SUMMER CONFERENCE AT ORGONON
July 11-15, 2016 – RANGELEY, MAINE

This summer the Conference Building will temporarily function again in its original role as a student laboratory. Microscopes and objectives, Bunsen burners, pipettes, slides, cover slips, and autoclaves fill the tables as participants gather to study the microscopic work that led to Reich’s discovery of the bionous nature of living matter and its significance for an understanding and treatment of cancer.

Instructors Stephen S. Nagy, M.D., C. Grier Sellers, Ph.D. and James Strick, Ph.D. will introduce participants to the historical context and evolution of Reich’s experiments, and to a basic understanding of the light microscope and Reich’s use of and observations through this instrument.

Each day includes lectures; hands-on work with microscopes to examine preparations described in Reich’s books The Bion Experiments and The Cancer Biopathy; an optional open laboratory period in the afternoon; and evening presentations of Reich’s original time-lapse films of bions and living cancer cells.

In addition, demonstrations of the Reich Blood Test will be performed on willing volunteers who are then able to observe their blood at high magnifications using Dr. Nagy’s sophisticated Zeiss microscope.

PROGRAM PRESENTERS

Stephen S. Nagy, M.D. is an internationally-recognized photomicroscopist who has had an interest in Wilhelm Reich’s medical and scientific work since 1968. He received training from The American College of Orgonomy and from the Institute for Orgonomic Science, and has taught in laboratory courses organized by these organizations and at The Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory. He has had numerous photomicrographs recognized by The Nikon Small World and Olympus Bioscapes international competitions for optical photomicroscopy. He is Board-Certified in Adult Psychiatry by The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and has been practicing psychiatry since 1977 in hospital, private practice, community mental health, and government settings. He is a dedicated fly fisherman whose home water is Montana’s Missouri River near Craig, Montana.

C. Grier Sellers, Ph.D. was trained in microbial ecology and protistology with a focus on plastid endosymbiosis, and has conducted experimental research with polar cryptophytes, haptophytes, and dinoflagellates. He has presented his work at international scientific meetings and has published in scientific journals. Dr. Sellers has also taught courses on introductory biology, field biology, aquatic biology, botany, and microbiology at colleges and universities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He has a longstanding interest in Wilhelm Reich’s biological research and has participated in previous seminars and laboratory courses on this topic at the Wilhelm Reich Museum.

James Strick, Ph.D. is Professor in the Dept. of Earth and Environment and Chair of the Program in Science, Technology and Society, at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Originally trained in microbiology, and later in history of science, Dr. Strick has published extensively on the history of ideas and experiments about the origin of life, including Sparks of Life: Darwinism and the Victorian Debates over Spontaneous Generation (Harvard, 2000), Wilhelm Reich, Biologist (Harvard, 2015) and, with Steven Dick, The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology (Rutgers, 2004). He is also the editor of two six volume collections of primary sources: Evolution and the Spontaneous Generation Debate (Thoemmes, 2001) and The Origin of Life Debate: Molecules, Cells, and Generation (Thoemmes, 2004). Strick has been an advisory editor of Isis (journal of the History of Science Society) and a member of the History of Science Society Council. He has been a referee for Isis, Journal of the History of Biology, Annals of Science, British Journal for History of Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and numerous other professional journals.

EVENT SCHEDULE

Monday Morning – July 11
9:00am: “Reich’s Bion Experiments and the History of Their Development”
Presenter: James E. Strick, Ph.D.

10:45am: Hands-on Workshop: Laboratory Techniques and Observations of Preparations 6 – Soup, Earth, Iron and Carbon Bions

Monday Evening – July 11
7:30pm: “An Introduction to Optical Microscopy”
Presenter: Stephen S. Nagy, M.D.

Tuesday Morning – July 12
9:00am: “The Bions: Biological Characteristics and Culture Experiments”
Presenter: C. Grier Sellers, Ph.D.

10:00am: “Natural Organizations of Protists in Bionously Disintegrating Plant Material”
Presenter: C. Grier Sellers, Ph.D.

11:15am: Hands-on Workshop: Laboratory Observations of Grass Infusions

Tuesday Afternoon – July 12
2:30pm: Further Laboratory Observations (optional) – supervised by C. Grier Sellers, Ph.D.

5:00pm: Reception at the Orgone Energy Observatory

Wednesday Morning – July 13
9:00am: “Bionous Processes, From the Test Tube to the Living Organism: Cancer”
Presenter: Stephen S. Nagy, M.D.

10:45am: Hands-on Workshop: Continuing Laboratory Observations of Bions (And cancer cells if available)

Wednesday Afternoon – July 13
2:30pm: Hands-on Workshop: Further Laboratory Observations (optional) – supervised by James E. Strick, Ph.D.

7:30pm: Reich’s Films of Preparation 6 & Natural Organization of Protists in Moss and Grass Preparations

Thursday Morning – July 14
9:00am: “Experimental Orgone Therapies of the Cancer Biopathy”
Presenter: James E. Strick, Ph.D.

10:00am: “The Reich Blood Test: Promise and Problems”
Presenter: Stephen S. Nagy, M.D.

11:15am: Hands-on Workshop: Laboratory Observations Demonstrating the Reich Blood Test

Thursday Afternoon – July 14
2:30pm: Hands-on Workshop: Further Laboratory Observations (optional) – supervised by Stephen Nagy, M.D.

7:30pm: Reich’s Film of Natural Organization of Cancer Cells

Friday Morning – July 15
9:00am: Summary and Review
Presenter: James E. Strick, Ph.D.

Panel Discussion: Implications of Reich’s Finding in Bions and Cancer for Contemporary Biology and Medicine
Panelists: Stephen S. Nagy, M.D., C. Grier Sellers, Ph.D., & James E. Strick, Ph.D.

11:00am: Questions and Answers and General Discussion

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REGISTRATION FEE: $275

STUDENT FEE (25% off): $206.25 (for full-time students with student documentation)

Registration fee includes tuition, information packet, daily homemade breakfast and refreshments. Registration may be made with check, MasterCard, Visa, American Express. Please call us at: (207) 864-3443. Or email us at: [email protected].

TAX DEDUCTION:

IRS regulations permit an income tax deduction for educational expenses to maintain or improve professional skills.

ACCOMMODATIONS:

Hotels, motels, bed & breakfasts, bunkhouses, lakefront cottages and lakefront campgrounds are available in and around Rangeley. We encourage you to make your reservations early as July is Rangeley’s busy season. For more information, contact the Rangeley Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-685-2537 or click here.

UNTIL NEXT MONTH

Please share this Update with colleagues, friends, and family who may be interested in the life and legacy of Wilhelm Reich and the good works of The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust and The Wilhelm Reich Museum. Thank you again for your friendship and support.