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Feel a ghost? Perhaps it's infrasound


schadeaux

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MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -- Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is inaudible to humans.

British scientists have shown in a controlled experiment that the extreme bass sound known as infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills -- supporting popular suggestions of a link between infrasound and strange sensations.

"Normally you can't hear it," Dr Richard Lord, an acoustic scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in England who worked on the project, said on Monday.

Lord and his colleagues, who produced infrasound with a seven meter (yard) pipe and tested its impact on 750 people at a concert, said infrasound is also generated by natural phenomena.

"Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost -- our findings support these ideas," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England.

In the first controlled experiment of infrasound, Lord and Wiseman played four contemporary pieces of live music, including some laced with infrasound, at a London concert hall and asked the audience to describe their reactions to the music.

The audience did not know which pieces included infrasound but 22 percent reported more unusual experiences when it was present in the music.

Their unusual experiences included feeling uneasy or sorrowful, getting chills down the spine or nervous feelings of revulsion or fear.

"These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound," said Wiseman, who presented his findings to the British Association science conference.

Infrasound is also produced by storms, seasonal winds and weather patterns and some types of earthquakes. Animals such as elephants also use infrasound to communicate over long distances or as weapons to repel foes.

"So much has been said about infrasound -- it's been associated with just about everything from beam weapons to bad driving. It's wonderful to be able to examine the evidence," said Sarah Angliss, a composer and engineer who worked on the project.

CNN

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"Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost -- our findings support these ideas," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England.

Well? Doesn't that just take all the fun out of Ghosts. Shucks! Bummer! ohmy.gif

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A good theory, and one that no doubt allows the sceptics to sleep that bit easier at night. disgust.gif

As with a lot of the paranormal I suspect that this theory could account for SOME of the phenomena, but hardly all.

That story originates from my home town, yet the first I hear of it, is a quote from a CNN report. How odd is that? blink.gif

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It said that the music was played to an audience in a London Concert Hall and that 22% of people were affected by it. How many people were in the concert hall? If it was 200 people only 44 were affected. That really isn't a high number, at least not high enough to explain ghost phenomenon.

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that explains sensations. some of them. but we have apparitions, photos, and the like which are kinda hard to explain, don't ya think?

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Damn right. clap.gif

As usual, those wanting to dismiss the paranormal have a very selective memory when giving us their expert laugh.gif opinions.

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Maybe the ultra sound waves are the missing link that connect a discorpereal to this plane of exsistence . Maybe they need a frequency disturbance like this to be able to affect people on the physical plane .

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That's a good theory. thumbsup.gif

There's a connected one, and from what I know, an increasingly popular one amongst scientists, that `ghosts', whatever they may be, create electro-magnetic disturbances, which affect their environments.

These electro-magnetic disturbances affect air molecules, causing temperature changes.

And those infamous temperature drops!

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Welcome to the board Cufflink original.gif ,

We had a pretty long winded discussion on the theories of where ghosts come from HERE If your interested . Be warned though it may take several hours of wading through ... enjoy your stay wavey.gif

I dare say these are the things Exeter may be looking for have you any links on the electro magnetic disturbances theory .....?

P.S . I like your site original.gif

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Thank you Kismit for those kind words about my site! notworthy.gif

I didn't think anyone other than my fellow warhammer enthusiasts would have spotted it. That was very kind and very unexpected. blush.gif

As for the electro-magnetic theory, I'm afraid I only have a few Peter Underwood books on the matter, to hand. I'll search around to see if he or the UK ghostclubs have any details online.

I'm still blushing under my helmet. blush.gif

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Your welcome Cufflink . I allways had a soft spot for Arthurian legends .

Trying desperately to get back on topic here's an article from the Whitley Strieber site .

Why churches play organ music....

I found this particular piece in the article interesting . original.gif

Recent studies have shown that elephants communicate this way, and that volcanoes that are getting ready to erupt may also produce infrasound
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It's an interesting thought, that people's emotions might be stirred by a church organ. I can't see how it could be controlled to elicit particular emotions, though.

My heart sank when I saw the name Richard Wiseman. thumbdown.gif

The man is so blindingly sceptical on EVERYTHING, that were he abducted, probed, tatooed with the word `Abductee' on his forehead, and then taken for a quick spin around Venus, he would probably put it all down to a dodgy migraine.

Hopefully the greys will still have a go. abduct.gif

There is definitely something in the infrasound theories, though.

Did you know that the US army are developing `non-lethal' sound weaponry for stuff like urban pacification?

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Lol Cufflink ,

there is a discussion on the board somewhere about the new wave of military euipment . I don't know if the non-lethal sound weaponry was mentuioned as I prefer not to read about nasty killing things . Urban pacification sounds no where near as bad .

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Urban Pacification? Give a viper a pretty name and pat it on the head!

That haunted house Dr Wiseman is building should be worth seeing. Subterranean tremors in the basement, a miasma of ghost-inducing vapours swirling about the ground floor and now a mad organist in the attic! It wouldn't surprise me if Dr W found a way of resurrecting Peter Cushing to greet 50% of the visitors with the haunted history of the house so they are primed to expect something ghostly.

Seriously, Kismit and Cufflink make a number of very good points here that could be expanded upon. Here are a couple more ideas: 1) Could ghosts exude (or excrete laugh.gif ) infrasound when they manifest? 2) Might there be an optimum temperature range within which ghosts tend to materialize? Usually the ambient temperature is low or drops. I have come across odd instances of temperature rising.

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nup. don't belive that crap. as if sound waves could have even half the effect on us that ghosts do. it's stupid. wacko.gif

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Perhaps it's not the sound waves affecting Us but the soundwaves affecting the spirits Whitewitch , like an amplifier of sorts . If this was the case then the results would still be the same or similar . We cant really go around denying the results of the experiment carried out in the originally posted story . The results are what may be termed facts and facts tend to be really rare in paranormal terms . We need to use this information and see if it can fit another alternate solution .

All the original experiment really proved is that infrasound affects people through subtle undetectable changes in there environment . It can actually be used as an argument for the exsistance of spiritsif you look at it the right way ..

By the way I forgot to thankyou Shadeaux for the original post , obviously a really good link ..... thumbsup.gif

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Aha! Thanks for sharing this!!! This kinda fits into the hutchinson effect I think among other things.

Only some people are affected by the low frequency.

Only some people are sensitive to ghosts.

Sound is used to change human emotion, I can't find the patents atm. grr.

But think of listening music and all the different types... it affects emotion.

Low frequency's I'd imagine can come from earth crust plates rubbing or any number of subterran sources.

Can't find the articles but yea, sound used in weaponry to squish the brain in the skull leaving the rest untouched, level buildings...

Great to think about. Thanks!

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A little more on vibration.

Professor Gavraud was an engineer who almost quit his post at an institute in Marseilles because he always felt ill at work. He decided against leaving when he discovered his recurrent attacks of nausea were caused by vibrations from an air-conditioning plant on an adjacent building.

Fascinated by the phenomena, Gavraud decided to build machines to produce infrasound so he could investigate it further. In casting around for designs, he discovered that the whistle with a pea issued to all French gendarmes produced a whole range of low-frequency sounds (early Urban Pacification?). So he built a giant whistle and powered it with compressed air.

The technician who gave the machine its first trial fell down dead on the spot. A post-mortem revealed that all his intestinal organs had been mashed into an amorphous jelly.

Source - Supernature, Lyall Watson.

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