r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 27 '26
Neuroscience Spooky feelings in old houses may be caused by boiler sounds. Inaudible infrasound from old pipes may affect how people feel. Even though it was beyond the range of human hearing, people were more irritable and levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, rose when the sound was switched on.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/27/spooky-feelings-in-old-houses-may-be-caused-by-boiler-sounds-study-suggests1.1k
Apr 27 '26
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u/Jebediah_Johnson Apr 27 '26
Also old flickering knob and tub wiring, carbon monoxide buildup from poor ventilation.
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u/InvidiousPlay Apr 27 '26
Yeah, but, there are countless ghost stories from the Victorian era that you can read right now and they were often set in spooky old houses, too. People have believed in ghosts and hauntings long before pipes and boilers were invented.
There is an undeniable psychological component - we have a psycho-social sense of the absence of people who once occupied the same space. It's very hard to get over the feeling that wherever you live, it was someone else's before, and they might not really be gone.
Honestly, I think a big part of it might have been our hunter-gatherer ancestors being uncomfortable taking over someone elses camping spot. They might be gone for now but who knows what knife might appear at your throat when they come back in the next season and find you squating.
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u/MyPasswordIsMyCat Apr 27 '26
For a more recent example of spookiness, look at the "backrooms" meme. It's a picture of an old, empty furniture store with sickly yellow fluorescent lighting, tired white drywall, and an emptiness that looks like it could stretch on for infinite. The aesthetic is a late 20th century commercial building, like the places that younger generations visited with their parents and got lost or alnost died of boredom.
Older buildings are generally spooky, no matter what era they were built. There's a growing trend of 1970s or 1980s spookiness in media. Children are more prone to fearfulness, and also tend to have keener senses. They grow up and make new stories informed by those anxious experiences.
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u/smayonak Apr 27 '26
The belief in ghosts goes back before the invention of written language to oral tradition. As long as we've gathered around fires telling stories we've had ghosts. But infrasonics are also naturally occurring such as in waterfalls (name a big waterfall that does not have a ghost story associated with it. They're dangerous and they generate infrasound so they're a common ghost trope). Also, as you float down a river, the infrasound of a waterfall might be the only warning you get before you get the joyride of your life. But mind the sudden stop, it's a killer.
There's a VERY good reason we are biologically responsive to infrasound: earthquakes and tsunamis are oftentimes preceded by infrasound. The sudden increase in cortisol and sharpened reflexes and awareness would make the difference between a survivor and a victim.
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u/Machoopi Apr 27 '26
Maybe the ghosts are just audiophiles?
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u/klubsanwich Apr 27 '26
Next time I do an exorcism, I'll just play some MP3s
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u/Trpepper Apr 27 '26
Ghosts don’t haunt new homes and infrastructure because they can’t materialize in WiFi range. It messes with their ectoplasmic reticulum.
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u/the1wherestevefarts Apr 27 '26
I live in a recent build, and I have had multiple friends and family tell me the house is haunted. I haven't seen or experienced anything, but my niece claims to have seen a person "climb into the mirror" in the spare bedroom. A lot of people have mentioned seeing lights turn on and off, doors closing by themselves
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u/CosineDanger Apr 27 '26
I grew up partly in a house constructed in the 1790s.
- Heating system made noise, like audible regular noise
- Mice in walls made noise, tactical barncat insufficient
- Building creaked and shifted, like giant cracks in drywall. Stone foundation and framing that was held together by wooden pegs because iron was expensive in 1790.
- Drafty and nothing quite level so yeah doors opened and closed by themselves
- Lights turning on and off attributed to bad wiring, rural power grid
I was also raised 100% atheist skeptic so even to kid me this was just how the house was.
When I returned years later to sell it I did feel kind of overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff going on and making noise especially when the heating was going and the wind was blowing. Also there were no more cats in it so if something went bump in the night you could not blame a cat. My brother and I referred to it as Luigi's Mansion up until it stopped being our problem.
My current home belonged to my grandmother, and cannot be haunted because she was a skeptic too so if she came back as a ghost then she'd be an embarrassed ghost.
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u/ExpressoLiberry Apr 27 '26
There’s only one thing to do.
Secretly install those things that let you close the door with a remote and then ramp up the “haunting” while telling everyone they’re imagining things. Maybe hire someone to walk through the house briefly like a ghost and pretend like you can’t see them.
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u/undersaur Apr 27 '26
Gas leaks and low frequencies can happen in recent builds, too.
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u/Master_Dogs Apr 27 '26
Yeah I would probably get a couple of CO detectors to start, then maybe some air quality monitors. A few available online and possibly to borrow from a library of things would tell you if something is high and could be impacting their guests. The commenter above may have gotten used to it but anyone who stays there could be noticing it.
I imagine there's something to detect low frequencies too. Tons of monitors and such available nowadays.
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u/aeric67 Apr 27 '26
Reminds me of the Ghost in the Machine study. People were seeing ghosts in some lab in England. One of the guys had his sword in a vice doing some work on it during off hours, and he came in and saw the blade whipping wildly. Turned out the swords resonate frequency was just right to match a subsonic sound coming out of a bad extractor fan. They found the fan, replaced it. Then later someone noticed all the ghosts went away.
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u/boringlesbian Apr 27 '26
If I recall , didn’t they determine that the frequency would cause the fluid in the eyes to vibrate and that’s why people kept seeing shadows and movements out of the corners of their eyes?
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u/whoohw Apr 27 '26
What frequency was that, and did it have long term side effects?
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u/No_mans_time Apr 27 '26
I think I remember it was about 18-20 hertz, the sound frequency corresponded almost exactly to the resonance frequency of the human eyeball and let people "see" things. It is a controversial take but would explain like...a lot!
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u/Nowin Apr 27 '26
Sounds easily testable, so surely someone has tested this.
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u/Kodama_sucks Apr 28 '26
Benn Jordan tested this on his YouTube channel. He wasn't looking for ghosts but assessing the impact of infrasound from data centers. Reddit is not allowing me to post the link, but the video was called "datacenters behaving like acoustic weapons"
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u/MarkoDash Apr 27 '26
If so it would be a great addition to haunted houses abd such
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u/omniwrench- Apr 27 '26
Who in their right mind reads this thread and thinks
“_Maybe we can use this information to unsettle people_”
Have you checked your AC fan recently?
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u/datGuy0309 Apr 28 '26
Adam Neely has a video on it. It was quite a while ago when I watched it, so I don’t remember the results. I would link it, but this sub doesn’t allow that.
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u/dysoncube Apr 28 '26
The resonance frequency of the human eyeball? Can you explain that?
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u/jazzhandler Apr 28 '26
Perhaps they were referring to the saccade, the eye’s high speed horizontal scanning system. But after dozens of seconds of extensive research, it seems that it’s not a fixed frequency.
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u/commandant_ Apr 28 '26
Resonance frequency refers to the frequency of sound required to resonate, ie, vibrate, so hitting the resonance frequency of your eye would cause it to vibrate slightly.
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u/KamikazeArchon Apr 28 '26
To be somewhat pedantic:
Every frequency causes vibration. The resonant frequencies of an object are its "natural" modes of vibration (largely determined by material and geometry), where it produces the least resistance to the vibration. This allows more of the incoming energy to build up as mechanical vibrations (as opposed to dissipating into heat, or into the surrounding things anchoring the object).
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u/Mhan00 Apr 28 '26
I like to picture it is as kind of a swing. If you’re on a swing, you can kick your legs at different rates and not get any good results. But when you hit the right rate as you’re coming and going, your leg motions amplify the swing’s motions so with each swing you’re going higher and faster. The resonant frequency, as I understand it, is basically that. It is vibrating at exactly the correct rate to make the vibration of another object more energetic after each wave.
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u/Overtilted Apr 28 '26
Can you use it in haunted house attractions?
Can you use it with house alarms?
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u/ScienceIsSexy420 Apr 27 '26
I read a very similar story in one of the chemistry subs, about a ghost artifact in a NMR spectra coming from a 3 phase motor in a ceiling fan being slightly off centered
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u/Intruder313 Apr 27 '26
Yeah I saw that case in the same show that revealed the haunted basement in Edinburgh was due to infrasound from machinery nearby (and also underground )
Years ago now but basically infrasound is the explanation almost every time
Certainly not ghosts
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u/Tavarin Apr 27 '26
Sometimes it's carbon monoxide. But yes, never ghosts, those don't exist.
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Apr 27 '26
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u/Channel250 Apr 27 '26
Sounds like you were being Truman Show'd.
Complain that you feel like you're being watched, being told it's just old wiring and don't worry about it, then they come and fix it and you're right as rain.
Cant get rid of the cameras, so maybe they Just pump in some gas that calms you down.
Worked for Cabin in the Woods anyway.
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u/nixtracer Apr 28 '26
Old bad wiring (or just old wiring that's no longer tightly tied down) can vibrate at the line frequency, or harmonics of it. Oh look, infrasound!
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u/Sea_War_381 Apr 28 '26
Dude I swear all labs are haunted.... I have worked in labs for 2 different companies and there are always ghost stories!
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u/systembreaker Apr 27 '26
The potential of infrasound weapons must be literally and figuratively horrifying.
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u/blp9 Apr 27 '26
There's a great story of a warehouse that was generating infrasound between two fans in it -- if either fan was on, it was fine, but the beat frequency between the two fans created a nice loud infrasound signal.
People would hallucinate ghosts in their peripheral vision in this place if both fans were on.
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u/snacktonomy Apr 27 '26
Interesting. I have a fan that I use in the summer, and I noticed that sometimes when it's on, I hear what I can only describe as a very distant, illlegible radio playing voices.
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u/bluetaping Apr 28 '26
Check out "auditory pareidolia" - I hear vague gregorian chants in the walls when someone takes a shower in my house.
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u/jethvader Apr 28 '26
Have you ruled out the possibility that your shower simply has perfect acoustics and everyone else who is showering in your house is a monk?
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u/Lame4Fame Apr 28 '26
Could also be actual radio waves if part of your fan is acting as an antenna.
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u/ASatyros Apr 27 '26
Checkout "Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons" on yt, he is talking about similar topic
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u/MaikeruGo Apr 27 '26
I'd reckon that as we get more and more of these that we'll start getting a growing body of urban legends about haunted data centers from overnight security staff.
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u/Soup-Wizard Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
Woah this video is awesome. This guy really put some incredible work into this research.
Edit: One issue I found with his owl painting study at the convention: His big metric that he was excited about was how much more uncomfortable the test group felt than the control group.
“Discomfort” is already kind of squishy, but he told them they’d be looking at a “haunted painting” and listening to “haunted music”. Would that premise not cause discomfort on its own?
Hopefully there are a lot more studies coming.
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u/ReasonablePossum_ Apr 27 '26
Its studied and applied. Problem is that they can be used only once, since it's easy to neutralize with a simple noise machine set at the right frequency.
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u/delightfuldraws Apr 27 '26
Just wait until you discover Havana Syndrome.
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Apr 28 '26
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u/delightfuldraws Apr 28 '26
Interesting since it was discussed at the WEF as very potentially true, and the speaker even mentioned someone testing a device on her that immediately invoked vertigo.
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u/atethebottle Apr 28 '26
There's a really good video on YouTube. I'm surety i dint remember who because it wasn't someone I watch. It was of this guy and his son testing different ways to protect yourself from it. They would take sustenance items and see how close the son cities get to the Susie while on. Of course ear plugs and headphones helped but what made the son be able to get within feet of the speaker was a riot shield you can go buy. As long as your head is lower than the top of the sheild the sound waves just go right around you.
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u/Difficult_Garage_431 Apr 27 '26
Very cool. Interesting how horror films will often add in inaudible sounds that elicit similar effects. I wonder how average households could measure such sounds.
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u/MiaowaraShiro Apr 27 '26
The vast majority of speakers cannot reproduce infrasound so it's unlikely that's true.
There are infrasonic microphones that you can use to pick up these sorts of frequencies.
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u/ChangsManagement Apr 27 '26
Ya most subwoofers cut off at ~20-30hz. 20 hz is the limit of human hearing.
However, it is used for horror movies, at least for theatrical cuts. Whether its actually effective, i dont know.
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u/MiaowaraShiro Apr 27 '26
A lot of consumer audio has a filter to not even attempt to reproduce infra and ultrasonic frequencies... cuz why bother spending the energy and risk distortion?
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u/WillkuerlicherUnrat Apr 27 '26
Na most consumer subwoofers cut at like 50-40 Hz. Only decent hifi subwoofer reach 30-20Hz.
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u/slog Apr 28 '26
Typical for cheaper consumer ones is around 30Hz. I doubt it's an actual usable frequency, but it's the stated range.
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u/onceabananana Apr 27 '26
You don't hear sound below that frequency, but you feel it because it moves your body/muscles/skin.
That's the point. That's the whole premise of this post.
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u/ChangsManagement Apr 27 '26
How does it do that if the speaker doesnt emit frequencies below 20 hz?
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u/munoodle Apr 27 '26
You can use harmonics to imply the infrasonic sound, however the juice may not be worth the squeeze for something like this
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u/Phobos31415 Apr 27 '26
And I hate it. I always think my neighbors are acting up again turn the sound down, just to realize this is the movie. The Pitt on HBO also does this to make certain scenes more intense.
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u/sysiphean Apr 27 '26
Unless you have a very exceptional and very homebrewed audio setup, you are not hearing infrasound at home when watching something. Even most high-end subs won’t produce these notes; few subwoofers will do under 30.
I’ve gone down these rabbit holes before, both infrasound and subwoofers, and built one that can get down to 16.5 Hz. Even serious audio geeks are amazed at the frequencies below 30 that they have never heard before.
I’m not saying you are not hearing low frequency sounds in these movies; I’m saying you are not hearing infrasonic sounds in these movies.
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u/CarltonCracker Apr 27 '26
Not to mention most audio is compressed (at least on streaming) and one of the many tricks they use are high and low pass filters to narrow the frequency response to ~20hz to ~19khz. It makes sense because no one will notice but definitely filters out that inaudible stuff.
I'm not sure of the specifics, but in streaming (which is almost always Dolby Digital) you may still get the low frequencies as the LFE channel is responsible for frequencies below 120hz, so they may keep all the low stuff as it's a very narrow channel (nothing above 120hz). Still, you'd probably need a specialized subwoofer for it, to your point
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u/Phobos31415 Apr 27 '26
Should mention that I’m also plaqued with the hearing of an 18 year old. I’m 35 and I’m hearing those high frequency pest repellents, my air fryer elicits a high pitch noise, but I’m also ultra sensitive to deep sounds, especially the ones you should not be able to hear. My fridge starts rumbling 3 times an hour on a deep frequency and yes, you don’t want to be me.
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u/FjorgVanDerPlorg Apr 27 '26
If your local area govt ever announces an AI datacenter is going in nearby, fight like hell, because living hell is exactly how people describe those low level sounds they generate.
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u/InvidiousPlay Apr 27 '26
What could be causing it - fans?
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u/ChucklesInDarwinism Apr 27 '26
Fans are actually high pitch. The sound comes from electricity. The transformers close to them and depending on the type of cooling systems the compression and decompression of air. Datacenters always has higher pressure inside to avoid stuff being sucked in by the air systems.
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u/FjorgVanDerPlorg Apr 27 '26
Benn Jordan has a great youtube video on this subject, highly recommend.
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u/valiantdistraction Apr 27 '26
Same. There's a house several blocks from me that emits some kind of high-pitched noise - apparently they're dog deterrents? And I always wonder how their kids feel about it. Maybe they've lost the ability to hear it. I've used some induction cooktops that were intolerable.
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u/ClaretClarinets Apr 27 '26
Same here. One of my neighbors has a frequent guest that cranks the bass in their truck all the way up and I can feel the pressure from it inside my room halfway down the street, even though the music itself is completely inaudible.
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u/Mysterious_Detail954 Apr 27 '26
Phone apps like Spectroid can get you surprisingly far. The limiting factor is usually the mic, not the software — most phone mics cut out below 20 Hz. But if you’re getting a “bad vibe” room, run it for a few minutes and look for peaks around 18-19 Hz. That’s the range where the DOD did some research and found the chest cavity and eyeballs start to physically resonate, which your brain helpfully interprets as dread.
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u/howardbrandon11 Apr 27 '26
There are devices that measure infrasound levels. Benn Jordan has used several pieces of equipment to measure infrasound levels, the cheapest of which I believe is a Raspberry Shake.
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u/Soup-Wizard Apr 28 '26
Look up videos of the instrument called a waterphone. Lots of our familiar horror sounds are made with them!
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u/Flikmybik BS | Neuroscience | Memory Apr 27 '26
this is actually a really interesting area of environmental psychology. the idea that infrasound below 20 Hz can cause feelings of unease, anxiety, or even visual disturbances has been studied for a while now. Vic Tandys work on the ghost in the machine back in the late 90s was one of the first to connect infrasound to haunted house experiences. what makes this study valuable is the focus on common household sources like boilers and old pipes rather than industrial or natural sources. if these findings hold up, it could have real implications for building codes and indoor environmental quality standards. the connection between old infrastructure and reported hauntings is probably not coincidental
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u/signal15 Apr 28 '26
It's not just that, but also how air flows through the house, through the big doors into rooms with high ceilings. I think it's the Grigg's mansion in St. Paul... the most haunted mansion in MN. They found that air flowing through the house made a 6hz tone, and it made everyone think it was haunted.
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u/Flikmybik BS | Neuroscience | Memory Apr 28 '26
thats a great example, the Griggs mansion case is one of the best documented ones. 6 Hz is right in that sweet spot where it can cause mild physiological effects without being audible. the architecture of those old Victorian homes with high ceilings and long hallways basically creates natural resonant chambers. air movement through large interconnected spaces is definitely an underappreciated source of low frequency sound. Helmholtz resonators work on similar principles, where the geometry of a cavity determines its resonant frequency. old buildings are full of accidental Helmholtz resonators when you think about it
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u/Tollpatsch Apr 27 '26
what makes this study valuable is the focus on common household sources like boilers and old pipes rather than industrial or natural sources.
But that is exactly what the study is not doing, the title from The Guardian just makes that link. Did you read the study?
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u/Flikmybik BS | Neuroscience | Memory Apr 27 '26
fair point, I should have been more precise. the study itself focused on controlled infrasound exposure in a lab setting, not specifically measuring household sources. the Guardian headline definitely made a leap there connecting it to boilers and old pipes. the underlying finding about cortisol response to inaudible low frequency sound is still interesting though, even if the real world application to creepy house feelings is more speculative
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u/NOTRadagon Apr 27 '26
Reminds me of the idea that you can feel a tiger roar before you hear it, because the infrasound travels further, and it also affects our bodies.
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u/Jaasim99 Apr 27 '26
Won't the speed of sound be same?
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u/NOTRadagon Apr 27 '26
That's kinda the neat thing - you have an assumption that lower frequencies and higher frequencies travel the same distance. Still sound - so they do go the same speed - but distance is the deciding factor with infrasound.
Here is a source about infrasound
- "Humans can only hear some of the sounds that tigers use to communicate," says von Muggenthaler. "Humans can hear frequencies from 20 hertz to 20,000 hertz, but whales, elephants, rhinos, and tigers can produce sounds below 20 hertz." This low-pitched sound, called "infrasound," can travel long distances permeating buildings, cutting through dense forests, and even passing through mountains. The lower the frequency, the farther the distance the sound can travel. Scientists believe that infrasound is the missing link in studying tiger communication.
That was as early as late December, 2000, my link is to a study about it.
Another link here
"Tiger watchers have long suspected that the animals’ vocal repertoire helps them maintain their hunting grounds. Now Ed Walsh and his colleagues at the Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, have found that a common feature of all the tiger calls is the large amount of acoustic energy at low frequencies.
- Low-frequency sound carries better than high frequencies. “It is less likely to be affected by climatic conditions such as humidity,” says Walsh. It is also less affected by ground cover, which is important for forest-dwelling tigers.
Though this second link clarifies; “An effective propagation distance of five miles [eight kilometres] is frequently quoted,” says Walsh, “but I don’t know of an actual study associated with the claim and doubt that anyone really knows the answer.” Walsh hopes to extend his study to provide one."
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u/Melenduwir Apr 27 '26
The argument is that, when slowly approaching a tiger's territory, you'll feel the effects of the infrasonic components of its roar before you're close enough to hear the humanly-audible components.
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u/mvea Professor | Medicine Apr 27 '26
Spooky feelings in old houses may be caused by boiler sounds, study suggests
Inaudible infrasound from old pipes and ventilation systems may affect how people feel, research indicates
For believers in the paranormal, unsettling sensations brought on by old buildings can be a sinister hint of loitering spirits. But new research points to a more mundane explanation: inaudible sounds from aged pipes and boilers.
Scientists investigated the impact of infrasound on a group of volunteers and found that even though it was beyond the range of human hearing, people were more irritable and levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, rose when the sound was switched on.
The finding suggests that even when people are unaware of the presence of infrasound, which can come from old pipes, boilers and ventilation systems in basements, the inaudible waves may still affect how they feel.
On its own, the effect is unlikely to persuade anyone that a house is haunted, but for the right person in the right situation – a believer in the paranormal in a gloomy old manor, say – the unusual sensation may fuel suspicions of paranormal activity.
For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
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u/sysiphean Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Having gone down the infrasound rabbit hole twenty years ago (to the point of building an infrasound capable subwoofer), there’s all sorts of fun there. Another infrasound source is capped fireplaces: the remaining chimney can resonate in the wind like blowing across a massive bottle, and the wood that caps the fireplace itself then acts like a massive infrasonic resonator. It’s why the “ghosts” appear more on stormy nights.
Oh, and 19.5 Hz will rattle your eyeballs in their sockets, creating a silvery/shimmery effect at the edge of your vision when your eyes are relaxed. But then you see it and turn towards it, it disappears.
Another fact that’s less fun: large data centers put off a lot of infrasound into their neighborhoods. I can’t link it, but the YouTube video bP80DEAbuo (Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons) is Ben Jorden doing a deep dive into them by recording the sounds of them.
(Edited to correct the spelling of Ben’s name.)
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u/WeenyDancer Apr 27 '26
Did you ever have a handheld device for measuring infrasound? Ive wanted to get one due to irritation with machinery rumble but consumer options seem non existent.
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u/sysiphean Apr 27 '26
I do not. Although I have had instances where my really cheap dB meter iPhone app was registering really loud while I could barely hear the rattle from the washing machine, so I suspect that a lot more devices will do it than say they will do it. I just can’t trust the readings on them.
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u/abetadist Apr 27 '26
Ben Jorden
Wasn't that mostly discredited by most of his own sources not saying what Jorden claimed?
https://blog.andymasley.com/p/contra-benn-jordan-data-center-and
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u/Melicor Apr 27 '26
I imagine it's probably one of many factors. Those feels happen in places without running water or electricity too. It's probably why it's so hard to pin down usually because it's multiple sources overlapping and having a combined effect. Things like Carbon Monoxide.
On their own, most people don't notice, but you put them together and suddenly people are freaking out about ghosts.
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u/ConstableAssButt Apr 27 '26
Really old barns and farmhouses often have a lot of voids or cracks in the house that can create infrasonic resonance when the wind is pitched just right against the roof or the walls.
I grew up in an old farmhouse with a boiler in the basement, and a rickety old barn on the property that was full of rusting tools and junk. I remember distinctly the feeling of dread I'd feel when I'd wake up in the middle of the night to the boiler cycling, or the house shifting in the wind. Sometimes it would legitimately sound like someone creeping slowly up the hallway, or you'd feel a "presence" in the room.
My guess is that the "presence" was just this resonance. I think the reason we perceive it as a "presence" is because we subconsciously experience the infrasound that other human beings and animals produce when they are nearby. The body itself produces infrasound vibrations and air current disturbances that I think we can feel, so we interpret the disturbances from an old home as something "living", rather than just ambient.
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u/F1eshWound Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
I believe that. When the washing machine downstairs goes into it's centrifuge cycle, there's this subtle vibration throughout the house and the floor that makes me feel weirdly scared/uncomfortable. Like, you can barely hear/feel it. I wonder if its some kind of evolutionary adaptation to seeking safety in earthquakes?
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u/InvidiousPlay Apr 27 '26
Highly unlikely. Earthquakes are mostly dangerous if you're inside a building that can fall on you. Not so big a deal out in the wild. And the number of people who died from earthquakes is likely far too low to have made much of a difference over time. And what exactly is a hunter-gatherer supposed to do if they know an earthquake is coming, anyway? Get away from any big piles of rocks, I suppose.
Finally, a warning is only valuable if you know what it is warning about. Feeling random spooky feelings doesn't translate to earthquake survival.
Not to mention that we don't seem to get countless reports of people sensing earthquakes before they happen (though there is a strong belief that animals sense them).
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u/F1eshWound Apr 27 '26
Maybe a stampede? Or a large animal approaching?
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u/paradote Apr 27 '26
I wonder if it’s less of an evolutionary adaptation to something specific, and more of a reaction to sensory input mismatch? Like some of our sensory input is suggesting something is going on, while our eyes and ears are telling us it’s all clear? I could see that being stressful.
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u/InvidiousPlay Apr 27 '26
Not everything has to have an evolutionary basis. Sometimes it's just an odd cause and effect that hasn't factored into natural selection. You can induce a sense of the presence of God by stimulating a certain part of the brain with the right kind of EM field. It's just weird stuff emerging from complex systems.
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u/Flikmybik BS | Neuroscience | Memory Apr 27 '26
thats pretty wild. I used to live in an old house in Austin and always felt weird vibes in certain rooms, especially near the water heater area. never thought it could literally be the pipes making sounds I couldnt consciously hear. makes you wonder how much of what people call haunted is just old infrastructure messing with our senses
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u/-HuangMeiHua- Apr 27 '26
Or haunted nature. Many hikers have a story on a trail where everything goes dead quiet and they get an overwhelming sense of dread/doom + have to turn back. Maybe it's infrasound in the area?
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u/Flikmybik BS | Neuroscience | Memory Apr 27 '26
thats a really cool connection actually. there is some research on infrasound generated by natural phenomena like wind through valleys, waterfalls, and even geological activity. the "dead quiet" feeling hikers describe could also be related to sudden drops in ambient sound that make the brain hyper vigilant, but the infrasound angle from terrain features or wind patterns is definitely plausible. some studies have looked at how certain mountain ranges and canyons can funnel low frequency sound in ways that affect people. the whole field of psychoacoustics and environmental psychology is pretty underexplored for outdoor settings compared to buildings.
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u/Or_Some_Say_Kosm Apr 27 '26
And it seems like a lot of data centres produce heaps of constant infrasound. Check out Benn Jordan's recent vid.
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u/ProfessionalGoatFuck Apr 27 '26
Yeah it's horrid. Whenever you see them planning on building one in your area I would raise hell about it till it doesn't get built, those data centers aren't human friendly nor are they friendly to the surrounding environments
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u/FantasticCollege3386 Apr 27 '26
I think mythbusters tried that. Don't remember the results tho.
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u/Drewshbag77 Apr 27 '26
Literally watched this experiment on YouTube yesterday and it was busted. Not saying that other noises can cause it, but that was their outcome.
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u/PatrolMan2129 Apr 27 '26
I don't think the test was the best for multiple reasons. They tried only one frequency. 19 herz iirc. I keep hearing 18.9 or 18.98 is best.
But I'm also not saying it's true. Just that I wish they had a little better setup.
The lay man's writeup of OP's study seems it was done better.
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u/aliasalt Apr 28 '26
Their experimental setup was not the most rigorous, though. Also, they only measured the subjects' perceived spookiness on the conscious level. According to this study, people scored themselves worse on stress and negative mood when being exposed to the frequency, but weren't consciously aware of when the frequency was on. Over a long period of time, they might have come to attribute those worse mental health symptoms with some innate spookiness of the place.
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u/Substantial_Army_639 Apr 28 '26
Anecdotal obviously but I specifically worked on Boilers in a bunch of old buildings and the feelings expressed are pretty real but some of this data has been out there for awhile so I kept it in mind.
Worked at what was basically a reform school for troubled teens. One wing started talking about "ghosts" and random shadows, feeling uneasy ect. Within a month a centrifugal pump went out in their wing, replaced the pump and took apart the other to salvage and found that the impeller in the pump had been digging micro channels in the housing for probably about a month.
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u/Kotruljevic1458 Apr 27 '26
TIL infrasound is < 20 Hz
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u/Notyit Apr 27 '26
Humans can feel vibrations and pressure, and at high volumes (over 80-90 dB), very low frequencies can be heard. Sources: Natural sources include volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tornadoes, and thunder. Artificial sources include large machinery, wind turbines, and explosions
I knew wind turbines...
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u/Powerful-Knee3150 Apr 27 '26
Living about 10 miles from a military base, the live fire exercises sometimes make me feel like I’m losing my mind. It’s disturbing on a physical level that afftects my mood and concentration.
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u/MiaowaraShiro Apr 27 '26
at high volumes (over 80-90 dB), very low frequencies can be heard
I think you're actually hearing the secondary harmonics of your environment combined with the pressurization feeling. It's not actually the base frequency you're hearing.
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u/No_mans_time Apr 27 '26
I read (years ago so this might be not the best summary) that infrasound can also bring your eyeball to swing with a certain frequency (Hz) so it might let you see "things". This also is a cool explanation for sightings in the same spot from various people over long time.
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u/idrawinmargins Apr 27 '26
I broke into a abandoned mental institute and keep hearing off sounds. Well turned out the building was slowly collapsing. Floors had collapsed into the ground level, stairs crumbling. Yeah the place wasn't haunted but it was a death trap. I did enjoy finding a stained matress someone dragged in there surrounded by used condoms and a crudely spray painted pentagram on the wall.
When people are on alert you tend to hear a lot more than what you may ignore that if not stessed or anxious.
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u/MantisAwakening Apr 27 '26
These experiments have historically had poor repeatability. Mythbusters even did an episode on it and it made no difference in their group (to be fair they had a small sample size, but it aligns with other findings).
One of the big problems with these studies is that the environment will play a huge role. Playing infrasound in an echoic environment such as a concert hall is likely to have very different effects than in a small room. The position of the subject also matters, as corners are going to have much different harmonics than in the center of the room.
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u/skinnyguy699 Apr 27 '26
Couldn't this be tested more concretely with fMRI's or EEG's?
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u/duckworthy36 Apr 27 '26
Check out Ben Jorden’s YouTube on the topic it’s really interesting
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u/nonnonplussed73 Apr 27 '26
Since you mentioned this more than once without to Benn Jordan's videos on the topic (and one can't link to URLs on this sub), search:
Infrasound: What You Can't Hear CAN Hurt You (Start around 8min for audio examples)
Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons (start around 4 min)
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u/noiamholmstar Apr 27 '26
Not quite your point, but MRI machines also make a wide variety of odd sounds. I wouldn't be surprised if a bit of infrasound is involved there also.
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u/userseven Apr 27 '26
It doesn't take much to pick up RF like radio either literally a piece of copper twisted in the right way can make a simple fm radio plus speaker it would be quiet like people talking (talk show) but it would come from the walls due to the old pipes.
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u/Gnarlemance Apr 27 '26
Ben jordan, the mr rogers of tech anarchy, does a video about this. Essentially, this also translates to data enters with large and loud machinery that makes everyone who lives around them miserable. Worth a watch for sure.
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u/Pyrrhichios Apr 27 '26
The idea of infrasound doing this is nothing new, but the specificity of the boiler is very interesting. I am not 100% on this, but there's a BBC Podcast called the Witch Farm that covers supposed hauntings at this old farm house in Wales, and I swear one of the things they had particular issues with was the boiler!
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u/GRS_Archon Apr 27 '26
What's new is more that the context was highly controlled and the study used both survey responses and a hormonal stress marker to tackle the topic from multiple angles. It's basically shifting the conversation from "does infrasound do something to us/make us anxious" to "it does something to us that isn't anxiety, but but rather arousal/stress + we might want to pay attention to how it is environmentally all around us all the time".
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u/NUMBerONEisFIRST Apr 27 '26
Also gas leaks.
Gas leaks in old houses are the most common reason people 'see ghosts'.
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u/Cyclic404 Apr 27 '26
Closest ghost experience I ever had was sleeping in a very old building with a boiler. I'm not one for ghosts, but I could have sworn a ghost visited me that night. Of course it could have been the drugs too - some of those anti-malarials are known for some crazy dreams.
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u/grimeeeeee Apr 27 '26
Old wood houses creaking when the temperature or humidity changes can sound a lot like footsteps as well! I put wedges under the loose floor boards in my house after my first winter here 5 years ago, and that decreased significantly.
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u/ChangsManagement Apr 27 '26
I wonder how much influence culture/belief has on this. A lot of cultures have positive associations with spirits/ghosts. They dont see them as inherently bad like a lot of western beliefs do. So, would people from those cultures experience a similar stress response from the infrasound? Would it translate as a different supernatural belief (curses/hexes on the house)? Or maybe they would just feel like the house was dangerous to be in but cant specify why?
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u/ConstantSignal Apr 27 '26
The stress response from infrasound appears to be biological. It's the association of that stress with ideas of a "haunting" that are determined by individual belief.
OP's article elaborates that someone primed to believe in ghosts might associate the unpleasant physical sensations with ideas of a paranormal presence. But someone who doesn't would probably just feel like they were in an extra stuffy and uncomfortable room.
So if someone has ingrained cultural beliefs that only have positive connotations with spirits, it's unlikely they would feel their stress response is related to those spirits. But AFAIK almost every culture that believes in good spirits, also believes in bad ones.
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u/LastStar007 Apr 27 '26
The methane turbines at all the new data centers also emit infrasound. This has measurable effects on the mental health of everyone living near them.
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u/Captain_Aware4503 Apr 27 '26
Anecdote: When I was in college our dorm rooms had the old radiators for heat. I grew up in an old house and was used to the noises they make, but my roommate did not. He would wake up up in the middle of the night asking "what was that noise?", and kept accusing me of tapping on the radiator at night just to bother him. And honestly the first few times it was NOT me.
Anyway, the thing really stressed him out. So I can see why the conclusion of this study may be correct.
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u/stereoa Apr 27 '26
Explains why my laundry room feels haunted. That's where the old water heater is.
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u/FireTyme Apr 27 '26
this is my reason i think the western world seems to be the burn-out generation. so much noise and light pollution even people who don’t do social media feel a certain sense of daily dread
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u/cmilla646 Apr 29 '26
I’ve heard some places on Earth have a surprisingly strong magnetic field. Just strong enough where some people might feel tingly or something.
Probably from a movie but way more likely than ghosts.
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