530: DEEP DIVE: The Fear Frequency: Havana Syndrome & Sonic Attacks
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Have you ever wondered what ghosts sound like? In the early 1980s, Vic Tandy was working for Warwick Labs at Coventry University in the UK, where he designed medical equipment. The building Tandy worked in was old, dating back to the 14th century, and there were rumors among the staff that it was haunted.

People who visited claimed to have experienced paranormal events. Tandy figured these experiences were related to the constant sound of life support systems and other medical equipment that were operating on site. But one morning, Tandy arrived at the office early. As the cleaning lady was leaving, Tandy noticed she looked terrified. The equipment hadn't been turned on, but maybe the sound of pressure hoses or a local stray cat spooked her.

But as the day went on, Tandy noticed other odd events. Several office workers complained of feeling strange. They all described the same symptoms, anxiety, feeling depressed, cold shivers. That night, Tandy was working late when he also started to feel strange. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He broke into a cold sweat and felt a sudden overwhelming sense of dread.

His heart started to race, and he had this very specific feeling that he was being watched. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a gray figure drifting across the room. He turned around. The figure was gone. Terrified, Vic Tandy bolted from the lab and raced home. After he calmed down, he vowed to find a logical scientific explanation for what happened. And what he found might surprise you. ♪

Vic Tandy got to his office the next day and started looking around for the ghost. He didn't find one, but he had noticed something strange. He was an avid fencer preparing for a fencing competition that weekend. In his lab, he had a foil locked in a vice. If you aren't familiar with fencing, it's a style of sword fighting. A foil is a sword with a very long, thin blade. Tandy had the blade of his sword locked in a vice to install a new handle.

He noticed the blade was vibrating quickly, even though nothing was touching it. Tandy started searching for the cause of the vibration. During his investigation, he struck up a conversation with the building engineer. The engineer told him a fan was recently installed in the lab. The fan was causing a sound wave to bounce between the walls, and the wave's intensity was focused in the center of the room, which was the location of the foil.

And the ghost he saw? Tandy calculated the frequency of the sound where he saw the ghost at about 19 Hz. This frequency is important. The range of human hearing starts at 20 Hz. So Tandy's fan wasn't audible. It's what's known as infrasound. But just because we can't hear it, doesn't mean it can't affect us. All material objects have a natural resonant frequency. If the object is exposed to a sound wave of this frequency, it'll vibrate in response.

This is called sympathetic resonance, and you can test this. If you strike a key on a piano in one room, a piano in another room will resonate that same note. This is also why running your finger around the rim of a glass at just the right speed will produce sound.

Now back to Tandy's lab. It turns out that the human eye resonates at about 19 Hz. So what appeared to be a ghost was actually Tandy's eye vibrating at the frequency of the fan. Since this frequency has an actual physical effect on the body, the sound was causing a sense of fear and anxiety in employees in the area.

and Tandy said that when they switched off the fan, it was like a huge weight was lifted. In this case, the sound causing fear and anxiety was accidental, but some animals can generate this sound naturally, and they do it intentionally to cause fear. Researchers have discovered that just before a tiger attacks, its roar contains frequencies at 18 hertz, which disorients their prey long enough for the tiger to move in for the kill.

Just under 20 Hz has been called the fear frequency for how it affects mammals. Lots of horror movies have used sounds at or just above the fear frequency to make their films even scarier.

In 1984, acoustic biologist Katie Payne was at the Washington Zoo. She noticed that the Asian elephants appeared to be communicating, but there was very little audible sound. She also noticed strange, unsettling vibrations in the area of the elephants. Katie and fellow researchers spent the next week studying the herd and discovered that the unnerving vibrations were in the range of 15 to 35 hertz.

They later discovered that elephants could transmit these low-tone noises across distances up to six miles. And if you've ever heard an alligator, it's like the cross between a lion and a power drill. This is not a sound you'll soon forget.

The alligator's roar can vary slightly depending on the animal's size, but it's always right around 19 hertz. You might not think of a giraffe as scary as a lion or an alligator, but their humming noise, usually heard at night, contains frequencies just above 19 hertz and sounds like noises used in horror movies.

These are just the examples found in animals. Volcanic eruptions, lightning, avalanches, waterfalls, and severe weather all contain sound waves in the 18 to 19 hertz range. And if we go lower than 18 hertz, things get much, much worse. Ever heard of the brown note? Well, grab a diaper.

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The brown note is said to occur at frequencies between 5 and 9 hertz. This is the hypothetical range of sound that supposedly causes humans to lose control of their bowels. I say hypothetical because nobody's been able to actually prove it... yet.

In 1974, New Scientist magazine published an article called The Colossophone Commemorated. It described a 110-foot wide speaker used in Victorian England to play the national anthem. It was said that as soon as the first note of the anthem played, the entire court became violently ill and lost control of their bowels.

In 2000, the TV show South Park featured the brown note in an episode called Worldwide Recorder Concert. In the episode, the boys change recorder music to include the brown note with, well, the expected results. ♪

In 2006, musician Ben Folds threw diapers and chocolate syrup into his audience while supposedly playing the brown note, although no actual accidents were mentioned. But remind me to never go to one of his concerts. And in 2005, the brown note was famously busted by Adam Savage on Mythbusters. He surrounded himself with giant speakers and had the note pumped into his body. Now, he didn't feel so great afterward, but his diapers stayed clean.

But here's the thing about that experiment: air isn't a great conductor of sound, especially at low frequencies. But when you're physically connected to the vibration, its effects are much more intense. The United States Space Program conducted tests that transferred the brown note and other frequencies directly to subjects' bodies by having them sit in vibrating chairs.

Test frequencies range from 0.5 Hz to 40 Hz and power levels of 160 dB, and that's loud. For comparison, a lawnmower is 90 dB, a chainsaw is about 130 dB, and a gunshot is 140 dB. So testing people at 160 dB, even if you can't technically hear the sound, it's going to get results.

Test subjects experienced nausea, hallucinations, difficulty breathing, and involuntary motor functions. Nobody officially crapped their pants, but this experiment is probably where the urban myth came from. But you don't have to be an astronaut to get sick from sound. All you have to do is live near a wind farm.

In the summer of 2010, florist Sue Hobart noticed she suddenly developed headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and ringing in her ears. She was 57 years old. She assumed she was starting to show signs of aging. She also noticed when she would take a trip out of town, the symptoms would disappear. Her symptoms all started around the same time in the summer, the same time three wind turbines were installed very close to her home.

And Sue wasn't the only person to experience these negative effects. Many, many people who live near large wind turbine farms report all kinds of issues, ranging from difficulty concentrating to extreme stress to uncontrollable migraines. In one instance, an air traffic controller almost caused a fatal plane crash because he was experiencing insomnia caused by living near a wind farm.

But there have been about 20 studies done on wind farms, but they found no link between the turbines and people getting sick. But guess who conducted the studies? Yep, the wind turbine companies. Still, it's been proven that people who live and work near a lot of noise experience higher levels of stress and have more cortisol in their blood than people who live in quiet environments. So if we know sound can be dangerous, could it be used as a weapon? Well, it already has been.

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The most dangerous frequencies to humans are at about 7 Hz. This is the median alpha rhythm of the brain and the resonant frequency of many of the body's organs. This means at high enough volume, these sounds can directly affect the central nervous system. This can cause panic, convulsions, vomiting, and with long enough exposure, organ rupture and death.

One of the most well-known inventors of infrasonic weapons was a Russian-born French scientist named Vladimir Gavreau. Gavreau became interested in sound research in 1957 when he was asked to cure an unknown illness that was affecting people at a research plant in Marseille. Gavreau tracked the problem to air conditioning units that were generating low frequency sound. When the units were turned off, the problem suddenly disappeared.

So Gavreau began experimenting with acoustics to create a weapon for the French military. He developed a few prototypes which he tested on himself and his team. And according to reports, one of the researchers died instantly. Gavreau wrote that the man's internal organs mashed into an amorphous jelly caused by the vibrations.

Even if people at nearby labs were sick for hours, they said every organ in their body was vibrating. Hearts, lungs, stomachs, everything. But using sound as a weapon is not a new concept.

The ancient Celts used an instrument called a karnix. A karnix was a 12-foot-long bronze tube bent at both ends. The top flared into a bell. When used in battle, it created a harsh, reverberating sound that created confusion. In Norse mythology, the jala horn was used. It was said when the horn was blown, it could be heard all through the heavens and the earth.

Viking raid horns were crafted after this mythological horn and were used to intimidate enemies. The Bible tells the story of ram horns being used by the Israelites to bring down the walls of Jericho. And in ancient Egypt, sound may have been used not only as a weapon, but may have been used to build the pyramids.

The construction of the Great Pyramids in Egypt has been a matter of fascination and debate for millennia. In the 10th century, Arab historian Abul Hasan Ali al-Masudi wrote a 30-volume book set known as Akbar al-Zaman or The History of Time. In it, al-Masudi wrote that the pyramids were created by placing a magic papyrus or paper under each of the massive stones.

The stone would then be struck with a metal rod that would cause it to levitate and be moved along a path for about 20 feet before settling again. The process would be repeated until the stones were in place. The Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, Lebanon contains the three largest stone blocks ever used in a man-made structure. Each block is estimated to weigh as much as 1,000 tons.

As of today, no industrial equipment exists that could lift one. No super crane and certainly no number of people. Yet somehow the blocks are positioned together so precisely that a sheet of paper can't fit between them.

Nearby is an even bigger stone. It's known as Hajar el-Hibla, and it's the largest piece of stone ever cut by humans. It weighs 1,200 tons, and it's estimated it would take 16,000 men to move it one inch. And it would be a huge challenge for modern technology just to create it. And if we go to the other side of the planet, on a remote plateau in Bolivia, 12,000 feet above sea level, there's a monument called Puerto del Sol, or Gate of the Sun.

This elaborately carved megalith is a single piece of stone that weighs 10 tons, and some scientists think that it may not be in its original location. And here's another. Namadal is an archaeological site on the island of Pompeii in Micronesia. It's been called the Machu Picchu of the Pacific. It's the only ancient city ever built upon a coral reef.

The engineering of Naimadal is so complex, nobody can figure out how it was built. The lost city dates back to around 200 BC, and it's made up of hundreds of stacked stone logs, each about 10 feet long and about 3 feet in diameter.

The logs, which are stacked kind of like firewood, create walls that are 40 feet high and 18 feet thick. That's taller than a three-story building. Yet each stone log weighs about two and a half tons. And the logs that make up the higher walls? They weigh as much as 50 tons each.

and how they were moved and lifted into position is absolutely baffling. The locals didn't have pulleys, they didn't have levers, they didn't even have access to metal. This is Stone Age technology, so how did they do it? Well, the locals tell stories about giants who flew great canoes in the sky and used some kind of magic to levitate the logs into place.

These are structures from very different and diverse cultures from all over the world. So what was their secret? Well, these societies are so old that there's no record of how these buildings were constructed. But in almost every culture where megaliths exist, a legend also exists that the huge stones were moved by sound, either by striking with a rod to produce acoustic resonance or by instruments or by simply chanting stones into position.

Okay, so sound frequencies below human hearing can be dangerous. But what about sound frequencies above human hearing? Well, that's called ultrasound. And when your body's exposed to that, it's very, very bad.

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There are two ways that ultrasound damages the body. The first is that sound waves can actually heat up human cells, which causes all kinds of problems from nerve damage to cellular death. The other is something called cavitation. When sound waves pass through an object, they rapidly push and pull on that object. This is called compression and refraction.

When ultrasound causes human cells to cavitate, it creates bubbles in the tissue, and this is exactly what happens to divers suffering from decompression sickness, also called the bends. Effects of ultrasound increase with the amplitude or volume of the sound wave. While skin can deflect 99.9% of ultrasonic sound waves, sensitive areas of the body like our ears do not have that same protection.

A study conducted by the US Air Force found that exposure to high-intensity ultrasound can cause damage to the lungs and intestines.

It also has the ability to affect heart rate patterns and even cause the heart rate to slow down to dangerous levels. Ultrasound is such an effective weapon that the US Navy has used it to repel pirates. So, the United States has used sonic weapons against its enemies. But have the enemies of the US used sonic weapons to attack Americans? You bet they have.

A strange illness has been afflicting American intelligence officers and diplomats all over the world.

Last summer, the CIA reported that officers were experiencing symptoms while traveling to India. Two U.S. officials working in Hanoi suffered unexplained health issues. And recently, German officials confirmed that they are investigating an alleged sonic attack against the U.S. embassy in Berlin. The first cases of this illness were reported by U.S. and Canadian embassy employees working in Havana, Cuba. The illness became known as Havana Syndrome.

So what does Havana syndrome feel like? Well, it's described as someone suddenly experiencing a broad range of symptoms like migraines, anxiety, dizziness, lapses of memory and difficulty concentrating. Some people described it as feeling as if they were hit by a blast wave or a beam of energy.

In some cases, the symptoms were brief, but other people experienced such devastating effects that they required hospitalization and long-term care. The first cases of Havana syndrome were reported in 2016 when Canadian and American officials arrived in Cuba. CIA officers stationed at the embassy there reported feeling fatigue, nausea, and pressure headaches.

Brain scans showed tissue damage that's normally seen in people with concussions after being in a car accident. The issue was so serious that the Obama administration evacuated the embassy. Since then, Havana syndrome has been reported by U.S. officials worldwide. Cuba, China, Russia, Colombia, Uzbekistan, and even the United States.

Last year, two White House staff members experienced symptoms while working at the White House. According to investigators, the illness could be the result of a sonic weapon or exposure to high-energy microwaves.

Another study by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine said that directed pulsed radio frequency energy could be responsible. Many intelligence officers are quietly pointing the finger at Russia, but no evidence has been made public yet. And as of now, there's still no official explanation. But the CIA and State Department have prioritized getting to the root cause of Avada Syndrome.

Now, it's not surprising that governments would use these weapons on their enemies. But governments would never use these weapons on their own citizens, would they?

In October 2000, the USS Cole was approached by a small boat. Before ship personnel realized what was happening, it was too late. The boat was loaded with explosives. The incident resulted in numerous changes in naval policy and led to the creation of the LRAD. LRAD stands for Long Range Acoustic Device. These devices were initially created to enhance long-distance communication between ships.

But government and law enforcement agencies quickly realized the devices had another benefit, crowd control. LRAD devices work by emitting a highly directional beam of loud sound up to 160 decibels. Remember, that's louder than a gunshot. This means LRAD is incredibly loud.

In 2014, the New York City police deployed LRADs against a crowd protesting the police killing of Eric Garner. Officers deployed a deterrent tone 15 to 20 times within three minutes.

In 2018, people who were at the protest filed a lawsuit against the NYPD. They claimed they'd suffered from migraines, sinus pain, dizziness, tinnitus, and hearing loss. In 2019, the Chinese developed a sonic device shaped like a rifle, also used for crowd control. It focuses waves of low-frequency sound to cause extreme discomfort. It causes painful vibrations in eardrums, eyeballs, the stomach, liver, and the brain.

In England, LRAD devices known as mosquitoes are used as noise deterrents in areas to prevent loitering. Proponents of LRAD say this method of crowd control is less damaging than tear gas or non-lethal ammunition. But critics say that LRADs are not a good alternative, and the impact that sound has on the population could be a violation of human rights.

Whether these devices are used in communities or military applications, the impact they can have on the human body is pretty clear. Shows like South Park and Mythbusters take a more comedic look at the impact of sound, but the potential dangers should not be overlooked. Many of the studies on sound waves have been conducted, funded, and influenced by the governments and companies trying to use and sell products and weapons. The devices are safe, they say. The government research proves it.

And if there's one thing you can trust about government research, it's that you probably can't trust government research.

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