Can You Hear the Hum?

" However, by yawning or by tightening the tensor tympani muscle inside my ear, I can induce a loud, low-frequency rumble. "

Ahh, so that's what it's called. Yes, I always thought that was the explanation as well, simply blood rushing through the veins in the ear.

As for it being more common in some places then in others, it's not that strange. People tend to join the masses, same as with UFO sightings. People see what they want to see, and it seems the same goes for hearing.

Small correction to the podcast though. Nobody has suffered from problems near the HAARP site, because there aren't any people near the HAARP site. It's litterally build in the middle of nowhere (Used to be a ULF transmitter, for surface to submarine radio) because they didn't want people near it.

Alcari, the Netherlands
March 04, 2008 2:35pm

I've heard a Hum in several places I've lived -- Durham NC, Ithaca NY, and currently in western Massachusetts. It's definitely not tinnitus, because it varies with location. Nor is it the tympani muscle tensing, because I've heard that, too. Interestingly, my preteen daughter hears it, too, but not my wife.

It's pretty obviously a machine I'm hearing -- probably something like an idling locomotive or HVAC machinery. We live in a noisy world and acoustics is a tricky science.

The real mystery is why so many people look for a paranormal or conspiratorial explanation. I hear a hum; the most likely explanation is that something is humming.

Cambias, Amherst, MA
March 05, 2008 6:15am

What a load of rubbish. Not the podcast, that was quality as usual, but the "hum".

The recording was tenuous at best, and sounded like a general audio recording of background noise, turned up very high with the higher frequencies cut off.

Cambias is right - anywhere you are you will here a background noise, and even in the complete absence of sound, your brain will likely compensate and start filling in the gaps.

Joseph, London
March 06, 2008 1:54am

well, i've been paying atention to hearing the hum. And I do hear it in places. Guess it's one of those things you only notice when you focus on it, because I can hear a hum in the university cafeteria, where I never noticed it before.

Though it's probably the ventilation, elevator, lighting, or any of a million causes. It never occured to me to look for any government conspiracy.

Strange and wonderfull is mind that can make up supernatural reason.

Alcari, the Netherlands
March 06, 2008 9:24am

After listening to the sample hum recording more than once, I think I can conclusively say what it is: hippies! On didgeridoos!

"Dude, that last number you played--whoa. You really tapped into like the primal vibrations of the earth."

Mike Smith, Albuquerque, NM
March 06, 2008 10:59am

Damned hippies.

Cambias, Amherst, MA
March 07, 2008 5:41am

yet another example of a vague, objective and exists-only-in-peoples-heads "thing". we could all do without these invented imaginary useless time-wasting BS... oh well

jon, canberra
March 18, 2008 12:37am

Am I the only person in Liverpool who has heard the HUM. I half convinced myself it was my neighbours central heating, but having read an article recently which described it exactly as I experienced it, I feel more relaxed that I am not going nuts. However most of the info I've read relates to the HUM in the UK being in Bristol. Can some like-eared Liverpool folk help me out here?

Anne, Liverpool
March 19, 2008 1:36pm

There is no reason to pooh pooh "the Hum." Skeptics keep credibility by remaiing open to data. So far, there is no data to review. It would be interesting to see if the people reported the hum when they moved. If it is plate techtonics, we would expect more reports in , is it Pakistan? where the fault is moving 2 cm a year. We know that people who could hear the old vaccum tubes in radios and tvs warming up where called crazy for years (it is a high pitch that apparently only children could hear with their little ear bones) Although people did note that their dogs and children "magically" seem to know when the tv was turned on even with no volume on.
So wait until there is a theory that cannot be falsified until you make fun of it. No one is saying anything so far, and the reporting people are not suggesting that they receive special attention or money are they? That is a harbinger of psuedoscience.

thomas, orlando
March 25, 2008 10:56am

As an Audio professional i find any article about strange noises interesting. especially extremely low and high ones. even more so when they are naturally occurring. what interested me even more was the explanation of the funny rumble that i can induce in my own ears. for years i told people i could do this and they thought i was crazy. and now i can tell them i can do it and how(well, kinda). as soon as i heard the recording of the "hum" i thought, hey, i can make that sound all by myself! thanks again for explaining whats going on in my head :)

GOOSE, Halifax, Nova Scotia
March 26, 2008 12:07pm

Hum??? hummm... what about Om?!

;-)

Guto Brochini, Sao Paulo / Brazil
March 28, 2008 6:12pm

I'm one of the few people who can hear (some) radio transmissions. If it's not too loud around me, I can usually hear my cell phone receiving a signal and impress people by pulling it out and opening it up just before it rings.

To my ears, it sounds exactly like you describe - very very high-pitched and nothing like "the hum".

Dagfari, Winnipeg, Canada
March 29, 2008 4:07pm

I've never heard this hum, but none the less found this interesting... I am one of those individuals who can tell if a television is on two rooms away when there is a decent amount of other noise present - and while it's tolerable when it is not the only thing I hear, I get headaches when it is. I especially dislike the sounds it makes when being turned on, before it becomes consistent. I've always found it intriguing that certain people can hear certain sounds that others cannot. I am uneducated on this matter, but I have intentions to change that fact. (I also understand this sickness noise. It's common for me.)

Demetrius, Shelburne, ON
April 01, 2008 1:27pm

I've developed the low hum within the past year. I paid it no mind because I thought it was a generator or some kind of machine running in my apartment building. Then I heard it in my freinds apartment and figured the same thing. When I noticed the sound at my grandmothers house I asked if anyone could hear it. Nobody did. My grandmother lives in out in the country with no big machines or anything that could produce this sound. As we talked I realised that the noise stopped while we talked and then rang in during the silence between our words. I cleaned my ears with the wax remover but that did nothing. It seems to be more in my head than in my ears. It comes and goes at times. Its really annoying that nobody has an explaination for it. I'll keep reading.

Ryan, Pittburgh. PA
April 05, 2008 2:42am

Though RF is too high a frequency for humans to easily detect, secondary effects can lead to detection of transmissions.I pick up discomfort like a headband pressure after some minutes exposure in a car from third parties.
It's not painful, but is annoying and slightly dis-orienting, increasing with time of exposure.
Direct RF rectification in the head (detection similar to radio ccts) has also been mentioned elsewhere.
Possible to consider but unknown mechanism/s.
I get the hum at night, sometimes it stops for weeks.I think it's externally sourced- but needs sensitivity in receiving subject too.
On the issue of Haarp..there is more than one transmitter in the world. Do we know when they are all on??
Secondly..RF heating of the ionosphere caused geomagnetic reactions at the Schumann resonance ELFreqs which can be detected worldwide. Hence undersea comms uses....say no more!!
In the UK -Tetra police radio masts every 1/2 mile (approx) multiplex 4 channels at ELF and could also be considered as a source of brain wave triggers/modifiers,legal or not.
No one is saying anything.
Surprise, surprise !!

tegz, Wilts UK
April 05, 2008 3:48am

Finally! This hum keeps me awake at night! I originally thought one of the neighbors was running their car engine in the distance, but now I live in the country twenty minute drive from the closest neighbour - AND ITS STILL THERE!!!

I decided to google "the Hum" which brought me here, and the hum in the first recording is EXACTLY WHAT I HEAR!!!

I am now sure the sound is coming from inside me, whether caused by an outside source, or some kind of natural vibrations within my body, but it is not the high pitched tinnus sound (like the second sample) which I hear all day if I pay attention...

...there it is now...

Matt, NY
April 08, 2008 4:18pm

Until today - I had never heard (haha) of the "Hum" - but.... I think I hear it. I don't think it is at all mysterious.

One particular thing though - I live not very far (70 miles about) from NYC - and was in Pearl River NY on 9/11/01. When I walked out of the work location that afternoon I absolutely and without doubt noticed something. Silence.

For the days the majority of aircraft was kept out of the sky, I noticed an absolute, apparent and obvious silence. It was striking specifically by the absence of a general background 'sound' that I had NEVER actually noticed before.

I occasionally hear some low-frequency rumbling at home and equate that to living rather close (though not on top of) the NY State Throughway. I am also about 5 miles from Stewart Airport - though I am certainly familiar with the sound of departing jets - and what I hear is not that.

My personal thoughts? Just low frequency atmospherics set up by any number or things, perhaps interestingly enough, by air traffic. Nothing particularly mysterious really. Fun when you pay attention to it really.

AS a side note, I also have as yet undiagnosed tinitus, and am also able to internally generate the "rumble" you identify in my case usually by tightly closing my eyes. I too have had it occur "spontaneously" and don't like it one bit!

Jack

JackC, Newburgh, NY
April 09, 2008 2:53pm

I've been wintering at my parents' condo here in Halifax, and I just in the past month noticed this noise phenomenon. I experience it as more of a pulsating ringing hum than as a constant drone. I thought at first it originated in the hot water heating pipes, but after several nocturnal inspections (when the noise kept me awake!), I've discovered it comes from outdoors, as it is loudest at the windows. Interestingly, when I open wide the interior metallic shutters, the noise abates somewhat. I'm hard of hearing in my right ear, so when I lie on my left ear, I find I don't hear the noise as much, and I eventually fall asleep. But even as I write this now, mid-morning, the noise persists. Glad I googled whatever it was I googled to find out I'm not the only one "hearing things". I normally reside in Toronto, Canada, and I don't remember ever hearing it there (though, mind you, with all the big-city cacophony, you can barely hear yourself think, let alone discern sotto voce hums). Hope the inquiring minds keep researching what's behind it, but for what it's worth, I'd wager it originates from the same SOB's that are bringing us chemtrails....

Charlotte Creamer, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
April 13, 2008 5:45am

Wow I never really thought about that sound that comes when you yawn. It does sound alot like that recording. I don't know how they could be connected but it seems like a good suspect to me.

Good post. Tough to write an essay and not force a conclusion but that is what a good skeptic doesn't do!

Coleman Mulkerin, Sayre, PA
April 16, 2008 8:24pm

I had never heard of the "hum phenomenon" until listening to this podcast. On one single occasion, I have heard a low-frequency hum just like the one in the podcast. I was staying at the Hampton Inn in McHenry, IL, about two years ago. The hum seemed to be pulsating and I assumed that it was the diesel engine of a nearby idling semi. My wife could not hear the hum. We changed rooms to the other side of the hotel, and I could still hear the hum. So my hypothesis changed to indict some aspect of the hotel's HVAC system. The hum disrupted my sleep all night. I complained to the front desk and they comp'ed my room.

It has been a running joke with my family since. Now the joke might change to "Matt can hear radio waves" [followed by playful laughter]. I think I saw a Twilight Zone about that once.

Keep up the great podcasts, Brian.

Matt, Boston, MA
April 19, 2008 1:32pm

Brian your podcasts add the juice to my Ipod. I was listening to your podcast on the Hum Phenomenon. I can hear it. I have heard it for so long during a visited New Zealand. I can also hear the radio wave pulses that you described - the high frequency noise. It sounds like a beeping static and anytime a device that emits radio waves is switched on the noise is terrible.

Question all, keep skeptical.

Jane, Sydney, Australia
April 21, 2008 3:07am

As mentioned above, I came to know about The Hum by personal experience, not because someone told me about it. Since my first hearing, I've researched the topic on the internet and discovered some interesting facts -- it's heard by more women than men, and most of those women are middle-aged or older, with some hearing loss (age-induced or otherwise). It's most often perceived at windows and load-bearing walls, and is noticeably louder during a full moon, or just as a weather front is approaching, when chemtrail spraying and Haarp-related activity are most intense. In addition, buildings with peaked roofs seem to draw the sound down more than flat-roofed buildings. My personal experience validates all these findings. I'm one-hundred-percent certain that this noise is not "all in my head", but that my particular hearing loss, combined with my age and sex, has made me receptive to it. I take heart that I can't hear The Hum in the interior rooms of the condo, so there is some relief from it. Also, it doesn't appear to be constant; some nights I don't hear it at all. Though many Hum hearers experience it as a distant diesel engine sound, I find it to be more a slow, pulsating throb that does not vary in speed, only in intensity, getting louder but not faster. I hope this info is useful to you. I suggest you research the Hum topic yourself online. If nothing else, it's comforting to find out that you're not the only one suffering from it!

Charlotte Creamer, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
April 21, 2008 9:07am

As a highly ear trained musician
and music engineer I notice many
interesting things that most either
don't notice or bother to notice.

When very, very high up in the CN Tower
in Toronto (and outside) I noticed
that it was so high that 99% of
'particular' sounds could not be
heard. YET, there was a low aggregate
hum NOT AT ALL unlike the recording.

I believe that hum is the combo of
hundreds of thousands of high dB
noise sources. Low sounds travel
best - highs don't get far at all.
Distance filters out all but the
lows.

I wasn't at ALL shocked to hear
how loud such a metro as Toronto
could be. What WAS surprising was
that definite directional sounds
(i.e. the highs) were so filtered
at that distance high up. It was
relatively calm that day so that
helped me to better notice the
rumbling hush of the city.

Denis Bach, Lansing, MI
April 21, 2008 10:27pm

i spent weeks - months, probably - trying to figure out a low booming hum in my old neighborhood. i reported it to the local industry buildings, to no avail. we lived very close to a boeing test facility. when i finally got tired of them blowing me off, i rented some sound equipment and tested for it. sure enough, there was a 50db spike at 20hz.

i hear a different low noise at our new house, near mill creek, wa - haven't tested for that one yet. i gave up and just run a fan at night.

noiseless, everett, wa
April 23, 2008 2:56pm

As Tom Petty's wife would say.... "Its just the normal noises in here"

Rick VanHuss, Arlington, TX
May 05, 2008 4:49pm

I listened to Brian's podcast through my computer's sound system, which is tied into a set of stereo speakers that run through the house. During the podcast, when Brian played the recording of the Hum (the low, rumbling sound), my six dogs went berserk, howling and screeching. In the interests of science, I went back an hour later and replayed that part of the episode. Same reaction.
Which means...absolutely nothing, I'm sure. But our quest for knowledge marches on...

Doug, Savannah, GA
May 08, 2008 6:59am

The thing about the tensing of the tensor tympani muscle is that it drowns out other sounds. I always do it if some horrific news item that I don't want to hear about comes on television.

To me the hum sounds identical to some portions of the recovered "first sounds" recordings, the sonographs (I believe they call them) from 1857 recovered from French archives and made audible with modern technology. Firstsounds.org is the website.

Kate, Fairfax, VA
May 13, 2008 11:40am

I've been hearing a low frequency sound, like an engine idling, near Rochester NY for a few weeks now. I used to notice it only at night, now I notice it during the day also.

I don't hear it if I put my hands over my ears, so it's not tinnitus.

Regarding Alcari's comment:"As for it being more common in some places then in others, it's not that strange. People tend to join the masses, same as with UFO sightings."

This sort of illogic could be used to dismiss any data. So if one person observes something you've been taught not to believe in, you can say "Why didn't more people observe it?" And if thousands observe it, you can say "well, people tend to join the masses, so it's nothing." That way, you never have to learn anything new or strain your brain by using it.

Interesting that, where the hum is heard, it's consistently heard by 2% of the population, the same percentage of people that can hear certain low frequencies. But don't let any cognitive dissonance disturb your pseudo-skepticism.

Pat, Rochester NY
May 26, 2008 10:33am

I started hearing the HUM a few weeks ago . It is ONLY in my house I hear this, I cover my ears with my hands and it goes away so its not this .."tinnitus" , my 10 yr old son can't hear it, my girlfriend can. It stays steady yet comes and goes with the level of "loudness". Its not enough to drive me to sell my new home I built 6 yrs ago but... I am going to poll a few more friends and see who hears this and who doesn't as its driving me crazy!

Larry, Rochester, MN
June 22, 2008 7:05am

The word is phonautograph, not sonograph. Brain malfunction.

Kate, Fairfax, VA
July 15, 2008 8:31am

I heard the low freq. noise sample on the podcast but not the high sample, although my wife could hear both.

My mom suffers from severe Tinnitus and said it sounds like a Train running in her head, rather than the hum described here.

I live high up in the mountains and don't really hear the hum many people are discribing, but I used to live in the bay area, and I think I have heard it there. This leads me to believe what the poster from Toronto had to say, that the hum may be a combo of loud db noises from multiple sources that kind of blend together. Like wavelengths pulsing together. I imagine it to be almost like a white noise. Maybe it does vibrate inside the body too.

Great podcast!

River, Incline Village NV
July 29, 2008 8:50pm

Three minor points:
1: Brian wrote that tinnitus is often associations with ear infections, tube blockages or even head injuries. All of these are correct, but the #1 cause for tinnitus is exposure to loud noises. Another less common cause is an overdose of medicine that has ototoxic side effects - basically, damage to the ear caused by a toxin. The American Tinnitus Association website at www.ata.org has a wealth of information on tinnitus, causes and research.
2. People who don't suffer from tinnitus get the occasional ringing in the ears that typically sounds like a medium-high pitch in a very "clean" tone (no variation), most similar to the sound tv stations will air when testing their Emergency Broadcast System. Sufferers of noise-induced tinnitus usually hear one tone for the rest of their life, and it can be anything from a deep bass to an extremely high whine
3: Anyone who is hearing the hum can easily tell if it is a deep-bass form of the lifetime tinnitus sufferer. If the sound stays with you no matter where you go, it is tinnitus. Whether you are in a basement, in another state or in an airplane, tinnitus sufferers hear the same sound. If the hum disappears when you leave the city, you don't have tinnitus.

As always, excellent podcast! Keep up the good work.
Thanks,
Scott.

Scott, Phoenix, AZ
August 28, 2008 4:28pm

I along with almost every one else in the world has experienced tinnitus, or something like it. I have heard them hum and to meet it almost does come in as a substitute for the normal white noise. The Hum almost sounds like a large bulldozer idling to me. Which can not even be compared to a ringing in the ears. If it was only experienced in the cites or urban areas i would say just normal traffic rumbles. But if its experienced in rural areas as well then that theory doesn't work

Awesome post,

Bryson

Bryson, La Quinta, CA
September 01, 2008 12:57am

Wow. I can flex tensor tympani muscle to induce a hum too. I'd been wondering about this phenomena for over 16 years, but as a kid I could never describe it accurately enough to get someone to answer the question adequately.

Thanks so much for finally giving me an answer!

Kris, Gosford, Australia
September 07, 2008 11:12pm

I have it too, it starts in one ear( usually the right) then it goes to the left. It only last a few seconds and then there may be muting in the background. The hum is there and the background noise is reduced. I have it once and a blue moon. I had it recently when reading up on the World and it scared me so bad because I felt like something was watching me or warning...I am not crazy nor am I making this up.

Tanquie, Florida
September 08, 2008 2:13pm

I used to live in Belgium for a few years, in a house where I remember perceiving a continuous low-frequency sound, by night, when there was no other sound. This "hum" was not really annoying to me, and a few other people to whom I've talked about couldn't hear it. Causes like "the fridge" are excluded. The house was located in a rural area and there where some power lines a few hundred meters away from the house (the only cause that I could think of). This vibration was better perceived in the bathroom - probably somehow amplified by the walls.
In the meantime I had to move and where I am now I can't perceive the sound anymore.

a man, Europe
September 09, 2008 5:12am

I live on a very quiet island 15 km from a city of about 100,000. I hear the rumbling, dieseling type noise. I heard it in the basement while laying in bed. I thought it was local to my house and in my house. Then I noticed it outside in my yard. Then I noticed I could hear it all over the island. I tried to track the noise to its source but noticed that I could not hear it in the city because there was just too much background noise. Driving back to the island, I found I could hear it again. Other people have head it too. NO EXPLANATION - now I find it occurs in various places - cool! I figure it is just some machine in the city that needs to be isolated - but then again - maybe not!

CaptCos, Vasteras, Sweden
September 09, 2008 2:56pm

I thought I was going mad but now I know it's not just me, which is a real relief. I've started hearing the hum in the last couple of weeks. At first I thought it was a lorry outside the house, as other people have described, but then I realised there was no lorry - and my partner cannot hear it at all. I only hear it in the evenings and it keeps me awake at night. The other weird thing is that I hear it all over my house (without a change in volume which would imply it was coming from a central location in the house) but if I step outside into the garden, IT STOPS! This is really odd I know, does anyone else have the same problem? I've not tested it indoors in any other building as I've not stayed overnight anywhere since it started doing it. Has anyone else experienced this? It sounds like it's inside my head and it resonates, getting louder and quieter, but interestingly, when I hear it first - for example after an external noise stops, or when I really concentrate if the room is noisy, it always starts at the same point in the cycle!

Any ideas?? :)

Gill, Milton Keynes, England
September 12, 2008 10:47am

I know what you are all talking about, but I can control " the hum". I can do it whenever I want, also I can do it pretty loud. Once again whenever I want to. I believe everyone can do it if they flex the right muscle. I'm positive this has nothing to do with the government or aliens. lol. Trust me, I'm sane.

dan, USA
September 17, 2008 6:46pm

I know what tinnitus sounds like -that's different to the hum I hear all over my house which sounds like a beer chiller, ventilation equipment, or some kind of industrial plant alternating between the same two tones, especially late evening, then continuous on one tone right through the night. It's constant like a generator, it permeates wax earplugs and some nights seems to run faster to cope with loading (suggests pub or electricity substation). There is a sub about 750 yards away. I wish I was deaf - makes me hate our house. When I go away it stops, so not me!I can just hear it outdoors at night but it sounds all around so can't get a directional fix.

Sue, Waresley, Nr Sandy, Beds
September 29, 2008 3:25pm

A sound similar to the 13hz high pitched sample is what I hear when I walk past my library's security gates. Do other people experience this?

Patrick, Melbourne, Australia
October 08, 2008 4:42am

I've heard the hum since april 1992 in the left ear. In the last several months I've started hearing a plusing hum in my right ear. This new hum is much worse than the other. I would just like it to turn off so I can hear the sweet quite of the night again. I have heard it California, Wash. Idaho. It seems to be everywhere, but lately it has become very loud. I think it is some kind of mind control,

Mary, Idaho USA
October 08, 2008 9:02pm

This was a great podcast. Real skeptical analysis in this case. But I'd argue with the apparent conclusion that since there probably is no single cause, that Hum research is pointless. If someone could quantify and differentiate the various causes, and (ideally) produce practical (and of course, reproducible) tests, it would at least solve the mystery and perhaps help make some people's lives better.

Paul, Walnut Creek, CA
October 11, 2008 12:24am

Ah, the skeptics. First heard by my wife and I in this country retreat, we both thought it was a train idling in the distance. We then traveled throughout the area, admiring the country side and noticed that we still heard it. Still believed it to be a train. Later, many miles from the 1st and 2nd locales, we heard the same pattern. A little research revealed the topic of "The Hum". As my wife and I perceive it, it is a resonating low frequency hum that rises and decays in a less than predictable pattern. To verify that she was also hearing it, I asked her to tell me the peaks and recesses of the sound. She did so 100% of the time. We hear it in the day time as well. (allowing for predictably quieter conditions at night). Parking the car in the garage as we returned this evening, it was quite loud. Outside or in the remainder of the house, barely audible. But always of the same pattern and frequencies. We now hear it from our normal home as well, 120 miles to the south. It's not machinery. Strangely we fit the profile, having recently turned 50 years old, a common range for hearers. Hope to see the science behind it one day. Definitely not tinnitus, since my wife was able to confirm the same thing I was hearing. I believe it's not acoustic in the classic sense, rather being mechanically induced into the bone or coupled electromagnetically or electrically. Have no ideas otherwise.

Jim, Pymatuning Pennsylvania
October 11, 2008 9:04pm

Hi folks,
I run a Helpline for sufferers of this problem, Low Frequency Noise.
I have found over 20 years that many different sources can be responsible for great stress and serious sleep loss. Most hums will be airborne, acoustic. I do not believe they are from the earth, or radio waves, or electro-magnetic.
I was badly affected by local LFN till I moved house in 1995.
In my case I was on benzo-diazepines, which I was told later could make hearing super sensitive, like when you have a hangover. This is a point worth remembering, and other drugs do the same, apparently.Plus, some medical conditions like fibromyalgia make hearing too acute.I do nevertheless also believe there is too much LFN in the environment, and that the authorities ought to make stricter noise laws.

Rosemarie Mann, Southampton, England.
October 13, 2008 3:40am

I am the person who recorded the hum in Auckland. I had a student of some 21 years of age with me at all the houses who could hear the Auckland hum. Her perception appeared to correlate strongly with the sufferers in each house. Their low-frequency sensitivity to sound is quite remarkable-we did some tests on them with a low-frequency sine-wave. It's narrowband acoustic noise whose envelope varies slowly with time (hence the strength varying). It passes through wooden walls easily and can form a standing wave if the room is big-enough. I don't see a great mystery - it's acoustic for sure in Auckland. Such low-frequencies travels vast distances. There is no easy way of knowing the source without a large-scale experiment with multiple microphones spaced miles apart! I cannot hear it and if it had not been for my student would surely have missed it. The electromagnetic wave thing is a different phenomena altogether. I have had people complaining of clicks and buzzes in their ears too. So there are two phenomena.

Tom Moir, Auckland New Zealand
October 13, 2008 12:00pm

Hello

I too hear a low frequency sound but only with my right ear. I have newer heard it with my left ear. So I can understand how it’s like not hearing the sound. Where I lived before I could hear the sound almost every day. I never heard it outside and not on my work place.

Now I have moved but still live in the same city. I can hear it sometimes but only very rarely and quieter.

Could it be caused by loose ear drums so the ear gets more sensitive to low frequency sounds? I have had a bad habit of causing low pressure in my ears by sniffing in. I read this can cause bigger ear drums. I have tried to avoid that now.

anonymous, Karlskoga, Sweden
October 24, 2008 12:37pm

It started to me ~week ago. EXACTLY like the sound example here.
Heres one explanation:
http://homepages.tesco.net/~John.Dawes2/cause.htm

Allan Hmelnitski, Tallinn, Estonia
November 27, 2008 7:52am

I have read that the sound is actually made from constricting muscles near or around the ear that force your arteries to press against ear drum.

You then hear the flow of blood rushing and it sounds like a hum.

I am not sure about the validity of this, nut it sounds as probable as all of this other crap.

Francesco nappo, Columbus
December 05, 2008 5:19pm

I gave the ear-problem theory a long and careful examination before rejecting it. The reason, I have had a few people in the same room who have all heard it and the ups and down in volume were all heard at the same time. There cannot be a shared ear problem.These people do have very sensitive low-frequency hearing - I have tested it. In any case, I don't work in this area any more needless to say.

Tom Moir, Auckland New Zealand
December 06, 2008 5:36pm

I am so relieved that there are other people who hear the "hum". I literally had begun to think that I was going crazy. After another sleepless night(earplugs, loud a/c fan, and white noise machine not making a difference), I googled "low frequency humming" and was amazed to find so many links to this problem. I live near a hopsital and suspect that it might be generators, but whatever it is it is maddening, especially since my boyfriend doesn't notice it at all...

jill smith, los angeles, ca
December 12, 2008 1:29pm

I've have had this "hum" all my life but I only hear it when I yawn and when I flex my ear muscle . Throughout my life I've always thought as this hum as a good thing, something to equilize both ears but recently I had a severe strep throat which caused me to take some anitibiotics and I notioced that I can only hear the hum in my left ear when I flex my ear.(I know it sounds weird but m trying to give you the best comparison as to what I am feeling) Anyone know why its only in my left ear now? Could it be becasue of the antibiotics or the strep throat itself which was so servere i felt pain in my ear?

Anonymous, Toronto Ontario
December 13, 2008 8:48am

Charolette in Canada, thank you!!! That is EXACTLY how I hear it. Pulsing, increasing in intensity, and I also do not pick up on it some nights, but most.

I have heard this sound as long as I can remember. Laying in my bed as a child in Washington DC, it scared me to death. I didnt know what was there making the noise. It is honestly my earliest memory.

Laying in bed in Naperville, Illinois, again, the sound my parents couldnt hear. Nice thoughts for a 5 yr old, it made me feel alone because I was the only one who could hear it.

Lived in Arizona, check - it was there, and now in Utah, definitly here. Now it is almost as a lullaby to me. Calms me, as weird as that sounds. It has been with me all my life and I notice the absence when it is not there.

All my life I thought I was strange and different. It is a confort to now know that there are others out there who can hear it. I am a FIRM believer that it is not all in our heads. There is no way it could be. To those who hear it, this is a rediculous concept. I dont know what it is, but I would love to know. One thing is for sure, however. It has been with me since the dawn of my time, and I am sure it will be with me for the rest of my days. Whatever, though. It sings me to sleep at night.

heather, kaysville, utah
December 14, 2008 12:35pm

I've been plagued by this humming sound since I lived back east, so it's been about 2 years now. And now I'm in AZ, and it's still louder than ever and driving me crazy. My family can hear it and it keeps us awake at night. That's how I came across this site, while researching what was causing this sound. When we first heard it, it sounded like chords on a keyboard, but now it sounds like a constant hum that comes in waves (not sure how to explain it), and echoes in certain rooms in the house. Sometimes it sounds like a droning noise though. There's literally nothing nearby that could cause it. And back east, there was nothing there either. It's like we have a machine running, but we don't have anything on. Other times, it's like someone is playing a note on a keyboard and releasing it, constantly. It's mostly in the evening and continues through the night hours. Right now, it's just subsiding where it sounds like it's moving into the distance after hours of loud humming. I notice that it will just start and then sometimes stop abruptly, or fade off. Anyone have any info on this? We're so used to it now that we don't even mention it anymore, but it's so loud at times I can't stand it!

macmom, Arizona
December 20, 2008 12:19am

I get the Hum. It sounds like a propellor aircraft that is far away, except it never fades away. I only hear it at home indoors. If I go outside the sound disappears. I also hear it in my caravan and also in other peoples houses.I dont hear it everyday prehaps 2-3 days per week. Usually at night when I go to bed. It somtimes subsides in the early hours but somtimes it gets louder. I dont live close to any factories. What is THE HUM???

SPIKE, DERBY UK
December 23, 2008 5:30am

I have been hearing the hum for about a year now - most noticible in complete silence. A very low humming sound like a motor. Sometimes it starts and stops, sometimes it "runs" constantly. My boyfriend cannot hear it. Started researching it a few weeks ago and found out about tinnitus, but after stumbling upon "taos hum" and researching it today, I'm certain this is what I am experiencing.

Sherry, Greenville, SC
January 03, 2009 10:10am

I have been hearing it on and off for about 5-6 years. In my last house I could hear it louder when I put my ear up against the outside wall but once I got outside it was gone. I called the electric co. to see if there was a problem in the lines entering my house and nothing was found. I thought it was a transformer somewhere in the attic from an old doorbell no longer in use but no. Then about a year ago I started hearing it constantly but only when inside a structure like a house, car, or at work even. I remember feeling extremely agitated and wishing for anything to make it go away. Now I sleep with a sound machine at night so I'm not bothered by it. I sure wish someone would find the source.

Dawn, Lansing, MI, USA
January 04, 2009 10:17pm

I have heard the hum before, but never as prominent as tonight. My wife hears it as well. It is just as everyone else describes...a distant diesel engine, or propeller aircraft idling. Go outside, can't hear it. It is vibrating my inner left ear and getting irritating. It does seem to pulsate a bit. I hope it goes away by bedtime...it is ringing in my head! Perhaps I will try the sound machine...

Gregg, Woodstock, GA
January 05, 2009 6:36pm

i do hear this hum in dallas, teaxs, but i can't remember when i first started hearing it. the loudest i have heard it is on montfort and alpha. and the next street would be harry hines and almost inwood.

jvilla, dallastexas
January 10, 2009 2:02pm

I hear it all the time, inside and outside. 2+ years.

mary, tampa, fl
January 11, 2009 2:06pm

January 11, 2009 5:20 pm

Both my husband & I hear the hum.
I believe it started about a year ago. I have heard the hum in my car and some stores(but not every where). We have disconnected all the electric and it's still there. I am sorry to hear so many people hear it, but now I know we're not crazy(yet).

Carol, Ocala, Florida
January 11, 2009 2:31pm

I have heard it for about six years. Ramona is in southern California, but I continue to hear it when I travel. I've traveled outside of the US, and while there are some differences, the hum is always there. I've learned to live with it. For a long time, I thought that I was losing my hearing and going crazy. Thank God I've found out that I'm not the only one that hears it!

Kevin Dorst, Ramona, CA
January 11, 2009 9:07pm

I hear the hum, ever since last December, it appears at random times, even during the day, but I am trying to keep a record, and every Monday morning at around 1:15 AM to 1:45 AM it starts! I can be sound asleep and it wakes me up! It goes on for hours!

I should preface this with the fact that I've heard a weird "drum solo"-like sound, followed it for miles and miles to a coastal area with a defunct power plant, no one else could hear it, they wouldn't believe me. This current hum is accompanied by a strong vibration,
This is destroying my ability to get a good night's sleep, if anyone else in the Tampa Bay area feels it, please leave a message here, I'm thinking of starting a web site to record these "events" and to share experiences with this phenomenon. Believe me, I have better things to do, but when this hum arrives, I cannot escape it!

Michael, Tampa, florida
January 19, 2009 1:18am

Michael, everything you posted is exactly the same for me. I hear the drum solo sound in my right ear and have a strong vibration thur out my body. It was really strong last night. Good ideal about starting a web sit to record these "events".

Mary, Idaho USA
January 19, 2009 9:04am

I've been hearing the hum for about two years now and it truly makes your life hell. The sound is like a constant repetitive mid range tone that sometimes changes to a pulsing sound. This sound literally makes me vibrate from head to toe. It gets so bad that my muscles also start twitching and I'm vibrating so much that even my bed is shaking. My family and friends just laugh when I tell them, but for me it's certainly no laughing matter. These days I barely get two hours sleep a night.

I've noticed that the sound seems to change direction in an arc like movement that leads me to believe it can only be caused by a satellite. Is the government testing out some kind of sonic weapon and we are the guinea pigs.

Steven, Blyth UK
January 19, 2009 9:12am

I don't hear a hum as described, but I am extremely bothered by the high pitched noises produced by some electronics that few other people seem to hear. CRT televisions cause the greatest discomfort to me. Once, in the middle of a class, a TV in the corner didn't appear to be on, but I could hear the noise, and it bothered me so much that I stood up in the middle of the lecture (high school French) and unplugged it, which made the noise go away. If the television is on in the sense that something is playing, the sound it produces somehow neutralises the effect this sound has on me, or maybe I'm just better able to ignore it. Flat screen and LCD TVs and monitors don't have this effect.

Anyway, while listening to this episode, the high pitched noise you played after the "hum" made me reel in my seat. I was still clutching my head for several minutes and couldn't pay attention to the rest of the podcast. I really wanted to say something about it because of how strongly I reacted. I haven't turned my television on in weeks because my game console has been in the shop, so I was really unprepared. Ouch.

The recording of the "hum" you played didn't bother me at all. It was actually pretty soothing. I'm also the only person I know who doesn't like listening to music. Maybe those two things are related.

Cola Johnson, Portland, Oregon
January 25, 2009 9:11pm

Perhaps all people hearing the hum noise have one thing in common. Just like the 'Hypnotic Spiral' alters visual perception, my guess would be all those people including myself are exposed to computers, tv screens and cooling fans all day long; and when it's quiet, the brain digests those hums it was exposed to during the day.
Somebody should try a week off all electronics and share the results with all of us :)

Alex, Athens Greece
January 26, 2009 4:30pm

The hum is back, the most common times are around 1:45 am and around 4:35 am. When I hear the hum and vibration, it has a definite directional cue. This is a weird coincidence, but since my town has the Super Bowl, I'll guess it's probably some sort of military activity. I can't believe that natural phenom would have a weekly schedule! I don't really believe it's any unearthly behavior either, it's definitely STUPID humans creating unearthly noise pollution.

Michael, Tampa
January 31, 2009 1:46am

I have been hearing the hum since 2002, this is real and it is affecting my health. My wife and our pets also feel the physical effects but my wife can't hear it. It is usually loudest at about 2am. and lasts for 2-4hrs. We get clogged sinuses, hot flashes, tingling hands, insomnia. I am thinking it is satellite tech. Our government is failing all of us in this! C'mon, someone step up!!

Mike, Kalamazoo,MI
February 06, 2009 8:01am

the hum was very loud last night, woke me up at 4:30 a.m.

Mary, Idaho USA
February 06, 2009 8:29am

Didn't think anyone else could hear it. But now it seems that there are others. For me it is not a consistant tone and sounds like a power tool reving up, a sander maybe. Its bloody anoying and it's caused me sleep issues. Its been loud lately.

Ray, Seattle
February 11, 2009 10:41pm

I hear it all the time starting a few years ago. For a while I thought it was that commonly described distant diesel engine. My hearing it was what prompted my search. I chalk it up to the same thing as my tinnitus, or something similar. It is worse when I HAVE a headache, but it does not trigger the headache. It is worse when I have neck tension (which is continual with peaks) but I don't think it is the cause of the tension, considering I have a couple bulging discs. I don't think it's something external other than perhaps I am picking up some infrasound in the environment. Sometimes it throbs a bit with my pulse but other times it's not quite lined up.

paula, Minnesota
February 24, 2009 10:40am

The sound sample of the hum describes it pretty well except that when I hear it, it gets louder and softer as if something is turning. I can also feel the vibrations through my body.My husband cannot hear it and it is worse in the winter.It is a very strange feeling as it disapears in another room or outside

K, Spring, Texas
March 02, 2009 11:44am

Since autumn 2008 I've been hearing this noise mostly between 2 and 5 am (my husband can't hear it). I cannot locate it outside of my home. I thought it was the electrical line to our house, an idling truck (for 3 hours!) or some kind of industrial noise in the area, like a vacuum or fan. I am accustomed to the sound of traffic, but it is louder on low traffic nights. Is seems to be most prevalent on the weekends and Mondays. Ear plugs make it louder(isolating it from other noise), and sometimes it seems to be vibrating through me, making it impossible to sleep. I've driven around in the middle of the night trying to locate it. It actually wakes me from deep sleep. All I know is that it is NOT my imagination. Anyone else in Pittsburgh?

Nicole, Pittsburgh
March 03, 2009 5:30pm

I can do the hum on command. Brian explains it nicely, it's like tightening the tiny muscles inside your head. I imagine it usually occurs for people who are very tense.

Jeanette, Norway
March 04, 2009 7:00pm

come to Seattle and listen. I have heard this for about 5 years, but since Jan 09 it has become unbearable. It is a vibration, a pulsing vibration, more than a sound. most of the actual hum comes from my walls vibrating to the frequency.( I do not hear it well outside).I also can "feel" the vibrations. certain frequencies will "mix" or "counter" these low vibrations, such as fans or violin(yanni).also, when cars drive by, the frequency of the sound of the tires "counters" the vibrations of the hum. For those who doubt, all I can say is doubt away WHILE being thankful that you cannot hear this!!!

Scott, Seattle
March 07, 2009 11:49am

I must say this is one of the most balanced accounts of the Hum I've seen online to date.
I've had experiences with the Hum to various extents through my life, ranging from tuning in, to it being so loud I can't stand it, to even being able to induce people, over text format, to hearing it for several days themselves until they forgot about it. However, as said, there's no way to accurately determine if these induced awareness’s are indeed the same noise, or different afflictions. Perhaps there should be a ‘colour-chart’ of types of noises that have been heard in order to more correctly pinpoint what each person’s sound actually is? It may well help further research!
One thing I have noticed is that it is possible to 'tune' in to listen to it (Not like the yawning method described here, that's a new trick to me, thanks!). There's no hoo-doo about the technique, it's simply listening for a noise, and hearing it, in the same way one can hear a cello in a orchestra.

I'm certainly open for more talk of this if needed (ash @ skarrbag . net).

Ash Crisp, London
March 12, 2009 6:06am

My left ear hum that I have heard now for over 20 years was very loud all night and my right ear drumming hum that I have heard since this last fall has been very loud the last two nights. the vibrating hums were so bad that my house was vibrating and creaking!!!

Mary, Idaho USA
March 12, 2009 8:21am

I can hear it constantly for 3 days of each week, worse in built up areas, goes away when traveling between towns or cities or in airplanes!!
It is maddening! since 2007 here, few others can hear it but not many, I think it is the HAARP project! and the US Government needs to wake up to itself subjecting the entire planet to their insanity!

Alana, Australia
March 26, 2009 10:07pm

I thought for years I was hearing some low frequency sound from local industry or house pipes. Then I found loads of anecdotes from people all over the world describing the same exact thing. It really is quite annoying, and certainly not in my head. I can do the yawning thing and make a "sound" with the tensor tympani muscle, but it is completely different from the humming.

Dawn, California, USA
March 28, 2009 11:35pm

Come to Saint Joseph. I have lived in 5 different homes, in 5 different areas of this city and in EACH area I hear the hum. Trying to sleep sometimes is impossible until I turn on a tunnel fan that I have. Once I find something to drown out the hum, I can sleep. I am also able to hear the hum during the day when traffic has calmed down. Sundays are an excellent example of days I can hear it. Thanks for letting me know I am not the only one that hears this.

Nancy, Saint Joseph, Mo
March 31, 2009 1:18am

I have been hearing this for about the last 6 months. When I lived near the city I thought it was the distant rumble of trucks going past. I hear it more strongly however since I moved to the country where it is completely silent at night.

Never thought I'd read that others were hearing it (my husband does not). I thought perhaps it was tinnitus but it doesn't seem to be like what tinnitus sufferers describe. Flexing the inner ear muscles definitely reproduces the sound though. Don't think I'll bother going to see a doctor about it - they'd probably pathologise it and I'd end up on medication...

Anne, Woodend, Vic, Australia
April 06, 2009 10:54pm

I started hearing the hum several months ago, late at night while in bed. When I get up and walk around the house or outside I still hear it. I also have pretty bad tinnitus but the hum sounds nothing like tinnitus. Tinnitus clearly sounds like it originates in the ear. The hum sounds very much external. My family does not hear the hum. After reading lots of similar stories on the internet my theory is that some people are more sensitive to very low frequency sounds. And we know that low frequency sounds can travel long distances. There is lots of industrial machinery, trains, highway traffic, etc. that could be the source. I am confused as to why only at night. Perhaps the horizontal position, when laying down, brings more blood to the ears making them more sensitive. Or, I am equally open to the possibility that it could just be a low frequency form of tinnitus. I would think doctors would have figured this out by now though.

Scott, Toledo, Ohio
April 08, 2009 4:17pm

I first heard this hum when I was backpacking on the AT in Vermont last summer 9/08. The sound was coming from the south and others heard it too. It sounded like a DC10 (old prop airplane) warming up on a runway. When I got home to RI a few hundred miles away I heard the same sound coming from the north. I am thinking one can locate the source using simple triangulation. Time of year and weather conditions may also play a role. I have not heard the sound lately. I'll listen for it again this summer and check back here from time to time.

Thanks Skeptiod, I knew others must be hearing this too.

-jm

John M, Rhode Island
April 14, 2009 3:31pm

A test can be performed to validate the RF/EM radiation theory, specifically with regard to more and more cell towers going up. Provided the communications provider is willing, alternate turning the transmitter on and off in an area where the hum is pronounced in a person's home and see if this coincides with the perceiver "hearing" or not "hearing" the hum. Other research, by the way, indicates that this is not an external sound, but rather an internal vibration as the waves pass through the head. Whatever the cause, and whatever the actual health effects, to those that "hear" it and to those that don't "hear" it, to those that do "hear" it, it's annoying. And the recourse isn't unlike asking someone to turn down his radio.

Jim, Florida
April 17, 2009 5:40pm

I don't think the Moir recording is that close to Hum.
The stop start element is not present either- which is common for many.
Doubt of the direction Gov'ts go doesn't need paranoia- you write off a lot of opinion with that assumption- whiich is common enough one.
Yes,Haarp is a lot less than the sun in output,but the point is-it's also intensely focused and actually bulges out the ionosphere to prove it!
This can cause the magnetospere to resonate at ELF (when switched at such)which can reach right round the world in seconds and also be heard deep undersea.
There's a lot more to this Hum than intimated in this article.

trev, Wilts UK
April 20, 2009 7:19pm

It could quite possibly be that they ("sufferers") are hearing the contractions of their own muscles, which emits a 20Hz sound. Also, they could be hearing their own blood flowing around their head, which is especially noticeable when yawning.

It is quite possible that movement in the geological plates create low frequency noises that travel a long way. Depending on the material, the created sound may or may not reach certain places. Waves could be transferred from the ground through the house materials and into the body of the individuals.

Maybe it's some form of sound created by air turbulence somewhere?

There are many theories/proposals; it is unlikely that humans will discover the "real" cause any time soon.

Jamie, Tasmania
April 21, 2009 7:49pm

the real cause of the hum is Haarp and there is more then one Haarp!

Mary, Idaho USA
April 22, 2009 2:30pm

i have heard the hum for a couple of years but did not say anything because i thought people would think i was crazy

NICOLE RILEY TERRELL, hammond, louisiana
April 23, 2009 10:52am

When you wrote "If you go to your doctor to complain about the Hum, the most likely diagnosis you'll get is tinnitus. This is the ringing in the ears that everyone gets at some point, and is often associated with ear infections, tube blockages or even head injuries. I've had this probably about as much as most people, and to me it sounds nothing like the Hum. However, by yawning or by tightening the tensor tympani muscle inside my ear, I can induce a loud, low-frequency rumble. It's hard to describe exactly how I do it, but I can make it last for maybe 30 or 40 seconds before the muscle fatigues. When I do this, it sounds exactly like the Hum. It's also gotten stuck a few times when I've had a cold or blown my nose too hard, and when it goes by itself, it tickles and is really annoying, and I end up with this rumble in my head for a while. It's not hard to think that some people may have this condition chronically, and since this is the exact sound described by Hum sufferers, it's virtually certain that some variation on this condition is the explanation for some of them." that I finally understood why I heard that rumbly sound... could you please tell me what exactly causes that and if it's normal... not the ringing thing but the rumbling thing...

Meg, Bardstown
April 23, 2009 10:53am

Hi, I caught an old episode of Unsolved mysteries today. I was stunned at what I heard about this low pitched hum that people hear. I have been hearing this hum for atleast a 6- months now.I first witnessed the sound 2 days before my 29th birthday. My birthday is October 3.Ear plugs did not work for me. It sounds like a diesal truck parked down the street idoling. Some days and nights it is louder to me and it is rare when I don't hear it. I first talked to my husband about it the third night I heard it and I had become so sleep deprived I was concerned that it was just in my head. Today I hear it really loud I leave the T.V. on because if I don't the noise will make me go batty. I can't believe my family can't hear it I am constantly asking them if they can hear that and they have no idea what I am talking about. Sometimes I can hear the sound kinda "Kick" down into a more tolerable pitch but it typically stays contsant. It has driven me to drink almost every night just so I can get atleast 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I am seeking others who can hear this noise especially now that I know others do. I am a normal person I have 3 kids and run a daycare from my home. I can't explain why I can hear this noise or why it just started out of nowhere. I would really like for it to go away though so I can sleep more normally and I am not so iritable all the time.

Anna, Mckinleyville, Ca.
April 23, 2009 2:03pm

When I first herad the hum several months ago it did not bother me.I was watching a show om t.v today and they started to talk about a sound the call the hum and when I heard them play it freaked me out. The noise to me is low-pitched and i thought everybody heard the sound because I always thought it was a big truck going by or someone running some sort of machine.I hear it better when I'm in my living room and it sounds like its always coming from outside. Most of the time it doesnt bother me when i sleep but sometimes it does. When my parents came home from work today ,I asked if they can the hum and they said they did not hear it. I think its wicked weird that my parents or anyone else in my house can hear the mysterious hum sound but me.

Brendan, Massachusetts,USA
April 23, 2009 4:18pm

The BBC's Today (a radio news programme) had a feature on a doctor with a theory about The Hum <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8056284.stm>.

Paul, Glasgow, Scotland
May 19, 2009 6:32am

I hear the hum. It doesn't sound like that recording though. Its a lower frequency harmonic and oscillates. I've killed the power to my house, and still hear it. I hear it best from my bedroom at night. Its as though you feel it more than hear it. I also only hear it in my left ear.

Anthony Claudia, crozet VA
May 19, 2009 6:53am

My last post seemed to disappear so I am reposting.

I can't say I have heard the hum, however I take objection with your statement "the pseudoscience of modern electromagnetic fields as health hazards." There is much scientific proof that emr is non-thermally bio active. Thousands of studies show the effect. Some of the effects are beneficial and others harmful. Please refer to http://www.bioinitiative.org/ BioInitiative Report:
A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF) for more on this.

Of course if you want to believe Industry Spin then go ahead and do that. Scientists, doctors and governmental agencies from all over the world have issued warnings and alerts over emr exposure. It is only good sense to listen to them. Here is another good site on the issue - http://www.emrnetwork.org/

Angela Flynn, Bethesda, MD, USA
May 19, 2009 7:36am

Agree exactly with Anthony about my experience and agree with Angela about emr.

Yvonne, UK
May 19, 2009 2:35pm

I have not heard the hum for several months, but yesterday it started again and is still going strong. Not localized to the house as I hear the same across town. Low occilating rumble. Wondering if others have it come and go with months between hearing it as I do?

Phil, Minneapolis MN
May 19, 2009 7:46pm

I hear the hum all the time in my timber framed farmhouse (even beyond TV noise). It oscillates/has pattern + peak volume at times of high consumer activity. I've a patulated eustachian tube in my left ear in which I detect this low frequency noise(LFN)most, for that's what it is. LFN penetrates the structure of my house while all higher frequency sound is masked by it. Conclusion - I'm not imagining it - it's a complex mix of LFN from pub beer chillers and electricity substation (both 750 yards away)+ neighbour's pool pump,and maybe some other nearby industrial generator too which runs 24/7. I hear it (my husband/others don't) because I have excellent hearing (so my ENT tells me), a capacity heightened by the condition of my left ear I believe. I hear similar but different LFN when I stay in most hotels where it's usually the air conditioning systems/restaurant extraction and fridge systems which are automatically programmed. I once lived 30 yards from a 2* Michelin restaurant which boiled stock down in large pans overnight/whose staff often worked pre-cooking food to 2am in a tiny windowless kitchen, so their extraction/fridge units ran full pelt throughout the night only abating around 7am when they had brought the temperature down. Nightmare. A complex problem indeed - pity those who suffer.

Bev Adams, Cambridgeshire UK
May 20, 2009 2:13am

My partner and I have been hearing the hum for about 2 years now, It's driving us both crazy. It also coincides with the installation of a huge extractor fan on a factory which is about half a mile away from our house. I have been out at night on foot and traced the noise to the source also. It sounds exactly like the sound in the sound bite and is , dull and droning , and is probably worse between 1 and 5 AM when the town is silent depending on the wind direction.
A few of my frieds on the estate also hear it so we are not alone.
I have put in an official complaint to the local council which I will be returning shortly and they have told me I must be prepared to attend court and fight my corner which i will to stop this noise.
Interestingly we also have overhead power cables on the estate but these have never been an issue in the last 12 years since I have lived here and are a quater of a mile in the other direction.
Both my partner and I were keen paranormal invesigators for 10 years previously and we both wonder if we are more susceptible to the noise as ours ears are more tuned in?

Alan, Tamworth, UK
May 20, 2009 2:35am

i have heard the hum all my life.

also, when i had braces in fairfield, ct in the 70's, my teeth picked up two different stations depending upon where i was in town. wicc was particularly strong at home, an am station, and i can't recall exactly the fm station i picked up, but later confirmed with my husband who grew up in new haven, that his braces picked that one up, too.

even after my braces were off, i picked up wicc on particularly clear days in new fillings.

ao i am apt to believe the hum is radio waves.

cathy c, yorktown, va
May 20, 2009 8:36am

I used to live in Bristol, and was aware of "the hum", but I never heard anything other than traffic noise, which came and went. From the anecdotes I've seen here and in other locations, it seems this is nothing to do with it anyway as it's reported as being more like a rumble than a roar.

If you want to hear a wonderful deep rumble, albeit of short duration, come and sit at my desk for a week. We have a waste disposal site next door where I work, and when they drag the waste bins along onto the pickup trucks, the whole ground shakes.

Mike Torr, Southampton, UK
May 20, 2009 4:20pm

I started hearing the hum about 1 to 1 1/2 years ago, in this time I have lived in 2 locations in that time and there has been no change. I do not hear the hum all the time but I do hear it even when I completely kill the houses main breaker. I live 1/4 mile from any real road and 1/2 mile from the main road and even more at least 10 miles from any major industry + I hear it best at night or in the morning. I don't know what it is but I do know 100% for a fact its not industry or electrical, you can fire a 12 gauge shotgun off were I live and it would take 6 to 8 shots before its noticed by anyone else. This hum pulsates very similar to the sample play, which is breathtakingly similar, but once in a great while it will change to a random but slow humming pulse as nothing I've ever heard, I'm am ecstatic and a little worried that I am not alone.

Justin, medium sized city fl
May 29, 2009 8:39pm

This is the best explanation for the "hum" which I started to hear Dec 2008 - age 40

http://homepages.tesco.net/~John.Dawes2/page1.htm

Brian, Copenhagen, Denmark
May 31, 2009 2:42am

I have heard the hum every day of my life. Then again, I have tinnitus.

Marius vanderLubbe, Nullabour Plain, Australia
June 20, 2009 12:22am

i have always felt that i have been listening to a million crickets humming in unison. more like tv static in low-volume. there are only a few instances when it would stop. i 'm not sure wether i am feeling or hearing what others had commented. and yes they do sound like radio waves in your head. more like your brain telling me you hear something not thru your ears but thru your mind. please shed light on this one for me please. thanks.

josh, abu dhabi, UAE
June 21, 2009 11:14am

I have been hearing the "hum" for almost 2 years now, and for almost a year I've also experienced a "vibration" in the body. I have searched and searched for answers to this, and I've come to only one conclusion that may or may not withstand explanation. From what I understand, we are going through a metamorphasis, i.e. higher evolutional phase. This humming of the ears is a frequency that starts out low and gets progressively higher. This is due to our 4th and 5th dimensional climb. As our "hum" gets higher, so does the vibration of our bodies to withstand the metamorphasis. There are other changes that the body is undergoing, and that is of sight. If you notice as you look up into the atomosphere (air) you will see tiny spots, like microbes that dance. That is because we have already evolved into the 4th dimension and see new "characteristics" of the New Earth in the making. The earth is also on the evolutionary scale, and is changing. We are changing with her. For those of you who are going through this process, take heart. Nothing is wrong with you. You are one of the lucky ones who are going into a new phase of life. One of upliftment and spiritual inhancement. We are the "new ones" who are known as the "forerunners" to the New Age and "wayshowers" to a new life. As the year 2012 comes closer, you will see that there will be more and more disclosure for you. A promise of a world of peace and contentment. The world of war, hunger, and poverty will end. We will be ONE

iwritebackwards, Brunswick, Ga.
June 22, 2009 10:58am

I first heard the hum about 2 years ago. I don't hear it often but I wonder if it has anything to do with the amount of noise that airplanes make. There are thousands of them up there they make a terrific racket and they are all at about 30,000 feet. I don't know anything about noise waves but is there a possible cumulative effect?

Philip, Deal Kent UK
July 05, 2009 12:37am

*facepalm*

John, New York
July 23, 2009 1:15pm

I sometimes hear "the hum", and never thought it was anything special. It's the exactly same rumbling noise you hear when you hold your ears, and that anyone could think this is some sort of phenomenon worth making CTs about just blows my mind.

Safe-Keeper, Norway
July 27, 2009 11:19am

Hmm...It seems I have had such a phenomena my entire life. Never knew what to make of it. Figured everyone had such a thing.

Jord, Norway
July 29, 2009 7:05pm

Hey - just saw this story on Wired Science which suggests scientists have found a source for the hum:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/hummingearth/

"After discovering the mysterious low-frequency buzz in 1998, scientists figured out that the Earth’s hum is caused not by earthquakes or atmospheric turbulence, but by ocean waves colliding with the seafloor. Now, researchers have pinpointed the source of the Earth’s “background noise,” and it looks like it’s coming primarily from the Pacific coast of North America."

So is this the same hum this Skeptoid article talks about, or am I matching two different things just based on the names?

Randy, Memphis, TN
August 11, 2009 7:34am

I've been hearing the hum since they started blasting a hill to make a new warf in this area. So far, I'm the only one in the area that hears it, and folk think I'm looney.

This article is a bloody joke. It's quite like, I investigated this and came up with nothing.

Glenn P. Halloran, Island, Maine, USA
August 14, 2009 2:46am

I started hearing the hum about 12 years ago. I went through what alot of sufferers do...searching everywhere in the house to determine the location of the noise and finding nothing. It's usually most audible between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. which makes it really difficult on a person if it is loud enough to disturb sleep. I once had it occur with such strength that I could physically feel it vibrating my body. NOT FUN!
I don't think we really "hear" it since usually ear plugs don't help. Lately its been fairly quiet. No way its waves creating this sound. It's sustained and doesn't pulse. Sometimes its like two slightly different frequencies ovelapping to enhance eachother. Creates sleep deprivation and stress and can be very unpleasant. It's always seemed unnatural, as in man made, to me. But it isn't gas lines or generators or wind turbines etc. I believe it is a purposely generated powerful low frequency wave transmission and whatever it is for...it ain't good.

Cam Westbrook, Summerland, Canada
August 18, 2009 4:19pm

I used to hear it a lot at night. Ear plugs didn't work. I would liken it to an electricity substation low frequency/amplitude hum...but there were always peaks and troughs in the amplitude as if it were resonating. Thought it was something in the house, then outside..found nothing. Months later in hospital 15 miles away I heard the same noise. Was at that point I thought I was nuts. Don't hear it much now and try not to try to hear it when I sleep but I think it's there.

John, Belley, France
August 24, 2009 2:43am

I recently realized my normal tinnitus (high pitched) had morphed into a constant low pitched thrumming noise and it was not external. For a long time I figured it was road noise but then realized i was hearing it all over the place. This went on for several years. Sometimes chiropractic adjustment would lessen it somewhat.

I switched recently from Alltel phones (I think they have 800 mHz towers/phones) to AT&T which uses a higher frequency, I think 1900 mHz towers... and the hum has gone away!

paula, west of Minneapolis
August 25, 2009 7:12am

With all due respect to Mr. Dunning.....

I am a quite normal, happily married 49 year old father. I've been told I have excellent hearing and a very thin tympani, but no hearing problems, and no tinnitus (which, in any event, is a high-pitched tone, not a low hum). Only meds I'm on is drops for glaucoma.

Never heard the hum until we moved into our home on the far North Side of Chicago.
Thought it was the fridge, eventually cut the power main to the house, still heard it. Mostly at night, loudest around 3-6am, sometimes audible in the daytime during Spring and Fall.

Checked the gas line, removed roof antenna (thinking it was the cables), checked chimney, checked roof vents, hot water tank 5 years old and quiet, plumbing meter shows no leaks, oven air vent in wall, windows, we have no attic fan...... nothing. Sort of a cross between the already mentioned 'idling diesel truck' outside, and a soft but low fog horn.
The hum is awful, ear plugs don't stop it, its too low. Sound machine (white noise) SOMETIMES blocks it, other times is useless. I hear it more than my wife.
Please bear in mind I lived for 8 years behind the Candlelight Inn and Mark IV tavern off of a busy street (Western Ave) with no problems.
The Hum is very real, not 'tinfoil hat material' at all. I'll pay $500 cold cash to anyone who can find this seemingly omnidirectional plague AND stop it. Acoustic specialists want over $100/hour to come out.. just can't afford it. Thanks.

Dave B., Chicago
August 27, 2009 6:27pm

I too have experienced the hum, for several years now. When I mentioned it to my neurologist he looked at me like I had 2 heads. It is indoors, outdoors, at night, in the a.m. and especially after showering accompanied with an electrical buzzing sensation all over my body. I would love to find out what is causing this. My neighbors believe it is the dSL cables. And yes, I did have my ears checked and told they are fine and that I have great hearing for my 54 years. I would like to know if any others also experience the elec shock sensation or the feeling of ice being pressed on the back of your head.

E. Hyson, Florida
September 29, 2009 11:06am

First noticed it around 2002 in Monterey, CA. Then moved to Europe, heard it in Italy but not in Germany. Most recently I was on a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada, it was very noticeable, uncomfortably so and so I decided to do some research. In all cases it was the exact same hum, low base modulating.

Tom M., Oakland, CA
October 03, 2009 12:45am

I am pretty certain it is not wind based. We hear it irrespective of wind or lack of. A website suggested it was the vibrating washer in a ballcock in a toilet tank, but I hear it even when I shut the toilets off. I"m working on a presumption of either something to do with a gas line outside the house, or something plumbing related beyond me.
\
Any idea where I can rent a directional microphone?

Dave B., Chicago
October 06, 2009 8:33pm

I had never heard of the hum before until I started hearing it in late September. It is driving me nuts. I can hear the hum throughout my house all the time. But if I walk outside, nothing, even in the still of a windless night. I am getting headaches and can't sleep much at all. I hope it passes or I might just pass!

Matt, Gibsonburg, Ohio
October 07, 2009 9:56pm

I began hearing a low hum about two and half years ago when living in Canton, GA, some forty five miles south, and thought I was just hearing machinery of new industry close by. I would only hear it at night when quiet. I looked forward to moving. I moved two years ago. Unfortunately, I still hear it but not as often. I had never heard of this phenomenon until recently. I would like to know if anyone in Georgia hears this??

J Allen, Ellijay, Georgia
October 10, 2009 2:09pm

I used to hear the diesel motor sounding hum all the time,until about 3 years ago. I have not heard it since. It has stopped completely in the area north of Chicago where I live. I have read a million articles on this strange anomily but none seem to fit just right, except for possibly the HAARP Project, or the deep tunneling thats has been going on all around the planet. Thats what it sounds like to me, deep underground diesel powered tunneling machines like the ones that dug the tunnel under the English Channel. It is quite difficult to nail down though. I did lose many nights of sleep due to this noise and would love to know what causes it. One night I got so frustrated with the HUMM that I sent an E_Mail to the HAARP Project, almost begging them to stop what they are doing if that was what was causing it. Really strange, now that I think of it, not long afterwards I stopped hearing it. Thank God it has stopped by where I live. Do others really still hear it? Does anyone around Chicago still hear it?

Terry, Chicago
October 11, 2009 9:38pm

I have never heard a hum, but I can produce it in a way it is described in the text. I can make it last only for 10-12 seconds. I always wondered if anyone could hear that hum coming from my head...

WhoCares, Zagreb
October 13, 2009 2:46am

I heard it originally when living in northern Massachusetts. Now I'm hearing it in Southern New Hampshire as well. I have to run a fan a night to sleep to drown out the hum. Seems louder at night, its only indoors when all the other noises subside. That God for the Wiki writeup (ref. The Hum). I know I'm not crazy.

Dan, New Hampshire
October 13, 2009 3:31pm

The Hum is something all humans have heard from ancient times. It is the Music of the Spheres, as some famous person put it. The sound is the sound of Creation, the Creative sound of the Universe. Tibetans call it Hum, Hindus, Aum, Jesus called it Amen. It is a great blessing to be able to hear this sound, and if you hear it, know it is a normal, good and blessed thing. No, you aren't crazy. I also thought something was wrong when I started hearing it. Later, after learning to meditate, I discovered the truth about Aum. I am just at the beginning of my understanding of course. Amen is the Comforter. Amen.

Lanie, Lake Tahoe, CA
October 16, 2009 12:33pm

Try this. Sit in a quiet place, cup your hands gently over your ears. Listen. Hear that? It's a bit like the "sound of the sea" you hear when you place a sea-shell (or an empty ceramic cup or glass will do just as well) to your ear. It's less of a "whooshy" and softer with your hands compared to a shell/cup because your hands are soft and fleshy, but the source of the sound is the same - the faint sound from movement of blood in your head reflected off what's cupped over your ears back into your ears. Maybe that's the the source of the hum some people are hearing.
I can also get the similar effect with an exaggerated yawn like Brian Dunning describes.

Simon, Doncaster UK
November 02, 2009 4:16pm

I started hearing this hum just over two years ago and it's more like a constant droning noise that sometimes increases in volume & also changes direction. It's also more audible between the hours of 2.00am to 8.00am.

It's nothing like the silly DIY tricks that the skeptics mention on here, as I can also do these tricks and it's not the same noise and it does not create whole body vibrations like the hum sometimes does.

For me, the hum is definitely external and sometimes it's unbearable, as there's nothing worse than not being able to sleep. I've also noticed that it occasionally changes direction and as the pitch gets louder, the vibrations become worse.

The hum hasn't really bothered me for a while, but it came back with a vengeance last night. The hum noise was a lot louder than it's been in quite a while and my whole body was vibrating so much that even my bed was shaking. No doubt people will laugh, but it's no laughing matter for me, when I'm left completely & physically exhausted. I would love to know what's really causing it, so I can hopefully do something to stop it.

Steven, Blyth
November 06, 2009 1:55am

My hum started a few weeks ago it comes and goes....I have noticed. I have been sick over the last few months with the flu and a sinus infection,; I am just now getting better and have finished a strong antibiotic I've been on. I am attributing the "hum" to that. It will actually wake me up in the middle of the night or make it very hard to fall asleep naturally. I can say this it sounds exactly like a freight train passing by in the distance just the light hum of large, powerful, train engines chugging along. It is not an outside noise since no one else hears it and the fact that it will switch ears tells me it's something in my own ears. Tonight my left ear is quiet and my right ear is hearing the hum. I'm hoping in a few days it will all settle and go away. People need to calm down and look at whjat's going on in their life that may be causing this.

Michael, Port St. Lucie
November 11, 2009 11:34pm

I heard, or more like felt, a low-frequency hum on the third floor of a building for weeks before tracing it to the large boiler downstairs. The vibrations penetrate your body, especially when sitting on a hard wooden chair.

Max, Boston, MA
November 12, 2009 1:25am

I too hear the hum. It started in Ohio for me about 2 years ago, and only at night. Now in El Paso, I hear it during the day and night. I hear it above the sound of the tv, so long as I'm in another room. I would describe it like a distant freight train or an idling engine. I feel as if I am going mad sometimes when it prevents me from sleeping. I tried using a wind up clock beside the bed but it is constantly in the background and overpowers the clock. I also thought it might be traffic, but actually, traffic wouold be a welcoming sound compared to this constant droning sound. I hope someone can resolve this issue and help us, please!

Barbara W., El Paso, TX
November 21, 2009 3:09pm

I have been hearing a hum for a couple of years now.... its only at night...I have woke my husband upset thinking that the neighbors are having a party... to me it sounds like bass that has lows and highs like a song playing but its to far away to make out the words.... But my husband can't hear it and the sound moves so I can't track it.... I am glad I found this site because now there just might be a chance that I am not nuts after all :)
Best wishes to all of you trying to lose the HUM!

Trish T, Lansing, MI
November 24, 2009 5:36pm

i have it sometimes ,when im in bed ,it does kinda feel like somethink is put on you or,kinda some interference,
also kinda bumpy when in bed,i can be sure to tell when it starts and stop's

i dont mean to be a freak but its probably aliens or something

david j loc, birmingham uk
November 26, 2009 6:39pm

I hear it, but only at my house. I can walk several hundred yards and then the sound goes away.
I suspected the power line transformer, or some device in my house, but then the power went out for two days and the hum was still there.
This is the only place i hear it. Inside the house the sound is intensified, at times irritating to one or the other hear.
I do not believe this is tinnitus, as I can go to the other side of the ridge and not hear it.
I am actively seeking other areas that I can hear the sound, possibly putting together a database of locations and their relation to cell phone reception or line of sight to the cities of Stockton and Sacramento both of which I can just see from my house.

Most websites on the topic are disappointing, I am looking for a more scientific approach.

Philip D., Volcano Ca.
November 29, 2009 1:12pm

I have read many of the postings here and also a few articles outside this one. It seems that most of the people who respond have heard it for about 2 years. That is around the time I started hearing it. Like others, it is a low frequency hum similar to a diesel engine. I hear it in one ear mostly when I am at home. I thought it was coming from a wire to my house until I kept hearing it after I disconnected the wire. No one else in my house hears it. There is no set rhythm...sometimes the pulse is long, sometimes intermittently short. I hope there will be success in finding out the source.

Debbie, Valley Forge, PA
December 07, 2009 5:21am

Could this hum be from ear damage? A friend of mine constantly hears a noise (like a blaring but only in one small range). Does anyone with the right expertise think this is an explanation for this phenominan?

Robert Mcbride, Columbia, MD
December 07, 2009 10:18am

I moved into my current home almost three years ago and I've been hearing the hum ever since. It's just as everyone describes. When I first heard it I had people come into my house at a time when I was hearing it and no one could hear it. They all looked at me kind of worriedly. I told my girlfriend at the time (who was then living in Texas)about it. The conversation we had about it troubled her a bit and caused her to think that maybe I was a little more weird than she already thought I was, maybe too weird. The following spring came and she moved to St. Louis to live with me. A month or so had passed when I was awakened by her in the middle of the night. She said, "Pat." She said
"What?"
"I hear it, I can hear the hum."

Pat Mason, St. Louis, MO
December 11, 2009 9:27pm

The Nephilim are coming back... the fallen angels to deceive the world like never before.

Get ready for Jesus folks.
The Earth is ready, eager and making noise.

"For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now" Romans 8:22

the 1st Criminal, San Fernado
December 12, 2009 2:28am

I heard this myself for many months after moving into my new apartment. It bothered me because it happened at night, keeping me awake, and then I could feel it as well. If I plugged my ears I could feel my body vibrating and frankly that was just creepy.

Finally I’d had enough and spent a couple of days trying to track down the cause. I did everything from unplugging the refrigerator to turn off the heater. I wondered around my apartment building at night listening and feeling for the sound and vibration.

It ended up being a sub pump in the basement of the building combined with the maintenance crew at the pharmacy below my apartment, buffing the floors. The pharmacy changed their cleaning schedule and I no longer have catastrophe dreams.

Cherie, Monterey, Ca
December 12, 2009 4:23pm

I hear the hum, but the hum I hear is a little different to the sound sample, the frequency is the same, but the hum I hear pulses. Not sure when I first heard it, but is more than a year ago.

It was not until it was mentioned on a topical news quiz that I learnt of "The Hum" phenomena. Prior to this the hum had me searching the house, checking pumps and motors and even turned the electric off at the main inlet etc. all to no avail.

Is very odd.

Ollie, Bingley, U.K
December 14, 2009 4:28pm

I have been hearing a low sound,steady with intermittant pauses for sometime now. It sounds like an engine idling mixed with the sound when someone has their subwoofer cranked and you hear it from afar.

Not expecting to find anything about it, I looked on the internet and there was a lot written.

At first my husband didn't hear it, but now he says he can! Friends living near have heard it too. But they live maybe 3 miles away from me.

Robin, Shady Valley TN
December 16, 2009 7:21am

This is the same Michael from Tampa as above and I have found at least some of the sources of the hum/noise/vibration/etc.
Up until August 2009 the sound stayed from the same direction (from the North), then it changed direction (from the South), then it started changing direction practically every night. I have found (3) sources on (3) different nights, all CELL TOWERS, two of them owned by "SBA TOWERS II LLC"!
(There are articles about vertical array cell towers and ELF "Extremely low frequency" on the net, at least one of these towers looks like a vertical array tower!) I am CERTAIN it is CELL TOWERS, I was up close, the weird low freq sound was coming from the tops of the towers!! Since my previous posts, the list of symptoms includes 1)vibration 2)constant hum 3)oscillating/drumming hum 4)PAIN IN EARS "hammering" sound 5)weird sensation on skin, tingling "electric" sensation in air all around!
Like I said, I KNOW it is CELL TOWERS, definitely increasing power since summer 2008, ELF, infrasound, what are they doing this for?? MacDill AFB (CENTCOMM) is nearby, is it a test market for (untested/currently testing) technology?? It is making me sick!!

Michael, Tampa, Florida
December 21, 2009 10:30am

I've heard background noise all my life...it sounds like a big truck idling and I can hear 24X7.

Brett Rowsam, Yukon, OK
January 05, 2010 5:06am

Hmmm...

Or should I say "hummm..."?

We're closing in on two years since this thread began.

And what Brian the Skeptoid started as a riff to debunk has become perhaps the most thorough study and best consensus out there that the phenomenon exists.

Chris, Boston
January 07, 2010 9:40am

I have no doubt this sound is real. I have heard it during Zen retreats and after disqualifying a pump, have been lead to believe it is omnipresent, beyond a locale, maybe concentrated harmonics of waves, and or plus or minus gravity waves...or oil pumps miles away thumping like Dune. On the other hand, it increased suddenly and there is no end of it since the new highway came through, and the rail system reinforced. It is like a pump right now. I can hear it with or without ears plugged, and I think it is part of a harmonics base system of resonances.

Glenn, Glenmora, LA
January 08, 2010 5:17pm

I heard this for months, equally in every room of the house, but not outside the house. No one else could hear it.

Then at Christmas, it suddenly disappeared at the same time our christmas light electrical circuit went out. We traced it to the breaker box, where a loose connection had probably been sparking for months. This may have caused a feedback loop that affected every circuit in the house.

So for anyone out there with a house-specific problem, I suggest turning off the main breaker and walking around. Do you still hear it?

Bob Forgrave, Kirkland, USA
January 14, 2010 9:12am

Incidents like that above this message are not the culprit for those that are experiencing the hum that is generally perceived to be shared by this group. It would be a blessing if it were, but, as those who have gone to the extent of switching off the main in their homes, it is not the solution. What the person above experienced was the typical electrical humming sound, not the one described throughout this thread, that for some reason, is usually just perceived from the left side of the head.

Chris, Boston
January 17, 2010 6:45am

I wouldn't describe what my daughter and I are hearing. It's sounds more like a high pitch ringing. Is this not the "hum"???

Marti, Illinois
January 20, 2010 8:28pm

I know what sound you mean when you describe yawning or pinching your ear thing tube stuff! I can do that myself and it sounds awesome!

In fact, it sounds exactly like the sound the Force makes in the "Star Wars" movies when someone uses the Force. Best example: when Darth Vader chokes Admiral Motti in the Death Star meeting room, where he says "I find your lack of faith disturbing". For some stupid reason, the DVD version tries to mute this sound, but like much of the DVD version's audio, fails miserably and only serves to mute the voices worse.

As for other auditory phenomena, I can very clearly hear the high pitched "eeee" noises made by old, non-LCD television sets. It's annoying when it's on but with the sound muted. That's no phenomena, I know.

But one thing that I get a lot is hearing creaks and cracks and sounds made by wooden or metal or plastic things around the house.

I'm not stupid enough to think these phenomena or such, but what could this be? Just the far-out randomness of air pressure shifting on a computer case causing the plastic to shift slightly and make a loud creak?

Or is it meteors?

Andariel Halo, Miami, Florida
January 22, 2010 8:06am

i moved to a new build housing association house 6 months ago,and the continuos humming is driving me bonkers.I could hear it in my old house and enviromental health recorded it for me, but concluded it wasnt loud enough to cause a problem. but its far worse in my new home, and though i can here it outside, it seems to be louder inside.i live in a sealed house, and wondered if its causing some kind of vacumn or something.i dont hear it when i go to realatives or friends,and i know its not in my head, but it looks like im going to be moving again, cause i cant live with this,and the landlord isnt interested.

anita schulen, ipwich suffolk england
January 25, 2010 2:55am

I've been able to hear this since we moved here a few years ago. It comes and goes and is really irritating. Feels like my head is filled with low frequency vibration when it's going. Like a plane flying really high overhead except it lasts for hours at a time. I'm going to see if it's possible to record it now after seeing this site. I thought maybe it was some kind of tinnitus except i don't get it in other places....

I really want to find out what it is now because it's horrible whatever it is.

steve, wentworth falls NSW Australia
January 25, 2010 4:19pm

Join the club, Steve. You've captured the hum precisely. The source, however, is a great mystery. Aside from the more "out there" theories, cell towers are a popular suggestion. I can also say that the hum was extremely pronounced here the day leading to the 7.0 in Haiti. But, no one in public office is willing to engage in a dialogue about a phantom "sound". The feeling is you just have to live with it. There's a Google group for hum sufferers.

Someone, Florida
January 26, 2010 12:07pm

So I'm not imagining this noise - it started around Christmas and I started looking everywhere in the house - upstairs, down cellar, front, back - it was the loudest in a particular area of my bedroom, near an inner wall....but it also sounded like it came from the house next door - looks like they had another satelite dish installed. It sounds like a low humming generator or sump pump running...I also 'feel' vibrations from people running up and down stairs (I live alone), but this hum is definitely annoying, especially trying to sleep. I only hear it here at home, not at work.
I'll check back here - I don't twitter.

Bonnie B., Rhode Island, USA
January 27, 2010 3:43pm

I thought i was the only one who heard it. Sounds like a diesel engine really really far away. I thought it may be the underground mines that are a few kilometers away from me.

Rushil, Johanesburg
February 13, 2010 4:51pm

I'll just relate an experience I had umpteen years ago. For a few days there was a whistling sound in my house and I could not locate the source. It sounded like a pure tone, no harmonics, no other sound, just a single sound of a particular fairly high freqency. You could not hear it everywhere, take two steps right or left and it would vanish. Step back and there it was again. Eventually it turned out to be a digital alarm clock in a drawer in which the battery had gone almost flat and the clock was emitting the sound as a warning the battery was nearly dead.

I am willing to guess that these low frequency hums heard in some places but not in others are being transmitted up water lines or more likely sewer pipes from pumps. Something near the places where the hum is heard is resonating, elsewhere there is no resonance so nothing is heard. The apparent fact that they can be heard inside houses with double glazing etc supports my guess.

Ken

Ken, Canberra, Australia
February 17, 2010 3:36pm

Our family and friends have heard the "hum" in this rural part of Vermont, where there is no cell reception for miles. So at least here, I think we can rule out the cell tower theory.
Otherwise it corresponds to typical reports.
I don't think it's got anything to do with the 'tensor tympani'- I know what that is like but it's much too loud and a higher frequency than our friend the hum.

It's also oddly non-localized, and more vibrational than auditory, in my opinion. The only thing I can think of is something geophysical. Or another remote low-frequency source that we haven't been able to find... who knows!?

Julie Thomson, Brookline, VT
February 20, 2010 3:12pm

Greetings,I heard the 'hum' for years. At night in particular and not until after about 3am.It annoyed me that it was harder to get back to sleep when it was happening.But I was interested to note (back in October 2001)that it started and wound up to to it's full volume over about 5 -7 seconds at bang on 3am,when daylight saving kicked in, it started at 3am real time, although now it's always going. I also hear it at a friends house 60km north, in the country,very close to the pipe line from the oil refinery running to Auckland,I toy with the idea that somehow that is the cause. What's this 2+7= thing?

Juliet Gilmore, Auckland New Zealand
February 22, 2010 1:00am

I am hearing the "hum" right now as I write this. It began in November 2003. Yesterday and today it has been the worst ever! Very loud. Nonstop. I have for the first time been able to confirm that I can hear it outside of my house as well. It is everywhere, at the same frequency, upstairs or down. It is everywhere, yet nowhere. I cannot pinpoint where it is. It's sound is like a distant diesel engine, or I liken it to the sound that is made when you blow into a pop bottle. That low drone. Constant, and pulsating. It is driving me crazy! If it stays at this level permanently, I may have to move. It is very disturbing. Most days, I don't notice it, but it is bad now. Impossible to ignore. U wish I could make it go away, or that I never heard it. Ever!

Kelly S, Metro Detroit, Michigan
February 24, 2010 8:28pm

Last evening, Feb. 24, came home at about 9:30 and stopped to Open Gate. When I got out I heard a pulsating lowww frequency drumming,
got back in car and pulled through gate, when outside again heard the same sound. At my house the pulsating was louder and could feel/hear it outside and inside. Turned off all power and still heard it. Lasted till I went to sleep. I have heard the diesel sound in my North Texas home, but this was the loudest and most prominent sound I have felt/heard.

Cannot describe the questions it created in my soul. But I trust in God and God will tell us what we need to know. Just have faith.

Jack D., Austin, Texas
February 25, 2010 7:04pm

Kelly, Juliet, Bonnie, and Rushil, sites like this (though not its original intent) help to sort out what's going on. I've found another site at http://groups.google.com/group/hum-sufferers?pli=1. Its alleged mission is "to allow Hum sufferers to exchange experiences and thoughts on the matter", although a thread I started relating to cell phone towers was not posted, so its sincerity is questionable. Though, Julie, you may be right that it's not related to these towers and could be geophysical. We're all stuck hearing it and not knowing what it is we're hearing. Just to throw something else out there, I just read that researchers at the San Diego Zoo have discovered that elephants are capable of exchanging relatively complex pieces of information via a subtle growl or rumble. Analysis reveals two-thirds of it is transmitted at frequencies too low to be picked up by the human ear. Of course, I'm not saying it's elephants, but perhaps another natural or artificial communication method we're unfortunately picking up. To Jack's point, maybe if we concentrated on praying through the hum, we might be heard. (BTW, this afternoon's hum is set on low :)

Someone, Florida
February 26, 2010 2:08pm

I started notciing the Hum when i was about 12 years old. It would always come when I was alone. I was terrified by it for a long time and never told anyone since i didnt think anyone would believe me. I am not sure at what age it stopped but i can no longer hear it.

me, ocnj
March 02, 2010 11:09am

Kelly, I'm about an hour outside Metro Detroit and i've heard it a lot recently.

I didn't really hear it much before this year but the last couple of weeks it's been nearly constant if i don't have something else to drown it out.

The only time I can get it to go away is to play music or have some other sort of noise around like the TV or even breathing loudly can sometimes get it to stop but only for a second or two.

It's a low sound, not terribly loud or disturbing. Sometimes it's a contant sound, other times it sounds like the thwicking of helicopter propellers or the rumble of a distant diesel engine.

Sometimes in the summer there will be random loud insect humming, but this is nothing like that.

This comes from the back of my head, down towards where the head and spine come together. Sometimes I feel like a walking tuning fork.

Cassandra, Emmett, MI
March 02, 2010 3:22pm

I can hear a hum in Aurora, CO. I first attributed the hum to the expansion of the local elementary school - and therefore larger and improperly mounted HVAC system. I still sometimes think it is a nearby industrial HVAC system. Another theory is that now they are burying power lines instead of stringing them from pole to pole above. Could it be electricity underground?

Hum
The hum pulsates (a consistent rhythm).
The hum can be heard only inside.
The hum is louder when the ground is wet with rain/snow.
The house and especially the bed frame act as oversized speakers for the hum.
I can hear the hum in all nearby homes.
The hum is often more of a vibration and feeling than a sound.
The hum sounds like a distant truck idling, a faraway airplane (a jet).
The hum drives me crazy daily.
I sometimes think my animals hear the hum.
I wonder if the hum might be measured by earthquake seismic equipment?
People think I am crazy - I know of one woman that moved away from our neighborhood complaining about the hum.

Beth, Aurora, CO
March 03, 2010 7:55am

"Very Low Frequency (VLF) waves at .1 Hz"

Actually, this is ULF (ultra low frequency). HAARP does produce and uses VLF, as well.

Annie, Oregon
March 13, 2010 4:00pm

Well I hear it as well but at first I thought it was ULF transmissions for military communications. It is variable to some degree which could convey information. I dont just hear the hum with my ears but I feel it(a little) like you would feel a subwoofer. For me it aproximates a distant train engine sound. It sounds a bit lower in frequency that the above sample however.

Something else that happens is when sounds/frequency's intersect or combine they can cancel or add. If you knew where your ULF ELF reciever was you could transmit two or more frequencies at different distant locations that would cancel and add togeather and result at the receiving end a complete message but any where else would only appear as a rumble. This way the data would not need to be encoded as the location would be the code.

Chris, St Louis
March 18, 2010 8:38am

I have heard this hum for a couple of years. I hear it mainly at night upstairs. Drives me nuts and some nights I can't sleep. Hubby thinks I'm nuts as he can't hear it.
The Hum does come and go in spurts.
I have walked the house trying to find the source but it seems to come from no where in particular...its just everywhere.
Would LOVE to find the source!!!

G,D., SE Livingston County, MIchigan
March 23, 2010 9:37am

Once again I was woke in the middle of the night by the sound that "doesn't exist". Amazing. Believe me IT exists. We agree on how it sounds from a variety of states. The same description from all. IT'S real. I put cotton in my ears and it was as if the sound was IN me, a vibration so to speak. It sounds like a truck in idle. It has a slight pulse to it. I don't doubt that HAARP has something to do with it. The stuff they do is scary. I thought it was louder last night than ever before but my husband still didn't hear it.

marie, Bedford county, PA
April 01, 2010 6:19am

Sometimes I hear the hum (faintly)
On the other hand, my wife is very sensitive to this and the hum really bothers her (especially at night) She needs to have the bathroom fan running to dorwn out the hum in order to be able to go to sleep. I will see it she wants to do a more detailed post here next week. Perhaps Denver metro folks can meet to discuss further ?

--Bill April 3rd 2010 1115am

Bill, Longmont CO
April 03, 2010 10:15am

I hear/feel the hum, it is not the tenser muscle.

1 guy in Kelowna BC can hear it too. this is a world wide phenomena, there are many unreported, or miss reported cases.

Adam, Vancouver BC
April 05, 2010 3:28pm

Hi! I'm Bill's wife from Longmont. I'm 52. The only med I take is for thyroid. I'm not depressed or on psychotherapy. My hearing tested as outstanding. I think it's been about 4 yrs since I started hearing the hum. It's worse when the weather is cold. I hear it on the right side of my head. When I put my finger over my ear, I don't hear it anymore. I hear it indoors and out, anytime of day, but it comes and goes. I've had tinnitus before & that was a constant noise. I know this is NOT tinnitus. I, too, can tighten/release/tighten/release my tensor muscles. It's a similar noise, but not the same. We live about 1 mile from a RR track, and I'd say it RESEMBLES the low rumble of a distant train, but there is a pulse in it as well. I used to want to move to a new home, as I thought it must be from machinery, but then we spent the night at a friend's house outside of Parker, on the other side of Denver, and I heard it there. They're pretty rural. I've also heard it several times in Boulder quite near the foothills during the afternoon. So, I decided moving wouldn't do any good. I had no idea so many others were hearing this as well. I'm often home alone during the day and don't hear it at all. Then, there are other days that as soon as I pull into our garage and turn off the car, I hear it. That's why I thought moving would help. One curious thing is that when I go "home" to visit relatives in TX, LA and MS over a 2-week consecutive period each spring, I don't hear that hum there!

Margaret, Longmont
April 07, 2010 7:01pm

Just arrived home at midnight EDT and the hum is loud, though not the loudest I've ever experienced. Will see later today if there are any geological developments coincidental to this.

Someone, Florida
April 10, 2010 9:05pm

I'm 24 years old and I work as an Audio engineer, so I am very in touch with hearing and audio perception of all frequencies. I've been hearing the hum for as long as I can remember and sometimes it absolutley drives me insane!! I've been to a few audiologists and they have no explanation for what i'm hearing, in fact it was one of my doctors who told me about this phenomena.

I am able to tense my tensor tympani, and I agree that it's similar to the hum. Many people have asked me to explain it over the years and the only things I can compare it to is when there is a thunderstorm in the distance, but more constant. The typical response of 'idling deisel truck' also comes to mind.

I hear it on cold nights the most, and whether I have earplugs in or not i can hear it, but the earplugs do dampen the noise - suggesting it is external.

During the day I am usually around alot of different sounds and for the most part i dont notice it. I've noticed it pretty much everywhere -except in recording studio's. I have never been able to hear it from inside one, which I assume is because they are specifically designed to keep out external sounds... Either way,sometimes when the Hum is really bothering me I lock myself in the studio for a day, and even with all the fans from the equipment I get some peace and quiet.

Niki, Australia.
April 12, 2010 8:40pm

Perhaps coincidental, but, in fact, two major quakes happened within the day I reported a louder humming around midnight EDT beginning April 11 -- A 6.8 in the Solomon Islands at 09:40 UTC (4:40 AM EDT, I think) and a 6.3 in the region of Spain at 22:08 UTC (6:08 PM EDT, I'm calculating). There are quakes all the time, but, it seems when the humming is loudest, major quakes make it to press, as these did. The 6.8 was at a reported depth of 37.4 miles and the 6.3 was at a reported depth of 383.2 miles.

Someone, Florida
April 13, 2010 6:13am

I moved into a new house last October and started hearing the hum about a month later. Exactly as everyone describes, like an idling engine, audible only inside the house, from about 9pm-3am. Occasionally it stops for the odd night, although the last hum free period was longer than usual, from about 29 March to 2 April. My partner can't hear anything but is very sympathetic and doesn't think I'm mad! There is a substation a couple of streets away from me and I have contacted the council to see if that could be the cause. I doubt they'll be able to detect anything though. May have to try soundproofing or if all else fails, moving! Anyone else in the area heard it?

Sandra, Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK
April 13, 2010 4:29pm

I've been hearing the hum for about 2 weeks now. At first I thought it was some sort of electrical activity as I too can hear it loudest inside the house and could find nothing. We live in a rural area with no neighbours except for distant farms. I thought perhaps it was distant irrigation pumps, but have more or less ruled that out. My daughter has heard it once too, but I seem to be the most sensitive to it.I'm hoping it either settles or I can learn to live with it.

Jane, Bundaberg, Qld. Aust
April 16, 2010 6:02pm

Check out the Wikipedia page on the Microwave auditory effect.

Then check out this very interesting page on how to block it out:

http://areyoutargeted.com/survival/best-shielding-practices/

Jeremy, Ohio
April 29, 2010 8:53am

Im 16, And I get a humming noise too...either when it's really quiet or theres other noise. Like right now I can hear a monotone ringing....and with more focus a kinda high pitch rumber which I guess you could say sounds like a very quick morse code.
If i hold my nose and then blow out of it i can block out all other sounds and still hear it. so i agree that it is probably just some psycho thing that's in the head. Although when on my bed (which is metal) it sounds like it has a minor echo..so im not sure now

charlie, england
April 30, 2010 10:19am

I can hear it right now. It's a pulsing hum, like a metronome. It's been going for over half an hour now. I know it's not my heartbeat.

Tyler, Calgary
May 05, 2010 10:52pm

Hi ther,I have been living with this damned noise for around two years now and it still drives me absolutely crazy.I have tried everything possible to block out this noise,dear aer pluds you name it.The strange thing is that i hear it in some places but not in others'for instance in the middle of the countryside with nothing around,i can somtime hear it,and then in an urban setting not so?.I have been forced to sleep playing low background music to try to drown out this dreadful sound.I have nothing but sympathy for sufferes,lets hope a solution can be found.Thank you for taking this issue seriously,as is life damaging.all the best.

wayne, B'burn,Lancs
May 08, 2010 9:27am

Hi, I recorded the "Taos" Hum, too. In January 2009 in Zurich/Switzerland (CH). So, in case you are interested you can hear it on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FMkbAqQE7c

This sound is strongly filtered and should be audible on standard loudspeakers.

dugall, Switzerland
May 09, 2010 8:34am

I have been dealing with the hum noise for almost 2 years. It drives me nuts!
I am the only one at home that can hear it. I even had my husband turn the main off in the electrical panel to try to stop the noise. It was STILL there! I couldn't believe it.
He thinks it something in my head.

I have a camp 100 miles away and love to go there on the weekend because I noticed that the noise is not there when I am at camp.

I hope someone figures it out and turns this noise off for good.

Laura, Maine
May 10, 2010 7:10pm

Current location, Boston MA US.

i grew up in a small town, my family own a big farm in brazil, and when we were kids ( me and cousins ) used to play at this place by a hill and we use to gather some stones, we did it that because they were very shiny and really black, almost like a black glass; so everytime we go to that specific place, we can hear the Hum. And this Hum is very loud, loud enough to you be talking to each other and hearing the hum at the same time. now note, that there is no city around for 70Kilometers or so. I am 27 now and the other day i asked one of my cousing to go check on that place and he said the hum is still there, constantly no stop.

Sandro, Brazil; resplendor
May 13, 2010 9:51am

I have heard the Hum at night for many years and never knew what it was. I thought it was the wiring in the house. Then I went to visit a friend in Washington State and heard it there but no one heard it when I did.Now I know I'm not just hearing things!! Thanks!

Brenda Groff, Winnetka, California
May 18, 2010 10:36pm

Hi,
My mom has this little T.V. in our kitchen, and whenever anyone turns it on I can hear this high pitched ringing noise. almost like the one that was on the podshow. is that anything like this???

Zachary C. Nixon, Fort McMurray, AB, CA
June 08, 2010 3:43pm

Zachary, I have the same problem with many electronic devices. The worst is when a tv is 'on' but with a completely black screen. It isn't like the 'hum' here, but much more annoying.

In my experience I've always been able to attribute it to my ears hearing a wider range than most people, and it is easy to confirm with hearing testing devices. I fully expect my own annoyance at it to decrease with age as range of hearing naturally decreases.

There are even cell phone ring tones that take advantage of this. College and high school students have a wider range of hearing than their professors, who are presumably older, so the phone puts out a high pitch whine that the student can hear, but the authority figure is much less likely to pick up, even than vibrate.

Brandon, Falconer
June 08, 2010 6:09pm

I also hear the hum, and I'm convinced that it's not in my head for these reasons:

- It started abruptly one night. I spent an hour shutting off all power and trying everything else to stop the sound. Two days later, I saw a complaint that other locals had sent to the newspaper complaining of a new, low-pitched hum. I live outside of town in very lightly populated woods, about 8 miles away from the other people who reported the sound.

- It's louder in the winter. The lower the temperature outside, the louder the noise seems. It's barely audible in the summer and can be very annoying in the winter. This is unrelated to the windows being open or shut, and I hear the hum outdoors as well as indoors.

- I've traveled a lot and haven't heard the hum in other locations. If it were tinnitus or something else peculiar to my head it would have followed me.

- It's louder on the second story of my house.

It sounds like an electrical hum, with less rumble than the sound linked in the article. One night I could swear I heard it abruptly shut off. For what it's worth, I hear high pitches easily, such as the 13 KHz tone.

Cat M, Bloomington IN
June 11, 2010 9:43pm

Just recently my wife complained to me she could hear this LF noise at night time but it's been only since early June this year 2010. I too can now hear it. We have experienced this from about 9-15pm until 9-30pm the next morning.

Thinking it might be some kind of works / power plant machine being used locally due to the fact that there have been road works for some months in the nearby area, we contacted the local council. Well, they came out today to carry out a full sound check on our house and they too put it down to the "Bristol Hum" phenomenon.

I will keep watch on this WEB site.

This is very interesting and there has to be an answer. It's not my hearing going potty as I reach middle age - is it?

Jeff

Jeff, Tamworth - England
June 14, 2010 10:42am

I've heard the sound inside my home and detached garage for a few years but it is getting louder. It is a droning that is louder in the second story than the first story or detached garage and I do not notice it outside. It occurs more or less 24/7 and does not vary with nearby traffic levels.

Today I used a software frequency analyzer on my laptop and even with a cheap microphone it clearly shows the sound in the middle of the 0-100 Hz band. The analyzer program is called "Frequency Analyzer" from Reliable Software. It demonstrates that the sound is audible, at least in my case.

The frequency appears to be similar to what Tom Moir found in NZ. To do the same yourself, simply attach a microphone to a computer and run the program during a quite time.

I've not found any obvious noise sources yet, but haven't been searching for very long either.

Gordon Smith, Lakewood, CO
June 16, 2010 7:23am

Hi Gordon, and everyone on this blog..

I have run a frequency generator software program on my PC to simulate the frequency and amplitude. Having connected my Creative sound card to my HI-FI amp and using Sennheiser HD600 headphones I have matched the frequency to be dead on 60Hz, the hum we experience does pulse (it's not always at a constant amplitude.)

What's weird though is that in the U.K, mains power is at 50Hz, so I think I can rule out mains powered motors, pumps, machines, power lines and transformers etc.

As I send this out, it is now 11.13pm in the U.K and the hum is all around the house inside but NOT OUTSIDE - weird eh..

We live just 22 miles north east of the city of Birmingham in the U.K (Midlands).

My wife an I have only been aware of this hum for just over two weeks now, it's driving us both crazy!

Just what are we hearing, maybe it's bigger than we all imagine?

I'm very interested in this but so puzzeled by it.

Job role: Electronics and I.T engineer. Science is also my big interest too.

Jeff.

Please reply.

Jeff Egginton, Tamworth, England
June 16, 2010 3:13pm

Hi, Jeff.

I thought I would reply on behalf of everyone who has found this site and say thank you for providing your analysis on this phenomenon. I still find it ironic that this page was started as a knock on some crazies who claimed to be hearing things, but is transforming into a repository to share knowledge and understanding.

I've been trying to link the hum to earthquake activity. Though, I notice, according to the USGS website, that the area surrounding you at large is pretty tame, being outside the so called ring of fire, save for a recent 4.1 in Sweden a day prior to your post.

Curiously, the hum has been either absent or extremely quiet for quite some time here, except for a couple of brief encounters. Either I've suddenly matured to the point where my ears no longer perceive it or the cause itself has been paused. While the peacefulness I once enjoyed has returned, I also feel "out of the loop" as it were.

I check this site often to keep up with the chatter. Keep up your vigilance.

Someone, Florida
June 17, 2010 6:43pm

Hi,

Seems the Hum is all over the world if you question the New World Order that´s what you get, take care my friends these is a serious matter involving mind control.

http://plunabombardier.blogspot.com/2010/05/baja-frecuencia-mind-control.html

Carlos, Montevideo Uruguay
June 22, 2010 3:25pm

Hi, I hear a hum in the winter and spring, but not as much in the summer. I was interested to learn about HAARP since Gakona is up the river valley 150 miles from my home. I know of a few others in my neighborhood who complain about hearing a hum too. I guessed that it was from one of the bases or the National guard near my home. Thanks for the info.

Holly, Wasilla, Alaska
June 28, 2010 8:11pm

What Is The Hum?
by John Boles

The Hum is a low, faint rumble or murmur that is in some places barely perceptible and in other places easily noticed. I noticed the Hum years ago, and have long pondered its sources. I do not have a PhD in acoustics, but I’m a mechanical engineer and studied acoustics in college, and later at Denison Hydraulics I conducted sound tests of hydraulic pumps in special rooms with sensitive measuring equipment. This is an important part of engineering; the study and reduction of noise. Pumps, gears, engines, fans, saws…engineers can make them quieter, but there is a limit. As one senior colleague remarked, “A 200 horse power (axial piston) pump can never be made as quiet as a refrigerator, unless you bury it with ten tons of wet sand!”
In short, the Hum is the sum of all acoustic energy within earshot. Within earshot can be a surprisingly long distance and include hundreds of sources! Each source contributes very little, but all taken together is sufficient to produce a ubiquitous sound without a discernable source direction. It is noise pollution similar to light pollution. A single street light does not cause an orange glow on the clouds, but many thousands together do. I doubt the Hum is solely electrical, or geothermal, or flowing magma, tinnitus, cosmic radiation, ocean waves, gravity waves, aliens, or HAARP. To hear the Hum best, lie in bed at night (or go to the basement) with all windows and doors shut, and all noise sources in the house turned off, wait until the refrigerator/furnace/AC cycles off. Search your hearing at its faintest, way down. You might think, “That’s just the din of traffic in the distance.” That’s the Hum! Oddly, the same can be heard way

John B, Rochester Mich
July 01, 2010 10:35am

HI all
This is Sound of HAARP in Slovenia-EU:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79OG433JKb4

... interesting, on more Frequency at the same time...

Regards and have a nice time

73, Joze

Joze, Novo mesto, Slovenia EU
August 06, 2010 10:06am

I live in a suburb of Chicago, and, while I don't hear the hum, I have had an experience like the audio file. Once during a power outage, we were running a generator in our garage. In the opposite side of the house, there was an area where the sound seemed to resonate the most. At that spot, I could both feel and hear the sound in the same way I feel and hear that recording. It's an odd thing too. It sounds like a low note, but it makes the back of my throat vibrate uncomfortably and the rest of my body acts similarly. The rest of my family didn't experience the same feeling I did in that area, except apparently my dog, who refused to go in that spot while the generator was running. I think that the Hum is probably an odd culmination of low pitched noises that happened to resonate with some people. In my area, background noise has a clear direction (a nearby road) but in some areas, noises are probably surrounding in a way that it is a directionless irritant. As for those who have a constant hum that never changes with location... it seems more likely to be tinnitus.

Nathan, Chicago, Illinois
August 21, 2010 4:29am

i came home today and noticed a rumbling sound in my basement, so i went outside because i thought there was a semi out front. nope. checked the water heaters, which were fine. i then checked our gas detectors to see if there was a gas leak, which there werent. i then proceeded to turn off all electricity and water in my house, and the rumbling noise still persisted. it is only coming from one spot (inside a wall), but it did move. i had a family member go down in the basement while i went upstairs, when i asked if anything unusual was happening, they told me to check for a truck outside, so i know its not just me, and my dog is freaking out too. i looked it up and the only discriptions that sound like my occurance here is this "hum". but apparantly its not common in Utah

Drew, Salt Lake City, Utah
August 21, 2010 9:55am

I think the Hum would be related with microwave hearing or so called V2K, or V2S. I am a Targeted Individual since 2006 and I started to hear some low noise as if some people hear it when an ultrasonic cleaner is turned on at an optic store. Usually, the noise is lower than that of ultrasonic one, but it can go up to that much high tone. It started from when I start to hear voices when Department of Defense people were around of me in the US.
In one occasion, I found there was no noise I heard in one morning. At that time, I found the voices were also gone. About five minutes later, I started to hear voices talking. It was like someone turned on the switch of a speaker and I hear the small noise from the device.

The Hum could be related with the NSA's remote neural monitoring program. The NSA monitor's American's brain activities, so this might be the possible reason as well as the undergoing research on the worldwide just like MKULTRA in the past on innocent individuals.

Miyoko Goto, on the Earth
September 01, 2010 1:50pm