollow metal tube half-buried into the ground -- on sunny days, the metal disk is replused upward a slight amount, in keeping with the expansive tendencies of the Earth's orgone energy field, while on rainy days, the disk loses a bit of weight and drops lower onto the opening of the metal tube. Another of Reich's devices, the orgone pulsation demonstrator (see Cancer Biopathy, p.144, Fig.17) was the subject of interest, but yielded only questionable results which require additional investigation and development.
* Oranur Research
Direct study of nuclear decay processes were made in a special Wilson-type of cloud-chamber. Cosmic ray tracks were thereby directly observed, and natural background radiation was compared to nuclear decay from refined and purified sources. Natural background and mild alpha sources, for example, were characterized by soft-appearing tracks, often with a spiral-form motion, while refined nuclear materials (such as C-14 or Cs-137) showed "agitated" and highly erratic tracks. The latter appeared able to erase the former, and a significant percentage of track-directions were uncorrelated with locations of the nuclear sources -- in many cases, increased particle tracks from a nuclear source would move toward the nuclear source, or at right-angles to it, as often as moving away from that source. A number of anomalies were thereby observed, which appeared in violation of classical atomic theory, but in agreement with Reich's original findings on the "oranur effect". The general conclusion was, that nothing seen in the cloud-chamber could be used to defeat Reich's findings on oranur, and his re-definition of the Geiger-Muller ionization effect as being basically due to orgone energy processes. Instead, much new observation was made to support Reich's view over classical nuclear-decay theory.
The period of the summer seminars also saw the termination of an extended experiment conducted by Dr. DeMeo, with the prolonged charging (over 2 years) of special radiation detection equipment inside the orgone accumulator darkroom. A Ludlum neutron detector, previously calibrated and yielding background neutron counts of around one count per minute, was activated by orgone energy to yield up to 20,000 neutron cpm, as observed over a period of several hours, a count-rate which would normally be found only in the heart of a nuclear reactor, or close to an atomic detonation. No nuclear materials were present, however, and the anomalous high cpm was only from normal "background" interactions with concentrated orgone energy charging the detector. The observation was witnessed by the various seminar participants, and repeated several days later, in a most dramatic confirmation of Reich's earlier observations.
* Greensprings Observatory
This year, seminar participants got several opportunities for extended viewing in the OBRL Greensprings Observatory. On one night with especially good "seeing", the planet Mars was viewed with exceptional clarity, showing its ice-cap and other continental features. Video display of the images was also possible, with a final image of Mars on the television monitor of exceptional clarity. Daytime observations of sunspots as well as of the wave-form motion of the atmospheric orgone were also made.
In addition to revisiting some of the older, well-established orgonomic discoveries, such as bions and plant-growth enhancement in the orgone accumulator, many new and interesting phenomena were observed this year, replicating Reich's findings and even extending them into new territory. The new findings will eventually be more fully described and published in the #6 issue of Pulse of the Planet.
* Thanks and Acknowledgements
The seminar series this year was appreciated by everyone, and will be repeated next summer as well. Watch the OBRL website over the next months for more information about next year's program. A big thanks to the Independent Study research assistants for their help in the preparation and carrying out of the seminars, as well as for their hard work in the week beforehand helping with brush-clearing, painting, repairs, and digging a ditch for the water pipes of the waterpump-fighting system. It is due in large measure to the engaged and enthusiastic efforts of the various assistants that OBRL improves and grows with each passing year. In particular, I wish to thank this year's OBRL research assistants (who are knowledgable professionals in their own right): Christian Angelliaume, Dean Davidson, Tom DiFerdinando, Ben Johnson and Thanassis Mandafounis, and also our other Independent Study participants Janice Voelker and Paul Grilley.
Open Appeal to Donors
The above-described research is only possible due to the kind and generous donations we have received in the past, which have allowed us to purchase necessary equipment, and maintain the facilities at OBRL. It can hardly be stressed enough, that the costs involved are far beyond our own modest pocketbooks, and even the seminar fees paid by students barely covers the expenses for the summer events. Please review our open fundraising letter on our website, and help out as best as you can. OBRL is one of the few Institutes in the world which is dedicated to full-time research into Reich's original orgononomy, without compromise or dilution of its most central and important findings.
http://www.orgonelab.org/funding.htm
Sincerely,
James DeMeo, Ph.D., Director,
Orgone Biophysical Research Lab
PO Box 1148
Greensprings, Ashland, Oregon 97520
E-mail to: info(at)orgonelab.org
(Click or copy into your email program and insert the "@" symbol)
August 14th, 2003
http://www.orgonelab.org/events.htm
Previously posted out to OBRL-News-Bulletin at Yahoo Groups
Additional Articles and Materials:
* Click here to review and/or purchase books by James DeMeo.
* The Orgone Biophysical Research Lab: James DeMeo's Research Website.
* The Saharasia web page.
* The Complete OBRL / Natural Energy Works On-line Bookstore and Product Shop
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