• 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

  • DNA From Greenland Sled Dogs – Maybe The World’s Oldest Breed – Reveals 1,000 Years Of Arctic History
  • Why Doesn’t Moonrise Shift By The Same Amount Each Night?
  • Moa De-Extinction, Fashionable Chimps, And Robot Surgery – No Human Required
  • “Human”: Powerful New Images Mark The Most Scientifically Accurate “Hyper-Real 3D Models Of Human Species Ever”
  • Did We Accidentally Leave Life On The Moon In 2019 – And Could We Revive It?
  • 1.8 Million Years Ago, Two Extinct Humans Had One Of The Gnarliest Deaths In History
  • “Powerful Image” Of One Of The World’s Rarest Tigers Exposes The Real Danger In Taman Negara
  • Evolution, Domestication, And A Lot Of Very Good Boys: How Wolves Became Dogs
  • Why Do Orcas Have White Spots Near Their Eyes?
  • Tomb Of First King Of Ancient Maya City Discovered In Belize
  • The Real Reason The Tip Of Your Tape Measure Wiggles Like That
  • The “Haunting” Last Message From NASA’s Opportunity Rover, Sent From Inside A Planet-Wide Storm
  • Adorable Video Proves Not All Gorillas Hate The Rain. It Might Even Win One A Mate
  • 5,000-Year-Old Rock Art May Show One Of Ancient Egypt’s First Rulers
  • Alzheimer’s-Linked Protein Levels “20 Times Higher” In Newborn Babies – What Does This Mean?
  • Americans Were Asked If They Thought Civil War Was Coming. The Results Were Unexpected
  • Voyager 1 & 2 Could Be Detected From Almost A Light-Year Away With Our Current Technology
  • Dams Have Nudged Earth’s Poles By Over 1 Meter In The Past 200 Years
  • This Sugar Could Be A Cure For Male Pattern Baldness – And It’s Been In Our Bodies All Along
  • “Cosmic Immigrants”: Daytime Star Seen In 1604 May Be An “Alien Type Ia Supernova”
  • 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