Introduction

Reich reported on these pioneering experiments in The Bion Experiments

on the Origin of Life1 and The Cancer Biopathy.2 The control experiment of the
grass-infusion project, my own idea, applies the principle involved in the other
bion preparations, the heating and swelling of dead material. This booklet is for
the amateur researcher, the reader most likely to be interested and open-minded
enough to do these experiments. Professionals will probably be burdened with too
long a mechanistic training to give these experiments a second look, let alone
actually do them to test Reichs findings. Professionals familiar with microscopy
who try these experiments, if only to prove Reich wrong, will find them fairly
easy. Even for the amateur beginner, they are not too technical and difficult. The
obstacles are within us rigidity, dogma, and a reluctance to see what is in front
of us. Reichs bion research in Norway set off a vicious press campaign against
him, Experts who he had tried to interest in his work used their status and access
to the press to ridicule it without testing his claims scientifically. 3 His scientific
discoveries are repeatedly explained away in this way, as if they were
philosophical speculation, not the result of serious and testable scientific work.
To do these experiments you need a knowledge of sterile precautions, the
air-germ theory and Brownian motion. These are the standard objections to
Reichs claims that he had observed forms with some of the characteristics of the
living originating from sterilised and even non-living materials. 4 The air-germ
objection claims that the movements seen in the preparations can only stem from
cysts or spores of living forms that have entered the preparations from the air.
(This is a logical objection, if you insist, regardless of evidence, that life can only
come from the same form of life and cannot conceivably arise on its own.)
Brownian motion is the movement imparted to small particles suspended in a
fluid by the kinetic energy of the fluids molecules. For more information look up
these words in a textbook or dictionary of biology. Better still, read Browns
original text.5 Orgonomic research demands a willingness to look things up.
Why this booklet? Only one of Reichs original texts is in print in this
country. An interested browser is unlikely to come across Reichs seminal
orgonomic texts, The Bion Experiments and The Cancer Biopathy, in a library.
They are at the moment as good as lost. I am writing this booklet in the hope that
future students of orgonomy may have at least something to work from. Few
people realise that Reich produced a huge volume of scientific work that can be
followed up and controlled in the scientific sense; that the experiments can be
repeated according to his protocols and his claims refuted, confirmed or added to.
These experiments are within the possible for the motivated and curious student.
For detailed reports of these experiments please see Reichs own texts. There is no
substitute for the original sources in any scientific research, especially in this

case. This booklet is a humble attempt to bring this work to the attention of the
few who may not know of its existence but who may be open-minded enough to
look again. Many people who feel their own orgone energy in motion have an
intuitive sense that the arid certainties of mechanistic biology cannot be the final
truth. Reichs experimental work is scientific confirmation of this intuition.
Reich wanted to see if the currents or streamings reported by his patients
in psycho-therapy were a basic natural function that could be seen in living nature
at large?6 He started to observe cultures of amoebae under the microscope. He
naively dared to ask the technician delivering the cultures where they came
from.7 He was assured that a culture of hay in water produced plentiful amoebae
from the spores attached to the grass. Reich tested this assertion by trying to
obtain spores washed off grass and observed the grass as it swelled and broke
down in water. He was unable to find any spores or cysts, but observed the
organisation of protozoa from breaking down grass. 8 He named this process
bionous disintegration. Before protozoa were visible the dead tissue swelled,
became grainy, and started to move in places. He observed tiny vesicles both
attached to the grass and free-floating in the water, which pulsated, that is
expanded and contracted, and also moved in other ways. These had some
characteristics of the living without being any recognisable life-form. He named
them bions. These had a tendency to clump together and form protozoa. You may
be able to actually see this taking place in the grass-infusion experiment if your
microscope has high enough magnification, about x1000-1500. Even without this
magnification you can still see some of the movements generated by the process
at x500-600. Reich then investigated this process of disintegration and reintegration in other materials soot, coal-dust, sand, soil, and even iron-filings. 9
We shall be doing the same investigations ourselves in our three experiments.
These experiments are a good introduction to laboratory orgonomy, the
functions of orgone energy and matter, and the organisation of life from non-life.
Modern biologists and evolutionists assume this occurred aeons ago, possibly
only once, and does not occur in nature any longer. 10 I must warn you now that if
we wish to roll up our sleeves and get down to serious work, in the eyes of
evolutionists and biologists, we have joined the ranks of those described by
Richard Dawkins as;
flat-earthers, young-earthers, perpetual-motion merchants, astrologers,
and other harmless fruit-cakes.11
It is a dogma of modern biology that an organism, simple or complex, can only
come from another organism of the same type. It is therefore impossible for an
organism, however simple, to originate from inanimate, sterile matter. Reichs
findings show that life all the time starts, organises itself into existence, when

circumstances are favourable. Reichs findings are written off as contamination by

air-germs or the misinterpretation of Brownian motion. 12 No-one critical of his
work has repeated his experiments from openly published and detailed research
protocols and disproved his claims. Orgonomic workers have repeated them and
confirmed and developed his findings. I have repeated these basic orgonomic
experiments myself and also confirmed Reichs claims. Reich made no
pretensions whatever to have said the last word on his discoveries; he often said
that he was the one who had discovered the continent and that others would map
out the interior.13 By repeating his experiments you will be confirming the
outlines of this beautiful, fascinating continent, and, if you carry on, helping to
map out a small area of the interior. Orgonomic experimentation is so fertile and
alive that these simple projects will certainly lead you to further experiments.
Equipment
This list is not exhaustive. You may need other items. The orgonomist
needs flexibility and resourcefulness above all. You do not find answers in a
textbook, apart from referring to Reichs own writings. Someone knowledgeable
in microscopy or experimental methods may be able to help you with equipment
and techniques, if you can bear the raised eyebrows and doubts in your sanity.
I have found the articles in The Annals of the Institute for Orgonomic
Science helpful. I am grateful to the editors for their experienced advice and
information. Their editorial address is included at the end of this booklet.
Microscope; If you are using a school or college instrument make sure that
it is a biological microscope that uses light directed through the specimen
from below. Those intended for geological or crystal work use reflected
light. You will be able to do the basic experiments with a much simpler
instrument than is ideal. You will need a microscope able to magnify up to
x1500, if possible, though x1000 will do. To work out the possible
magnification, look at the objectives, the metal tubes, usually three in
number, that rotate into position above the slide, which rests on the stage.
These terms will become clear to you if you have a good look at a
microscope. On the objectives you will see the level of magnification
provided, x10, x40, x100. The eyepiece also magnifies the image produced
by the objective. Its magnifying power will also be shown somewhere,
probably x10 or x15. If the total magnification available is x1000, (a typical
combination of a x100 objective with a x10 eyepiece), you will still be able
to see much of what I describe below. A binocular microscope is less tiring
to use than a monocular one. As you will have to (and want to) spend many
hours observing these enthralling processes, I very much recommend one.

Thin transparent specimens under a microscope are often invisible.

Phase-contrast attachments, darkfield facility or colour filters can make
them visible. Filters, the easiest and cheapest method, can be improvised
with coloured cellophane paper. An amoeba may be a collection of dots
under brightfield illumination, but its cytoplasm and membrane may be
visible under some types of illumination, even a simple blue or green filter.
I suggest that you get used to your microscope by looking at water samples
from various habitats. You can then play about with different lighting and
magnifications and generally get used to your instrument. This is extremely
enjoyable. My first sample from my local park, a jarful of dirty water, was
teeming with protozoa, many of them unbelievably beautiful. I found out
later from a textbook that I had accidentally chosen a good habitat for such
organisms, a pond rich in animal droppings from the flock of Canada geese
on this small pond. It is also a test of the air-germ theory. See what you
find in standing water at various sites. If the air-germ theory is true, you
should find many spores, cysts blown there in great quantities. You will
find in fact that much standing water is almost devoid of visible forms.
Other items; you need many small, cheap and easily available items; testtubes, corks, microscope slides, well-slides, (also known as cavity slides),
coverslips, paraffin wax and petroleum jelly, (Vaseline), some small
capacity syringes and needles (1ml and 2ml). A test-tube stand, wooden
holders, and a few glass jars or bottles will be helpful. If you are using a
borrowed microscope in a laboratory, an autoclave to sterilise your
preparations may be available. You can improvise autoclavation with a
pressure-cooker. Autoclaving tape confirms full sterilisation. The stripes on
it turn brown when the temperature reaches 120C for long enough. The
conventionally accepted time and temperature for full sterilisation is 30
minutes at 120C, easily obtained in a pressure cooker. Coverslip forceps
are essential for handling coverslips. Test-tube racks are convenient.
Without them you may find transferring fluids to tubes and extracting
samples by syringe difficult. A competent handy-worker can easily make a
test-tube rack. For the grass-infusion experiment you need a pan in which
to melt the wax mixture. The wax stays liquid for longer if this is a heavy
cooking pot which retains heat well. Wax in a thin metal vessel is not safe,
may heat up quickly, reach flash-point and ignite. Even if watched carefully
with the heat turned off when the wax melts, it cools too rapidly.
IMPORTANT!! DISPOSAL OF NEEDLES: The needles mentioned above,
made as disposable items, can be re-sterilised in your autoclave for
laboratory use. They must be disposed of safely in a sharps container, as
used in dental and medical practices and biology labs.

General Principles
In the bion experiments Reich observed the natural process of bionous
disintegration. The bions originating in this process had an innate tendency to
organise themselves into protozoa (He also found that this was the process by
which cancer cells originate; the equivalent in the organism to the disintegrating
grass is devitalised tissue. 14) The tissue disintegrates because of chronic reduction
in energy charge stemming from long-term sexual stasis, the result of armouring,
muscular tension, present from infancy and childhood, caused by the frustration
of primary needs.15 If these experiments confirm Reichs claims, this suggests that
his explanation of cancer based on his findings is correct, too.
This work demands patience, care, and observation. Drawing what you
see develops your powers of observation and attention to detail. You will need to
spend much time looking at your samples. You may see something that no-one
else has noticed before. If you are lucky with the grass-infusion experiment, you
may see an agglomeration of bions break free from its matrix and take off on its
own as an independent being. This is, to put it mildly, an exciting moment. You
have witnessed what biologists assume occurred many millions of years ago and
which cannot happen now. This is even more exciting when you see it taking
place with previously inanimate, sterilised materials. To check your findings, you
can do what Reich did, and heat your materials to red-heat, before you add water
or KCl and still find vigorous cultures of bions. As the bions develop, we observe
the process of orgonotic pulsation,16 the orgasm formula17 of tension charge
discharge relaxation at the microscopic level. You will learn much about
orgone energy functions from these experiments.
Bions from Sterilised Inanimate Matter
Any finely ground material such as sand, soil, iron-filings, clay, soot,
when heated and allowed to swell in a nutritive solution or water undergoes
bionous disintegration, producing bions and eventually protozoa. 18 There is no
great difference between the materials suggested and you could do the experiment
with other substances, say, soot, coal-dust, clay, or slate. Though these
experiments have been repeated by different orgonomists, 19, 20, 21 you will be
breaking new ground if you try some new but commonly available material.
When I started bion work, I was keen to try iron-filings. These were the hardest,
least organic materials that I could find. It has since occurred to me to do the
experiment using really hard ground materials, such as flint or fluorspar. Some of
these materials may need to be ground more finely, which can be done easily in a
domestic pestle and mortar. You can obtain small amounts of such materials from
a potter. They are commonly used in glazes. Red clay, too, is a cheap material

obtainable from potters and produces the most interesting results. In some areas
you can dig up your own clay. (Since the writing he first draft of this I have
collected a sample of pink granite from the Isle of Mull which contains feldspar
and quartz. Finely ground, this produces bions very easily.)
a) Soil
Take a couple of spoonfuls of garden soil and let it dry on a plate or in a
domestic oven. Pass it through a fine sieve, so that it is smooth and granular. A
simple version of this experiment is to prepare one test-tube with soil and distilled
or boiled water and to observe what has happened in it after, say, a week or
month. A more interesting way is to prepare ten test-tubes in the same way and to
examine the contents at regular intervals, so that you can observe the process of
bionous disintegration and the organisation of protozoa step by step. This is not
difficult, though it demands more time. Watching the bions under the microscope
demands much time, mainly because it is so interesting. It takes little more time to
prepare ten tubes than one. Place the tubes in a rack, with a spatula add a pinch of
soil to each tube and pour in a small amount of distilled or boiled water. The
amounts do not have to be exactly equal. We are not measuring products in this
experiment. Cork the tubes carefully, place them in your autoclave or pressure
cooker, seal with the lid and sterilise them for 30 minutes at 120C. Some testtube racks are too tall for a domestic pressurecooker. I put my tubes in jam-jars.
These withstand the autoclaving well. I first found that the corks blew off and I
now tape them down with autoclaving tape, which also confirms that the correct
temperature has been reached. This is available from laboratory suppliers.
Sterilise your tubes for 30 minutes and leave them to cool before opening
the pressure cooker. Leave them to stand for a few days. If you have prepared
only one tube, wait for at least a week, so that you can be sure of having
something interesting to look at. If you have prepared a series of tubes, you can
examine the first one quite soon, say after two days, to study the process of
bionous disintegration and the formations of bions and protozoa. You could get
more information by preparing 30 tubes and examining one every day. The actual
preparation of such a number would not be too difficult or time-consuming. Testtubes are cheap and are anyway only supplied in packs of a hundred. You can
sterilise 20 or more quite easily even in a pressure-cooker. Examining them under
the microscope, however, demands a great deal of time, especially those observed
later, as more and more items appear. Your own free time is the limiting factor.
You can easily spend an hour or longer examining a drop of water on a slide at
x1500. If you find something that seems about to break free from its matrix, you
may find yourself watching it for hours on and off. It is now rewarding and

helpful to draw what you see. Drawing encourages you to look very carefully.
This is, of course, a vital scientific skill anyway, but it demands yet more time.
Let your tubes stand for three days. Before you prepare a slide, make sure
that your microscope is in working order and ready to use; connected to a power
supply, optical surfaces clean, condenser and optical accessories centred where
necessary. Take a tube and the items that you will need to prepare a temporary
microscope slide slides, cavity or plain, coverslips, coverslip forceps,
immersion oil, and sterile syringes and needles. Have several slides and coverslips
to hand at your first try, if you are unfamiliar with your equipment. You may
make minor errors drop or break coverslips, contaminate slides, drop too much
fluid on the coverslip or slide and have to start again. You will rapidly become
more effective and be able to set up a slide in a minute or two. What is lacking, if
you feel awkward or frustrated, is not a BSc in microscopy, but physical
familiarity with your tools and materials. This you will soon acquire.
If conventional theory is correct, there should be nothing living in your
test-tubes. Examine some soil in non-sterile water so that you can recognise soil
particles and how they change through the process of bionous disintegration. You
could prepare a control tube, as suggested in reference 22 to see how heating affects
soil particles and accelerates breakdown into bions and/or protozoa.
To prepare a hanging-drop slide separate a few coverslips from each other
(They tend to stick together.) Open your syringe and needle and attach the needle,
replacing it in its sterile packaging until you actually use it. Peel off the
autoclaving tape, shake your test-tube so that the water becomes turbid and gently
remove the cork, taking care not to contaminate the inside of the tube. Let the
larger particles settle. Before the water clears completely, put your needle into the
water and draw up some water. 1ml syringes are narrow and ideal for this.
Paediatric grade needles (orange colour code, size 25G) allow you to place a
small drop right in the centre of the coverslip. It is easier to do this, if you hold it
with the forceps or have the slip placed with its edge protruding and accessible.
Coverslips are awkward to handle until you get used to them. They break easily,
stick together obstinately, and are often invisible, if you drop them. Without a pair
of coverslip forceps safe and hygienic handling is impossible.
You may need several attempts before you can set up a usable hangingdrop slide. If the drop is too large, the water will squeeze outwards and lift the
coverslip off the slide. The coverslip will then float about and be very unstable. It
may move about as you move the stage. You may end up with water or oil where
they can do damage. If you rehearse the procedure with some tap-water, you will
soon find how big the drop of fluid needs to be. I now glue coverslips to the
slide with tiny blobs of Blutack at the edge of the coverslip.
If you have now got your very small drop of water safely onto the
coverslip, safely held with the forceps, turn the slip over so that the drop is

hanging downwards and very gently place one edge on the cavity slide alongside
the circular well, so that when you let the coverslip lie flat on the slide surface the
drop is in the centre of the well. Holding it in position very lightly, glue it down
with the Blutack. A coverslip is so light that it easily sticks to a finger. You need
to exercise great care once it is sitting on the slide surface. You can hold it in
place after you have lowered it with the forceps with a plastic biro end or wooden
ruler. To prepare a flat slide, place a slightly larger drop onto the centre of the
slide and gently lower the coverslip onto the drop. If you have got it right, the
drop will spread out evenly under the coverslip and stick it to the slide, neatly
holding things in place. You may need to practise this a few times to get it right.
Your slide is now set up. Start with low magnification, around x50-100,
and get a good overview of the drop. This level of magnification allows you to get
a general impression of things. If your sterile precautions have been effective you
will probably not see any movement at this magnification. You can now try out
the different types of illumination available on your microscope brightfield,
darkfield, phase-contrast, or colour filters. This will be much easier if you have
already had a look at other things and got to know your microscope. After you
have gained a general impression of your sample and found an area with a good
number of particles to look at, move up to intermediate magnification, x400-600.
It is advisable, however keen you are to move ahead, to get an overall view at low
magnification. Once you have oil on the coverslip for high magnification with oilimmersion it is impossible to remove the oil and revert to dry observation.
Find out which combination of filter and optical attachment allows you to
see the most. You may see movement at intermediate magnification. I often do
with C O R Es Olympus microscope. Have a good look round and record your
observations. You are now looking at a smaller area of the slide and therefore it
will take much longer to cover the whole area of the drop. It will also be much
harder to find something again, once you have lost it. If you do find something
moving, I suggest that you go back to it and leave it right in the centre of your
field of view, before you switch up to your high magnification of x1000 or x1500.
This involves oil-immersion, which is quite simple. Lower the stage well out of
the way of the objectives and place a drop of oil (special oil for microscopy
provided by your manufacturer) on the coverslip directly above the water drop,
which you should be able to see without difficulty. If you have focused on an
interesting item take care not to move the stage while doing all this. If you move
it at all, you may find it hard to relocate the item. With the oil in position, rack up
the stage until the oil just touches the objective. Raise the stage with the finefocus until you see the column of oil jump between slide and objective, producing
a little flash of light. You can now observe your slide at high magnification. Once
you have got this far, take care to raise the stage only with the fine-focus wheel,
which brings it up very slowly, minimising the risk of damage to the objective.

If your preparation has been brewing for a while you will probably see
much activity. How are the moving particles that you saw before moving? It is
important to notice the many different sorts of movement, so that you can
distinguish between orgonotic motility and Brownian motion. If small particles
show Brownian motion, (brought about by the bombardment of floating particles
by the molecular movement of the fluid in which they are suspended), all particles
of a similar size will be in motion. This will not be the case in your bion
preparation. You will probably see lots of motionless dots and quite a few that
are highly motile. If they are large enough for you to see their movement, you
may see that they are pulsating (expanding and contracting), spinning, rocking to
and fro through an arc of 30-45 degrees, moving up and down, (you can tell this if
the particles move into and out of focus), moving quickly from side to side or up
and down in your field of view, and possibly even moving from one place to
another. I have my own symbols to show how a particle is moving. If particles
move in one way and others of a similar size do not move, the motion must be
orgonotic motility. It cannot be Brownian motion, as the molecular motion
producing this must affect all particles equally. The most noticeable movement is
often that of a largish particle vibrating to and fro. This cannot be Brownian
motion as there are similarly large particles in nearby that are not moving at all.
Another detail that confirms orgonotic motility is the waggling movement of a
small tongue or peninsula protruding from a large particle in the fluid. 23 This
bends like a forefinger seen from the side and is presumably a motile, charged
formation about to break away from the matrix and to organise itself into a
protozoon. I have not yet seen this happen with bions from solid matter, though I
have observed the whole process of detachment in the grass-infusion experiment.
Once you are examining preparations more than a couple of weeks old, you will
be overwhelmed by the amount of moving items to observe, describe and record.
Try to cultivate the ability, vital to orgonomic work, to watch patiently
and let your material speak to you, rather than trying to immediately identify
everything you see. This will not be described in textbooks or reference works
anyway. You can only refer to Reichs own, his many photomicrographs, and the
articles on these experiments in the Annals of the Institute for Orgonomic Science.
You will recognise there much of what you see here.
b) Sand
Obtaining bions from sand is not very different from getting them from
soil, though sand does not seem to break down as quickly as soil. It is easier to
handle though and even when dug up in its natural state is usually fine and freerunning when dried out. It contains fewer lumps than soil and may not even need
to be sieved. Apart from these minor differences, the experiment is exactly the

same, as you will soon see. If you want to see bions generated from sand, prepare
a couple of tubes and examine them at, say, 2 and 4 weeks. If you want to study
the process of bionous disintegration step by step with sand, then prepare a larger
number of tubes and examine them at shorter intervals. This approach takes much
more time and has a habit of running away with your enthusiasm. You can expect
to spend 2-3 hours each time you open a test-tube, examine a slide at low,
intermediate, and high magnifications, and record what you have seen and make
drawings of the more interesting items. If a partner is sharing the work with you
and you are comparing observations and frequently swapping places at the
microscope, then it will be yet more enjoyable and yet more time-consuming.
You will find little difference in results, whether you prepare bions from
soil or sand. You obtain pulsating, highly motile vesicles that spin, turn, rock, and
occasionally change position from preparations that are sterile and which should,
in theory, show no signs or characteristics of life. If you did a string of parallel
preparations, one of soil, one of sand, prepared in exactly the same way, you
might discover differences. If you have facilities to stain your bions (or attempt
to) and to test their electrical status, as Reich did, 24 you might make some new
discoveries about the bions. I am writing this booklet in the hope that readers will
do just that familiarise themselves with the basic principles of orgonomic biophysics and then take off on their own with original orgonomic research, based on
their own ideas and inspirations. Hardly any orgonomic research is being carried
out in Britain at present, so there is great scope for pioneers.
c) Iron Filings
It is not clear what inspired Reichs progress from disintegrating
biological matter to inorganic, inanimate substances. Presumably it was a logical
progression for him. I felt more excitement and anticipation preparing iron filings
than I did with any other material. I had known the theory of these experiments
for decades, and obtaining living forms from once-living materials seemed
reasonable, though still exciting. Soil, even sand, was not stretching things too
far, but iron filings? Nothing seemed less likely to produce new life than the hard,
shiny metal particles in their modern plastic container. But Reich was right. They
do produce bions, as do grass, soil, or sand. They are cheap and easy to obtain.
You can make your own, if you have some soft scrap-iron and a coarse file.
Prepare test-tubes in the same way as for soil or sand. Burlingame
suggests25 that you use a 0.1N solution of potassium chloride (KCl) and incubate
the preparation at 37C if possible, but distilled water and room temperature will
be adequate. Give the tubes a few days to brew, unless you are planning to do a
day-by-day study of the process. You will see familiar forms; free-floating bions
that are spinning, rocking, jerking, or pulsating (while nearby particles of a

10

similar size are immobile), and larger particles with a recognisable likeness to
iron filings, with a rust-coloured crystalline structure. Some of these will be quite
immobile, while others will be moving in various ways rocking gently, jerking
up and down or from side to side, rolling in all planes and even migrating small
distances. You will see smaller, highly motile bionous particles attached to these
larger particles that are moving much more than the matrix. These highly charged
motile particles are even visible at x600. These smaller particles are either
discreet entities with a continuous border (membrane?) of their own, but
somehow still attached to the matrix and unable to move away independently, or
the tongues mentioned above, described by Reich in The Bion Experiments.26
This occurrence, often seen in these studies, is a real stumbling block for the
dismissive critics with their air-germs and Brownian motion. If the moving
tongue were contaminating micro-organisms, they would spread all over the
particle and into the surrounding fluid before long. The tongue does not do this
and stays more or less in the same state of motility all the time, though if we were
able to observe it continuously for longer periods, we might see development, and
possibly even detachment of the tongue as a separate, motile particle. This is
clearly part of a larger particle undergoing some process or other, not
contamination by air-germs. Neither can this be Brownian motion, as the rest of
the particle may be either motionless, or more likely, moving gently in a quite
different way, (probably rocking). There may be similar tongues on these larger
particles which themselves are not moving. A non-sterile preparation of iron
filings in water or KCl will act as a control and show what happens, if anything,
without the filings undergoing the process of heating and swelling.
The Grass-Infusion Experiment
I have placed this experiment here even though the grass-infusion
investigation came first in Reichs work. The technique of setting up and
maintaining a continuous-culture slide demands more than a temporary slide. This
experiment will be easier, if you have already had some experience of handling
your microscope and other equipment. It was undertaken as the result of his nave
question27 to the technician delivering his first culture of amoebae - where do they
come from? The reply was the stock one in biology from spores attached to the
grass, of course. The technician then explained that the best medium for finding
amoebae in was hay in water. This brings us to our starting point cut some
blades of old, yellowish grass rather than bright, fresh grass. The latter will be
bio-energetically stronger and will break down more slowly into bions. When you
are more used to your equipment, you could do two slides at the same time, one
of old and one of fresh grass, and observe any differences. Wash them thoroughly
under running water and wipe them down with a soft tissue, (so that you have

11

removed the thousands of encysted amoebae clinging to the grass!) and place
them in some distilled water or cold boiled water. Leave them for about 48 hours,
so that the process of bionous disintegration can start. Alternatively you can set up
the observation slide with the blades in situ straight away: Keep the grass supplied
with water, and observe the whole process form the start. After trying both
methods, I find the second one simpler, as it is easier to set up the slide with dry
grass. You will then have to wait a couple of days before there is much to see.
Reich pioneered this technique, which allows us to maintain an open
infusion on a cavity slide for an unlimited period. It is described in detail in
Dews article.28 Setting up a well-slide that can be observed for days and even
weeks, is quite fiddly at first. You may need several tries to get it right. It will
become much easier as you get more familiar with your materials and methods.
You may well find, to mention a few of my disasters, that your carefully prepared
grass-blades get blown away as someone opens a door, or you drop a coverslip
and cannot find it again. (Have several to hand.) If your wax is not organised
properly, you may find that it has gone hard again, just when you need it. On the
other hand it is not safe to leave it on the heat unattended while you concentrate
on your slide. Hence my recommendation of a heavy pan that retains heat well.
Another solution is to have an assistant watch the wax and keep it safe. An extra
pair of hands will, anyway, be very helpful, particularly the first time you do this.
Make sure you have got your equipment to hand; sharp scissors or razorblade (one with a safety backing along one edge), both types of wax (mixed 1:1),
well-slide, coverslips, a good-quality soft paintbrush to apply the wax. I suggest
that you lay everything out on a large newspaper on a solid table in a good light.
Take your blade of grass and cut down from the bottom (wider end) to the top (the
narrower end) along each side of the spine, which is thicker than the rest of the
blade. It is easy to forget which tiny strip of grass is spine or softer, thinner tissue
from the rest of the blade. Keep your eye on each piece as you cut and discard the
unneeded spine immediately. Trim the pieces to about 2.5 cm in length. Place
them over the slide well as illustrated, with their tips just to the right of centre and
their cut ends lying over to the left, clear of the coverslip edge. If in doubt about
dimensions and position size everything up beforehand without actually fixing
anything. You want the tips of the grass just inside the coverslip glass with about a
quarter of the wells diameter open to the air, so that you can replenish the water.
With your grass-blades in position, glue them to the slide surface with your wax
mixture on the paintbrush, which will be on hand and already melted. (In a heavy
metal container, it will remain fluid and usable for some time when removed from
the heat.) Make sure it is on a thick protective cover, if you are using a domestic
table with a polished surface. A dab of wax on the brush glues the blades in
position. Once the grass is securely attached, carefully place the coverslip over it,
leaving the part of the well open, pressing the slip down onto the slide. This is

12

quite tricky. Too much pressure breaks the coverslip. I suggest you use a wooden
or plastic item to hold the slip in place. Paint a line of wax 2-3mm wide along the
edges of the coverslip, half over the slip, half on the slide surface. (See
illustration.) This is the most difficult part of the job. If you have got this far
without mishap, you are nearly there. Now paint a miniature wax dyke round the
edge of the slide to prevent water coming off the slide and getting into sensitive
microscope parts. Make this thicker and higher than the seam round the coverslip.
You can easily remove any stray wax on the underneath by running your
thumbnail along the edge or round the lower face of the slide. The bottom of the
slide must be absolutely clean so that it lies flat on the microscope stage. The
working distance of a x100 objective is so minute that any unevenness may
interfere with focusing. Your slide is now ready for observation.
You can, if you wish, look at your grass before it is under water and
breaking down. It is not a necessary part of the experiment, but is still interesting.
The structure of grass, like most of natures structures, is beautiful and fascinating
and well worth looking at when magnified, regardless of the interest of the bions.
With a syringe and needle draw up some distilled or boiled water or KCl.
Place the point of the needle in the gap between the coverslip edge and the edge
of the well and slowly squeeze out a drop. The drop should vanish into the space
between the coverslip and the bottom of the well, sucked in by capillary action. If
there is still airspace under the coverslip, add more fluid drop by drop, until the
grass is surrounded by water. A small, insistent bubble will not interfere with the
experiment and will probably soon disappear. Try to avoid touching the slide with
your syringe needle as you drop the water in. The culture is not sterile, but it is
obviously good practice to avoid all possible contamination from outside.
If you did not examine the structure of the grass while it was still dry, you
should now, as a part of the experiment is to describe what you are seeing and
how it is affected by the process of bionous disintegration. To start with this will
not be going on, and you will be observing the structure of the grass in an
integrated state. You can see this best at low magnification, say x100-150. It is
still interesting at x400-600, but not at high magnification, until some
disintegration has taken place. High magnification gives no real impression of the
grasss structure. If your grass has been ripening in water already for a couple of
days, you will probably be able to see some bionous activity. At x1500 with oil
immersion you will by now certainly be able to see the characteristically grainy
areas where bionous disintegration is becoming established. 29 If you are starting
from scratch, you can look at your infusion every few hours and see how this
process develops. It is an exciting moment when you first detect actual movement
and the first time some bions separate and start pulsating, spinning, rocking or
jerking. You will also see movement of bions that are still attached to the matrix.
After a few days, (varying from infusion to infusion), you will also see how bions

13

agglomerate into highly motile clumps that rock through 30-45, jerk up and
down or from side to side. You may also be able to detect movement, shimmering
or pulsation within these clumps. If you can find a Cancer Biopathy now,
familiarise yourself with the illustrations in it. You will recognise many of the
things photographed by Reich in that text. A very characteristic movement of
these bionous clumps that seem ready to move off as independent organisms is a
tugging movement reminiscent of a child trying to break away from someone
trying to hold it back or an impatient animal trying to escape. The expression of
this movement is unmistakable. If you are lucky you will see a clump detach itself
and move off to start existence as an independent organism. If you are unable to
observe your culture frequently, you may find that a lot has happened while you
have been away. A likely occurrence after a few days is that you can see protozoa
in your culture, perhaps paramecia, amoebae, or bodonid flagellates. 30 These
protozoa seem to appear fairly early in a culture, during the first few days and
disappear again, possibly when too many have appeared the habitat becomes short
of food for them. You may then see encysted forms lying about immobile. You
will also find large numbers of active bacteria in some areas. You may be lucky
enough to see the protozoa actually ingesting bacteria.
How often do you need to add water to your culture? This depends on
temperature and humidity. It may need drop or two a day, much more in hot
weather. If you are going to be away for a few days, you can remove the slide
from the stage and put it in a moisture-proof container, such as a small polythene
bag or a margarine carton with a well-fitting lid. A large Petri dish with a layer of
wet lint on the base also makes a good damp chamber. I set up my first grassinfusion slide in fear and trembling, imagining it would be difficult to do and a
temperamental item that would be hard to maintain. Experience soon showed that
it is a simple, flexible method of observation. If the wax breaks down in places, it
can be easily patched up with your paintbrush. I have maintained these grass
cultures for three months and see no reason why you should not keep one going
for much longer. A note of caution here about time; if you find the earlier bion
experiments demand a lot of time, they are generous in comparison with the grass
infusion. So much is going on that you can watch all day, if you have time and
your eyes can bear looking down a microscope for so long. You will find yourself
focusing on something promising, hoping to observe the magical moment when a
bion clump takes off independently, and go on waiting and waiting for that to
happen. Even without that you can scan the field of view by the hour, watching
bions and protozoa. Once the grass has broken down a little, you will find that
there are two layers to observe. To start with you will observe bionous
disintegration only on the outer surface of the grass blade, though you can easily
focus down into the layer below, the interior cellular structure of the grass, which
consists of regular rows of ovalish dark-green cells. After 2-3 weeks the internal

14

matter of these cells appears to have broken down and escaped into the
surroundings. The cells appear to be empty. If you also observe these cells, you
will have twice as much to look at. The interesting developments in these cells do
not appear to have been described by Reich or the US orgonomists who have
written up a very helpful and thorough repeat of this experiment. 31
There is no obvious point at which to end this experiment, though the first
weeks are the most interesting. If you have no external way of recording what you
are seeing you will have plenty to draw. It is helpful to draw whole areas of the
grass surface and the pattern of bionous disintegration. If the enormous range of
things to observe bewilders you, I suggest that you for a time just observe the
culture open-mindedly and receptively and let it show you what it can teach you.
A book that will help you identify any protozoa arising will be useful. I
do suggest that you look at a good few samples of pond-water before you do this
experiment, so that you can recognise a fully-formed, free-living protozoon when
you see one. They vary greatly in form, colour, size, and behaviour.
A Simple Control Experiment for the Grass-Infusion Experiment
If you know anything of science you will know of the principle of the
control experiment. I suggest here a way of controlling the grass-infusion
experiment for interested readers who are unfamiliar with it. When a fellowresearcher points out that the grass-infusion is not sterile and that all the lifeforms observed in the culture could be explained as already being attached to the
grass itself (as is conventionally thought in modern biology), you must be able to
demonstrate that this is not so. Some American orgonomists have done a more
complex air-germ experiment 32 and Reich himself investigated what was to be
found in the air and attached to grass. 33 I have examined dozens of samples of
water standing outdoors on all sorts of different places open to the elements and in
different parts of the country and have found very little in most samples, unless
there has been an animal input like the pond-water with geese living on it, or large
amounts of decaying vegetation. This, though, is not conclusive, only
circumstantial. To answer the objection we need to produce bions and/or protozoa
from a sterile preparation, as we have done with soil sand, and iron-filings.
A simple way of doing this is to chop some grass, place it in water in a
test-tube and to autoclave it, as in the other experiments. We cut a handful of
grass-blades, let them dry for 24 hours, chop them finely, as if they were herbs for
the kitchen, add a generous pinch to each of 5-6 test-tubes, add distilled or boiled
water, cork and tape the tubes, and autoclave them for 30 minutes at 120C.
Since the continuous grass culture takes about 48 hours to show signs of
bionous disintegration and movement, we leave the tubes for that long after
autoclavation. We then investigate one every 2-3 days. We already know that

15

bionous disintegration and the growth of motile forms occurs quite quickly with a
grass infusion. It is also possible that chopping up the grass and autoclaving it
accelerates bionous disintegration.
We open a tube carefully and draw up a drop of fluid with a sterile needle
and syringe. We set up a hanging-drop slide in the usual way and examine it. At
x150 brightfield we see particles of various sizes in the fluid, some dark green,
some silver or translucent. At x600 we already see some movement, though not
all the particles show this. At x1500 with immersion oil we find a lot of activity.
There are mainly three types and size of particle; small, about 0.5m in diameter,
some of which appear to be highly motile, spinning, pulsating, and moving from
side to side and up and down; somewhat larger ones, about 1-3m in diameter,
more or less spherical, slightly oval in shape, commonly seen in the grassinfusion experiment, though as yet somewhat smaller; a larger form, a flake,
presumably a larger grass particle, similar to free-floating forms often seen in the
infusion preparations, about 5m in their longest dimension, showing grainy areas
exactly the same as the bionously disintegrating surfaces of the grass strips, with
brighter dots, bions, visible in the grainy areas. Only one or two of these larger
particles are moving. All the particles are pale green at this high magnification.
To summarise: we see forms and processes similar to those found in the
early stages of the grass-infusion slide bionous disintegration, bions attached to
the grass surface, free bions, and possibly forms that are evolving into protozoa.
We have examined the droplet from our sterile preparation within seconds of
opening the test-tube. Even with minor contamination from the atmosphere, the
variety of forms cannot possibly have developed in only few minutes.
Two days later we open a second control tube. The findings are similar.
There are particles of various sizes ranging from the barely visible at x1500 to
ones measuring 5-6m. Many particles show no movement at all, regardless of
size. If Brownian motion is the correct explanation for the movement that we see,
all particles of a similar size will be moving. This is not the case. We also see
larger particles showing the typical signs of bionous disintegration on their
surface. Some of these are quite immobile, a few are beginning to rock gently. We
see tiny bean-shaped particles about 0.5m in length spinning furiously and large
immobile flakes. Again our findings parallel almost exactly those of the grass
infusion experiment. With large expanses of clear fluid, as with the bion
experiments, it is easier to see the movement, shape, and quality of the separate
particles than it is when they are seen against the background of the grass blades.
We do not see any forms that could be bacteria stemming from contamination, in
particular the rods that we see in the grass infusion at a later stage. If these stem
from bionous disintegration and the reorganisation into organisms that Reich
claimed occurs, we should see these bacterial forms later as well as protozoa.

16

We open a third control tube 8 days after autoclavation. There is a large

piece of grass in our sample of water. This accident gives us a good chance to
compare the contents of the control tubes with the infusion culture on the open
slide, where we see almost everything against the background of the grass blades.
At x150 brightfield the typical, still coherent structure of the grass is
visible. Even at this magnification we can see tiny visibly motile particles in the
clearer fluid at the edge of the grass and also some immobile particles of a similar
size. At x600 with a blue filter we see particles ranging in size from 1 to 10 m.
Several look like a windsock, similar to a Stentor organism, but much smaller,
have an upper green, more or less circular surface with a shape descending behind
bounded by a transparent membrane. Some of the particles are apparently
attached in pairs and show a radiating bridge, as described and illustrated by
Reich in The Cancer Biopathy. We see all these forms both in the clear fluid and
above and possibly attached to the grass. Although there is not a great deal of
bionous disintegration on the surface of the grass (perhaps this stage is already
complete), the second, deeper layer of the grass structure is beginning to break
down. Some of the roundish cells which initially contain a dark-green substance
(?chloroplasts) are now empty and transparent. Some of the yellow spheres seen
in the grass-infusion experiment in these cells are beginning to move gently.
Examination at x1500 confirms these findings. Smaller particles, about
0.5m in diameter are also visible, some of them spinning very actively. Bionous
disintegration is visible, especially near the end of the grass barbs and on the thin
thread-like grass particles. A paramecium-like form is visible but not moving. We
also see very symmetrical, immobile circular forms seen in the grass-infusion
slide. These may be encysted protozoa. In the grass-infusion slide at a certain
stage, when there are too many protozoa to survive on the limited resources
available, we see many fewer mobile organisms and many more encysted forms.
Two days later we open our fourth control tube. There is plenty to see,
even at x150. We can just detect movement in some of particles ranging from the
barely visible to 0.1 to 100m in size. Some of the larger particles, even at this
magnification, appear bionous. There are a small number of much larger bodies
exactly like amoebae, with the typical spreading pseudopodia and darker bodies
visible within the cytoplasm, thought these forms do not appear to be moving.
Observation at x600 shows more detail many motile particles, ranging
in size from barely visible to 25m. The larger amoeboid forms are visible with
phase-contrast and one may just be moving. We see tiny, highly motile bions and
immobile, free-floating dots similar in size, 2-3m in diameter. At x1500 we see
many highly motile forms of similar size. These look very protozoon-like, similar
to the forms shown in the AIOS articles. 34 A few are much smaller, perhaps 1m
and a single larger one is visible, as big as 10m. We see free-floating, motile
bions about 1m in diameter that rock, spin, move from side to side, up and down

17

and rise and fall in the fluid. A particle sinks and rises in and out of focus several
times. We find a protozoon-like organism moving in all the above ways and also
from place to place over a small distance. It is a slipper-like organism, grayish
with a grainy internal texture and an anterior flagellum or cilium. We also see a
much larger flake, about 10m across, showing bionously disintegrating patches
and beginning to move, rocking up and down and from side to side.
Four days later we prepare a sample from the fifth, final tube. We are now
14 days from the start of the experiment. At x150 with brightfield lumination we
see large pieces pf grass showing bionous disintegration, 0.1 0.3m across. We
see protozoon-like and amoeboid forms. One of the latter, 10-20m across is
moving gently from side to side and up and down. We see many dots and beanshapes, most of them only just distinguishable, some moving, some immobile.
At x600 with a blue or green filter (which helps us to see translucent
items with low contrast) we see the same in more detail. We also see new items
previously invisible, two different highly motile protozoal forms; these are either
slipper-shaped or spherical and show all types of movement, spinning, side to
side, up and down, rocking and turning on their own axis.
At x1500 using phase-contrast we see clearly what are presumably
protozoa, mobile and showing all the above forms of movement. Most are about
1-2m long. Many have a visible flagellum at one end. We also see many small
bions, spherical and bean-like. Many of these are spinning vigorously, though we
also see immobile particles and identical forms of a similar size. As we notice
movement, we must check that there are other similarly sized items that are not
moving. Otherwise the movement can be written off as Brownian motion. We
can also see motile spheres about 2-4m in diameter and the familiar windsock
forms about 1-4m in diameter across the upper surface. The amoeboid forms
seen moving gently at x600 magnification and the oval translucent forms cannot
be traced. Perhaps they are too deep in the drop to be seen. (The working distance
of a high magnification objective is minute. Objects must be close to the surface
for us to be able to focus on them.) Just as we are about to stop our observations,
after several hours, we notice a paramecium-like shape 3-4m long with an
anterior flagellum that shows all types of locomotion and definite migration from
one place to another. It also changes its position, now lying horizontally across the
field of view, now hanging vertically in the water, visible as a dot.
We could continue this experiment for longer with more tubes. However
five tubes observed for up to 14 days after autoclavation confirm similar
processes at work and the organisation of similar organisms in both a grassinfusion open to the air and one sealed and sterilised. The rod-shaped bacteria
seen in large numbers in the grass-infusion experiment do not appear in this
control experiment. Repeated trials may explain this discrepancy. The obvious
explanation is that the rods are contamination from the atmosphere. However, a

18

similar experiment done with beech leaves does show the rods after about 3
weeks. We have repeated the grass-infusion several items and found that it
produces the same forms each time without much variation and that it produces
motile, apparently living forms, even after repeated autoclavation. (See below for
comments on the work of Oparin and Tyndall.) If you join in this work and repeat
these experiments carefully, you may help clarify these apparent contradictions.
Another method is to prepare a test-tube using a Suba Seal stopper. The
contents of the tube remain sterile while you withdraw fluid. You push a needle
through the stopper. As you withdraw it the stopper automatically reseals itself.
First sterilise the surface of the stopper with a Steret or Mediswab. This procedure
allows you to use one tube throughout the experiment. Your sterile precautions
will be more complete. To tighten up your sterile procedures further, you can
flame your slide before use. If you have no Bunsen burner or gas-cooker to hand,
a meths-burning camping stove will do just as well. You should do everything to
disprove that bionous disintegration and the spontaneous organisation of living
forms occur. A conventional biologist with unexpected findings does this.
Scientific Refutation of Some Classical Objections to Abiogenesis
It is well known that spores of micro-organisms are more resistant to
autoclavation or dry sterilisation than living organisms. An ingenious refutation of
the work of the English pioneer H C Bastian (1837-1915) 35 by the Soviet biologist
A I Oparin (1894-1980) states that Bastians autoclaving killed off any living
organisms in his infusions and that spores surviving this process then emerged
into the fluid.36 I have tested this objection by repeatedly autoclaving infusions.
Findings refute Oparins objection. Another refutation of this objection is to heat a
mineral item, sand, soil, iron-filings, or clay, to red heat before autoclavation.
Reich himself did this.37 Such non-living materials, when heated to red heat
before being added to water or 0.1N KCl and autoclaved, still produce bions.
Answering these objections takes this work an important step further and is an
important part of your orgonomic education. Oparins objection is an example of
how a critic will try to refute a finding gained by laborious, thorough work by
ideologising about it. Oparin does not back up this objection with any reference.
Presumably he is referring to the work of John Tyndall (1820-1893), who claimed
to have disproved categorically the possibility of spontaneous generation and to
have confirmed Pasteurs air-germ theory.38 I have found that grass infusions
repeatedly autoclaved continue to produce motile, apparently living forms. All
these refutations depend on sterilising solutions and protracted, fruitless argument
over the temperature at which micro-organisms or spores are killed by heat. Only
Reich thought of experimenting with solid materials that can be heated to red
heat, far beyond the temperature at which any germs or spores could survive.

19

Another influence on bion growth is pH values. Palm and Dring point

out that bion growth does not occur above a certain pH level. 39 This confirmed an
observation at C O R E that preparations made from foraminifera sand or
limestone produced few motile forms. We did not then relate this to pH levels.
Following up their observation we tested various preparations and measured the
pH levels. Material producing no bions prepared in water giving a pH of 12.0
produces bions and other motile forms when prepared with an acid, eg, domestic
vinegar, giving a pH of 3-4. (Both samples were first heated to red heat.) This
difference proves quite consistent with several materials producing high pH levels
in water; talc, foraminifera sand, sand made from ground crab shells, and ground
marble. These materials contain large amounts of calcium carbonate from skeletal
remains. These observations open a new field of enquiry in bion research.
A Postscript on Darkfield Facility
If you are borrowing a microscope, ask the owner to show you how to set
up darkfield illumination, if it is available. This shows up movement well and
details invisible even using phase contrast at x1500. Tiny motile items, invisible
under brightfield or phase contrast, show up as flashing specks of light.
Darkfield illumination is wonderfully beautiful and raises microscopy to a
plane of unimaginable delight. Prepare to be overwhelmed by the dance of life
before your eyes when you use darkfield lighting. The principle is simple. The
light is directed obliquely across the specimen. Translucent specimens reflects
light upwards into the tube, giving a negative image; the background is dark and
the specimen shows up as a silvery silhouette of dots and lines. Highly motile
bions show up as flashing specks. Drs Lassek and Gerlanger 40 report being able to
see even the T-bacilli that appear in the second Reich blood test under darkfield
illumination. The use of darkfield greatly widens the scope of our investigations.
Further Study of Orgonomy in the Laboratory
I have found the texts listed below useful in my own orgonomic work and
these experiments. You could add many more. These are just a beginning.
Farley J (1977); The Spontaneous Generation Controversy from Dscartes
to Oparin, John Hopkins Press, Baltimore and London.
Fitter R and Manuel R (1994); Lakes, Rivers, Streams and Ponds of Britain
and North West Europe, A Collins Photo-Guide, Harper-Collins, London.
Oldfield R (1994); Light Microscopy An Illustrated Guide, MosbyYearbook Europe, London.

20

Patterson D (1996); Free-Living Freshwater protozoa A Colour Guide,

Manson Publishing, London.
Thain M and Hickman M (1994); Penguin Dictionary of Biology, Penguin,
London.
Remember that this work is outside conventional science. These texts give only
technical information on microscopy and biology. They contain no answers to
orgonomic questions. You may find these in the orgonomic literature, especially
Reichs own works. In any scientific endeavour go back to the original reports!
Savona Books, 400, Seawall Lane, Haven Sands, North Cotes,
Lincolnshire,
DN36
5XE,
phone
01472
388994,
e-mail;
savonabooks@savonabooks.free-online.co.uk
Website; http://www.savonabooks.free-online.co.uk
publishes a quarterly catalogue of secondhand books on microscopy and related
subjects. Some of these will be helpful to the beginner.
A binocular microscope suitable for this work costs about 1000, the price of a
cheaper instrument. The sum would be possible for a group saving from wages
from weekend jobs. Secondhand instruments are often bargains, though this is
only a reliable option if an informed helper can check an instrument for you. At C
O R E we have researched the market and list below models apparently suitable
for this work. We have not tested them and give this information in good faith. We
would like to hear from readers who have used any of these microscopes.
Suppliers (direct sales to the public) of models SP40, SP60, SP100, SP200
Brunel Microscopes Ltd, Unit 2, Vincients Road, Bumpers Farm Industrial
Estate, Chippenham, Wilts, SN14 6QA hhtp://www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk
Suppliers (wholesalers and importers) of Microlab-2000 Series models
Optical Vision Limited, Unit 2b, Woolpit Business Park, Woolpit, Bury St
Edmunds, Suffolk, IP30 9RT, www.opticalvision.co.uk
John Millham, 82, Brasenose Road, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 7BN, phone
01253 817157, supplies secondhand microscopes, publishes a list of microscopes
for sale, and this states accessories attached and the condition of the instrument.

21

Philip Harris Educational, Novara House, Excelsior road, Ashby Park, Ashby de
la Zouche, Leicestershire, LE65 1NG, www.dialnet.com are a good source of
microscope sundries; they publish a catalogue and give technical advice.
The Annals of the Institute for Orgonomic Science, whose series of articles The
Amateur Scientist in Orgonomy has been so helpful in the writing of this booklet
and my own orgonomic work, is at; The Institute for Orgonomic Science, 205,
Knapp road, Lansdale, PA 19446, USA. www.orgonomicscience.org
PS. (January 2007) We have recently bought and tested two models from Brunel
Microscopes suitable for young orgonomists. The Westbury SP40 binocular seems
to be the absolutely minimum that you can do the bion experiments with. Using
only brightfield illumination, you can definitely see motile bions, bionous
movement and bionous disintegration with this model. The cost, without extras, is
340, with a 10% discount to educational customers. We are delighted to have
discovered this instrument. The model that we have tested does the job. If you get
a few pounds pocket-money a week that is still quite a sum, but once you start
earning, (you can earn on the side, doing jobs for friends and relations, even if
you cannot legally work), you should be able to collect it, especially if you can
persuade kind relations to add an extra 10 here and there. People are always
impressed by commitment. If you can show you have already earned and saved
100, people will be much more willing to contribute to your microscope fund.
The second instrument that we have tested is the Brunel SP100 laboratory
microscope, which costs 478. The phase-contrast kit for this model costs 295.
You could start with the basic model and buy the phase-contrast set later. We give
this information in the hope that it will be useful to potential students of
orgonomy. Very young readers who decide to buy one of these models may need
some basic physical help from an adult to set up the instrument. If you live within
reach of C O R E we will be happy to help you set up your microscope.

22

Reich W (1979); The Bion Experiments on the Origin of Life, FS&G, New York.

2
2

Reich W (1973); The Cancer Biopathy, Vision Press, London.

3
3

Sharaf M (1993); Fury on Earth, chapter 17, The Bions 1936-1939, Andr Deutsch, London.

4
4

Reich W (1979); op cit, chapter 5, Culturability Experiments Using Earth, Coal and Soot.

Brown R (no date, actual date of first publication 1828); A Brief Account of Microscopical Observations, reprinted by the
Ray Society, London.
6
Reich W (1979); op cit, chapter 1, the Tension-Charge Formula.
7

Reich W; ibid, pages 25-26.

8

Reich W ; ibid, chapter 2, Bions as the Preliminary Stages of Life.

9

Reich W (1973); op cit, pages 25-27.

10

Thain M and Hickman M (1994); Penguin Dictionary of Biology, page 446, Origin of Life, Penguin Books, London.
11

Dawkins R (1992); Fossil fool, review of The Facts of Life, by Richard Milton, in The New Statesman, London.
12

Reich W (1973); op cit, chapter II, 2, The Question of Brownian Movement.

13

Reich W (1973a); Ether, God and Devil, chapter I, The Workshop of Orgonomic Functionalism, page 5, FS&G, New York.
14

Reich W (1973); op cit, chapter II, Orgone Energy Vesicles and the Natural Organisation of Protozoa.
15

Reich W (1983); The Function of the Orgasm, chapter VII, 4, What is Biopsychic Energy?
16

ibid, page 154.

17

ibid, chapter VII, 5, The Orgasm Formula: Tension Charge Discharge Relaxation.
18

Reich W (1979); op cit, chapter 2, Bions as the Preliminary Stages of Life.

19

Burlinghame P (1984); The Amateur Scientist in Orgonomy, Basic Bion Experiments, in Annals of the Institute for
Orgonomic Science, Vol 1, No 1, September 1984, Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania.
20

Baker C and Dew R (1984); ibid, Bion Migration.

21

Palm and Dring D (1997); Neue Untersuchungen zu den Seesandbionen von Wilhelm Reich, in Nach Reich (eds DeMeo J
and Senf B), Zweitausendeins, Frankfurt.
22

Burlinghame P; op cit.
23

Reich W (1979); op cit, page 40

Reich W; ibid, pages 74-82.

24
25

Burlinghame P; op cit.
26

Reich W (1979); op cit page 40.

27

ibid, page 25.

28

Dew R (1987); The Amateur Scientist in Orgonomy, A Grass Infusion Project, in Annals of the Institute for Orgonomic
Science, Vol 4, No 1, September, 1987, Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania.
29

Reich W (1979); op cit, pages 26-31.

30

Patterson D J (1996); Freeliving Freshwater Protozoa a Colour Guide, Manson Publishing London.
31

Dew R; op cit.
32

Dew R (1987a); An Air-Germ Experiment, in Annals of the Institute for Orgonomic Science, Vol 4, No1, GwyneddValley,
Pennsylvania.
33

Reich W (1973); op cit, chapter III, 1, The Absurdities of the Air-Germ Theory.
34

Dew R (1987); op cit.

35

Bastian H C (1872); The Beginnings of Life, MacMillan, London.

36

Oparin A I (1936); The Origin of Life on the Earth, pages 34-35, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.
37

Reich W (1979); op cit, The Incandescent Coal Experiment.

38

Tyndall J (1878); Spontaneous Generation, in The Nineteenth Century, January, 1878, pages 22-47, London, and
Spontaneous Generation: a Last Word, ibid, March 1878, pages 497-508.
39

Palm M and Dring D; op cit.

40

Lassek H and Gierlanger M (1997); Blutdiagnostik und Bionforschung nach Wilhelm Reich, in Nach Reich, page 538, op
cit.