September 2011 Update
From
The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust
& The Wilhelm Reich Museum
We thank you for your continuing interest and support. And, as the Directors of
the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust, we are asking you to continue to support our ongoing
efforts to protect Reich's scientific legacy and make it available to all.
Since 1959, the Trust has faithfully discharged its duties--as stipulated by Reich in his Last Will and Testament--to "secure transmission to future generations of a vast empire of scientific accomplishments" and to "safeguard the truth about my life and work against distortion and slander after my death."
Our commitment to conserving and disseminating Reich's documentation of his legacy
is consistently manifested in our successes and aspirations:
- publishing 22 book titles by Reich and reprinting his American bulletins
and research journals, for a total of over 7000 pages of primary materials
- maintaining Reich's archives (i.e., the Archives of the Orgone Institute)
at Harvard University's Countway Library of Medicine
- operating the Wilhelm Reich Museum at Orgonon, the 175 acre property
in Rangeley, Maine that was Reich's home, laboratory and research center
- and working strategically to bring awareness of Reich's legacy to newer,
younger and wider audiences in ways that make his legacy alive, accessible, relevant and usable for human health and the health of the planet.
Among our many efforts to reach these newer, younger and wider audiences, we are now:
- writing a detailed storyline for a factually accurate, full-length American documentary film about Reich
- working with an academic team to design a college course about Reich
- providing hundreds of pages of excerpts from Reich's books, bulletins and research bulletins on our website
- finalizing the manuscript of a fourth autobiographical volume--comprising Reich's 1948-1957 letters and journals--for publication in 2012
- creating new exhibits in the Museum about the origin, development and uses of the orgone energy accumulator as Reich's principal research tool
- and outlining a new book about the accumulator's origin, evolution and uses.
We are doing everything within our means--having extremely limited human and financial resources--to provide the necessary primary resources for an intellectually honest narrative of Reich's life and legacy. And we are doing everything within our means to:
- emphasize the relevance of Reich's legacy today for medicine and science
- support and encourage objective research of this legacy
- and encourage credible applications of this new knowledge--beyond
simply psychiatry and sociology--in biology, cellular and cancer research, the Reich Blood Tests, and environmental and atmospheric studies.
But tragically for Reich's legacy--with its relevance and promise for human and planetary health--our successes and aspirations are being overwhelmed and diminished by the distorted mainstream narratives of Reich that persist from voices and platforms far more powerful than ours.
Today, we are seeing some of the most aggressive, repugnant and intellectually dishonest assaults on Reich and his legacy in 65 years--with an especially prurient focus on the orgone energy accumulator. From major books, newspapers, magazines, television and radio in America and Europe, salacious and factually inaccurate narratives about Reich continue to be widely promulgated.
And with sales of Reich's books at unimpressive levels--as people turn increasingly to
the Internet's chaotic "information" about Reich, instead of to his own words--over 7000 pages of Reich's publications have been insufficient to counter these destructive mainstream narratives.
Nor have Reich's archives--located at one of the world's premier medical libraries--generated any significant interest from the medical and scientific communities.
Addressing and correcting these harmful narratives--in ways that are accessible to larger audiences--is the common goal of our documentary film project, college course syllabus, book projects, museum exhibits, and other endeavors.
But in all of our efforts on behalf of Reich's legacy--including soliciting financial support for the Trust's basic survivability--these corrosive, mainstream narratives about Reich precede us everywhere.
Consequently, traditional funding sources that routinely provide significant financial support for non-profits, educational entities, historic preservation, academic/scientific/ medical research, and capital efforts remain virtually closed to us.
Today we are constantly trying to identify and assess credible funding sources--either individual or organizational--that might be amenable to helping an "unconventional" scientific and medical legacy and the Trust that has been tasked with preserving and advancing that legacy.
But until such time as this kind of financial support can be secured, we rely--as we always have--on the generosity of friends and supporters like you.
And so we are turning to you at this time for whatever contribution you are able
to give, whether by joining or renewing your membership as a "Friend of the Trust,"
or remembering us in a "Bequest" or an "In Memoriam Donation."
Despite the enormous obstacles, we are determined. And we hope you will be, too. Please join us in our efforts with your contribution.
All contributions to the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust are tax deductible. Credit cards
are accepted by contacting us directly at (207) 864-3443. And PayPal is available
on our website.
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
The Directors of the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust:
Robert Dayton
Mary Henderson
Mary Boyd Higgins
Kevin Hinchey
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