This book, as a previous reader/commenter says, was alluded to by Kate Bush, but it was also alluded to much earlier by Patti Smith's song "Birdland" on her album "Horses".

"I still dream of Organon"...goes the song 'Cloudbusting' by Kate Bush. That is how we discovered this moving, if somewhat curious, book. The Book of Dreams tells the true story of a man (Peter Reich) recalling (through a series of flashbacks) his close and loving relationship with his father - the famous scientist Wilhelm Reich. Wilhelm Reich was at the forefront of scientific thinking on human sexuality and, in particular, the 'Cosmic Orgone Energy Theory' in the 1930s and '40s. He wrote many books on the subject, including the then enlightening 'The function of the Orgasm.' He also experimented with various forms of energy, attempting to capture 'Orgone' - energy in its purest form. Together with his young son, Peter, he went on to build a machine that could affect cloud formations, capture 'Orgone' and, to all intents and purposes, make clouds rain. Although the book touches on many interesting scientific ideas, the book concentrates mostly on Peters memories, on the love, devotion and encouragement he received from his father. On his father's insistence that he stay in touch with his feelings and not become hard like most people in the world -hardness in people, Reich senior believed, made people ill. He didn't want Peter to suffer from that illness as he grew up. Reich senior was later arrested for his beliefs and his experiments and died soon after in prison. Much of his research was destroyed by 'the authorities,' leaving a (still) young Peter with only his memories, most of which as an adult he could only recall through his dreams. Informative, gripping and eminently readable.

In this late reflection, composed of two books written in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Reich stands back to reflect on the journey that brought him to his mature view of orgonomic functionalism. He details his struggles with Freud on the concept of the death drive and the notion that the primary drives in the unconscious are negative and destructive of order. In rejecting both the death drive (Freud in 1920) and in seeing the core of the unconscious as expressing itself through positive orgonomic streamings, he was able to break free from symptom analysis and talk about the total character structure and its armoring. While symptoms could be isolated by the talking cure, the consequent revelation usually failed to unleash the deep affect that should accompany the traumatic memory. Reich discovered that the center of the painful memory is a blockage in positive genital life-energy. This muscular and emotional blockage is best seen as an armoring in which a counter-cathexis moves back into the psychic economy and stops the healthy outward flow of orgone. From this realization of character and its armoring, Reich moved on to a study of bioenergetic fields and mircoscopic phenomena. In his last years he pushed much further into the inner logic of this general energy called "orgone" and found that it was more basic than any form of electromagnetic energy. In his final extrapolations he created a cosmology of cosmic superimposition in which he argued that a deep energy caused two separate orgone systems to superimpose themselves on each other, often in a wave or spiral pattern. This became his model for the genesis of galaxies. Hence Reich started his career with a reworking of Freud's libido theory and ended up with an orgonomic cosmology that showed (or so he hoped) the role of orgone in all forms of life and growth. He further inverts Freud by taking Freud's negative concept of the "oceanic feeling" and transposes it into a positive cosmic and "true religious" feeling that connects the self to the infinite universe. In a strange way, these two short books represent a kind of transcendentalist religion of nature, even though Reich was deeply suspicious of religion and mysticism (often equating them with patriarchy and the emotional plague). Students of Reich who have not read these later works, partly written in English, miss some of the poetic power and visionary quality of this radical naturalist and psychoanalyst.

In this book Wilhem Reich, revolutionnary scientist, explore the Myth and history of Jesus in a functionalist perspective...and depict what he calls 'the emotional plague'

He expose in a philosophical manner the responsibility man continually evades...

James DeMeo or editing staff of Amazon books has mis claimed that Wilhelm Reich wrote this book. It is written by James DeMeo who pleasurizes Wilhelm Reich's work in other books he has written

This is a scholarly work, and I found great value in it. Wilhelm Reich's early work on "bioelectricity" was translated by Dr. Barbara Koopman; it was first published in English (1967) by the Journal of Orgonomy. It is reprinted here with the translator's permission. There is a wealth of information, aside from original translations of Reich's articles from the 1930s. Well-illustrated. My favorite article was Ellen Siersted's personal reminiscences of Reich's time in Denmark. Gives the reader both a sense of the history of orgonomy as well as its development today. I recommend this book.

This is a non-revised paperback version of a biography which first appeared in the late 1970s. The author spent six years working on the archives and the result is a very detailed treatment of Hitler's master spy. Canaris emerges as a Janus or two faced figure. Early in the war, he undoubtedly achieved a number of spy coups. However, he also had to take responsibility for several "botched" expeditions such as the unsuccessful attempts to land German spies in the USA. Following the death of his erstwhile friend Heydrich, SS leaders such as Kaltenbrunner tried to break up Canaris' spy network and place it under Gestapo control. Canaris was dismissed in March 1944, but retained faith that Hitler would rehabilitate him. He was eventually hanged for alleged complicity in the July 1944 plot to kill the Fuhrer. Canaris certainly had links with anti-Hitler factions, but his actual role is still ambiguous. His conscience and loyalties prevented him from being in the forefront of opposition. Author Heinz Hohne is meticulous but is not an easy read. Nor does he offer a chapter of conclusions on this enigmatic character.

I have read many fiction WWII spy stories and thought it would be neat to get the real story on Canaris. This thing kind of reads like a difficult history book. I would suggest you get this ONLY if you are REAL serious about learning about him because it gives tons of trivial details, etc.

Like Albert Speer and Walter Schellenberg, Whilhelm Canaris is one of those enigmatic figures who emerged from the Third Reich. Hohne's book, 'Canaris: Hitler's Master Spy,' is a penetrating look at Hitler's head of military intelligence during World War Two. Hohne traces the rise of Canaris from his days as a lieutenant in World War One to his tenure as head of the Ahwehr and finally to his ultimate downfall at the hands of the Gestapo. The narrative does sometimes go off on tangents (notably the chapters on Canaris's role in the murders of communist leaders in the 1920's,) but also provides amazing insights into German foreign intelligence and the military conspiracy against Hitler that culminated in the July 20th 1944 bomb attempt. For anyone interested in World War Two espionage, the inner-workings of Nazi Germany, or deeper matters of conscience, Hohne's book will more than delight.