Been looking through my Reich bibliography and rereading the articles on Mesmer and Reich. As the journals are not that easy to get hold of I thought I would post some notes here...
Numbered Notes from my Reich Biblio on Mesmer and Reich, see here for full Biblio:
35)
Other devices using ORAC (orgone accumulator) type layering:-
·
Atomic
Piles (carbon/uranium)
·
Leydon
Jars (glass/metal)
·
Mesmer's
Baquet (charged water/stones/metal)
See also Demeo's notes on celestial influences upon above devices.
36)
Author notes that Mesmer, who
discovered many aspects of life energy, was
also awareof muscular armouring.
37)
Mesmer’s human dor-buster (healing hand-passes with
one foot in a water-bucket, transforming the healer’s body into an ‘orgone’
conduit similar to Reich’s medical dor-buster). A DOR-buster is a tube device
grounded into flowing water for removing negative orgone from an organism.
38)
Attack on animal magnetism
in France was very similar to that on orgonomy (although that was in a later
century and in the USA).
- There
was a refusal to honestly examine the evidence (Mesmer pleaded for a commission). (The FDA’s examination of
Reich’s work was profoundly dishonest and unscientific).
- Mesmer
himself was excluded from any ‘investigations’. (Reich was also excluded
from the FDA ‘investigations’ and the FDA scientists did not read his work
or try and repeat his experiments).
- Attacks
on Mesmer were initiated by someone posing as a friend. (The attack on
Reich was initiated by a journalist posing as friendly toward orgonomy).
- Quack
official investigation followed which simply pronounced animal magnetism doesn’t exist. (The
FDA simply pronounced orgone doesn’t exist without honest scientific proof
and without repeating his actual experiments).
- Enormous
effort was expended denouncing animal magnetism world-wide (very expensive
printed report circulated widely. (The FDA spent the majority of its budget
for part of the 1950s persecuting one doctor and to destroy just 300
orgone boxes).
1020)
Mesmer's 'bacquet' was a large wooden tub in which bottles fillled
with water or iron fillings were placed. The water had been 'magnetised' or
healed. Attached to the bottles were metallic rods and flexible cords which were held by the persons
surrounding the bacquet. Their free hand would be connected to each other. Thus
the bacquet transmitted energy and connected energy at the same time using metal's ability to transmit life-energy. It has
aspects of both the Medical Dorbuster and the ORAC (ORAC is short for Orgone
Accumulator Cabinet).
Both men began by examining biological functions and
electricity/magnetism but concluded that there was an additional force to
electromagnetism at work in organisms and the environment. Mesmer's work has
the following in common with the orgonomic view -
A
universal fluid can be intensified and it;
Ÿ Fills all
space
Ÿ Penetrates
all matter
Ÿ Can be
stored or conducted
Ÿ Is
associated with the nervous system
Ÿ Mesmer’s
bacquet can be charged with the universal fluid (Reich’s ORAC does the same).
Ÿ A loss of
muscular irritablity (Mesmer) is similar to muscle armouring (Reich)
Ÿ Sudden
release of this muscular holding and energy blockage (irritability/armouring)
leads to profound crisis and then healing (and can need management due to possible
medical crisis).
Ÿ Health is
wholeness.
Ÿ Both
views argue for the unhindered development of children
Some
specific quotes:
‘Emotional
Plague v. Animal Magnetism’, Jerome Eden (1967) Journal of Orgonomy Vol1 Num1&2
pp172)
From pp175:
“Grounded as he was in his postulation of a universal fluid, Mesmer
considered every disease process to be nothing more than a disturbance or disequilibrium of the universal fluid of the body.
In searching for the cause of this disequilibrium, he arrived at the conclusion
that it was always the muscular fibre which, being either chronically
contracted or expanded (or because of its inability to expand or contract at
all), impeded the normal flow of the universal fluid. Mesmer therefore sought
for the means whereby 1) the patient’s universal fluid might be increased
sufficiently so that it could ‘overthrow the cause of the malady,’ or 2) the
impeding muscular fibre might be restored to its normal condition of
elasticity.”
From pp178:
“In order to accommodate the scores of patients who flocked daily to
his clinic, Mesmer invented a simple structure for ‘accumulating’ the universal
fluid and applying it directly to several patients simultaneously. He called
this device a ‘baquet’ or tub. Essentially, it consisted of a large, covered
wooden tub filled with glass bottles. In the ‘wet’ baquet,’ the bottles were
filled with water and iron filings. Small iron rods protruded through the cork
of each bottle. These small iron rods were connected by larger, flexible iron
rods that emerged through holes in the lid of the baquet. The flexible rods
were held by the encircling patients. Also, in the wet baquet, water and iron
filings were added to the tub itself. In the ‘dry baquet,’ sand and iron
filings were used. Individual baquets, or ‘magnetic boxes,’ were constructed for
patients who were not ambulatory.
Those familiar with Wilhelm Reich’s discovery of orgone energy and his
invention of the orgone energy accumulator and the DOR—buster can readily
understand the basic similarities here.”
From pp180:
The quack ‘investigation’ of Mesmer:-
“Twenty thousand copies of this voluminous report were printed and
distributed throughout the world. (This in the days of hand typesetting and
hand press demonstrates the incredible effort employed to obliterate a ‘non-existent’
discovery.) At the same time, however, a secret report was drawn up by the
commission and presented to Louis XVI-its subject; the dangerous moral aspects of animal magnetism.”
‘Mesmer,
Reich and the Living Process’, Marc Shapiro (1965) The Creative Process, Vol4,
Num2.
From
pp64:
‘The great common discovery underlying the work of Mesmer and Reich is
PULSATION. Pulsation is the main action (called intensification and remission
by Mesmer, expansion and contraction by Reich) of what Mesmer called the ‘Universal
Fluid.’ This Universal Fluid, like Reich’s orgone energy, filled all space and
was the agency of all movement.’
From
pp65:
‘This question brings us to the most remarkable and significant
relation of Mesmer’s work to Reich’s, for Mesmer discovered muscular armouring.’
‘This could be seen in breathing which Mesmer called the ‘universal
expression’ of the Fluid.’
‘However, Mesmer not only passed his hands over the body; he actually
pressed the chronically disturbed muscles in order to bring them back to irritability.’
(My note: this is the same process as in the physical side of orgone
psychotherapy: pressing on the stuck muscle whilst breathing).
From
pp66:
‘The muscular spasms, the strange sensations of movement within the
organism, the trembling and the convulsive movements are all typical effects
observed within orgone therapy. It goes without saying that this is not all of
what happens in orgone therapy – but neither, I believe, does it fully describe
Mesmer’s treatment. Mesmer describes people sitting around the famous bacquet
having sudden outbreaks of laughter, anger or weeping. From the descriptions of
Mesmer by his contempories, from his writings and from his general attitude
toward life as shown in these writings, I feel he had a strong sense of contact
with the patients he was treating, a sense of his own moving energy mingling
with theirs.’
From pp67:
‘Mesmer and Reich both believed that the functions of the living
organism were the expression of a cosmic process. Mesmer stated what amounts to
an early view of self-regulation.’ (My note: Reich believed that healthy
children were not truly known in our armoured, sick society but that we should
attempt to study what health in childhood constitutes and that children should
be free to express themselves safely without undue interference from adults,
apart from loving care. Mesmer believed children should be ‘unimpeded’ and
would naturally find his own ‘development and instruction’ if given freedom to
express movement. Like Reich he believed children should be surrounded by
children of their own age without overt adult interference and that infants
should be immersed in the contact of their mothers. Both believed education
should follow natural principles and follow the child. Mesmer believed children
should not be taught words till later in childhood (6 or 7) according to this
article.
Article also notes that both men believed that the true perception of
the universal force was often hidden within distortions of mysticism and
religion but not that these things are in themselves untrue. Reich would say
that ‘everyone is right in some way’.
From pp69:
Table of Correspondences
Mesmer –
1. Universal
Fluid, (Intensification and Remission, Fills All Space, Penetrates All
Matter, Carried by Nerves, Can Be Stored, Conducted)
2. Baquet,
(Becomes charged with universal energy, employed therapeutically).
3. Loss
of Muscular Irritability
4. Health
is Wholeness
5. Unhindered
Development of Children
Reich –
1. Orgone
Energy, (Expansion and Contraction, Fills All Space, Penetrates All Matter,
Carried by Nerves, Can Be Stored, Conducted).
2. Orgone
Energy Accumulator, (Becomes charged with universal energy,
employed therapeutically).
3. Armouring
4. Health
is Wholeness
5. Self-regulation
An extra note that has just reminded itself to me is the following: both Mesmer and Reich used iron or iron-based metal to attract the 'force' and water to 'ground' it. Also Oriental medicine uses iron-based metal (steel needles) to attract or disperse qi. It is not a coincidence because it is simply the same 'force' functioning in similar ways...
One of Mesmer's Original Baquets
A Medical DOR-Buster
(tubes grounded into moving water)
An Orgone Accumulator Cabinet
My Orgone Cabinet
