In alten Häusern können durch Kesselgeräusche gruselige Gefühle hervorgerufen werden. Unhörbarer Infraschall aus alten Rohren kann das Wohlbefinden der Menschen beeinflussen. Auch wenn der Ton außerhalb des menschlichen Hörbereichs lag, waren die Menschen gereizter und der Cortisolspiegel, das Stresshormon, stieg an, wenn der Ton eingeschaltet war.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/27/spooky-feelings-in-old-houses-may-be-caused-by-boiler-sounds-study-suggests
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Spooky feelings in old houses may be caused by boiler sounds, study suggests
Inaudible infrasound from old pipes and ventilation systems may affect how people feel, research indicates
For believers in the paranormal, unsettling sensations brought on by old buildings can be a sinister hint of loitering spirits. But new research points to a more mundane explanation: inaudible sounds from aged pipes and boilers.
Scientists investigated the impact of infrasound on a group of volunteers and found that even though it was beyond the range of human hearing, people were more irritable and levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, rose when the sound was switched on.
The finding suggests that even when people are unaware of the presence of infrasound, which can come from old pipes, boilers and ventilation systems in basements, the inaudible waves may still affect how they feel.
On its own, the effect is unlikely to persuade anyone that a house is haunted, but for the right person in the right situation – a believer in the paranormal in a gloomy old manor, say – the unusual sensation may fuel suspicions of paranormal activity.
For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2026.1729876/full
Couldn’t this be tested more concretely with fMRI’s or EEG’s?
Very cool. Interesting how horror films will often add in inaudible sounds that elicit similar effects. I wonder how average households could measure such sounds.
The potential of infrasound weapons must be literally and figuratively horrifying.
That would explain why our ghosts tend to haunt places built in the mid-late19th century
I believe that. When the washing machine downstairs goes into it’s centrifuge cycle, there’s this subtle vibration throughout the house and the floor that makes me feel weirdly scared/uncomfortable. Like, you can nearly hear/feel it. I wonder if its some kind of evolutionary adaptation to seeking safety in earthquakes?
TIL infrasound is < 20 Hz
Reminds me of the Ghost in the Machine study. People were seeing ghosts in some lab in England. One of the guys had his sword in a vice doing some work on it during off hours, and he came in and saw the blade whipping wildly. Turned out the swords resonate frequency was just right to match a subsonic sound coming out of a bad extractor fan. They found the fan, replaced it. Then later someone noticed all the ghosts went away.
I mean, with how our brain works about parretn recognition, in such a vast universe… Who’s telling you that what you can hear even in a forest isn’t the compilation of a thousand of factors that, in that one specific moment, came out as that specific effect?
thats pretty wild. I used to live in an old house in Austin and always felt weird vibes in certain rooms, especially near the water heater area. never thought it could literally be the pipes making sounds I couldnt consciously hear. makes you wonder how much of what people call haunted is just old infrastructure messing with our senses
this is actually a really interesting area of environmental psychology. the idea that infrasound below 20 Hz can cause feelings of unease, anxiety, or even visual disturbances has been studied for a while now. Vic Tandys work on the ghost in the machine back in the late 90s was one of the first to connect infrasound to haunted house experiences. what makes this study valuable is the focus on common household sources like boilers and old pipes rather than industrial or natural sources. if these findings hold up, it could have real implications for building codes and indoor environmental quality standards. the connection between old infrastructure and reported hauntings is probably not coincidental
This has me wondering if I can measure any infrasound in my parents‘ bedroom closet. It’s a new house, so I’m not sure what would be happening in there, but my stepmom told me when I visited recently she’s been sensing a weird, „tortured“ energy coming from there. She believes in ghosts and witchy stuff, so maybe it’s just a way to be entertained
Kinda related: I once visited a recording studio where foley sound effects are recorded. Everything was plastered with sound absorbing material. I could only stand it for a short time, the muffled sounds had a profound effect on my psyche, I got super depressed, sad and I couldn’t think straight in a matter of minutes and had to leave.
So all these ghost hunters with their expensive „detectors“ are analyzing background infrasound? 😀
I think mythbusters tried that. Don’t remember the results tho.
I hear full symphonies in the pipes sometimes. I know there’s a name for it, slipped my mind.
You mean the sounds in a range that large cats make alarms monkeys?
They covered this in CSI way back in the day! Very cool to know it wasn’t totally hooey
Didn’t mythbusters bust this, or was that a different frequency?
I wonder if CPTSD affects sensitivity to these sounds? I’ve known about the effect and have CPTSD, and I don’t „hallucinate“ but lots of sensory triggers can put me on edge or jump until I identify what’s causing it, eg you have a hatman until you realize it’s the light hitting something hanging just right when you actually look at it. One of the less explainable ones is my bathroom fan can sometimes make it sound like there’s people downstairs talking, and that one low key I think my psych thinks I’m a bit crazy for because it’s a rare issue esp as I don’t use the fan but she brings it up a lot
I wonder how much influence culture/belief has on this. A lot of cultures have positive associations with spirits/ghosts. They dont see them as inherently bad like a lot of western beliefs do. So, would people from those cultures experience a similar stress response from the infrasound? Would it translate as a different supernatural belief (curses/hexes on the house)? Or maybe they would just feel like the house was dangerous to be in but cant specify why?
I remember this being mentioned years ago. It was on some mythbusters style show. Might have been called Fact or Faked.
Not „may be“, but „definitely“.
I’m an HVAC technician, and I can say with 100% certainty that every weird noise in your house that sounds like ghosts or ghouls or spirits or whatever else you’re imagining is actually noise from your heating and cooling systems, and if it isn’t then it’s your plumbing. Always.
As long as the pipes don’t go squelookel when they should nureek.
The sound thing is a myth. Mythbusters tested subsonic noises on scary houses
Maybe contributes, but I’ve been in abandoned houses and other buildings/places that feel spooky. No active boilers to be making noises.
I lived in an old house with spooky sounds. Not really a ghost guy, but there was more then one instance where we could hear someone run up the stairs with no one there. There was a few other that come to mind also, thing that house had no boiler or heat.
These experiments have historically had poor repeatability. Mythbusters even did an episode on it and it made no difference in their group (to be fair they had a small sample size, but it aligns with other findings).
One of the big problems with these studies is that the environment will play a huge role. Playing infrasound in an echoic environment such as a concert hall is likely to have very different effects than in a small room. The position of the subject also matters, as corners are going to have much different harmonics than in the center of the room.
The methane turbines at all the new data centers also emit infrasound. This has measurable effects on the mental health of everyone living near them.
Reminds me of the idea that you can *feel* a tiger roar before you hear it, because the infrasound travels further, and it also affects our bodies.
I read about this in high-school back in tje 00s. We’ve known this for a long time.