The Feraliminal Lycanthropizer is a psychotechnographic machine invented by American writerDavid 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 infrasonicsine waves with tape loops of unspecified spoken text. Woodard describes the machine as "a low frequency thanato-auric wave generator" that is "known for its use by the Nazis and for its animalizing effects on human subjects tested within measurable vibratory proximity". The machine creates violence and sexual desire, its essential function being "to trigger states of urgency and fearlessness and to disarmour the intimate charms of the violent child within. The Trithemean incantations richly pervading the machine’s aural output produce feelings of aboveness and unbridled openness." His use of the worddisarmour concomitantly suggests military applications and evokes orgone. The text is predicated on the idea 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 narrator shares his erstwhile classified notes along with 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 :wikt:ferus|ferus and :wikt:limen|limen, while the second, Lycanthropizer, combines the Ancient Greek root :wikt:lycanthrope|lycanthrope with a generic suffix, :wikt:-izer|-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 attempts to replicate the Feraliminal Lycanthropizer 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:
The Feraliminal Lycanthropizers, a free improvisation ensemble founded in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2000
"Feraliminal Lycanthropizer," a 2004 song by one-man English doom metal band :it:Uncertainty Principle|Uncertainty Principle
Feraliminal Lycanthropizer, an active goregrind/:de:porngrind|porngrind band founded in Yaroslavl, Russia in 2009
"Feraliminal Lycanthropizer," a song by English electronica duo Posthuman, featured on their 2011 album Datalinks
"Feraliminal Tremens," a 2012 song by Chicago-based experimental electronic project Blood Rhythms with Christopher Turner and Michael Esposito
Feraliminal, a 2016 anti-cosmos cassette EP by Irish death metal band Vircolac
Feraliminal Lycanthropizer-themed works also include:
Progressive Lycanthropy, a 2010 cassette and booklet by Tulsa, Oklahoma-based psychoacoustic artist Thomas Bey William Bailey
Wolf Hunter, a novel by Denver-based horror writer J.L. Benét, winner of the 2013 Independent Publisher Book Award
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: 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."
