Reich was one of those folks who learns how to tap into popular culture and make a buck at the same time.

The chakras are described in great detail by the various Hindu texts including the description of one that serves the sexual center at the base of the spine. These are described similar to water fountains that circulate energy to the various regions of the body.

Reich, just like Freud, made a living by focusing on folks sexual hang-ups and talking about things not discussed in polite company.

Sure we have an energy body. Is this energy body orgone? No. Is it a material quantity like ether that can be gathered and stored? No. The energy body operates way outside the spectra of atomic elements and can only interface with the physical body via consciousness.

Do I believe Orgone collectors work? No. You could sit in a barrel of warm oatmeal and if you believe it will increase your potency or cure you of your ills - it just might do so. Belief and the power of the mind can do all sorts of things. But these devices were frauds for the folks who had needs and wanted an easy fix.

The history of the world is filled with folks who have profited from sexual dysfunction. The oyster shell powder and countless concoctions folks have dranken or consumed to the viagra pills of today are all a part of this sad human quest for virility and sex. It's an easy sell and a lucrative trade. Sell pleasure or sell the tools to bring about pleasure. Everyone else links the purchase of their goods to the same thing - sex.

I've read the FBI files on Reich and it appears he was a former communist and an avid socialist. His Jewish background required he leave Europe and head to America where he promptly set up shop selling desperate folks his own unique bill of goods. Was he harassed? Sure. Was he unjustly treated when compared to other charlatans, or purveyors of "healing machines?" Probably. His name, his background and his timing coincided unfortunately with a distinctly paranoid time in US history. He would've fit in much better in during the 1910-1920 period selling electro-therapy and x-ray healing devices to the scientifically illiterate masses. He arrived almost twenty years too late.

Do I think he really believed in his own "inventions?"

No, actually, I don't.

;-)