http://www.nbcnews.com/sc...6C10760872

i have been reading reports about this for over a year now. i truly do wonder what it could be? have you experienced this??? please let me know if you have

It creeps in slowly in the dark of night, and once inside, it almost never goes away.

It's known as the Hum, a steady, droning sound that's heard in places as disparate as Taos, N.M.; Bristol, England; and Largs, Scotland.

But what causes the Hum, and why it only affects a small percentage of the population in certain areas, remain a mystery, despite a number of scientific investigations. [The Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena]

Reports started trickling in during the 1950s from people who had never heard anything unusual before; suddenly, they were bedeviled by an annoying, low-frequency humming, throbbing or rumbling sound.

The cases seem to have several factors in common: Generally, the Hum is only heard indoors, and it's louder at night than during the day. It's also more common in rural or suburban environments; reports of a hum are rare in urban areas, probably because of the steady background noise in crowded cities.

Who hears the Hum?
Only about 2 percent of the people living in any given Hum-prone area can hear the sound, and most of them are ages 55 to 70, according to a 2003 study by acoustical consultant Geoff Leventhall of Surrey, England.

Most of the people who hear the Hum (sometimes referred to as "hearers" or "hummers") describe the sound as similar to a diesel engine idling nearby. And the Hum has driven virtually every one of them to the point of despair. [Video: Listen to 6 Spooky Sounds]

"It's a kind of torture; sometimes, you just want to scream," retiree Katie Jacques of Leeds, England, told the BBC. Leeds is one of several places in Great Britain where the Hum has recently appeared.

"It's worst at night," Jacques said. "It's hard to get off to sleep because I hear this throbbing sound in the background. … You're tossing and turning, and you get more and more agitated about it."

Being dismissed as crackpots or whiners only exacerbates the distress for these complainants, most of whom have perfectly normal hearing. Sufferers complain of headaches, nausea, dizziness, nosebleeds and sleep disturbances. At least one suicide in the United Kingdom has been blamed on the Hum, the BBC reports. [The Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders]

The Hum zones
Bristol, England, was one of the first places on Earth where the Hum was reported. In the 1970s, about 800 people in the coastal city reported hearing a steady thrumming sound, which was eventually blamed on vehicular traffic and local factories working 24-hour shifts.

Another famous hum occurs near Taos, N.M. Starting in spring 1991, residents of the area complained of a low-level rumbling noise. A team of researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of New Mexico, Sandia National Laboratories and other regional experts were unable to identify the source of the sound.

Windsor, Ontario, is another Hum hotspot. Researchers from the University of Windsor and Western University in London, Ontario, were recently given a grant to analyze the Windsor Hum and determine its cause.

Researchers also have been investigating the Hum in Bondi, a seaside area of Sydney, Australia, for several years, to no avail. "It sends people around here crazy — all you can do is put music on to block it out. Some people leave fans on," one resident told the Daily Telegraph.

Back in the United States, the Kokomo Hum was isolated in a 2003 study financed by the Indiana city's municipal government. The investigation revealed that two industrial sites — one a Daimler Chrysler plant — were producing noise at specific frequencies. Despite noise-abatement measures, some residents continue to complain of the Hum.

What causes the Hum?
Most researchers investigating the Hum express some confidence that the phenomenon is real, and not the result of mass hysteria or hearers' hypochondria (or extraterrestrials beaming signals to Earth from their spaceships).

As in the case of the Kokomo Hum, industrial equipment is usually the first suspected source of the Hum. In one instance, Leventhall was able to trace the noise to a neighboring building's central heating unit.

Other suspected sources include high-pressure gas lines, electrical power lines and wireless communication devices. But only in a few cases has a Hum been linked to a mechanical or electrical source.

There's some speculation that the Hum could be the result of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, audible only to some people. And there are verified cases in which individuals have particular sensitivities to signals outside the normal range of human hearing.

Medical experts are quick to point out that tinnitus (the perception of sound when no external noise is present) is a likely cause, but repeated testing has found that many hearers have normal hearing and no occurrences of tinnitus.

Environmental factors have also been blamed, including seismic activity such as microseisms — very faint, low-frequency earth tremors that can be generated by the action of ocean waves.

Other hypotheses, including military experiments and submarine communications, have yet to bear any fruit. For now, hearers of the Hum have to resort to white-noise machines and other devices to reduce or eliminate the annoying noise.

Leventhall, who recommends that some hearers turn to cognitive-behavioral therapy to relieve the symptoms caused by the Hum, isn't confident that the puzzle will be solved anytime soon.

"It's been a mystery for 40 years, so it may well remain one for a lot longer," Leventhall told the BBC.

[Edited 7/26/13 18:11pm]

I've heard something like this, but was able to trace it to my DVR. It emitted a very low-pitched hum that you wouldn't notice until everything was very quiet. And it WAS quite disturbing. Fortunately, it's stopped humming.

On the other hand, I've developed a case of tinnitus. It doesn't bug me much but I hope it goes away.

We had a hum here in Seattle, they traced it to a vessel. The hum traveled miles away from the source, so it took time to pin point it.

I've heard a hum now for over a year and called in both Hydro and the Water department. Neither of their reps could hear it, which to me was strange because I could hear it clear as day. It's not constant but when it's there it's very irritating.

One fellow said it was probably an air conditioner - but I hear it more during the winter, so I know it's not that. Hydro wouldn't even venture a guess - prolly because it could be a nearby transformer. Hydro really bothers me. They are so invasive - cabel, towers...not to mention the deadly pesticides they use roadside to keep the weeds down from their poles and stations. Hydro is not environmentally, in any way, friendly, at least in my opinion.

Generally, the Hum is only heard indoors, and it's louder at night than during the day.

Prolly just the fridge.

HAARP?

I'm still wholly unconvinced that thing has been shut down, regardless of what "they" say.

That said, with the amount of Fracking being done in America, it could be gas fissures or any manner of other "natural" realignment.

There's a hum that emits from my gigantic rod; it is like a siren song for hookers and strippers.

yes, well. perhaps you need a kind of faraday codpiece, so your manhood does not interrupt cellphone transmissions

this is interesting because it offers documentary evidence of the experiences of those people who suffer from maladies they relate to the hum. coincidentally, they experienced the onset of their symptoms around the same time, they had similar if not same symptoms, and the sheer numbers of these folk appear to support the notion that the 'hum' is an external phenomenon, rather than individual psychosis or mass hysteria.

they say that entire worlds of dark energy and dark matter are phase shifting through us all the time everywhere. maybe the hum is an overlap vibration, worlds colliding and that sort of thing. or maybe it's just that a place like the sandia mountain range is made up of quartz, which carries a tune so to speak.

weird that so many people around the world are feeling the same thing huh. is it really just the byproduct of our industrialized society?

anyway:

Has anybody tried looking at a list of the countries or regions where this DOESN'T happen? That may offer some clues as to the cause. (Although I suppose in some countries, there may not be the infrastructure to collect reports about this type of thing.)

XxAxX said:

yes, well. perhaps you need a kind of faraday codpiece, so your manhood does not interrupt cellphone transmissions

You mean like a kinda penis muzzle made of chicken wire?

^ when you put it like that....

I once had an experience like this. I was around 4 or 5 years old and trying to sleep, when I suddenly heard this vibrating sound that just kept getting louder and louder. It was a very strange sound. I put my pillow over my head to try to block it out, but even that wouldn't block the sound. It just continued to increase in volume. I finally began begging, "Please stop! Just please shut up and leave me alone. Please stop with the sound!" I never heard it like that again, except that I do have a constant ringing in my ears now, that does get worse at night. I'm blaming that one on tinnitus though, and I've had it ever since.

prittypriss said:

I once had an experience like this. I was around 4 or 5 years old and trying to sleep, when I suddenly heard this vibrating sound that just kept getting louder and louder. It was a very strange sound. I put my pillow over my head to try to block it out, but even that wouldn't block the sound. It just continued to increase in volume. I finally began begging, "Please stop! Just please shut up and leave me alone. Please stop with the sound!" I never heard it like that again, except that I do have a constant ringing in my ears now, that does get worse at night. I'm blaming that one on tinnitus though, and I've had it ever since.

I had this experience a couple of nights ago,....

...but it was just Mrs Steadwood enjoying herself

I'm pretty sure it's one of my annoying co-workers.

Hmmmmm....

I have tinnitis and I'm used to it. I don't even notice it unless I focus on it.

In the past few months I began hearing a hum, very different than the one I hear. The tinnitis is very high pitched. This pitch was very very low. If I angled my head differently (I would hear this in the middle of the night) it would go away for a split second and then I'd hear it again. I figured it was connected to some electronic equipment upstairs.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Hmmmmm....

I have tinnitis and I'm used to it. I don't even notice it unless I focus on it.

In the past few months I began hearing a hum, very different than the one I hear. The tinnitis is very high pitched. This pitch was very very low. If I angled my head differently (I would hear this in the middle of the night) it would go away for a split second and then I'd hear it again. I figured it was connected to some electronic equipment upstairs.

might just be mrs. steadwood enjoying herself

XxAxX said:

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Hmmmmm....

I have tinnitis and I'm used to it. I don't even notice it unless I focus on it.

In the past few months I began hearing a hum, very different than the one I hear. The tinnitis is very high pitched. This pitch was very very low. If I angled my head differently (I would hear this in the middle of the night) it would go away for a split second and then I'd hear it again. I figured it was connected to some electronic equipment upstairs.

might just be mrs. steadwood enjoying herself

I can hear her clear across the atlantic and the continental United States????

Steadwood, call me

^ sorry to make light of the thing, couldn't help myself and please forgive.

i've watched a few YouTube clips about this phenomenon, i really do not think i would be able to live in a giant hum zone. the people who can hear this become genuinely ill. i hope it doesn't bother you going forward.

XxAxX said:

^ sorry to make light of the thing, couldn't help myself and please forgive.

i've watched a few YouTube clips about this phenomenon, i really do not think i would be able to live in a giant hum zone. the people who can hear this become genuinely ill. i hope it doesn't bother you going forward.

I heard it for a period of about 1 week. I haven't heard it since. I only noticed it because it was in the middle of the night and totally quiet. I'd like to have my high pitch only

There was a tv program about this recently. I wasn't really watching properly but isn't it caused by a certain type of large gatherings of fish?

what if it's the sound of earth's molten core, getting ready to pole shift

XxAxX said:

what if it's the sound of Mrs Steadwood getting ready to pole Dance