Cloudbuster

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Wilhelm Reich and his cloudbuster, which he said could manipulate streams of orgone energy to produce rain.

A cloudbuster is a device alleged to be able to cause rain. The first cloudbuster was made by the Austrian physician Wilhelm Reich.

[edit] "Creative realism"

According to Rolf Alexander, who said he could cause cloud dispersal through concentration, the prefrontal lobe of the brain radiates "some unknown form of energy". To demonstrate his theory of "creative realism", Alexander staged a demonstration in Geneva Park, Canada on September 12, 1954. The event was covered by a Canadian Press reporter and published in the Niagara Falls Evening Review the next day. From 2:09 to 2:17 that afternoon, Alexander claimed to use his "creative realism" to dissipate three clouds, the first in just three minutes. The cloud's dispersal was photographed and published by the CP reporter. However, many at the event claimed other clouds around the area were being broken up by atmospheric conditions, and that Alexander's chosen cloud was no doubt the same. Alexander contested this, acknowledging the other clouds' disappearing, but all the while claiming that he doubted any of them disappeared at such a rate as his.^{[citation needed]}

Alexander published Creative Realism: A New Method of Winning (1954), and The Power of the Mind (1956). Alexander was criticized by Deny Parsons in an article published in the 1985 A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology.

[edit] Cloudbusters in popular media

Wilhelm Reich's cloudbuster was the inspiration for the song "Cloudbusting" by Kate Bush. The song describes Reich's arrest and incarceration through the eyes of Reich's son, Peter, who wrote his father's story in A Book of Dreams, published in 1973. A cloudbuster is also featured in the video of the song, directed by Julian Doyle, conceived by Terry Gilliam and Kate Bush.
The practice also appeared in two scenes in Terry Gilliam's film, The Fisher King.