April 2004 Update
From
The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust
& The Wilhelm Reich Museum
We thank you for your continual interest and support. For newcomers to our e-mail Update list, none of the names on this list--nor the names of any Museum visitors, conference attendees or bookstore customers--are shared with any other individuals or organizations. If at any time you wish to be removed from this list, please let us know.
All previous Updates, dating from March 2004, available online.
You can access them through the Updates option at the top of this page or via the Quick Links along the left side of the page. These Updates provide the best contemporaneous accounts of the Trust's ongoing activities over the past six years.
Summer Conference 2004
Back in Print: The Murder of Christ
Down East – The Magazine of Maine
Yankee Magazine – Editor’s Choice
Our Latest Communications Tool
The Thomas E. Ross Sheltered Classroom
The Chester M. Raphael Reading Room
Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Endowment Fund
Rental Cottages
SUMMER CONFERENCE July 19-23, 2004
The Orgone Energy Accumulator:
Its Scientific and Medical Use
"The Orgone Energy Accumulator is an instrument assembled
and materially arranged in such a manner that Life Energy,
present in the atmosphere of our planet, can be collected,
accumulated, and made usable for scientific, educational,
and medical purposes."
With these words, Wilhelm Reich defined the essential
research tool of the previously unknown energy he
discovered and called "orgone."
For twenty-five years Jorgos Kavouras, M.D. has maintained
a general practice in Germany and Greece in which the orgone
accumulator is his principal therapeutic tool. His book
Healing With Orgone Energy will be published in Germany in
Fall 2004. In it Dr. Jorgos documents over 40 case studies
of his practical experience with the orgone accumulator.
We are pleased that Dr. Kavouras will be an instructor at
this year's Summer Conference.
The conference will trace the historical development of
the accumulator, demonstrate experiments in which it
was used, and present current experimental data on the
use of accumulators with plants and humans.
Attendees will participate in laboratory activities, utilize the
Orgone Room for visual observations, and construct small
accumulators for specific applications, such as orgone
irradiation of the neck, breast, knee and shoulder areas.
Neither a scientific background nor biological training is
necessary for participation in this conference.
In addition to Dr. Kavouras, our instructors will include:
- Robert Dayton, an artist-builder whose paintings and sculpture
are exhibited frequently in Easthampton, N.Y.
- Joseph Heckman, Ph.D, a plant biologist who has designed
studies of orgone accumulator applications for seeds and plants.
- Grier Sellers, M.S., a college biology instructor who has
conducted research into endosymbiosis in protists, and
has a longstanding interest in Reich's work.
- James Strick, Ph.D, a science historian specializing in the
history of research about the origin of life. He is the author
of Sparks of Life: Darwinism and the Victorian Debates
Over Spontaneous Generation; and co-author of a book to be
published in Fall 2004: The Living Universe: NASA and the
Development of Astrobiology.
Conference brochures have just been mailed to those on our
regular postal mailing list. For more information please
contact us at (207) 864-3443, or visit our web site at
www.wilhelmreichmuseum.org
BACK IN PRINT: THE MURDER OF CHRIST
For years The Murder of Christ has been out-of-print and
available in the Museum bookstore only in bound xerox copies.
Thanks to the collaborative efforts of our publisher
Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Lightning Source, a
books-on-demand publishing house, The Murder of Christ
is back in print in soft cover and available in our bookstore.
In the past few years the partnership of Farrar, Straus & Giroux
and Lightning Source has brought the following titles back into print:
DOWN EAST - THE MAGAZINE OF MAINE
Down East, Maine's premier magazine, celebrates its 50th
anniversary this year and has chosen the Wilhelm Reich
Museum as one of 50 select museums, historic houses, and
sites of interest in Maine to be recognized and featured in
its August issue. Down East enjoys a wide readership that
extends far beyond the borders of Maine. And its August
issue reaches more readers than its other editions. So we
look forward to a host of first-time visitors this summer.
YANKEE MAGAZINE'S EDITOR'S CHOICE
The Wilhelm Reich Museum has been selected as an
Editor's Choice in the Yankee Magazine 2004 Travel
Guide to New England. Editor's Choice destinations include
must-see scenic areas, attractions, and dining and lodging
accommodations. Now in its 33rd year of publication, this
travel guide reaches over 600,000 readers.
OUR LATEST COMMUNICATIONS TOOL
As we continually analyze our needs, goals and strategies,
we find ourselves increasingly thinking in terms of new
"communications tools." How can we best deliver key
messages and information to a wide variety of audiences?
Our latest tool, now being developed, is a user-friendly
Organizational Chart of The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust.
In the past few months as we've met and spoken with friends,
supporters, fund givers, state and local community leaders,
students, journalists, and magazine writers, we've come to
realize the need for clarification about the The Wilhelm Reich
Infant Trust. While the goals and functions of the Wilhelm Reich
Museum are generally understood and relatively easy to explain,
the nature of the Trust is more complex.
Briefly, The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust was created by Reich
in his Last Will and Testament, signed on March 8, 1957,
three days before his imprisonment. Its mission was to
transmit Reich's scientific legacy to future generations,
to safeguard the truth about his life and work against
distortion and slander, and to help children in need.
To carry out this mission, Reich stipulated that the Trust
was to "operate and maintain the property at Orgonon
under the name and style of the Wilhelm Reich Museum...
to preserve some of the atmosphere in which the Discovery
of the Life Energy has taken place over the decades." The
Trust was also tasked with safeguarding Reich's Archives,
among other responsibilities.
The Organizational Chart will succinctly visualize the breadth
of the Trust by breaking down its responsibilities into three
principal areas:
- Operating the Reich Museum in Rangeley, Maine.
- Maintaining and managing the Reich Archives at the
Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard University
in Boston.
- Publishing activities with Farrar, Straus & Giroux
in New York City.
Each of these responsibilities will be broken down into
further detail, illustrating specific functions and activities.
This Organizational Chart will provide a uniform picture
of the workings of the Trust for different audiences and
applications. For Museum visitors, a large display of the
Chart will be posted in the Orgone Energy Observatory and
in the Conference Building. A Power Point version will be
installed in a laptop computer for our offsite educational
and fundraising presentations. Printed versions will be
included in information packets and fundraising applications.
And the Chart will also be accessible on our new website.
THE THOMAS E. ROSS SHELTERED CLASSROOM
The outdoor Sheltered Classroom, located on a wooded
trail near the Observatory, is a venue for many of our
Natural Science programs which attract many adults
and children to our property each year. We've decided
to name the classroom after Thomas E. Ross, Orgonon's
longtime caretaker. Following Reich's death, Mr. Ross was
instrumental in helping Mary Higgins develop and maintain
Orgonon as The Wilhelm Reich Museum, serving as its
caretaker from 1960 to 1981. Mr. Ross passed away in 1996.
THE CHESTER M. RAPHAEL READING ROOM
Construction of a Reading Room in the Conference Building
is well underway. We'd like to thank all of you who responded
to the appeal for funds in our March update.
In remembrance of Dr. Chester Raphael's longstanding
commitment to Reich's work, the Trust, and the Museum,
the Trust's Board of Directors has named the Reading Room
in his honor. Dr. Raphael died in March, 2001.
THE WILHELM REICH INFANT TRUST ENDOWMENT FUND
Our funding needs cover a broad range from individual
project support to general support to capital support.
With the Museum's annual operating budget now exceeding
$130,000 (to maintain seven buildings on our 175 acre
property, plus salaries and office expenses), capital support
is more crucial than ever.
Like most non-profits, we need to secure a solid financial
base as we plan for the future. Which means we cannot
survive without a healthy Endowment Fund.
In 1991 The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust began its Endowment
Fund which is managed by a senior officer at UBS Financial
Services. The Fund now consists of $218,000. This sum
represents individual contributions, proceeds from our annual
programs at the Williams Club in New York City, and bequests
from two individuals who were profoundly committed to
Reich's work and the mission of the Trust.
Considering the Fund's thirteen year existence, it's a small
sum, insufficient to the task. But in view of the donations
that our friends and supporters continually make for many
of our immediate needs and projects, it is understandable
why the Fund isn't larger.
Nevertheless our goal is to build the Fund to $1,000,000
by the year 2008. Please help us provide a solid financial
base for the Trust through contributions of assets during
your lifetime or bequests in your will. Helping us reach our
goal is a unique and practical way to express your commitment
to Reich's legacy.
RENTAL COTTAGES
Looking to get away in the next couple of months? Although
springtime is beautiful in Maine, it is traditionally our slow
period up here in Rangeley. Which means our two cottages,
Bunchberry and Tamarack, have more availabilities than they
do in the summer, fall, and winter.
The cottage we call Bunchberry was originally built by Reich
as a study, while the larger cottage--now called Tamarack--
provided living quarters for him and his family. Both cottages
offer quiet, seclusion, and access to the shores of Dodge Pond.
For more details, please visit our web site or give us a call at
(207) 864-3443.
UNTIL NEXT MONTH
Please share this Update with colleagues, friends, and family who may be interested in the life and legacy of Wilhelm Reich and the good works of The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust and The Wilhelm Reich Museum. Thank you again for your friendship and support.
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