Bad Vibrations - Building Fear Part 5

 Most humans cannot hear any sounds below 20 Hz.  Even that may be more felt than heard.  Sounds lower than this are called "infrasound".  Elephants can hear infrasound, and it's believed animals know earthquakes are coming because they hear these low frequencies when tectonic plates grind against each other.

According to this article, Vic Tandy was working late in the "haunted" Warwick laboratory when he saw a gray thing coming for him. "I felt the hairs rise on the back of my neck," he said. "It seemed to be between me and the door, so the only thing I could do was turn and face it."* But the thing disappeared.                   

Ultimately, Tandy deduced that an extractor fan in the lab was creating infrasound vibrations, creating a feeling of dread in the lab.  The vibrations created a standing wave in one part of the room at 18.98 hz.  Since this is the frequency at which the human eye starts to vibrate, it was causing weird hallucinations.

Apparently relief was immediate when they turned off the fan.

Infrasound - The Frequency of Sound

Seems worth experimenting with tones from 17 Hz to 19 Hz.  Even if it only causes dread in 1 out of 3 people, it seems like a great way to add atmosphere to your space.  We all know that when one person starts expressing dread, it can infect the others in their group, too!

A haunter in TX wrote an Instructable based on a machine he created to have just this effect.  Check it out HERE. His Instructable includes a link to Tandy's paper, "Ghost in the Machine", if you are interested in the science.

Happy Halloween!