Harold Burris-Meyer (1902-September 27, 1984) was a twentieth century American scientist who investigated the use of sound as a tool for emotional and physiological control and played a critical role in the emerging fields of sound design for theater, music for industry, and applied psychoacoustics for warfare. He was a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was also an author, a US Navy commander, and a theatrical consultant. Burris-Meyer pioneered the use of "infrasound (sound with a frequency below the lower limit of human audibility)" in theater settings to "manipulate audiences' emotions subconsciously," wrote historian Prof. Gascia Ouzounian. "Following a demonstration [by Burris-Meyer] of 'subsonics' in 1935, journalists speculated on the possibilities of mind control and mass hysteria." Education Burris-Meyer was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree from the City College of New York in 1923 and a Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1926. Career During a long and varied career, Burris-Meyer worked at the Muzak Corporation, directed the first stereophonic recordings for Bell Labs in 1941, experimented with the Vocoder, and served as sound designer on thirteen Broadway shows, as well as on productions for the Metropolitan Opera and the Federal Theater Project. During the early 1930s, Burris-Meyer was consultant for Bell Telephone Laboratories when the company was experimenting with stereophonic sound transmission, including tests with live orchestras. He engineered the stereo soundtrack for Walt Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia. From 1938 through 1947 Burris-Meyer served as a consultant, Vice President, and Board member at Muzak Corporation, where he embarked on research to relieve boredom and fatigue through the subliminal use of mood-enhancing music. In his 25-year tenure at Stevens, Burris-Meyer served as Professor of Dramatic Arts, Director of Research in Sound in the Theater, and Director of the Stevens Theater. From 1964 to 1972, he was a Professor of Communications at Florida Atlantic University, and then a Professor Emeritus. He developed techniques to use sound to manipulate human emotions, particularly in theatrical settings. Burris-Meyer "has been working for years to put the control of sound in the drama on a scientific basis," said a June, 1940 article in the New York Times. "If he had his way, speech, prop sounds, background music, beating of hoofs, thunder, whatever the dramatist demands, would be scored and 'played' from a control board just as if it were a musical composition. ... [H]e has gone