Armorings: Its Origin and Function EDITOR‘S NOTE: “Radix” is a familiar term to the residents of Stelle. It is the name given to a program in self-education developed by Dr. Charles R. Kelley, who founded The Radix Institute in California. The term, radix, means “root, or primary cause,” and is used in this sense to mean “life force.” The primary purpose of Radix work is to teach a person to release the chronic patterns of tension called “muscular armor” which allows the life force to flow and the capacity for expressing feelings to emerge. Approximately eighty percent of The Stelle Group membership have voluntarily undertaken Radix work privately or in workshops as a part of their personal program to better understand themselves. The topic for this issue of the “Stelle Letter” is on our human muscular armorings. It is being reprinted from the “Adelphi Quarterly” through the courtesy of The Adelphi Organization. The italicized comments are of this editor. The term “muscular armor” was coined by Wilhelm Reich, a psychoanalyst and investigator. Reich began his career in Vienna, Austria and was influenced by Freud in the 1920’s and 1930’s. His uncovering of the concept of muscular armor occurred slowly over those decades. Reich dealt with thousands of emotionally and sexually impaired people, largely of the blue collar class of post-World War I Austria in both private and clinical settings. In keeping with Freud’s concept of childhood trauma being the mechanism of adult neurosis, Reich originally used the lengthy and often fruitless technique of getting the patient to consciously remember early events and intellectually resolve difficulties in his adult awareness. Reich, however, noticed that strong emotional feelings in his clients, which signaled the outworking of a long-repressed block, were often accompanied by muscular movements, ranging from mild actions to extremely violent ones. In the course of his work, Reich observed that all forms of emotional blockage, which cover the whole panoply of neuroses and psychoses, had counterparts in the body in the form of muscular responses. His monumental breakthrough came when he saw that just as psychological treatment could produce a corresponding muscular response, albeit over a lengthy period of time with conventional Freudian analysis, proper manipulation of the affected muscles could, and did, lead to powerful emotional releases. (His later work became very body-centered, and this marked the departure of Reichian-type therapies from traditional Freudian techniques. While both are aimed at the ultimate goal of freeing the patient from unconsciously harbored emotional and physical blocks, the methodologies which have arisen out of Reich’s pioneering have proven to be far more rapid in achieving results.) Armoring is aptly named. It is a bodily response to a perceived danger and is an attempt to protect the self from real or imagined harm. It is accomplished by a tightening or stiffening of muscle groups even to the point of their becoming “iron-hard.” The armoring process begins in childhood in response to pain, fear or anger in one’s environment. If a child’s parents make it known that crying is not tolerated, the child will keep from crying in order to avoid censure or punishment. Crying can be repressed by tightening the abdominal wall muscles, clenching the jaw and forcing the muscles around the eyes and forehead into a rigid mask; thus the child starts a lifelong pattern of repressing tears by doing so, with much effort at first. Gradually, as this pattern is reinforced- by punishment for tears or rewards for being “brave,” the child’s conscious effort to stop his crying becomes less and less, and the chronic tension needed grows. Eventually, the child grows into an adult who, in the face of a situation which would well warrant tears, not only does not cry, but literally cannot cry because the chronic muscular tensions are so set. It is important to realize that armoring is called upon, at first, to suppress the outward expression of emotions and feelings, but, as it becomes a habit, can eventually function to leave an individual completely unaware that he even has emotions and feelings. Little children are generally quick to let their true feelings show; armor is the mask that hides the adult’s feelings from the world and from himself. Crying is a small example, common to our Western “macho” culture, of a muscular armoring. Similar armoring occurs in any child exposed to harsh treatment beyond his ability to understand or deal with. Heavier and even more deeply buried armorings occur in response to extreme abuse. The earlier such abuse takes place, the more deeply buried and hard to uproot the physical and emotional blocks. Some of the most difficult armorings, however, are those engendered by long exposure to the subtle nonverbal communications/attitudes of the adults in the child’s environment. As may be imagined, the chronic muscular tensions which go into armoring tend to impair the normal functioning of the body. Full and healthful breathing is impossible to the armored individual whose diaphragm is chronically taut.. Therapists trained in Reichian techniques can recognize general patterns of armoring in a person by merely observing their stance, body tone, and color, all of which reveal various states of tension in the muscles due to poor circulation and excessive tightness or flaccidity. It is important to note that the same muscles used to block the “negative” emotions of anger, fear, and pain likewise block the “positive” feelings of love, trust, and pleasure. Reich postulated the existence of a substance he termed “orgone.” In order to explain many of his observations. He believed that orgone was the underlying “vital energy source” for both bodily and psychic functions, whether healthy or disturbed. Orgone corresponds to the occult energy referred to by Dr. White (The Ultimate Frontier, page 140) which is released during sexual orgasm. Orgone is one of the many types of Etheric Plane energies emitted from the sun. As it enters our atmosphere it attaches to oxygen, giving a bluish color to the air. Reich observed it in special sealed metal chambers (which he called orgone boxes) as wispy bluish or yellow flickerings. Orgone is called “prana” in the terminology of yoga. As air is inhaled and oxygen enters the blood, orgone flows through one’s physical body and Vital Body. The orgone flow can be restricted as a result of negative mental activity (fear, anger or worry) which consequently impairs the Vital Body on the Etheric Plane, or by chronic muscular tensions which restrict circulation of blood and the orgone carrying oxygen. The physical body is constantly renewing itself due to normal wear and tear, and it relies on the Vital Body as a pattern for proper functioning. Damage to the Vital Body soon manifests in the physical body in the areas of cell growth and organ function. Much evidence exists to indicate that many systemic disorders such as allergies, cancer, nervous disorders, and ulcers are due to impaired orgone flow and its consequences. Many of these disorders have disappeared from patients after the underlying causes of repressed feelings and subconscious conflicts are brought out and consciously resolved. Reich relates several such interesting case histories in one of his books, The Function of the Orgasm. One of Reich’s more important observations was that armoring impairs the individual’s ability to completely experience sexual orgasm. It follows that full release of orgone is not accomplished in the majority of armored Western people. It is noteworthy that in spite of the rapidly improving standard of living, an increasing number of people suffer from the disorders mentioned above. Individuals who do not suffer from extensive armoring report orgasm as being a beautiful and transcendent experience which gives rise to a sense of peace and fulfillment, and adds to an intimate experience. One question which Reich never answered to his own satisfaction was how armoring could perpetuate itself. Nature demonstrates that only survival-oriented adaptations are maintained by a species, yet the obvious negative aspects of biological armoring seem to belie this. It has been the work of one of Reich’s students, Charles Kelley, to answer this question. In an account of his work entitled Education in Feeling and Purpose, Kelley points out the value of armoring as being the ability to channel energy voluntarily to hold to a purpose. Purpose may be defined as the act of choosing a goal which is seen as valuable by the chooser and pursuing it to completion. Kelley mentions Reich’s statement that only man, of all animals on earth, experiences armoring, and adds that only man is capable of having purpose. It is this ability which has permitted Western man to attain such technological and spiritual heights, in contrast to the agrarian, non-striving matriarchal cultures. Armoring acts to curb spontaneous impulses. The brain and muscles respond in tandem to learn from experience and tend to store such learning both as brain memory and muscle memory. A person who has experienced suppression of his natural drives since childhood will automatically learn to suppress his drives in direct proportion to the severity of the external suppression. To practice discipline requires suppression of impulses, whether voluntarily or by an outside authority. Discipline starts in childhood through imposed routines like being unselfish or foregoing snacks between meals. These mild examples are really forms of armoring. This is where the positive value of armoring lies; any form of discipline involves armoring to a greater or lesser degree. The brain-muscle memory system responds to armoring by internalizing the discipline as an unconscious habit. This habit of discipline can be extended and reinforced to encompass all the positive hallmarks of our technological civilization, namely a lifelong ability to study, to learn to deal with many different kinds of people, and to strive to increase one’s Egoic stature. In all of these endeavors lie much inherent frustration. The response of the totally unarmored individual to frustration is to avoid the event altogether and pursue a less demanding goal, usually some form of gratification. This is the reason matriarchal cultures rarely develop beyond a food-planting culture, and this was the major purpose the Brotherhoods had in deliberately working to transform the world from matriarchy to patriarchy beginning over 6,700 years ago. Given the nature and function of armoring, how might we best serve our children’s needs? We can avoid subjecting them to levels of fear, pain, or anger which they are not mature enough to comprehend and would thus armor against. Emotions and feelings are tools inherent in an infant’s or child’s biological plan to master one’s body and environment. We can help them understand that they can overcome negative feelings via our example-and our patience with them. It is important to note that if a feeling is consciously experienced and the normal muscular response then completed, it has come to full resolution and can be psychologically and physiologically dispensed with. If a feeling is repressed, it continues to manifest and draw vital energy to maintain the muscle tension that has not been discharged. We should also understand that moderate conscious armoring is needed to permit one’s effective pursuit of important goals such as practice of the Great Virtues. Thus, the habit of self-discipline can be instilled in the child to enable him to later hold to his high purposes in life. As a child matures, he can be taught the powerful tools of self-analysis and introspection; and in an open and caring atmosphere there can be conscious expression of the strongest emotions and feelings. Be aware of each child’s need for physical affection from peers and adults, and allow an “extended family” to provide this affection openly. It is important, too, that we adults, who are still experiencing armoring, be able to increase our awareness of subconscious attitudes which may be keeping us from full emotional maturity. In addition to neo-Reichian education in feeling, a useful tool for this is the exercise recommended by Berkeley in The Ultimate Frontier, which involves delving back into one’s consciousness to try and pinpoint the attitude-forming events of our early life. As children, we often react in an exaggerated manner to events which we interpret as threatening or frightening, perhaps because we are small and have not yet learned to cope. If our efforts at retrospection yield a memory of events which may have caused armorings, we can deal with them through our more powerful adult understanding and thus put much of past inappropriate feelings aside. Perhaps we shall find that a generation of children who grow through childhood with minimal anxiety, distrust, and chronic tension will indeed be the kind of adult who can truly enjoy the challenges and pleasures of life and rapidly achieve Initiation into the Brotherhoods. If you would like more information on this topic, The Stelle Group offers two booklets published by The Radix Institute. They are Education in Feeling and Purpose and Orgonomy, Bioenergetics and Radix priced at $2.50 each (includes shipping and handling). More in-depth information and any questions you may have about Radix may be directed to The Radix Institute, P.O. Box 9/, Ojai, California 93023. The telephone number is 805-646-8555. Stelle Group Letter  November 1981
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