In 1954, the FDA filed an injunction against Wilhelm Reich; declaring that all Orgone Accumulators must be dismantled, books and lab notes mentioning Orgone burned, and that Wilhelm was forbidden from telling others about how to accumulate Orgone.
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They never claimed to cure anything. When they treated cancer with Orgone Accumulators, they encouraged everyone to carry on with their regular treatment of radiation with their doctor.
It was all carefully done, scientifically stringent, just some brave doctors trying orgone accumulators as adjuvant treatment, and even if they didn't work, what's the harm?
These weren't quacks selling snake oil cures, it couldn't resemble that from any conceivable angle
He did not stop when he got the injunction; the scientific work carried on, the journals were still being published, nothing was destroyed.
Since he openly disregarded it, he was called before a District Court in Maine.
He represented himself:
"My factual position in the case does not permit me to enter the case against the FDA, since such action would imply admission of the authority of this special branch of the government to pass judgment on primordial, pre-atomic cosmic orgone energy"
Reich's opening defense statement emphasized that he had indeed violated the injunction order. Judge Sweeney warned him: "You're practically pleading guilty"
Reich insisted that the injunction "had to be violated"
He then introduced witnesses who established that he and his colleagues "were armed constantly" with rifles "to protect our work against espionage"
Reich called his assistant as a defense witness:
Reich: "Tell the jury, if I was ready to die last summer"
Judge: "He can't possibly know that"
Reich: "Did you prepare a grave for me?"
Prosecution objects: "That's ridiculous"
Reich: "It's not ridiculous if you're in it"
Reich was incarcerated, and died in his prison cell mere days before he was due to apply for parole.
Michael Silvert, his assistant was also incarcerated until 1957, shortly after being released he took his life. 😒
They burned almost six tons of books and lab notes.
I've been able to find and read much of what was burned, but we'll never know what we lost. The real shame is that very few has been continuing his research; the few who are, have been able to replicate everything he found in his experiments.
It can be hard to believe the FDA injunction actually says these things, but it's true. Here it is:
web.archive.org/web/2007062801…
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