fear inducing sounds

A sound that really annoys me is ice cream truck music. My neighbor drives one and sometimes he just sits outside his own house for a while and plays the same few songs over and over.

Originally posted by drew hempel
reply to post by ashanu90

 

Yep -- that's infrasound -- it is the frequency of your lower body so it activates the fight/flight reaction of the kidneys and with some it actually empties the bowels!!

Look up Marie D. Jones podcasts she talks about it -- Resonance is her book.

jimharold.com...



[edit on 21-4-2010 by drew hempel]

Actually, the Mythbusters themselves debunked the "brown note"

reply to post by drew hempel



You're such a well of information

Thank you yet again for your post. I didn't know the flight/fight mechanism was located in the kidneys


OP: we laugh about it now, but my heart almost stopped one day, broad daylight. I was pottering in the garden, mind floating off and away I suppose

then the sound

Honestly, it almost knocked me out. And induced indescribable fear. I was paralysed, beyond thought or action. I may as well have been shot

And the reason ? So ordinary, really. My son made a 'monster' noise down the plastic-tubing which is attached to the swimming-pool cleaner contraption. You know, it's sort of like a circular sting-ray and sucks and cleans along the bottom and sides of the pool

My son was fixing it and had detached the cleaner-head from the tube. Then, not imagining how it would effect me, he'd made a low, growling noise into his end of the tube. The other end was near my feet. The tube was several metres long and was ribbed, which probably accounted for the sound which emanated from my end

I don't know what I did, to be honest. But it must have been hilarious, because when I finally grasped that I was still on earth and safe, and that the noise was coming from the tube, I looked up to see my son bent double with laughter ... he was laughing so hard he couldn't get his breath. In between laughing, he was trying to say 'sorry', before collapsing in laughter again. Even now, if we remember it, his eyes beam apology at the same time as he laughs

The sound was only of a few seconds' duration, but the effect upon me was beyond words to describe

reply to post by Dock9


what a wonderful post
i couldnt help laughing myself

reply to post by ashanu90


Yes, it's pretty funny

The other sound that springs to mind is just as ordinary and again, we laugh about it now

It was about midnight and everyone but me was asleep. Everything was quiet. Don't know what I'd been doing ... reading or listening to music using headphones, I suppose

Then the phone rang (landline). First thing that comes to mind at that time of night is that it must be an emergency

So, I picked up the receiver and said, 'Hello ? '

After a few seconds of silence, a voice said ' Gooood byyyyyyyy '

That's it --- lol, that the terrifying 'sound'

Don't know what it was about that voice, but it petrified me. I didn't recognise it. But it was more than that. It was as if the person was there in the room with me ... or something

Anyway, there was silence after that for a little while

I must have replaced the receiver. Then I just sat there, on the floor. Too terrified to move or think

When I could move, I ran down the hall and shook my daughter awake. I was babbling --- literally couldn't speak properly because of the ridiculous fear I was experiencing. And I was shaking like a leaf and on the verge of tears, once I was with someone I knew and trusted and felt 'safe' again

To put it in perspective, I've experienced things which make other people quake just to hear about. So I'm not usually as ridiculous as I was that night

It was something about the timbre of the voice. Inexplicable really, my reaction to it. My daughter rolls her eyes

reply to post by Dock9


i dont blame you id be scared to death too, there something freaky about unrecognizable voices
it sounds like it was probabky a prank call or something though

reply to post by Dock9


i dont blame you id be scared to death too, there something freaky about unrecognizable voices
it sounds like it was probabky a prank call or something though

Back in the 70's Hawkwind, especially lemmy (now Motorhead) Had an ongoing search for the 'Brown note"

This was an attempt to generate a low frequency at high volume that would cause 'involuntary evacuation of the bowls' in the members of the audience.

I also read this in the original publication, many years ago, but managed to find it on the net today, here

fusionanomaly.net...


"Professor Gavraud is an engineer who almost gave up his post at an institute in Marseilles because he always felt ill at work. He decided against leaving when discovered that the recurrent attacks of nausea only worried him when he was in his office at the top of the building. Thinking that there must be something in the room that disturbed him, he tried to track it down with devices sensitive to various chemicals, and even with a geiger counter, but he found nothing until one day, nonplused, he leaned back against the wall. The whole room was vibrating at a very low frequency. The source of this energy turned out to be an air-conditioned plant on the roof of a building across the way, and his office was the right shape and the right distance from the machine to resonate in sympathy with it. I was this rhythm, at seven cycles per second, that made him sick."

"Fascinated by the phenomenon, Gavraud decided to build machines to produce infrasound so that he could investigate it further. In casting around for likely designs, he discovered that the whistle with a pea in it issued to all French gendarmes produced a whole range of low-frequency sounds. So he produced a police whistle six feet long and powered it with compressed air. The technician who gave the giant whistle its first trial blast fell down dead on the spot. A post-mortem revealed that all his internal organs had been mashed into an amorphous jelly by the vibrations."

"Gavraud went ahead with his work more carefully and did the next test out of doors, with all observers screened from the machine in a concrete bunker. When all was ready, they turned the air on slowly - and broke the windows of every building within half a mile of the test site. Later they learned to control the amplitude of the infrasound generator more effectively and designed a series of smaller machines for experimental work. One of the most intersting discoveries to date is that the waves of low frequency can be aimed and that two generators focused on a particular point even five miles away produce a resonance that can knock a building down as effectively as a major earthquake. These frequency-7 machines can be built very cheaply, and plans for them are available for three French francs from the Paten Office in Paris."

- Supernature pp. 92-93, Coronet Books 1974.

Always thought it was a great idea for a weapon!

reply to post by ashanu90


Some of the sounds people are mentioning are scary not because of frequency, but because of "survival of the fittest" issues.

Footsteps in other rooms, (presumably rooms that are supposed to be empty, no one really gets creeped out hearing footsteps when they know who is making them and that person is an ally) footsteps sneaking up behind you, other noises like rustles or squeaks behind you, etc. All of these things SHOULD scare the pants off you. Because all of these could be predator noises.

Even though humans are currently for the most part not "prey" animals in many parts of the world, we are still wired to be alert to, and have a fear response to the sounds that are indicators of something sneaking up on us.

The Low frequency sounds are actually another matter, and those dont have to be "predator" type noises, or even register consciously at all.

It might interest you to know that there is actually a martial art, known in the west a "signaling". Included in the art are the use of sounds to direct an opponents attention. High pitch sounds are the sounds of birds and monkeys in the tree tops. Low pitch sounds are the sounds of ground animals like lion, tigers, bears. To direct the opponents primitive mind, a low pick noise distract them downward, high pitch noises distract their attention upwards. I learned this from a gentleman who was a cleaner for the CIA. He had also taught Bruce Lee who was famous for using the sounds in his movies for more dramatic effect.

reply to post by Icerider


That's very cool. I always liked both Hawkwind and Lyall Watson's Supernature!!

Infrasound -- knocks down buildings? Sounds like Tesla's Earthquake machine!!

reply to post by ReelView


martial art of infrasound? now that is interesting
and bruce lee as well huh? neat

reply to post by ashanu90


That makes sense actually -- I always wondered why Bruce Lee always makes those funny yells in high pitch -- "hee yah!!" -- he sounds like a CAT right before it pounces....

I honestly don't know whether certain sounds "should" instill fear in us or to have some sounds much like you mentioned (sounds in our everyday lives) that create this more commonly.

I understand how it works in music, but to hear noises that aren't associated with the same tones that would appear in music makes me think that it is just sounds that are particular to the individual.

Its possible that you don't realize it, and its that the sounds are strangely familiar to something that scared you as a child, and although you can't remember it, a part of your mind never forgets it.

just my thoughts!

I find this topic fascinating! I have built a few speakers in my time. Only now later down the road am I discovering the delights of infrasonic sound.

Over on AV forum a fellow 'basshead' has posted information regarding Mr Graham Hollimans 'infrasonic generator'. Which is simply the daddy of subwoofers, funny thing being how ridiculously very little power is needed to essentially do some serious damage. If you are unaware of the 'holliman infrasonic generator' I'd say have a look.

Again the patent information is freely available and recently posted its surprising how few units have ever been built. I note having taken a look at this post and the designs regarding infrasonics that as part of an AV set up caution should be used when listening/watching material.

I take note from the window shattering experiences mentioned by the OP and the untimely death of the assistant that myself as a fellow basshead should not wantonly exceed Sub 9Hz frequencies. I wonder if any other designs have been attempted with some success?