An unseen voice is automatically attributed divine powers

Evidence

This bodiless voice is a perfect example of what Michel Chion calls la voix acousmatique. According to Chion, a voice whose source is invisible is automatically assigned exceptional powers: in our eyes, such a voice is, as a rule, endowed with divine attributes. It is as though its every word were a word coming directly from God. This bodiless, unlocatable voice functions as a shapeless threat lurking everywhere in the background. — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 45

Categorization

• DEFINE: Chion’s ‘voix acousmatique’ is the precise concept for how panoptic voice works — the unseen-voice-equals-divine-power mechanism.
• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s thesis: the acousmatic voice is how Oceania’s telescreen addresses Winston, a voice no one can locate yet all must obey. — connects to: Sacred Noise is authority to make sound without censure — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 264; Mind-reading capacities are prerequisites for believers to interact with and be policed by gods; Religious belief requires intuitive mentalizing about a personal God (+4 more)
• ADDENDUM: The acousmatic-voice-dissolves-once-given-a-body point harkens to the same logic in ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ — power sustained by invisibility and broken by exposure.

Broader Connections

• Mind-reading capacities are prerequisites for believers to interact with and be policed by gods #expands (0.80)
• Mind-reading capacity supplies the cognitive basis for belief in disembodied gods #corroborates (0.80)
• Sacred Noise is authority to make sound without censure #complicates (0.75) — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 264
• Religious belief requires intuitive mentalizing about a personal God #expands (0.75)
• Potent supernatural monitors must balance transcendence with human-like graspability #qualifies (0.75)
• The panopticon’s gaze functions as God independent of the human inspector #exemplifies (0.72) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 59