Shedding some light on the mysterious Hum

As I have been experiencing the Hum for what feels like two months (I haven't kept any written diary or record), I have tried to notice any patterns now that I've "somewhat" gotten used to it at least when I'm not trying to fall asleep (and am not just angry all the time unable to focus on trying to even try to figure it out).

It just so happens today that I have noticed a new pattern, and I'm quite happy about it because this leads me and others, I hope, a step closer towards maybe resolving this matter or at least getting relief.

1) I sense it to be a bit directional. I mean to say that if I turn my head if I'm sitting at my computer chair, then I hear it a bit less - not much, but enough to notice.

2) Putting an ear plug in the ear I mostly hear it in causes it to be greatly reduced, and hardly noticeable compared to not having it in.

3) Just tonight, I realized that after the central heating unit turns off, the Hum is very strong.

These things further confirm my belief that it is external in nature. My next step is to try to figure out what these patterns mean (specifically only 1 and 3 are patterns, I think) through reasoning.

Some first thoughts are that it could be due to a pressure that increases in my room when the heater unit (same as A/C; it's central) kicks in. It could be due to the large amount of power the unit uses, relative to other devices in the house, or at least, a "acceleration" or spike in overall power usage. I don't know why these things might cause the Hum to be stronger, but it's at least something to put on the table for anyone with more experience. (BTW I give up on my doctor, an ENT, who tried to prescribe me vitamins that cost $150 for a 3-month supply - for tinnitus!)

The next thing I am considering is that it seems to have a slight direction to it, so I would reason that it is coming from one direction more than another. To be clear, it's not that I hear it in one ear and not another, therefore it comes from the left. It's that when I turn my head, my left ear is less affects by it when in the same direction as my right ear faces.

I can state some other observations: the Hum goes away or is nearly inaudible when I go outside for the most part - rarely a problem outside the house's vicinity. I don't hear the Hum in the park I run in nearby; I have heard it sometimes at the grocery store down the street on several occasions. Listening to music, yes, does drown out the noise usually if not too soft.

I have seen and audiologist and a doctor together working as one, and they have never heard of this. My left ear is more sensitive than the right, but they stated it as though my left ear is normal and that my right ear has the "problem." (I'd say it's the other way around!)

Aside from this, while in bed, I've often felt vibrations in my body. They are sometimes worse on the side of my mattress (left or right). (I usually sleep more to one side than another, so it's more cushion-y on one side.) I figure this might mean that the springs in my mattress are affecting something - maybe an electromagnetic field, but I'm really stepping out into a field about which I know very little.

That's about all the facts and information I have so far. Let this be an aid to everyone who might seek out more information and try to piece together the pieces of this puzzle. I'm really not one to blame the government for a phenomena without a thorough study into the facts I've uncovered for myself (i.e., taking another's word for it).

Any input appreciated if you can analyze this situation. I will post more information if I can detect any more patterns.

I am not sure if you are aware of this or not, but there are areas in the world where people report "mysterious hums"

www.nytimes.com... and-there-mysterious-hum-bedevils-unlucky-few.html

www.rense.com...

www.mysteryhum.com...

Keep getting doctors opinions, but llok at all the options, maybe it is your house, maybe it is tinninitis (sp?) but whatever it is, you are not alone.

I usually hear it in bed at night...

Is directional...earplugs help, but dont cancel out.

Strongest between 2am and 4am

I'm an audio engineer with 21yrs experience. That doesn't mean I know what you're experiencing, but I'll tell you 2 stories:
1) Before I knew much about sound, I spent about 8 months living on the side of a steep hill which overlooked a bay. I was plagued by "the hum" - it used to drive me so nuts that, a few times, I grabbed my sleeping bag & crashed in the park. It definitely had patterns to it, times when it stopped, was quieter or louder & when quiet, I could hear it louder in 2 corners of my bedsit flat.
Long story short, I noticed it had stopped. I also noticed that a ship which had been impounded by customs & at anchor in the bay the whole time was gone.
2) A friend & I were conducting an experiment using an analogue tone generator on some hand built monitor speakers. We noticed that down at 5Hz we could see the cones moving & they seemed perfectly in synch, which was a minor miracle for homemade gear. So we turned up the volume (even tho we couldn't hear anything that low) to get a better look. Next thing, there was a loud banging on the door: it was a girl from the unit downstairs yelling WTF?
Turns out the kitchen she was working in was exactly the right dimensions to resonate in sympathy with this tone we were pumping out. However, whereas our 5Hz was a sine wave, her kitchen was producing complex harmonics well into the audible range: it sounded like a tuba crossed with a church organ kind of; a smoothed off square wave, but slightly PWM (for sound nerds).
We recorded it & ran it through a spectrum analyser: strong peak at 80Hz but slight traces well beyond 1KHz.
Amazing!
Suggestion
Low frequency sound carries a lot of energy & will readily propagate through solid objects. This means it can travel a long way & 'pop up' seemingly without source. Objects of particular size or shape can resonate to produce audible harmonics from an inaudible stimulus. Check your area for heavy industry, turbines, etc. Also bridges with heavy traffic & of course, sea traffic.
Hope this helps

Good thread. Ever since I can remember, sometimes when I am in a very quiet zone, like in a closed window car, I hear humming. It's almost like my ears are trying to hear too hard. It's a really weird phenomena.

So that is one type of hum thing, but this next hum/vibration I hear seems to be completely different to that one. Sometimes when I am laying in bed at around 2am, I start to hear this sound coming from the sky. Sounds really otherworldly, and hard to explain.

The last type of hum I hear is when I am about to astral project. I have successfully had a few OOBE, and when I have successful ones, before I project, I hear a very strong hum in my ears. I think it's cool.

reply to post by justine093


Oh, yes. I've read up on the various sources. I certainly would do that before posting all these observations. I even made a video about it on my YouTube channel.

It certainly isn't tinnitus because that is a high pitched noise that is internal. What I hear is very low, and the split second I step outside...without fail, it disappears are becomes barely audible.

Thank you for the links. They help. For instance, the guy from the Rense article said earplugs don't help him, but they do help me.

Here is another link that features the sound of it, which is very similar to what I hear:

news.bbc.co.uk...

reply to post by Bunken Drum


Interesting information about the harmonics bit, even though I don't understand fully how that works. I had a sure feeling that this house - the roof, the walls, or something - must have something to do with what I'm hearing because when I step out, I goes away or is barely audible. Of course, the same can be said about hearing it in my car.

I'm still not sure how a bridge or ship could change things, but I accept that because I'm on the "newbie level" when it comes to understanding sound.

One thing worth mentioning is that I keep a fan running at night (a box fan). It has never been a problem before, but maybe it just took time to develop. I am living in a place with no carpet, which I know affects sound (increasing echoes, etc). But, I still didn't have the problem the first night I slept here; it took time.

reply to post by glitchinmymatrixA simple way to understand harmonics is to think of a taught string. If you pluck it, it vibrates: its length determines how fast, thus the frequency. The whole length vibrating is called The Fundamental Harmonic, but it also vibrates in seperate halves, at twice the Fundamental frequency, & 1/4s, 1/8s etc, doubling frequency each time, & 1/3s, 1/5s, 1/7s etc - in fact at each whole number division. These are called odd & even harmonics & the relative balance between them determines the quality, or timbre, of the sound produced.
Very simplistically, you can think of any solid object as having a fundamental frequency which it will readily vibrate at, given an energy input. If the energy is sound, at or close to the fundamental, it will vibrate in sympathy that much more easily & produce higher harmonics also.
This is a problem for bridge builders because such vibration can become so severe it makes the thing unusable or even collapse.
Millenium Bridge

www.vibrationdata.com...
The solution is to introduce mechanisms for damping such vibration, but these dont eliminate it & many dissipate some of the energy into the ground, where, as low frequency sound, it could travel great distances.
Ships have powerful engines that produce low frequency sound that travels through water. It stands to reason that such energy can be transmitted to shore.
I heard somewhere that 1 theory about the hum was that the energy of waves cyclically pounding a shore might also produce low frequency sound which travels miles through bedrock & pops up seemingly randomly.
Your fan might have something to do with it, but you'd notice if it only happened whilst it was switched on, right?

I experienced something similar in the video above (2:56) some years ago. I don't know what it is yet.

reply to post by Bunken Drum


Yes I would have noticed. In fact, turning on my fan makes me very unlikely that I'll hear it at all. I turn the fan on at night to help me sleep (to drown out the hum).

I guess what I'm left confused with now is how the walls of my surroundings affect the level of the sound (how loud it is). I guess it's bouncing off the walls or something. Also, still wondering why it started when it did. Waves have been crashing into the shore for some time...unless something has changed. It seems the more I delve into it, the more questions I have.

Thanks for your explanation. It makes more sense now. I live near a bayou. There aren't any big ships, usually just fishing boats or whatever, but there could be other things.

I started "hearing" the hum on September 23, 2008 around 11p.m.
I had gone outside to make sure everything was OK before going to bed and noticed an alarm sound coming from the southeast direction from my house where a water pumping station is located. After confirming that the alarm sound was coming from the pumping station I decided to call the police as the emergency line for the water utilities was not being answered. As I was on the phone with the police I started feeling the weird sound and also felt nauseous. I even mentioned it to the police because I thought it was very weird. I had never felt that way before in my life. It felt like some kind of a wave of energy had reached my house.
The sound affected my two Airedale Terriers, the female more than the male. She recently died due to a hemangiosarcoma at 11 years of age.
I have wondered if the hum "energy" had anything to do with her sickness.
I have contacted every government agency including NOAA, EPA, USGS and many others. Also, I contacted the power companyand the water utilities. No one has any answers. They act clueless.
I hear the sound loudest inside my house. But I can also hear it outside. I have heard it at various places including other locations in my area (South Florida). I heard it really strong in Puerto Rico in a town called Ceiba. Also in the rainforest (El Yunque). When I visit St. Petersburg, Florida I can also hear it there. I don't hear it every where I go, thank God.
Not knowing what is causing this and what it means is very hard for me. I don't like mysteries. Why are there so few of us. My 11 year old daughter can hear it, by the way. My husband can't. Not surprised by that.
I want to throw a question out there to the ones who hear the hum. Please take this seriously: Have you ever had a UFO encounter?
I think there's some connection to UFOs. When I was 11 or 12 I saw a UFO. The experience was short, as far as I can remember but it was terrifying. Please, help me find out what is going on.

I've also experienced the hum fairly often, but I've noticed that the tone seems to be slightly different when I hear it at different locals.

Has anyone else had this experience, or do you always hear exactly the same tone?

reply to post by wildcat117


When I first started "hearing" the hum it really sounded like a diesel engine a distance away that was having problems staying on. It had many pauses. It sounded like: mmmmmmpause mmmmmmpausemmmmmpause
Months later it sounded deeper and stronger, almost drum like and with less pauses. Then later it sounded like a big military plane (c130) flying over really high. Now it feels more like waves of sound. I don't know how to describe it. It will be louder in some areas of the house. My house is 2 storys only on half of it and on that half it will be much louder at times. It is an ever changing sound. I will be walking and all of the sudden it will be louder. If I try to turn back to hear it again at that same spot, it will not be there. It feels like it moves in waves. Sometimes I feel like I hear it stronger on one side of my head than the other. IT IS LOUDER AT NIGHT. WHY IS THAT? That has to be a big clue as to what is causing this. But, sometimes it is pretty loud during the mornings also. At one point, when I was having a hard time falling asleep because of this sound, I figured out that if I turned my head slowly and found an angle where I could not detect the sound and held my head steady I could then fall asleep. But, as soon as I e-mailed a person who maintains (I guess still) The HUM website, my trick no longer worked. His name is supposedly John Dawes. It was a real mystery to me who he was...I stopped e-mailing him after that.

I have been waking up with headaches lately and I'm wondering if the hum has anything to do with this. God knows what this thing is doing to my poor brain. My mother died due to Alzheimer's so this is a real concern.

I wish I could get an MRI or a CAT SCAN of my brain to see if there's anything abnormal that would explain my ability to sense this sound. I imagine there's something near the ear area because that's where we sense the sound. I'm pretty sure this is not just a sound. We perceive it as a sound but it is not.

The nausea that I felt for the first few days after I started to hear this sound should be another big clue. What causes nausea and a perception of sound at the same time? I guess my body adjusted to whatever it is since the nausea only lasted 3 to 4 days.

I wish someone we could trust could perform an extensive investigation of the people that can hear this sound. How are we alike, besides being able to hear this sound? I'm a 49 year old female, married, menopausal, Christian who believes that so called "aliens" are demonic in nature. And the hum might actually be something being generated by them. I know that sounds extreme. I would recommend the book: ALIEN ENCOUNTERS.
It explains it in detail and it is what opened my eyes and let me see clearly what is going on as far as aliens and UFOs.

I feel I can't just pretend everything is OK and ignore the sound. I need to tell people and see if anyone can help us. The media doesn't want to touch it (not around here anyway). Most people are fearful of ridicule (myself included). Doctors have never even heard of it and wouldn't have a clue what to do about it. Does the government know? I think so.

When the EPA called me back (2/23/09), the person I spoke to said that due to their strict guidelines they are not allowed to investigate things of this nature and he used the words: electromagnetic waves. It sounded to me like they know about it and they know what is causing it. Maybe there's nothing they can do about it. All of us "hearers" need to demand an explanation from the government.

Right after I started hearing this sound I tried to find out if other people could hear this sound by writing in a blog for our local newspaper. Only 2 people wrote back. I live in a big city. I expected more people. That's how rare we are...

Perhaps another test...try putting your ears to the floors and walls to see if it is resonating within the house. A low vibration could be coming from the ground and contained within the house, which is why you don't hear it outside?

Just a thought.

I don't hear what you hear, but my first thought is HAARP. I've been reading some disturbing info about HAARP.

reply to post by Julie Washington


Not sure if the last post by Julie W. referred to my last post... I hear the sound outside and not just at my house. Read my first post...
It is not the house. It is the location of the house. I'm sure more and more people hear this every day. Eventually, some one important and popular (Let's say TRUMP) will hear it and maybe then there will be a disclosure by the government or whoever is responsible or knows what is going on. I can dream...

Actually I was responding to the OP. However, since you mention in your post that you do hear it outside, does it sound all around you. Have you tried to put your ear to the ground to get and sense of vibration? Or is it clearly coming from the air? The sky, the ground, all around? Can you tell?

When you are in other locations can you hear the sound outside as well and inside buildings? Stronger inside or outside?

reply to post by Julie Washington


To Julie... The sound feels like it's in the air. I just put my ears to the walls and floor and didn't detect any vibrations.

Usually the sound is stronger inside, but in Puerto Rico when I was staying at a Country Inn in Ceiba, the sound was so strong in the parking lot, it almost made me naseous. It felt like it was penetrating every cell in my body. It was scary. And when we stayed at another place by the rain forest in P.R. I could sense the sound even with the waterfall sound, which I thought was peculiar. You would think the waterfall sound would drown out the hum, but I could hear both clearly. I wish you could hear the hum too just for a day...

I've also heard this ringing sound i guess you could call it a hum.
I know I'm not crazy cause others have heard it also.
It sounds like a high pitch ringing for about 20 secs then stops i heard it every few days at the last place i rented at.

I'm not sure if its the same hum your hearing. But its "my" mystery noise. I heard it far inland away from shipyards or any industrial buildings so cant say what the source might be.

reply to post by somthing


To Somthing: No, your sound doesn't sound like the hum. The hum is a low frequency sound, not high pitched at all. Not a ringing. It's a hum, hence the name. Maybe you should do a search for "ringing sound". When I first heard the hum I had no idea there was such a thing going on. I just typed "humming sound" and my learning started...

I haven't seen anything anywhere about this hum being military in nature, but now I have started thinking what if? Does anyone have any thoughts about this being a possibility? Actually, in the beginning of my "investigation" I even contacted the FBI. Of course, they never called back...

looked around and found something interesting.

its a sample of a humming sound
Sound Sample
Most people won't be able to hear it, but if you play it in something like Windows Media Player and turn on the visualisation you will "see" the sound waves. ( I just maxed out my volume and put headphones on )

recorded in New Zealands city of Auckland
They discovered the frequency but the source is still unknown

Source

Not sure if I'm on the right track but worth looking into

[edit on 3-1-2010 by somthing]