as small as a world and as large as alone

9:48am August 2, 2013

odditiesoflife:

Can You Hear “The Hum?“

Currently 1 in 50 people across the world can hear a low, disturbing noise which scientists can’t explain. It is a noise that only 2% can hear, but this low, droning sound is enough to drive anyone mad. No one has yet figured out what causes the phenomena called “The Hum” or why it is heard in locations across the planet.

For decades, hundreds of people worldwide have been plagued by an elusive buzzing noise known as “The Hum.“ It is an unexplained phenomena involving a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise that is not audible to all people. Hums have been widely reported by national media in the UK and the United States. “The Hum” is sometimes prefixed with the name of a locality where the problem has been particularly publicized: e.g., the “Bristol Hum” and the “Taos Hum.”

The “Taos Hum" in Taos, New Mexico has been featured on many paranormal websites and shows. Some residents and visitors in the small city have been annoyed and puzzled for years by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air. Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Whether described as a whir, hum, or buzz or if its cause is psychological, natural, or supernatural, no one has yet been able to locate the sound’s origin.

The “Bristol Hum" in Great Britain is the most famous example  that first made headlines in the late 1970s. One newspaper asked readers in the city: “Have you heard the Hum?“ Almost 800 people said they had. The problem has persisted for years. Experts stated that traffic and factories were to blame. There have been other cases in Cheshire, Cornwall, Gloucestershire, London, Shropshire, Suffolk and Wiltshire. A low-pitched drone known as the “Largs Hum” has troubled the coastal town of Largs in Strathclyde for more than two decades. And the problem is on the increase, according to the Low Frequency Noise Sufferers’ Association. Two thousand people have so far have contacted its helpline, and it says it receives two or three new cases every week. At least three suicides have been blamed on “The Hum" in the United Kingdom.

The internet is abuzz with rumors and speculation as to the cause of “The Hum.“ Conspiracy theorists are convinced that Governments are behind the sound by broadcasting messages from secret research stations. Others are positive that is has to do with microwave transmissions or power station transformers. There are dark mutterings about secret military activity or alien contacts. “The Hum” has even been featured in an episode of the science fiction show, “The X-Files.“

People suffering from “The Hum” are constantly being dismissed as crazy or whiners which only exacerbates their distress from the sound, most of whom have perfectly normal hearing. Physical reactions have included nausea, dizziness, nosebleeds, headaches and sleep disturbances.

So what is the cause? Various features of modern life have been blamed - gas pipes, power lines, mobile phone masts, wind farms, nuclear waste, and even low-frequency submarine communications. Some doctors speculate that certain people just hear frequencies that others don’t or that everyone hearing it is suffering from tinnitus (an inner ear disorder). But none of these explanations have satisfied the people who are having to deal with this constant noise in their head, leaving some on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Regardless of what reasons have been provided, most of the time there is no external noise that can be recorded or identified. Will “The Hum" be solved or will it remain in science’s own “X-Files?“

source 1, 2, 3, 4

My building has an obnoxious low frequency hum that drives me to distraction. But it’s coming from such a specific location that I assume it’s machinery.

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