Nexus - 0207 - New Times Magazine-pages

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TO BE OR NOT TO BE? 150 Years of Hidden Knowledge by Christopher Bird ©1991 Extracted with permission from raum&zeit, Vol.2, No. 6, 1991. Pages 52 to 59. (raum&zeit is an excellent bi-monthly journal published in the USA. Subscriptions are US$75- for six issues: Dept. $.0., PO Box 1508, Mount Vernon, Washington 98273. (206) 424 6034 - Editor's Office Therefore, since maps of this territory are sketchy at best, or non- existent at worst, outsiders seeking to penetrate it should remember the Buddhist saying: “The only trails are those that are made by walking." And the ones upon which they set foot will be not so much selected by intention as stumbled upon by chance. It is for such reasons that, when I thought about how I might approach this subject today, I decided to eschew the formality of any academic approach in favour of telling the tale of my own foray into the little known land of pleomorphic organisms as it actually unfolded. Unlike other speakers at this symposium, I am neither a scientist, an academic or a health professional, but a writer who, for some 20 years, has roved the “frontiers” of science. I am certain that if any of you have been propelled by some similarly strange twist of fate to go on the same quest, you have taken a different trail from mine. "At the heart of science lies discovery which involves a change in worldview, Discovery in science is possible only in societies which accord their citizens the freedom to pursue the truth where it may lead and which therefore have respect for different paths to that truth." John Polanyi, Canadian Nobel Laureate (Chemistry); commencement address, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, June 1990. heretical searchers in a field of knowledge that deals with the very smallest formis of life. Hard as it is to believe, these findings, made over more than a century ago, have been consistently ignored, censored by silence, or suppressed throughout all of that time by ruling “opinion-makers", orthodox™ thinkers in mainstream microbiology. Instead of being welcomed with excitement and open arms, as one would a friend or lover, the amazing discoveries have been received with a hostility unusually only meted out to trespassers or imposters. To try to present the vastness of a multi-dimensional panorama, is a little like trying to inscribe the contents of thick manuscript onto a postage stamp, or reduce the production of an hour-long drama into a few minutes of stage time. Involved on the one hand is not only the sheer volume of material, but with books on the subject being hard to obtain, it is also not easily accessible and is sparsely referenced in ordinary bibliographical sanreas hat follows is an attempt to provide a brief overview of W astounding findings made by a band of intrepid and My first exposure to the world of pleomorphic organisms - though I did not recognise it at the time - came in 1969 when, after retuming to the United States from a stint as a foreign correspondent, | was asked by Peter Tompkins, an established author, to help him research a biography on the life and work of a "maverick" scientist, the late Wilhelm Reich M.D.” If “maverickness” is a quality attributable to innovators unafraid of developing new ideas and inventions - and often unscorched by the brand of any formal education into the subjects of their research - then that term suits Reich to a"T". After first making his mark in psychoanalysis as Freud's protege and leading collaborator, he abruptly broke with the International Psychoanalytic Movement to take up an independent career in an aspect of what today has come to be called biophysics. When he bolted the Freudian “herd” in the mid-1930's, most of his colleagues became his bitter enemies. Exiled from central Europe to Norway, he began working with an unusual microscope equipped with special lenses that could magnify living organisms to 2 - 3000X their normal size, well over twice the magnification achievable with the ordinary microscopes of his day. Among his extraordinary discoveries were “vesicles,” minuscule fluid containing bladder-like sacs, that appeared in infusions of hay and other substances such as animal tissue, earth and coal. After much experimentation during which he noted a marked increase in the number of vesicles that could be cultured when the preparations containing them were boiled, he concluded that the strange forms he had discovered were “transitional” one lying midway between the realms of the animate and the inert. sources. On the other hand, the protagonists in what amounts to a gripping saga were, more often than not, completely isolated from one another in space, time or both. They, and their parallel work and research, were consequently often unknown to their potential colleagues and natural allies. It was as if they were adventurers who, thinking themselves to be the sole explorers in virgin territory, were actually all opening up various parts of the same terra incognita. Furthermore, as we have already said, the reports of the discovery of a whole "New World" by these many "Columbuses" were unwelcome. "Old World” cartographers had already made their maps and were satisfied with them. NEXUS#31 APRIL-MAY 1992 THE MYSTERY OF PLEOMORPHIC MICROBIAL ORGANISMS Yet, as they say, “all roads finally lead to Rome.” FIRST STEPS ON THE TRAIL: WILHELM REICH AND THE BIONS