Episode 240
Unearthly Noises: Blame the Plumbing, Not the Paranormal!
So, guess what? Turns out those spooky ghost vibes might just be your old plumbing giving you the heebie-jeebies! 𤣠Yeah, a new study from some brainy folks at McAwain University says those creepy sensations in haunted houses could actually be from low-frequency soundsâlike the kind you hear when your HVAC decides to throw a hissy fit. I mean, if something's gonna scare me, it better at least introduce itself, right? đ Weâre diving into how our brains jump to conclusions faster than a cat on a hot tin roof, thinking every creak is a ghost instead of just a rickety old floorboard. So grab your popcorn, and letâs figure out if that chill in the air is supernatural or just your radiator acting up!
Takeaways:
- Ever think ghosts are just cranky old pipes? Turns out, it might be just that!
- A psychologist found that those spooky sensations might just be low frequencies messing with us.
- Your body freaks out from unexplainable sounds, and your brain jumps to 'ghosts'âclassic!
- Ghosts getting a bad rap while itâs really the HVAC system playing tricks on us!
- Next time you feel a chill, don't call the ghostbustersâcall a plumber instead!
- Ghost tours are about to get way less thrillingâ'Welcome to the haunted radiator!'
Transcript
Good morning.
Speaker A:It's Haystack.
Speaker A:And there's a new piece of research that tells us ghosts may just be bad plumbing.
Speaker A:With a marketing team apparently from Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, which already sounds like the haunted wing of a university library.
Speaker A:A psychologist from McAwain University found that a lot of the haunted sensations in old buildings may actually come from something called infrasound sound.
Speaker A:Below 20 hertz, those are frequencies so low that humans cannot hear them, which is unfair.
Speaker A:If a sound can scare me, the least it can do is introduce itself first.
Speaker A:In these experiments, participants were exposed to low frequency vibrations and they couldn't hear anything, but their cortisol levels went up.
Speaker A:They felt irritable, stressed, unnerved.
Speaker A:Basically, it's like trying to assemble furniture.
Speaker A:That's how they felt.
Speaker A:No, there's definitely a dark presence in here.
Speaker A:No, that's just step 14.
Speaker A:Read the destructions.
Speaker A:And the best part were that these sounds come from aging boilers, ventilation systems, vibrating pipes.
Speaker A:So the ghost haunting the Victorian mansion is basically H vac.
Speaker A:A ghost hunter walks into a creepy old inn's a spirit trapped between worlds.
Speaker A: s, yeah, it's a radiator from: Speaker A:I just love that our.
Speaker A:Our brains are so desperate for answers.
Speaker A:Your body feels a little weird for just a few minutes and your brain goes, well, obviously dead children, that's the leap it makes.
Speaker A:Not.
Speaker A:Maybe the building needs repairs.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Straight to the paranormal Netflix special.
Speaker A:We are a dramatic species.
Speaker A:The study says that people already primed to believe in ghosts are of course more likely to interpret stress as supernatural presence.
Speaker A:Which makes sense if you already believe in ghosts.
Speaker A:Every old building is basically an Airbnb hosted by Satan.
Speaker A:And you know the type of every creek in the house becomes evidence.
Speaker A:No, seriously.
Speaker A:The spirit is trying to communicate.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Brenda, your floorboards.
Speaker A:140 Years old.
Speaker A:The house is making a retirement noise.
Speaker A:That's all it is.
Speaker A:Now, I do think ghosts are kind of getting a raw deal here, though.
Speaker A:The actual ghost.
Speaker A:Can you.
Speaker A:Can you imagine being an actual ghost and hearing about this?
Speaker A:What do you mean?
Speaker A:It's the boiler.
Speaker A:I worked hard on that haunting.
Speaker A:I flickered those lights personally.
Speaker A:This research could save people a fortune, though.
Speaker A:No paying for the expensive exorcism.
Speaker A:Just.
Speaker A:Just call a plumber.
Speaker A:The priest shows up, the power of Christ compels you.
Speaker A:Hold on.
Speaker A:Father Maintenance says they fixed the ventilation system.
Speaker A:You can.
Speaker A:You can go on.
Speaker A:And if this catches on, ghost tours are going to be a lot less exciting.
Speaker A:Over on your left, you'll notice a 19th century staircase where visitors reported a chilling presence.
Speaker A:Was that.
Speaker A:Was it.
Speaker A:Was it a murdered widow?
Speaker A:No, no, just industrial pipe vibration.
