Ghosts - Part 1

Is there a scientific explanation?

Hello Dear Friend,

Welcome to another Sunday missive from my heart to yours. I hope you have had a good week, mine has been a bit of a sleepy one, I am not sure if it is the CFS/ME or something else. I have an appointment to see a cardiologist towards the end of September, so fingers crossed answers will be forthcoming. But overall it has been a good week, gardening, meeting up with friends, drinking good coffee, and attending choir concerts with the wife, there were two concerts in the last week by the fabulous Medina Community Choir.

The wonderful choir, Jo even made it into the image, front right, short hair.

I have been thinking this week about ghosts and vibrations, more specifically - can atmospheric conditions explain ghosts? We are all vibrations, after all, and everything is vibrating at a different level, some we are aware of and others we have no way of sensing or measuring in our everyday lives.

Or do we?

Infrasound

What is it? It is a low-frequency sound or soundwave below 20Hz, which is the lower range of human hearing, down to 0.1Hz. Why would we monitor this frequency? Well, it is mostly used to monitor earthquakes and volcanoes, but can also be used to study our cardiovascular system with Ballistocardiography.
According to Wikipedia, Ballistocardiography is a measure of ballistic forces generated by the heart. The downward movement of blood through the descending aorta produces an upward recoil, moving the body upward with each heartbeat. As different parts of the aorta expand and contract, the body continues to move downward and upward in a repeating pattern.

How is Infrasound measured? It was first discovered in 1957, by a group of scientists who were feeling sick. It turned out to be a piece of equipment which was not calibrated correctly, although at that time no instruments existed to measure infrasound. They soon did… And now it is a regular part of building construction to check for infrasound in a building.

What effect does it have on us? The effects can vary, but generally, nausea, dizziness, discomfort, blurred vision (the infrasound can apparently vibrate your eyeballs!!), hyperventilation, fear, and panic attacks. The vibrations were noted and measured by Vic Tandy, an engineer, who noticed that his fencing foil because, of course, you take your fencing foil to work with you… (lol) was vibrating in a room where he had been feeling spooked, and seeing things out of the corner of his eye. The source of the unease turned out to be a newly installed extractor fan. Details can be found in this article - The Fear Frequency, The Guardian online, 16th Oct 2003. Vic Tandy went on to write an article for the Society for Psychical Research titled The Ghost in The Machine, Vol. 62, No 851, April 1998. In this paper, he proposed that the frequency of 19 Hz could cause people to feel that something supernatural or as if a ghost was present.

Recently the BBC programme Uncanny tested this theory out. They took a group of students to an aircraft hanger at RAF Upper Heyford, Bicester, in Oxfordshire, told them it was haunted, and asked them to mark out where they felt the ‘ghosts’ were. Unbeknownst to them a sound engineer had rigged part of the hanger with infrasound emitters. The experiment is from approx. minute 20 in the recording. The markers they placed mostly coincided with the points where the infrasound was strongest.

Does This Explain Ghosts?

Photo by Jack Prommel on Unsplash

Maybe…

Perhaps in some cases yes, as the experiment in the aircraft hanger proved, infrasound can create a spooky atmosphere and feeling of unease. But, if it were that simple scientists would be shouting it from the rooftops and claiming a victory of science over belief. I don’t believe it is the answer. And I think anyone who has experienced a ghostly visitation or any paranormal/unexplained ‘thing’ would say that attributing it all to infrasound is too simple.

Maybe, just maybe, those who are sensitive or psychic are just capable of feeling and interpreting sound/energy waves on a different frequency. Meditation creates a stronger link to your inner intuition, maybe it also can create a stronger link or allow us to enter a different vibration, one which allows messages and images from the other side to come through. This would explain psychometry or sensing things from objects -jewellery, keys, etc., the person is reading the energy or vibrational field around the object.

I would love to know your thoughts on this topic. Is infrasound too simple an answer? Have you ever experienced something which you cannot explain? I have, maybe I should tell those stories again, is that a good idea?

Until next time, as ever, may your angels and guides watch over you and protect you until we meet again.

Love and Light,

Guided By Angels will always be free to subscribers. If you enjoy it please click the like button, that way I know someone is reading it, or please share it with someone who might enjoy it.
There is the option now to become a paid subscriber if you would like to support these Sunday Letters in that way, or you could consider buying me a cup of tea.

Photo by Jorge Garcia on Unsplash

I definitely run on tea.

Thank you for reading and for subscribing.
Until next time, bye for now.

Links:

Spooky Science - The Ghost Frequency article from Nerdist.com (from October 2016)

Wiki article on Infrasound

Ballistocardiography Wikipedia article

The Fear Frequency, The Guardian online, 16th Oct 2003

Infrasound in an episode of BBC Uncanny, (the television series) the topic starts from about minute 17.30.

Measuring the Heart’s Kick, a Time magazine article from 1961

Ghostly Magnetism Explained, a BBC News Science/Nature report from 21st of May 2003.

Anything in bold and underlined is a link to the relevant article or web page. None are affiliate links, just things I hope to benefit you, or people I admire and have worked with.

Note: If there is a * these are affiliate links and may earn me a few pennies without adding to your cost. Disclosure: If you buy books linked here, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.