This news and research blog augments the World Hum Database and Mapping Project located http://www.thehum.info
Dr. Glen MacPherson lectured for 16 years at the University of British Columbia (UBC), training mathematics teachers in the Faculty of Education, and worked for 10 years with UBC Robson Campus with its GMAT and GRE curriculum program. He is also an ethnographic researcher, and high school teacher of physics, mathematics, psychology, general science, and biology. He lives and works on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. His books, articles, and speaking engagements focus primarily on mathematics education. He is also the leader of the MacPherson Language Academy, which offers intensive English language immersion programs and expert instruction in GMAT, GRE, and IELTS examination preparation.
After first noticing the Hum in spring of 2012 and discovering the Hum community, he sensed the need for a unified, moderated, and serious place for discussions and research surrounding the world Hum. This led to the World Hum Map and Database Project.
The leading theory is that the world Hum is an internally generated audiological phenomenon, possibly related to otoacoustic emissions. (Note that tinnitus is also a self-reported audio effect, although it manifests quite differently from the Hum.) There are four competing theories.
This is a place for disciplined inquiry, and not for wild speculation and conspiracy. There are many entertaining and interesting websites available for those who want to indulge in those activities.
Contact Glen at glen.macpherson@gmail.com
World Hum Map and Database Project 
Bernie, regarding your comment of September 24th, would there be any other reason besides having our windows open or closed that would account for a change in the volume of the hum? We leave our windows closed all year round but still the hum is always much louder when it’s very hot here (in South Carolina) and not so bad in the winter months. Everyone’s a/c is really cranked up in the summer, plus being a tourist town with hotels lining the beach, the population swells to over 100,000 in the summer months. I have wondered if all the power being used is creating some kind of rumble that is exacerbated by some internal mechanism at play too. The heat isn’t used nearly as much in the winter as the a/c is in the summer as our winters are generally mild.
Lisa Allen said in part OCTOBER 21, 2018 AT 10:16 PM: “…..would there be any other reason besides having our windows open or closed that would account for a change in the volume of the hum?. . . . . “
Possible reasons would depend on whether we were considering an internal or an external source as the possibility. My Sept 24 comment was in response to a comment about internal sourcing: open windows letting in masking sounds.
[ It is also worth considering that full-on masking of an internal sound might be a case of CONTINUOUS interruptions – as with continuous head-shakes (if anyone could do that!) . ]
If your humming sounds are of external origin, it might well be louder for you during summer when a/c is running and tourist density is much higher, while your own year-round closed windows are not part of your equation (balanced out).
– Bernie
Hello everyone I’m live in tustin california and the past two days I’ve heard a humming sound outside and I dont know what or were it’s coming from but I sure would like to know? Is the government doing something to us that we dont know about? Come on I want some answers answers
Denise – You have given us too few details to make more than a hint of an explanation. What is the pitch of your hum? You hear it “outside”. Have you walked around listening for it? Inside? Across town? Day and night? Does anyone else hear it at the same time/place? ANYTHING unusual nearby two days ago?
If its outside only and appeared suddenly two days ago (subject to more info from you – much appreciated) it is most likely a piece of faulty equipment (like a nearby transformer buzzing). It’s not the govt. – but you knew that!
– Bernie
I recently attended an International Conference (in West Sussex, UK) on man-made electromagnetic/microwave radiation (EMF, wi-fi, 2-5G phone radiation, smart meters etc) and asked questions of the speakers regarding the possibility of an EMF aetiology for The Hum.
Professor Martin L Pall PhD, Professor Emeritus at the School of Molecular Biosciences at Washington State University, told me that EMF/microwaves have been shown to affect the Voltage Gated Calcium Channels (VGCC) in cell membranes. The result is an excess of calcium ions inside the cell and a consequent disturbance of electrical function and cell communication.
He said that this could happen in the auditory (vestibular) nerve and cause the sensation of low frequency noise (microwave hearing). Indeed, disturbance of VGCCs in other nerves and tissues in the body could produce other perceived effects.
Dr Erica Mallery-Blythe BMBS is a specialist in RF safety and an expert on the medical condition of Electrical Hypersensitivity (EHS). She stated that microwave radiation/EMF is known to produce tinnitus, headaches, brainfog, fatigue, anxiety, depression, aches and pains, heart paliptations, sleep disturbance and other symptoms in some sensitive people. It is known experimentally that microwaves can induce voices in people’s heads.
Professor Pall did not think that the Hum was related to a thermo-acoustic effect but was a dysfunction of the electrical activity of the nervous system from VGCC disturbance.
Lisa, if your local population swells, there is a possibility that the EM radiation from a larger number of smartphones is contributing to the environmental ‘electrosmog’. The film,’Generation Zapped’, is well worth a watch.
Janet,
Having spent my entire career in electrical engineering, telecommunications and wireless, I am myself quite concerned over the health effects of long-term exposure to strong EMF fields. But we need to keep in mind that all effects are proportional to the intensity multiplied by the exposure time, and intensity decreases with the square of the distance. So we should not become paranoid about it. The strongest long-term exposures come from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cordless phones, baby monitors and cellphones. However, since we now use cellphones mostly in speaker mode and not at the ear, the intensity is much lower, even if the exposure times may be longer. Today’s cell towers do not pose a radiation risk unless you have an antenna just outside your window, because the antennas have a high vertical directivity, and simply point over your head.
However, the new 5G technology will mean millions of new base stations, which may one day appear just outside our windows, often placed at the top of utility poles. Then we must react.
Two of the speakers at your conference, Dr. Dimitris Panagopoulos and Professor Martin L Pall, have publicized scientific papers on exactly how EMF affects the cells. But Martin Pall also reminds us, that RF radiation is used as a therapeutic tool as well, so all radiation is not automatically dangerous.
Importantly for our Hum project, there is so far no proof of a real-time link between EMF and internally generated “Hum”. EMF remains as one of the possible sensitizing factors, although the detailed mechanisms are still unknown. In my personal opinion there is a much more probable link between the Hum and medications, electrolyte balances and nutritional factors, which in a much more immediate way can influence the nerve system.
Janet,
Your post was very interesting. I just read that our population here is normally 32,000, but 14 milllion tourists come to our city every year, mostly in the spring and summer months. Since it is very hot here, I thought that maybe it was the extra power being used on air conditioning that was making the hum so loud in the summer; I hadn’t thought about all the additional cell phones though. It’s an interesting theory. I will look for the movie you recommended. Friday I am going to New York City for five days and staying in the Times Square area. The hotel we’re staying in is supposed to be quiet (how, I don’t know). If it is, I wonder if the hum will be loud with millions of cell phones nearby? I didn’t expect to hear the hum in New York City but maybe I’ll be surprised.
Thanks Henrik –
A few years back at a local public meeting on smart meters, I questioned the legitimacy of a particular frequent “authority” (who was cited by the utility company as claiming the harmlessness of RF from the meters) on the basis that the same (PhD) had also testified as well that cigarettes do not cause cancer – except when he was instead employed in court to defend the asbestos interest! Good laugh. I had prefaced my remark saying that I myself suspected the meters were not harmful, and was only objecting to the bogus authority being on the utility’s website (they took it down – to their credit).
With the Hum (the internal one) do we really need, let alone expect, a direct cause, or even a sensitizing factor. On available evidence, it is idiopathic – perhaps even just the result of random variations in the way each individual happens to be constructed. Do we really need to consider RF exposure, medicines, nutrition, etc.? I read all the 631 entries on the first of the recent revisions of Glen’s map and saw no even subtle common threads. Let alone anything that resonated with my own case. Did I miss something?
Bernie
Bernie,
What I tried to say was, that there are many proven ill effects of long-term RF radiation, especially for electro-sensitive people, effects which over time will affect a much bigger population than the hum sufferers in the world. But for our specific subject, the Hum, there is so far no evidence, only a theoretical possibility, of a connection.
And since this World Hum project aims at identifying the mechanisms and root causes of The Hum, I think we need to look into all possible leads, including medicines, etc. I don’t think most hum sufferers are happy with the answer idiopathic, = “we don’t know the cause”.
Thank you for the meaningful discourse on this. Dealing with incredulity, if not plain inertia, within the scientific community takes some time and effort, even when the evidence is convincing. It also takes time and effort to confront and rebut some absolute nonsense, even when the evidence is overwhelming. There seems to be a gathering corpus of research, particularly out of Scandinavia, that raises some serious concerns about long-term exposure to wifi-rich and other environments. We’ll know before long. The connection to the Hum, if anything, might be that the Hum results from exposure to some types and levels of EM (but as an after-effect, just as tinnitus can be an after-effect from exposure to very loud noises). I’m terrible for tangents sometimes, but on another note, for the encouragement of any non-physical-science reader of this thread, there is another question just as important as the potential health impacts of EM: when did the Hum actually start? Once we can answer this with some certainty, then we start asking all the right questions. This can be done by anybody with full-text, online access to old newspapers and good record keeping skills. Message me if you are interested.
I do not have expertise in the field of electromagnetism, but from my experience with The Hum, I instinctively thought it could have been a sensitivity to or hearing of the electromagnetic field, as it is all around us. My thoughts were based on how it sounded (like electricity) and after turning off all power to my house, realizing it still was there. I have no way to test this, and there is also strong evidence that it could be internal, like tinnitus. My latest realization is that the sound intensifies after playing guitar (acoustic) and singing… and what’s stranger, it’s slightly delayed intensity..takes a second or two after I stop playing/singing, but still maintain contact of my fingers on the strings. Upon removing my fingers from the strings, the sounds goes away for a full second, then comes back. Initial thoughts with this phenomenon are that it reinforces the internal concept, due to extra vibrations through the body…. or… it could reinforce the em-field idea because it’s in relation to steel string contact… either way, it’s a new circumstance that showcases differences in the Hum. Has anyone else experienced fluctuations in relation to music production?
I caught a segment on “60 Minutes” (the Sunday Eve, news show) this past Sunday (9/1/19) and it was on US Diplomats stationed in China that have allegedly been “attacked” in a very similar fashion to US Diplomats in Havana, Cuba. The suspicion is that the attack comes from an RF signal in the microwave range. Several reported hearing a hum during the attack and symptoms ranged from fatigue, forgetfulness & irritability to a temporary state of paralysis. We humans seem to like to turn everything into a weapon so Lord only knows what the various World Governments are working on these days? One thing is for certain, none of them are worthy of trust!
I think I should step in and say that these news stories, as disturbing and interesting as they are, have little to do with this project. I know that my interview with Macleans magazine on this topic is on the internet, but I took pains to explain that I am not a scientist in any specific discipline and that I was speculating from the perspective of a scientifically literate person. Readers of this blog know that I have broad limits on free speech here, but there are stricter limits on relevance when it comes to this blog.
But how do you know that this does NOT pertain to the hum Dr. MacPherson? Has anyone looked at the data on your questionnaire to determine if there are large spikes of people reporting hearing the hum that correlate to any of these mobile RF technologies 2G-5G? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_frequencies_in_the_US) No agency can even say for certain if these communication technologies are harmful to human or other organism health, not to mention other symptoms like hearing a humming noise.
I know, you here and others are convinced the hum is internal. But as of yet, there is zero proof of an internal cause which definitely leaves the external possibility open.
As best as I can determine, not a single hum-hearer has gone to the “silent room” in Minneapolis. If anyone really wants to solve this, isolating internal vs external would be the place to start.
I agree that it would be beneficial for people to undertake any of the simple experiments that I’ve suggested, and until then we can only rely on the data we have. As far as we know, reports of the Hum pre-date cell phone technology by decades, so that isn’t the answer. The same is true for HAARP and a number of other theories. You are quite incorrect when you write that I am “convinced” that the Hum is internally generated. Rather, I think it makes the most sense given the data we have. EM sources are still listed as one of four serious theories, and as soon as you or anybody else present some disciplined inquiry with data on the subject, that’s where things are. There is no conspiracy here, just a paucity of serious science surrounding certain claims.
Let me weigh-in on the external vs. internal question. I agree that some reasonable determination of the relative likelihood of such alternative origins, based on good evidence, is a logical if not an essential first step. BUT – BOTH cases do occur (apparently in very roughly equal numbers), and each case is deserving of open-minded individual examination. It is pointless to suggest that even if one cause is “virtually proven” in one case that all others must conform! The issue has received much attention here with suggested tests ranging from those that don’t even require one to get up from the computer to those requiring technical knowledge and funds.
For example 1: a case where someone (me) has been hearing a low-level low-pitched hum for some 20 years, everywhere, and always. But, following a vigorous horizontal head shake, that hum (and not controlling real sounds), goes away for half a second and then ramps right back up. No one is watching me and throwing a switch. It is INTERNAL in such well-reported cases.
For example 2: a case where someone is annoyed by a buzz recently appearing, and heard by all members of a household, mostly outside, but not way down the block. The pitch is matched to 120 Hz. Soon, someone notes the buzz is from above in the vicinity of a power pole and its distribution transformer. Call the power company who replaces the deteriorating equipment. Clearly an EXTERNAL cause.
.
The situation is that there are two possible causes, and the choice may be strongly indicated IF the person posting is a good observer/reporter. To the extent that a commenter does not report (or report- back at all) in detail (today I heard a hum!), instead insisting on conformity to his/her own view, a positive contribution to solving the problem is not being offered.
– Bernie
To Henrik
(NOVEMBER 7, 2018 AT 7:12 AM)
You say “Having spent my entire career in electrical engineering, telecommunications and wireless, I am myself quite concerned over the health effects of long-term exposure to strong EMF fields. But we need to keep in mind that all effects are proportional to the intensity multiplied by the exposure time, and intensity decreases with the square of the distance. So we should not become paranoid about it.”
Then i say: ” Do not forget the human electrostatic field,
which can easily couple to environmental electric fields, and also becomes oscillating, and its intensity amplifies this electromagnetic coupling.
Internal displacement currents can easily ionize biological molecules.
So it’s useless to become paranoid in wanting to systematically think about psychiatry.
For an engineer like you, I do not understand why you never try to verify that instead, as many engineers have the psychiatric reflex …”
Sorry i forgot one thing,
with Signal Generator, dont try Square signal between 10 a 20 Hz to loud..(14-15Hz) .it hurts and can virtualy “paralyse” the brain,
i have tested…long ago, and puch a lot effort to regain the full control of my brain, to put away the speakers.
I never tested again…
GLEN WHAT ABOUT PERFORMING SIMILAR SOUNDS LIVE…HOW CAN I HELP YOU?
Well, could I start by asking a big favour: please stop using all-caps. There is no need for it. Thanks.
Thanks. >
I mentioned a while ago that I had made an appointment to see the head of the Ear, Nose and Throat department at a hospital in my area. Well, I did, and in the event that it can help just one person I would like to share my experience. I actually saw him twice – about a month ago and again today. At the first appointment I had several tests before I met with the doctor. I did fine on all of them. He asked me a lot of questions and I described the hum as best as I could, and gave him printouts of Glen’s four theories, the World Hum Map, Henrik’s Logic Map and a few other things to convey to him that this is a serious problem for thousands of people all over the world! I told him how it gets very loud at night, how it’s difficult to sleep, and all the things us hum hearers experience. He said he thought it warranted further investigation and ordered a CT Scan of my ears. He also told me that it could be “Pulsitile Tinnitus,” which I had never heard of. He showed me how to find my pulse on my wrist so I could see if it matched the pulsing of the sound I was hearing. There are some very good articles on pulsitile tinnitus online, by the way. This morning I had my CT Scan and afterwards saw the doctor again. He said everything looked good (I have a copy of the report with all the details) but that the bone next to the blood vessel was a little thinner than normal, and said it’s possible that is allowing me to hear the flow of my blood (if it is internal). I saw the image; it’s a small area of bone to begin with so having a little less than normal is only about a quarter inch of less bone. He said that is only a guess, and it wasn’t on the report. On the report, under “Impression” it stated; 1) No definite etiology identified to explain the patient’s tinnitus; and 2) Mild hypoplasia of both horizontal semicircular canals, likely congenital. I looked up “hypoplasia” and found this definition: “Hypoplasia (from Ancient Greek ὑπo- hypo-, “under” + πλάσις plasis, “formation”; adjective form hypoplastic) is underdevelopment or incomplete development of a tissue or organ. Although the term is not always used precisely, it properly refers to an inadequate or below-normal number of cells.” I don’t know if this has anything to do with hearing the hum or not. But despite all this, I still have several questions. If the hum is due to a thinner than normal bone or hypoplasia, why did I just start hearing it in 2016? Why is it louder in the summer than in the winter? (The doctor couldn’t answer this). Why doesn’t it sound the same wherever I go, and whatever the season is? Why do I occasionally meet people that hear and describe the same thing that I hear? I don’t see how it can be both internal AND external, yet to me, personal experience points to this being the case. Also, assuming it is at least in part internal, it may have little to do with problems of the ears and more to do with problems with our arteries or veins.
Nice post!
Henrik, I believe we also need to take into consideration the fact that man-made EM is polarised and pulsed. As it is polarised (natural EM is omnidirectional) it can interfere with itself and produce ‘hot spots’ of intensity, rather like the two-slits experiment where a photon produces augmentation and cancellation areas – light and dark bands. Polarised EM can therefore cause biological damage at a distance from the source, I understand.
Lisa –
I recall that in June/July of 2018 we were close to having you zoom in on a power substation ¼ mile away as a likely external source for your hum. You identified a loud hum the same as the one at home at about the expected 120 Hz (A#) pitch.
Of course, this 120 Hz is not caused by a heart-pulse rate which would have a repetition frequency of perhaps 1-2 Hz (indeed sub-audio) and two orders of magnitude lower than what others hear as hum. But:
(1) While sub-audio (below 20 Hz) you might “perceive” a pulse repetition rate (of say 1.5 Hz) much as you notice a carpenter striking a nail with a hammer at that rate. But that’s the brain noticing a repetition pattern rather than the ear as a frequency analyzer.
(2) The heart-pulse rate seems unlikely (you would have long-ago made the association), so you still need to consider other possible sources such as the Low-Frequency Tinnitus (LFT – “the Hum” – internal – my version of which is at 64 Hz), or a substation “buzz” at 120 Hz. If the hum is really the substation at 120 Hz, you and most others nearby, would hear it. It would add to any LFT anyone happened to already have – further confusing things!
– Bernie
Hi Bernie, Yes, of course I remember the substation. However I went there at least 7 or 8 times, and only the first time did it sound like the hum at home. Every other time it was much quieter. Also, several nights I turned the power off to the house and turned on the spectrum analyzer and there was no peak at 120 hz. If the sound of the hum was from the substation wouldn’t I see that peak? It only showed under -100 decibles and under 100 hertz. I understand that can be the internal noise generated by the cell phone, correct? When I’ve used the online tone generator my hum is about 80 to 90 hz, so it’s a little higher than yours. What exactly is Low Frequency Tinnitus and what causes it? I can’t say that I have it or I don’t have it because I don’t have enough information about what it is. Does it just mean I hear something that sounds like a low frequency noise but is internal? What I’d like to know is where this noise is coming from. If it’s internal there has got ot be reason or cause. That’s why I got a CT Scan, to see if that could shed any light on this. Maybe it’s the thinner then normal bone covering my blood vessel that’s allowing me to hear my blood flow. Whether or not it’s true, at least it makes some sense. Regardless of what name it’s given, I’d like to know what’s causing it, whether it’s internal, external, or a combination of the two.
Thanks Lisa –
As for the substation hum, you said (indeed – previously as well) that it was very loud the first time you went there, but much quieter on later visits. Not implausibly, the power company changed out an offending transformer – it dives them crazy too. Do you recall what the home level was after your subsequent visits? Or is this your 80-90 Hz report here?
* * * * * * * *
As for “Low-Frequency Tinnitus” (LFT) it is a term I use (somewhat reluctantly) for what I have also called the “traditional hum” or just “The Hum” to refer to an INTERNAL manifestation of what is a rare but quite typically described perceptual phenomenon.
Click to access ENWN53.pdf
For the general public, “tinnitus” is likely a reference to a high-pinched “ringing in the ear” (perhaps 4-8 kHz). Apparently however, ENT types use the term more generally. Frosch for example, says: “Everything that is heard without an external sound-equivalent is tinnitus by definition.” Perhaps so? See:
Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 603–624, 2013 0892-3310/13
So – it is nothing new. In as much as there MAY BE an “edge pitch” symmetry between ordinary (high-freq. tinnitus) and the upper roll-off of hearing (a theory more popular 5 years ago); and back down on the low-frequency end with the Hum and low-frequency roll-off (say 100 Hz), it is not totally out of the blue.
* * * * * * * *
Regarding “internal noise generated by the cell phone” this is not just for cell-phones but for any electronic device (even just a length of wire) and is due to “thermal noise” – just a restless random motion of electrons above absolute zero. A signal at a particular “noise floor” is unlikely to be a major irritation.
– Bernie
Henrik at November 7, 2:53 pm said in part with regard to RF: “. . . . . But for our specific subject, the Hum, there is so far no evidence. . . . . . . .’
I agree with all you said – particularly the part I just quoted.
Perhaps someone will take the time to peruse Glen’s map entries 632-1354 searching for medical profiles from those who seem to be hearing the Hum based on evidence (as entered) of being able to head-shake interrupt the Hum and not having associates around who also hear it.
As for idiopathic – Mark Twain: “I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.”
– Bernie
Lisa, are you able to reduce your Hum intensity in any way – eg. by putting hands over ears, metal earplugs, head shakes, changing position, changing location etc.? If your Hum is purely internally generated due to anatomical factors, the blocking of external stimuli will make it sound louder due to removing a masking effect. If the Hum reduces when you block your ears then you are being stimulated from outside your body. That is not to say that there couldn’t be a synergistic effect – an internal susceptibility (eg. electrical hypersensitivity, anatomical anomaly, biochemical disturbance) plus an external stimulus, combining to produce the Hum experience. But if you can reduce the loudness of the Hum it cannot be exclusively internally-generated tinnitus.
I agree with you, Lisa – my experience is also that it is likely internal AND external. My Hum gets louder with changes in atmospheric pressure – often worse with high pressure, and heavy rain can bring relief, although that could be just noise-masking. I only started hearing it about 3 years ago but it is definitely getting worse. My body feels to vibrate as well. This morning I woke at 2am and there seemed to be a periodicity of around 3 seconds – a sine wave effect with crescendoes then diminuendoes (peaks and troughs like surges of sound/vibration) on a 3 second cycle. The heartbeat is there but there is a variation superimposed on top of that. One of my neighbours gets a ten minute periodicity in the abdominal vibrations he experiences. Electrosensitivity was recognised decades ago in radar workers so it’s not necessarily just since wireless gadgets.
Does anyone know what periodicity radars use? And distance covered? I live down the coast from a military base.
I wanted to jump in on Janet’s recent post with a personal observation. Last night with my left ear against the pillow I blocked off my right ear. And, I could still hear the hum, but it was different. Much more faint, and at a slightly different perceived frequency. I felt like I was “feeling” it more than hearing it. So for the first time, I experienced the Hum as more internal than external.
Janet, when I put my fingers inside of my ears, I can’t hear the hum. Of course I can’t stay like that but I don’t hear it when I do that. I also put a pillow over my head at night and that helps when I can still hear the hum over my two sound machines. I have wondered why that works when foam earplugs don’t. The head shake doesn’t work for me because that motion creates noise which in itself blocks the hum. My neck and head make alot of noise when I shake my head, slowly or vigorously. I have rheumatoid arthritis so maybe I am especially creaky, I don’t know. The hum seems louder in my bedroom than other rooms in the house, and although I hear it in varying intensities in different places, I don’t hear it everywhere. And when I do hear it in different places, it is never as loud as it is in my own home. Also interesting to me is that I held on to my little flip phone for a long time and never heard the hum until about 8 months after I bought my smart phone. I don’t know if that’s connected or not but I’ve wondered about that. That’s interesting that you live near a military base. I live on a former Air Force Base and the AIr Force uses our local airport which is about a mile from my house. Also I have read that others, like you (and myself) report that changes in atmospheric pressure makes the hum louder. There was a machine that measured electricity in peoples’ bodies that I saw many years ago in a museum in NYC – I don’t remember which museum it was. Do these exist somewhere? When I put my fingers in the slot the needle jumped completely to the right, indicating I had a very high level of electricity! The friend I was with also tried this and was in the average range. Is this what you mean by electrosensitivity? I don’t know where you can find a machine like that but it would be interesting if we could all test ourselves with one.
J.O. – thanks. It seems that if we could get 10 or 20 hum hearers to get a CT Scan we could see if there is a pattern. Of course the more, the better, but any number is better than none. We have to start somewhere if we’re going to investigate possible internal causes. The doctor said surgery was a possibility “if it really bothered” me. Yes, it does really bother me, but I wouldn’t consider surgery. I have learned to live with it and except for the summer months, it’s bearable. But it would still be nice to know what’s causing it.
Re CT scans. Adding a significant x-ray dose to auditory nerves that are already potentially compromised might make the condition worse. Certainly electrosensitive persons can be potentially damaged by fMRI scans, so investigating for research purposes without the possibility of a cure might be unwise.
Janet, that is good to know. I felt I had to do it though because I wanted to see if there was anything internally that could be causing this. But there’s no need to do it again.
Bernie, the volume of the hum at home hadn’t changed after the substation became quieter – it was the same. It’s very possible the power company changed out a transformer. But now I really don’t think it was the substation.
Yes, I have noticed too that ENTs lump everything under “tinnitus.” Our hum is nothing like a high pitched tinnitus so I think it’s deserving of a different name (staying with the hypothesis for now that it’s internal). So I guess Low Frequency Tinnitus is as good a name as any: it makes clear that it’s internal and differentiates it from the more common, high pitched tinnitus.
But I would like to understand why our hum sounds external, unlike other internal noises. Internal noises like a high pitched tinnitus, a growling stomach, our heartbeat, and swallowing, are all clearly internal sounds. What makes our hum different than those other internal noises? The fact that it sounds so convincingly external (again, assuming for now that it’s not) to thousands of people, shouldn’t be brushed aside. The fact that the hum sounds different in different places also tells me that something else is at play, unlike when our stomach growls, which sounds the same regardless of where we are and what season it is. I heard the hum at my sister’s house in NJ which sounded really odd; I heard it in North Carolina and in Scotland and it sounds different in each location. Could weather, terrain, wind or other external factors effect the way the hum sounds in different places? That, together with other local noises? The sky looks blue but science has explained to us why it’s perceived that way but in fact isn’t blue. In the same way, maybe there is a logical explanation for why the hum sounds external even though it may not be. Also, the hum started for all of us at a particular point in time so some kind of change occurred. What was it? How can we figure these things out, and what do we need that we don’t have to do that?
Another great post Lisa with some solid questions. I sometimes experience tinnitus but have always thought it internal, where to me the Hum seems external. And as an update to my personal situation. I stopped hearing the hum again in May of 2018. I heard it again for most of the first week of Oct. and now most of this week as well. It has not been intense enough yet to cause me sleep issues or otherwise drive me nuts.
I still think the silence room in MN would help answer the internal/external question (at least for the one who experiences it).
I wonder if there are enough folks following this topic to crowd fund a trip to the most quiet “place on earth”. And as Lisa seems to hear the hum everywhere, she might be a good candidate…if she wants to.
I’d be willing to kick in a bit. A hundred people at $25/per or 200 people at $10/per ought to cover the transportation & lodging. I’m sure Glen could use his credentials to pave the way for a time block inside. This is the one thing that I think could shed some light on the internal vs external question. (for some anyway).
J.O. – That’s so interesting that you stopped hearing the hum in May, and started hearing it again in October. Is there something about the summer that made it stop, I wonder? Is your description of the hum the same as most other hum hearers, i.e., louder at night, pulsing or droning, low frequency, sounds like a diesel engine or something similar? Do you hear it in other places besides your home? Have you used a spectrum analyzer, like Spectrum or something similar, to see if there are any peaks with the power to your house turned off?
Until recently I was 100% convinced it was external, but after getting my CT Scan I’m not so sure now – I think it’s possible that it’s internal with some kind of external influence. Plus the spectrum analyzer I use on my phone picks up nothing when I turn the power off to my house, unless the hum, if external, overlaps with the internal noise of the cell phone. If the hum was 90 hertz for example, and the spectrum analyzer shows the internal noise of the cell phone at about 90-100 hertz, then I wouldn’t be able to see evidence of the hum. I would need an instrument with no internal noise, which I don’t have.
That’s very nice of you to suggest a fund to help pay for a trip to the quiet room in MN. I would go, but I can pay for it myself. I’ve never been to Minneapolis so maybe I’d make a little vacation out of it. But a fund is a good idea if others are willing to go, too. I am going on vacation next week though, then there is Thanksgiving, Christmas, and cold, snowy weather in Minneapolis, so maybe the Spring would be a good time to go. I think it would be helpful if several people went; although it would be nice to meet other hum hearers we wouldn’t all have to go at the same time. The more information we have, the better, and this would be one more way to possibly learn something new.
Hi Lisa,
I first heard the Hum in about Dec. of 2015. It stopped for me around April/May of 2016. Repeat that for 2017 (Dec.-April) & 2018 (Jan-May and now Oct.). I only hear it during the colder months. I have heard it at my Mother’s house about 7 miles away, but it is more faint there. It is MUCH louder indoors than out, and now that’s it’s back, I’ve done the “head-shake” and I don’t hear it while shaking, but there is no interruption when I stop shaking.
In the past, it has sounded like a diesel engine idling not too far away and I estimated it at a low RPM’s of around 300. So far this Oct. is sounds more like a Caterpillar 3516 engine used to move natural gas at about 1,200 RPM’s. There is some pulsating, but mostly a constant drone. Last Feb. I could hear/feel it even when watching TV…it got so loud for a couple months that it was driving me nuts! My wife says, “Just ignore it and try not to think about it”. Yeah right. I wake up at 2:00 AM to use the bathroom and there it is…loud. And coming out of a deep sleep it is not really something I’m thinking about. I just hear it.
I have not tried any tech equipment to investigate. When I stopped hearing it in May, I just hoped it was gone for good.
I noticed you and others that live in warmer climates hear it mostly in the summer and you have mentioned AC being used a lot during this time. Around here in Colorado winter would be a larger power draw as people are keeping their homes warm.
One other observation, this past summer a tel-com company was using a hydro-vac to make a hole to pull cable under the 2 -lane, paved road about 1/3 mile from our house. It was a different pitch than the Hum, but I could hear it inside my home more loudly than i could hear it outside. Like the sound/vibration was being transmitted through the foundation of the home…just as it appears to do with the Hum.
And on the “silent room”. You’re right. if multiple people went there and either heard it inside or did not hear it inside, I think that would add to the scant existing evidence that exists. I do remember though that Glen said it took a few days for him to start hearing it when he went to Russia a while back so that factor would have to worked into the experiment.
Lisa – on why it may seem external.
The ear/brain is skilled (to our survival advantage) at recognizing patterns among our myriad perceptual inputs. Most likely, some of our data base of model sounds is inherited (sudden loud noises) and much is certainly learned (car horns perhaps) as our lives progress. Likely it is an advantage to consider dangerous possibilities immediately (a growl of a tiger outside the cave entrance, as opposed to a growl of one’s own stomach). Sooner or later, logic and experience come into play. A humming/droning sound may strongly resemble a diesel engine, and on first impression, (and probably generally, subsequently) we spontaneously, provisionally, categorize it as something external (all such engines being outside our body by our experience). But when we are unable to locate the machine down the block, or when we observe that the sound interrupts for half a second each and every time we vigorously shake our heads, we logically suppose something internal is generating the supposed perception. However, at least for me, the INITIAL impression that it is something “out by the road” remains even after two decades!
– Bernie
hi lisa, where in scotland as i live here and have all the same problems ?
Hi Simon,
We were in Edinburgh, Stirling, St. Andrews and Portree, Skye. I heard it very faintly in Skye, and Stirling. I may have heard it faintly in Edinburgh too. But it’s much louder at home. Right now I’m in New York City and I don’t hear it at all, and no other noise either in our hotel room. Where in Scotland do you live?
Lisa
Lisa, how many days have you been in NY? How many remaining? Please keep us posted on if you begin hearing it on your trip.
J.O., we got here Friday around noon and we’re leaving Wednesday, so we’re here for a total of five nights. When we arrived in our hotel room I couldn’t believe how quiet it was. I thought maybe the flying effect was making me not hear the hum. But based on past experience, that would only last a day since it was such a short flight (less then 2 hours). It’s the most wonderful thing to be able to experience silence for all these days! And in New York of all places. Now I don’t understand how there can be an internal component since I don’t hear it at all here, but I wonder if that’s still possible? I don’t know. I’m not looking forward to going home – it’s like living inside of a bass drum.
I have a very similar experience. I hear it in the highlands of Scotland, but not in London. strange
Lisa M. Allen at November 12, 2018 at 3:08 pm said in part: “. . . . . . . Now I don’t understand how there can be an internal component since I don’t hear it at all here . . . . . . .”
SPECULATION: For some 20 years, noting the AGC (automatic gain control) nature of the head-shake interruptions, I have suspected the involvement of the protective muscles of the middle ear (hammer, anvil, stirrup). That is, the structure normally “clamps down” and stiffens in response to a sudden physical motion but rapidly relaxes (listening for that nasty tiger in the bushes). Suppose the Hum is the result of some partial failure of this protection. Of course air travel (cabin pressure reduced a couple of psi) is famously associated with often discomforting “activity” of the middle ear. So does “ear popping” constitute a good shake-up of the mechanism until air and fluids come back into balance (gumming things back up) after a few days? Objections?
J.O. at October 31, 2018 at 3:10 pm said in part: “. . . . . . . I’ve done the “head-shake” and I don’t hear it while shaking, but there is no interruption when I stop shaking. . . . . . . .”
J.O. It comes back very quickly when you stop shaking – that’s the point. The important observation is that it STOPS DURING SHAKING. I can only shake about 5-10 seconds before I tire. Then it comes back, not after a day, or a minute, or even after a full second – but after a mere half a second; and it RAMPS back up. This, for me, it discernable, and I have previously posted synthesized audio examples.
Click to access ENWN46.pdf
Your hum may ramp up faster and thus seem virtually instantaneous.
– Bernie
J.O., what kind of heat do you have in Colorado? I’m sure it’s not electric like we have here in South Carolina. That there is a consistent pattern three years in a row has to mean something. It’s the same here, but louder in the summer months, though I still can hear it now. I’m curious to see if I hear it on Christmas day because I didn’t for two years in a row. Just a couple of weeks ago I had the same experience of hearing the hum loudly even with the TV on – it’s nuts. Do you use a sound machine at night? I couldn’t sleep without one. That really helps, though in the summer when it’s ridiculously loud I can sometimes still hear the hum with two sound machines on.
That’s interesting about the tel-vac company. I’ve have that experience too, and it’s always louder inside, seeming to come through the foundation, as you said. But I never had experiences like that before I started hearing the hum. Strange.
Maybe I’m wrong but I think most of us hum hearers are hearing the same thing; our descriptions are way too similar. And I believe that’s true whether it’s internal, external, or a combination. I’m sure there are some that are hearing something else but I think they’re a small minority.
That is a good point to remember about air travel interrupting the hum, for anyone flying to Minneapolis to go into the quiet room. I will keep that in mind.
Bernie, thank you for that analysis. What you say makes sense, and I am contemplating that it may be internal. But it doesn’t sound like a human sound, and it gets so unbelievably loud in the summer, and it seems to follow consistent seasonal patterns – those are the things that make it difficult to be 100% convinced that it’s internal.
Lisa,
Our primary heat is “hot water”. We have a NG fired boiler that sends hot water through copper pipes. The pipes are in contact with little metal fins on wall registers that look just like electric wall heaters. (8″ tall by 6-10′ long depending on room size).
I have not yet used a sound machine. Right at this time. I don’t experience it loud enough to need one and I usually am asleep 30 seconds after i turn out the light.
And I find the absence of your Hum on Christmas day fascinating! What is different about that day? Very few people at work or otherwise out travelling around and many businesses are closed which reduces power draw for sure. Have you noticed this on Thanksgiving day as well? This one factor points more to external than internal causes so long as you haven’t changed anything in your environment that could account for the Hum’s absence on this one particular day. Have any other folks commented on not hearing the Hum on Christmas day? The holidays are fast approaching, i’ll for sure be paying attention so thanks for bringing that up!
Just a hint from my own experience: Christmas day and Good Friday are typically days when shopping malls, office buildings and certain other 24/7-type commercial establishments schedule their maintenance for elevators, heating systems, ventilation and air conditioning systems, and in that connection they shut off the mains power to the entire building for the safety of the workers. I would imagine that in the US Thanksgiving would be a similar slot. Factories, schools and similar institutions usually schedule these activities more randomly to the summer vacation or holiday season.
J.O.,
Your home heating is interesting; I never heard of that but it’s got to be cheaper than oil or electricity, which is so expensive.
I’m curious too to see if it will be quiet again this Christmas. Last year around Christmas I posted that it was very quiet and someone else posted that others have reported the same thing. Henrik’s explanation of why that would be makes sense and definitely points to an external cause or component at least. That’s one of the reasons it’s hard to believe it’s just internal. I’ll be in North Carolina on Thanksgiving but will pay attention to whether I heard it and/or how loud it is. Yes, we should all report whether or not we hear the hum on Thanksgiving (for U.S. hum hearers) and Christmas – that will be interesting!
Henrik,
Thanks for that explanation – makes sense!
Hi, Janet,
Re your blog posting Nov 8 at 1:28 am: Yes, you are right on both accounts. Polarized RF waves can create small spots of increased intensity if a reflected wave and a direct wave happen to be in phase. But that effect is maximum 6dB, i.e. double amplitude and hence 4 times the power. This corresponds to small spots of intensity which have the energy/power corresponding to ½ of the distance.
The pulsed characteristic of modern communication equipment is also true. The instantaneous pulses are more intensive, but correspondingly shorter in duration, so we have to dispute the basic assumption that biological effects are proportional to intensity x duration if we insist that this is relevant. I am neither competent nor motivated to speculate about things, for which there is no scientific evidence. Radar is an extreme – and thoroughly researched – case of pulsed EMF, but this is beside the point when looking for a worldwide hum phenomenon.
The whole matter of “electro-sensitivity” is not yet scientifically proven. There are examples of numerous specific complaints about radiation symptoms from a newly built cell tower – before the station was even powered on! And in NO blind tests have the complainants been able to sense when a radiation source has actually been switched on or off. For further reading I recommend the WHO website. It contains tons of EMF research and reports from globally respected scientists, and separates facts from fiction.
to Henrik
(NOVEMBER 9, 2018 AT 4:13 AM)
” The whole matter of “electro-sensitivity” is not yet scientifically proven ”
– yes that is true and will remain so as long as we forget to connect the measurement probe to the human,
because scientists only measure the electric fields of the air around the sensors … lol !
Henrik is completely correct in his concern. Understand that there is a huge difference between dismissing the existence of something, and stating that there is currently insufficient evidence to make certain claims. Also, understand that taking a slower and conservative approach to these matters increases our credibility in the eyes of those who would dismiss The Hum out of hand in the first instance. Once a credible corpus of research literature is established, I will be more than glad to announce it in this space.
To: PeterTheElectron, your posting September 26, 2019 at 6:53 am (far above on this page for unknown reasons)
I can comment only on things in the field of electrical enginering and phenomena within the realm of the known laws of physics. Your terminology soup falls outside my competence
Simon, yes, our experiences are very similar. New York and London are both very large cities and we both live in areas with a low population where we hear the hum. I think it must be significant in some way, but I don’t understand how. For me, there was absolutely no ambient noise in the hotel room that could have been blocking the hum. It was really one of the quietest hotel room’s I’ve ever been in.
Bernie, I have a hard time believing that I didn’t hear the hum in New York City for five days because of a 1 hour and 40 minute flight. When I returned home from Scotland (a 7 hour flight), and also another time from Seattle (a 6 hour flight) the hum came back within 2 days. So if the lack of the hum in NY was not due to the flight (which I don’t think it was), then either it is not internal, or, if the hum is caused by a combination of internal and external components, then with one of the components gone, the hum is gone too. And since the only thing that changed was my environment, the external component is what changed. So with the external component missing there was no hum. Therefore the hum has to have an external component to exist (assuming it’s not caused by the flight). Does that make sense? Are there other factors to consider?
Lisa –
I worry that you are inferring a much tighter scientific association of observational parameters between air travel and the Hum than is being suggested here. You report on three flights (NYC, Scotland, Seattle). I assume there were return flights too! What is significant is the days-long interruptions, not so much the particulars. Frosch:
Click to access manifestations-of-a-lowfrequency-sound-of-unknown-origin-perceived-worldwide-also-known-as-the-hum-or-the-taos-hum.pdf
for example considered air-travel interruption as an indicators of an internal source. He says 2-3 days interruption but does not specify duration of flights except to say “longer air travel”. Good paper.
-Bernie
Bernie, that is a good paper. Thanks for posting it. I understand that interruption of the hum by air travel is an indication that the hum is internal. All I’m saying is that I can’t help but note that for five days I didn’t hear any semblance of the hum in a particular environment (hotel in NY). Some may attribute that to air travel, but I can’t based on past experiences of the hum returning within a day or two of flying. Back home in South Carolina, I started hearing the beginnings of the hum the day after I returned. As I’ve said before, I believe there is an environmental factor that with the internal factor creates the hum. I could be wrong, but for now that makes the most sense to me based on my experiences.
Hey Lisa,
I was away last week so missed much of this. I’ll check on the oximeter. After your Nueva York trip, and if others have similar experiences, I think cell phones could be ruled out. NY has got to have millions of them!
Do you live rural or semi-rural Lisa? We do and I never heard the Hum before moving to this house in 2014.
J.O., Do you have an oximeter? That’s the little gizmo doctors and hospitals put on your finger to check your oxygen rate and pulse. If not, I would suggest buying one at the pharmacy – they aren’t expensive. Today I tried to take a nap, unsuccessfully, because the hum was so loud. The noise seemingly coming from the pillow sounded like water pulsating through a lead pipe under the ground. It was loud and had an echo and sounded like it was under the ground. I got up and got my oximeter and put it on my finger, and the line that moves to the rhythm of your pulse was moving in rhythm to the hum. So that loud, inhuman sounding noise was coming from inside of me. Why it sounds the way it does, and why it’s so loud even when I’m up and about and can’t be masked by ambient noise at times, I don’t know. But that little device will show without any doubt if the hum you’re hearing, when it’s pulsing, is internal. I still believe there’s more to the whole thing but that is a good start.
J.O., I agree with you about the cell phones. I thought about that while we were in NY, and we were less than a half a block from Times Square, the busiest and more congested area of the city. UNLESS there are other mitigating factors, but I don’t know what they would be. We’ve lived in this house since 2007, and I only started hearing the hum in about March of 2016. It is a coastal town in South Carolina, on the small side but growing fast as many northern retirees are moving down here to get away from the high taxes and cost of living in New York and New Jersey, and away from the cold weather. When we moved here there was hardly anything around us. Since then they’ve built a huge complex of shops and restaurants less than a mile away, several housing developments, a culinary institute a quarter mile from our house, three Walmarts within a couple of miles, and a medical center! I wonder if all of this extra growth has somehow contributed to the hum. But it is still more or less a “town” and not what I would even consider a small city, but it gets very crowded in the summer with all the tourists coming for the beach.
Did you start hearing the hum as soon as you moved into your home in 2014, or did it take a while before you started to hear it? Has there been growth in your area as well?
I just read this article and wonder if our hum could be caused by some variation of this condition:
http://neurosurgery.ucla.edu/semicircular-canal-dehiscence
I don’t know about that, but we got our first winter snow here yesterday and in the middle of the night the Hum was like 15% louder than normal.
Lisa – thanks for the link to the paper on Semicircular Canal (SCC) Dehiscence. I confess it is beyond my abilities to understand.
Frosch (see my link to his paper at Nov. 16 above) suggested associating the Hum (traditional, internal) with SCC mechanisms based largely on Hum interruptions with (horizontal) head rotations (like my head-shake tests) in his study. [We are familiar with SCCs and balance issues since we as kids spun around a dozen times and suddenly stopped, only to fall down dizzy!]
Since “Hum interruptions” are also associated with speaking sharply, a short grunt, or just an energetic exhale, which do not involve horizontal head motion, or any significant head motions actually, the involvement with SCCs is perhaps counter-indicated.
We need to consider also the middle-ear, particularly in view of the long-interruption of the Hum by air travel. (The SCCs are part of the inner-ear.)
Just peeking in some corners here. – Bernie
Hi Bernie – I feel like I am committing a sacrilege by saying this, but I don’t find the head shake thing very compelling proof of anything, and less so a grunt or sharp exhale or speaking sharply, because they all create noise that can block the hum. Other things, to me, provide more proof that it is partly internal (ie, the oximeter matching the pulsing of the hum, or not being able to record it) but I personally wouldn’t label the hum as “traditional, internal” yet because there are still so many unanswered questions like, why is it silent in certain places? SCC (Semicirulcar Canal Dehiscence) may have nothing to do with the hum, but since that condition allows one to hear internal noises, I thought it was interesting. Not being a doctor or scientist I can’t really say much else about it. Does high pitched tinnitus change with the weather the way our hum does? If not, I wonder why? I don’t know if anyone else saw this, but on Jeopardy the other night there was a question about the Taos Hum! It was an easy question – they just wanted to know what state that was in.
Lisa –
The “head shake” interruption, as diagnostic evidence, is part of a well-controlled experiment. In addition to observing that the Hum goes away during the relatively small time (perhaps 5 seconds), during which one can vigorously head-shake (short of fatigue), the Hum ramps back to full-on with a time-constant of about ½ second, immediately following the cessation of shaking, each and every such trial. The same is NOT true, ever, of a purposely presented external test sound; be that sound a radio, a (real) idling truck, or a carefully adjusted function generator matched in pitch and loudness to mimic the perceived Hum.
What specifically do you dispute – the observation or the interpretation?
* * * * * * * *
My head-shaking, by the way, produces no significant sound to mask the Hum.
I don’t know much about ordinary high-frequency tinnitus, except its nature of variable presentation. HF tinnitus comes from the liquid (virtually incompressible by atmospheric pressure) domain of the hair-cells of the inner ear; while the air domain of the middle ear is clearly susceptible to weather.
It is well to maintain a separation: denying any necessary symmetry between HF and low-frequency (LF) tinnitus (used here as a descriptive for the Hum). Such a use of a common terminology may be useful in suggesting that both have (likely quite separate physical) internal sources. Further, it is POSSIBLE both HF and LF have a common MATHEMATICAL origin as edge pitches (high and low hearing band-edges) a la Fourier transform’s “uncertainty relationship”. No – this in no way invites quantum mechanics into a discussion of the Hum, although surely this would be a welcome event on some other sites!
Bernie
Bernie – The head shake is supposed to prove that the hum is internal if you can’t hear it when shaking your head, right? Playing the devil’s advocate, when I shake my head vigorously and swallow, I can still hear the sound of swallowing, which is also an internal noise. I think if my stomach was grumbling I would hear that too while shaking my head. So if the head shake proposition and conclusion states that: “IF a noise is internal, THEN I won’t hear it while shaking my head; THEREFORE the hum is internal because I can’t hear it while shaking my head,” it can’t be true and doesn’t prove anything because other internal noises can be heard while shaking the head. And maybe, conversely, there are external noises, at a certain frequency and pitch, that we are unable to hear when shaking our head as well. I hear a very soft, high pitch noise in my ear right now. When I shake my head, I can still hear it, but I know it’s internal. According to the headshake theory I shouldn’t be able to hear it. Maybe I’m missing something but that’s how I understand the headshake theory. The hum is not an ordinary noise. We don’t know what it is. It changes with the weather and seasons unlike other internal noises. It completely disappears in some locations, like my recent experience in New York. That would not happen if the noise was strictly internal. I don’t think we can categorize it as being simply internal or external like other noises we know the origin of until we know more.
Lisa – goodness no! You are missing the point.
You said that I was suggesting “. . . . . IF a noise is internal, THEN I won’t hear it while shaking my head;. . . . “
What I suggest is that if the specific sensation (the Hum, as opposed to seemingly similar known perceptions) stops with a particular PERSONAL action (head-shake) then almost certainly it is an internally generated sensation that is INTERRUPTED, certainly not an external source (truck up the road) or an interruption of general hearing (the “controlled experiment”). Fig. 4 a,b,c here:
Click to access ENWN41.pdf
The Hum is here postulated to be an internally-generated sound, most likely by some component (perhaps middle-ear) of the hearing mechanism. Shaking the head (and thus the ears) pauses the PRODUCTION of the sensation, NOT the HEARING of the sensation. Any other internally sourced sound, (in general, such as a gut-rumbling), is just another “external” sound as far as the EAR is concerned. Sorry if this was not clear.
Bernie
Ok, I got it. But if it paused the production of the sensation, it seems like it would stop the hearing of it too.
If it works for most people, that’s fine, but it doesn’t really work for me. When I shake my head just a little from side to side, I can still hear the hum, but if I shake it vigorously all the way to the right and left there is too much noise so I wouldn’t hear the hum anyway. But that’s probably not true for most people I guess.
As far as the head shake goes, I find my personal experience to be more in line with Lisa’s than Bernie’s. I don’t hear any sound when shaking my head, but the disruption of the hum is only slight while shaking and certainly doesn’t stop for even 1 second let alone 5 after the shake.
I also find Lisa’s arguments leaning towards external causes to match what I experience and she makes some valid observations. And here’s another one, why do almost all of us hear the hum better indoors? If the hum is internal, it should be there and present at all times.
With that said, we certainly may be discussing two different hum phenomena.
Lisa Allen at December 6, 2018 at 8:24 PM said:
“ . . . . . Ok, I got it. But if it paused the production of the sensation, it seems like it would stop the hearing of it too. . . . . “
It does that ! Of courses you would not hear a source (specifically, the Hum) that was turned off by the shaking. But you would (and do) hear other sounds (cars, children, radios) – the controlled experiment. It is the Hum (source) that is tuned off – not your hearing (receiver).
* * * * * * * * *
J.O. at December 7, 2018 at 9:35 AM said:
“. . . . . I don’t hear any sound when shaking my head, but the disruption of the hum is only slight while shaking and certainly doesn’t stop for even 1 second let alone 5 after the shake. . . . . . “
It is quite possible you are not a traditional Hum hearer which would mean the head-shake is not supposed to work. But I never said the Hum paused “after the shake” for 1 or 5 seconds. The 5 seconds was the maximum time I can sustain a vigorous shake before tiring. The Hum pauses completely during this 5 seconds. As soon as I stop shaking, the Hum RAMPS back up full in about ½ second – a very short but discernible and a robust observation.
– Bernie
For a few years (two separate instances at least) there was a discussion as to whether the Hum “disappeared” on Christmas. On this thread, in early Nov. of 2018, Lisa advised “. . . . . Yes, we should all report whether or not we hear the hum on Thanksgiving (for U.S. hum hearers) and Christmas – that will be interesting . . . .” , and others commented as well. Christmas being well over, if there have been any reports, one way or the other, I missed them. (?)
For myself, I DID hear the NORMAL Hum on Thanksgiving, and on Dec. 22, 23, 24, 25 (at least a dozen trials – verified by head-shake interruption), 26, 27, and 28. For the record, I did not travel at all, nor was I subjected to any unusual environmental or domestic sound levels which might have explained (masked) any missing Hum, IF it had not been there. But it was of course there.
ANY other reports? Particularly from hearers who have experienced evidence of external causes (mine being internal, on very good evidence), and who can relate their possible confounding factors such as travel.
No difference at Christmas here in Belgium Bernie.
By cons I meet more and more people who have tension in the neck and hear the HUM. They all also have acute tinnitus and increased general sensitivity. Five of these people, including me, had a cervical magnetic resonance and the doctors discovered a compression of these with inflamation. I suspect nervous system stress in the brainstem that pulls between the brain and the spinal cord compressing the cervical spine. I contacted another physiotherapist who confirmed to me that the number of patients presenting these syptomas increases considerably since 3 years. Can you investigate on your side?
Where in Belgium?
I hear it in Limburg, close to Maastricht.
Liège. We must go to Harre near Manhay in Ardenne to no longer hear it.
We drove to Savannah, GA, for Christmas and I did NOT hear the hum for the three days/nights we were away (December 24th, 25th and 26th). I was even able to wear ear plugs which I can never do when I hear the hum because they only make the hum worse. But when we returned home, I did hear it, though it wasn’t at all loud (typical here during the winter months). I have no way of knowing if I would have heard it at home on Christmas day or not, unfortunately. It would be interesting to hear if others heard it or not, or if there was a change, on Christmas day.
Just saw your post, Benoit. It would be interesting if someone in that field could shed light on your observations.
these guys report that they heard it a thousand miles away from other people in the arctic Northwest Passage @ 29:00 minutes into the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2366&v=mjWfEhblcOc
I listened to it. Too bad they didn’t say more about it (the hum). It’s hard to know if it’s what we hear or something else.
Hey, you got a shout-out in Vanity fair, in an article about the Cuba US Embassy “attacks”. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/the-real-story-behind-the-havana-embassy-mystery … somewhere near the bottom.
tl;dr: Taos Hum, Windsor Hum, Salem Witch Trials, Embassy attacks: all mass hysteria, conversion disorder, mass psychogenic illness, end of story.
They make a good point about Cuba, and some others, but maybe you could write to the author (link at the masthead) and explain the difference.
That was an interesting article. Thanks for posting.
In my mind, I just don’t see that “mass hysteria” or a psychosomatic cause applies to the hum. From what I know, most who have responded to the hum survey, first heard the hum for some period of time. They then attempted to locate the source and finally failing a solution, went looking on the internet for other explanations.
If we didn’t hear about the hum from others, it seems unlikely that we imagined it.
For Glen: are there any experiments planned by you or others that would seek to determine an external vs. internal cause?
Glen, I just saw the experiments you suggested. I think there were four of them. I wanted to go to the Quiet Room in Minneapolis but it would really be better for someone to go who wouldn’t have to fly there, as that seems to interrupt the hum. And it would take me 20 hours to drive from where I live so that’s not a good idea either. Also, since I didn’t hear the hum for 3 nights on a recent road trip, and I didn’t hear it for 5 nights in New York, I don’t know if I’m the best candidate for that experiment. Can we just ask here if anyone lives within driving distance to Minneapolis, can you please go the Quiet Room? Please????? It’s sort of a fun experiment! If I lived closeby I would love to go. I will look at the other experiments again and see if there is anything else I can help with when I have time.
Lisa
There are lots of “quiet rooms” around. There’s two kinds, though: acoustic and RF. The RF chambers aren’t built to soak up sound, but it’s the nature of the material that it usually does. They aren’t calibrated to do that though, just for EM waves. I’ve been in a lot of them that test antennas, radar reflections, and EMI. I’ve built one myself. They also isolate the chamber from RF from the outside world, usually solid steel and many dB down. Car companies put vehicles in them for EMI and noise testing, military labs and contractors test all kinds of stuff. There must be some hearer who works at a place like that and can try a quick test. (Nobody near me, though.)
I wonder??
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-02-13/earth-magnetic-field-booms-like-a-drum-when-hit-by-plasma-jet/10794018
As is often the case, interesting research, but terrible science reporting (and it has nothing to do with what we are researching). From the story’s byline: “They say in space no-one can hear you scream, but it seems you can hear the boom of Earth’s magnetic shield when it is hit by jets of plasma spewed from the Sun, a new study has found” (which is completely false). A few paragraphs later we read, “These ultra-low frequency waves are impossible for humans to hear…”. (which is correct). When reporters cannot detect their own contradictions within a page of writing…..
To Dr. Glen.
“These ultra-low frequency waves are impossible for humans to hear…”
To read that it is “impossible” to hear / feel these waves is a quote based on healthy humans with “normal” sensitivity …
The more we learn from things and the more we see that the impossible becomes possible.
The Universe has its own laws and is not at all compelled to follow those of humans.
In electromagnetic, an intense low frequency dissipates its energy in harmonics of higher frequencies,
and so EHS sensitivity on a waveband is not the same in the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
In acoustics, taking a plane is enough to temporarily change the pressure on the eardrums and therefore a probability of hearing other frequencies or not being able to perceive them anymore,
I cannot hear the Sun Plasma Boum…but many times i can see the effects in AM modulations inside a house coming from natural underground electric currents , and so rising in intensity.
The house is a coupling bridge between aerial fields and underground fields
This is more poetic than it is scientific. Please state sources for each of these claims (and you’ve made quite a few).
Bonjour Dr. Glen MacPherson
I wonder why all the data I recorded,, since 2014, have disappeared on the Hum Map ? In France ! (3 data)
There is less data for France; than last year !!!
Valérie
Raymond – I copied and pasted your post below as I didn’t see where I could “reply” where I saw it. To answer your question, some believe that if the hum stops when you shake your head, it is internal. Maybe Bernie will see this and elaborate further.
Lisa
Raymond Bordeaux
FEBRUARY 22, 2019 AT 11:54 AM
Further down in the comments Bernie Hutchins asks of another reader about a “head shake” test.. Well that’s the first I’ve heard anyone mention it, but yes, my HUM stops with even the slightest head/neck movement, but now is coming right back. I have to keep shaking my head and I am worried that it is quickly getting worse. What does the Head shake test show? Thanks, if anyone is still reading this.
Thanks Lisa, and in reply to Raymond:
An extended discussion of the “headshake” is here:
Click to access ENWN41.pdf
The Hum returns almost immediately (after ½ second) – after a head shake, grunt, or forceful exhale stops. Because this interruption is the result of a personal action (privacy of one’s own head) it is certainly NOT the case that your head shake is interrupting a more distant, externally generated sound: e.g., airborne acoustic sound from an electric substation a few miles away. [This (“equipment-free”) diagnostic experiment is subject to the controlling observation that the shake does not interrupt hearing of sounds in general.] It is thus likely that YOUR hum is an internally-generated “rumbling” of the middle-ear or inner-ear and that protective mechanisms of the ear “clamp” the fragile parts against what initially portends to be a threatening event. After 1/2 second, a normal state resumes, which includes the unwanted Hum. It is a clue for us. Perhaps half the folks reporting here have this typical Hum.
Other folks “hear” a real external sound like a generator, a municipal pump, or commercial refrigerator. The “equipment-free” test for this is that the headshake does NOT work; AND that others in your household also hear it. (Hearing the typical Hum is rare, perhaps only 2%, so it is very unlikely that multiple hearers in the same location do not have a REAL sound source in common. Also, if external, you have a good chance of moving about and finding a source location (like a “box” atop the power pole across the street).
-Bernie
I just saw this article on 5 unexplained noises around the world; the Hum is #1. It didn’t really say anything new or anything I haven’t heard before, but I’m posting it in case anyone is interested. It’s about a year old:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/geoscience/5-sounds-science-can-t-explain
A very shaky article indeed. (And I’m sure Dr. Deming will be surprised to hear that he’s based in Nebraska!).
I heard a strange rumbling noise tonight so of course I turn to google to find out what it is. I think it’s the hum that everyone is talking about. I’m in South Carolina. My husband heard it also so he went outside to figure out the noise to no avail.
A one time rumbling noise that many people hear is probably not The Hum.
Hannah, I agree with jimvandamme, but if you continue to hear it please write back. I’m in South Carolina too.
Lisa
I moved to a very remote area of Northern Ireland approximately 3 years ago and within weeks noticed ” The Hum” having never experienced it before up until then. The area in which I live is primarily conifer forest and upland moors with no engineering, drilling or subterranean work as far as I am aware within at least a 10 mile radius.
The forest is grown commercially and the only obvious noise ever generated is when harvesting occurs which tends to be sporadic and obvious.
There is a wind farm approx. 6 miles away which I initially suspected but the frequency of the turbines never matched what I was hearing and in any case I eventually realised the hum was still there on a calm day when the turbines were switched off.
So I spent a long time trying to track the source.
I enjoy long distance mountain running and so was able to explore a lot of the local area until finally by chance I came across a sound which matched what I had been hearing. The forests are criss-crossed by gravel fire roads and at various points underneath these roads are large piped culverts to deal with the surface water flowing under. As the water travels through these culverts it causes a resonance thus creating a low frequency oscillating hum which then emanates quite loudly from the mouth of the culvert. It seems also that the noise is louder during heavier rainfall.
Hey Paul,
I’ve been pondering water & pipes as well for a cause as I hear the hum very loudly in our upstairs bathroom. Apparently I’m alone in this perception.
Does the water flow year-round through your nearby culverts? Do you hear the hum during all seasons? Do you experience the hum more inside or outside your home? Do any other residents near you also hear it?
Hi Jo
My water supply is pumped on demand from a 12ft deep well which i believe has been sunk to a water table which then flows on to the nearby river. The supply pipe from the well then travels under the subfloor void in the house. In addition to the culverts mentioned I also have a theory that the hum I hear in the house (all year round) is being caused by the water in the river cascading over and tossing around large rocks and this is somehow travelling up the plastic water supply pipe. It certainly seems to change level and frequency during flood times. The hum is much more noticeable indoors – maybe because the noise of the river flowing is cut out?
I also believe that some people are way more sensitive to these frequencies – my nearest neighbour is approx. 1 mile away and I wouldn’t mention it for fear of her thinking I was a crank 😀
Ps my wife does hear it indoors but is less sensitive to it than I am.
Paul – Good report
Can you pitch-match to the hum you hear, and measure the length of the culvert? If so, you can compare to the theoretical resonant (fundamental) of an open-open pipe which should be f=(1/2)(c/L) where c is the speed of sound (1125 feet/sec) and L is the length of the pipe. For example, a 12 foot culvert (perhaps a narrow fire road) would have a fundamental of 47 Hz.
Thanks -Bernie
I have heard this low Hum in rural Oregon. Only in my right ear as it is a very low frequency. My 30 year old son has heard it with me one day when I asked if he heard it. I have a few observations to make. Human hearing has limitations and has an upper and lower bound, and most people’s hearing response is a little different for each ear. If the the frequency is in the 20 Hz range, most people may not be able to hear it. My right ear has always had better range than my left. Indeed, this frequency range is below most commercially available microphones and recording devises. Whatever the sound sources is, it is not present every day so even if you had the right equipment to try and capture it you would need to be present when an effected person confirmed it was present. The sound may have multiple possible sources. A common assumption seems to be that the sound is traveling through air. This may not be the case. Sound actually travels through the ground better, low frequencies even better, and we can sometimes pick up low frequencies through our bones from the ground. Sound may also travel much farther distances through the ground than through air. This distance may be great enough to to trick us into thinking there is no source. Sound emanating from the ground ma also prove very difficult to triangulate. It would likely seem directionless.
Working from this basis I set out to try and find possible sources when I noticed it was active. First, I found a hay farmer more than a mile away running a sweeper. This is the tool they use to gather the hay into rows befor bailing. The metal tines mounted with spring tensioners thrum against the ground with a very low frequency, which the ground carries for miles, and in this case matched the beet and waffle that I was hearing coming from the ground at great distance . In fact, as distance increases only the lowest sounds carry. I am not a hay farmer, but I have learned that they sometimes will even harvest at night if they are seeking a particular moisture content in the hay. On another day I found a work crew digging a well two miles away. Again, depending on the rock or soil the drill bit is grinding against, amazing sound volumes at low frequency can be carried by the ground. I learned that if they are on a tight schedule they sometimes operate 24 hours a day. Freight train rumble may do much the same, especially since many freight trains in urban areas have to share track with daytime commuter trains, and so pass through at night. The list of possible contributors may be long. A possible experiment would be, when reported present, and with the appropriate equipment, simultaneously record a ground surface mounted low frequency microphone, and a microphone isolated from the ground and compare. It might also be interesting if your database could correlate the type of soil in each area. I suspect that wet or soggy ground my transmit better than dry.
Hi Gregory,
I sometimes follow these discussions, as I am a long time hum hearer, and your comment about only hearing it in the right ear chimed with me, as that is how I also percieve it. Over the years I have found that simply placing my hand flat over my right ear, with the palm cupped slightly so as to cover the ear entirely, will stop the hum completely. On removing the hand, the hum will once more be heard (or felt, perhaps?)
Have you tried this? If you get the same result, I suspect we may be on to something. I am very much inclined to agree with your theory that the energy we are sensing is usually a long way off, and propagated through the ground. I have learned to cope a bit better with the hum and from time to time (as others have noted) it stops completely, sometimes for months at a time, which is very nice! I now find I can actually control it, through a combination of breathing and posture. Despite this, I still maintain that the origin is external, as I suspect an internally generated ‘sound’ such as tinnitus, could not be stopped merely by covering one ear..
I lived in Marysville, Ohio, from 2005 to 2010. From 2006 through 2010, at night, mostly in my left ear, I heard a low level hum. I thought it was the fridge or the furnace at first when I moved in, but it was neither. My girlfriend at the time thought I was crazy and I started wondering about my sanity as well. I moved to Kentucky in 2010 and have not heard it since.
I have some experience as an audio engineer and have some additional thoughts. Many physical structures have resonant frequencies. If as I hypothesized that this Hum is from very low frequencies traveling through the ground, then what we are hearing may be not the source sound, but an upper harmonic resonance in our bones. In other words, our bodies are vibrating at a tone we can hear, generated by a source that itself is too low to perceive directly. Weather or not one person hears it and another does not may depend on the person’s size and bone density, thus making them resonate for the particular frequencies. This would suggest a couple more experiments to try. One, place a surface mount microphone against a person’s head while they claim to hear the sound so it can pick up that resonance. A mic not touching them may not sense anything because itself will not have the structure for that resonance. Second, one could try to create the effect with the same setup plus equipment to generate very low frequencies in a controlled manner. Ideally, the frequency of the source can be varied and adjusted until a person experienced the resonance. Defining what frequencies create this effect may help to identify possible sources. Also, once frequency targets are identified, experiments can be conducted for how far and in what ways these sound waves can travel through different kinds of geological layers.
Hi Gregory, thanks for your interesting reply
Is there any equipment that can measuring low frequency waves Coming through the ground? I hear the hum specifically in one house, no where else, so desperate to know if there is something locally emitting a noise that is causing this.
Many thanks for your help
Simon
I know sound equipment for low frequencies exists, but you are not likely to find it at BestBuy, etc. I recall reading about a professor at Stanford, listening for seismic rumblings near earthquake faults and he had to filter out trucks passing a mile away, and then ocean waves crashing on rocks from a shore 40 miles away. There are microphones made for conference room tables that use the table as the diaphragm, but you would need to find out what the rated frequency response is. Many “normal” mics exclude the frequencies we may be interested in because it would be considered distracting noise for speech purposes. Specialized sensitive equipment like this may also be quite expensive. It may warrant someone seeking a research grant.
I reckon you are spot on Greg.
I’ve run across seismic sensors that were similar to regular speakers but with a ground spike replacing the cone. Hook it up to an amplifier that passes the frequencies you’re looking for (near to DC).
If you want to be certain to detect those frequencies, maybe a laser position sensor would be best. It would detect down to DC, i.e., position. Sounds esoteric but the same principle is in every CD player. People have built laser microphones that pick up sound transmitted through windows, actually detecting the glass movement.
Bath Ohio. South west of Cleveland Ohio. I only hear it sometimes
Hello guys, I am suffering from a strange hum in my home. I have just bought my home and living in 3 months. A month ago I’ve started to hear a humming noise. Then, I recorded the sound and look its frequency response. The peak was at 50 Hz. After while I started to use an application named “SignalScopeX” for iphone. It gave me same results, in this app you can see the response in real time and there is a peak at exactly 49 Hz. I measured several times (in night and day) and the sound is exists evey time. Is there a possibility that in pure silent mics response 50 Hz, or is it real sound? I hear it but still I want to be sure about that. I suspected an electrical machine vibrating my walls (I am living in Turkey, main electricity is 50 Hz). Me (living in 6th floor) and my neighbours (living in 5th and 7th floors) cut of our home electricity but still the sound is exists. What can be the reason of the sound? Some of my thoughts are 1. There may be a constant working motor like aquarium at 10th floor. Is it possible? 2. There is general electricity line of building in one of my room. If there is any leakge may it cause the sound? How can I measure it? Are there any more possibilities?
If many people hear it, you only hear it in your house, and it’s mains frequency, then it isn’t The Hum. It’s another hum, and you will need to do some detective work to find its cause. It’s coming from somewhere in your building, and it can go a long way through its structure because of its low frequency. It could be a ventilation fan.
On April 4, 2019 the NYT published the article “How A.S.M.R. Became a Sensation”. I believe I cannot add a direct link to the article! On youtube there are lots of links to explore.
While reading the article I had a feeling that this account of experiencing excitement by watching and/or hearing things seemed to be very familiar.
I used to feel that elated while hearing and/or reading (about) ideas which broadened my understanding of the world and eventually my being in this world. Language, exemplary argumentation and exquisit dexterity always helped me on my way.
The hum kind of interrupted this process.
Being a flawed human being, rather unaware of any defects which obstruct a broad view of things that should be taken into account when it comes to assessing all phenomena that are at play when alluding to this hum, I would really like to seek comments from every contributor to this groundbreaking forum.
The NYT article offered me a way to think of the hum as a phenomenon which interrupts subtle processes of self-awareness and undisputed agency within the borders of one’s own (consciously perceived) self-awareness.
One year ago I decided to go live in Dordogne, in the south of France, to complete an experiment. The next four months may give me some information concerning the hum’s variable level. If things follow the script of the past two years, I may have some ground to say that during the summer months the hum is less.
Since beginning September 2018 the hum was always here. I hope my experiences during the last two summers will be continued this summer in Dordogne.
Hi Peter,
I have just read the NYT article “How A.S.M.R. Became a Sensation”.
I highly suspect ‘another fad’ developing here, and I’m glad to report the NYT is still living up to my expectations.
Please don’t be sucked in by this crap.
Now, how about describing your experiment in Dordogne please. This will be worth so much more to the Hum theme
than anything found on youtube.
Cheers,
G.
Hello George,
Thank you for your checking out the NYT article on A.S.M.R., and your ideas about this “phenomenon”. I understand now that my approach toward presenting this A.S.M.R. phenomenon as a possibly helpful metaphore to explain what sort of burden the hum is to some people, I fail to meet a certain critical level of thinking to make my observations acceptable in the eyes of someone more endowed to decide what is of import. That is okay with me.
Nevertheless I must confess that the New York Times is also still living up to my expectations. I never feel sucked in by crap! I always feel invited to share reasonable opinions, or to freely express my worries about less admired opinions.
So, about describing my experiment in Dordogne. I will continue this story soon. Thanks for your asking!
I can currently hear this ‘hum’ at 3:44am in Liverpool UK. I am an Audio Production BSc student and have recorded the audible frequencies using my DR-05 recorder which I can confirm has captured the sound. This oscillation may well be travelling through the ground as the fish in my pond have been jumping out of the water which is something they do not usually do. As well as being able to hear this low frequency, which I am guessing is 10-40Hz (Ive not yet done any spectral analysis), I can also ‘feel’ these frequencies.
Hi Daniel,
Once your spectral analysis is complete I trust you shall post the results. Make sure you include relative amplitude levels
with your report.
Audio signals which people ‘feel’ and drive fish out of water are, um, most special!
looking forward to you report.
Cheers,
G.
Interesting…I am one who also “feels” the hum. I live in North Eastern Pennsylvania. I’ve heard and “felt ” it way down to my travels to Florida. However, not consistently. I’ve kept a log and it doesn’t seem to carry any pattern based on location or weather or solar events. I can hear it in heavily populated areas, however mostly in the small mountainous town where I live. And then at times, all is quiet.
The hum in Dordogne. It’s the same problem here as it is in the Netherlands. The hum can be a nuisance, or loud, or really loud. It can be one long blast. It can be the idling engine.
Since nothing about the hum has been established beside being a thing which can be perceived by many people, and gathering facts about the hum seems to be a process of eliminating suspects from a list, I can’t add anything new to all which has been written by all contributors here.
But there is one thing which keeps surprising me. I experienced days of silence in Dordogne during two consecutive summers here. In more than one contribution to this forum I could read how the hum is experienced as being louder during summer.
This fact seems to eliminate the idea that summer heat is unambiguously connected to a quiet or to a loud hum. And, thinking of the hum as stemming from internal causes, the climate may not be of any influence on the loudness of the hum. Well George, maybe you can give a hint of how looking at this in a different way, asking questions differently can help me to be more perceptive to elements which may manifest itself without me ever thinking about these things. The coming four months are important. I must try to keep writing down shifts in hum-strenght. Well, this is what I can say about the hum.
One thing, not hum related, I use VPN. Could that be the reason why I no longer get updates of these entries. It stopped in april 2018.
Hi Everyone, I’ve been experiencing this dreaded humming/droning sound continuously for 6 months now.I live in a rural village location; which was up until now, very quiet.I have also had certain people imply to me that the sound i am hearing is because of my tinnitus.As i explained to those mis informed individuals, i have high frequency tinnitus.It remains with me wherever i go in the world.The hum i am experiencing has happened since October 2018.I only hear this sound 24/7 inside my property and just recently have also noticed it outside so seems to have increased slightly in its volume.There is an online tool for creating the frequency and mine scored 20 Hz which i believe is quite low the playback when using this tool was 100% as to how i perceive this sound to be.https://soundcloud.com/jared-keller-2/the-auckland-hum
The past 6 months has been living hell as having tinnitus is bad enough but with is added unwanted addition is testing my reliance to new limits.Now suffering with very bad insomnia causing fatigue headaches etc.Have tried getting this investigated by environmental health but just sent a guy around for 5 minutes.Can he hear it=NO and off he went end of as far as they are concerned.
I had no idea just as to how bad this issue was affecting so many world wide if it is indeed exactly the same sound as i hear.
Many have described it as like a fridge transformer humming away, a cement mixer constantly rotating in the distance,a HGV vehicle engine constantly idling etc the constant drone of a 2 seater plane ”microlight,” maybe.
Good luck to anyone who can come up with whatever this hell is.
Fred
Hi Fred,
I just want to say I’m sorry you have found yourself a member of this club that none of us wants to be in. I feel especially for the newcomers, as I was in your shoes just three years ago. I hope there is some comfort in knowing you’re not alone in this and that Glen and others are trying to figure it out. I have insomnia too, but find using a sound machine helps, plus 2 milligrams of melatonin an hour before bed, plus a sleep supplement called Sleep Optimizer – just one capsule. But of course different things work for different people. Also, putting two pillows close together and putting your ear right in that middle spot between the pillows will keep you from hearing it seemingly coming from the pillow. There is also a lot of thought provoking information in all these comments here that you might find interesting, too.
Hi Fred – thanks for your useful report
It sounds as though your hum is NOT the traditional “The Hum” (the low frequency, likely internally sourced affliction about half those reporting/complaining here apparently have). Rather it seems to be a “real” acoustic sound like a pump, generator, or fan which the other half encounter. That’s good news because it might well suggest a simple complete remedy (something mechanical and external can be repaired). Traditional “detective work”.
I say this based first on your statement that the hum you hear (unlike your high-frequency tinnitus) does NOT follow you about the world but is restricted to your property.
Secondly you did not say which online tone source you used, or the settings. If you tried a pitch-match with a SINEWAVE it is very unlikely that you could hear the reference tone at 20 Hz (see Fletcher-Munson curves). If you used a square wave, sawtooth, or even a triangle you can easily hear 20 Hz as a fundamental AND harmonics. Note that the harmonics of 20 Hz are 40, 60 (is this your power frequency – US and Canada), 80, 100, and 120 (a well-known “transformer vibration”). In point of fact, even good musicians have virtually no experience matching pitches at the very bottom range.
– Bernie
Hi All,
And thanks for the comments about my hum hell etc.
I used an online sound analyser to create an exact replica of the Hum i hear and comes in at 20 Hz.
The annoyance is significant as perceived by me and, even worse now after 5 solid months i appear to be self tuned into this.My local council are now seriously looking to help me in regard to this issue but there is no doubt this hum/droning i am hearing is described as by very many people here:http://thehum.info/.
I’ve been convinced for months that this sound was coming from adjacent buildings very close by but recently driven out into the countryside and can clearly be heard in different locations but so far within 1-1.5 miles of my village rural location.When i describe this to others or ask anyone if they can hear it i get that vague look.Like really!! What ? makes you feel slightly ‘abnormal’.lol Have to laugh but could cry sometimes.Its testing me out for sure.
Bernie, i am still trying to find that online tool i used which was incredibly good.And did create a perfect match in tone and frequecy.As soon as i find it again, will post a link.Really annoyed i didn’t bookmark it.
Just to add i have perfect pitch hearing ex pro musician due to other health probs.Also been taking Valerian root tabs to help with sleep but dont really agree with me as feel slightly hungover.
Fred
Fred – both these online tone generators are popular
http://onlinetonegenerator.com/
https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
Start these with the default of 440Hz with a SINE, set to a comfortable listening level and decease the frequency. You can hear, for examples, 100 Hz, 64 Hz (my Hum frequency), and even 40 Hz, but by 20 Hz, it’s gone (it’s supposed to be gone – see Fletcher-Munson roll-off curves) – at least for me. If you leave it at 20 Hz as a sine (virtually inaudible), but then click to saw, square, or triangle, you easily hear the 20 Hz as supported by the harmonics.
If you turn up the volume of a 20 Hz sine attempt, be sure to turn it back down before changing frequency or waveshape.
-Bernie
Something Fred said got me to thinking. I HAVE heard the Hum outdoors, but it’s faint for me and I had to really focus my attention to hear it. But inside the house (especially at night) it’s very loud at times. And for me, especially in the bathroom in the early morning hours (damn that prostate gland anyway!).
I occasionally experience high-frequency tinnitus and when it’s ringing in my ears I hear it everywhere, inside, outside, in a vehicle, Etc.
So what is it about being inside a home that seems to amplify the Hum? Do other “hum-hearers” also hear it in the buildings they work in? Libraries? Any other quiet places? (I work from home so don’t go to work in another facility).
What is unique about our homes that seem to amplify the Hum? I know our home is a 2-story with a slab floor and a “daylight basement” .
In March we had an earthquake centered about 45 miles from my home that registered 5.1 on the Richter Scale. You could easily hear the rumble coming (LOUD) for about 3-4 seconds before the shaking began. In fact I thought it was a 737 about 100′ overhead! If the Hum is an external phenomena, I strongly suspect that the Hum is being transmitted through the earth and into the concrete foundation.
If indeed this Hum is an external sound, focusing on commonalities from those who experience it might hold the clue needed to determine the source. Are the pockets of the most reports close to active fault lines?
If it’s internal, the medical profession looking at anatomy may be the best place to seek answers.
I have heard the hum in other places and cities, but there have also been places I haven’t heard it. In some areas I can hear it in my car, and in other areas I can’t. I still think somehow its cause is a result of internal and external factors, but I seem to be in the minority. I think whatever the external factor is didn’t exist 50 years ago. Our house is on a concrete slab also.
Hello Folks,
A hearty thanks to all contributors for your unrelenting effort in attempting to solve what for me constitutes the Eighth Wonder Of The World. Although the final verdict still appears beyond grasp, this information is nevertheless thought-provoking, valuable, and supportive. I am brand new to the ranks so will try to keep it brief. I welcome questions for comparative purposes.
I am a late-fifties male, in good health, take no medications, and live in a rural village located in the Rocky Mountain Trench of southeastern British Columbia. The elevation is 700 metres (2,300 ft) and we enjoy all four seasons quite distinctly. Although I was born in Canada, it might as well have been Missouri: I am a “Show Me” person all the way; no conspiracy leanings here.
Then, two weeks ago, it all started: that most peculiar hum.
First, at night, while in bed. I then began noticing it whenever household activity diminished, whether early in the morning or in the evening. I hear it inside the house and outside the house. The pitch is consistent with 55hz Sine. As usual, I have lost a fair amount of high-frequency hearing due to “old age” (ouch), but have extremely sensitive hearing at lower frequencies. In the two tests Mr. Hutchins referred, my ranges were 7Hz – 12,700Hz (Sine). The hum temporarily stops if I shake my head up and down or left to right. It also stops momentarily if I breathe out forcefully. Given the hum’s low volume, it is easily masked by other sounds (talking, refrigerator cycling on, etc). I have used a noise-maker on and off over the years (while sleeping) and if it is not turned on, I can hear the hum. The hum I hear is best described as a low, two-pitched droning sound which cycles (or modulates) higher for a few seconds then lower, then repeats. The pitch-differential between the two sounds is minimal. At first I thought the sound was either a distant household generator, a distant light aircraft, a distant train (coal trains run regularly through the village), or perhaps a noise/vibration emanating from our mechanical room. As none of these guesses proved plausible, I surmised it might be the specific architecture of our home coupled with my acute hearing at low volume. We live in an authentic log home which has a steep metal roof (12 pitch) and large, extended overhang at the front and back. My thought was the overhang was “collecting” all distant sounds (much like those giant cones you whisper into at opposite ends of the Science Centre) and reverberating them through the structure. However, as that was just a guess, my next step was to peruse the web. Wow – – – I had no idea about the World Wide Hum, the extensive work by Dr. MacPherson, or the postings here.
With respect to local surroundings, there is a year-round creek that runs through our Village and supplies irrigation for a handful of farms. A man-made tributary (partially above and partially below ground) from that creek also runs near our home. There is also an abundance of forest service roads and unused lands in this area. Coincidentally (or not), this tributary was just “turned on” a few days before I started hearing the hum. However, I should also clarify that the hum I hear in no way sounds to me like running water.
One final interesting note: a ticking clock is the only external sound I have heard thus far which does not drown the hum. I hear them both simultaneously.
I will be visiting relatives for a couple of days next weekend in a nearby town that is 25 kilometres away (~16 miles). I am anxious to learn if the hum will follow me.
Sincerely,
Louis
Just a quick addendum here:
The hum was in its full glory tonight so I ran the Szynalski Tone Generator once more.
The hum I hear is better matched to 64Hz and my hearing range is between 12Hz – 11,455Hz.
The numbers posted earlier may have been influenced by the sub-par headphones I was using coupled with a slightly noisier environment.
Louis
On Tuesday, May 21 I moved from Saint Cyprien to Bergerac. Leaving the appartment where I lived was important for reasons of health. And I found an appartment in Bergerac which pleases me more with every day. And so on the day of my arrival the hum was loud and clear, just as it had been for the last eight months in S.C.
Later, it became almost silent. Just some random hum sounding in the background. Pressure changes on my ears. The weather improved, more sunshine.
On Wednesday, May 22 around 6.50 pm it became completely silent. No hum.
At 7.21 pm still silence. I wish there were some hum-hearing witnesses to confirm the absence of the hum.
At 9.10 I start to note that it is absolutely quiet. But just as I write this down, a soft hum starts in the background.
At 10 pm it is completely quiet again.
Thursday 23 May. At 3.50 am the hum silently, in waves.
During the rest of this night the hum as a rustling sound.
-I am exhausted and already ill for four days. The eardrum of my right ear is pressed inward. Rather painful. I had this experience before! My phycisian explained that when the eustachian tube is not open, underpressure may occur in the ear. That can really hurt with a high air pressure.-
In the morning for a short period a stronger hum. In the afrernoon all quiet. At 8.25 pm still quiet.
Friday 24 May 1.30 am still quiet. At 2.30 am the sound of a bulldoser far away. At 6.30 am a rumble in the background in a rhythmic pattern.
At about 1.30 pm I created a wifi hotspot with my smartphone. Around 2.00 pm I realised I was listening tp the hum again. My body tightened, and my breething synchronised with the rhythmic pattern of the hum.
Since I had to do some shopping I closed the wifi hotspot. Back home 90 minutes later I reopen the wifi hotspot. No hum.
At about 5.30 pm the wind comes up. The atmospheric system seems to be changing. And just before
6 pm the hum starts.
At 6.34 pm the wind quickly decreased. And the sun starts filally shining. I missed this sun all day. These weather changes are surprising to me. But anyway, the hum is again no longer there.
In the meantime I organise my belongings for as much as I can right now. I have to get through this.
At 10.29 pm I go to sleep. In Silence. No pain in my ear. Good conditions, except for this virus that has other plans with me.
Saturday 25 May 4.44 am. I slept for a few hours. My cold is severe. The silence is nice though. My silence experience enters its third day. How bizarre can it be.
At 8.31 pm still silent. The weather is quiet, a sunny day in May.
-After an earlier experience of not hearing the hum while having a severe cold – and my eustachian pipe probably closed for my right ear (I don’t remember exactly) – I suppose that my cold, with inflamed mucous membranes and additional congestion, is interrupting the hum from being channeled through an unhindered ear-brain function.-
Sunday 26 May 2.33 pm. The situation is unchanged. It is absolutely quiet. Too good to be true.
A test with my smartphone, listening with left and right ear made me realise that with my right ear I hear 80 % less. Normally the difference is less dramatic.
Probably both ears are involved in hearing the hum. Or, with an extreme leap of thinking, none of our ears are involved in experiencing the hum. And here I feel challenged to come up with new questions. Question number one has to be: how can I not hear the hum with one ear out of business. Would it be the microphone(s) to produce sort of random noises at will while I can not be aware of this happening?
I hope Jeanet may have some thoughts on this.
Peter, to make any conclusions from your observations, please determine the frequency of the hum, in various situations. Secondly, is the frequency always the same, or is it different in different situations? Thirdly, determine whether it is external or internal with the instructions on the home page. The fact that it is sometimes louder and sometimes quiet or that you hear it in some places but not in others does not prove whether it is internal or external. Please read the papers on the home page.
Henryk, thanks for your critical remarks. I will take advantage of them. As far as I remember I found 51 Hrz to be the frequency of the hum (which is supposedly to be connected to some outside source??) For now I’m still waiting for the hum to return. It’s been seven days since I last heard it. But this gives me some time to retrieve some relevant previous comments.
I have just started hearing the sound. In last 26 years never heard it, but last Friday it appeared. It is in intervals and from 4am until 11pm. I live in a small village, countryside in Slovenia, so called Virstanj. I hear the sound only indoors. My father can not hear it. I am wondering what has changed in our village since Friday.
Henrik, I determined the frequency of the hum to be 54 Hz. It took me many moments to decide for this frequency.
The situations: I was always in my appartment.
The frequency seems to be always the same.
I can only establish (or try to decide) this frequency in my appartment.
Spectroid showed me that I was often wrong! Over a period of 60+ days Spectroid showed no level of sound that I should hear. So I only heard the hum.
I would like to know if Spetroid is useful at all outside of a space where (outside) noise can be blocked.
Spectroid supports me in this quest. It provides the watershed in meaningful argumentation about internal or external source of sound.
If I am allowed a kind of emotional, and really heartfelt wish to give hope, I will do this here and now: I hear no hum right now here in Bergerac. Just like I did not hear any hum for many, many days or nights during the last two months. Yes, I can smile sometimes, and I realise that a positive change is really happening. I try my best to stay with it.
Sorry Henrik, I probably failed to give you the replies you really hoped getting. Please sharpen your knives, get me to be more precise. I appreciate your enquiry. It will help us all. And I apologise for my sloppiness.
Hi, Peter,
OK, if I understand you right, you have now determined that your Hum is a more or less stable 54 Hz tone (probably with a certain amount of harmonics), and that it comes and goes without a regular pattern, and that you so far only have heard it in your apartment. Those observations do not yet establish whether it is an internally generated or an external sound.
The Spectroid app, when installed on a mobile phone or tablet, will display anything that would be audible to the human ear. Any audible external sound would be visible on the FFT display, with the reservations mentioned in the write-up concerning low-cut filters and level calibration. 54Hz should not be too much affected. The microphone of a tablet is typically more sensitive than that of a mobile phone, so a tablet is in my opinion the best device for tracking environmental noises.
So the next step would be to switch on your Spectroid device every time you hear your Hum. If there is no 54 Hz tone, your Hum is internal. It is that simple. The Spectroid device shows all external noise/audio, so there is no difference between using it indoors or outdoors.
Hello Henrik,
I was interested in trying out the Spectroid app that you reference above but could not find it in the Apple store. Are you aware if it is catalogued under another name?
Regards,
Louis.
Louis,
Spectroid is an Android app, and does not work on iPhone. There should be similar FFT apps for iPhone, but I am not familiar with the Apple world.
I don’t know if anyone saw it, but on 8/9/19 on the History channel there was a program called, The UnXplained – “Unnatural Nature.” Thirty seven minutes into the program there was a segment on the Windsor Hum in Canada. The people who hear the hum describe it as sounding much like a diesel engine, like many of us do, louder at night, changing with the seasons, etc. I googled this and saw an article on it from 2013, and apparently they are still hearing it. They seem to think it’s coming from a steel plant in the U.S., but it doesn’t seem like they have hard evidence on that. It’s odd that so many people are hearing it there, seemingly more than two percent of the population.
Hi Lisa –
I recall that the Windsor Hum has been fairly well attributed to industrial facilities on Zug Island. An external source. A very large fraction of the people neareby, well in excess of the 2% reported for the internally-generatre “Taos Hum”, hear it. This would be expected. It would be very strange if it were also 2%.
Bernie
Hi Bernie,
Ok, thanks. They made it sound like they weren’t sure it was from that plant. But maybe that was so they could include it on their program about the “UnXplained!”
Lisa
The History Channel has no history any more, and very little truth.
Right. They should change their name. The Smithsonian channel is much better.
Hi Henrik, details were missing from my post of august 5th, 2019. So I must post additional information. Since I hear the hum (1987) it took two years before I could hear the hum everywhere, depending on the circumstances.
No, outside I do not hear the hum when random noise is too loud. Otherwise I hear the hum when I am outside.
I was always in my appartment when I tried to decide what frequency the hum was. When I am hearing the hum outside I can not establish the frequency with the online tone generator since I do not have the equipment. But I have no doubt it has the frequency that I hear inside my, or any other space inside a building.
In the second paragraph of your reply you give information which of course I had been reading (over and over) in your paper EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL. That the use of Spectroid does the same thing indoors and outdoors should be obvious.
And I put this program to good use. I only started saving screenshots though from june 20 until now. I have followed all the advice you give in your paper. Its the obvious thing to do, right? For example august 18 at 2 p.m. on 50Hz I found 14 dB SPL, and on 54 Hz I found 18 dB SPL. Patterns like this I get all the time, with or without me hearing the hum.
Spectroid made me understand that I was not hearing external (man made) noise in my appartment. That was true for moments when I heard no hum inside my appartment, as well as for moments when I did hear the hum inside my appartment.
As you wrote in your paper, there are some reservations concerning low-cut filters and level calibration for microphones in the devices. This can influence the results I got with Spectroid on my rather modest Moto G5. But since the levels are rather stable, also around the 50/54 Hz (not the ideal levels as you present them in the paper) over a period of 10 weeks I just stick to this perception that the hum I hear is internal, considering the absence of noise from installations I pass every day in my neighborhood or further away.
I hear the hum since 1987. It did not take long to understand that if nobody else could hear this low frequency noise, this was something different. Since the hum cannot be recorded, it just makes sense to look for an explanation elsewhere, meaning inside the body.
Henrik, in your post of november 7 2018 at 7.12 a.m. you reminded us of the fact that instead of with outside factors, there is a much more probable link between the hum and medications, electrolyte balances and nutritional factors, which in a much more immediate way can influence the nerve system.
Could you initiate a type of research through a questionnaire for this forum which could shed some light on these possible sources for the discomforting hum experience? Of course, all kinds of reservations are conceivable and even necessary with such a questionnaire. But I think of the possible feedback a well designed questionnaire, focused on finding possible links between phenomena that have occurred in the last 50+ years in our biotope, could generate.
The fifty+ years of hum experiences seem to coincide very emphatically with the period studied in the newly published international environmental research report.
Glen has more than once invited contributors to help with archive research into mentions of a hum. It seems that the hum really is a recent phenomenon. I think that previous symptoms of a hum – worldwide – would certainly be known and documented in medical circles.
Peter,
If you can see a 54Hz tone on the Spectroid and it is 18dB SPL, that is not audible to any human. You say that you have determined your hum to be approximately 54 Hz and always the same frequency. The only way that could be an external sound would be if you could see that 54 Hz on the Spectroid at a minimum of 40dB SPL, AND the hum you hear starts and stops in sync with the Spectroid reading.
To me, all indications point to an internally generated hum of approx. 54 Hz. The fact that you see something at 54 Hz seems like a coincidence.
What comes to your suggestions concerning a more detailed questionnaire, you can see from the data base that people are very lazy to determine their hum frequency. Since the reporters are anonymous, we cannot contact them to push for a little more effort.
Hi Henrik – three points
(1) Your observation that some people may use instruments to “detect” low frequencies (near infrasound) like 54 Hz while the actual measured level is well below the human threshold at that pitch is worth keeping in mind. Probably most such low-level occurrences are meaningless noise. Since we are accustomed to “hearing” NOTHING at all down there, I fear there is a tendency to regard even an instrument detection of VLF sound as sly, unnatural, and likely nefarious! We should report “How Much” was detected.
(2) The LACK of a dense concentration of responses to the pitch-matching question was noted in connection with my histograms from Glen’s data:
Click to access ENWN56.pdf
Pitch matching by the general public, especially at such low pitches (unfamiliar range), low volume levels, and where folks without much musical experience are pressed into service, meant that only about 15% of entries were usable. Many opted out as they should have. Statistically, aren’t there still way too many reported pitches that are multiples of 10 Hz? (We expect some related to power grids, like 100 and 120 – but the ones here look like rounding – don’t you think?)
(3) You likely are correct in ascribing an element of laziness as a factor in incomplete responses. It has been discouraging at times on this site to respond to a new commenter with a carefully-crafted answer (often with relevant requests for more information) only to have NO further response. People, I guess, make comments to the Internet expecting ANSWERS only – no discourteous demands for details or insistence that the questioner actively participate in finding an answer.
– Bernie
Peter – what specificaclly is:
” . . . the newly published international environmental research report. . . .”
-Bernie
Does anyone else’s hum ever turn into something different? For several weeks, on top of my regular hum I am feeling/hearing a very fast pulsing/beating – more than twice as fast as a heartbeat. But I can hear the old hum at the same time. Very strange.
Actually Lisa, I experienced exactly what you described last night about 2:45AM. I didn’t even notice the hum at first just the fast pulsating that felt like it was accompanied by a “pressure”. I thought something was going on in my ears. Once I really focused in on it, I could hear the hum underneath. Until I just read this post, I didn’t put the two together. So that IS weird! I have not experienced this on any prior occasions.
J.O., Wow, that’s weird that you experienced it too. I am hearing it right now; it’s about 4 beats per second, as well as a pressure that you mentioned. That is the more dominant sound at the moment but I can still hear the regular hum too. I was trying to see if I could find anything online about this yesterday, and I read something about the neck – that pulsing sensations in the ear can originate from the neck. And I noted that I spent a lot of time on the computer the past few days, and because I don’t have the proper glasses, I’ve been straining my neck in order to be able to read. And that causes a lot of neck pain. I don’t understand how that would be connected to this pulsing sound, but that’s what I read. Are you experiencing any neck strain?
Also while looking around online, I found this Professor at the University of Michigan that does research on and cures for tinnitus – Professor Shore. I am not sure that the hum or this pulsing is tinnitus or a combination of more than one thing, either internal and/or external. It seems like any sound that is not external is called tinnitus, regardless of what it sounds like. Anyway, I will post the links if anyone is interested in reading about it.
https://news.umich.edu/specially-timed-signals-ease-tinnitus-symptoms-in-test-aimed-at-condition-s-root-cause/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-university-of-michigan-tinnitus-discovery-%E2%80%94-signal-timing.2805/
https://bme.umich.edu/people/susan-shore/
She may be a good person to contact about the hum. If it is internal, and her specialty is tinnitus, she may be interested. Now the beating/pulsing has stopped, and the hum is louder.
Lisa I understand. If the machines dont block it take a bath and put your head under water….but where you can breath. It helps a lot especially when the hums get to loud. I occassionally have them so loud i can feel myself vibrate and objects around me. Crazy that most people cant hear it. When its real loud it will start messing up the TV..radio..cellphones..etc. Im wondering since i can here them clme and go if its something magnetic from the sun. To bad we cant just live underwater.
Yes..in fact this weekend saturday sept 14..morning got very strange. Humm was over layed with very high metalic sound. That was a first. My hum never had that and it hasnt happened again.
Otherwise my hum does the norm comes and goes..loud and soft..different rhythms..different speeds. Like right now its further away. Sounds more towards the west of me. (Hopefully stay there for awhile)
Ps – going underwater helps if it gets to loud.
T, that is very weird too. I use two sound machines to block it out at night. When I can still hear it over my machines that is actually a bit scary, but that doesn’t happen too often, thank goodness.
T, when you say it helps to go underwater, does doing that continue to block the hum when you are no longer under water? Or does it just block the hum while you are underwater?
Bernie, the report to which I refer is
https://www.ipbes.net/global-assessment-report-biodiversity-ecosystem-services
Unfortunately I can’t find the link to this review that explicitly pointed to the consequences of our last 50 years of exploiting our natural environment.
Nevertheless, I hope that you want to give your opinion on this. It helps to keep looking further.
Peter
Peter – thanks
I am allergic to anything that begins with the word “Intergovernmental” ! So I only took a very brief look. I saw nothing that seemed even remotely connected to our concerns with the Hum. Perhaps you would care to direct us to what you found in the report?
Bernie
From everything I’ve read, see and analyze myself,
there are several types of Hum …
electrical, magnetic, acoustic, biological tinnitus changing to the rhythms of health disorders, living conditions, fatigue, exposure to pollutants including electromagnetic, etc …
I think it would be good to sort out what is recordable,
– Acoustic, electro-magnetic, mechanical (vibration), seismic (etc …)
– and what is not recordable (internal biology)
The victims of Hum could better discuss if for each type of Hum the victims had their web pages with the closest comments, this would avoid mixing
on one page all types of Hum … and lessen the risk of confusion of opinions or misunderstandings.
If the Admin want’it…
Peter the electron said: “. . . there are several types of Hum …”
Except for the uppercase H on Hum, I think we all generally agree, and have for years, and have commented extensively on it at this site, making good progress with evidence, logic, and science-based contemplation.
Peter also said “. . . I think it would be good to sort out what is recordable. . . .”
What you suggest is certainly not new, and prima-facia seems reasonable. But it is virtually USELESS, as I have previously discussed, in detail:
Click to access ENWN54.pdf
Tinnitus is a major symptom of microwave sickness (electrosensitivity) and increasing numbers of people in the population are now said to be suffering from it due to ubiquitous, pulsed, polarised, radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMF) from wireless devices (possibly as many as 15% of the population).
Under those circumstances making any audio recordings would clearly be impossible.
Instead, monitoring ambient levels of non-ionising radiation in the environment by means of an electrosmog meter may provide useful information. The Acousticom 2 works well.
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