• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

The Infrasonic 17 Hz Tone Experiment Induced Revulsion And Fear In Participants

December 6, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

In 2003, scientists subjected 750 volunteers to a strange experiment, in the form of a fear and anxiety-inducing concert. 

For a while, people had suspected that low-frequency sounds, beyond our hearing, can have strange effects on humans. But in 2003, there had been little in the way of research. And so, scientists from the National Physical Laboratory in England decided to subject people to infrasound at a concert where infrasound would be played to them underneath regular music.

Advertisement

“For our experiment we wanted to establish if infrasound in music generated unusual psychological effects, even in listeners unaware of its presence,” Sarah Angliss, a composer and sound designer who worked on the project, explains on her website.

“Of particular interest were its reputed emotional effects. Infrasound is used in sacred music, for instance during cathedral organ recitals, and there is debate about why it’s used. Some people say it adds a sense of awe to the music – it puts a shiver down your spine. Others say that giant infrasonic organ pipes are nothing more than ‘an expensive way to make a draught’,” Angliss explained in a separate blog. 

“Stranger still, infrasound has also been detected at some ostensibly haunted sites…where it may also be making people feel very uneasy.”

In one example she referred to, scientists working at a laboratory in Coventry, England, reported feelings of depression and shivers, and various other strange goings on, including “figures” being seen in the corner of one scientist’s vision. 

Advertisement

When one scientist noticed that a foil blade in a vice was vibrating wildly, he investigated and found the apparent cause of all their trouble; a new extractor fan in the lab was creating infrasound, a low-frequency sound wave below human hearing. Once the fan was switched off, the problems disappeared.



The team from the National Physical Laboratory decided to play sound at 17.5 Hertz (Hz), just beyond human hearing, generated through the use of a 7-meter (23-foot) pipe at audience members at a London concert hall. 

The infrasound was only played during certain pieces, and audience members did not know which. Despite this, 22 percent of audience members reported strange effects during pieces laced with infrasound. These included feelings of sorrow, chills down the spine, general unease, and feelings of revulsion and fear.

Advertisement

“These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound,” Professor Richard Wiseman, psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire said at the time, per NBC News.

“Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost — our findings support these ideas,” he added.

Subsequent studies, including one that deliberately set about creating a “haunted room“, have shown evidence that infrasound can produce effects similar to hauntings in humans. Of course, not all hauntings can be explained in this way, with other explanations ranging from hoaxes to carbon monoxide poisoning, and the genuinely unknown.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. No ‘magic wand’ to fix Lebanon crisis, new prime minister says
  2. Despite preparation, California pipeline operator may have taken hours to stop leak
  3. This Is Why You Can Live In Hiroshima And Nagasaki But Not Chernobyl
  4. 39,000 Years Ago, A Siberian Unicorn Lived Alongside Humans

Source Link: The Infrasonic 17 Hz Tone Experiment Induced Revulsion And Fear In Participants

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Project Hail Mary Trailer First Look: What Would Happen If The Sun Got Darker?
  • Newly Discovered Cell Structure Might Hold Key To Understanding Devastating Genetic Disorders
  • What Is Kakeya’s Needle Problem, And Why Do We Want To Solve It?
  • “I Wasn’t Prepared For The Sheer Number Of Them”: Cave Of Mummified Never-Before-Seen Eyeless Invertebrates Amazes Scientists
  • Asteroid Day At 10: How The World Is More Prepared Than Ever To Face Celestial Threats
  • What Happened When A New Zealand Man Fell Butt-First Onto A Powerful Air Hose
  • Ancient DNA Confirms Women’s Unexpected Status In One Of The Oldest Known Neolithic Settlements
  • Earth’s Weather Satellites Catch Cloud Changes… On Venus
  • Scientists Find Common Factors In People Who Have “Out-Of-Body” Experiences
  • Shocking Photos Reveal Extent Of Overfishing’s Impact On “Shrinking” Cod
  • Direct Fusion Drive Could Take Us To Sedna During Its Closest Approach In 11,000 Years
  • Earth’s Energy Imbalance Is More Than Double What It Should Be – And We Don’t Know Why
  • We May Have Misjudged A Fundamental Fact About The Cambrian Explosion
  • The Shoebill Is A Bird So Bizarre That Some People Don’t Even Believe It’s Real
  • Colossal’s “Dire Wolves” Are Now 6 Months Old – And They’ve Doubled In Size
  • How To Fake A Fossil: Find Out More In Issue 36 Of CURIOUS – Out Now
  • Is It True Earth Used To Take 420 Days To Orbit The Sun?
  • One Of The Ocean’s “Most Valuable Habitats” Grows The Only Flowers Known To Bloom In Seawater
  • World’s Largest Digital Camera Snaps 2,104 New Asteroids In 10 Hours, Mice With 2 Dads Father Their Own Offspring, And Much More This Week
  • Simplest Explanation For “Anomalous” Signals Coming From Underneath Antarctica Ruled Out
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version