5G

I’m mildly concerned that so many people think I’m an expert on so many different things. It’s not true, of course. For the record, my expertise is in mathematics pedagogy, teacher education, and high stakes standardized testing. I am not a scientist. However, for over 30 years, I’ve taught mathematics, psychology, physics, general science, biology, and other subjects. Over the past eight years, my goal has been to bring serious and disciplined inquiry to the Hum phenomenon. A basic working knowledge in a broad number of academic fields has helped me and people I work with to make some progress in this regard.

Every week I receive a large number of emails from people around the world, most of whom want to discuss unusual sounds they have heard or are still hearing. In roughly three-quarters of these cases, they are hearing an anthropogenic noise, and I am able to help them by pointing to Henrik’s guide for tracking down environmental noise, although for some people this appears to be too much work. There are also people who write to me because they want my validation or support for their battles against wireless technologies, 5G in particular. There was indeed a point in time when I was investigating the possible role of EM energy in generating the Hum. VLF radio (3 kHz to 30 kHz frequencies) were of particular concern; we have enough evidence now to set aside that theory and move on to other explanations that better fit the data.

We may discover or confirm a few years down the road that some types of wireless energy, including 5G, have deleterious effects on living tissue. Apart from the unhinged commentary on the issue, I’ve also scanned a few seemingly serious papers that do indeed raise troubling questions. But there is absolutely no evidence that Electromagnetic (EM) or Radio Frequency (RF) energies cause the Hum. Some folks don’t want to hear this, probably because they think it means I’m somehow endorsing or enabling the widespread use of such technologies. I’m doing no such thing, but the distinction seems to be lost on some.

My advice to those who are concerned about wireless energy is to accept a few things. First, spending a couple of hours on the internet does not make you knowledgeable on a topic. Second, that scientists are among the bravest people I know, and they want nothing more than to discover the truth. There is no scientific cabal operating here. They arrive at consensus by sharing their results with their colleagues, who brutally examine and pick apart the data and logic. If experimental results can be replicated, and the claims validated, then science moves forward. Alas, far too many people today start with the conclusion that appeals to them emotionally and then they hunt for evidence or interpretations of data that fit what they have already assumed to be true. As a teacher of psychology, I am fascinated by this – that is, how intelligent and educated people can hold on to some beliefs even in the face of colossal and overwhelming evidence to the contrary. To avoid being gratuitously abrasive, I’ll refrain from listing specific examples.

I try to bring people together with enthusiasm and curiosity rather than through rhetoric, but I’ll repeat what I’ve written elsewhere. Science is arduous and challenging work, and often people’s lives are too full to take that on. Also, some people are intellectually lazy.