] Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and
] shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of
] ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound
] that is inaudible to humans.
]
] British scientists have shown in a controlled experiment
] that the extreme bass sound known as infrasound produces
] a range of bizarre effects in people including anxiety,
] extreme sorrow and chills -- supporting popular
] suggestions of a link between infrasound and strange
] sensations.
]
] "Normally you can't hear it," Dr Richard Lord, an
] acoustic scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in
] England who worked on the project, said Monday.
]
] Lord and his colleagues, who produced infrasound with a
] seven meter (yard) pipe and tested its impact on 750
] people at a concert, said infrasound is also generated by
] natural phenomena.
]
] "Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound
] may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so
] cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute
] to a ghost -- our findings support these ideas," said
] Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the
] University of Hertfordshire in southern England.