mysteries of the easily-duped organism

did some research on reich. found out about:
orgone accumulators
and a host of other batshit insanse ideas which people who should know better (william s. burroughs, jd salinger) have championed and convinced themselves are legit.
basically: it works like this:
orgone is the sexual life-force that moves through every human and an accumulator, as you can imagine, is responsible for "accumulating" or cultivating that energy. if you collect enough of it: you ward off certain deadly diseases. and you can even predict the weather, apparently!
there are socio-political implications and associations, too--which i understand are attractive, but...
really?
the whole thing is a little too scientology-esque for my sake.

animal magnetism i can buy. an intangible sexual life-force: sure. i'll take that too. but an actual device that collects this energy?

yeah...

it's amazing what otherwise intelligent people will make themselves believe. same goes for scientology. i mean: beck is a scientologist. he made sea change. he can't be that dumb, right?

i'm just fascinated with this phenomenon where academics, intellectuals and people with a background in research--people with credentials--can basically come up with the same bullshit that your crazy uncle might come up with but as long as they've got the big words and big names to back up their theory, people lap it up.

i should write a song about this.