Sites and Sounds - Part 2
John Billingsley considers further possibilities in the second part of this investigation into the mysterious sound known as the hummadruz
Ultrasound occurs at frequencies higher than 20 kHz, the normal limit of human hearing; it is produced by bats, dog whistles, dolphins and even the wind as it blows through vegetation or across sand. At the other end of the spectrum is low-frequency infrasound. Either may be produced in certain tectonic movements, and either type of sound may also be involved in the hummadruz experience.
The Dragon Project, which was set up to investigate anomalous effects at ancient sites, was alerted to the possibility of ultrasonic emissions by anecdotes of a bat detector registering at an othcrwise bat-free ancient site, and that skylarks enjoyed Arbor Low stone circle because of ultrasound deriving from there' ! Experiments were tantalisingly elusive, strong indications of ultrasound at the Rollright Stones and elsewhere occurring only sporadically and generally inconclusively, and not during summer, which conflicts with hummadruz preferences. Both anecdotes and results, howcver, did imply that sunrise is the best time for ultrasonic emission, which was also indicated in the Orgone 93 project.
The point about these frequencies, though, is that they are not generally audible, though the possibility exists that some other factor could bring the sound temporarily into the human range. Yet some kind of association between sound and ancient sites is there, albeit more as part of personal narratives of experience than in hard data. In addition to the experiences mentioned in the first part of this article, ticking and humming have been reported near The Whispering Knights, a dolmen close by Rollright Stones, a hum from a Bronze Age cairn in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland and a buzz from Arthur's Stone near Dorstone in Herefordshire [3].
Medical Possibilities
But what about hearing disorders - is the hummadruz perhaps a result of hearing problems, not an external stimulus? One way to find out might be to cover your ears - if the sound gets quieter, it's external, but if it gets louder, then it's internal. In that case it could be tinnitus or even a sound emitted from the vascular system.
Tinnitus, usually thought to be an effect of exposure to over-loud noise, ageing, or stress, generally begins as a high-pitched buzz in the ears, mostly perceived when the environment is quiet and still; it often develops no further than this, but can get to be a persistent and intrusive hum, buzz and/or other noise which intrudes upon everyday life and interferes with concentration and thought processes. It is a real auditory sensation, apparently independent of actual external sound which people can be 'trained' to disregard. Tinnitus groups have found that the sounds of nature can be particularly efficacious in curing or reducing the nuisance level of the ailment, by training sufferers to let the noise blend in with background sound, thus reducing its effect on mental processes. A Hull group notes that listening to natural sounds, such as wavelets lapping on a beach, which have been set at a similar volume to the tinnitus somehow pegs the two sound stimuli together. "If you start with the sound about the level of the tinnitus, over the weeks and months you can slowly reduce the sound level and curiously the level of the tinnitus drops with it" explained Bill Howard. Perhaps significantly, though, their main problem has apparently been finding somewhere quiet enough for only natural sounds to be recorded; this suggests severe disruption in the silence/noise ratio even in rural environments. This may itself excite a reflex perception manifesting on the brain as sound.
Some hearing specialists suggest tinnitus may be a 'survival reflex' inherited from our hunting days, with the brain latching on to some small and inconsequential sound and insisting that it matters a lot; others describe it as a disfunctional response of the auditory system - even in silence there is a constant flow of impulses arriving at the nerves of the ear and if 'normal silence' is not present then the brain can misinterpret the pattern it receives as sound. Some experients like Mazda Munn and myself have noted that while others have been aware of the sound, it has not bothered them; this suggests that the sound is to some extent at least an external, not personal, phenomenon.
The Low Frequency Noise Sufferers' Association lays the blame for its members' discomfort at the door of industrial sources, though it has not ruled out "other phenomena that are not yet understood". Many members feel that the gas grid is the main source of LFN; one pipe in Wales is apparently 'set off' by small earth tremors, and similar 'seismic' effects may occur from pump or valve operations. Experiments under the direction of Dr David Manley are planned to measure and locate LFN. The noise is known to aggravate stress levels (certain low frequencies, which can rupture human organs, have been used as torture devices; others as crowd control).
All these may have some relation to the hummadruz. Though the sound in the head is small, its incongruity alerts the brain to perceive it more strongly; and although the 'sound' may not be externally present as sound, the stimulus on the nerve endings is enough in certain circumstances to disrupt the expected auditory pattern at a certain place and time. Hence, hummadruz hearers are not necessarily hearing a hum or buzz per se, but picking up through their sound sense on some other abnormality in the sensory environment. That could, of course, be some kind of energy (not necessarily unknown or mysterious) normally present in the environment but perceived more strongly under conditions such as those described by Birchby; or to a different 'quality' of silence; or even, in modernday hearers at least, it could be a response conditioned by the omission of silence from contemporary pattern of auditory environments - correlating to the 1995 'tranquillity survey' of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, which found a 60% drop since the Second World War in places in England that could be described as tranquil (free from certain classes of noise, such as road and industrial).
In general, the cases cited by Sid Birchby seem to discourage the notion of electro-magnetic pollution in our modern sense at least. A later case he quoted, however, does indeed sound like a Low Frequency Noise 'attack'; the wife of the author, Edward Hyams, apparently was troubled by a low hum in 1960, and the GPO even removed the telephone and slackened cables in an attempt to counteract it, but GPs - who were generally unaware of this syndrome at the time - could find no medical cause for her condition.
Also likely to be LFN-related would seem to be reports received by The News of the World when they ran a snap survey in 1979. A map showed that odd humming noises were being heard all over Britain, but several were occurring inside houses, which places them in a very different category from the hummadruz; in a number of these, only certain people were aware of the hum (The only natural example appearing in the article "was coming from the direction of the hill at the back of our house" at Rose Hill, Gilsland, in Cumbria). Mazda Munn's report suggests she may be experiencing something similar to those described in 1979.
Recently I myself have been aware late at night of an intermittent low drone; it seems however to be the fridge next door, somehow amplified through the wall and by the lateness of the night!
It is apparently not simply a contemporary phenomenon, however, though the higher incidence of human auditory problems through noise pollution, LFN and other stimuli is. Gilbert White treats it as normal, but even so the existence of a sourceless sound such as he describes must have inspired some wonder. Was it thought of as some supernatural presence, and if so, could it have any bearing on folk customs such as the whispering sweepers of the Pennines, described evocatively by Bob Pegg: "outside you hear a faint noise, gradually becoming louder, till it sounds as if a swarm of bees is gathering outside in the darkness. Suddenly the door opens and in steps a group of half-a-dozen or so people, their faces blacked to make them unrecognisable the men dressed as women, and the women dressed as men with their jackets pulled inside-out. Each carrries a broom and, ignoring the members of the household, they sweep around the room, and especially the hearth, humming all the while. When they have finished their cleaning job one of them holds out a purse in which you put a few coppers and they leave for their next call without having said a word". This 'mumming', however, was a New Year custom, while the hummadruz, as noted, is especially associated with hot summer days.
Some link to 'earth lights' also seems worthy of further investigation, as implied in the Welsh examples and also by one of the reportees in the News of the World, who mentioned that the hum - in Mantilla Road, Tooting, London "seems to be accompanied by a very bright light in the sky, much bigger than a star". A Lancashire light buzzed, while another disturbingly encountered by a Yorkshire pot-holer hummed as it approached, similar to one in Missouri in 1938 [4].
But these possible links seem to be as far as we can go - at the moment. The Dragon Project, without consistent and reliable data but plenty of leads, similarly had to leave the matter 'in the air'. It seems to me that there are at least two kinds of hum being described - one perceived outdoors and sounding like insects, and another tending to occur within buildings and sounding rather I more 'electrical drone'-like.
Questions are inevitably raised by all this, such as: Are there any reports from other countries? Is it a human auditory response to certain atmospheric conditions? Is there any connection between the hummadruz and the experience of numinous atmospheres at certain places? It is, however, the kind of experience that is quite likely to go unreported as a temporary and minor personal auditory aberration or even, in these days of acute noise pollution and, as the CPRE reports, widespread loss of 'tranquil places' across Britain, to exist unperceived by our less sensitive ears. Yet earth mysteries and its fellow travellers are always ready to come up with new hypotheses and experiments, and perhaps some reader may have new experiences or suggestions that might bring us closer to identifying the curious hummadruz.
The hummadruz, moreover, is just one of several ways in which sound may be connected with ancient sites and/or numinous places, and this is an area which is receiving increasing attention in the field at present. We are always glad to hear of sound experiences in the landscape.