The Coming of the Cosmic Age: Michael Mannion on Wilhelm Reich
THE COMING OF THE COSMIC AGE: At the Heart of the Trial of Wilhelm Reich
By Michael Mannion
The trial of Wilhelm Reich is an unknown, untold story. The US Federal Court-ordered banning and burning of his medical and scientific writings is not taught in American schools. It is not even known to the legal profession. It has long been ignored by those who fight for First Amendment rights in the US. And you will never see Reich’s writings included in any of the thousands of annual “Banned Books” displays around the country each year.
Why were his books banned and burned in the USA? Reich’s medical and scientific discoveries—if seriously pursued and developed—would bring about a fundamental transformation of all aspects of life on Earth. Progress in this work would lead humanity out of the dichotomy of Mechanistic and Metaphysical thinking in which it has been trapped for thousands of years, causing so much misery.
In documents Reich submitted to the US Court of Appeals after he lost his case in district court—and to the US Supreme Court which did not hear his case—he presents a vision of a future that could be ours, one characterized by natural energy healing of individuals and the planet; renewable, non-polluting energy technology; breakthrough technology for interstellar space travel and more. It is not a prophecy of a “golden era” but an outline of a new way of being that can be achieved through the natural processes of love, work and knowledge.
In his legal filings of 60 years ago, Reich presented the court with information on topics that would still be challenging today—the takeover of American medicine by drug companies and other commercial interests; the menace of the atomic energy industry; the corporate adulteration of our foods; climate change, desertification and forest death; and even the then-new phenomenon of the extraterrestrial presence in our world.
Politics, greed and human irrationalism were all involved in the attack on Reich and his work. But something much deeper motivated the legal murder by proxy that took his life and has led to his work being neglected for decades, save by a few struggling, independent scientists and physicians.
Mr. Mannion has been a professional health and medical writer for over 35 years, working with major conventional and complementary health organizations and practitioners. He was formerly the Director of Professional Education Publications for the American Cancer Society and the Managing Editor of the Society’s flagship journal. He is the author of a number of works of nonfiction, among them The New American Medicine (2002); Frankenstein Foods (2002); The Pharmacist’s Guide to Over-the-Counter and Natural Remedies (1999); How to Help Your Teenager Stop Smoking (2000); and Project Mindshift: The Reeducation of the American Public Concerning Extraterrestrial Life (1998). He is also the author of three novels, Death Cloud (1976); Colleen (1978); and Erin’s Daughters (2002).
Patricia B. Corbett and Michael Mannion are the co-founders of The Mindshift Institute which has produced over two dozen events in New York City and at the invitation of organizations such as the Center for Psychology & Social Change in Cambridge, MA; Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in New York, and member groups of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California and Connecticut.
