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Infrasound is a low-frequency sound below the 20Hz mark, far lower than what we humans can hear. Despite our shortcoming, though, plenty of animals, such as whales, elephants, and giraffes, can hear this frequency and use it to communicate, over long distances one might add.
While particularly efficient at transmitting waves over distances, it’s well documented that infrasound causes abnormal physical and psychological effects on human beings. Notably, these effects include audio and visual hallucinations, which quite possibly may lead someone to believe they’ve experienced an event that did not occur.
In a report released in 2003, carried by The Associated Press, a theory was put forward that infrasound very well may be the underlying cause for some ghost sightings and other supernatural encounters. For example, weird sensations and a shiver down one’s spine coinciding with flickering light could be the effect of sound pressure rather than a resident spook. The report also argued the possibility of low-frequency sounds occurring naturally in locations commonly reported as being haunted.
Consider for a moment one of the most frequently sighted cryptids in North America, Bigfoot. Eyewitnesses often report feeling confused, disorientated, light headed, terrified, nauseous and even physically unable to move when encountering the creature. Many also report experiencing hyperventilation before even knowing it’s there. Now how could that be?
No doubt the terror and subsequent adrenaline running through a person would be quite deafening, but another possible explanation for nausea and disorientation is that Bigfoot, like the elephant or giraffe, can use infrasound.
In fact, some Bigfoot experts are adamant the effects of infrasound explains why people react so specifically to meeting the creature, including Scott Carpenter. Carpenter believes infrasound influenced him during an encounter with a Bigfoot in 2010, suspecting it used sound waves to manipulate his perception and ‘sanitise his memory’.
Another researcher, known as Miss Squatcher, noted her chest felt heavy, her breathing was shallow, and she couldn’t catch her breath. Like Carpenter, she believes it’s possible her fear and panic were caused by Bigfoot.
Other researchers are less keen to consider that Bigfoot uses ultrasound and prefer to categorize the creature as another unclassified ape or a relic of a long-extinct group of animals. That’s a curious position because while the existence of Bigfoot is up for debate, the ability of animals to use infrasound is not.
Our involuntary reaction to low-frequency sound waves, combined with a natural aversion to coming face to face with a potential predator, could very well account for the extreme reactions witnesses feel in the presence of Bigfoot.
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