Cloudbuster

Reich with one of his cloudbusters, which he said could manipulate streams of orgone to produce rain.

A cloudbuster (or cloud buster) is a device designed by Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich that could - according to the pseudoscientific principles of orgone theory - manipulate orgone energy present in the atmosphere in order to produce rain. The device was intended to be used in a way similar to a lightning rod: focusing it on a location in the sky and grounding it in some material that was presumed to absorb orgone - such as a body of water - would draw the omnipresent orgone energy out of the atmosphere, causing the formation of clouds and rain.^[1][2] Reich conducted dozens of experiments with the cloudbuster^{[citation needed]}, calling the research "Cosmic Orgone Engineering."

The Maine Blueberry Experiment

In 1953, a drought threatened Maine's blueberry crop, and several farmers offered to pay Reich if he could make it rain. The weather bureau had reportedly forecast no rain for several days when Reich began the experiment on at 10 a.m. on July 6, 1953. The Bangor Daily News reported on July 24:

Dr. Reich and three assistants set up their "rain-making" device off the shore of Grand Lake, near the Bangor hydro-electric dam ... The device, a set of hollow tubes, suspended over a small cylinder, connected by a cable, conducted a "drawing" operation for about an hour and ten minutes ...

According to a reliable source in Ellsworth the following climactic changes took place in that city on the night of July 6 and the early morning of July 7: "Rain began to fall shortly after ten o'clock Monday evening, first as a drizzle and then by midnight as a gentle, steady rain. Rain continued throughout the night, and a rainfall of 0.24 inches was recorded in Ellsworth the following morning."

A puzzled witness to the "rain-making" process said: "The queerest looking clouds you ever saw began to form soon after they got the thing rolling." And later the same witness said the scientists were able to change the course of the wind by manipulation of the device.^[3]

The blueberry crop survived, the farmers declared themselves satisfied, and Reich received his fee.^[4]

Construction

A cloudbuster consists of an array of parallel hollow metal tubes which are connected at the rear to a series of flexible hoses which are equal in diameter to the parallel tubes. Alternatively, the rear of the tubes are joined together to a single large diameter pipe and flexible hose. The open end of these hoses are placed in water, which Reich believed to be a natural orgone absorber.^[1]

In popular culture

Wilhelm Reich's cloudbuster was the inspiration for the song Cloudbusting by British singer Kate Bush.^[5] The song describes Reich's arrest and incarceration through the eyes of his son, Peter, who later wrote the memoir A Book of Dreams, published in 1973. A cloudbuster, bearing only a superficial resemblance to the genuine article, was designed and built for the video by some of the designers who worked with H.R. Giger on the film Alien.^[6][7] The video, intended by Bush to be a short narrative film rather than a traditional music video, was conceived by Terry Gilliam and Kate Bush, and directed by Julian Doyle.^[8] The video stars actor Donald Sutherland as Reich and Bush as his son, Peter.

See also

• Rainmaking
• Chemtrails

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Sharaf, Myron. Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich. Da Capo Press, 1994, page 379
2. ^ Pilkington, Mark (Thursday 29 May 2003). "Orgone: cosmic pulse of life". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/may/29/research.science1. 
3. ^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 379–380.
4. ^ Biography, The Wilhelm Reich Museum. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
5. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6uwLznbW2E
6. ^ "* * DREAMING * * A 'Best of' Love-Hounds Collection Hounds Of Love The Songs "Cloudbusting" Pt. 2". Sept 1995 June 1996. http://gaffa.org/dreaming/hol_clb2.html. Retrieved 8 September 2011. "worked with some designers that worked on the Alien" 
7. ^ "HR Giger and the Cloudbuster". 2009. http://thehomegroundandkatebushnewsandinfoforum.yuku.com/topic/17191. Retrieved 8 September 2011. "HR Giger designed the cloudbuster. ... one of those fan myths" 
8. ^ Moy, Ron (September 30, 2007). Kate Bush and Hounds of Love. Ashgate. pp. 99. ISBN 0754657981. 

External links