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Orgone energy v. the scientific method: how to test a paranormal phenomenon.

Article Excerpt
ORGONE IS A MAGICAL ENERGY force that is inside and outside our bodies, similar to the Chinese culture's "chi" or any generic "life force energy." It permeates us and everything around us. Using special devils that manipulate orgone energies can change your life for the better. Or so some claim. Let's put that claim to the test.

What is Orgone Energy and What Can It Do?

The concept of "orgone energy" was birthed by psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, who, later in life, moved far outside the mainstream and "discovered" orgone energy. His "orgone accumulators" that he used for medical treatments were viewed skeptically by the media, American scientists, and the FDA. He was eventually jailed for contempt of court and for violating terms of an FDA lawsuit prohibiting the sale of his "accumulators". He died in jail in 1957.

Reich claimed that orgone manipulation could cure diseases and eliminate physical pain, and treat a myriad of other problems from constipation to the ability to "destroy parasites throughout the body." Here are a few testimonials taken from a website selling "orgone chips." These are fun to read until you realize how people often take such claims seriously:

Orgone can cure cancer. "Five years of anecdotal information convinces me that most cancer can be treated in a month, even in very advanced and aggressive cases. The exceptions are when radiation and/or cherno have been used. I believe as many others do, that radiation and chemo are more often responsible for death than the cancer for which they am prescribed."

Orgone can cure HIV/AIDS: "This seems to be one of the easiest to...

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