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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. The brief, anonymously published work describes a vibration referred to as thanato-auric waves, which the machine electrically generates by combining three infrasonic sine waves (3 Hz, 9 Hz and 0.56 Hz) with concomitant tape loops of unspecified spoken text (two beyond the threshold of decipherability, and two beneath the threshold).
Contents
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 sensitive information in the interest of enhancing civilian life, the author shares his own notes as well as those left by earlier researchers.
Etymology
The name Feraliminal Lycanthropizer is composed of two portmanteau words. The first, Feraliminal, is a combination of the Latin ferus (wild animal) and limen (threshold), while the second, Lycanthropizer, combines the Ancient Greek root lycanthrope with a generic suffix, -izer, conferring agency. Together the words suggest something hidden that triggers wild or aggressive conduct.
Legacy and influence
Despite the pamphlet's brevity and obscurity, its story has acquired mythic overtones, and readers have since made extraordinary attempts to replicate the Feraliminal Lycanthropizer and/or invoke its described "animalizing effects on human subjects tested within measurable vibratory proximity." The machine's neologistic name has thus appeared in conjunction with disparate music groups and artists, as indicated:
Feraliminal Lycanthropizer-themed works also include:
Scientific and historical inconsistencies
Apart from its 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."
In TechnoMage, a compendium of writings on technology and the occult, author 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." Paranormal researcher Michael Esposito opines, "I’m not sure the Feraliminal Lycanthropizer is as effective as a woman leaning against the spin cycle of a Maytag."