A Scientific Explanation For Ghosts?
There may be a scientific explanation for things like ghosts and hauntings. And it’s not your mind simply playing tricks on you.
Are you hearing weird sounds, briefly seeing ghostly images, feel a presence in the room with you, or an inexplicable and sudden sense of overwhelming fear?
It just might be infrasound
Infrasound is an extremely low frequency between between .1 -20Hz. It is so low, that humans cannot hear it. But we can feel it. A good portion of the population is also thought to be hypersensitive to these low frequencies.
Infrasound’s effects on the human body can cause bizarre effects, including nausea, extreme fear or awe, anxiety and chills. Researchers also believe it affects vision by causing vibrations of the eyeball. These vibrations can cause you to ‘see’ ghosts.
Nature’s ‘Spooky’ Phenomena
Infrasound can be produced by many different natural phenomena, like stormy weather, strong seasonal winds, unusual weather patterns and some types of earthquakes.
Animals such as elephants also use a form of infrasound to communicate over long distances with other elephants, or as a defense mechanism against what they perceive as threats.
Ghost In The Machine
In April 1998, the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research published a paper called ‘The Ghost in the Machine’ by Coventry University lecturer Vic Tandy. It described Tandy’s experiences with infrasound while working in a medical lab.
His coworkers complained of spooky feelings and chills in his lab. A cleaning lady resigned after “seeing something.” Working alone in the lab one night, Tandy suddenly had the feeling he was being watched. He claimed shadowy figure appeared at the edge of his vision. When Tandy turned to face it, the figure vanished.
The next day, Tandy brought a fencing foil to the lab for repairs. When he clamped one end of the blade in a vise, it started vibrating wildly. Curious, Tandy began moving the blade around the room. It vibrated strongly in the center of his lab, but completely stopped at the edges of the room.
Tandy discovered a 19Hz standing wave in his laboratory. The walls of the lab had caused the sound wave to double back on itself, producing an area of maximum energy in the center of the room. It was more than enough energy to vibrate his sword.
As it turns out, the source of this wave was a newly installed fan at the end of the lab. When the fan was turned off, the wave, and all ‘spooky’ phenomena associated with it, disappeared.
It seems there will be no need to call the ghostbusters.
References: Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (pdf)
Photos are available under a Creative Commons Attribution license by Wikicommons.
More plausible than ghost hunters…
Who you gonna call…
Ghost busters
Is there a way to reproduce this on my speakers or on my computer?
Why don’t you find out?
http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencychecklow.php
So how come I can listen to dubstep and not feel all ghostly?
Because Dub-step does not emit a low enough frequency.
I would like to see this idea explored more thoroughly!
The room in question.. I would guess that it’s length (or width or both) was almost exactly the length of one 19Hz wave. So umm.. I don’t know how to calculate that.
But perhaps you could make rooms that are designed to hold standing waves of infrasound, and that, coupled with something that makes loud noises in that range (fans seem like a great option for most efficiently making pressure waves in that range).. GHOST ROOM!
I’ve noticed you said ‘could’ on it. I would agree with Glen, I would love to see more results. You only have one explanation on ghosts, and I think that this is the stuff that people wanna know. Not boring or complicated stuff like how to make a motor. (Just a example, I bet 75 percent of people reading this comment can think of some boring scientific fact that they could live without knowing, or don’t really care about.) I mean, no offense to people who care about that stuff, but this might just be a little more popular. -Ava
Well then by the article i read i can understand but can you explain to me about ghostly figures in pictures. Without relating it to some kind of reflection, shadow, etc.
The “ghosts” pass by at the time and you capture them. If you get an infrared camera it is easy to tell if it really is a “ghost” I have had the same thing. It was a man.
Yeah, this is a great theory if you completely ignore ghost incidents wherein its been visually witnessed by hundreds of people or wherein a young lady was hit and thrown across the room by a spirit (that last one was witnessed by one of the Presidents of the United States as well as a senator)
Theories like this are formed around lesser entities.
I thought ghosts were aliens in the 4th physical dimension…
They exist. Science doesn’t explain anything. Science doesn’t explain God. Science is a study, but not a belief. I am a brain specialist and I have many fellow colleagues who gave up on proving the non-existence of the soul.
Science doesn’t explain anything? Really? A belief in “God” doesn’t explain everything either. It would seem you are implying that religion, instead, can explain anything and that your BELIEF carries more weight than actual research? Beliefs do not equal facts. So if science can’t disprove something to your liking, then you should have some REAL evidence (not just some nonsense about God) to back up your claims and support your position before you say that science explains nothing.
I wonder how many of you neurologist colleagues also call themselves brain specialists.
Flesh also resonates at 17hz which can cause a feeling of unease. It is thought that this is one of the reasons some animals sense earthquakes as there are often subsonic pre-tremors.