The Creepy Scientific Explanation Behind Ghost Sightings

.....In order to understand the science we need to head back to the late 1950's. While working in his robotics laboratory Vladimir Gavreau noticed that one of his assistants was bleeding from the ears, despite the absence of rebelling robots choking him.

Puzzled, Gavreau started researching the phenomenon by holding vibrating pipes next to clueless assistants. We'll never know what excuse he used when they turned around and asked him why their ears were bleeding, but one way or another Gavreau soon realized that a vibrating pipe of the right length and girth can cause a number of unpleasant effects ranging from mild irritation to serious pain.

What he had discovered, aside from an awesome new way to torture interns, was infrasound. It's noise at a low enough frequency that you don't consciously hear it, but your ears still sense it. The process of receiving sensory input without your conscious mind understanding where it's coming from wreaks havoc with your emotions. Specifically, researchers found that sounds between 7 and 19 Hz it could induce fear, dread or panic.

They did an experiment where acoustic scientists sneaked in low frequency sounds at a live concert. Since scientists love nothing more than inducing feelings of fear and terror in unsuspecting citizens, most of the concert goers had no idea what was going on. As a result one minute they were enjoying some sweet tunes while the next a feeling of dread invaded their hearts, crushing all hope and happiness. At the end of the experiment approximately 22 percent of the people involved in the experiment reported feelings of unexplainable dread, chills and depression when infrasound was blasted into the crowd.

Why would it have this effect? It may be evolution. It doesn't take a mad scientist mind control device to create infrasound -- mother nature is creating this type of low frequency vibration all the time. Volcanos, earthquakes, strong ocean waves and even winds hitting the hillside in just the right spot can create infrasound. Even animals can create it, and tigers are particularly well known as a source. The frequency of a tiger's roar is around 18Hz -- right in that range we mentioned earlier.

source http://www.kracked.com/article_18828...sightings.html

Ghostly ‘infrasound’ may explain the paranormal

Science now has a plausible explanation for ghost-sightings, hauntings and the ghoulish work of the evil spirits — a phenomenon called infrasound.

Infrasound is made up of sound waves so low that our human ears cannot detect it, science columnist Torah Kachur told CBC Radio West . “But our bodies still interpret it, and it makes that bone-chilling, hair-stand-on-end kind of feeling.”

Infrasound has been found to cause physiological effects such as heart palpitations and respiratory change, and can distort the eyeballs to such a degree that "apparitions" can be observed, Kachur says.

She explains how infrasound was discovered, what scientists have learned about it since and how being able to detect infrasound may be an biological adaptation to avoid natural disasters. Also, how it might explain paranormal phenomena.

source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/gh...rmal-1.2325651

British researcher says infrasonic wave sounds create ghosts

....Being a true researcher, Tandy decided to do research on the phenomenon and place it on the solid scientific grounds. Having become a “ghost buster” of sorts, he spent five years looking into all the stories related to ghosts observed in the old English castles. He lay in wait at night. He studied the readings of scientific equipment. Eventually, he learned from whence the ghosts came. He even put forth the reasons why the English happen to witness ghosts more frequently than the residents of other countries.

......

The researcher arrived at the conclusion by accident. He brought a rapier to his workplace one day after he saw the ghost in his laboratory. The rapier needed repairing for a competition Tandy was going to participate later that week. He held the rapier in a vice and soon saw it oscillate as if an invisible hand was swinging the rapier back and forth. The researcher was confident that he was witnessing the phenomenon of resonance.

It was very quite in the laboratory at the time. Tandy got down to measuring procedures using a number of devices. He was really amazed to find out that a terrible noise and rumbling was, in fact, filling the laboratory at the very moment. But all the sounds were infrasonic i.e. with frequencies below the audible range.

It did not take Tandy long to locate the source of noise. The noise was coming from a new ventilator, which was recently installed in an air conditioning system. Once the researcher switched off the ventilator, the rapier stopped vibrating. A moment later an interesting idea crossed his mind: “What if the infrared phenomenon has to do with ghosts?”

The sound waves in the laboratory measured a frequency of 18.98 Hz. It roughly equals the frequency movement of a human eyeball.

The wind gusts blowing against the walls of an old tower produce the sound waves within the infrasound range. The sounds can penetrate the thickest walls. When in a tower, one can hear the wind howling and moaning like mad in the corridors.

“It’s not a coincidence that the ghosts allegedly walk along the long corridors where drafts fly bouncing over the walls,” says the researcher in proof of his theory.

source: http://english.pravda.ru/science/mys...3979-ghosts-0/

Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Vic Tandy on Ghosts and Infrasound

Vic Tandy of the School of International Studies and Law at Coventry University put together a paper back in 1998 called The Ghost in the Machine. In it, he describes the science behind a phenomenon concerning the human eye, which stands to be the root cause of a portion of "ghost sightings." Apparently 18hz-19hz sound waves can cause a resonant vibration in the eye, inducing artifacts misinterpreted as supernatural. These frequencies are referred to as infrasound because they are below the hearing range of humans.20hz is classically the lowest frequency a human can detect via hearing (vibration through touch is a separate issue), and the overall range of hearing narrows with age. 20hz-20,000hz is classically known to be the range of hearing in a baby, with pristine undamaged ears.

Everyone's eyeballs are different, so the exact frequency must vary.
Tandy states on the resonant frequency:
"Eyeballs (1-100Hz mostly above 8 Hz and strongly 20-70Hz effect difficulty in seeing)"

As a side note, infrasound can be heard by elephants; which leads me to conclude that there must be significantly less ghost elephant sightings amongst their communities.


Here's the abstract of Ghost in the Machine:
"In this paper we outline an as yet undocumented natural cause for some cases of ostensible haunting. Using the first author’s own experience as an example, we show how a 19hz standing air wave may under certain conditions create sensory phenomena suggestive of a ghost. The mechanics and physiology of this ‘ghost in the machine’ effect is outlined. Spontaneous case researchers are encouraged to rule out this potential natural explanation for paranormal experience in future cases of the haunting or poltergeistic type."

Download the paper here: Ghost in the Machine
paper: ghost in machine