The sound summoned a ghost
In 1998 British investigators Vic Tandy and Tony Lawrence of Coventry University published "Ghost in the Machine", a paper exploring the theory that some alleged hauntings are actually the very real effects of sound vibrating at a frequency below the level of human hearing. Under certain conditions, standing-wave infrasound at a frequency around 19 Hz can cause humans to experience visual disturbances, breathlessness, shivering, and feelings of fear. Later investigations by Tandy of a 14th-century cellar reported to host a disturbing "presence" seem to support the infrasound theory. You can find the original paper at Vic Tandy's Web site, and the Guardian has the cellar story.
Tandy: http://home.edu.coventry.ac.uk/cyberclass/vicweb/ghost1.htm
Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4038891,00.html

so I called the US Navy's ghostbuster
Have you ever seen a photo of an actual ghost? The Ghostly Places site claims to have several such images. You, uh, need to be a believer to actually see the ghosts. This site is the home of the Naval Directorate of Ghostly Affairs, the work of a seaman and other US Navy personnel with good imaginations and a good deal of free time. The emphasis here is on investigation of actual paranormal events, including electronic voice phenomena.
http://www.ghostlyplaces.freewebtools.com/

and left a message,
Leslie Flint was an amazing guy. Born in London in 1911, he discovered that he could see and communicate with dead people at around the age of seven. Eventually, he learned that he didn't have to do anything - spirits sought him out. And they'd talk, whether he wanted them to or not. He had to leave many a movie theater because people around him grew so annoyed by the voices. In medium parlance, this is known as direct voice, and Flint was arguably the most thoroughly tested such medium in history. The voices, clearly audible and even taped, did not seem to come from his mouth or vocal chords - but then again, it's not like James Randi was leading the testing team. You can hear a number of excerpts taken from Flint's taped sessions here, and there are links to other material as well. Overdoing and underdoing have never been particularly healthy, anyway - now you have another reason to say, "Make mine medium."
http://www.xs4all.nl/~wichm/deathnoe.html

as if ghosts really exist.
Okay, by now you've about had it with all of this stuff that's intended to scare the crap out of you. You've had Osama and the associated terror organizations for a couple of months. You've had network news pushing scare stories about bioterrorism while blithely ignoring the fact that dozens of people are killed in car accidents every day - a much higher tally than anything achieved by bioterror to date. Here you are, dragging through Halloween, with yet more people trying to scare you. By now, you're muttering, "Ghosts? Bring 'em on!" You're ready for a visit to the Skeptic's Dictionary, in other words. We'll get you started with a link to the ghosts entry. Explore from there. This is a delightful escape back to reality. Cleanly designed and concisely written, it is heavy on supporting links and bibliographic material as well. Does the Near-Death Experience prove the existence of life after death, or is it merely the logical result of brain states that occur during the course of neurological disintegration? Hard to say either way, but the fact that the experience can be reproduced during a course of treatment with the common, short-acting drug known as Ketamine argues strongly for the neurological explanation. Here's a suggestion: turn off the tube, kill the radio, burn the newspaper, and leave your bowl of candy outside the door. Just jump over here and get lost in the links for a while. You owe yourself a good dose of logic and skepticism.
http://skepdic.com/ghosts.html

• Story originally published by:
Netsurfer Digest Vol 07, Issue 36 - Oct 26.01

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