FWIW, I was 110% Reich for a long time (UFOs too, why not? He's obviously one of the intellectual titans of his age, I wasn't there, who am I to second guess him?) but then I read a particular biography (it's in storage and I don't recall the title or author, sorry, but it was sympathetic to Reich) and it seemed to me that he became irrational after what he called "the Oranur Experiment". I found a site that seems to have a description: https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2013/08/orgone-energy-neutra...
I have no idea what really happened, of course, but I suspect he injured himself somehow experimenting with radium and "orgone".
Even if you set aside the fight with the UFOs, his response to the FDA seems crazy (to me) even for someone who was literally persecuted for much of his professional career. The actions of the FDA don't seem quite so egregious in light of the personal fight Reich picked with ... crap I can't recall now, some bigwig in the FDA, or a federal Judge, someone like that who took it personally, and that's how he wound up serving two years in prison. They still shouldn't have burned his papers, that's messed up. And his end is deeply tragic. But was doing things like refusing a lawyer, representing himself, insisting that the authorities read his books, and that they had no authority over him. Ah, it makes me sad.
I sometimes wonder what an alternate history would be like where Reich and his work took root in Vienna and grew into ... who knows what?
I'm curious dang, if you don't mind me asking, where do you fall out of the funnel on Reich? And on "woo-woo" in general? What's you metaphysical story like? :) Where does the sidewalk end?
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That Kate Bush video! Wow, LOL, Yay! I'll see that and raise you Gurdjieff's Fourth Way embedded in the middle of "Meaning of Life" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2QJvc_SxFQ