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OML Archives-
Subject: Response to "Orgonomy Peddlers..."
Article 2/3 - Mon, 19 Feb 1996 17:11:50 -0500
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 17:11:50 -0500
To: orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
From: James DeMeo <demeo@mind.net>
Subject: Response to "Orgonomy Peddlers..." Article 2/3
Sender: owner-orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
(Continued from 1/3)
DeMeo's 1992-1993 Experiments in Namibia, Africa:
The author of "Orgonomy Peddlers..." asserts there is a drought in
Namibia every 3-4 years, and that there is an important biogeological dust
transport from southern Africa to the adjacent oceans and Brazil. In these
assertions there is partial truth, and partial exaggeration.
However, both assertions are completely irrelevant to the Namibia
cloudbusting experiments. Namibia encompasses two major desert areas, the
western parts of the Kalahari Desert, and the Namib Desert, which one might
view as the dry core of southern Africa. The Namib is one of the driest
places on the planet, and during our cloudbusting work there, we never
desired or attempted to bring rains to the Namib. Dust transport from the
Namib, whatever its true nature, surely was not significantly affected by
the rains which followed our work. Namibia continues to have a
well-pronounced dry season, which is quite dusty.
At the time when our expeditions were first organized, the entire
nation of Namibia had suffered from a 10-year drought, with diminished
rainfalls over a vast area. According to local farmers, only 20 or 30
years previously, areas of the Namib which were completely barren and
hardpan had previously been covered in knee-high prairie grass. Our team
visited a number of abandoned farms, lying on the fringes of the Namib. It
was not the product of overgrazing, but rather, a measured decline in
rainfall, which appears to have started at the time when one of the world's
largest open-pit uranium mines was developed at the edge of the Namib
Desert. That desert was in a dramatic state of over-expansion, with oranur
conditions predominating, and it was drying up the surrounding countryside.
For the three or four years prior to our work, the drought had become more
acute, affecting southern Africa with severe drought, and famine was
inevitable within months. Millions of lives were at risk. Wildlife was
already dying. We visited the Etosha Wildlife Refuge in northern Namibia,
and did not see a single living elephant during the several days we were
there, the populations of all wildlife having been reduced to very low
levels from drought and lack of vegetation, and lack of drinking water
(most of the smaller streams and water-holes were completely dried up). It
was an ecological catastrophe happening before our eyes. It was very
fortunate our research team was there at that critical moment. Our
efforts, which required many months of preparations and field work under
difficult conditions, appear to have ended that drought, through careful
application of the original principles and findings of Reich.
This author would denigrate our work in Namibia, about which only a
few details have been published (J. DeMeo: "Orop Namibia 1992-1993", Pulse
of the Planet 4:115, 1993) with some blatantly false and malicious claims:
"DeMeo has caused irreparable harm to the global environment. He simply
doesn't know - or doesn't care - anything about ecology". What a
heartbreak, that the world might learn about our important work in Africa
in this distorted manner!
Cloudbusting in California
Here, it was asserted that the CORE Network "extended the rainy
season by a month one year and 6 weeks another year". I do not recall ever
making such a comment. Even if it were true, rainy seasons in California
do not start or stop like clockwork, and frequently begin or end weeks off
the average. There also is significant difference in the average length of
the rainy season for the northern part of the state, versus the southern
part. The author of "Orgonomy Peddlers..." makes this accusation as a
prelude to another undocumented claim, that cloudbusting work was
responsible for the deaths of "a significant percentage of baby birds" in
the area around Pt. Reyes. Again, this is so vague and undocumented it
cannot be responded to.
DeMeo's 1991-1992 Cloudbusting in Israel
The author of "Orgonomy Peddlers..." asserts he has documentation
showing "numerous deaths in the region as a result of catastrophic weather"
caused by a field expedition I led to Israel in 1991-1992. How does he
reach such an alarming conclusion? There are no details. Let's review the
facts of this particular field work.
Nearly every natural weather change and strong storm claims some
lives, due to speeding cars on slick roads, or in those cases where rains
are heavy, people gambling with their lives by wading or driving through
swollen streams or rivers, swimming or surfing in heavy ocean swells and
such. Property and lives are also occasionally lost when city planners and
developers build homes or roads in dry river beds or depressions, which in
drylands can often fill with water. In the USA and Europe, there are now
increases in surface runoff and flooding associated with urban sprawl,
river and stream channelization, deforestation and related siltation of
drainage basins, such that a given quantity of rains will produce higher
river levels than in years past, when there were fewer people, more trees,
and more natural riverine landscapes. In mountain areas, deforestation and
increases in unhealthy trees, with decayed root structures, has led to an
increase in avalanches from lower slopes in areas where formerly they were
infrequent.
By contrast, drought and famine take a much greater toll. Forests
dry up and burn, farmlands wither away, animal herds are decimated,
economies collapse, and in regions of marginal subsistence living, famine
can kill millions, or drive entire nations to war over water resources (as
has been the case on many occasions in North Africa and the Middle East).
Catastrophic forest fires can also be triggered by drought, and wildlife is
decimated well before humans will starve, as humans dominate water and food
supplies.
It therefore poses a real dilemma, of when cloudbusting should be
done, and not done. If you do something, some people might be harmed. If
you do nothing - especially where a drought situation turns from mild to
severe - a major catastrophe might well occur, decimating all life,
ecological stability, and economic well-being. It is proper and right that
these questions are raised, but not through the misrepresentations given in
the "Orgonomy Peddlers..." article.
For the record, I have been privileged to participate in three
working groups of dedicated workers, one in Germany, one in Greece, and one
in the USA (J. Orgonomy, 26(2):237-247, 1992; Pulse of the Planet
3:111-115, 1991 & 4:114, 1993), with a mix of professionals and
non-professionals holding expertise in medical, therapeutic, environmental,
and atmospheric science, and years or decades of experience in orgonomy.
These issues, of when and how to undertake cloudbusting operations, are
foremost on the minds of everyone involved, and sometimes are the subject
of very pointed discussions. Whatever problems may remain in the matter of
cloudbusting, the portrayal of this work as proceeding without the input
and oversight of workers with different fields of expertise, is patently
false.
The work undertaken in Israel was followed by strong storms, and
exceeded rainfall records in many places. (J. DeMeo: "Orop Israel
1991-1992, Special Report", Orgone Biophysical Research Lab, 1992; also in
J. Orgonomy, 26(2):248-265, 1992; Pulse of the Planet 4:92-98, 1993) The
results were in fact dramatic and beyond that which was anticipated. But
it is clear that other factors were involved in the excessively high
rainfall quantities which were observed at different times. Firstly, our
work was undertaken over a 10-day period in late November 1991, at the
start of the normal rainy period, after which nothing more was done to
encourage rains. The goal was to remove the dor-barrier, on the assumption
that natural rains would then resume as the season got started. This is,
in fact, what happened. However, we did not fully anticipate that the
Israeli government would be engaging in intensive, non-stop cloudseeding
efforts from both aircraft and dozens of ground-based cloudseeding
generators, during nearly every storm-cycle which occurred during their
rainy season. Public outcry finally put an end to the cloudseeding, after
which the quantities of rainfall dramatically declined to near normal
levels. ("Orop Israel, Special Report", ibid, p.49-52)
The work in Israel was undertaken at the height of a three-year
drought, when reservoirs were at record-low levels across the eastern
Mediterranean. Recall that 1991 was before the peace talks between Arafat
and Rabin, and before the Jordanians had made peace with Israel. There was
much war-talk in the newspapers about who owned how much of the remaining
water supplies of the Jordan and Littani Rivers. We were asked to go to
Israel, and try the cloudbuster, to see if a social catastrophe could be
avoided. It required working at the edge of the Negev Desert, during a
parching drought under already-dry conditions, at a time when social
tensions were high. It was difficult and deadly serious business.
The work was successful, thankfully, and natural rainfall was
restored to the entire region for that rainy season, and the years which
followed have not seen a return to drought conditions. It was pleasing to
note that subsequent analysis of traffic accidents for Israel revealed a
decline during the rainy period, given that drivers slowed down for the
more difficult rainy and wet driving conditions. Under the more typical
dorish dry conditions, both Israeli and Arab drivers are crazy and
aggressive, speeding down roads and highways, and so the highway death toll
was higher during the dry period before cloudbusting operations.
Similarly, the agricultural productivity for the entire region surged
upward in the months after the rains, given the washing away of years of
accumulated soil salts and groundwater recharge. There were reports of old
withered orchards on the desert fringes, abandoned years ago due to lack of
water, suddenly sprouting leaves, blossoms and plump fruit.
Peace talks have since developed between the region's adversaries,
something which I cannot imagine would have been possible had not the
water-resource issue been resolved by an end to the drought conditions.
The protocols and results of that work were published years ago in summary
articles in the Journal of Orgonomy and Pulse of the Planet, with a longer
and more detailed Special Report available from OBRL, the latter of which
openly discussed problems which occurred due to excessive rains in some
areas. (citations given above) Nothing was hidden. The documents have been
available for years to anybody with the interest to investigate the
subject. The author of "Orgonomy Peddlers..." has not made a rational
evaluation of this particular work; his portrayal is unsubstantiated and
irresponsible.
Field Work of Nagy and Schleining in the Pacific Northwest
"Orgonomy Peddlers..." also attacks the work of Dr. Stephen Nagy
and Mr. John Schleining, for cloudbusting work they undertook in Oregon.
As was the case with desert ecology, the article also makes a distorted
portrayal of the issue of fire-suppression in the Pacific Northwest. There
are several factors which have been decimating trees in the Northwest. The
first is overcutting of trees for commercial lumbering (deforestation).
Two other major reasons are drought-related: insect damage and forest
fires.
With good rains and soil moisture, trees produce an
abundance of sap. This sap-abundance allows the trees to push out and
destroy burrowing insects, which during drought years can imbed themselves
under the bark and eventually kill entire stands of trees. With more dead
and dying trees, and dry understory, the danger of forest fires is
amplified. Forest fires were particularly acute in the Northwest forests
over the last decade, amplified by arson. Lightning strikes are a primary
method for ignition of forest fires, and lightning is amplified when storms
push inland from the Pacific Ocean under drought conditions. When this
happens, there is little rain and much lightning, as the storms cannot
easily break through the dorish haze-layer which characterizes drought. As
stormclouds ride up and over the dor-layer, the orgone in them is highly
irritated, and reacts in an "angry" manner, with large static potentials
building up as the energy is pushed towards stasis. The "Orgonomy
Peddlers..." article criticizes Nagy and Schleining for having done
something helpful, to slow down or stop forest fires, and describes their
work as "blatant disruption". This is an inaccurate and false portrayal.
There is an important issue about the long-term consequences of
fire suppression, which can lead to a build-up of combustible materials in
the lower story of the forest, and from there to forest fires of a
catastrophic dimension. The reader may recall the 1989 fire at Yellowstone
Park which turned catastrophic when the National Park Service applied the
ideas of "natural burning" in as blind and dogmatic a manner as they
previously did regarding "fire suppression". In the Pacific Northwest, a
number of those catastrophic fires had occurred over the last decade, and
this is precisely why Schleining and Nagy were prompted to do something
constructive and helpful about the situation.
As to the article's accusation that they worked outside of the
normal rainy season, there is nothing I know of which suggests forests
suffer when occasional unseasonal rains occur, and the Pacific Northwest
has rains in many areas which continue throughout the summer, though with a
diminished frequency and quantity. I cannot comment about this allegation
without a citation to the actual article, such that the facts and context
can be reviewed. Another error in the article: Nagy and Schleining did not
ever work together as a team, but rather in different areas on different
operations. In his criticism on this issue of forests, the article makes
even more gargantuan leaps of logic, that the suppression of lightning and
increases in rains following cloudbusting is somehow going to affect the
nitrogen balance in the atmosphere and soils. The evidence is clear that
the forests were suffering from overcutting, insect damage, insufficient
water and forest fires, and not from any imagined "insufficient nitrogen".
The section concludes with a final malicious misrepresentation: "...this
application of the cloudbuster, far from benefiting the environment,
amounts to mere vandalism of Oregon's forests".
Ecology and Government Control
The "Orgonomy Peddlers..." article is ended with several pages
emphasizing needed oversight of cloudbusting by some kind of outside
authority. He mentions the National Environmental Policy Act and the use
of Environmental Impact Statements, the Endangered Species Act, and
Wilderness Act, etc. These laws are all important, and have a rational
place in society. Whether or not they are applicable to the question of
cosmic orgone engineering is open to debate. There are many important
issues here. But are these laws discussed in a rational way?
The author writes "The authorities, of course, make no effort to
enforce such laws in the case of cloudbusting because they regard it as
ineffective. It is extremely hypocritical to take advantage of their
disbelief to violate laws with impunity while simultaneously denouncing
them for their refusal to believe in the cloudbuster's effectiveness."
These loaded sentences contain several false assertions, and hide a bit of
the author's history. First, neither I nor any of my associates have never
made any blanket condemnation of "authority". I, we, openly criticize and
hold responsible specific persons and/or organizations for the specific
things they do. Like the FDA for burning Reich's books, and the Skeptics
groups for publishing smear articles against Reich. I do in fact believe
that there are authorities, even authorities in government, and have only
minor criticisms of the government organizations dealing with environmental
issues, none of which has anything to do with cloudbusting. Secondly,
neither I nor my associates "violate laws with impunity". This accusation
is based upon nothing of fact.
The hidden "author history" I refer to, is the fact that that
author of this article, Mr. Joel Carlinsky, has for many years been writing
articles portraying Reich as a madman, and cloudbusting as "fraudulent
rainmaking" (again, documentation given below). He has repeatedly attacked
the scientific basis of Reich's work, including cloudbusting and my own
corroborating work as well, often in letters and documents sent to various
governmental authorities, feeding whatever pre-existing suspicions and
prejudices they had about Reich and orgonomy. If cloudbusting and other
aspects of Reich's work (ie, the accumulator) are considered madness by
government bureaucrats, you can thank Mr. Carlinsky and friends for helping
to create such a social atmosphere. My own efforts have always been in the
opposite direction, to bring Reich's work out into the open, in a legal and
legitimate way, for open use and discussion and application by both
professionals and ordinary people. For the record, for many years I kept
the NOAA Atmospheric Programs Office informed of all cloudbusting
operations, until the time came when I discovered they were ignoring and
discarding the documentation I had been sending to them, and additionally
spreading disinformation about my work to third parties.
Is the Author's Behavior Relevant?
The author of "Orgonomy Peddlers..." closes his article with a
preemptive attempt to evade the significance of, and responsibility for his
own past writings and conduct: "In the past, Dr. DeMeo and his friends have
responded to criticisms by name-calling and personal attacks on the alleged
motivations, affiliations, character, psychiatric condition, lifestyle,
criminal history, and previous publications of the critic, all of which are
totally irrelevant." Totally irrelevant, indeed! They are very much
relevant, insofar as they demonstrate an ongoing pattern of behavior. This
pattern has continued right up into the present, without any hint of
change. Let's take a look at what the author has been doing and writing.
His past behavior is consistent with his current actions.
II. History of Joel Carlinsky's Attacks and Smears
For around 20 years Mr. Carlinsky has written numerous articles,
flyers, and letters focused upon the subject of orgonomy, but none of them
constitute substantive work or research on the subject. His writes things
which attack and distort Reich's life and work, and the science of
orgonomy, and also acts as informer to "skeptics groups" and other
organizations which have similarly attacked orgonomy. (Ie., CSICOP:
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal;
publisher of "Skeptical Inquirer" magazine and central organizing
"skeptics" group, with a long history of attacking Reich and orgonomy) He
is successful also in portraying himself as a "friend of Reich", a position
which he abuses solely for the purpose of attacking those few research
scientists who are doing substantive work in orgonomy and replicating
Reich's controversial findings. In either role, the common functioning
principle of his conduct is to attack the substantive basis of research
verifying and supporting Reich's findings: depending upon the audience, he
shifts from attacking Reich, to attacking only Reich's contemporary
followers. Below is presented a very abbreviated sample from a longer
12-page listing, of some of his activities. Observe the oscillation between
"Carlinsky the skeptic" and "Carlinsky the Reichian", and the constant
turning of fact, truth, and events upside-down:
* April 1981: Carlinsky convicted for burglary of the Wilhelm Reich
Museum. ("WR Museum Newsletter", Fall 1980)
* May 1988: Carlinsky assists Alice Earl to write an article for
Peer Advocate Newsletter, a psychiatric-reform group: "Who or What, Pray
Tell, is the So-Called 'College' of Orgonomy!?", which criticizes the
American College of Orgonomy (ACO), and portrays all of orgonomy as
madness. "crackpot doctors living in their make-believe world of
DOR-busters (DOR = Deadly Orgonomic Radiation) and other psychiatric
fantasies."
* Summer 1988: Carlinsky assists Martin Gardner with his article in
Skeptical Inquirer (Vol.13, p.26-30, 1988) "Reich the Rainmaker: The Orgone
Obsession", which portrays all of Reich's work and orgonomy as fraud,
medical quackery and madness, with a specific focus upon myself and the
ACO. Gardner identifies Carlinsky as "someone" who sent him articles, and
Carlinsky later admitted to me that he helped Gardner. Around that same
time, an Iowa skeptics group printed a derogatory article "Professor at UNI
Supports Orgone Energy for Drought Relief". (ISRAP Newsletter, Vol.2, No.3,
Summer 1988, p.1-2.) I was then teaching at University of Northern Iowa.
* Sept. 1989: Article in "Animals' Agenda" magazine (p.20-21)
discusses the arrest of Earth First! founder Dave Foreman, on charges of
conspiracy to damage power lines serving an Arizona nuclear power plant.
The article reported a $2 million FBI disinformation campaign aimed at
Earth First!, with inflammatory letters, etc., and the identification of
two possible FBI agents provocateur, one of whom was "Joel Karlinski"(sic).
The article reported: "Karlinski approached at least two Animals' Agenda
readers at [an Earth First!] seminar, trying to recruit people to help him
'take out every nuclear power reactor on the east coast' in a plot
strikingly similar to the one revealed in Arizona. Karlinski also
solicited interest in other illegal activities that could have injured
people, and was rebuked by... Foreman. Some time later, Karlinski told
Earth First! newspaper editor John Davis that he was...duped. He has not
been heard from since."
* 14 May 1990: Carlinsky writes an unsolicited letter to me, saying
he has reported me to IRS, postal inspectors, FAA, environmental groups,
and other organizations for "your clumsy, incompetent, irresponsible misuse
of the cloudbuster for your egotistical megalomaniacal self-agrandizing
obcession (sic) of vindicating Reich... " etc. "You must be stopped."
Many similar letters follow over the years.
* Fall 1990, "New York Skeptic", newsletter of the New York Area
Skeptics (CSICOP affiliate), publishes Carlinsky's article "Orgonomy in New
Jersey". The article attacks the ACO, me, Reich and orgonomy: "In short,
thousands of people are being victimized by orgonomists. Medical quackery
and fraudulent rain-making machines are only part of it. I urge
investigation and exposure to whatever degree possible. Contact me for
more information."
* 19 Aug. 1990: Carlinsky writes an unsolicited confessional letter
to me, stating: "On April 3, 1974 I conducted an operation which triggered
an unprecidented (sic) rash of tornados across the mid-west, destroying the
town of Xenia, Ohio and killing 330 people. I then sent Dr. Blasband an
extortion note demanding $50,000 ransom to not do it again. He wrote a
letter to NOAA warning them about my 'criminal intent' and an article in
the Journal of Orgonomy which refered to me as 'dangerously mad'.
Unfortunately, events in my personal life made it impossible to carry out
the threat. In the 1970s I attempted to wipe out Boston with a downtown
oranur reaction... In Australia I caused a storm which devastated
Queensland's sugarcane harvest and sank several ships. I am quite proud of
my record in orgonomy. You see, my goals really are different from yours."
(Continued on 3/3)
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