Tim Green Beckley with alien friend in Sedona, AZ

Tonight, an expert on this very subject will join George Noory on Coast to Coast AM.  “Mr. UFO”, AKA Timothy Green Beckley, will share stories from his latest book: Curse of the Men In Black: Return of the UFO Terrorists.

One strange incident detailed in Beckley’s book took place right here in Tucson, Arizona.

Longtime Tucson residents may recall a story in the Arizona Daily Star from 1979 that involved one of their own newspaper delivery boys.

On February 19, 1979, ten-year-old Warren Weisman was delivering the Arizona Daily Star at approximately 6:00 am. He reported: “I was on Winstel Blvd when I saw this ‘falling star’ come from the sky. It was traveling at a great speed and landed about a block away. It smashed the back of a white Volkswagen, throwing off its right rear wheel, rolled off the car and knocked over a mailbox on a post nearby.”

The curious boy went to investigate the object, but was deterred by a a man who appeared suddenly in a brown car. The man told the boy to go deliver the rest of the papers. Within moments, a Pima County Sheriff’s car pulled up alongside the brown car. The newspaper boy left the scene to get his mother because he was afraid that the man with the brown car would pull a gun.

When the boy returned with his mother twenty minutes later, the white Volkswagen, and the object, were already gone. Another eyewitness later stated that the car and object were picked up by a 7-up truck, rather than a tow truck, which is rather strange. Must have been a shortage of tow trucks on that day.

It remains a mystery whether the terrified ten-year-old actually encountered an MIB on that early February morning. The UFO group APRO made an investigation of the incident, but no known report was ever filed. All that remains of this story is the article deep in the archives of the Arizona Daily Star, and Beckley’s retelling of the tale in his book.

This is not the only Arizona tale chronicled in Beckley’s book. Mr. UFO says that Arizona is a “hot bed” for UFO and MIB encounters.

Beckley should know. He has been active in the study of the paranormal from an early age He has sighted three UFOs in his lifetime. As a teenager, he created one of the first UFO periodicals, which he merged later with Jim Moseley’s Saucer News. As one of the original “UFO journalists”, he has interviewed scores of persons, including a one time girlfriend of Beatle John Lennon, who reportedly witnessed a UFO in Manhattan.

Possible photo of an MIB

Beckley currently writes for UFO Magazine and Conspiracy Journal. He does have some theories about who – or what – Men in Black could be, which does include one far-out theory:

“I think the MIBs are some sort of mind controlled zombies. Earthlings who have been taken over — or like in a seance room materializations. A few may be government workers but only a handful. Also, hardly ever civilians pretending to be government workers. The Air Force put out a memo back in the 60s proclaiming that they were not behind such menacing episodes.”

One such one of the most menacing episodes is also described in his latest book. Beckley explains: “It involved a female researcher from New Zealand who was molested by invisible hands when she started pinpointing the location of where UFOs might have bases. Upon the materialization of this being, his body was hideous – very round, hairy, smelly and the top half was that of a man and the bottom of an animal. Other members of the group had the standard MIB types appear to them and warn them to abandon their research. One member was pushed down a flight of stairs in a department store…no one was there.”

These stories of Men in Black do tend to stir up a bit of paranoia, even within the minds of normally skeptical people. Personally, since writing about UFOs, and recently communicating with Mr. UFO about his book and upcoming radio spot, strange visitors in the form of Census takers have appeared at my doorstep. Normally, this would not be unusual, but why the government keeps sending hoards of Census takers to a ghost town in the mountains, where there are probably five households in the entire area, is totally beyond my comprehension.

When my concern over the census takers was posed to Mr. UFO, he replied: “Absolutely, Men in Black have been known to pose as Census takers.”

Nice.

If those who appear on my doorstep aren’t Men in Black, it’s an equally horrific notion that taxpayer money is being spent on so many Census takers milling about, in and around a remote ghost town.

Tonight, listeners can call in to share their own MIB experiences or pose their own questions to Mr. UFO. Don’t be shy about calling in. It should be a very interesting show tonight.

Check the Coast to Coast AM website for airing time and affiliate radio stations in your area.

Narrowing it down, four very different hauntings that I wrote about when I started this blog come to mind, which are all buried deep within the archives of Paranormal Old Pueblo.

The tale of the “Lady in Red” at the former site of Osco Drug in El Con Mall in Tucson is absolutely one of my favorites. A woman in a red 1940′s dress terrified employees of the drug store for years.  Her presence was always foreshadowed by the click-click-click sound of her high heel shoes.  However, I haven’t heard of any more paranormal activity from the lady in red since the store was demolished to make way for Target and the Home Depot. Read more about The Lady in Red

The Old Fort Lowell Historic District in Tucson also intrigues me. As a former resident of the area, there is something different about the feel of the area.  Perhaps it’s the rich history that local residents keep at the forefront to keep it alive for future generations. Perhaps it’s the soldiers at the old fort who still don’t know they’ve died generations ago. Maybe the ruins of the old fort somehow recorded events and keep playing them back. Read more about The Ghosts of Fort Lowell

Located in the Patagonia Mountains, where there is no shortage of ghostly tales and ghost towns, the haunted Bonanza Mine near the U.S.-Mexico border has a fascinating story to tell. The ghost was reported to ring a bell that was no longer there. Read more about The Haunted Bonanza Mine

The Pioneer International Hotel in Tucson is the most tragic (and, yes, my most favorite) tale of all. This tragedy in Tucson resulted in international attention, caused the people of two countries to mourn, and resulted in the modification of fire codes across the country in the 1970′s.  The paranormal experiences in that building, which is now an office building, are still reported today. Read more about The Pioneer

Bentley is one of many psychics who will offer 15-minute fee-based readings at this month’s fair at the Four Points Sheraton. However, what sets Bentley apart is that she is the only psychic who specializes in highly informative sex readings. That’s not to say that Bentley doesn’t delve into every other area concerning people and pets. It’s just that she isn’t shy about delving into that private area of our lives. She’s a self-proclaimed Sexorcist.

Frequently heard over the radio airwaves and previously seen on Vh1, Dave Navarro’s SpreadTV, and E! Entertainment Television, Bentley has gained a following for telling it as she sees it, whether you like it or not. Despite Bentley telling what you might not want to hear (the truth, in my case), she does it in such away that you can’t help but like the woman.

She began her working life as an actress in New Zealand in the mid-1990′s. Yes, Xena fans, she appeared as an extra on the very first “Xena: Warrior Princess” episode. Bentley is every bit as empowered as the Warrior Princess herself, choosing to remain single and dedicating her life battling the forces of evil in the world.

Okay, so she lives a relatively normal life when not coming to the aid of people and animals in need. Bentley resides in Sacramento with her 11 year-old daughter and a rescued Chihuahua. They are a happy family, now that the Chihuahua, named Mimi Piglet, succumbed to being housebroken. Bentley admits that she was too close to the situation to get a reading on why Mimi Piglet refused to be trained. Therefore, she called a pet psychic friend, who got to the heart of the matter. (Xena didn’t go it alone either, she had the assistance of her trusty sidekick Gabrielle.) After joining forces with her pet psychic friend, Bentley and Mimi Piglet called a truce. Mimi Piglet now relieves herself outside.

Bentley also will not read persons close to her, but she does a fine job reading others. She has raised the curiosity of celebrity clientele, but offers her services to anyone. As mentioned before, Bentley tells it like it is. 

Continue reading, Part 2: Celebrity Sex Psychic Belinda Bentley On Current Events

Part 1 | 2 | 3

The bar, formerly known as Belushe’s and The Rhino Pub, has long been reputed to be haunted. The bar at 1118 E. Sixth Street has changed names over the years, but the resident ghost has remained nameless until recently. She earned the nickname of “Gooch’s Ghost” over the last several months, since the time the bar changed hands. However, she may now have a name, resulting from the latest preliminary findings of a group of local paranormal investigators.

The team called Southern Paranormal Investigational Research in Tucson (S.P.I.R.i.T.) has spent the last few months documenting evidence of paranormal happenings at the bar. Creepy EVP and video evidence is posted for public viewing on the team’s YouTube page.

The YouTube videos posted last week document a team member’s psychic impressions of Gooch’s Bar & Grill.

Phyllis “Goldi” Golden, the psychic member of S.P.I.R.i.T., believes that the location once served the area as a brothel in the mid-1800′s, around the time of the Gadsen Purchase. Golden says that the location feels like the O.K. Corral. She also felt that the most prominent presence at the location is the spirit of a beautiful woman named Cherie. Cherie is believed to have been the madam of a brothel that once operated on the property. In the video, Golden remarks that Cherie would have been the “Miss Kitty” of the era, operating a saloon, as well as a house of ill-repute. Cherie may have had a thing for French men and French wines. Maybe she still does. It is thought that disapproving local residents eventually shot and killed Cherie during a stand-off.

Since the investigation is still ongoing, the aforementioned information that Golden grilled out of the spirits has yet to be verified through historical records. The team is currently combing through Arizona Historical Society records to verify Golden’s impressions.

Access Tucson viewers may already know Golden from a previous public television stint as a psychic reader. She has also provided readings over the Tucson airwaves on a number of radio shows over the years. Golden works alongside fellow S.P.I.R.i.T. paranormal investigators Donny Bass, Ingrid Baumgart and Lisa Roybal.

The four team members have a combined 13 years of experience in paranormal investigations.

Team member Donny Bass will soon post new video evidence from the investigation at Gooch’s. The evidence from Gooch’s is still mounting.

“We have captured many EVPs, mostly from a woman, but also a few from a man and one that sounds like a child.  So there is definitely more than one spirit at Gooch’s.” – Donny Bass, team member, S.P.I.R.i.T.

Additional information will be shared at the conclusion of the investigation. This will include a review of all evidence captured, digital copies of all photos, videos and EVPs, as well as a detailed written report of the investigation.

It will be exciting to learn of their findings, especially to have the chance to listen to more EVP evidence. Bass said, “One EVP captured a woman saying ‘Hey Donny’, so the ghosts seem friendly.  I don’t believe there are any evil spirits there. I think these spirits once lived in the building or on the land that Gooch’s now occupies.”   

Perhaps “Cherie” would appreciate a glass of fine French wine presented by a fine-looking Frenchman. If there are any willing volunteers who fit that bill, we’ll see you at Gooch’s tomorrow night.  In the meantime, we will anticipate the release of new evidence presented by the S.P.I.R.i.T team.

The two-part video of Golden’s psychic impressions can be found on YouTube:. Watch Part 1 | Part 2.

S.P.I.R.i.T. is currently accepting new cases. The team investigates historical sites, residences and businesses where paranormal activity is believed to occur. If you would like them to consider your location, contact S.P.I.R.i.T. at spiritintucson@yahoo.com for a preliminary interview.

These accounts of hauntings aren’t limited to Fort Lowell park, where remnants of the United States mililtary camp are preserved.  Reported paranormal activity circulates well outside of the boundaries of the park, and even into some of the old homes in the general vicinity. The accounts of ghosts and hauntings are known to have been circulating since the year 1900, nine years after the last living soldiers left Fort Lowell.

According to many accounts, the spirits of soldiers who died at Fort Lowell have never left.

It was first reported around 1900 that the ghost of a solder haunted the ruins of the old Fort Lowell. Residents of the area allegedly spent much time participating in a crude early form of ghost hunting. The residents were said to have spent countless hours, along with countless rounds of ammunition, firing at the ghostly soldier. The soldier would simply disappear upon attack.

It is said that the soldier turned the tables on one attacker and fired back in defense with a blast of rocks.

The newspapers of the time started covering the story. On December 14, 1900, the Arizona Daily Citizen (predecessor of the Tucson Citizen newspaper) reported that  “reputable citizens” continued to see the ghost. The story stated that these reputable citizens were preparing for a gun battle with the said spectre soldier, scheduled to take place that very evening.

The ghost was victorious, as the paper reported on December 28th that the ghost had returned to steal resident’s turkey on Christmas Eve. The Republic in Phoenix also ran the stories, as interest in all things paranormal grew at the time.  

If the reporting stemmed from an ”inside joke” of some sort, there seems to be a missing article somewhere and we don’t get the joke today. Perhaps the stories were inspired by a reporter’s vivid imagination?

We’ll never know.

Interestingly, the stories have sparked my imagination about those pre-Tucson Citizen / pre-Paranormal Old Pueblo weird news accounts by the Arizona Daily Citizen, written well over a century ago. The newspaper published their last story about the ghost April 13, 1901 - not long before the name of the newspaper changed. Later that same year, records indicate that the Arizona Daily Citizen changed their name to the Tucson Citizen.   

Isn’t it ironic that not long after the Tucson Citizen ceased distributing a printed publication in 2009 (transforming into the online TucsonCitizen.com) that the Paranormal Old Pueblo blog was born into it?

We seem to have come full circle here. The thought intrigues me.

However, I am also intrigued by ghostly tales around Fort Lowell.

There are still reputable citizens living in the Fort Lowell area more than a century later. The reports of ghosts and hauntings in the area have not ceased.  

For example, a woman I know shared with me that her father’s home, the home she grew up in, is haunted. The old house stands near Craycroft and Fort Lowell Roads, and it houses at least one ghostly resident. The woman’s father still lives in the home and claims to have witnessed strange events, in and around the house, over the span of more than four decades.

Most interestingly, he said that he began hearing the sounds of the wagon wheels turning, along with the clomping of the horses’ hooves upon the hard, dry desert ground. He stepped outside one day and witnessed  a ghostly horse-drawn wagon, steered by spectral soldiers. The eyes of the soldiers remained focused on their destination ahead, toward Fort Lowell Park. Then, the ghostly wagon simply vanished. According to the homeowner, he witnessed this event on more than one occasion and got used to it.

After a while, when he would hear the sounds approaching, he would simply go about his business and let the wagon drive by in peace. He says that the neighbors have learned to do the same.

Is the Fort Lowell area haunted? Or does the area simply spark our imaginations into a wild frenzy when we think about the soldiers who risked (and even lost) their lives at Fort Lowell?

We’ll never know.

——————-

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As I approached the truck, Carly slid to the middle of the seat to allow room for me. I climbed in and took the passenger side seat. I greeted my dad, gave Carly a hug, and turned around to greet Jimi. Jimi wasn’t there.

I turned to my dad and Carly and asked, “Where’s Jimi?”

Jimi was at his dad’s house, they said. I was quite confused, but insisted that there was a young boy in the back of the truck. The boy smiled at my sister and me. My dad said I was seeing things. As we pulled away, I noticed my sister still outside, waving her hand and smiling at us. A confused look came over her face before she turned around and went back inside her house.

I called my sister later that night to tell her that there was no one in the back of the truck. She was as surprised as I was. She added that as we pulled away, she waved at the little boy, he waved back.

Months went by, during which time my sister and I received some ribbing about the ghost boy. Then it was forgotten, for while. Others started “seeing things” in the back of the truck, inside that  shell.

My dad worked as a contractor for a time for Qwest Communications, arranging for service and towing. One hot summer day, my dad answered a call for a broken down truck at Kolb and Valencia. The driver of the disabled vehicle was sitting against a fence when my dad pulled up. It was too hot for him to wait for my dad inside the vehicle. My dad examined the disabled truck, while the driver looked on. The driver asked if it was maybe a little too hot to let the kids stay in the back of the truck with no air conditioning. My dad said there were no kids in his truck. The driver took a closer look, and thoroughly examined my dad’s truck to satisfy himself. He said he distinctly saw kids looking out the shell windows.

Several months later, my dad took a job at a roofing company. One day, he arrived at the roofing yard, parked out front and walked in. Someone at the yard asked if the kids in the back of the truck were his grandchildren. My dad said that there were no children there. The inquirer decided to go outside to make sure. A couple other workers refused to even get near the truck at the mere thought of ghosts, particularly at the thought of ghostly children. The inquirer continued to insist that he saw kids looking out the window, and had even commented to another worker as my dad pulled in, saying that he was probably on his way somewhere with the grandkids.

Once since then, my sister and I joined my dad on a camping trip. Since we had other commitments, we only visited with him for a few hours and ate a steak dinner around the campfire. By nightfall, I kept my back to the truck, as I felt that someone was watching me. So did my sister. We drove back to Tucson through the Coronado National Forest late that night, feeling rather creeped out and quite jumpy.

My dad since removed the camper shell to install a tool box in the back of his truck. The  shell sits on my uncle’s property, reserved for occasional camping trips. I don’t know if the “children” are attached to the truck or to the camper shell. It could be a defect in the glass, but that would be an eerie defect, to say the least. My uncle hasn’t reported any activity associated with that shell stored in his yard. There’s seemingly no paranormal activity attached to the truck either.

One day soon, I will take a full camping trip with my dad. Perhaps those kids might come along with my dad. Although the kids in the truck look quite happy and not menacing in any way, I think I’ll keep my back to the truck again and let them play in peace.

El Chupacabra sightings hardly cause Tucsonans to bat an eyelash anymore. He’s old news to us.  One of the first U.S. encounters with the goat sucker occured right here in Tucson, 13 years ago. 

Or, did it?

The story goes that in the middle of the night on May 11, 1996, Billy Nubian awoke to the sound of panicked bleating from his two goats, Mattie and Delilah. While Nubian raced outside, El Chupacabra selected Mattie for dinner, and a life and death struggle between goat and creature ensued. Nubian startled the creature and reached Mattie in time. The creature shrieked at Nubian before he fled. Mattie was left unharmed.

A girl named Sarah (no last name) claimed to have encountered the creature in Tucson in 2003. The story goes that Sarah encountered El Chupacabra in her front yard. The creature leapt toward her and hissed before vacating the property. Sarah was left unharmed.

Yeah.

Has anyone bothered to study the name of the the first eyewitness? Billy…Nubian. Nubian is a goat breed. Yet, accounts still spread all over the world that Tucson resident “Billy Nubian” was one of the first to report a chupacabra. Billy…Goat.

People, please quit spreading that story. 

There have been no other pubilcized chupacabra sightings here in Tucson since 2003. Yet, encounters with El Chupacabra continue to spread across the United States.

An announcement was made in recent weeks that a dead “chupacabra” would be put on display at a creationist museum in Phoenix. That’s Phoenix, New York  –  NOT Phoenix, Arizona. Whew!

A real estate developer in the small New York town of Phoenix acquired the dead critter in Texas. He had it stuffed and placed on display. The creature’s carcass stands frozen in a menacing pose for the whole world to see.

It’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

It looks like a mangy coyote, like all the others found in recent years. It looks nothing like eyewitness accounts of the creature.  A tissue sample has been sent for testing. So, we shall wait and see what the experts have to say about this one.

Fox News discussed the creature on display recently. Who knew after all these years that the word “chupacabra” would be so hard to pronounce.

At least ”billy goat” is easier to say.

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I learned to count from The Count, a vampire with an affinity for numbers. Cookie Monster drew attention to the alphabet as he munched away at letters. I was a Sesame Street kid. This morning, I awoke to a glorious sight. A Google Doodle that incorporates Cookie Monster to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street.

This is hands-down, the BEST EVER Google Doodle. I love how his “googly” eyes make the Google “O”s.

 Sesame Street celebrates 40 years, and with a Tucson connection, of course! My fellow University of Arizona Alum, Joan Ganz Cooney, is a founder of The Children’s Television Workshop. Without Joan Ganz Cooney, there would be no Cookie Monster, no Big Bird, no Count, no Elmo…no puppets at all. She stated during pre-production of the show in 1968, ”if we can’t get Jim Henson, we won’t use any puppets at all.”  I’m really glad they got Jim Henson. The late puppeteer provided entertainment and education throughout my childhood. Henson made the best paranormal puppets.

I learned how to spell via Sesame Street. My love of letters and words can be traced back to Cookie Monster. I had to learn to read fast. I had to read words and letters before he would eat them!

Happy 40th Anniversary Sesame Street!

More than half a century before the “Balloon Boy” family hoax in Colorado, another eccentric family was involved with weather experimentation. This family resided for a while in Tucson. Last month, we were temporarily tricked into believing that a runaway weather balloon that bore a strange resemblance to a UFO, contained a trapped little Colarado boy. In the 1950s, Tucson was home base for a series of weather experiments conducted by a family. These experiments were not conducted for publicity. They were conducted in the name of science, though the science behind them was anything but mainstream.

According to the man who headed these experiments, his research culminated into a battle with UFOs in Tucson. This is a fairly long post that brings to light some pretty strange history in Southern Arizona.

Primarily, it focuses on a couple of well-known residents who had a connection with each other in a fairly odd way. These men left a lasting legacy in the world, even though their views were far from mainstream. This post does not advocate sexual or occult practices. It simply touches briefly on their lives and their connection to eachother, as well as their connection to Arizona.

It’s a slight deviation from the “normal” paranormal topics normally contained in these pages.

A battle with UFOs in Tucson

In 1954, Tucson was experiencing growing pains. World War II directly influenced a surge in population with troop deployments to Davis Monthan Air Force Base in the 1940’s. The population kept growing after that. Tucson’s boundaries were expanding. Tucson was in the midst of a severe drought. However, in 1954, a world famous scientist relocated to Tucson to battle the drought. This man not only took credit for bringing that rain during his five month residency, but he also claimed he was engaged in a battle with UFOs during his stay.

This man’s name was Wilhelm Reich.

Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who trained under Sigmund Freud in Vienna. He was known for forging ahead with work for which the world wasn’t quite ready. He was labeled as a “quack” by the FDA and deemed mentally ill. However, Wilhelm Reich was once connected to the Old Pueblo and this connection is an interesting one. It might be a bit bizarre.

Reich experimented with a biological energy he called “orgone energy.” Reich claimed to have found a way to harness this energy. The energy was to be used for a variety of purposes from cancer treatment to weather experimentation. The weather experimentation brought him to Tucson all the way from Portland, Maine.

This concept of Orgone was derived from Freud’s concept of libido, while Carl Jung identified the libido as psychic energy. Wilhelm Reich expanded on these concepts with his theories about orgasmic energy. We will return to this idea of Orgone and delve deeper into it later. However, you get the idea. This was biological energy that Reich claimed to have harnessed for the greater good of mankind.

At about the same time in 1954, the world was fascinated with UFOs, and so was William Reich. In fact, much of what was wrong with the world, according to Wilhelm Reich, was due to repressed sexuality and UFO invaders. The term UFO was relatively new at the time. In 1947, a pilot by the name of Kenneth Arnold reported seeing an object that was shaped like a saucer while he flew over Mountain Rainier, Washington. His report gave rise to the terms “flying saucer” or “flying disc” to describe these alien crafts. That same year, 1947, was the Roswell incident. By the early 1950’s the United States Air Force coined the term UFO, or Unidentifiable Flying Object. Popular movies from the 50’s closet of UFO fears include War of the Worlds, Devil Girl from Mars, It Came from Outer Space and The Day the Earth Stood Still. These films thrilled the general population and caused many to look toward the sky. Wilhelm Reich’s eyes tended to be already fixed on the sky.

When Reich relocated his family to Tucson in 1954, he drove through Roswell, NM, on his way to Arizona, feeding his fascination with UFOs. Though Reich called the otherworldly life forms EAs (”E” for Energy and “A” for Alpha). EAs impacted the weather, according to Reich. Reich enrolled his son, Peter, in Wetmore Elementary School, located on Wetmore Road just west of Oracle. The family took up residence near the school. Peter would later pen a memoir about his father in a book published in 1973, called “A Book of Dreams”, where he recounted his memories of living in Tucson with his father. In that book, Peter recalled receiving queries from classmates about his dad’s scientific equipment – specifically about a large contraption that his dad called the Cloudbuster. The Cloudbuster functioned as a rainmaker. According to Peter, the contraption could also disable EAs. In Peter’s memoir, he recalls a UFO/EA battle that took place in Tucson on May 12, 1954 where the Reich family managed to make the EAs disappear from the sky. Peter Reich recalled this incident as fondly as the time he went to Jacome’s Department store downtown to buy a “real Stetson hat for $12.”

During Wilhelm Reich’s stay in Tucson, he deduced that a mountain range prevented rain from reaching Tucson. So for the next several months, Reich would travel further west with his cloudbuster until it rained in March 1955. Reich packed up and returned to Maine. In August of that very year, Tucson experienced the wettest month on record. No one can really say that Reich was responsible for clearing the way for the record rainfall. It rained in August 1955 like it hasn’t rained since, as documented on the National Weather Service website.  

Post-Tucson Years

The next two years were not happy ones for the Reich family. The federal government was not keen about these weather experiments and other strange research conducted by a man considered too radical in his thoughts and actions. The Food and Drug Administration filed a complaint against Reich, in which they declared that orgone energy did not exist.  In June of 1956, Reich’s works were burned at his Maine estate by the federal government. Reich was arrested. He was examined and deemed paranoid with delusions of grandiosity.

Wilhelm Reich died of a heart attack in prison on November 3, 1957. He was 60 years old.

Almost three years after this death, in March of 1960, the FDA incinerated several tons of Reich’s books, journals and papers in New York. Whether or not Reich brought rain to Tucson, his surviving works are still referenced by those outside mainstream science. This post only touches on a small part of a man, whose life was complicated, controversial and disturbing. To read more about him and his other research and experiments, visit Wikipedia or the Wilhelm Reich Museum websites.

Cloudbusting

Wilhelm Reich lives on in music and literature. Bob Dylan, Kate Bush, Patti Smith, and other songwriters have written and recorded songs about Wilhelm Reich. Jack Kerouac referenced Reich’s work in his book On the Road, as did William Burroughs through his own works. The idea of orgasmic energy didn’t die either. In fact, the idea of orgasmic energy was studied before and after Wilhelm Reich. Before Wilhelm Reich, there was Aleister Crowley, and there were others before him. There are many after him, as well. In fact, much of Reich’s unpublished papers were stored at Harvard Medical School. A stipulation in Reich’s last will and testament ordered that his works remain unopened until 50 years after his death. The anniversary of his death was in November of 2007, as anticipated back then via an AP news article. 

Wilhelm Reich believed that pent up orgasmic energy manifested bad energy. He believed that the process of building up and releasing this energy was so strong that it could cure cancer. It could even manipulate the atmosphere to bring rain. Reich asserted that the ability to love was dependent on a person’s ability to make love with “orgastic potency.” This hypothetical form of energy was dubbed “orgone energy” by Wilhelm Reich. Orgone energy, if harnessed, could change the world according to Reich.

Suppressed sexual energies at “the root of all evil”

Before Wilhelm Reich, an occultist from England named Aleister Crowley also dabbled in the powers of orgasmic energy. Crowley called it “Sex Magick.”

Both Wilhelm Reich and Aleister Crowley believed that suppression of sex was at the root of all evil and violence in the world.

“Each individual has an absolute right to satisfy his sexual instinct as is physiologically proper for him. The one injunction is to treat all such acts as sacraments. One should not eat as the brutes, but in order to enable one to do one’s will. The same applies to sex. We must use every faculty to further the one object of our existence.” – Aleister Crowley in “The Book of the Law”

Crowley believed that the energies built up and released during the sex act was capable of being used for magic. Crowley emphasized sex as a supreme magical power. There was more than this belief in the application of sexual energies that bound these men together. Their link came in the form of a man named Israel Regardie.

Regardie took an interest in Aleister Crowley’s published works in the late 1920’s. After corresponding with Crowley, Regardie received an invitation to become Crowley’s secretary in the United Kingdom. Regardie served Crowley for four years before relocating to the United States to become a chiropractor. He studied psychoanalysis at the same time, and he would eventually teach Freudian, Jungian and Reichian psychiatry. Regardie took an interest in Wilhelm Reich’s orgone energy theory. However, after studying both Crowley’s and Reich’s theories of the powers of orgasmic energy, Regardie adopted alternate views. Among them, Regardie believed that these energies were indeed powerful. Those energies could manifest greatly by applying them toward one’s own spiritual and creative endeavors. Regardie’s writings and viewpoints provide much of the foundation for modern Western occultism. He wrote volumes of books before retiring to Sedona, Arizona.

Donald Michael Kraig of the Llewellyn Journal states that four of Regardie’s books put together provide a comprehensive course in magick. There is much more to tell about the lives of Regardie and Reich, but the resulting documentation would produce volumes. The idea was to touch on their connection to each other, as well as their connection to southern Arizona.

Wilhelm Reich and Israel Regardie came to Arizona for vastly different reasons. Wilhelm Reich left Arizona after his work was completed. Israel Regardie retired to Arizona in 1981 after many of his lifelong works were published. Regardie would live the remainder of his life in the desert southwest.

Regardie died of a heart attack in a Sedona restaurant while dining with friends on March 10, 1985. He was 77 years old.