Date: Thu, 11 Jan 1996 18:23:17 -0500
From: EGehrman@eworld.com
To: orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Subject: bions
Sender: owner-orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu

 Perhaps you know of other web sites that would carry this short essay.  
Thanks,
Ed Gehrman (egehrman@eworld.com) 

 Wilhelm Reich M.D. wasn't looking for what he found.  He just wanted some
protozoa to study energy flow and verify his belief that the sexual energy of
the libido was much more than a Freudian metaphor.
 Reich was then living in Oslo, having fled Berlin after Hitler came to
power.  He was given a preparation of protozoa by the Oslo Botanical
Institute but wasn't having much success culturing them.  A technician
suggested that Reich make his own infusions of hay and examine them in ten to
fourteen days and the protozoa would appear.  Reich asked him where these
protozoa came from and the technician answered that the protozoa were
"encysted germs".  Reich decided to see for himself what this phenomenon was
all about.  By watching the edges of the hay(Reich was an excellent
microscopist)  he saw that the blades of the hay material slowly
disintegrated into small vesicles he named "bions".  But the process didn't
stop there.  These bions would start to accumulate, then pulsate and
eventually form a protozoa.  He photographed and filmed this amazing
procedure, and  wrote extensively about his discoveries in The Bion
Experiments .  These experiments have been replicated many times. In Germany,
today, scientific groups are being established around Reich's work in
biology.  
 The remainder of Reich's life was spent following the implications of these
simple but monumental observations.  His findings were immediately ridiculed
and he was said to be seeing only brownian movement but he rebuked his
critics with the following:  
 "Doubtless, there exists movements of extremely fine particles that allow a
mechanical interpretation.  For example, I myself believe that the movement
of vesicles back and forth in place is not a biological nature.  Whether
molecules are moving them back and forth I do not know, since I have never
seen molecules, any more than have the proponents of the purely mechanical
Brownian movement.
 Now let us clarify what the physical-mechanical interpretation advocates.
 Since neither the particles nor the molecules ever disappear in the
solution, the molecular impulses should logically, continue indefinitely, as
should the movement of the particles.  In addition, all the particles in
approximately the same size range would all have to be in motion.  Finally,
the only type of movement possible under these circumstances would be from
place to place.
 Contraction and expansion of the contents of the particles cannot be
explained by the mechanical interpretation.  How could an impulse from a
molecule outside the particle cause vibration or an expansion inside."
 Reich tried to answer all criticism in an honest and forthright manner, but
scientists wouldn't listen. The science of that time and still today insists
that chance occurrence led to life machines, and nothing else will do.  The
knowledge that the stuff of life is inherent to matter ( mother, material) is
threatening to the world view that modern science under pins: survival of the
fittest, the near sighted Darwinian evolutionary vision.
 Reich's meticulous experiments show clearly that there exists a massless
energy (thought like?) which he named Orgone.  When matter is made to swell,
it will disintegrate into energy vesicles he called Bions. "The bion is the
elemental functioning unit of all living matter".  This massless energy
powers all creation. "The fundamental question of all biology concerns the
origin of the inner impulses in the living organism.  No one doubts that the
living is distinguished from the non-living by the internal origin of the
motor impulses.  The internal motor impulse can be ascribed only to an energy
active within the organism.  The question of the origin of this energy itself
is answered by the bion experiment. "?    
 He insisted that there were objective methods and tools available for
exploring Orgone, but  scientists refused to read the lucid descriptions of
his work and his methodology.  Why?  Because they knew that he couldn't
possibly be right.  It didn't fit with their theories, so they labeled him a
crackpot, and that was the end of that!  
 Where do protozoa come from if not from disintegrating matter as Reich
asserts?  Modern science would have us believe that they come from "cysts".
 Their story is that the protozoa flower and spread encysted spores or cover
themselves with a shell (cyst) and wait for favorable conditions.  It's
impossible to find these cysts in the environment or any other place, but
science ignores this obvious paradox.  Also, how do protozoa replenish their
fluid?
 Is there any objective proof at all for the cyst theory of protozoan
reproduction?  I would like to hear from any scientist that can explain this
perplexity.  If there aren't any, I suggest that Reich's simple depiction of
disintegrating matter and bion formation replace the present convoluted
theories sketching the origins of life.


     --- from list orgonomy@lists.village.virginia.edu ---

Web Hosting · Blog · Guestbooks · Message Forums · Mailing Lists
Allwebco Web Templates · Build your own toolbar · Free Talking Character · Audio, Fonts, Clipart
powered by bravenet.com