infrasonic resonance
Jim Shaffer, Jr. ( (no email) )
Tue, 4 Aug 1998 18:18:59 -0400
>Forwarded by: Hyperborea Online News Service
>
>Electronic Telegraph, by Robert Matthews, 28 June 1998
>
>* Research into a supposed haunting has revealed that
>all the classic signs of ghosts can be explained as the result of very
>low frequency sound waves trapped inside buildings.
>
> Capable of being triggered by nothing more than the
>wind passing over walls, the sound waves cannot be heard. But scientific
>tests have revealed that they have effects on the human body that can
>account for the wraith-like appearance of ghosts and even the feelings
>of cold and terror that accompany them.
>
> The explanation emerged after a chance discovery by a
>university academic who found himself personally involved in a haunting,
>late one night in the laboratory of a medical manufacturing company
>based in the Midlands.
>
> Vic Tandy, an expert in computer-assisted learning at
>Coventry University, had been told that the building was haunted, but
>dismissed it as a joke. He changed his mind after the events that
>unfolded one night as he worked alone in the office.
>
> "As I sat at the same desk writing, I began to feel
>increasingly uncomfortable," he said. "I was sweating but cold and the
>feeling of depression was noticeable - but there was also something else
>. It was as though something was in the room with me.
>
> "Then I became aware that I was being watched, and a
>figure slowly emerged to my left. It was indistinct and on the
>periphery of my vision, but it moved just as I would expect a person to.
>It was grey, and made no sound. The hair was standing up on the back of
>my neck - I was terrified."
>
> Mr Tandy plucked up courage to look at the apparition
>face-on - only to see it fade and then vanish. "I decided I must be
>cracking up, and went home," he said.
>
> The explanation emerged the following morning. Mr
>Tandy, a fencing enthusiast, was modifying one of his foils and had
>left the blade clamped in a vice while he went in search of oil. He said
>: "When I returned, I noticed that the free end of the blade was
>frantically vibrating up and down." Mr Tandy, a trained engineer,
>realised that the blade might be receiving energy from very low
>frequency sound waves filling the laboratory - so low that they could
>not be heard.
>
> Tests duly revealed the existence of a "standing
>wave" trapped in the laboratory, which reached a peak in intensity next
>to Mr Tandy's desk. "It turned out to be caused by a new extraction fan,
>which was making the air vibrate at about 19 cycles per second," Mr
>Tandy said. "When the fan's mounting was altered, the ghost left with
>the standing wave."
>
> Working with Dr Tony Lawrence of the university's
>school of health, Mr Tandy has now discovered the significance of this
>rate of vibration. In research published in the latest issue of the
>Journal of Society for Psychical Research, they reveal that "infra-
>sound" around this frequency has been linked to a whole host of
>physiological effects - including breathlessness, shivering and feelings
>of fear.
>
> Most significantly, research by Nasa, the American
>space agency, has shown that the human eyeball has a resonant frequency
>of 18 cycles a second, at which it starts to vibrate in sympathy to
>infra-sound. "This would cause a serious smearing of vision," Dr
>Lawrence said.
>
> While acoustic experts have known about the health
>effects of infra-sound for many years, until now no one has made the
>link to ghosts. Mr Tandy said that he has since come across two more
>"hauntings" where low-frequency sound may be to blame. He said: "One
>occurred in a corridor of a building that had a wind tunnel in the
>basement, and it was operating at the time of the sighting."
>
> He said, however, that the wind blowing over a window
>in a side wall of a long corridor might be enough to create a standing
>wave, similar to that formed by blowing over the neck of a bottle. "It
>would be interesting to look at reports of haunted houses, to see if the
>'ghosts' tend to appear in long, windy corridors," he said.
>
> The discovery of the infra-sound effect is already
>creating a stir among experts in paranormal phenomena. Professor David
>Fontana of the University of Cardiff, a former president of the Society
>of Psychical Research, said: "It is very interesting, as it gives us
>another scientific variable we can fit into the picture."
>
> Professor Fontana said, however, that infra-sound was
>unlikely to be the final answer. "It cannot explain those cases where
>there is some interaction between the person and the apparition - as
>there is with poltergeists for example," he said. "The problem is that
>whenever you get a potential explanation like this, you find that there
>are a whole lot of things it cannot account for."
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