"Roughly a century after Reichenbach, the Austrian Wilhelm Reich came up with 'orgone energy'. In his early career a distinguished Freudian analyst, Reich committed the sin of searching for physical evidence of the life force' (as he called it), trespassing on areas outside his field of psychology. His research led him to announce that he had identified this universal energy, and that it could be accumulated in boxes made of alternating layers of organic and inorganic materials. Peering into the darkness within such boxes, a dull green dance of energy could be seen, moving in characteristic spiral formations. When Reich claimed that this accumulated orgone could be used for weather control and healing, he brought the full wrath of orthodoxy down onto his head, and he died in an American jail in 1957.

"It is hard to judge whether such people as these were a little mad or actually onto something worthwhile. Even though 'respectable' science continues to search slyly for its ether, its unified field, its 'Fifth Force' beyond the known ones of gravity, clectromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces, our culture docs not readily condone research into such things, and those independent souls who persist in doing so tend to become isolated, ridiculed, resisted, and-perhaps eventu- ally-sent crazy. It is certainly at least a coincidence, however, as John Michell noted years ago, that the structure of certain prehistoric mounds were also constructed from alternating organic and inorganic layers, much like Reich's orgone accumulators:

" 'it is diflicult not to suspect that this form of energy [orgone] was known and controlled in prehistoric times. Many of the greatest works of the megalithic builders involved the construction of a hidden chamber set deep within the earth or at the heart of some great artificial edi- fice. . .The chamber itsellis lined with stone covered with a layer ofturf and with successive layers of clay and sod. These layers are carefully built up, different types and colours of clay being used at each stage. Finally the whole structure is buried under a great mound of earth.' " (Michell, 1969)