Haunted White Mountains - your latest experiences???

[rup]

Bigfoot may be playing with us.

I have occasionally heard 'garbled' voices, 'whoops' and yells, and loud wood knocks coming from places along the trails that no one would ever try to walk into.

 

[Puck]

John L I hiked up to Starr King starting at 10:00 one night a few years back in late may early June. I need to be up between 4;30 an 5:00 am for a bird census.

I love the night woods becasue of the animal life. I get excited with the anticipation of seeing a porcupine fox, marten or whatever. But that night I had a creepy feeling that something was watching or following me. At one point I called out.

Another time I was at Shoal pond in late Nov. It was very still. I saw this small sapling sway as if something had just hit it. No other tree or leaves showed any motion. No bird had taken off from it. At that moment I cayote started to howl. I relayed this experience to a Jamaican friend who got spooked by it. He said it was a duppie. So that is my answer....

 

[Puck]

My son and I were just in the Whites this past weekend. He is currently taking a college course in expiremental music. Some of these artists are creating wave frequencies that will interfere with each other. Either canceling a pitch or adding to it and many things in between. Often times a 'voice' comes through that is not really there.

In the woods with wind, swaying trees etc. many sounds on many frequencies this could happen. I think when I hear something that is not or should not be there that this is what is happening.

 

[erugs]

My son and I were just in the Whites this past weekend. He is currently taking a college course in expiremental music. Some of these artists are creating wave frequencies that will interfere with each other. Either canceling a pitch or adding to it and many things in between. Often times a 'voice' comes through that is not really there.

In the woods with wind, swaying trees etc. many sounds on many frequencies this could happen. I think when I here something that is not or should not be there that this is what is happening.

That's an interesting post, Puck. Music is a very mathematical concept, but beyond that certain tones and chords are used to create feelings. So when we hear something in the woods, perhaps created by nature, it is possible to feel happy, sad, peaceful, energized, or even scared.

 

[DougPaul]

My son and I were just in the Whites this past weekend. He is currently taking a college course in expiremental music. Some of these artists are creating wave frequencies that will interfere with each other. Either canceling a pitch or adding to it and many things in between. Often times a 'voice' comes through that is not really there.

As an electrical engineer with a major in signal processing and an interest in human auditory perception, the above statement triggers my "fuzzy science" detector. (The majority of my career has involved processing of speech signals.)

In the woods with wind, swaying trees etc. many sounds on many frequencies this could happen. I think when I hear something that is not or should not be there that this is what is happening.

It is more likely to be a perceptual phenomenon.

The human perceptual system is designed to make orderly percepts out of noisy stimuli and expectations. Thus we often perceive (ie explain) sounds or visual stimuli as something familiar (often biased toward something expected).

Some examples:
* Early astronomers saw canals on Mars which were found to be non-existent when better imagery became available.
* A screech from rubbing tree limbs or an animal can be interpreted as a human scream.
* Weak sounds with a rhythm similar to speech can be interpreted as speech that is too weak to be understood--eg a babbling brook, wind on leaves, wind on trees.
* When I am listening for weak radio signals, I sometimes imagine that I am hearing a very weak voice when it is only white noise coming from my radio. (Other radio operators have told me that they also observe this.)

If some non-speech sound resembles a word, we might also report it as being speech. (Why do people report hearing greetings such as "Hello" rather than random words such as "fooey"? Perhaps because we are expecting that a distant/arriving human would utter a greeting rather than a random word...)

Doug

 

[Puck]

As an electrical engineer with a major in signal processing and an interest in human auditory perception, the above statement triggers my "fuzzy science" detector. (The majority of my career has involved processing of speech signals.)

Not so fuzzy...wave cancelation and amplification is covered in general physics courses. And the combination of frequencies, notes, into chords for certain affect and harmonies is well known. Harmonies can create a synergistic tone 'voice' evident in chants, ensembles and choruses.
I am suggesting in nature that simple frequencies can play on each other although I am not a sound physicist nor do I play one on TV.

We also discussed the brain filling in the gaps that you mentioned int he later half of your post.

 

[erugs]

We also discussed the brain filling in the gaps that you mentioned int he later half of your post.

Like phantom cell phone ring that has cropped up in the last ten or so years?