Cloudbuster

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A "cloudbuster" setup whose alleged functionality relies on Reich's belief that "atmospheric orgone" exists.

A cloudbuster (or cloud buster) is a device developed by Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich with the ostensible purpose of draining clouds of "orgone energy". Reich believed that such energy surrounded the earth, and that a cloudbuster would act as a rain-maker.^[1][2] In Reich's view, clouds and rainfall were natural accumulations of orgone energy, and cloudbusters used "orgone accumulators" attached to pipes. These were intended to focus and direct the collected energy into the atmosphere, thus stimulating cloud growth and rainfall. This is considered pseudoscience, despite Reich's claims of evidence of their operation in experiments he undertook.

[edit] Construction

A cloudbuster consists of an array of parallel hollow metal tubes which are connected at the rear to a series of flexible hoses which are equal in diameter to the parallel tubes. Alternatively, the rear of the tubes are joined together to a single large diameter pipe and flexible hose. The open end of these hoses are placed in water, which Reich believed to be a natural orgone absorber.^[1]

[edit] In popular culture

• Wilhelm Reich's cloudbuster was the inspiration for the song "Cloudbusting" by British singer Kate Bush. The song describes Reich's arrest and incarceration through the eyes of his son, Peter, who later wrote his father's story in A Book of Dreams, published in 1973. A cloudbuster is also featured in the video of the song, directed by Julian Doyle, conceived by Terry Gilliam and Kate Bush.^[3]

[edit] See also

• Rainmaking

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Straight Dope article on Wilhelm Reich and his orgone energy