i can hear "electricity" too. I always thought everyone did. The worst for me is when I have to drive by a transformer station (I live not too far from one) I hate stopping at that light. In addition to hearing it, I can almost feel it there.

If their is a strong enough electric current or a large charge it causes an audable phenomenon, you're hearing electricity when theres thunder, its the lightning effecting the atmosphere creating a sound i.e thunder.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
i can hear "electricity" too. I always thought everyone did. The worst for me is when I have to drive by a transformer station (I live not too far from one) I hate stopping at that light. In addition to hearing it, I can almost feel it there.

I have to agree, I assumed everyone was able to hear/sense electricity in use as it had a noise frequency within our cabale range.

I can 'feel when my TV or Stereo is on. Its not a noise as such just an odd feeling and i could walk past the houses down my street and i could tell you who had their Tellies on in their living rooms.

Many people can do this.

I can.

Actually, it comes in that whenever someone turns on an electrical appliance (ie TV, radio, etc.), I can "feel" persay it is on. There is no sound, just the awareness that it is on, without even seeing it.

2 cents,

-wD

there are some high-tension power lines running behind my house. on a quiet snowy night, you can hear the crackling and snapping in my driveway.

it's eerie, but i get a sense of peace at the same time.

i can hear mains power (50/60hz) occasionally as well, but it needs to be at a reasonable power or i need to be close to the equipment. every so often i also hear a high pitched ringing in some equipment as well, this is most often when equipment is turned on or the equipment becomes faulty.

if i remember my theory correctly (i'm also an avionics tech, and yes it is smoke in the wires) the ringing heard when turning on equipment is caused by the capacitors in the tuned circuits charging up. an example of this is the flash on some cameras when turned on, you can hear a whine increasing in frequency .

all electrical equipment contains tuned circuits that resonate at certain frequencies which also produce harmonics of that frequency, if i understand correctly, its possibly these harmonics that people are hearing.
often one can hear a sudden change in the frequency or level of ringing heard from equipment, which is normally associated with a fault in the equipment caused from shoddy components in the tuned circuits.

many people have different ranges of hearing, mine stops at about 15Khz with a large dip aroung 9Khz (iirc) caused form working with aircraft. i have heard of people whose hearing can reach a high as 20Khz which would allow them to hear alot more harmonics caused by electrical equipment.

not sure if this helps but may explain it for some people

cheers
armorris

P.S. with regards to fluro lights its now possiple to purchase these that operate at a higher frequency , i think 48Khz, which reduces the hum from them and also reduces the headaches that people get when working around them


[edit on 8-1-2005 by armorris]

I think that this is not the result of tinnitus..

had a case of this after a free party I went to.. this not the same thing at all....

It seems that everyone is saying "I thought everyone could feel/hear electricity." Well, i know i can as well, so... what makes you people think that some people cant. It seems all of you can, and so can i. Therefore there is a good chance that everyone on Earth can. Although im sure some, especially those in big cities, have just grown accustomed to the sound. To where they dont even notice it. I, like a few of you, am able to walk down the street and tell you who has a TV on also. Im not sure about computers. Im sure its the same. As a student, i have noticed something else as well, that is quite annoying. Im sure everyone else can hear them, if they listen, but Cell phones are extremely loud, with an irritating high pitch. Whenever i am in class, and its quiet, and someone takes out a cell phone, and flips it open, or turns one on, there is an annoying EEEEEEEEEE sound. I just noticed it within the past few months, so, maybe its only the newer phones. I dont know much about cell phones, i am one of the few who hasnt, and wont fall in to the cell phone trap.

It's not so much electricity...when i am somewhere that is sooo quiet with nothing on (electricity) my ears will start to ring or there will just be like a high pitched sound. It's not too loud and hasn't happened much recently. I have no idea what it is...it's almost as if my ears are straining for noise, to just hear something.

I never thought anyone else could hear it either. Whenever I claim to hear the TV on (on mute) from a distance for example, my family has no idea what I am talking about. The same goes for other electrical appliances.

The worst by far though, as some of you have already mentioned is radio towers. These almost cripple me when I'm close to them. I get a loud, piercing noise in my ears, followed by a feeling of extreme dizziness until I get the hell out of there. For those of you who've mentioned radio towers, power stations and the like, do you ever experience something on this scale?

It's not the tinitus disease thing, at least for me anyways, otherwise my ears would be constantly ringing 24/7. My ringing is activated by electricity.

I hate that sound, every so often I have to go out to the middle of nowhere so it at least gets quiet for a little bit.

The nicest thing ever was about 16 months ago when the power went out across a bunch of states for a few days.
It gives me a headache and when the buzzing went away for just a little while I felt amazing.

i hear it too its weird,
i hear it wen im in other rooms i can tell if theres like tvs or and electrica things on..its just like a noise or feeling ui cant explain

every1 thinks im mad..lol

I to HEAR electricity. I can hear which houses have on lights and the TV or other appliances.
I can HEAR the 'ring' of electrical wires on poles. Substations practically SCREAM in my head, and I cant live within a mile of one.
When Im out in the wilderness FAR from any powerlines, I experiance a peace & quiet that is unattainable in any city limits.
Out in the middle of nowhere, IF there are powerlines along the roads, its as noisey to me as being in the city.
Ive seen people on the Montell Williams show making these claims as well....Montell was refering to these people as having SUPER TUNED hearing....but I think it all depends on the electrical frequency of your own body. Some folks are just susceptable to hearing this. Not MANY I understand, and thats why the vast majority of people find this hard to swallow.
I think people that CAN hear this, are also prone to having an effect on street lamps and light bulbs there IS a word for this....called SLIDERS....(street lamp 'sumpin sumpin' recpters) There are threads about this on ATS....but I cant find them on MY ATS anymore now with the server updated

I used to almost get an immediate migraine at Jewelry/makeup counters in the mall. You know, in dept stores?? Something about the lights and the counters just hit my ears wrong

I think the flourescent lights in places like Walmart really bother small kids. My daughter used to be absolutely demonic in Walmart. I think the lights rang in her ears.

As I have aged, my hearing isn't *quite* as sharp and things aren't as bad. I used to be able to see the air too. My eyesight has really gone downhill, so those days are over.

I definitely have tinnitus -- I think it comes part and parcel with Meniere's which I was diagnosed with when I was in my teens (many many moons ago) So I always have ringing in my ears to the point it can be distracting sometimes.

But what I am talking about - is more a feeling than an actual hearing -- the only way I can explain it is it is similar to pressure -- but not pressure -- just the closest thing I can come up with to explain it. I think that is why it can sometiimes make me ill --- which of course could be part of the meniere's - because the feeling when I feel ill from it is similar to what I feel when the meniere's is flaring.

boy - I just reread that and it seems to be as clear as mud but I can't come up with any better way to explain it.

jm

You are correct armorris, when a cap starts to go bad, it goes noisy.

Florescent lights are noisy, too, and inductrial lighting will drive some people to violence, especially when a ballast is going bad.

Face it, AC is noisy, but considering how much it would cosr to send DC through the grid, it's a small inconvenience.

I had a picture of my heart taken once, like how they do ultrasound for pregnant women. And I could hear it. The technicion would turn on the machine as he did a pass and I would hear this "dee dee dee dee dit". I laughed and told him, he gave me a dubious look, then turned the machine around and told me to tell me when he turned it on. And I could. He was a bit surprised.

You aren't supposed to be able to hear it. What I wondered is, was I hearing some bone in my body vibrating, or something.