SEMINAR EVENTS INFO:
A full refund will be given, less an 8% processing fee in some cases (at our discretion), when requested earlier than two weeks prior to the event in question. No refunds starting two weeks prior to the event, except in the cases of documented emergencies, or if, on our determination, the event fills up and the withdrawing person's seat is taken up by other registered participants. No refunds if -- as sometimes happens -- people get upset by the subject material (see below).
Note on the Challenge of Orgonomic Research to Conventional Metaphysical/Mystical and Ideological Viewpoints:
The Orgone Biophysical Research Lab (OBRL) is an Oasis of knowledge and help in the midst of a global social and emotional desert, only one of a handfull of such facilities in existence. We do not open our doors to just anyone, particularly to those who would merely wish -- consciously or unconsciously -- to "muddy the waters" with contemptuous attitudes towards the subject material of our work and seminars. With growth of public interest in the work of Wilhelm Reich, and in my own confirming research, new problems have emerged which prompted the writing of this Notation.
The materials presented in the OBRL seminars are natural-scientific in nature, as controversial and emotionally-challenging as they are enlightening and of great practical value. Most students who attend come away very satisfied and re-energized, if not overwhelmed with new ideas. A few students come to the seminars with deep mystical-religious or ideological-political ideas, however, and they should be prepared to have those ideas radically challenged, even shaken to their core. This is particularly so for the sexual-cultural aspects of Reich's work, and my own work, as covered during the Saharasia sections where we go into that subject material in greater depth. Most students deeply appreciate and enjoy this challenging material, as it is so unusual and they do not get it within their university courses, where functional research approaches and the work of Wilhelm Reich in particular are generally excluded. Occasionally, however, a few persons have become upset with the seminar content, as they really did not have a good appreciation for Wilhelm Reich's discoveries, or knowledge about how far-reaching is the social critique in my Saharasia. They may have thought that Reich's discovery of the life energy automatically confirmed everything they had believed about Eastern metaphysics, which also speaks about "life energy" but only in very general terms and often with an emphasis upon emotional/sexual repression, or the necessity of becoming a devotee to a guru. Or they learned about Reich and orgone energy from groups pushing big distortions of Reich, such as "chembusters" and "Holy Hand Grenades" (see this note for example), and get upset when they learn the facts are entirely at odds with what they believed. Or they had taken courses on body-therapy or healing-touch seminars where Reich was mentioned, but with considerable incompleteness or distortion of his findings in that area. Or they deny the role of sex-repressive mysticism in the "mass psychology of fascism", or refuse to accept criticisms of contemporary physics theories.
Students from cultures where male or female genital mutilations are the norm, or where arranged marriages and female subordination (the veil) is practiced, often get very upset when those practices are identified as pathological, based upon sexual hatred and sadism, as opposed to the high-sounding mysticism which is used to justify them. Self-identified Muslim students in particular have become very upset during my lectures and seminars -- to the point of violent reactions. We had Buddhist students (one with shaved head and robe) who literally became "unglued" during the seminars. One nearly had a nervous breakdown, trembling and fainting, while another who was a Tibetan Buddhist Lama became enraged, later making angry public denunciations against OBRL. The subject material of Reich's Orgonomy, and my Saharasia is extremely upsetting to some people, even while liberating and exhillariating to most of our seminar participants. These reactions occurred even though the materials were always presented sympathetically and only with factual and quantitative detail, without bias or prejudice.
Consequently, we reserve the right to refuse admission to applicants who self-identify with extremely sex-repressive religious ideology or with right- or leftist-political extremism, or who have willfully made chronic distortions of Reich's work in the public arena. We embrace and can greatly benefit the authentic and honest student (of any age or work background) who seeks accurate information, who asks honest questions and wants to go deeper into the subject material. For their sake, and our own, however, we do not feel obliged to share our knowledge with those who strongly self-identify with social movements or religions which are deeply hostile towards sexual love and "the other" (eg, racism, Jew-hatred, etc.), who have a personal history of distorting or attacking Wilhelm Reich and orgonomic findings, or who by our estimation would merely abuse what we offer for their own power-seeking and concealed-hatred reasons.
The challenges to contemporary mechanistic science, to metaphysical theories and religions, and to conventional thinking in general, as implicit within Reich's discoveries and within my own more recent verifying discoveries presented at OBRL, may in fact undermine people's cherished ideas and entire world-views. This, we cannot help, nor would we wish to do things otherwise -- in fact, most people are attracted to Reich and my OBRL seminars for this very reason! We do not compromise on the essentials, nor pay any mind to "politically correct" ideology. In the event a seminar participant conceals their extremist or deeply mystical views to gain admission, and then finds the OBRL seminar material too challenging and stressful, and wishes to prematurely withdraw from the course of study, they certainly have every right to do so, but we will no longer give refunds to participants who quit for such reasons.
Hopefully my precautionary sentences will not be off-putting, as the tone and organization of the seminars is really quite relaxed, with much open discussion on vital and fascinating, though often emotionally-challenging topics. I am always reminded of Reich exclamation, which suggests he also came up against this same problem:
If you are the kind of student who seeks out thorny issues, to better appreciate the authentic "wild roses", who takes the "road less travelled" and has an inquiring curious nature, wanting to get the straight facts about Reich and orgononmy, free from distortions or compromises, then you most definitely will want to attend the OBRL seminars.
Thanks for your attention to this important issue.
James DeMeo, Ph.D.
Director of OBRL
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