Infrasound & Ghosts

[Hypnagogiac]

Recently I've read a tiny bit about how very low frequency sound waves (below 20 Hz) can cause a fight-or-flight response in humans. They can also arouse feelings of a ghostly presence, paranoia, and sometimes visual hallucinations.

Basically, I'm looking for more reading on this. Does anyone have any links or could point me in the direction of a book? Thanks a bunch, all I've been able to come across so far are studies of infrasound & earthquakes, thunderstorms, and etc.

 

[reprise]

A reprint of an old article from 1998.

The Google hits I got on this topic if anyone wants to help sort out the wheat from the chaff.

 

[reprise]

Just adding this particular link to illustrate just how many phenomena have been (correctly or otherwise) attributed to the manipulation of VLF waves.

 

[EdipisReks]

Recently I've read a tiny bit about how very low frequency sound waves (below 20 Hz) can cause a fight-or-flight response in humans. They can also arouse feelings of a ghostly presence, paranoia, and sometimes visual hallucinations.

that would explain the feeling of unease i have when i go to my friends house where a $15k Klipsch sound system resides. that, or the jealousy.

 

[SquishyDave]

I can't help you, but I did see a TV show, I don't know which one, in which all of a sudden one day some science guy's lab was spooky, like it felt less homey than it used to, sort of opressive. The people who to had work there late at night also reported being scared and seeing things move out of the corner of their eye, but when they turned their head

GASP!!

nothing was there!!!!!

Then one night this happened to this science guy, and he was all like, hmmm wonder caused this. Then later he put a blade in a vice to sharpen it (not sure why, don't know what the lab was for) and it start vibrating in the vice, and stronger and stronger and stronger the balde swung back and forth, like when you hold one end of a ruler at the edge of your desk and bend it and let it go, only in reverse.

This caused the science guy to wonder where the energy was coming from to cause the blade to move, so he tried some things and eventually got a little do-hickey that measures low frequency sound, turns out the new fan system was producing low frequency sound, when he turned the fans off, the room lost its opressive feel completely, he also figured out that the sound was such that it could cause the fluid in the human eye to vibrate, causing the people to see things moving out the corner of their eye. The sound also caused the blade to move in the vice.

I wish I knew the name of the show but it was a while ago.

 

[reprise]

I can't help you, but I did see a TV show, I don't know which one, in which all of a sudden one day some science guy's lab was spooky, like it felt less homey than it used to, sort of opressive. The people who to had work there late at night also reported being scared and seeing things move out of the corner of their eye, but when they turned their head

GASP!!

nothing was there!!!!!

Then one night this happened to this science guy, and he was all like, hmmm wonder caused this. Then later he put a blade in a vice to sharpen it (not sure why, don't know what the lab was for) and it start vibrating in the vice, and stronger and stronger and stronger the balde swung back and forth, like when you hold one end of a ruler at the edge of your desk and bend it and let it go, only in reverse.

This caused the science guy to wonder where the energy was coming from to cause the blade to move, so he tried some things and eventually got a little do-hickey that measures low frequency sound, turns out the new fan system was producing low frequency sound, when he turned the fans off, the room lost its opressive feel completely, he also figured out that the sound was such that it could cause the fluid in the human eye to vibrate, causing the people to see things moving out the corner of their eye. The sound also caused the blade to move in the vice.

I wish I knew the name of the show but it was a while ago.

The show was aired in the US under the title Truthseekers. Click the 1998 link in my first post in this thread for more details about Vic Tandy's experience.

 

[SquishyDave]

Oh I see, throw my help back in my face. Sure I didn't check your links, everyone knows that now. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW??? You've humilated me in front of the other skeptics, is that how you get your jollies?

 

[Bluegill]

When I was nine or ten years old, I was really into a series of books called "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators." These were all mystery novels for kids, centering on three teen-aged boys who solved crimes--much like the Hardy Boys, but a little more contemporary. The books always ended with the three boys going to visit their friend, Alfred Hitchcock, and telling him about their adventures.

Anyway, one of the stories hinged on a wealthy man who had modified his pipe organ to play inaudible VLF notes, causing terror in people investigating his "haunted" house.

 

[Chupacabras]

Check the second item in Randi's Opinion Archive, October 29, 2000 at http://www.randi.org/jr/10-29-2000.html for an account on this topic. It was a refreshing breath for me, who had tried to tackle my own ghost for years. It mentions NASA having made investigations in the 1970's.

 

[rockoon]

Check the second item in Randi's Opinion Archive, October 29, 2000 at http://www.randi.org/jr/10-29-2000.html for an account on this topic. It was a refreshing breath for me, who had tried to tackle my own ghost for years. It mentions NASA having made investigations in the 1970's.

It seems to me there is a wrong number in this article. 125 hz is not the hearing threshhold for humans but 20 hz is.

 

[SquishyDave]

Check the second item in Randi's Opinion Archive, October 29, 2000 at http://www.randi.org/jr/10-29-2000.html for an account on this topic. It was a refreshing breath for me, who had tried to tackle my own ghost for years. It mentions NASA having made investigations in the 1970's.

Hey that link is the exact story I saw, I am so redundant, I'll try not to speak in future.

 

[Hypnagogiac]

Thanks everyone for your replys!. The 10/20/00 Randi commentary was what I stumbled across recently (and yeah, I'm guessing that 125 Hz is a typo, since we can definitely hear that). I'm taking a sound production class right now, and asked my professor about it today. Turns out he's just starting a project on VLF soundwaves, but hasn't come across any studies yet- he said he'll keep me posted.

I think it would be fun to make a short horror film with an infrasound wave playing for the duration. Might make an interesting experiment.....maybe I don't even need to make it scary.

 

[KillerX]

You may also want to look into the "Feraliminal Lycanthropizer".
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...eraliminal+Lycanthropizer"&btnG=Google+Search

 

[SFB]

Re: Re: Infrasound & Ghosts

that would explain the feeling of unease i have when i go to my friends house where a $15k Klipsch sound system resides. that, or the jealousy.

Darn, my Klipsch Forte II speakers only go to 32Hz! And I thought I might be able to experience some of this. (I didn't pay anywhere near 15K for my system!).

An obscure group called The Hafler Trio experimented with VLF but I don't know if they successfully recorded (onto CD or LP) these frequencies. Anyone heard of any other groups to have done this?

 

[Mercutio]

I think it would be fun to make a short horror film with an infrasound wave playing for the duration. Might make an interesting experiment.....maybe I don't even need to make it scary.

Wasn't that the idea behind sensurround (tm)? Some of the late 70's disaster movies (Earthquake! comes to mind) included subsonics in their soundtracks. I recall a newspaper story saying that they had to modify the movie when it played in a town in Alaska that had recently had a quake--the audience all ran from the theatre!

 

[Chupacabras]

... I'm taking a sound production class right now, and asked my professor about it today. Turns out he's just starting a project on VLF soundwaves, but hasn't come across any studies yet- he said he'll keep me posted.

I think it would be fun to make a short horror film with an infrasound wave playing for the duration. Might make an interesting experiment.....maybe I don't even need to make it scary.

If you feel like going for it, I suggest "Synthesizer Basics", Hal Leonard Books, or look on search engines for "Frequency Response". You will find that few instruments can reproduce sounds above 5 KHz, but its the harmonic spectrum that can go upwards of 20 KHz. FR is "a measure of how well a device handles inputs at a wide range of audio frequencies". There's the speaker (tweeters or subwoofers), then, there are tapes or other media that cannot go way to low or too high.

If I remember well, the manual of Cool Edit (Syntrillium Software) can be downloaded for free - independent of the program, in PDF format- and it contains a short section on digital signal processing.

Some geeks pass by the house on saturday nights with their stereos at full volume. By the feeling in my stomach, I suspect they go at about 3 Hz!

HTH.