Infrasound

Infrasoundissoundthatislowerinfrequencythan20Hz(Hertz)orcyclespersecond,thenormal
limitofhumanhearing.Hearingbecomesgraduallylesssensitiveasfrequencydecreases,sofor
humanstoperceiveinfrasound,thesound pressuremustbesufficientlyhigh.Theearistheprimary
organforsensinginfrasound,butathigherlevelsitispossibletofeelinfrasoundvibrationsin
variouspartsofthebody.
Thestudyofsuchsoundwavesissometimesreferredtoasinfrasonics,coveringsoundsbeneath
20Hzdownto0.001Hz.Thisfrequencyrangeisutilizedformonitoringearthquakes,chartingrock
andpetroleumformationsbelowtheearth,andalsoinballistocardiographyand
seismocardiographytostudythemechanicsoftheheart.Infrasoundischaracterizedbyanabilityto
coverlongdistancesandgetaroundobstacleswithlittledissipation.
InfrasoundWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Aboutinfrasound

Possiblythefirstobservationofnaturallyoccurringinfrasoundwasintheaftermathofthe1883
eruption of Krakatoa,whenconcussiveacousticwavescircledtheglobeseventimesormoreand
wererecordedonbarometersworldwide.InfrasoundwasalsousedbyAlliedforcesinWorld War
Itolocateartillery.OneofthepioneersininfrasonicresearchwasFrenchscientistVladimir
Gavreau,borninRussiaasVladimirGavronsky.[1]Hisinterestininfrasonicwavesfirstcame
aboutinhislabduringthe1960s,whenheandhislabassistantsexperiencedpainintheear
drumsandshakinglabequipment,butnoaudiblesoundwaspickeduponhismicrophones.He
concludeditwasinfrasoundandsoongottoworkpreparingtestsinthelabs.Oneofhis
experimentswasaninfrasonic whistle.[2][3][4]
Infrasoundsometimesresultsnaturallyfromsevere weather,surf,[5]lee
waves,avalanches,earthquakes,volcanoes,bolides,[6]waterfalls,calvingoficebergs,aurora,light
ningandupper-atmospheric lightning.[7]Nonlinearocean waveinteractionsinoceanstorms
producepervasiveinfrasoundvibrationsaround0.2Hz,knownasmicrobaroms.[8]Infrasoundcan
alsobegeneratedbymanmadeprocessessuchassonic boomsandexplosions(bothchemical
andnuclear),bymachinerysuchasdiesel enginesandolderdesignsofdowntowerwind
turbinesandbyspeciallydesignedmechanicaltransducers(industrialvibrationtables)andlarge
scalesubwooferloudspeakers.[9]TheComprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organizationuses
infrasoundasoneofitsmonitoringtechnologies(alongwithseismic,hydroacoustic,
andatmospheric radionuclidemonitoring).
Whales,elephants,hippopotamuses,rhinoceros,giraffes,okapi,andalligatorsareknowntouse
infrasoundtocommunicateoverdistancesuptohundredsofmilesinthecaseofwhales.Ithas
alsobeensuggestedthatmigratingbirdsusenaturallygeneratedinfrasound,fromsourcessuchas
turbulentairflowovermountainranges,asanavigationalaid.[10]Elephants,inparticular,produce
infrasoundwavesthattravelthroughsolidgroundandaresensedbyotherherdsusingtheirfeet,
althoughtheymaybeseparatedbyhundredsofkilometres.
Scientistsaccidentallydiscoveredthatthespinningcoreorvortexofatornadocreatesinfrasonic
waves.Whenthevorticesarelarge,thefrequenciesarelower;smallervorticeshavehigher,though
stillinfrasonic,frequencies.Theselowfrequencysoundwavescanbedetectedforupto
160kilometres(100mi)awayandcanhelpprovideearlywarningoftornadoes.
AnumberofAmericanuniversitieshaveactiveresearchprogramsininfrasound,including
theUniversity of Mississippi,Southern Methodist University,theUniversity of California at San
Diego,theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks,andtheUniversity of Hawaii at Manoa.

[edit]Animalreactionstoinfrasound
Animalshavebeenknowntoperceivetheinfrasonicwavescarriedthroughtheearthbynatural
disastersandcanusetheseasanearlywarning.Arecentexampleofthisisthe2004 Indian Ocean
earthquake and tsunami.Animalswerereportedtofleethearealongbeforetheactualtsunamihit
theshoresofAsia.[11]Itisnotknownforsureifthisistheexactreason,assomehavesuggested
thatitwastheinfluenceofelectromagnetic waves,andnotofinfrasonicwaves,thatprompted
theseanimalstoflee.[12]
InfrasoundmayalsobeusedforlongdistancecommunicationinAfrican elephants.[13]These
callsrangefrom1535Hzandcanbeasloudas117dB,allowingcommunicationformany
kilometres,withapossiblemaximumrangeofaround10km(6mi).[14]Thesecallsmaybeused
tocoordinatethemovementofherdsandallowmaleelephantstofindmates.

[edit]Humanreactionstoinfrasound

Whentestinghumanhearing,puresinewavetonesareperceivedaslessmusicalnearthebottomof
thehearingrange.Between10Hzand20Hz,suchtonesceasebeingheardasamusicaltoneunless
theyareboostedgreatlyinvolume.[15]Below10Hzitispossibletoperceivethesinglecyclesof
thesound,alongwithasensationofpressureattheeardrums.Thedynamicrangeoftheauditory
systemdecreaseswithdecreasingfrequency.Thiscompressioncanbeseenintheequalloudness
levelcontours,anditimpliesthataslightincreaseinlevelcanchangetheperceivedloudnessfrom
barelyaudibletoloud.Combinedwiththenaturalspreadinthresholdswithinapopulation,itmay
havetheeffectthataverylowfrequencysoundwhichisinaudibletosomepeoplemaybeloudto
others.
Infrasoundhasbeenknowntocausefeelingsofaweorfearinhumans.[16][17]Sinceitisnot
consciouslyperceived,itcanmakepeoplefeelvaguelythatsupernaturaleventsaretakingplace.
Somefilmsoundtracksmakeuseofinfrasoundtoproduceuneaseordisorientationinthe
audience.Irrversibleisonesuchmovie.
Theinfrasoundandlowfrequencynoiseproducedbysomewind turbinesisbelievedtocause
certainbreathinganddigestiveproblemsinhumansandotheranimalsincloseproximitytothe
turbines.[18]

[edit]Infrasonic17Hztoneexperiment
OnMay31,2003,ateamofUKresearchersheldamassexperimentwheretheyexposedsome700
peopletomusiclacedwithsoft17Hzsinewavesplayedataleveldescribedas"neartheedgeof
hearing",producedbyanextralongstrokesubwoofermountedtwothirdsofthewayfromtheend
ofasevenmeterlongplasticsewerpipe.Theexperimentalconcert(entitledInfrasonic)tookplace
inthePurcell Roomoverthecourseoftwoperformances,eachconsistingoffourmusicalpieces.
Twoofthepiecesineachconcerthad17Hztonesplayedunderneath.Inthesecondconcert,the
piecesthatweretocarrya17Hzundertonewereswappedsothattestresultswouldnotfocuson
anyspecificmusicalpiece.Theparticipantswerenottoldwhichpiecesincludedthelowlevel
17Hznearinfrasonictone.Thepresenceofthetoneresultedinasignificantnumber(22%)of
respondentsreportinganxiety,uneasiness,extremesorrow,nervousfeelingsofrevulsionorfear,
chillsdownthespineandfeelingsofpressureonthechest.[19][20]Inpresentingtheevidence
toBritish Association for the Advancement of Science,oneofthescientistsresponsiblesaid,
"Theseresultssuggestthatlowfrequencysoundcancausepeopletohaveunusualexperiences
eventhoughtheycannotconsciouslydetectinfrasound.Somescientistshavesuggestedthatthis
levelofsoundmaybepresentatsomeallegedlyhauntedsitesandsocausepeopletohaveodd
sensationsthattheyattributetoaghostourfindingssupporttheseideas."

[edit]TheGhostintheMachine
ResearchbyVic Tandy,alectureratCoventry University,suggestedthatthefrequency19Hzwas
responsibleformanyghostsightings.Hewasworkinglateonenightaloneinasupposedlyhaunted

laboratoryatWarwick,whenhefeltveryanxiousandcoulddetectagreybloboutofthecornerof
hiseye.Whenheturnedtofaceit,therewasnothing.
Thefollowingday,hewasworkingonhisfencingfoil,withthehandleheldinavice.Although
therewasnothingtouchingit,thebladestartedtovibratewildly.Furtherinvestigationledhimto
discoverthattheextractionfanwasemittingafrequencyof18.98Hz,veryclosetotheresonant
frequencyoftheeye(givenas18HzinNASATechnicalReport19770013810).Thiswaswhyhe
sawaghostlyfigureitwasanopticalillusioncausedbyhiseyeballsresonating.Theroomwas
exactlyhalfawavelengthinlength,andthedeskwasinthecentre,thuscausingastanding
wavewhichwasdetectedbythefoil.[21]
TandyinvestigatedthisphenomenonfurtherandwroteapaperentitledTheGhostintheMachine.
Hecarriedoutanumberofinvestigationsatvarioussitesbelievedtobehaunted,includingthe
basementoftheTouristInformationBureaunexttoCoventryCathedral[22]andEdinburgh
Castle.[23][24]

References
1. ^Chapter 8 "Deadly Sounds" Dr. Vladimir Gavreau "Lost Science" by Gerry Vassilatos
ISBN 0-932813-75-5 1999 SIGNALS
2. ^*GavreauV.,InfraSons:Gnrateurs,Dtecteurs,Propritsphysiques,Effets
biologiques,in:Acustica,Vol.17,No.1(1966),p.110
3. ^GavreauV.,infrasound,in:sciencejournal4(1)1968,S.33
4. ^GavreauV.,"Sonsgravesintensesetinfrasons"in:ScientificProgreslaNature(Sept.
1968)p.336344
5. ^Garces,M.;HetzerC.,MerrifieldM.,WillisM.andAucanJ.(2003).Observations of
surf infrasound in Hawaii.Retrieved20071215."Comparisonofoceanbuoy
measurementswithinfrasonicarraydatacollectedduringtheepicwinterof20022003
showsaclearrelationshipbetweenbreakingoceanwaveheightandinfrasonicsignal
levels.".
6. ^Garces,M.;Willis,M.(2006).Modeling and Characterization of Microbarom Signals in
the Pacific.Retrieved20071124."Naturallyoccurringsourcesofinfrasoundinclude(but
arenotlimitedto)severeweather,volcanoes,bolides,earthquakes,surf,mountainwaves,
and,thefocusofthisresearch,nonlinearoceanwaveinteractions.".
7. ^Haak,Hein(20060901)."Probing the Atmosphere with Infrasound : Infrasound as a
tool"(pdf).CTBT:SynergieswithScience,19962006andBeyond.Preparatory
CommissionfortheComprehensiveNuclearTestBanTreatyOrganization.Retrieved
20071124.
8. ^"Microbaroms".InfrasonicSignals.University of Alaska Fairbanks,Geophysical
Institute,InfrasoundResearchGroup.Retrieved20071122."Theubiquitousfivesecond
periodinfrasonicsignalscalledmicrobaroms,whicharegeneratedbystandingseawaves
inmarinestorms,arethecauseofthelowlevelnaturalinfrasoundbackgroundinthe
passbandfrom0.02to10Hz."
9. ^Chen,C.H.,ed(2007).SignalandImageProcessingforRemoteSensing.BocaRaton:
CRC.pp.33.ISBN0-8493-5091-3.
10.
^Goddard Space Flight Center[dead link]
11.
^How did animals survive the tsunami? - By Christine Kenneally - Slate
Magazine:Posted Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004, at 5:47 PM ET
12.
^Nature . Can Animals Predict Disaster? - PBS: posted November 2005.
13.
^Langbauer,W.R.;Payne,K.B.;Charif,R.A.;Rapaport,L.;Osborn,F.(1991),
"African elephants respond to distant playbacks of low-frequency conspecific
calls",JournalofExperimentalBiology157(1):3546,retrieved20090527
14.
^Larom,D.;Garstang,M.;Payne,K.;Raspet,R.;Lindeque,M.(1997),"The

influence of surface atmospheric conditions on the range and area reached by animal
vocalizations",Journalofexperimentalbiology200(3):421431,retrieved20090527
15.
^Olson, Harry F.(1967).Music, Physics and Engineering.DoverPublications.
p.249.ISBN0486217698.
16.
^John D. Cody. InfrasoundBorderlandScienceResearchFoundation
17.
^V.Tandy&T.Lawrence'Theghostinthemachine',JournaloftheSocietyfor
PsychicalResearch#62,pp.360364.1998.ANDS.Angliss,GeNIA,C.O'Keeffe,R.
Wiseman&R.Lord'Soundlessmusic',inB.Arends&D.Thackara(eds),Experiments:
Conversationsinartandscience,pp.13971.TheWellcomeTrust:London,2003.Quote
fromR.Wiseman,"QuirkologyHowWeDiscovertheBigTruthsinSmallThings",Basic
Books,2007
18.
^HowStuffWorks. Do wind turbines cause health problems?
19.
^Infrasonicconcert,PurcellRoom,London,31May,2003,sponsoredbythesciart
ConsortiumwithadditionalsupportbytheNational Physical Laboratory (NPL)
20.
^Sounds like terror in the air Sydney Morning Herald, September 92003.
21.
^infrasound
22.
^Guardian Unlimited Archive Search
23.
^Who ya gonna call? Vic Tandy! - Coventry Telegraph
24.
^Internet Archive Wayback Machine. 2007 version of Vic Tandy's Ghost
Experiment webpage
"infrasound".CollinsEnglishDictionary,2000.Retrieved25October2005,from
xreferplus.http://www.xreferplus.com/entry/2657949
Gundersen,P.Erik.TheHandyPhysicsAnswerBook.VisibleInkPress,2003.
Chedd,Graham.Sound;FromCommunicationstoNoisePollution.Doubleday&Company
Inc,1970.
O'Keefe,Ciaran,andSarahAngliss."TheSubjectiveEffectsofInfrasoundinaLive
ConcertSetting".CIM04:ConferenceonInterdisciplinaryMusicology.Graz,Germany:
GrazUP,2004.132133.
Discovery'sBiggestShowsairedat8:00pm(IndianStandardTime)onTheDiscovery
Channel,IndiaonSunday,7October2007

By John D. Cody
AS thunderous tones deepen, their power seemingly intensifies over frail barriers such
as glass windows. Certain abrupt thunder peals often shatter windows into tiny
fragments. In the apparent absence of thunderous tones we may observe the strong and
continuous vibration of glass window panes during storms. A sudden eerie silence, and
the window is shattered before our eyes.
Natural phenomena are prodigious generators of infrasound. The potent distal effects
produced when natural explosions occur produce legendary effects. When Krakatoa
exploded, windows were shattered hundreds of miles away by the infrasonic wave. Wind
was not the causative agent of these occurrences, as no wind was felt or detected.
Seismographic stations registered the blast, and barometers measured the shockwaves.
The "ringing" of both earth and atmosphere continued for hours. It is believed that

infrasound actually formed the upper pitch of this natural volcanic explosion, tones
unmeasurably deep forming the actual "central harmonic" of the event. The island of
Krakatoa was literally lifted into orbit in the fatal blast. Brilliant sunsets followed for
many years thereafter, the sad memorial of all the souls who perished.
The power of explosives, in shattering and devastating property, lies in two zones. The
first zone is that with which we are principally familiar; the actual blast site, where
chemically released gases and metal fragments push back everything in their perimeter.
The second less familiar zone extends very much further from the blast site than can be
imagined. It is in the powerful sonic wave which expands outward that an equally
destructive danger lies. Thick pressure walls of incredible momentum, interspaced with
equally thick walls of reduced air pressure, travel far away from the blast site. The
blast site is the small destructive zone by comparison. Few objects can survive this
destructive tide.
Analysts contend that infrasound is composed of a very broad band of pitches. These
tones of immense pressure and duration "accommodate" themselves when encountering
resonant cavities. All such resonant cavities are "found and destroyed" when the proper
pressure waves flow into their resonances. Rooms, halls, alleys, spaces among buildings,
courtyard areas, cellars, subways, sewer chambers; all these burst open into flying
fragments when infrasonic waves flood them. Infrasound is the cruel tonal giant, tearing
open whatever it finds in its path.
Study reveals that the sudden shock wave of an explosion propels a complex infrasonic
signal far beyond the shattered perimeter. Incoherent though such shockwaves may be,
their destructive influence dissolves distant walls and windows seconds after the
shrapnel has done its deadly work. Objects of all shapes, sizes, and compositions
explode when the infrasonic impulse passes through their space. No shield can block
infrasound. Physicists have studied the refuse which remains after an explosive charge
has been detonated. Few materials can maintain their integrity. Those objects which
manage to survive explosions are noteworthy as infrasonic "resistors". Screen reinforced
concrete does not easily succumb to the infrasonic blasts of explosive charges.
EARTHQUAKE
The sound of Krakatoa exploding up into space, a vertical excess of one hundred miles,
succeeded in blasting out windows at a thousand mile radius from the epicenter. Certain
earthquake activities produce large and virtually insensate vertical displacements of the
ground surface, in extreme instances amounting to a few feet per pulse. In this case,
the ground becomes the surface of a drum, ringing out its deadly cadence at infrasonic
pitch hours before the event. The ground undulates with infrasonic tones, an elasticity
that eventually cracks under the heaving stress.
Ultralow pitch earthquake sounds are keenly felt by animals and sensitive humans.
Quakes occur in distinct stages. Long before the final breaking release of built up earth
tensions, there are numerous and succinct precursory shocks. Deep shocks produce
strong infrasonic impulses up to the surface, the result of massive heaving ground
strata. Certain animals (fish) actually can hear infrasonic precursors. Precursory shocks
are silent, being inaudible in humans. Animals, however, react strongly to the sudden
surface assault of infrasonic shocks by attempting escape from the area. Animals cannot
locate the source and center of these infrasonic impulses, behaving in a pitiful display
of circular frenzies. The careening motion of wild horses and other domestic animals
indicates their fear and anxiety. Poor creatures, neither they nor we can escape the
infrasonic source. Encounters with natural infrasound reveal their vast extent, covering
hundreds of square miles of surface area.
Certain animals employ infrasound as weaponry. It has been known that certain whales
are able to stun their prey with powerful blasts of inaudible sounds. Called "gunshots",

whales focus these powerful blasts at large squid and other fish to paralyze and catch
them. In some instances, they have been known to burst their prey apart by tonal
projection alone. Human experience with these inaudible blasts have been reported.
The distress calls emitted by little beached whales was sufficient to push a veterinarian
back several feet in the water. Others have experienced these pressure waves, reporting
that their hands could not be brought close to the sinal area of small whales because of
their inaudible acoustic projections.
Infrasonic shocks produce characteristic pressure effects on structures and organisms
alike. The sensation flattens the body. It is as if one were struck with a solid invisible
wall from which there is no escape. There are physiological effects as well. Anxiety,
fear, extreme emotional distress, and mental incapacitation are all part of the
unpleasant phenomenon. Notable among human exposures to quake-correlated
infrasound is the precursory nausea which many report. This strong sensation leaves its
more sensitive victims helpless. Feeling the momentary deep motion of the ground
strata beneath them, numerous individuals have been used to report these sensations in
a bizarre earthquake "alarm system". Unfortunately, physiological reaction to infrasound
remains continuous, long after their irritating presence has ceased. The harmfully
stimulating influence of infrasound renders physiology permeable and ultrasensitive to
every available environmental sensation. The extreme irritability of infrasound victims
has been noted.
Earthquake infrasound manifests only at intermittent intervals, producing drastic and
sustained negative modifications of consciousness. The human organism continues to
reel under intermittent infrasonic assault for numerous reasons. After less than a five
minute exposure to low intensity infrasound of 10 cycles per second, dizziness will last
for hours. Infrasound of 12 cycles per second produces severe and long lasting nausea
after a brief low intensity exposure.
FLOOD
Surf pounds the shore, producing shocks of 16 cycles per second, just short of the true
infrasound range. Ocean waves which pound the atmosphere across huge ocean areas
produce an acoustic energy with a mean pitch of 16 cycles per second. The phenomenon
of the "barisal guns, fog guns, lake guns" form a well documented bibliography of
anomalous acoustic phenomena. These "booming" anomalous tonal phenomena are not
isolated to one area or nation. Every nation has accounts of these sea-related mystery
sounds. Some regions call them "bay detonations", since they come as abruptly explosive
intonations from certain bay areas.
Some of these tones manifest their shocking tones at haphazard intervals. But there are
those water-related booms which are periodic, residents near these sites being
accustomed to their mysterious occurrence. The strange "explosive" sounds come at
certain times of the day, at certain times of the month, and at certain times of the
year. There are certain other related anomalous natural tones which ring, hoot, and
buzz. Some have been likened to organ tones, tuba blasts, and the deep intonings of
very large bells. Bay sizes, wave sizes, and geologic compositions of bays and shores
have been woven into complex mechanistic attempts at explaining how these mystery
sounds are being generated in certain environments.
The detonation may be caused by a sudden "slapping" of bay water by a singular wave
having the "right" breadth and momentum, matching the natural resonant pitch of a bay.
The underlying bay rock matrix may resound in the manner of a bell, gong, or cymbal.
The geological composition of the bay plays the greater part of the effect, sudden winds
or water surges knocking the natural "sounding board". These natural bay tones have
great infrasonic content.
The infrasonic outputs of the mystery tones are significant. Each of these phenomena

produce a range of very low pitch tones. These booming sounds have rattled windows
and rocked some small towns. Animals are startled by their inaudible precursors, and
humans are often dizzied after their manifestation for hours. In several areas, people
are hospitalized by the "boom" related illnesses.
Waterfalls are notorious generators of infrasound. Numerous susceptible visitors at
Niagara experience a peculiar nausea which is not associated with the normal fear of
heights. Thundering cataracts produce strong infrasonic shocks to which mile exposure
stimulates the common malady. Lake ice and glacial ice produce deep booming sounds
which ring for hours, behaving as large tympanic surfaces. The thunderous sounds
associated with these occurrences produces infrasound of pitch related to ice surface
mass, breadth, and length alone. Antarctic research experienced nausea in relation to
ice related sounds.
Tidal waves and other sudden variations of water surfaces produce large magnitude
"seiche" waves. These have been sighted by ocean going ships, where oceanic surfaces
have drastically changed elevation in an incredibly short time. Ships "drop" into such
huge ocean troughs and rise again after the wave passes. In dropping, some have
crashed to the very rock bottom of their bays, only to be lifted in pieces when the wave
resurged. Film footage of the great and horrid Alaskan Earthquake (1964) reveals this
devastating sea "drop-out".
Upon such lethal seiche tides, even in the fortunate absence of earthquakes, comes
nausea and other coastal related illnesses. Large intensity infrasonic sea shocks have
their powerful effect on the overlying atmosphere of their regions. These infrasonic
shockwaves travel for long distances. Certain bays are known for the high incidence of
such illnesses, the result of resonant baywater "heavings" which occur daily. Their
sickening effects are seemingly "stored up" in physiology, lasting for hours. While these
phenomena proceed from deep in the heart of earth, and on its surface, there are
phenomena which generate infrasonic sources...from space.
FIRE
Aerial earthquake sounds have been reported by observers. Such rushing, thrumming
sounds seem to come from "everywhere" above the affected locale. Typical of
infrasound, the sources cannot be accurately located.
When Krakatoa exploded, barometers fluctuated rapidly in short time intervals. It was
recognized that a new means for detecting earthquakes and other earth movements had
been found. The horrifying destruction of Krakatoa prompted the emergence of a new
science. The rapid development of sensitive barometric instruments provoked the
discovery of a whole new "infrasonic world".
The opposing nations of the Cold War years used barometers and seismographs in
determining the relative explosive yield of periodic underground atomic blasts.
Sensitive barometric detection gradually began searching the atmosphere and earth for
infrasonic "events". Mysterious and sudden barometric variations indicates that natural
infrasonic generation has a much wider source than the subterranean earth. Infrasounds
associated with the Aurora Borealis are too numerous to mention, a well chronicled
occurrence.
The aurora borealis is heard to "swish, crackle, sizzle, and...thunder". Quantitative
analysts "cannot understand" how these sounds can be "heard" but not recorded. It is
obvious that certain auroral sounds stimulate physiological responses which will never
register in biologically unmodified electronic systems. Though debates continue when
referring to higher auroral tones, the "thunder" of the aurora stimulates aerial
infrasounds which can be measured.
Low level auroras have been actually seen and felt. The sounds and odors associated
with this rare phenomenon are unmistakable. In one instance a chemist was fortunate

enough to have lived, after witnessing the effect of auroral grounding throughout his
laboratory. The incredible luminescence produced in several platinocyanides, electrophosphorescent chemicals, were duly noted and reported. Another such incident
involved the grounding of the aurora into an elevated radio tower. The radio engineer
suddenly heard a crackling sound "from everywhere", was unable to transmit any signal
power, felt completely electrified, smelled ozone everywhere, and heard the "crackling"
sound. Numerous witnesses who saw the event, describing the colored column of light
which suffused the tower, feared he might have been killed by its power.
The auroral high pitched sizzling sounds are augmented by deep and ominous
thrumming. These deep tones sweep through the bodies of listeners who are fortunate
enough to survive the dangerous encounter. These permeations produce an irritability
and a dizzying nausea. These sounds were always equated with evil by the Eskimo. Their
legends of the aurora are always fear-filled. The trademark of anxiety and dread highly
characteristic of infrasonic influence, their tales also recount the "taking" of souls by
the "ground walking" aurora. English observers reported that the aurora actually "swept
along the ground" like a column descending from the sky. It took a multicolored
appearance all along its meandering path.
Blasting through interplanetary space, solar flares assault the earth with a barrage of
stupendous proportion. Their disturbing effect on electrical systems is historically
noted. The appearance of electrical power surges during solar flare events has
amounted to many hundreds or even thousands of amperes line-induced current.
Northern lands design their power systems to accommodate these periodic
manifestations of great power. Oil lines in northern lands must be carefully grounded
and insulated to prevent the continuous induction of such harmful electrical surges.
Standing arcs of brilliant blue current had been observed upon the surface of loose pipe
joints during solar flares and strong auroral episodes.
Few writers have discussed the intermittent effects of solar flares on atmospheric
pressure. The sudden changes noted in air pressure, which cover many thousands of
square miles, are obviously sourced in the solar wind. The effect of this natural
atmospheric assault has defined and disturbing influence on both the weather and
human behavioral patterns. Some 139 solar flares were recorded between 1980 and
1983. There is a statistical 155 day periodicity in solar flares, a rhythm often violated by
several interstitial flares. Principally used for predicting their expectable effect on
radio communications, specific military observers monitor solar flares with continued
concern. Correlations of flares with jet stream behavior is strong.
Jet stream behavior, in its meanderings and undulations across vast geographic regions,
is not mysterious when considering the intermittent effect of solar flares and the
normal "background" bursting of the solar wind. Travelling at thousands of miles per
hour, flare pressures aperiodically barrage the neutral atmosphere. The explosive
influence of vast power shocks the entire weather system, electrically active flare
disturbances violently disrupting all atmospheric processes. The very obvious outlines of
flare contacts with the atmosphere can be traced as major pressure changes on weather
maps. Solar flare impacts strike the earth like a bell. Auroras result, and have been
correlated with thunderstorm activities.
But continual minor background disruptions also exist, propelled by the sun. In its
normal process, solar expulsions do not arrive at the atmospheric boundaries as a
homogeneous pressure wave. The arrival of solar products comes as a pressure wave of
inconsistent density. This intermittent barrage induces harmonic atmospheric
disturbances which continually modify and chaoticize emerging weather patterns. The
effect is exactly like "thrumming" an evenly sanded drumhead with innumerable
impacts. This imprint of "background" pressure waves, rattling daily upon the
atmosphere from solar winds, can be seen as "Chladni" patterns on weather maps.

Both solar flares and the normal thrummings of the solar wind generate infrasonic
pulses throughout the atmosphere. The infrasonic shockwaves of the aurora are
normally not heard, but definitely sensed. Measurements have registered a continual
infrasonic background noise level. This pressure energy emanates "from above"
atmospheric strata, radiating downward in large patterns. Atmospheric infrasound is
most strongly measured during daytime hours, a clear indication of their source in the
intermittent expulsions of solar wind. Atmospheric infrasounds arrive at measuring
stations with pitch between .67 and 1.5 cycles per second. Their pitch continuously
oscillates between .67 and .83 cycles per second. These solar sourced infrasonic impacts
very definitely correlate with sudden swings in human behavior, having very obvious
sociological implications. The energetic content of atmospheric infrasound represents a
vast and untapped potential.
WIND
Infrasound moves, unaffected, through and across both winds and storms. But wind and
storm can generate infrasound. The powerful harmonic rotations of storms shears the
atmosphere, radiating a cyclonic series of expanding infrasounds. The sense of
impending fear which proceeds hurricanes is due to infrasonic emissions. The infrasound
of seasonal winds and weather patterns produces illness in certain persons. Some
individuals can hear the jetstream and its thunderous pitch, peaking between 30 and 40
cycles per second. More and more populations are reporting the persistence of ultralow
pitch sounds which render them weak and fatigued. Having often unexplained sources,
we find the bibliography flooded with cases of persistent "atmospheric...and
underground sounds".
Victims of such infrasonic assaults report severe stomach upsets associated with such
infrasounds. Persons who report these persistent "underground" rumbles often live in a
very localized region. These loci have been as small as six miles in diameter. Wind shear
action between the rapid jet stream (.75 miles per second) and more quiescent lower
air strata might continuously generate this persistent infrasound. Natural infrasonic
generation is difficult to determine in all cases where it has been detected. Clashing
winds may produce such sustained low pitches by misunderstood "shearing" actions,
similar to Von Karrman vortices.
Wind shearing may be modified by local topology. Mountain ranges of specific geometry
may offer the most plausible explanation for infrasound in certain areas. Their
obstructive presence among regionally prevailing winds may produced sustained aerial
vortices from which infrasounds continuously radiate.
Why however does the infrasound focus on certain ground points? Some theorists claim
that wind enters caverns, producing an immense artificial whistle of infrasonic resonant
pitch. Careful examinations of these caverns reveals infrasonic pitch of 20 to 30 cycles
per second which does not "regisister" on tape recordings. Some have suggested that
these infrasounds are only sensed in physiology, being "electrostatic" in nature. They
also claim that the incidence of ground-focussing infrasound is an electrical
manifestation, the result of emerging terrestrial charges in highly localized regions.
How does sustained infrasound affect manmade structures? Gusting wind has often
applied such instantaneous pressure to manmade artifice that strong rock walls fall flat
in tiny pieces. These sudden events often occur when winds seemingly ceased for an
instance. During that brief interval, windows are often blown through, and walls are
toppled by infrasonic impulse.
What is the sustained influence of infrasound on humans and human behavior?
Mysterious desert humming sounds fill the night of nomads with superstitious dread.
Deep, buzzing, and threatening, these continuous humming tones have produced
anxiety and fear among bedouins for centuries. The "ghost wails" appear in the

mythology and folktales of the desert people.

But these deep and virtually inaudible humming tones are not confined to the desert
plains, where they thrash among themselves across sandy dunes. The Mistral, the
northward winds of the African continent, sweeps over the southern Mediterranean
coastlands during late fall. These familiar hot winds emerge from their desert journeys
with a strange power, lasting throughout the winter. These winds leave an indelible
trace among exposed communities, a phenomenon which has been misunderstood for
centuries.
The Mistral, weak in infrasonic intensity, does not wreak havoc with material structures.
But the Mistral works its permeating harm nonetheless. For the inhabitants of certain
coastal areas, the low intensity infrasound of the Mistral brings with it a peculiar
seasonal anxiety and depression. In certain locations across the Mediterranean coastland
there are individuals who suffer from "seasonal nervous exhaustion" and other
"neurophysical maladies". It is known that whenever the Mistral blows, there will be
increased emotional tension, depression, and irritability. The Mistral, in numerous
cases, has produced fatalities.
Infrasound travels long distances, often exceeding one thousand miles, with virtually no
attenuation. Its pressures thus arrive at great distances with the same force and
intensity as when generated. A deadly pressure. The atmosphere sustains prolonged and
powerful infrasonic vibrations. How natural conditions can systematically modify human
behavior for protracted seasonal periods is frightening. How natural conditions can
systematically modify large-scale social behavior for protracted seasonal periods is
equally frightening. Not much acoustic power is required for infrasound to produce such
extreme and sustained physiological symptoms.
Fohn winds are dry and warm southerly winds which traverse the Alpine regions of
Europe. Fohn weather is characterized by clear skies, high visibility, and dry
atmosphere. Studies of "Fohn weather" and the Mistral alike have revealed some
intriguing and frightening statistical correlations. The biological effects of both Mistral
and Fohn weather have been well documented. These include extreme irritability,
accident-prone loss of objective judgement, slight disorientation, mild nausea, and
diarrhea.
It is an established fact that sustained low intensity infrasound alters human behavior
and health. Higher accident rates are correlated with pre-Fohn weather onset. This high
accident rate rises until the establishment of Fohn weather, having been attributed to
the infrasonic content of the winds.
ENGINES
Vibrating manmade structures stimulate the artificial generation of dangerous
infrasound. When turns are made at 60 miles per hour, car chassis vibrations produce a
peak infrasonic emission. Travel sickness can be associated with prolonged infrasonic
exposure to any vibrating chassis. Cars, buses, trains, motorcycles, and jets alike each
register hazardous intensities of infrasound. Each transportation mode has its
characteristic infrasonic pitch, the necessary outcome of mechanical frictions and
inertial resistances.
There is difficulty in recording and reproducing ultradeep tones for study and analysis.
They have to be generated on site for experimental purposes. Theater-sized sound
systems can never completely transmit all of the sensations associated with naturally
occurring infrasound. But there have been instances where audiences have become
frighteningly ill because of the accidental generation of infrasound in a theater space.
Of critical importance is the comprehension of human tolerances to infrasound. Military
medical teams have long studied the effect of machine vibration on human judgement
and behavior out of necessity. If jet pilots and rocket pilots alike evidence even minor
errors in judgement through their exposure to infrasound, disaster can result. Certain

critical errors in judgement and accuracy have in fact been noted during short flight
times.
The powerful infrasonic vibrations of jet chassis absolutely saturate the bodies of pilots.
Continually saturated with these infrasonic energies throughout their flight time, pilot
reflexes are severely diminished. Military procedure recognizes this factor, and routinely
limits flight time. It is known that excess infrasonic exposures endanger pilots and their
flight missions. Pilot damaging effects include decrements in vision, speech,
intelligence, orientation, equilibrium, ability to accurately discern situations, and make
reasonable decisions.

Acoustic Trauma : Bioeffects of Sound

Acoustic Trauma : Bioeffects of Sound

Alex Davies BFA Honours

"any unwanted sound, soft or loud, sweet or nasty, creates a multidimensional envelope that does
more than intrude - it takes over not only your acoustic space, but your mind space as well.
Acoustic intrusions reduce your freedom of thought. There is no escaping sound. It meets your
body and forcibly enters your mind, not just through your ears but also via your bones, your flesh,
and your body cavities."
The work is an investigation into the effects of low frequency sound and infrasound via the design
and construction of experimental acoustic emitters. Once installed in a particular space the work
will have a profound effect on the surrounding sonic environment and the physiology of human
subjects present. This is achieved by the resonant interactions between the subjects body and the
acoustic space.
It is beyond the limited scope of this paper to explore the physicality of sound and psychoacoustics
in its entirety due to the vast nature of the subject area. However, this paper will investigate various
key facets of the field relating to the work.

Human Auditory Perception

It is important to give some technical insight into the nature of sound in order to gain an
understanding of the concerns and issues raised in this paper.
It is generally accepted that sound is perceptible to humans in the range of 20hz to 20khz (1Hz is
one complete cycle per second of a sinusoidal wave). Although this is the accepted human auditory
range most people, depending on age and gender, cannot hear sound above 14 to 18Khz. Contrary
to popular assumption, careful measurements have shown that hearing does not abruptly stop at 20

Hz but the ear is capable of registering infrasound as low as 1Hz if sound pressure is sufficient.
Frequencies above 20 kHz are considered ultrasound whilst frequencies beneath 20Hz are
considered infrasound.
The range of audible sound is also differentiated into 3 main categories. Subsonic or low frequency
sound is defined in the range of 20Hz to about 500Hz. Midrange frequencies inhabit the realm of
500Hz to 6KHz (6000Hz) with high frequency sound defined in the remaining 6KHz to 20KHz. To
give these figures some relevance to tangible notions of sound, the musical tone of Middle C is
261.6 Hz.
Although acoustic energy in all areas of both audible and non audible frequencies display
intriguing biological effects, the particular regions of sound that the work focuses on is in the
subsonic and infrasound region.
There are two other key aspects of low frequency sound and infrasound that are worth noting. The
first is that low frequency sound has a relatively long wavelength and low material absorption rate,
hence has the ability to travel vast distances. These properties make it possible to achieve a
profound effect on vast tracts of acoustic space with the production of high sound pressure level
(SPL) acoustic waves. The second issue regarding low frequency sound is that it is very non
directional in its propagation and therefore has the effect of enveloping the individual without any
discernable localized source.
The opposite of these properties is characteristic of high frequency sound which can readily be
absorbed by materials and is highly directional and as such has been an asset in the design of
acoustic weapons.
The perceived loudness of a sound is measured in a unit called the decibel (dB). The decibel
utilizes a logarithmic scale rather than a linear one, as the human ear perceives loudness in a
similar manner. A 3dB increase equates to an actual doubling of the sound level. However,
perceptively, a 10dB sound level increase is considered to be about twice as loud.Frequency and
perceived loudness are intrinsically linked, with greater intensity sound being required at low
frequencies to produce the same amount of perceived loudness.
All objects have a property known as resonant frequency. Resonance involves the "re-enforcement
of vibrations of a receiving system due to a similarity to the frequencies of the source". One of the
most famous examples of natural resonance is Tacoma Narrows Bridge at Puget Sound
Washington. After being exposed to gusts of wind the bridge began to vibrate at its natural resonant
frequency and subsequently began to swing wildly and finally shake itself to pieces.
In a similar manner sound may be exploited and tuned to particular resonant frequencies inherent in
humans. It is this way that sound can be utilized to provide a diverse range of psychophysiological
effects.

Physiological Effects of Sound

Any severe extreme imposed on the sonic environment has a profoundly destabilizing effect on the
individual. This becomes evident in both the areas of high intensity acoustic energy and also its
complete absence. Anechoic chambers, which create an environment void of sound, have the
ability to produce similar feelings of disorientation and disturbance that are evident with high
intensity sound. The silence envelops the individual in a suffocating manner causing both
psychological trauma and also physiological disturbance in the form of balance and other related
body function.
It is clearly apparent that the human organism is in an extremely delicate state of equilibrium with
the sonic environment and any profound disturbance of this system will have subsequent
ramifications on the individual.
Although various facets of acoustic ecology have been examined there is little publicly available
material on the effects of low frequency sound on humans. Thus, speculation and unsupported
allegations related to the field have become prevalent. This lack of available research material is
predominantly due to the fact that the Department Of Defense and related private research
organizations conduct the majority of experimental research in this arena and hence the material is
often of a restricted nature. Jrgen Altmann conducted the only extensive survey of the area in
1999 although this was of a purely theoretical nature without any experimental research.
What also becomes apparent after a survey of the literature is that much of the material available is
conflicting in nature. This adds further to the general mystery and confusion surrounding the area
and promotes the rapid spread of mythologies and misinformation on the subject, highlighting an
obvious need for a current comprehensive experimental study to be undertaken.
References to sound as a violent entity date from the biblical trumpets that brought down the walls
of Jericho to current trends in acoustic weapons research including the work conducted by
organizations such as Scientific Applications And Research Associated Incorporated (SARA).
Various musicians such as The Halfer Trio and Throbbing Gristle have utilized these assaultive
sonic properties in live performances with alleged degrees of success. Entire musical compositions
have been composed around the manipulative qualities of sound.
In a 1973 article in Crawdaddy ,William Burroughs discusses such notions with Jimmy Page of
Led Zeppelin fame. He asked Page about the potential of using infrasound to enhance the musical
experience and produce euphoric effects. However, the article tends to deliver broad and hazy
allegations regarding low frequency sound such as he (Vladimir Gavreau) had an infrasound
installation that he could turn on and kill everything within five miles. It can also knock down
walls and break windows. But it kills by setting up vibrations within the body. Such statements are
typical of the alleged effects of low frequency and infrasound on the body. Where Burroughs
obtained such a figure from is unknown as no reference was made to such a device or physiological
effect in Gavreaus own writings. Statements like the one above continue to propagate rumors, and
in a similar manner to Chinese whispers these are slowly distorted over time.
The pinnacle of sensational notions related to low frequency and particularly infrasound came after
the publication of Gavreaus findings in Science Journal in 1968. At this time a variety of
unsubstantiated and sensational reports appeared in the media, such as the Miami Heralds article
relating to Gavreaus work entitled Sound Ray Developed as A Killer French Working On A
War Machine ,and the London Observers report on the 7th January 1968 "Sound As a Weapon Of
War". Perhaps the most sensational and absurd effects attributed to infrasound was reported in the

Melbourne Sunday Press (7th September 1973). Entitled "The Low Pitched Killer", the article is
concerned with the lethal effects of infrasound generated by open car windows. This document, as
well as "Does Infrasound Make Drivers Drunk" published in New Scientist 1972, claimed that
infrasound generated by automotive travel is responsible for a variety of dubious physiological
effects including motorway madness.

Typically sensational, the article states:

"But much more sinister are the unnoticed effects of infrasound at lower levels: in an ordinary car
travelling at speed the infrasound noise is more than enough to mimic the effect of drunkenness in
the driver. With the sense of euphoria that infrasound also induces, it may therefore be responsible
for many inexplicable crashes."
It is no wonder that with absurd statements published in respected journals such as New Scientist,
these ideas are evident within the population.Though these effects could perhaps be attributed to
vibratory effects generated by automobiles, due to the large impedance mismatch, low frequency
sound at such levels would have an insignificant impact at such levels.
Although there is no doubt that the sonic environment has considerable impact on the individual, it
is quite evident with comprehensive theoretical analysis that the majority of claims in the area are
sensational.
Audible Sound
Audio in the region of 20Hz-20Khz can create psychological disturbance in individuals at levels
substantially below those required for bodily discomfort or trauma.
From the thunderous hypnotic drumming of Zulu warriors to riot police beating their batons on
shields whilst marching towards confrontation, the psychological effects of sound have been used
extensively throughout history as a warfare device. Noise has always been experienced as
destruction, disorder, dirt, pollution, and aggression. All cultures associate noise with the idea of
the weapon, blasphemy and plague. "Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever
heareth, his ears shall tingle" (Jeremiah 19.3)". "When the drums of the resurrection sounded, they
filled the ears with fear" (Al-Din Runir, Diavani, Shansi Tabriz).
Recently, psycho-acoustic warfare was allegedly used in the Waco siege at the Davidian compound
in Texas, where it is said that the FBI used sounds of babies crying, dentist drills and a variety of
other unpleasant sounds to mentally influence their opponents. The Waco compound was allegedly
bombarded for long durations by these sounds via large public address systems.
Although this type of sonic assault can have a profound emotive effect on individuals, it relies
heavily on the individuals particular experiences. This is where the actual physiological effects of
sound are unique. Physiological changes in the body only start to occur at greater sound pressure
levels. At about 120 dB discomfort begins in the ear and pain occurs when levels reach
approximately 140dB.The eardrum subsequently ruptures at levels of about 160 dB. Pain becomes
evident when the middle ear system is mechanically displaced beyond its normal operational limits
These acoustic effects are only apparent on the ear mechanism. The ear is a very easy structure to
attack. Due to evolutionary processes the ear is particularly sensitive to midrange frequencies

inherent in the human voice. Subsequently, all that is needed is an increased sound intensity at
these frequencies for the threshold of pain to be readily reached. This is also related to the
properties of the acoustic reflex in which a small muscle in the middle ear pulls the stirrup back
from the oval window and subsequently reduces the amount of acoustic energy transmitted to the
middle ear. This however only has a significant impact at frequencies lower than about 1000 Hz so
that frequencies between 500 to 4000 Hz, the range at which the auditory center is most sensitive,
are largely unaffected.
The acoustic effects on the body are more complex. Research has concluded that with low
frequency sound in the region of 50 100Hz at levels of 150dB or more, intolerable sensations in
the chest and thoracic region can be producedeven with the ears protected.
Other physiological changes that occur include chest wall vibration and some respiratory-rhythm
changes in human subjects, together with sensations of hypopharyngeal fullness (gagging). The
frequency range between 50-100Hz also produces mild nausea and giddiness at levels of 150-155
dB, at which point subjective tolerance is reached. At 150 to 155 dB (0.63 to 1.1 kPa); respirationrelated effects include subcostal discomfort, coughing, severe substernal pressure, choking
respiration, and hypopharyngeal discomfort.
Vladimir Gavreau, who worked extensively with high SPL low frequency sound at the Centre
National De La Recherch Scientific states, after being subjected for five minutes to an acoustic
emitter producing 196Hz at levels of 160 dB, "we became aware of a painful resonance within our
bodies-everything inside us seemed to vibrate when we spoke or moved." These feelings
subsequently disappeared after a period of three hours.
At medium to high audio frequencies the pronounced visceral effects that are evident with low
frequency vibration are absent. However, disturbance of the equilibrium can be achieved at levels
above 140 dB for unprotected ears. At even higher levels, tickling sensations and heating may
occur in air-filled cavities such as those of the nose and mouth and gaps between the fingers. A
7kHz acoustic beam at a level of 165 dB produced the sensation of strong heating between the
fingers of the subject that were being held close together. This was due to the high degree of
friction that was created although the effect vanished when the fingers were subsequently opened
apart.
High audio frequencies (above 10 kHz) and ultrasound (above 20kHz) have no pronounced effect
on the individual unless the level is in the range of 140dB with more prominent effects of heating
of air cavities, hair and textiles becoming apparent at levels of 160dB. Various assaultive acoustic
devices have been designed to operate within this audio region. Most of these devices utilize a
sonic property called heterodyning in which 2 differing frequencies combine to form the sum and
difference of the initial frequencies.For example, the frequencies of 16000 Hz and 16002 Hz can be
combined in the ear to form 32000Hz and 2Hz. Devices operating in the ultrasonic region in this
manner also have the added advantage of operating in a very directional and focussed manner at an
imperceptible frequency region.
Infrasound
The threshold for infrasound is around 140dB at 20Hz increasing to about 162dB at 2 Hz and to
175-180dB for static pressure.Due to the ethical issues regarding testing human subjects,
experiments on dogs were conducted at levels of 170dB at a frequency of 0.5 Hz. Curiously the
dogs stopped breathing because of lung ventilation due to the high intensity pressure changes,
although the 0.5 Hz frequency of the sound acted as an artificial respirator and the dogs showed no
ill effects afterwards.Many of the most profound effects of sound are attributed to infrasound in the

region of 7Hz. This corresponds with the median alpha-rhythm frequencies of the brain.It is also
commonly alleged that this is the resonant frequency of the bodys organs and hence organ rupture
and death can occur at high intensity exposures.
Impulse noise
Shock waves from explosive blasts produce varying and perhaps the most dramatic effects in the
realm of acoustic devices. At moderately high levels in the region of 140 dB temporary hearing loss
occurs, which can become permanent at higher values. At acoustic levels above 185 dB the
tympanic membrane begins to rupture.
At acoustic levels of about 200 dB, lungs begin to rupture, and above about 210 dB some deaths
will occur.

Sonic Violence

"Noise is violence: it disturbs. To make noise is to interrupt a transmission, to disconnect, to kill."

An acoustic attack works on several levels. The first is physiological changes that take place within
the body. These vary and are directly relational to the frequency of the sound and the intensity.
Next is the isolation of the individual from the environment. Not only would high intensity sound
effectively mask all other sound thereby rendering the user deaf to the immediate environment, but
it would also make him/her powerless in the realm of vocal communication. With the loss of
effective speech comes feelings of helplessness and confusion. Humans are able to selectively filter
various aspects of their immediate sonic environment to extract particular fragments from the
soundscape. Such auditory filtering systems inherent in human sound perception would be rendered
useless as the individual is enveloped by high intensity sound.
Low frequency sound and particularly infrasound have intrinsically mysterious effects as they
generally bypass the ear mechanism and are predominantly felt and not heard. This coupling of
sound directly to the body may be responsible for feelings of anxiety due to a lack of cognitive
resolution within the individual.
Psychotropic Warfare
It is the human condition to try and find answers for inexplicable events or phenomena. Sonic
weapons are often embraced in this capacity, as they are not only often imperceptible to the ear in
their operation but also are capable of extensive physical and behavioural control. As a result sonic
violence has also become a prevalent theme in the area of conspiracy theorists and mind control
victims. This has lead to the loss of credibility in an area that has an extremely significant impact
on the human organism.
The aims of such systems are to influence and manipulate neural activity or to confuse or destroy
the signals that normally keep the body in equilibrium.One such group of devices are silent
communication systems in which non-aural carriers in the infrasound or ultrasound range are
propagated acoustically or vibrationally for inducement into the brain.
They may be used to "artificially implant negative emotional states - feelings of fear, anxiety,

despair and hopelessness."Such a device is outlined in the 1992 US Patent #5,159,703.

The American Defense news in 1993 describes "acoustic psycho-correction" experiments carried
out by the Russians from the mid 1970s which "could be used to suppress riots, control dissidents,
demoralize or disable opposing forces". The device which operated by the "transmission of specific
commands via static or white noise" showed "encouraging results after exposure of less than one
minute" and operated without the upsetting of other intellectual functions.Operating as an
infrasound device the acoustic psycho-correction message is transmitted via bone conduction. Due
to this insidious facet, earplugs prove fruitless in protecting the individual, as whole body
protection is needed. Further developments of such devices utilizing sonic communication directly
to the temporal lobe may produce the most striking and profound acoustic attack. Literature by
Silent Sounds, Inc. indicates that it is now possible to analyze human emotional EEG patterns and
replicate them, then store these "emotion signal clusters" and, at will, "silently induce and change
the emotional state in a human being".
Again, in much the same manner as the alleged effects of infrasound and low frequency sound,
misinformation and sensationalism shroud data in this arena. Perhaps even more so in the case of
psychological assaults, as notions of control over the will of other individuals has been sought
since the dawn of humanity. One cannot help but think in the following statement that profound
psychological disturbances are present when common individuals appear to be victims of extensive
mind control harassment. It is apparent that the sensationalist public opinion regarding acoustic
weapons and control devices is being readily drawn upon by individuals to justify and explain
maladies and aberrations of the body and mind.
"Don't EVER let a psychiatrist tell you voices in your head must indicate mental illness any more! Voice to skull radio
transmission is now a de-classified documented reality".

Psychotropic acoustic violence may not only work on direct speech /sound to skull transmissions
but also on the manipulation of various brain functions.This psychophysical principle is called
entrainment and acts on both subtle and pronounced ways. Entrainment is the foundation of music
for dances, marches and work songs.Society often looks upon sound and the acoustic environment
as a form of wallpaper yet rarely considers the myriad of psychophysiological influences always
present. Trance inducing properties are evident at 60 beats per minute with a frequency of 72 Hz,
corresponding to the frequency of human heartbeats. Frequencies corresponding to the Alpha, Beta
and Theta brain rhythms have been utilized in similar manners to influence neural activity. This is
perhaps why the fabled infrasound frequency of 7 Hz is so notorious as it is the median frequency
of the brains theta rhythms. This frequency is most prominently associated with moods concerned
with fear and anger. Incidentally psychopaths have a general dominance of theta rhythms. It is also
allegedly the average resonant frequency of the bodys organs and hence excitation would cause
organ rupture and death.

Acoustic Ecology

"Noise becomes a parasite which threatens to dominate the environment in the same way as weeds

choke a vacant block"

Natural Sources of Low Frequency Sound:
Ever since the dawn of life on earth organisms have been exposed to low frequency sound and
vibration. Though ever present, the effects of such environmental sound would not begin to have a
profound impact on the acoustic ecology and inhabitants until the advent of the industrial
revolution. It was only then that sounds of extremely high intensity became prevalent. Prior to this
these sounds were the consequence of remarkably rare environmental events.
There are several predominant sources of naturally occurring low frequency and infrasound in the
environment. The entire globe is in a continual dynamic state of enveloping low frequency sound.
Sources of such low frequency sound range from atmospheric winds in the range of 30 to 40 Hz to
those produced by the ocean and other turbulent bodies of water. Ocean waves produce sound with
a mean frequency of 16Hz. These frequencies can become more pronounced if unique geographical
conditions are present and the frequency produced by the water is the same as the resonant
frequency of the environment such as in bays. The thunderous crashing torrents of water in
waterfalls are strong emitters of infrasound as is the gigantic shearing and fracturing of icebergs. It
has been said that such low frequency tones have a continuing effect on those inhabiting such
environments. Deep seismic shocks produced by earthquakes send strong infrasonic impulses to the
surface of the earth. Animals are notoriously sensitive to such vibrations displaying erratic and
anxious behavior well before any human perceives the impending chaos.
The explosive force of Krakatoa in August 26 27 1883 produce massive intensities of low
frequency sound and is in fact considered to be the loudest noise on earth in living memory. The
apocalyptic blast was heard over nearly one thirteenth of the entire surface of the globe at a
distance of nearly 4500-Km.
Though these sounds are ever-present in the acoustic space that individuals inhabit on a day to day
basis, their influence on the individuals psychological and most certainly physiological state are
subdued when compared to the influence of machines.
The advent of the industrial revolution has promoted a flourish of diverse interest in acoustic
ecology and the subsequent effects on society and the individual. This period has proved to be a
truly unique era in acoustic ecology as sounds generated by machines powered by inhuman sources
has meant that sounds readily exceed conventional human limits. Machines also have the unique
properties to produce sounds that force human systems to resonate in inhuman ways.
Individuals exploring this area range from John Cage to Russulo and the Futurist Artists. Cage,
generally renown for his interest in miniature sound also examined the nature of loud sounds.
When asked in a 1977 interview for radio France whether there were any poisonous sounds Cage
responded "I havent heard any. And I have been searching. I even made the experience to hear a
very loud sound". Cage refers to an incident whilst attending a concert of the Spanish group Zai.
He "sat in front of the speaker for an hour turning first one ear and then the other towards it". When
it stopped he states, "my ears were ringing. The ringing continued through the night, through the
next day and through the next night".
Although society and the individual have embraced the machine and the industrial revolution and
although utilized, it is indeed rare that a fondness for such sounds is present. Machine noise is
responsible for the greatest intensity of sonic pollution present in society. Contrary to the aversions
of society in general the Futurist musicians such as Russulo and Marinetti joyously embraced the
noises of war. Building devices called Inonarumori to simulate these horrific sounds, musical

works were constructed with these psychologically unpleasant noises.

Prior to this, in a musical context, loud sounds were traditionally "generated by the lungs and limbs
of performers grouped together in massive numbers."Now however machines could be utilized as
instruments. One such mechanical performance is highlighted in a disastrous rendition of George
Antheils Ballet Mechanique in 1927.
"When the conductor Eugene Goosens gave the cue, the siren player cranked and then cranked
feverishly, but absolutely no sound was produced. The moment for the siren was now long past,
and Goosens was turning to the last page of the score. Disgustedly the effects man stopped turning
the crank, as the last bars of the ballet crashed out. And then in the silence that followed there came
the unmistakable sounds of a fire siren gathering speed. Louder and louder it came as the last noted
of the ballet died away, and as Goosens turned to bow to the audience and Antheil rose from the
piano, it reached its full force. We had all of us completely forgotten the simple fact that a siren
does not start making any sound until it has been energetically cranked for almost a full minute.
And also we had forgotten that it does not stop shrieking simply because you stop cranking. We
remembered both of these things now as the wail from the infernal red thing on the stage kept
dinning in our ears, drowning out the applause of the audience, covering the sound of the people
picking up their coats and hats and leaving the auditorium."
The performance highlights the all-encompassing and pervasive nature of industrial sound. Matt
Heckerts Mechanical Sound Orchestra provides a contemporary presence of mechanical sound art
and acoustic emitters. Although Heckerts work draws upon the futurist machine music it also
explores notions of the body as an instrument. One group of orchestral devices known as the
resonators create sonic environments that interact with the audiences body. Consisting of Cannon
like pipes they are pulsed via a mechanically actuated diaphragm. The work is music for the body,
not just for the ear or the mind. Exhibited at Biomachines, the work encouraged the audience to sit
in succulent chairs and be enveloped by the variety of modulated frequencies produced.
Similar concerns also extend to the work of Eric Hobjin with the Dante Organ. The Organ is an
"installation consisting of 10 to 15 flame-throwers with pillars of fire 13 to 20 meters high, creating
an environment dealing with the aesthetics of violence". The thunderous sounds produced by the
pipes assault the viewer, forcing them to "abandon the pure artistic aspects of the piece to deal with
the real and present danger."

The use of high intensity sound in such works creates unique sonic spaces in which, as Douglas
Kahn states "any performance space could be turned into a resonant chamber, much like the body
of a very large instrument in which humans are played".

Acoustic Weapons
Infrasound has been used in the context of war since WW1, although at this stage it was related to
sensitive devices used to measure infrasonic emissions and hence identify the location of artillery.
Though there are references to assultive acoustic devices being created as early as WW2 it was not
until the 1960s that research in the area became more vibrant. Early references to such devices

come only as fragments or hearsay. One such device is explained as follows

"... consisted of a parabolic reflector, 3.2 meters in diameter, having a short tube which was the
combustion chamber or sound generator, extending to the rear from the vertex of the parabola. The
chamber was fed at the rear by two coaxial nozzles, the outer nozzle emitting methane, and the
central nozzle oxygen. The length of the chamber was one-quarter the wavelength of the sound in
air. Upon initiation, the first shock wave was reflected back from the open-end of the chamber and
initiated the second explosion. The frequency was from 800 to 1500 impulses per second. The main
lobe of the sound intensity pattern had a 65-degree angle of opening, and at 60 meters' distance on
the axis a pressure of 1000 microbars had been measured. No physiological experiments were
conducted, but it was estimated that at such a pressure it would take from 30 to 40 seconds to kill a
man. At greater ranges, perhaps up to 300 meters, the effect, although not lethal, would be very
painful and would probably disable a man for an appreciable length of time. Vision would be
affected, and low-level exposures would cause point sources of light to appear as lines."
Whether such a device was truly effective can never really be known however there are currently
several organizations conducting research in area of acoustic weapons. Due to this continuing
research in the area one can speculate that there has never been a truly successful device.
Interestingly this is also reflected in recent statements by research groups such as Scientific
Applications and Research Associates (SARA) who have apparently taken previous allegations on
face value when quoting the alleged effects of some of the impulse noise acoustic devices under
construction. Despite such extensive inconsistencies in regards to the alleged effects of acoustic
energy current research still flourishes in the area. A similar, albeit more compact device to the one
described above, was outlined by Primex Physics International Company in 1998. Still relying on
impulse noise technology, it achieved levels of 165dB at a distance of 50 feet and "appears to have
very desirable risetime and pulsewidth characteristics that are essential for optimal acousticpsychological coupling to targets.
The applications of this current research is predominantly based in the development of non-lethal
acoustic devices for use in such circumstances as "embassies under siege, for crowd control, for
barriers at perimeters or borders, for area denial or area attack, to incapacitate soldiers or workers."
Regarding to the non lethal properties of such devices, the purported effects with respect to
humans seem extremely inappropriate for temporary incapacitation with no long term side effects.
The most recent alleged effects from SARAs current research are stated as:
"Infrasound at 110-130 dB would cause intestinal pain and severe nausea. Extreme levels of
annoyance or distraction would result from minutes of exposure to levels 90 to 120 dB at low
frequencies (5 to 200Hz), strong physical trauma and damage to tissues at 140-150 dB, and
instantaneous blastwave type trauma at above 170. At low frequencies resonances in the body
would cause hemorrhage and spasms; in the mid-audio range (0.5-2.5 kHz) resonances in the air
cavities of the body would cause nerve irritation, tissue trauma and heating; high audio and
ultrasound frequencies (5 to 30 kHz) would cause heating up to lethal body temperatures, tissue
burns, and dehydration; and at high frequencies or with short pulses, bubbles would form from
cavitation and micro-lesions in tissue would evolve."
If would be interesting if such allegations prove to be plausible when backed up by experimental
data in the future however at this juncture it does not seem to be the case.
There are several possible paths that can be taken regarding the design of a high acoustic output
device suited to sonic violence. Conventional loudspeakers are not particularly suitable for the task
for several reasons. The primary reason is efficiency. Only about 1% -2% of energy is efficiently

used in a conventional voice coil loudspeaker. Efficiencies of between 10%-50% can be achieved
with the use of rear loaded exponential horn speakers.Subsequently to obtain the high sound
pressure levels needed for an effective unit an impractical array of speakers and amplifiers would
be needed to compensate for this. The second flaw with the use of conventional speakers as a
suitable emitter is the limited frequency response in the low frequency sound region. An alternate
to voice coil technology is that of pneumatic emitters. These include whistles and horns. A whistle
acts as a resonant cavity with a mouth similar to that found in a pipe organ. These devices are able
to achieve efficiencies of up to 70% and are capable of generating frequencies well into the
infrasound region.
Impulse noise devices offer the capability of extremely high SPL via an acoustic shock pulse.
These may be generated via any explosive mixture in the form of a fuel/air mix or explosive
compound. Due to the nature of combustion however, byproducts of the ignited fuel/air mix would
pollute the immediate surroundings hence necessitating an outdoor environment and loss of
flexibility of the device. The pneumatic acoustic emitter is not as self sufficient as that of the
combustion based counterpart as generally 3 phase power is required to provide enough energy to
operate the device. The combustion-based device however may run as long as fuel is present and
hence would be more appropriate for remote locations without the use of generators. A greater
degree of control over specific frequency ranges is apparent in the whistle design. This enables the
generation and subsequent observation of the effects of very precise frequencies in the subsonic
and infrasonic region.
Humans interact with the acoustic environment in many complex ways. The human hearing system
not only consists of the ear but also encompasses conduction and mediation via bones, flesh, and
body cavities. Acoustic energy has the ability to profoundly influence an individuals brain waves,
respiratory cycles, nervous system, muscle function, heart rate and glandular function. As such, a
benign acoustic space can readily be turned to violence against the individual. Although this has
been well documented throughout history a great deal of misinformation and blatant sensationalism
has lead to the creation of a area still void of any concrete findings. Due to this the complex and
significant pychophysiological influences still remain a mystery to a large degree.

Bibliography
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Broner, N, The Effects Of Low Frequency Noise On People A Review, Journal Of Sound And
Vibration 58 (4), England, 1993.
Bryan, Michael and Tempest, William, Does Infrasound make Drivers "Drunk"?, New Scientist
16th March 1972.
Campbell, Murray, The Musicians Guide To Acoustics, Dent, England, 1987

Davis, Gary & Jones, Ralph, Sound Reinforcement Handbook, HP, USA, 1989
Gavreau, Vladimir, Infrasound, Science Journal 4 (1), USA, 1968
Hecht, Jeff, Not A Sound Idea, New Scientist, UK, 20th March 1999
Kahn, Douglas, Noise Water Meat A History Of Sound In The Arts, MIT Press, USA, 1999
Keith, Jim, Mind Control World Control The Encyclopedia Of Mind Control, Adventures
Unlimited Press, USA, 1997
Kientzle, Tim, A Programmers guide To Sound, Addison-Wesley, USA, 1998
Madsen, Virginia, Notes Towards Sound Ecology In The Garden Of Listening, Essays In Sound 2,
Technophobia, Australia, September 95
Neal, Charles, Tape Delay, SAF Publishing LTD, UK, 1987
Rodwell. R., Army tests New Riot Weapon, New Scientist, UK, 20th September 1973
Schaefer, Murray, Soundscape, Cultures 1 (1),Unesco, 1973
Seashore, Carl E., Psychology Of Music, Dover Publications Inc., USA 1967
Simon, Leslie E., Secret Weapons of the Third Reich, WE Inc, USA, 1971
Swezey, Stuart, Amok Journal Sensurround Edition, Amok, USA, 1995
T.A.G.C., Meontological Research Recordings Teste Tones, Soleilmoon Recordings USA, 1988
Toop, David, Ocean Of Sound, Serpent Tail, USA, 1995
Tuzin, Donald, Miraculous Voices- The Auditory Experience Of Numinous Objects, Current
Anthropology 25 (5), USA, 1984
Wall, Judy, Military Use Of Mind Control Weapons, USA, Nexus October / November 1998
Yost, William A., Fundamentals Of Hearing, Academic Press, Inc., USA, 1994
Patents
Adams,GuyEmery,NoiseGenerator&Transmitter,UntiedStatesPatent4,034,741,July121977
Brunkan,WayneB.,HearingSystem,UnitedStatedPatent4,877,027,October311989
Drewes, William, Sonic Weapon System, United States Patent 4,349,898, September 14 1982
Flanders, Andrew, Psycho-Acoustic Projector, United States Patent 3,566,347, February 23 1971
Lowery,OliverM,SilentSubliminalPresentationSystem,UnitedStatedPatent5,159,703,

October271992
Naff,JohnT.,&Shea,James,AcousticCanon,UnitedStatesPatent5,973,999,October261999
Puharich,H.K.,MeansForAidingHearing,UntiedStatesPatent2,995,633,August81961
Wilson,Joseph,SuperimposingMethodAndApparatusUsefulForSubliminalMessages,United
StatesPatent5,134,484,July281992
Internet: Note All URLs referenced are current as of time of publishing (november 1999)
however due to the dynamic nature of the Internet certain articles may not be accessible in the
future.
Non Lethal Weapons
Lewer, Nick, Forum Nonlethal Weapons,
http://forum.ra.utk.edu/summer99/nonlethal.htm
Murhpy, Michael, Biological Effects Of Non Lethal Weapons,
http://www.dtic.mil/stinet/ndia/NLD3/murp.pdf
Paternak, Douglas, Wonder Weapon, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/970707/7weir.htm
Welsh, Cheryl, Nonlethal Weapons A Global Issue, http://www.calweb.com/~welsh/8.htm
Acoustic Weapons & The Psychophysiological Effects of Sound
Altmann, Jrgen, AcousticWeapons A prospective Assessment, Universitt Dortmund / Institut
fr Experimentalphysik III April 1999
http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/PeaceProgram/acousticweapons.pdf
Day, Fergus, Deadly Silence,
http://www.profreedom.free4all.co.uk/deadly_silence.html
King, Benson, Nonlethal Acoustic Weapons,
http://www.dtc.army.mil/tts/1997/proceed/king/sld014.htm
Scientific Applications And Research Associated Incorporated (SARA), Technologies,
http://www.sara.com/Capability/Tech.html
Schewe, Phillip & Stein, Ben, American Institute Of Physics-Acoustic Surgery,
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/1998/split/pnu380-1.htm
Vassilatos, Gerry, Hearing Through Wires: The Physiophony Of Antonia Meucci,

http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/hearing.htm
Pellegrino, Ron, The Effects Of Sound / Music On Digestion,
http://www.microweb.com/ronpell/FXofSndMscONHumnDigstn.html
Nichols, B, Deadly Vibrations A Brief History Of Sonic Warfare,
http://www.overloadmedia.co.uk/library/deadvibr.htm
Woodward, David, Trumpets Of Jericho,
http://www.davidwoodard.com/jericho-index.html
Vassilatos, Gerry, The Sonic Weapon Of Vladimir Gavreau,
http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/gavreaus.htm
Walonick, David, Effects Of 6 10 Hz ELF on Brain Waves,
http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/elf.htm
Sikorsky, Smurfing On Sine Waves, NoiseGate # 3
http://www.rfbaker.demon.co.uk/noisegate/articles/ngsmurf.html
Primex Physics International Company, Non Lethal Defense III - Acoustic Blaster,
http://www.dtic.mil/stinet/ndia/NLD3/sze.pdf
Kranidiotis, Argiris A. Human Audio Perception FAQ,
http://mambo.ucsc.edu/psl/audfaq.txt

Sound Art
Wendt, Larry, Luigi Russulo And The Art Of Noise,
http://cadre.sjsu.edu/switch/sound/articles/wendt/folder6/ng632.htm
Scarbourough, Kim, The Art Of Noises,
http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/noises.html
Hobijn, Eric, The Dante Organ And The Aesthetics Of Violence,
http://flux.thing.de/parasites/Dante/
Baker, Keneth, Body Sound: Other Music At Artspace,

http://www.MattHeckert.com/Press/SF_Chronicle.html
Acoustics & Acoustic Ecology
Pellegrino, Ron, Loud Music And Hearing Loss,
http://www.microweb.com/ronpell/LoudMusicNHearingLoss.html
Bottum, J, The Soundtracking Of America,
http://www.theatlantic.com/cgi-bin/o/issues/2000/03/bottum.htm
Pellegrino, Ron, Why are Audio Engineers The Enemies of Our Ears,
http://www.microweb.com/ronpell/EnemiesOfOurEars.html
Pellegrino, Ron, Sound Deserves its Own Pollution Category,
http://www.microweb.com/ronpell/NsNSndPltnFndmntPrncpls.html/SndDsrvsOwnPltnCtgry.html
Christophe, Charles, Poisonous Sounds,
http://www.microweb.com/ronpell/NsNSndPltnFndmntPrncpls.html/PoisonousSound.html
United States Air Force, Sonic Boom, http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/Sonic_Boom.html
Cody, John, Infrasound,
http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/infra.htm
Miller, Wreford, Silence In The Contemporay Soundscape,
http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/FC/readings/Thesis.pdf
Silverman, Andrew, Acoustics FAQ,
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/physics-faq/acoustics/index.html
Woodward, David, The Tarcoma Narrows Bridge Disaster,
http://www.davidwoodard.com/tacoma.html
Vassilatos, Gerry, Nocturnal Disturbances and the Infrasonic "Hum",
http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/nux.htm
Karlow, Edwin A., Loud Music And Hearing Loss,
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Psychotronic Warfare
Project Freedom, Remote Mind Control Weapons,
http://www.profreedom.free4all.co.uk/part1.html
White, Eleanor, Subject Index to Articles,
http://www.raven1.net/ravsubjx.htm
Synetic Systems Inc., The Science of Light and
Sound,http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~andrewc/synopsis_of_articles.html

Effects of infrasound on people : The Sonic Weapon of Vladimir Gavreau

Effects of infrasound on people
[very important... please read]
MICHAEL SPITZER
Sat, 17 Mar 2001 03:14:09 -0800
Dear Editor,
Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at
Brown University, Arnold L. Weinstein comments in his taped
course The Soul and the City: Art, Literature, and Urban Life,
"City dwellers are connected by waves of sound." In the l990's,
excluding the most obvious airplane and highway noise, an
inaudible antagonist has proliferated.
In the early l990's both GE and EMD (Electro Motive
Division of General Motors) began experimenting with and
manufacturing locomotives with AC powered traction motors. From
an economic viewpoint it made sense. There are no brushes or
commutators to wear out in AC motors, and a computer controlled
thrysistor maintains tractive effort to reduce wheel slip and
motor burn out. Locomotive efficiency is increased and
maintenance reduced propelling the rail industry back into the
Fortune 500 from near bankruptcy in the l980's.
In l982 there must have been a reason why politicians
lobbied to dismantle and stop funding the federal Office of Noise
Abatement under Ronald Reagan. Trains are noisy, but at least
you know what it is when you hear it...or do you?
The thrysistor is a software controlled electronic device
that varies the frequency and voltage of AC. On diesel/electric
trains, a turbo-charged diesel engine drives an alternator that
produces alternating current. A rectifier converts it to DC
where it is controlled by a computer, whence an inverter changes
it back to AC to power the traction motors. When the traction
motors are producing electricity by the inertia of the moving
train, the electricity is fed back to a grid to dissipate the
energy. This is called dynamic braking. All in all controlling
electricity, not diesel power, moves the train.
A few years ago the Evening News did a story on the
elusive Taos Hum. [The sound of an ongoing hum in Taos, New
Mexico]
Residents were hearing an annoying hum
twenty-four hours a day. No one seemed to know the source. In
Fayetteville and Columbus I was hearing a hum that fit the
description of the Taos Hum.

The hum is produced by low voltage AC drives controlled

by the thrysistor. Near Taos, there is a Molybdenum mine in
Questo a few miles away. There is a long conveyor belt that
moves the metal from the mine to the refinery. There are also
two mines near Littleton, Colorado.
The Union Pacific railroad was the first to experiment
with AC powered locos, mostly for logging work. There is also a
thrysistor in the Bonneville Power Administrations power grid in
the Pacific Northwest.
What does this have to do with a standing wave? Seattle
and Portland, the birthplace of Grunge is in the Pacific
Northwest. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Attention Deficit
Disorder, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Panic Disorder, and Sleep
Paralysis have all escalated in the last decade. Rockers got
dark, rappers got violent, and teenagers began shooting at their
classmates. The medical establishment has no physiological cause
for any of these. What could be causing this downward trend in
mental health in the last decade? The answer is infrasound.
Vladimir Gavreau, a French Scientist, experimented with
the effects of very low frequency sound, inaudible sound waves
below 20 Hertz. Many speculated he was working on a non-lethal
weapon for the military. Officials soon realized it was difficult
to control the dispersion of omni-directional infrasound and
abandoned it. It killed the operator as well as the enemy.
Infrasound travels faster through water and solids and does not
dissipate. Its physical and psychological effects are varied but
the overt characteristic is an intense feeling of oppression.
Fatigue, blurred vision, irritability, headache, nausea,
difficulty concentrating, tingling skin, and aching limbs are all
effects of infrasound.
Low frequency electro-magnetic waves have similar
effects. David S. Walonick did a study of the effects of 6-10 Hz
ELF on brain waves. Brain electrical activity in the theta and
alpha (the creative, insightful and meditative states) centers
around 6-8 Hz. Most of our awake thinking is in the Beta range,
above 12 Hz. Brain wave frequency ranges can be associated with
mood or thought patterns. He determined the brain "locks onto"
artificial electro-magnetic energy. It attempts to fight the
invasion, then locks onto the electric energy. Likewise it can
work at the cellular level causing disease.
AC drives produce both. As a composer, the AC traction
motor locomotive has invaded nearly every aspect of my life.
NASA has documented 17 Hz infrasound produces extreme blurring of
vision. After two cornea transplants, even with 20/20 vision
with glasses my eyes produce vision akin to the Comedy Channel's
Dr. Katz show. Images pulsate almost 24 hours a day. With 48
inch cooling fans for the power inverters, I either have high

volume white noise, infrasound, or audible hum in my home most of

the day. Tinnitus accompanies all of this. Likewise I experience
all the physical and psychological symptoms associated with EMF
radiation and infrasound. I don't think my brain has operated in
the theta stage since I moved to Columbus. I wake up with a
backache from my mattress resonating. I am irritable, nervous,
and can't concentrate. I have no privacy because my home is
connected to all the other city dwellers by a huge tsunami-like
standing wave.
When I recorded recently in Nashville in a professional
studio, the electro-magnetic waves in the air produced by AC
powered locomotives destroyed five ADAT digital recorders. They
disturb television reception and produce an audible buzz in my
stereo system. On the phone voices have a ghostly echo.
Electro-magnetic waves manifest themselves on preexisting wires
carrying current.
The engineers in Nashville didn't know what was causing
it. They grounded equipment and put down insulating material but
to no avail. What can you do when it is in the air? All you
have to do is listen for the rushing white noise outside.
For GE and GM, there is one issue that is substantial.
If my right to privacy is being revoked by two corporations, that
makes their practices unconstitutional. If they knowingly
designed and manufactured a device that produces infrasound and
the effects are documented, then they are negligent.
Because infrasound is invisible and inaudible, it seems
apparent they were irresponsible and abandoned sound thinking and
a sense of well being for humanity in exchange for the dollar.
Everyone has suffered and will continue suffering until something
is done.
It is no coincidence people are depressed, sick, and
violent. With a country that now hums 24 hours a day with
dangerous infrasound both through the ground and through the air,
where are we to go. I guess NASA has the answer, although it
seems noise is a big problem in space too.
Sincerely,
Paul A. Reichle III

The Infrasonic Fear Generator is the first commercial product of its kind. Simply put, the
Fear Generator can cause a range of strange feelings, anxiety, sorrow, chills, unnerving
feelings, heightened emotions, including visions and vibrations in the chest and other parts
of the body, in a large percentage of people.
Infrasound refers to extreme bass waves or vibrations, with a frequency below the
audibility range of the human ear. Even though these waves can't be heard by us, they
can be felt and sensed and have been shown to produce a range of effects in some
people.
Based on previous studies, 20% to 60% of people have reported strange feelings when
tests were performed at concerts, in pressure chambers, at home, and in test facilities. No
tests were conducted in a scary environment. We believe the percentage of people
affected in a haunted house setting will be even greater. Most people will feel vibrations in
parts of their bodies (commonly the chest area) similar to audible bass but wont know
where it is coming from since they can not hear it. Vibrations in the chest are a common
symptom of extreme terror.
Infrasound is very difficult, if not impossible, to recreate from a standard stereo
system. Most subwoofers are only rated down to 40 Hz and the amplifiers, filters, and
crossover systems can limit the low frequencies you need to hit even further. The Fear
Generator is specially designed to produce a specific infrasound frequency that has been
scientifically tested to produce these effects in people.
One of the best places to put the Fear Generator would be near your wait line, where
anticipation and anxiety start to build naturally.
NOTE: A large pipe is required for the Fear Generator and is not included.

INFRASOUND Amplifier

INFRASOUNDAMPLIFIER/TAOSHUMAMPLIFIER/
PSYCHICPOWERSAMPLIFIER/
BRAINWAVEAMPLIFIER/SUBSONICAMPLIFIER
forFORTEANRESEARCH/PSYCHICRESEARCH/
PARANORMALRESEARCH/MINDCONTROL
RESEARCH
New.InfrasoundAmplifier/TaosHumAmplifier/PsychicPowerAmplifier/Brainwave
Amplifier.Thebrainwavefrequenciesare:Alpha(8Hz12HzAwake,mild/moderate
stimulation),Beta(15Hz25HzAwake,moderate/excitedstimulation),Delta(0.5Hz4Hz
Stage3Sleep,Stage4Sleep),Theta(4Hz8HzStage1SleepandREMSleep),and
Spindles(12Hz15HzStage2Sleep,oftenwithKComplex).Youcannotmeasure
brainwaveBWfrequenciesunlessyouhaveanamplifierwhichwillamplifyelectronicsignals
intheinfrasoundbandwidth(BW).Eventhehighestquality,mostexpensiveaudioamplifiers
don'tamplifysignalsmuchbelow20Hz(thehumanlowerhearinglimit)theycannot
amplifyinfrasonicBWsoundsofthebrainwavefrequencies,soareuselessforbiofeedback
purposesinvolvingbrainwavesoranyotherinfrasonicBWsound,electrical,magneticor
electromagneticphenomena.Whileoscilloscopesandspectrumanalyzerswilldisplay
brainwavefrequencies,becausebrainwavesignalsareextremelyweak(microvolts),onlythe
mostexpensivescopeswillamplifythemenoughfordecentviewingoranalysis(andthese
usuallyrequire1Xprobes).Formostoscilloscopesandspectrumanalyzers,youneedan
externalinfrasonicBWamplifiertoprovideadequatesignalboostingifyouwanttoview
brainwavesignalsmorethan1cmpeaktopeakonthescopedisplay.Furthermore,since
scopesarewideband,noisefrequenciesabovetheinfrasonicBWwillalsobeamplifiedand
displayedalongwiththeBWfrequencies(e.g.60Hzelectricalpowerinterference),thus
makingviewingandanalysisofthebrainwavefrequenciesandotherinfrasoundfrequencies
onacommercialscopemuchmoredifficultandsometimesalmostimpossible.And
unamplifiedbrainwavesignalsareuselessforanydirectapplicationforbiofeedback,other
brainwaveandotherinfrasonicapplications.
Thisinfrasoundamplifierwillamplifyinfrasonicfrequencesfrom0.25Hzto25Hz,with
strongsignalrejectionabove30Hz.Inputimpedanceisveryhigh.Tunablegain(volume
control)uptoanincredible1,000,000(100db).Thisamplifier,withtheproperinput
transducerwillamplifybrainwaveandmanyotherinfrasoundBWsignalsaswell,suchas
earthquakesounds,TAOShumsounds,infrasonicweaponsystemsounds,lowfrequency
magneticfluctuations,lowfrequencymotorsoundsandenginesounds,superwooferspeaker

outputs,andotherlowfrequencyandsubaudiosounds.
ThisisoneIteminagroupofcloselyrelatedItemsyoumaybeinterestedin:(1)Wideband
UltrasonicAmplifier,(2)InfrasonicAmplifierthisItem,(3)MagneticTransducer,(4)
UltrasonicMicrophone,and(4)SoftPinchElectrodes.Seemywebpagesfordescriptions.
NotethattheseamplifiersarealluniquehandmadecreationssowhileIhavelimitedquantity,
theoneyougetmaynotbetheexactoneshownintheimageastherearevariationsin
externalcomponent(i.e.switch,connectors,volumecontrolpot,LED)andlabelplacements.
Becausethesearehandmadeelectroniccreations,asopposedtomassproducedassemblyline
equipment,theseareallindividuallytunedandtweakedforoptimumdistortionfree
performance.
Thisspecialamplifierisnotintendedforanymedicaluses.Wearenotlicensedmedical
professionals.Wemakenomedicalorparanormal(includingbutnotlimitedtopsychic
powers)claims.NOTE:Ifpsychicpowersexist,thisextremelylowfrequency

amplifiermaybeusefultoamplifypsychicpowersforpsychicpowersresearch.
Wemakenoclaimsthatpsychicpowersexist.Thisamplifiercanalsobeusedfor
manygeneralelectroniclaboratory,shop,automotiveandhobby/craftuses.
ThisItemdoesnotincludeanyinfrasonicmicrophones,infrasonicelectrodes,infrasonic
probesorinfrasonictransducers.OurMagneticTransducerlistedaboveworksdeepintothe
infrasonicBWfrequencies(downtoabout0.5Hz)todetectextremelylowfrequency
magneticfieldsinconjunctionwiththisinfrasonicamplifier,andisgreat,forexample,to
detectbrainwaves.Seemywebpages.
Mybiomedicalresearchoverthelastdecadeswas/isintoMindControl,SubliminalMind
Control,ElectronicAttack(includingelectromagneticattack,ultrasonicattackand
infrasonicattack),ElectronicHarassment,BrainwaveEntrainment(orBrainEntrainment),
Brainwashing,BodyControl,BehavioralModification,ElectronicImplants,
Radionics/Psychotronics/Psionics,Biofeedback,PlantStimulation/PlantMonitoring,and
ForteanPhenomenaandotherUnexplainedPhenomenaforConsumertronics.netof
Albuquerque,NM(hightechbooks,manuals,research,consultingseemywebpagesitems),
andforLoneStarConsulting,Inc.ofElPaso,TX(hugenumberofrelateddevicetypes,
uniquecustomizeddevicesconsulting,etc.,seeitsFREEMINDCONTROLTUTORIAL).
MyrelatedConsumertronics.netbooksandmanuals(includingebooks)include,"Mind
Control,""SubliminalMindControl,""ElectromagneticBrainblaster,"and"Under
Attack!",andarealsoofferedonthiswebsite.Ihavesuchahugeamountoftestequipment
relatedtothistypeofresearch,muchofitduplicateorsimilartoeachother,someIamnow
sellingassurplusbiofeedback/mindcontrolequipment(seemywebpages).Thanks,JohnJ.
Williams,M.S.E.E.

INFRASOUND Design
Infrasoundgeneratorspecifications.Howtobuildatuned,highoutput
infrasoundgenerator.
Buildingapowerfulinfrasoundemitterisneitherdifficultnorterriblycostly,
onceyouunderstandthelimitationsofavailabletechnology.Infrasonicoutput
equivalenttoa2000wattdynamicspeakercanbeaccomplishedwithsimpleleaf
blowers.Theproblem,isoneofdefiningtheproblem.Thesolutionthenbecomes
obvious:
THEPROBLEM,SIMPLYSTATED
Buildingahighpoweredinfrasoundsourceofpracticaldimensionsusing
dynamicspeakertechnologyisapragmaticimpossibility,fortworeasons:a)the
physicalsizeofthedevice,andthemassofthemovingcomponents,increases
dramaticallyasthedesignresponsefrequencyisdecreased,andb)theconversion
efficiencyofthedynamicspeaker,whichisunimpressiveinanyrange,dropswell
below1%.Whatthismeansisthata100wattdynamicspeaker,atfullpower,yields
anoutputintherangeof0.5to0.9acousticwatt.Still,ifyoustandinfrontofa
fullydriven100wattspeakeroutputtingat,say,100hertz,youwillgainan
appreciationfortheeffectofeventhatlevelofacousticpower.Nowimaginethat
effectmultipliedby10.Or100...
Oneobvioussolutionistoemployinsteadatuned,singlefrequencydevice
whichreliesuponadifferentprincipleofoperationonewhichrequiresnomoving
parts:asupersizedwhistle.Thereareseveralwhistleconfigurations,mostofwhich
havebeentriedandprovenunsuitableforhighoutputoperation:(1)Flutes,which
areeitheropenendorclosedendwhistles,and(2)theHelmholtzresonator,which
isessentiallyanopenvessel(awinebottle,forexample)withaconstrictedneck
opening.Blowacrosstheneckopeningandyougetalowfrequencyoutput.Asyou
drinkmoreofthewine,therebyloweringthefluidlevelandincreasingtheair
volume,thefrequencygetslowerasyougethigher.Itsarelationshiplongknown
toaspiringmusicians:Themoreyoudrink,thebetteryousound.
Thedisadvantageofthefirsttwo,oftheflutevariety,iswell
known:Overdriveeither(blowtoohard)andtheresultantoutputdegradesinto
higherharmonics.Theysqueal.Inaddition,thesizeofthedeviceisaninverse
functionofthefrequency:Thelowerthefrequency,thelargerthedevice.A
weaponsscientistnamedVladimirGavreauranintothisproblemwhile
experimentingwithinfrasoundinthe1960s.Ahalfwave,oropenendedflute,
tunedintheneighborhoodof7hertz,isseveralfeetindiameterand80feet

long.Notexactlyportable,tosaynothingoftheairsupplyrequired.Aquarter
wave,orclosedenddevice,islittlebetterinthisregard.
TheHelmholtzresonatorwastheearliestformofthefoghorn.Thedevice
wasrelativelysmallandcompact,butoutputislimitedforthesamereasonasinthe
flute:Blowntoohard,itproduceshigheroctaveharmonicsofthetunefrequency.It
too,squeals.
THESOLUTION
Thereisafourthtypeofairactuatedgenerator,whichisessentiallyavortex
chamberwithacircumferentialemitterport.Itsoperationalthresholdishigh,
meaningthatitsoutputishighwithinitsveryspecifictunedrange;itisofcompact
design;anditoperatesbydesignatasinglefrequency.Theprincipalofoperationis
assimpleasthemathematicsarecomplex,butonedoesnotrequireadeep
understandingofeitherinordertodesignandbuildsuchadevicewithofftheshelf
components(Asmallversionwaspoweredbyleafblowers,simplytoproveits
feasibilityasabackyardproject).Afewsimpleformulaearerequiredtodetermine
theprecisedesignparametersforthedesiredfrequency.Beforeyoufleeinpanic,
thereisnomathematicalwizardryrequiredwhichisbeyondthescopeofeighth
grademath.Ifyoucanuseatendollarscientificcalculatoryoucanpluginthe
valuesyouwant,crunchthenumbersandgetyourresults.Astotheconstructionof
thedeviceitself,ifyoucanreadatapemeasureanduseapowersawwithoutdire
risktocherishedbodyparts,buildingtheemittersourceiswithinyour
capabilities.
Twovariationsofthisdesignarepresentedinthedesign/constructiondata,
whichIhavemadeavailablebelowinCDform.Thefirstisarelativelylow
poweredversionwhichislessthanacubicfootinsize,andwhichiscapableof
outputaslowasthe1530acousticwattrange:Suitablefordelvingintomeditation
orparanormalresearch,andcompetingwith,orevenupstaging,boomcars,ina
moderatelylargeroutputconfiguration.Thesecondvariationoccupiesasmuchasa
cubicmeterofspace,iscapableofoutputinthe200+acousticwattrange
equivalenttotheoutputofa20,000+wattdynamicspeakerarrayandhasa
theoreticaleffectiverangemeasuredinmiles.
Itshouldbenotedherethattheoutputfromavortexchamberisnon
directional;itcannotbeaimed,diverted,funneledorfocused,sothedetectablerange
isessentiallytheradiusofacirclewiththedeviceatitscenter.Insomecases,this
couldbeaverylargecircle.
INFRASOUNDANDTHESEARCHFORSATORI

Fromdeep,sonorousGregorianchantstotheAustraliandidgeridoo,lowbass
andinfrasoundhasthroughouttimebeenassociatedwiththequestforsatori,or
spiritualenlightenment.Whileresultsofthefewstudiesintoitsefficacyinthat
regardhavebeencontradictoryandinconclusive,thedeepandcontinuous
murmuringofamultitudeofvoicesintunedoesinfactinduceaperceivable
vibrationwithinthehumanbody;onewhichpractitionersinsistopensthewaytoa
higherconsciousness.Andanyonewhohasimmersedhimselfforatimeinsucha
soundbathwillreadilyadmitthatsomethingishappening.
Theconceptofbinauralperceptionattemptstorecreatethisvibratory
phenomenonwithinthebrainalone,withmixedresults.Theideaistoplaytwo
tonesofdifferingfrequencies,oneintoeachear(ideallythroughheadphones),
therebycreatingalower,differentialbeatfrequencywhichisperceivedwithinthe
brain.Thebestsoftwarewehavefoundforgeneratingthesebinauralsisoffered
bywww.bwgen.com(Theprogramisalsoextremelyusefulinfinetuningthevortex
chamberbybeatfrequencycomparisonexplainedindetailontheCD).Whether
thebrainwillconsistentlyentrain,orlockontothisdifferentialfrequencytoattain
alphaorotherstates,isamatterofsomeconjecture.Inanyeventthepowerlevelis
extremelylowandanysucheffectisperceivedentirelywithinthebrain,unlikethe
wholebodyperceptionofinfrasoundinducedpulsations.
Ifthebinauralconceptisextendedtoinfrasoundtheresultismarkedly
different.Sittingneartwoinfrasoundemitters,eachgenerating,say,10
30acousticwatts,producesabeatfrequency,pulsatingeffectwithinthebodywhich
isundeniable.Speakingonlyfromourownanecdotalexperiences,theeffectvaries
fromremarkabletounsettling,dependinguponthedifferentialfrequencychosen.
Asanexample,theinfrasoundfrequencyof18.98hertzistheresonant
frequencyofthehumaneyeball.Alowpoweroutputatthisfrequencyhasbeen
showntocauseoscillationsoftheeyeswhichcreatetheperceptionofghostsabout
theperimetersofvision:youperceivefleeting,indistinctimages.Thisisa
phenomenonwhich,tomyknowledge,hasneverbeenreplicatedwithbinaural
headphones.
HIGHENERGYINFRASOUND:
PRACTICALCONSIDERATIONS
Infrasoundintherangebelow20hertzcannotbeheard;itcanonlybe
perceivedasabodilysensation.Thebodyasawholebeingamuchlesssensitive
receiverthantheears,thepowerlevelrequiredforsuchperceptionisnotably
higher.Whilethelowerpartofthisregion,intherangeof48hertz,canserveto
initiatealpha,thetaorevendeltastatesatperceivablepowerlevels,exposureto
extremelyhighpowerlevelswithinthesamerange,especiallyaround77.38hz,may

approachorinduceresonancewithinthebodycavity,withpotentiallyseriousside
effects.Whilethejuryisstilloutwithregardtothenature,intensityandrangeof
thosesideeffects,deepinfrasoundremainsverymuchdarkterritory.Possiblyfor
thisreason,availableinformationregardingpracticalmeansforgeneratingpowerful
infrasoundhasbeenvagueandgenerallymisleading.If,however,onechoosesto
dabbleinthisregionamodicumofcautionisprudent;whilethelowerendofthe
powercurveishometomanyinterestingandevenbeneficialphenomenasuchasin
meditation,behaviormodificationandevenhealing(someveterinariansuseaform
ofit),thehighendmaybethedoorwaytodarkness;approachitwith
caution.Hereswhy:
Regardingsoundisolation,aruleofthumbisthatthethicknessofanisolating
panelshouldbemorethanthewavelengthofthefrequencytobedamped.Atvery
lowfrequenciesthiscanbe40feetormoreofthickness.Whiletheacoustic
principleknownasMassLawhassomeeffecthere(leadshotandmoistloammake
goodinsulators),thesheersizeoftherequiredmassneverthelessbecomes
problematic.Addtothisthefollowingcharacteristicsofinfrasound:1)Itfollows
positivetemperaturegradientsithugstheground,followingthecontourofthe
land;2)Itsattenuationrateisverylow,meaningitretainspoweroverdistance;3)
Lowdensitymasses,suchasbuildings,canbecomeresonant.Whilemidtohigh
frequencyemissions(1000hzandhigher)canberathereasilyattenuatedmerelyby
placingaproperlydesignedpanelbetweensourceandreceiver,infrasoundwill
simplyflowaround(andthrough)it,withnodiscerniblelossofpower.Froma
theoreticalstandpoint,theonlyrealprotectionfrominfrasoundistobefoundwithin
aphysicallyisolatedspheresuspended,magneticallyorotherwise,inavacuum.
Ifthissoundslikeapragmaticimpossibility,Icongratulateyou;yourealert,
knowledgeableandreasonablysane.Theotheroptionistobeoutofrangewhen,
andif,youpowerupahighoutputdevice.Thisjustifiedtheremotevehicle
experimentscarriedoutbyMssr.Gavreauwhoalso,incidentally,stumbleduponthe
vortexchamberastheobvioussolutiontothesizeconundrum.However,theonly
printedinformationIhavefoundregardingthetuningofthisdeviceappearstobeno
morethanidle,andmisleading,speculation.Ihavetherefore,afterdue
consideration,decidedtooffermyfindingsonvortexchambers,withthefollowing
caution:
Whilehighenergyresearchinthisareaisfeasibleonashoestring
budget,itisafieldprobablybestlefttothosewithmorecompletefacilitiesthancan
befoundintheaveragesuburbangarage.Unless,ofcourse,youaspiretohonorable
mentionintheDarwinAwards.Thelowerenergydevicesoffermorethanenough
rangeinpowertoexperiment,seeksatoriorannoytheneighborswithyourown
versionoftheTaosHum.

Theinformationofferedbelowisofanesotericnaturewhich,Ibelieve,willbe
ofinteresttoalimitedaudience:thoseofcuriousbent,withthecapabilities
necessarytoputtheoryintopractice.Peoplewithenoughmaturityandcommon
sensetorecognizeandobservethelimitsofsafetywhendealingwitharelatively
unknownquantity.Itisofferedinthatvein,andwiththatcaveat.NorcanI
guaranteethattheusersresultswillduplicatemyown,sinceIcannotknowwhether
theuserisadetailorientedinnovatororabubbawithaballpeenhammer.The
tuningandconstructiondetails,whileamplefortheformer,willbebeyondthelatter
astheyshouldbe.Somepeople,afterall,shouldntdriveanythingthatdoesnt
havepedals.Thisinformationdescribesdeviceswhichoperateonaneventhorizon,
andtrainingwheelsarenotincluded.
ORDERING:WhytheOldFashionedway?
Iamanindustrialengineeringconsultant,notanInternetEntrepreneur;Ihave
thereforemadenoaccommodationforcredittransactions.IfyouwanttheCD
bearingmyequationsanddrawings,paymentisacceptedintheformofcertified
bankdraftormoneyorder,payableinU.S.currency.Thecost,shippedviaU.S.
FirstclassMail,is:
IntheUSA:$35.00(includesshipping/handling)
Anywhereelse:$38.00
MadePayableto:
JamesK.Smith
P.O.Box119
FloraVista,NewMexico,USA87415
Questions?kgcoyote@yahoo.com

Sound Proofed Institute of Research into Acoustic Weapons Logistics

Sound Proofed Institute of Research into Acoustic Weapons Logistics

S.P.I.R.A.W.L. (Sound Proofed Institute of Research into Acoustic Weapons Logistics) is a web documentary
about the sonic landscape and the pioneering use of sound weapons within it.
Scientific fact: Everything in the known universe has a resonant frequency. Humans can only hear a small
range of these frequencies, from 20 20,000 Hz. But there are many frequencies which exist outside our range
of hearing that we are exposed to everyday. The audible fields of sound are mapped out, managed and
regulated in the same way as any physical territory. The inaudible frequencies, however, represent a free zone.
This free zone is now being staked out chaotically with an ethical disregard reminiscent of the way the
American West was won. We locate our documentary in this sonic landscape and go in search of the aural
boundaries that are being quietly pioneered by military and civilian police forces through the use of sound
weapons.
There are sound weapons that operate with the frequencies of infrasound. Infrasound consists of frequencies
under 20 Hz that are below the threshold of human hearing. Weapons manipulating these frequencies can
cause overwhelming nausea, loosening of the bodily organs and ultimately death. One of these weapons, as it
is described in its patent (Subliminal Acoustic Manipulation of Nervous Systems, US Patent 6, 017, 302)
causes disorientation and drowsiness in law enforcement standoff situations.
Our culture is one that relies heavily on the visual senses to tell us what is right or wrong, what is supported or
rejected and what will harm us and what will not. We are taught that our eyes will ultimately deliver answers to
these questions, as the saying goes seeing is believing.
But what happens when you cannot see what will harm you, when you cannot tell what is right or wrong, when
you cannot perceive whether civic or humanitarian ideals are being upheld or muted? The recent proliferation
of non-lethal weapons, which utilize frequencies outside the human range of hearing to control, maim and
ultimately kill enemies and political agitators, bring these questions to bear. Ultimately they beg the questions,
what does democracy sound like and what does war sound like?
This documentary maps the sonic terrains of the local and the foreign through times of war and peace, to
uncover whether our democratic rights exist, in a landscape where we cannot see what is being dissolved and
where we have not yet learnt to listen.
Sound weapons are classified as non-lethal and are increasingly being deployed as part of the US and UK
Militarys arsenal under the moniker of spreading democracy. Devices such as The Long Range Acoustic
Device (LRAD) are capable of blasting an ear splitting 150 decibels. They were used in Desert Storm in 1991
and are still being used by US troops in Fallujah, Iraq. The developer of the LRAD, American Technology Corp.
of San Diego, recently received a $1.1 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps to supply the devices
deployed to Iraq.
These sound weapons are tested in times of war and are then bought back home to be used on socially and
politically motivated demonstrators. During the protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New
York City, police were armed with the LRAD. Carl Gruenler, vice president of military and government
operations for American Technology Corp concedes that the device is powerful enough to cause permanent
auditory damage. There are dozens of other non-lethal weapons that have been tested in times of war and
subsequently used on civilian populations in times of peace with names such as The Curdler used by the
British Army in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, The Vortex Ring Generator and The Ultrasound Pain Generator,
to name but a few. These are real devices with patents that can be located easily online and have already been
used.
In 1999, Maxwell Technologies of San Diego patented the lethal Hypersonic Sound System weapon. The highly
directional device uses ultrasound and is designed to control hostile crowds or disable hostage takers. The
company says it can cause eardrum rupture at 185 decibels (dB), pulmonary (lung) injury at 200dB and death
at 220dB.
The reason that weapons development companies, militaries and police forces around the world have decided
to inhabit and pioneer the territories of the sonic landscape is brazenly voiced in the March, 2000 Overview
Brief by the U.S Department of Defense Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program. One of their three focuses for the
development of these types of weapons is the Media Factor. This is extrapolated in no ambiguous way; that
non-lethal sonic weapons are media friendly because they do not leave marks for the television viewer to
witness. The majority of citizens experience war, protest and sanctioned violence through television reports and
documentaries. It should come as no surprise that non-lethal weapons have been developed with their media
representation in mind. Governments and military leaders around the world understand this only too well and
have learnt how to play the media game that Marshall McLuhan spoke about in the 1960s. In fact they have
not so much learnt how to play, but have gone further and changed the location, from one thats visable to one
thats not.
With conventional weapons of war and civilian control we can see the democratic lifeblood of the social body
bleeding away when the riot police hit protestors with batons or shoot them. We psychologically feel for
defenceless people when their blood is spilt or if they are choking for air due to pepper spray. Sonic weapons
are clean weapons; they do not cause blood or bruising. Their initiation into the public sphere has been
camouflaged. Indeed, who would consider an amplifier or a speaker system a hostile weapon? What defence or
protection is there against such a device?
The U.S., Canada, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Israel, Sweden, Japan, Poland, Yugoslavia, and
Denmark have acoustic weapons programs. There is an urgent need for broad public disclosure about nonlethal weapons, particularly weapons that utilize sonic frequencies for offensive purposes. "This is patently
quite dangerous and irresponsible," says human-rights activist Dr. Steve Wright, who, as director of the Omega
Foundation (UK), works with Amnesty International to monitor non-lethal weapons. A 1998 report prepared
for the European Parliament classified non-lethal weapons as techniques of political control. In an appraisal of

those techniques, the Omega Foundation recognized non-lethal crowd control weapons as a growing arsenal of
political technologies that pose a threat to civil liberties.

The Acoustics of War

DARIA VAISMAN

By the early 1990s, the United States was reassessing its self-image. The major conflicts of the last centurythe two World Wars and
Vietnamhad, for the most part, already been consigned to history (for a younger generation, they were only more media kitsch).
But a protracted Cold War had kept the United States in a defensive posture for decades; now that the USSR had dissolved, the US no
longer worried about the threat of a nucle ar attack. The military wanted weapons that reflected the USs new international role. What
to do? In 1991, the Pentagon issued a directive to test an emerging class of arms: Called "non-lethals," these weapons were meant to
disable their targets "in such a way that death or severe permanent disability was unlikely."
Most international policy was, at that point, riot control. The US had become a peripatetic interventionist, dabbling in United Nations
sanctions and adjudicating regional skirmishes as if they were protests at a college rally. For an optimistic military administration,
non-lethals were the humanitarian antidote to atom bombs. By 1996, the US had invested nearly $37 million in research for nonlethal weapons.
The ideology behind "non-lethal" weapons was not new. Police had used chemical sprays and rubber bullets, to name just two, to
quell domestic riots in the US throughout the 1960s. A second-wave of non-lethals were introduced in the Gulf War and then, later, in
Somalia in 1994: sticky foams to adhere a person to an object or another person; caustics to dissolve tires and roadways; lasers to
disorient and temporarily blind; acoustic weapons that used high-decibel noise to cause pain, or infrasound to cause unbearable
nausea. The US had already discovered, while dropping bombs over Vietnam, that sudden, high-decibel noise would deafen people,
though this was not what non-lethal researchers had intended. (The 1907 Hague Convention clearly prohibits the use of "arms,
projectiles, or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering.") But it presented an interesting question: Was it possible to
project sound at a precise decibel level that caused pain without permanent ear damage? Furthermore, there was anecdotal evidence
suggesting that at the right frequency, infrasound would "liquefy [people's] bowels and reduce them to quivering diarrheic masses." 1
By the mid-90s, most of the major papers had reported on the emergence of non-lethal technology. A Lexis-Nexis search with the
keywords "acoustic weapons" and "acoustic warfare" turned up a cluster of articles from 1994 to 1999. International papers reported
that acoustic weapons were "close to becoming reality." In 1997, a US News & World Report feature on non-lethals quoted the CEO
of SARA [Scientific Applications & Research Associates, the Pentagon's leading acoustics research arm] as saying that they had
already built prototypes for acoustic fences, and that acoustic cannons would be available in as little as one to two years. By 1999,
Human Rights Watch issued a memorandum suggesting that a new protocol dealing with acoustic weapons be added to the
Convention on Conventional Weapons.
This was the last reference to non-lethal weapons in the media at large. I assumed that the Pentagon was in its last stages of
development and had bumped the project up to top-secret mode, but a SARA press agent cagily informed me on the phone that they
were no longer involved in non-lethal acoustics research. "We couldn't find an appropriate mechanism to pursue," I was told.
"Acoustics didn't prove out." When I called Penn State's Institute for Non-Lethal Defense Technologies, I was directed to Dave
Swanson, an acoustician sent in by the Pentagon to assess the acoustics research being done.
Swanson told me that the Pentagon decided to stop acoustic funding to SARA largely on the basis of his findings. High decibel sound
could inadvertently deafen its target, he explained, and the US had not figured out how to build a portable weapon with enough
energy to power and direct low-frequency infrasound across any considerable distance. Swanson thought that it would remain
physically impossible to do so because of the huge energy demands of low-frequency sound. In his experiments, Swanson had not
found a single repeatable case of low-frequency sounds affecting a large population the way the Pentagon had hoped. "Their attitude
was, 'If we can't put them on the ground, we don't want to hear about it.'"
In addition to requiring large quantities of energy and being difficult to use with a portable device, infrasound works poorly in air
where sound waves tend to reflect off the body.2 Low-frequency sound travels in all directions and is hard to direct. (Infrasound is
measured at 20 Hz and below, ultrasound at 20 KHz and above.) Wavelength is in a ratio to the aperture of the device that is directing
it, so that infrasound needs a very large aperture. As a matter of contrast, ultrasound uses a very small aperture. It is cheap to generate
and relatively easy to direct, but ultrasound burns surface tissue and destroys organs (medical ultrasound is used to break up kidney
stones) and therefore has not been adapted for non-lethal purposes.
Infrasound is an amazingly effective weapon under the right conditions. A small percentage of the population is so unbearably
sensitive to infrasound that they become nauseous near the ocean (which naturally generates low-frequency signals) and can sense, or

"hear," earthquakes hundreds of miles away. Ultra-low frequencies will nauseate and disorient most people under the right conditions
(that is, if the sound can easily couple with their bodies, which it does under water or in a high-pressure chamber).
There are notable cases of people encountering low-frequency sounds under such conditions. In one case, Walt Disney and his team
of cartoonists slowed down the 60-cycle tone of a soldering iron in a short cartoon. At a low-frequency 12 cycles, they became sick
for days afterwards. The inventor Nikola Tesla experimented with low-frequency vibrating platforms that he motored using simple
"eccentric" wheels. He found that standing on the platform for a minute created a pleasant buzz through the body. Remaining on the
platform for any longer than a minute aggravated his subjects' hearts and dangerously raised their blood pressure. His friend Mark
Twain once got on the platform and refused to descend. As the author Gerry Vassilatos writes, "Tesla's concern was drowned out by
both the vibrating machine and Clemens' jubilant exaltations and praises. Several more seconds and Clemens nearly soiled his white
suit."3
In 1957, inventor/robot scientist Vladimir Gavreau, attempted to build a low-frequency weapon after accidental exposure to
infrasound. While working in a concrete building that housed his laboratory, he and his fellow researchers periodically became
debilitatingly nauseous. He discovered that the nausea ceased when certain windows in the building were blocked. Eventually,
engineers traced the problem to an improperly installed motor-driven ventilator that activated an infrasonic resonance in a large duct
where it sat. The motor, coupled with the rest of the concrete building, itself a large enclosure, formed an infrasonic amplifier.
Shutting the windows altered the resonance of the building and shifted its infrasonic pitch. Gavreau, convinced he had discovered a
new weapon, created several replicas of the original air duct. He pumped different frequencies of sound through massive ducts 6 feet
in diameter and 75 feet long. When exposed to the infrasound, the researchers felt a "pressure against the eyes and ears...their internal
organs were filled with continual painful spasms...and every pillar and joint of the massive structure [on which the duct rested] bolted
and moved."4
While every military project has its conspiracists, I found hundreds of Internet stories suggesting that the US government has been
testing acoustic weapons on its citizens. The US government has its own conspiracy theories as well. Major Joseph Cook III has
suggested in his handbook,Nonlethal Weapons, that the Russians have a gun that shoots 10-Hz acoustic bullets the size of baseballs
from hundreds of yards away. It has been claimed for years that the Nazis developed a sonic cannon so powerful it could fell a B-17
bomber out of the sky. But these appear only as anecdotal stories. Of the acoustic prototypes that actually exist, several have actually
proved viable. In his 1981 book Riot Control, Colonel Rex Applegate showcased a blueprint for a curdler (which he aptly nicknames
"the people repeller"), which looks like a British police club and emits a shrieking, pulsating sound equal to 120 decibels at 30 feet.
Swanson directed me to two weapons: a Compression Air Device [CAD] and a Ring Vortex Cannon. The CAD generates energy at a
specific low frequency from a combustion engine at its base, and directs the sound out of a long tube. The Ring Vortex Cannon,
which Swanson thinks is the most viable of the acoustic weapons, is actually an acoustic and kinetic cannon that sends out an
infrasound donut-shaped shock wave combined with a toxic chemical spray. The vortex ring travels at hundreds of miles per hour,
and hits its target with the force of a rubber blanket.
Ultrasound also has its adherents. For years, self-proclaimed futurologists such as the husband-wife team Janet and Chris Morris have
been prophesying a different kind of ultrasound weapon: acoustic voice plants that can make the target imagine to be hearing voices
inside his or her head. A powerpoint slide from a talk Swanson had given in 1999 explained the technology in more detail: Two highfrequency sound beams are mixed, producing a "difference tone" that is audible with "laser-like directivity." (Audible sound, in the
20 Hz to 20 KHz range, tends to dissipate in all directions like infrasound.)
On 15 May 2001, the New York Times reported that a graduate student named F. Joseph Pompei had created the first acoustic beam
using ultrasound: "The result is that the audio spotlight doesn't directly generate the audible sound. It generates a beam of ultrasound
that acts like a long, thin loudspeaker and releases audible sounda secondary effect." Pompei told the reporter that people had
written to him worried about the beam's "insidious mind control uses." The Times also mentioned that American Technology
Corporation (a research organization similar to SARA) had already sent out evaluations to military contractors.
Audible, psychologically disturbing sounds have also been used with mixed results. In 1990, loud music forced Noriega out of the
Vatican Embassy in Panama, and at the Waco stand-off in 1993, Janet Reno played Tibetan chant music and heavy metal. Swanson
explained that a problem with using music as a dispersal tool is that there is no single type of music that people dislike, as is also the
case with malodorantssmells so noxious that they would force people to evacuate an area. When they were tested as potential non-

lethals, researchers discovered that some people had become aroused by several of the headier aromas. Swanson suggests research
into sounds that are universally disorienting, such as nails scraping against a blackboard. "If you lay out their frequencies," he said,
"they spread out in much the same way a symphony does. So what makes them so distressing?"
Ultimately, however, Swanson is more wary of infrasound and high-decibel acoustic testing. When I asked SARA's point man if it
had ceased acoustics research because of the difficulty in directing low-frequency sound, I was told, "No. You can direct it pretty
well. There just wasn't a real dial-in capability." He explained that a weapon dialed in at, say, 137 decibels and meant for a target 100
feet away could easily cause deafness in someone ten feet away. Non-lethal technology can turn "worse-than-lethal," in the words of
Harvey Sapolsky, head of Security Studies at MIT and one the first people to look at non-lethals in the US. When I spoke to Sapolsky
over the phone, he told me stories he heard of Israelis stripping rubber off bullets and Americans using lasers to illuminate Somali
targets in order to shoot them.
"Our ears are our primary sensor," Swanson tells me. "Sound can cause anxiety and stress, but a loud sound won't put you on the
floor and keep you there. It won't make 100% or 70% [of people] sick the way it will work for 1% or .01% of the population. Nausea
is not a repeatable effect for the general population, but deafness is. If you make everybody deaf, your weapon doesn't work that
well."
Sapolsky agrees: "In third world countries, illiteracy means that hearing loss could be a worse handicap than amputation. If you made
everybody deaf, you're better off killing them, better off killing women and children than sending them home blind." Sapolsky
believes that people will eventually use earplugs to protect themselves. "I'm coming in from the policy side of things, and this
technology won't get you far. It's great for civilians and for riot control, but eventually people get defenses against them. It's only
good if you face enemies that don't have weapons." For Sapolsky, using acoustics raises the issue of intervention in the first place.
"You should be asking whether the situation is worth doing at all. My idea? You're going to think I'm crazy. Leave them presents, for
example: On the border of North and South Korea, leave all sorts of stuff from shopping malls, stuff they've never seen before. Wrap
it up really well so it takes a long time to unwrap. Slow them downthat's the logic behind landmines."

1. Douglas Pasternak, "Wonder Weapons," US News & World Report, July 7, 1997.

2. In water, however, projected soundwaves penetrate the body.

3. Gerry Vassilatos, "The Sonic Weapon of Vladimir Gavreau,"

4. Ibid.