Choice has put a so-called Geoclense Home Harmonizer through a test, and found it to be a waste of money and sure to turn off your friends.

Geoclense is sold as a “Geopathic Stress and Electromagnetic Radiation Harmonizer”. The product, supplied by Victorian company Orgone Effects Australia, is a solid block of green plastic resin with a plug moulded into the back. It has no components or circuitry – it is simply the block and a plug.

When plugged into a powerpoint, it’s claimed to neutralise the effects of what Choice describes as “a startlingly long list of supposedly harmful radiation and radio and electromagnetic frequencies from sources such as Wi-Fi, mobile phone towers, death imprints and negative psychic impressions, solar flares, your home’s smart meter and even your neighbour’s television.

“A single Geoclense Home Harmonizer is even powerful enough to harmonise inter-dimensional imprinting radiation, personal beams and a variety of other made up stuff for up to 12 acres, or for an entire 59-storey building.”

The product promises to neutralise electromagnetic radiation, radio frequencies and cosmic energy. “In our modern world these things are impossible to avoid, but this solid block of plastic promises to bring an end to your suffering,” Choice says.

“Unlike other fake energy harmonisers, which Orgone Effects Australia claim can only create imaginary energy-balancing fields of six metres or less, Geoclense is claimed to harmonise electromagnetic radiation fields and energy imprinting from electrical appliances, wiring and power lines up to 200 metres from your property, and earth magnetic grid lines up to 400 metres away.

“Coincidentally this is how wide a berth your friends will give you once you explain the ‘benefits’ of your expensive new doorstop.”

Choice put the product, which retails for $150, through a series of laboratory tests of the supplier’s claims, including impact on magnets and electromagnetic fields (none), increase in the number of photons (none), increase in oxygen levels (none), and generating negative ions (none).

“We even conducted one of Orgone Effects Australia’s own recommended tests – placing the palm of your hand on a fridge. With Geoclense, the fridge toucher should experience a calming, energising sensation through the body. Our test subjects, despite extensive experience touching fridges, reported no effect.”

Choice adds that it was able to substantiate one of the supplier’s claims, which is that it uses absolutely no power. “Hardly surprising for an inert lump of plastic, but it does beg the question as to why you need to plug it in at all. Perhaps it’s to distract you from the large sum of money you just wasted.”

Geoclense has “the effectiveness of a tin foil hat, but lack’s the hat’s potential for use in food preparation”, Choice says.

Maybe Choice did not realise that Orgone Effects has properly tested its products, all of which “have been field tested and are recommended by Holistic GP’s, Bioresonance Practitioners, Naturopaths, and Kinesiologists worldwide. Using Biological testing methods such as GDV Kirlian Aura Camera, Biotensor, Lecher Antenna and Light Frequency Bioresonance, we are able to test and demonstrate the effectiveness of our products.”

One purchaser on a review site did vouch for the Geoclense’s effectiveness: “The day after plugging it in, I noticed the postman delivered our mail 10 minutes earlier, which is one of few claims not listed by the manufacturer and should definitely be added. It also manages to make money disappear but then, if you bought one, you already know that.”

Orgone Effects’ customer relations

Australian Skeptics has had a number of run-ins with the Geoclense supplier, Orgone Effects.

In 2016, Skeptics’ investigator Richard Saunders had interesting discussions with one of the company reps at a Mind Body Spirit exhibition in Sydney. Even though Saunders was upfront about his role in the Skeptics, they talked openly about their range of products, which include harmonizers for mobile phones and wi-fi radiation, wristwatches, the “Ionic Personal Protection Pendant”, Harmonywear jewellery, ionic shoe inner soles, and an ionic toothbrush. An offer to apply for the Australian Skeptics’ $100,000 prize was also made at this encounter.

In August 2016, Saunders ordered one of the Orgone Effects phone harmonizers, as part of an ongoing investigation into such devices, but when the company management realised who he was, they refunded his money.

However, this sensitivity to negative Skeptical vibes didn’t stop them selling a phone harmonizer to Skeptics executive officer Tim Mendham at the next Mind Body Spirit fair in 2017.

The seller told Mendham that while the harmonizer was supposed to be stuck to the back of the phone, it could also be stuck onto the phone cover, or, in fact, just allowed to slide around the cover without being fixed. The effect would be the same, he said, without any irony.

This is not the first time the subject of Orgone energy has been investigated by Australian Skeptics. In 1986, the late racing car driver Peter Brock was awarded the Bent Spoon for his ill-fated “Energy Polarizer Box” which was also based on Orgone energy. It looks like there may be another Bent Spoon nomination for this mythical energy in 2017.

With this history, and such a damning report from the respected organisation Choice, we cannot help but wonder if at long last the ACCC, Consumer Affairs Victoria (where the company is located) or other state-based consumer affairs departments might also take a keen interest in the products and claims of Orgone Effects Australia.