Holy Handgrenades Batman! It's Orgonite!

On a recent walk across Ilkley Moor, drifting along with no definite destination in mind, we stumbled across a rather curious object...

We'd been meandering aimlessly around the central and highest part of the moor, when I decided to stop for a snack and perched myself on a convenient boulder. On one side of the rock was a small pool of water, which spread underneath it into a murky hollow. Glancing into the gap something caught my eye. I peered into the gloom but couldn’t quite make out what it was, so I reached in and pulled it out...


It was a cone, less than six inches high, constructed from some sort of waxy material. Within the cone were particles that looked like 'slivers' or 'parings' of a shiny metallic substance. I took a few photographs and put it back, thinking that someone else may have put it there for a reason that was important to them, and I continued on my way.

Back home I searched the Internet to try to discover what the curious artefact was. I posted images of it on various online discussion groups where several people suggested that it could be a substance called called ‘Orgonite’. A little intrigued, and wondering if I’d discovered something that might be the only weakness of an obscure super-hero, I trawled the web for more information.

It soon became apparent that the object was an example of an ‘HHG’; a ‘Holy Hand Grenade’. Made of a fibreglass resin, containing metal shavings and one or more quartz crystals, the materials can apparently change any harmful ‘negative etheric energy’ in it’s locality, into beneficial ‘positive etheric energy’. According to the website; http://www.orgonite.info/ these devices have many desirable effects on the environment, including purifying the atmosphere, helping plants to grow, awakening one’s psychic senses and reducing the affects of EMF radiation. Quite some material in anyone’s book!

The website also said: -
“We have found that tactical deployment of orgonite (e.g., "gifting") by throwing, hiding or burying it near sources of electromagnetic radiation or other pollution or in polluted areas, such as near cellphone/TV/radio towers, power plants, in lakes, rivers and ocean harbors, has a powerful and noticeable effect on the area. The skies get clearer and return to the deep blue color you remember from your childhood, complete with normal puffy white clouds.” Which could explain why we found the object in the vicinity of the huge aerial masts at Whetstone Gate.

“The general mood or 'vibe' in the area improves dramatically as people are kinder, happier and more easy-going. Neighbours either become friendlier or suddenly leave town. A renewed sense of hope begins to pervade the community. We have seen this effect in our own communities as a direct result of tactical orgonite gifting, and have found it truly self-empowering, but don't take our word for it. Try it yourself and see what happens!”


Well, I’ve not noticed the good people that live and work in the nearby towns of Ilkley and Keighley acting any differently the last time I was there, maybe others have?

Interestingly, the members of the Fortean Times forum where I posted the original request for information were mostly interested in whether these things actually work, and the concept of Orgone energies and related phenomena e.g. ‘Cloud-busting’. Whereas the members of a Pagan forum soon began debating the effect that the object would have on the local Genius Loci, and questioned the dubious legitimacy of dumping "some plastic bit of tat, filled with crystals that were raped from the earth and totally alien to the geology and energy of the place, into a nook or cranny where it can leech goodness knows what into the ground."
I was advised by one pagan to remove the offending article the next time I was in the area.
At the time I decided to put it back because I thought it may have some important significance for someone, and I didn’t feel that it was any of my business to meddle with someone else’s intentions. Now I’m not so sure…


I revisited the site recently and the cone is still there. Should I remove it? After all, according to the information provided on the orgonite websites, the objects are not merely created for one person's gain, but for more altruistic reasons.

And what if it actually works?

Or, is it just another example of ‘New Age’ naïveté, this time littering the countryside with silly homemade devices that are believed to alter the cosmic energies, albeit on a local level...?
As that famous magickian bloke Aleister Crowley probably didn't say on his death-bed; 'I am perplexed'.
Me too, mate...