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While there is no clear evidence supporting the existence of ghosts, ghouls and spirits, there are studies that suggest that ghost sightings are merely auditory-mediated hallucinations and pareidolia (perceiving meaning in meaningless stimuli). It turns out that frequencies of sound (between 0.1 to 20Hz) below the range of human auditory awareness can cause hallucinations. These sounds is known as infrasound or the aptly named "haunted frequency".
Vic Tandy recounts in "The Ghost in the Machine", published in the Journal of the Society of Psychical Research in 1998, of how he and his colleagues experienced creepy hauntings at their laboratory. I would like to caution that this journal publishes research related to the world of parapsychology and should be read with an open mind - although I am not much of a believer in the mystics, I do believe that we should give people a chance to share their ideas despite not having training or professional experience in their fields of interest. At first, Vic dismissed any claims of a haunting in his lab until he had an experience himself. One night, he saw a white misty apparition from the corner of his eye and at that point, he broke out in cold sweat with fear clouding up his clarity. However, after mustering up the courage to confront the apparition, it vanished. Coincidentally, as he was fixing his fencing sword for an upcoming competition the next day, he observed that his blade started to vibrate while it was clamped on a bench vice. Being a trained engineer, he connected the dots that the blade was only capable of vibrating as it was likely receiving sound energy at a rate/frequency close to its own resonant frequency. Resonant frequencies are frequencies of sound that resonate/oscillate much stronger as it approaches the natural frequency of whatever it is acting on - take for example how some opera singers are able to break wine glasses with their voice. They are producing sounds that match the natural frequency of the wine glass at a high amplitude (what we call "volume"), causing the molecules that make up that glass oscillate at an even higher amplitude or vibration. This strong vibration produces structural strain that causes it to eventually break. Likewise, humans also have a natural resonant frequency (about 5Hz for whole body and 19Hz for ocular (eye) resonant frequency). This flipped a switch in Vic's head because if sounds below human perception can cause things to move on their own, what makes us so sure that our bodies are not subjected to strong vibrations caused by resonant frequencies in our surrounding environment? Vic peered deeper into this lab, looking for machines and electronics that may produce sub-threshold sound frequencies. He finally found the root of the ghostly sightings in his lab - a newly-installed fan in the room where most of the hauntings were sighted. He realised that the room happened to be built in such a way that sound was constantly folding back on itself into a standing wave - this makes sound waves peaks higher and troughs deeper! The frequency? 19Hz. This suggested to him that perhaps there is something about infrasound waves and hallucinations. Further studies found out that experiencing infrasound may lead to difficulty breathing, visual and auditory hallucinations as these reinforced sound waves were resonating with our organs. As you may know, the retinas in our eyes receive and transmit light into electrical signals that travel to the back of our brain - the Primary Visual Cortex. In this area, these electrical signals are processed and shared with other association areas across our brain. Therefore, if our retinas are affected by resonance, it could possibly lead to erroneous signals being sent to the primary visual cortex and perceived as objects that may not even be real, say blurred vision or even hallucinations. It was shown to also produce a sense of dread in people - "I don't feel so good", "this place doesn't feel right", etc.. Realise that most haunting happen in hospitals? Can you guess what hospitals mainly operate with? Machines like medical devices that produce a plethora of sound frequencies - lots of them. However, as we love to find meaning in things, we often correlate a place of death as a place of hauntings, unknown to the fact that perhaps the explanation is much more simpler and direct. Even low-levels of carbon monoxide poisoning can produce difficulty breathing, dizziness, a sense of dread, visual and auditory hallucinations in people. It was even noted that some seemingly haunted places were also sites within a field of infrared sound - some even 200 times stronger in volume - although we are unable to hear them due to the limitations of human biology (human audible range is about 20-20kHz)! It was noted that when these sounds were silenced, the hauntings also seemed to disappear. Just because we are unable to hear these sounds doesn't mean that they do not exist! Well, the paranormal aficionados would likely say the same for not being able to see ghosts. Touché... While I am not discounting your experiences with the paranormal, I would like to open your mind to the possibility that our experiences may not be as reliable as we think! Perhaps this world isn't as spooky as we think and we shouldn't always accept that odd experiences are undeniable facts that prove the existence of the paranormal. It is possible that the cultures of old likely experienced similar inaudible infrasounds and/or chemical leaks that produced vivid hallucinations. Perhaps they incorporated their experiences into legends and mythology because they were unable to explain these occurrences! Well, spooky or not, you decide! Stay safe and curious! Sources How Can a Voice Break Glass?. (2022). Retrieved 9 July 2022, from https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-can-a-voice-break-glass Segall, J. (2022). The Haunted Frequency - Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics. Retrieved 9 July 2022, from https://higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk/outreach/higgshalloween-2021/haunted-frequency Tandy, V. (2022). The Ghost in the Machine. Retrieved 9 July 2022, from http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/ghost-in-machine.pdf
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We've all heard this from our parents, "Don't step out of the shower after bathing without wiping! You're gonna catch a cold!", "Have a warm bath after getting drenched in the rain! You're gonna catch a cold!".
I guess we can all understand why people would say that. Being in a cold environment is often correlated to being subsequently down with the flu. Upon infection, our bodies try to warm itself up by inducing fever and shivering because most bacteria and viruses are unable to survive and reproduce in a warmer environment. Significant amounts of molecular products produced by these foreign invaders signal to the hypothalamus in our brains to react with fever as a means of self-defence. These molecules, known as pyrogens (pyro- = fire (Greek), -gen = generating), produce inflammation and pain, signalling to our immune cells to travel to the infected site and fight off the infection. You can think of fever as a phenomenon caused by our body's very own thermostat. Apart from that, people experiencing runny nose often confused themselves with being sick. In a non-infected person, cold air can often irritate the nasal cavity causing blood vessels in the cavity to dilate and secrete mucus (this is a cholinergic response, which I will not cover). This build-up of mucus secretion can lead to nasal congestion or a stuffy nose. Similarly, when we are fighting off an infection, inflammation in the nasal cavity can also cause the same reaction. However, this version of a runny nose is used as an attempt by the body to flush out bacteria or viruses that may be residing the nasal cavity. Mucus is often used in the body as a trapping liquid to protect cells from being infected, our gastrointestinal tract actually produces a whole ton of it to protect us from possible mutinies in our very own gut microbiome! Think of your seasonal allergies, when pollen and dust constantly irritate our noses, our bodies are probably freaking out every season! Sore throat is another symptom people tend to confuse with being sick! Have you ever realised that on some mornings you wake up with a dry and sore throat but then feel better after a drink or brushing your teeth? It's actually a telltale sign that you have been breathing in from your mouth throughout the night - likely snoring too! When the nasal cavity is congested or blocked, we unconsciously breathe through our mouths causing dryness and inflammation. Shivering occurs when our biological thermostat (hypothalamus) raises the temperature to combat the infection. This forces our organs to adhere to hypothalamic command to increase average body temperature (Recall how the hypothalamus is like our master regulator). This rise in body temperature causes us to feel cold because the other organs have not yet had time to react to the new temperature set by the hypothalamus. Our muscles start rapidly contracting and relaxing in order to generate heat from friction causing us to heat up a little. Fever also helps us reach this target temperature. Well, when we are in a cold environment, the same thing happens! The hypothalamus registers that the outer environment is cold through sensing the temperature of our blood, therefore shiver to generate heat! This could be why most people correlate shivering with subsequently catching a cold. However, we have to remember that correlation does not mean causation! Most of the time it's just pure coincidence. Perhaps the person was already infected by a virus prior to getting caught in the rain. Bonus fun fact: Since our hypothalami cannot physically "look out" into the world and see that we are surround with snow, it samples our blood through leaky blood vessels that pass through it. This sampling is how our hypothalami receives information regarding the state of our bodies. If you think about it, it is almost analogous to a military HQ where they receive intelligence regarding the state of their soldier units. With that information, they make decisions and release commanding orders (pro-hormones and hormones) to their sub-units. It is so fascinating to see how we often inevitably emulate biological phenomena in reality - perhaps if it works on a micro scale, it may also work on macro scale? (Will try my best not to say "natural selection!" every time we encounter some form of foreshadowing) We often think that not having any symptoms of sickness means we are not infected by any foreign particles or organisms. The truth is that our bodies fight infections every single second from bacteria living on the surface of our skin to consuming contaminated food! So every time you feel perfectly healthy, remember that your immune system never stops being vigilant and is always trying to protect you from a potential infection. Stay safe and stay curious! |
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