Orgone Sabotage

Four people charged with attempting to sabotage a hydroelectric damn in Mozambique may not have had any ill intent after all. Instead, they're probably just idiots. One of the men, Carlos da Silva, and the wife of another say that the alleged saboteurs are all members of a movement called Orgonise Africa, and that they were attempting to imbue the water at the damn with "positive energy" by using a substance called orgonite. For those of you not up on your pseudoscience, all of this is based on the work of Dr. Wilhelm Reich, an early 20th century psychoanalyst who claimed to have discovered a previously unknown particle called orgone, which he said was the source of all positive forces in the universe. This was never proven, of course, and Reich's life ended in professional embarrassment, but that hasn't stopped gullible people from taking up his nonsense. The "orgonite" these men planned to drop in the water was actually a shard of artificial resin with aluminum filings inside. Because the local authorities just saw a few nuts trying to dump something in the water supply, the men were arrested as suspected terrorists. I can't argue that Africa couldn't use some positivity these days, but I'm not sure dropping tacky trinkets in their water is going to do the trick. More details here. And read my PinkRaygun.com article on Dr. Wilhelm Reich here.