Vital Life Energy and De-Armoring | The Liberation of Libido

Wilhelm Reich’s Body De-Armoring practice aims at emotional and trauma release through somatic practices — and subsequent liberation of one’s Character Armor — in order to restore our health, happiness, and wellbeing on a physical, emotional/mental, and spiritual level.

Within Body De-Armoring theory, there’s also quite some emphasis on De-Armoring as a means to enable the free and unobstructed flow of Vital Life Energy (Vital Life Force) through the client’s body. The background hereof is to be found in Reich’s view on the importance of energy flow.

In fact, Wilhelm Reich claimed that one’s Body Armor restricts the flow of Life Energy through the body. According to Reich, this Body Armor (also called Muscular Armor) consists of a range of rigid and enduring muscular tensions and contractions that constrict the Life Force Energy Channels in our body, our breathing, and our blood circulation system, which again can cause a variety of physical and mental discomforts and illnesses.

Wilhelm Reich first departed from the idea of Libido (sex drive or sexual energy) — a well-known concept in the works of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud — but later on he extended the concept of Libido to become Vital Life Force, which he finally defined as Orgone Energy.

Of course, the idea of Orgone Energy is clearly influenced by ancient oriental systems such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Yoga, Thai Traditional Medicine, Tantra, and Taoism, in which Life Energy or Life Force plays a primary role. In those systems, Life Force has gotten names such as Qi (Chi), Prana, or Lom Pran, and the unobstructed flow of Life Force in a person is considered the basis of health.

Hence, unblocking or releasing the body’s muscular and organ tensions, and opening the Life Force Energy Channels — depending on the traditional medicine system, known as the Thai Sib Sen, TCM Meridians, or Yoga Nadis — is one of the main goals of traditional therapy in the East.

As Reich didn’t make a distinction between Vital Life Force, Libido, Sexual Energy and Orgone, Body De-Armoring to him also meant the liberation of our sexuality. That is, a person can then express their natural ability to love, experience a satisfactory sex life, and a sexually gratifying orgasm, which he called Orgastic Potency.

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