The Shared Diary of a Novice Paranormal Investigator, aged 52 and Three Quar

When you believe in things you don’t understand, then you suffer.

(Stevie Wonder)

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamed of in your philosophy.

(Shakespeare)

Ri fol ri fol tol de riddle dee.
(Traditional)

Tuesday

In order to understand infrasound, I needed a refresher course in Physics.  Back on my trusty PC, I googled  ‘electromagnetic waves’.  Suddenly, I was fifteen again.  My Physics teacher had a nasty disposition and a tweed jacket.  He loved to yell ‘hence!’ while slamming a metre rule down on the table.  It was not surprising I took to poetry instead.  This is what I re-learned, after all those Science-free years:

There are a lot of different kinds of electromagnetic waves, and they slosh around in nature.  They all have three qualities which can be measured; frequency, wavelength and energy.  Frequency is measured in Hertz.  Low frequency electromagnetic waves have not many Hertz, high frequency ones have loads. 

Wavelength is measured in metres, kilometres and similar.  Low frequency waves have long wave lengths.  High frequency waves have short wave lengths.  Very high frequency wave lengths are so short that they have to be measured in special tiny units.  Very low frequency wave lengths are so long that they have to be measured in specially big units. 

The energy is measured in volts.  High frequency, short wavelength waves have lots of volts.  Low frequency, long wavelength waves do not have many volts. 

For reference, the list of electromagnetic waves is arranged in a row, like birthday cards on a mantelpiece.  It is called the electromagnetic spectrum.




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Infrasound has a very low frequency – less than 20 hertz.  This means it has a very long wavelength and not much energy.  We cannot hear it, but it can be measured.  It occurs naturally, and it can be made.  Apparently, some animals   use it to communicate.  Some think birds may use it to navigate long distances (a kind of Rough Guide to Migration).  It can be associated with earth tremors, explosions and severe weather.

All the way back in 1998, a scientist called Vic Tandy had an eerie experience working in a supposedly haunted laboratory.  Like some other workers there, he suffered the grisly feelings and he thought he saw something.  Vic had a serious poke about in that lab.  He discovered that infrasound of 18.9 Hertz was the culprit, and went on to uncover the same effect in other ‘haunted’ locations.  The newspapers called him the ‘ghostbuster’.

This has been a revelation to me.  I feel quite disappointed to that people have known all this for years and nobody told me until just now.  Apparently, reports of this research were cunningly hidden away by being printed in easily available national newspapers, one of which I often pretend to read. 

Most interestingly, infrasound is sometimes associated with diesel engines.  Think about that in a spooky bedroom near a railway line and see how different you feel.

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