It will be useful to review the biological effects of the orgone accumulator, as given by various people who have actually worked with it, and know just what it can and cannot do. However, this chapter should not be considered as a definitive or comprehensive overview of Reich's findings on cancer, the biopathies, or even the biological effects of the accumulator. It is not, and only constitutes a bare-bones summary, to let the reader know what kinds of things to look for if the accumulator is ever used in a health-related context. A complete bibliography for the materials summarized below appears in the reference section.

The actual discovery of the orgone energy and accumulator was first announced by Reich in the 1942 issue (Volume 1) of the International Journal of Sex-Economy and Orgone Research, in a section on the "Construction of a Radiating Enclosure". That journal focused also upon the emotional aspects of the cancer biopathy, the relationship of cancer to emotional resignation, sexual starvation, and chronic energy depletion. Reich also published his findings on the spontaneous organization of cancer cells from the patient's own bionously disintegrating tissues. Additional information was later published in the Cancer Biopathy, the Orgone Energy Bulletin, and the Orgonomic Diagnosis of Cancer Biopathy. Reich's findings on cancer were confirmed by others, who likewise published in his journals. But he never saw the accumulator as a simple "cure" for cancer, and explicitly said so on a number of occasions. However, he did lay claim to the following discoveries:

1) Cancer is a systemic disorder, and not just a tumor.
2) The cancer biopathy starts in early life, with a major component related to early childhood trauma, and the consequent respiratory block and suppression of emotions; later in adolescence, and in adulthood, the individual has great difficulty establishing a love life, and eventually resigns from sexual pleasure, and from joy or meaning in life.
3) The cancer patient possesses significant bioenergetic neuromuscular contraction and tension (armoring) that restricts circulation and oxygenation in certain body areas, notably the sexual organs.
4) The cancer patient suffers from a chronic loss, and gradual depletion of bioenergetic charge of body tissues.
5) Shortly before onset of tumor development, the individual experiences a powerful emotional blow, such as loss of a special loved one, which reinforces their emotional resignation.
6) The cancer cell originates from bionous processes, arising from the disintegration of the patients own energetically weakened tissues.
7) A specific t-bacilli is found in copious quantities in the tissues and blood of cancer patients; t-bacilli are culturable, and when inoculated into mice will cause tumors to form.
8) Use of the accumulator could not by itself reverse the deeper biopathic nature of the cancer disease; in a limited way, however, it could stimulate the bioenergy system to expand, recharge the tissues, and even disintegrate tumors.

While this last point may sound like a cure for cancer, Reich was cautious about this, though clearly optimistic. Of the case histories given in his writings, he emphasized the failures over the successes. He was constantly making careful evaluations of the patient's blood, and also developed a new bioenergetic blood test, that allowed even precancerous tendencies to be identified. He also observed that the gentle vagotonic, parasympathetic excitation the accumulator provided would often deepen the respiration of the patient, and help to bring long-buried feeling to the surface. Reich also worked with his patients characterologically, to overcome the emotional and respiratory blocking and sexual stasis associated with the cancer. The highly-charged blood would distribute new life energy from the accumulator throughout the body, into every organ and tissue, as patterns of emotional holding were likewise being relaxed, and the respiration deepened.

It was clear that the accumulator could recharge the organism, and even in a limited way help to overcome many secondary complications of the disorder. People would often regain lost organ functions and an increase in energy, for a few years, or sometimes in association with a complete remission of symptoms. But often, at least in the published accounts, a relapse would occur. In some cases, it was apparent that as the patient's tumors began to disintegrate, they would become debilitated by the toxic break-down products of the tumor, and die of secondary complications, such as kidney or liver failure. This was a particular problem when tumors deep inside the body were being broken down, and easy discharge of toxic tumor debris was not possible.

In some cases when the patient's bioenergy level was being recharged by the accumulator, they began to feel a welling-up of buried feelings, which they often did not want to deal with. In some cases, as they began to recover, they developed pains in the genital area or thighs, related to their sexual stasis. Reich found that almost all of his cancer patients had not had sexual intercourse for years, were trapped in a loveless, compulsive marriage, or were deeply religious. In such cases, overcoming the obstacle of sexual stasis and blocked emotion, and restoring their desire to live, was the key to a remission. In a few cases, as these emotional problems surfaced,.his patients would discontinue further treatment with the accumulator, even though significant tumor reduction and restoration of body function had occurred.

For these reasons, and also to emphasize his interest in cancer prevention, Reich focused upon the central role of emotional and sexual resignation in the life histories of cancer patients. Where this resignation from life and feeling could be overcome, Reich observed that the prognosis was better than where the resignation was left untouched. This factor appears to explain the common observation that cancer patients who become emotionally mobilized, who learn to express their sadness, rage, and terror, and who regain a desire to live, will have a better prognosis.

Given Reich's findings on the emotional component of cancer, the following question has to be asked: What effect upon emotional and sexual resignation occurs when radical cancer surgery deforms or incapacitates the sexual organs, or other body areas? Or similarly, what happens emotionally when the body is so badly assaulted by caustic chemicals and radiation, such that visible, frightening deformity occurs, and normal body functions, such as eating, defecation, or sexual arousal, are no longer possible? Such horrific treatments of degenerative illness surely can only increase emotional resignation and sexual stasis. Having done so, they cannot help but to also increase the rate of degeneration, and likewise increase the rate of relapse and metastases. In this context, it is no wonder that the mutilating surgeries and toxic chemical treatments advocated by cancer specialists today do not have any greater benefit to patients than the treatments of 30 or even 50 years ago!

Of course, the better known unorthodox treatments, which are banned in the USA (but not in Europe, Canada, or Mexico) can do much better than this. They commonly offer the patient natural foods and herbal remedies that energize and detoxify, in a manner similar to the bionous baths and bion packs discussed above. Reich, unfortunately, had his hands full with the discovery of the life energy, and other matters, and spent little time focused upon methods for detoxification. In The Cancer Biopathy, he did demonstrate, with use of a special {luorophotometer, that honey had about eight times the orgone charge of refined sugar, and also that unpasteurized milk carried twice the charge of pasteurized milk. The implication here is that natural foods are highly charged with life energy, as compared with synthetic, devitalized, and refined food products. The treatments developed by Gerson, Hoxey, Livingstone, and others, appear to have independently discovered these kinds of nutritional differences through empirical means, and are clearly more advanced than Reich on the effects of diet and detoxification. (A list of clinics and research centers that specialize in these alternative treatments is given in the "Information" section.) These practitioners likewise employ special herbal or nutritional treatments that appear to have a significant bioenergetic component.

Without detracting anything from these alternative treatment methods, Reich's findings do more clearly provide a scientific basis for the origins of the cancer biopathy and cancer cell. His discussions on the emotional roots of cancer have been independently confirmed, and should assist in providing effective emotional invigoration of cancer patients. Reich's findings are also compatible with the various theorems on the causation of cancer from inadequate nutrition or environmental toxins, through the question of energy level. The measurable energy level of an individual appears functionally identical to the classical concept of immunity, or disease resistance, and is a key to understanding why one person gets sick, while another does not, under similar toxic environmental or dietary influences. Social and emotional factors, as well inherited factors, work a powerful influence upon the energy level, or charge of the tissues. Likewise, the discovery of viraUbacterial pleomorphism (capability of microbes to change form: viruses into bacteria, and vice versa), the independent observations of the tbacilli, and the rediscovery of the bions by various biogenesis researchers, all confirm Reich's positions on the bionous, self-generated nature of the cancer cell. The following fact cannot be emphasized enough: the causation, process of development, and reasonably effective, non-toxic therapies for cancer have existed for over 30 years. The obstacle has not been a failure of science, but of the corrupting influence of politics, and the abuse of the courts and police by the orthodox medical establishment.

In spite of many difficulties, a lot of very clear and positive evidence has been gathered on the effectiveness of the accumulator for treatment of a variety of symptoms and disorders. Very effective pain relief for, and subsequent rapid healing of severe burns has been reported. Likewise, a great reduction in pain was reported when the accumulator was used by cancer patients with tumors, and by persons suffering from arthritis. Besides Reich, other doctors associated with his research effort published case studies on the treatment of cancer with the accumulator. These published accounts demonstrated a significant and promising therapy for the disease. Complete remissions were rare, but people always experienced a reduction in pain and other symptoms, with a lengthening of life by at least several months to years beyond the conventional prognosis. Other medical problems were experimentally approached, such as diabetes, arthritis, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, anemia, abscesses ulcers, and ichthyosis. In these cases, benefits from orgone radiation and therapy were suggested. Reich also wrote about the promising application of the therapy to leukemia. Additional benefits in the form of an immunity to flu and colds, the elimination of skin problems, and general increased vigor and energy level were also discussed in the pages of his research journals.

To my knowledge, no clinical studies on treatment of human disease with the accumulator have taken place in the USA since Reich's death in prison. Only animals studies have taken place, mainly the effects of the accumulator on cancer mice, and on wound healing in mice. These laboratory trials with mice do confirm the wound-healing and anti-cancer effects of the accumulator. More recent human clinical trials from hospitals in Germany have taken place and prescription of the accumulator is a standard procedure or some German doctors. Several of the German physicians I met told me that the somatic effects of the orgone energy accumulator were more powerful in the treatment of cancer than any other form of conventional or natural therapy they had tried. They reported to me the following effects of the accumulator on cancer patients:

1. Pain was relieved, the appetite was stimulated, and the patients became more alert and active, often leaving the hospital bed, or the hospital itself, to resume activities that interested them.
2. The blood picture cleaned up, with red cells showing a stronger energetic charge, and fewer t-bacilli.
3. Tumors ceased growing, and in some cases, declined dramatically in size.
4. While patients often gave the outward appearance of a "cure", accumulator treatment alone could not touch the emotional aspect of the biopathy, which would continue to deplete the patient in a manner that could not be compensated for. While the accumulator would usually extend the life of the patient by months or even years, the patient would generally experience a relapse at some point, with a sudden recurrence of all symptoms, and a quick, less painful death.
5. The German doctors also stated that many cancer patients were presented to them that did not possess the character traits of the fully-blown cancer biopathy, as described by Reich in the 1940s. In particular, many younger people and children came to them with tumors and a very poor blood picture, and with evidence of a greatly depleted energy level; but they did not have the complete sexual stasis or emotional resignation typical of the disorder among older persons. They attributed this tG the prior exposure of the patient to environmental toxins and pollutants, and the increasingly devitalized nature of co;nmon foods. These observations suggested that, under conditions of environmental and dietary stress, energetically weak individuals are prone to tissue disintegration and tumor formation, while energetically strong individuals are not. In such cases, accumulator treatment gave excellent results, with a much better prognosis for long-term recovery.

Other German scholars have evaluated the somatic effects of the orgone accumulator. One double-blind, controlled study, published as a dissertation through the University of Marburg, is titled the Psycho-Physiological Effects of the Reich Orgone Energy Accumulator. An extended abstract of that important study appears as an Appendix in this Handbook. Based upon these kinds of published findings, we may once again summarize the biological efreets of astrong orgone charge:

A) General vagotonic, expansive effect on the entire system.
B) Sensations of tingling and warmth at skin surface.
C) Increased core and skin temperature, flushing.
D) Moderation of blood pressure and pulse rate.
E) Increased peristalsis, deeper respiration.
F) Increased germination, budding, flowering and fruiting of plants.
G) Increased rates of tissue growth and repair, as determined through animal studies and human clinical trials.
H) Increased field strength, charge, integrity of tissues and immunity.
I) Greater energy level, activity, and liveliness.

Given these facts, it is not surprising that the accumulator might stimulate the recession of any symptom which is related to low energy charge in the blood or tissues, or to chronic overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. However, some medical problems are the result of chronic overcharge, and in those cases, use of an accumulator is disadvised, or advised only with caution, as previously mentioned. Again, Reich warned persons with a history of hypertension, decompensated heart diseases, brain tumors, arteriosclerosis, glaucoma, epilepsy, heavy obesity, apoplexia, skin inflammations or conjunctivitis not to use the accumulator, or to do so only with great caution and for shorter periods, due to the dangers of overcharge in those cases. Not all people suffer from a lack of energy, or even from "low energy". Quite often, people suffer more from a clamping down, or holding back of the emotional energy which they already have. In some cases, additional energy from an accumulator may simply give a person more energy to clamp down with. One should recognize this fact, and understand that regular accumulator use is not mandated for everyone, nor is it a panacea.

NOTE: Full citations are found in the published book.

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