Feraliminal Lycanthropizer

Feraliminal Lycanthropizer

Cover of 1990 pamphlet"Feraliminal Lycanthropizer"

Cover of 1990 pamphlet
"Feraliminal Lycanthropizer"

The Feraliminal Lycanthropizer is a fictional machine invented by American writer David Woodard, whose 1990 pamphlet of the same title speculates on its history and purpose.[1] The brief, anonymously published work describes a vibration referred to as thanato-auric waves, which the machine electrically generates by combining three infrasonic sinewaves (3 Hz, 9 Hz and 0.56 Hz) with concomitant tapeloops of unspecified spoken text (two beyond the threshold of decipherability, and two beneath the threshold).[2]

This combination of drastically contrasting emotional trigger mechanisms results in an often profound behavioral enhancement which occurs strikingly soon (within moments) after the user enters and remains in the auricular field of the machine.—"Feraliminal Lycanthropizer"[1]

The premise is that a mind-altering technology has for decades, at the behest of American intelligence during the Cold War, been withheld from scrutiny. Dispensing with classified research so that the machine might enhance civilian life, the author shares his own notes as well as those left behind by earlier researchers.

Inspired by "Feraliminal Lycanthropizer"

Despite the pamphlet's brevity and obscurity, readers have made extraordinary attempts to replicate the Feraliminal Lycanthropizer and/or invoke its described "animalizing" effects.[3] The machine's neologistic name has thus appeared in conjunction with disparate music groups and artists, as indicated.

Other Feraliminal Lycanthropizer-themed works have appeared.

"The [three pieces] on the cassette were built up from a 'Feraliminal Lycanthropizer' drone, an experimental binaural frequency supposedly used by the military as an 'audio truth serum' or as a combat stimulant—as the name suggests, this technique was meant to hurl individuals into 'wolf-like' states in which they would careen between poles of focused rage and woozy ecstasy."—Bailey
"During WWII, a group of Nazi scientists under the command of a high-ranking SS officer secretly transforms Viktor Huelen and a trio of other men into werewolves. The items they use to perform this are an audio device called a Feraliminal Lycanthropizer, a pungent all-body salve, and a wolf-hide girdle with a pentagram of iron rivets."—Fantastic Reviews[14]

Scientific and historical inconsistencies

Apart from the title and the term thanato-auric, other hitherto unknown coinages introduced in Woodard's text are (in order of appearance) Plecidic, aurotic, nucleopatriphobic and Eugenaestheticus. Moreover, journalistic coverage appears to have roundly debunked the myth of the machine.

According to Fortean Times, "[L]egends about the machine challenge belief; besides being credited with sparking unrestrained orgies, it has...been blamed for the sex-and-strangulation deaths of six youths. Some, who claim to have used the machine, have felt themselves become mentally stronger and their will more focused. [The] essay claims that 'a Catalonian national using the machine daily over a period of five or six weeks eventually managed to ingratiate himself to Adolf Hitler [and] persuade his quarry to adopt the swastika as high totem and emblem of the burgeoning National Socialist Conference.' Such stories are, clearly, beyond belief. There is no evidence that the Feraliminal Lycanthropizer exist[ed] or could have such effects."[2]

In TechnoMage, a compendium of writings on technology and the occult, Dirk Bruere relates, "The recording '...contains two infrasonic frequencies, 3hz and 9hz, which, combined, generate a lower, third frequency of 0.56hz' (they do not)."[15]

Paranormal investigator Michael Esposito opines in a 2011 interview, "I’m not sure a Feraliminal Lycanthropizer is as effective as a woman leaning against the spin cycle of a Maytag.”[16]

In Украина Криминальная (Ukrainian Crime) we read, "Legends say that the impact of the machine not only caused violent orgies but resulted in a series of murders. The proof of this and many similar stories—none."[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Woodard, D., "Feraliminal Lycanthropizer" (San Francisco: Plecid Foundation, 1990).
  2. 1 2 Sergeant, J., "Sonic Doom", Fortean Times, Dec. 2001.
  3. 1 2 Anon., "Inaudible sound that kills", Украина Криминальная, July 31, 2012.
  4. ↑ Afe Records, Craig Hilton profile.
  5. ↑ Uncertainty Principle, Acoustical Weapons Division EP (2004), MA.
  6. ↑ Champion Fine Art, "Feraliminal Lycanthropizer", May 2005.
  7. ↑ Schloss Tegal, The Myth of Meat (2006), Discogs.
  8. ↑ Ibid., "Feraliminal Lycanthropizer" (audio only), YouTube, Sep. 7, 2015.
  9. ↑ Feraliminal Lycanthropizer (band page), VK.
  10. ↑ Posthuman, "Feraliminal Lycanthropizer" (2011), Bandcamp.
  11. ↑ Blood Rhythms, "Feraliminal Tremens" (2012), Discogs.
  12. ↑ Bailey, T. B. W., Progressive Lycanthropy (2010), Mirror Tapes.
  13. ↑ Independent Publisher, "2013 IPPY Awards Results", May 2013.
  14. ↑ Hughes, A., Review of Wolf Hunter, Fantastic Reviews, Feb. 9, 2014.
  15. ↑ Bruere, D., TechnoMage (Bedford, England: Dirk Bruere, 2009), pp. 369-370.
  16. ↑ Zylo, A., "Voices in the Emptiness", Newcity, Oct. 26, 2011.

External links

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