When you buy orgone you’re paying for a story not magic
There’s something gross and a little unethical about paying someone for an interview. Traditionally, the thought is that if you’re paying someone to speak to you, they’re going to be less authentic, somehow, as if giving some moron 10 minutes of talking-head space on television has ever encouraged forthrightness.
There must be something to it, though. I’ve had people ask whether they would be compensated for doing an interview with me. These people have generally been people who testify professionally in court.
On one side, I think, “Well, I guess they’re used to being paid to tell the truth,” but it really cemented my impression that when it comes to expert testimony, the truth belongs to the highest bidder.
All of that was a long way of saying that I spent about $40 in hope of securing an interview that I couldn’t possibly use. I did get an orgone pendant out of it, which was almost worth the price.
“Magic Rocks”
Orgone is a made-up mystical power that plays a real-life deadly role in Dragged Into the Light, my forthcoming book. Lots of people have written about its history, but the short version is that it is based on a combination of lies and faulty science.
I don’t think you will be shocked to hear that people believe in its power whole-heartedly.
Orgone is believed to be a type of positive radiation. It’s inventor, Wilhelm Reich, was a doctor turned madman or thief, who claimed to discover it as part of his inquiry into sexual repression.
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The shortest version possible is that when people have orgasms, they’re experiencing pure orgone energy. Reich claimed to be able to harness this power using metal and crystals, so did the woman who sold me my pendant.
Reich died in jail after repeated claims that orgone cured cancer.
The person who sold me this pendant made no such claim.
In fact, she didn’t say anything at all. My orgone pendent came in an envelope. There was nothing else inside, no receipt, no catalog, no “thanks for your order,” just a golden sphere of resin a little bigger than a silver dollar containing all of the components needed to capture and re-radiate orgone.
An Authentic Sherry Shriner Orgone Pendant
It wasn’t a surprise. We had had a terse email back and forth once I had enticed “Anne” out of silence with the promise to buy what amounted to pennies’ worth of materials plus her time and artistry at an unreasonable markup.
Anne was rumored to have been ousted from Sherry Shriner’s reptilian doomsday cult after deriding the cult leader as a fraud. The accusation had been made by Richard Brown, one of the other followers who’d been hounded from the group after making the same fraud accusations against Sherry.
What bothered me was that the woman was still listed as an “Approved” orgone distributor on Sherry’s website. Sherry Shriner had very specific rules for how to make orgone, and one very specific reason for having those rules: she was stealing a new age idea and repurposing it for a Christian audience.
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Sherry had invented steps for making “Positive” orgone which had God-approved healing and demon-repelling powers. Straying from the recipe resulted in the creation of “Negative” orgone energy that corroded positive orgone and let demons and other metaphysical nasties into the world.
By purchasing “Sherry’s” orgone, made by those she trusted, a person could make sure they never got corrupted orgone, in theory anyway. It looks as if it may be different in practice.
Orgone First Contact
I had emailed Anne on multiple occasions over the 18 months my investigation took but never got an answer.
Once the book was off to the publisher I began working on my next thing, having accepted that I’d never know what happened between Anne and Sherry.
Still, I wanted to get the same pendant several of the people in my story had, but no matter how long I scrolled on Etsy or Google Image, I couldn’t find one for sale that looked Sherry-grade authentic — golden resin encasing crystals and metal in a shape representing an angel. It seemed as if these were Anne’s own specific designs.
Tracing my fingers counterclockwise, following the arch of the embedded copper I wondered whether I’d been cursed.
I wrote a letter to the PO box listed for orders, but it was returned undeliverable.
A few weeks ago, I shot her a message on LinkedIn. I was only 20 percent sure it was even her so I only asked about the pendants:
“I sent you a letter but wanted to take a shot at catching you here. I’d like to talk to you about your orgone pendants and hopefully buy one from you.”
Nothing about Sherry Shriner or the book.
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She responded seconds later with an email address where I could ask questions and place my order. I was out-of-my-mind excited to begin this new conversation. Although I didn’t know whether she would cooperate, knowing that I’d at least get a couple of questions in rang with a certain satisfaction.
I told her I was happy to have reached her and asked about Richard’s accusation about the falling out. Anne sent me a link to where I could buy an orgone pendant from her.
“I will not be speaking with you about anything else,” she said.
The Secret of Orgone Revealed
I ordered the pendant, as much because I didn’t want to admit to having solely contacted her in hope that she would talk as because it would be a great keepsake of the absolute most bananas year of my life, investigating a conspiracy cult during a misinformation-heavy pandemic.
When I confirmed the order, I provided Richard’s quote to support the claim that Sherry banished Anne, who had called the prophet out as a fraud. It got her attention. She denied having had a falling out, citing the fact that the link to her orgone-making business hadn’t been taken down. That turned out to be her final word on the matter, which was too bad.
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Turning the pendant in my hand while considering this story, I wondered whether she had given me good or bad orgone and realized there is no way to know.
The copper wire embedded in the resin is the key to whether any piece of orgone is positive or negative. The copper coil, Sherry and others claim, has to be wound clockwise. If you see one that’s counterclockwise, you know that it’s bad orgone.
It’s unfortunate that you can’t know which way the copper was wound, you just have to trust the maker. When you look at a wire coil closely, whether it “looks” like it was wound clockwise depends solely on your attitude. Depending upon whether you choose to start at the top or the bottom of the coil is the only indicator of whether it “appears” to be wound clockwise or not.
Tracing my fingers counterclockwise, following the arch of the embedded copper I wondered whether I’d been cursed. Whether, locked away in her orgone studio, one of Sherry’s minions decided to try and off me remotely via negative orgone energy.
It’s possible and a little flattering but unlikely.
It makes much more sense that it wouldn’t occur to anyone who believes in the power of positive orgone as an article of faith to intentionally wind it backward. That, after all, would be spell-casting, which is decidedly unchristian.
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Tony Russo is a journalist and author of “Dragged Into the Light: Truthers, Reptilians, Super Soldiers, and Death Inside an Online Cult.” Subscribe to his Bagel Manifesto here.