FIRST MEETING WITH REICH

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At that time, Reich was living in Forest Hills, N.Y.  I called and made arrangements - this was in the late 1940's - and went to see Dr. Reich.  He lived in what would be considered a very nice, substantial house at that time.  So I came to his office in Forest Hills at the appointed day.  My first sight of Reich as he came down from the second floor stairway, the feeling that one got was, this man is powerful, just from the way he walked down the stairways.  You had the feeling he was a powerhouse.

He first asked me, "How did you get to me, what have you read ?"  I told him I had read all that was available at that time.  The second question was, "What do you think of orgone energy?"  I said, "Well, it seems very strange to me."  He replied, "Of course it does, because you've been trained in a way that's entirely different from the way I think and the way orgone energy research is directed.  If you ever get that far in your work in the laboratory, you can do the experiments and you'll find out for yourself whether orgone energy exists or not."

I thought that was a very reasonable response, because somehow I had expected him to say, "You don't believe in orgone energy?  Then get the hell out of here!"  But he was very reasonable about it.