Ousiograph

An ousiograph or oustograph is a fictitious device purported to detect messages that are sent directly to one's brain. Arising from the State v. Green case in the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, the messages are sent to a person's brain to "direct them" and possibly control their behavior for an undetermined purpose.

The device was first imagined by Steven Green, who murdered police officer Harry Wilcox in Tennessee in 1982 and was subsequently excused on a plea of insanity. FBI Agent Ray Hanrahan was the first to hear of the device, when Green approached him one year before he murdered Wilcox. Green apparently believed that a doctor from New York was sending messages to his brain to control his behavior, and he wanted Hanrahan to research the existence of the device. Talk of the device resurfaced, when a note containing the word "ousiograph" was found at the scene of Wilcox's murder.

Green was declared a paranoid schizophrenic by medical examiners at the trial, which ultimately proved his insanity plea. Expert testimony showed that Green was "hearing voices," which explained his paranoid belief that messages were being transmitted directly into his brain.

References

• Dressler, Cases and Materials on Criminal Law, Fourth Edition, pages 648-655, 2007