Recently I came across an article on the phenomena of “The Hum” – a low-frequency sound heard by people across the globe. The hums are often given their location’s place name, such as the Taos Hum of New Mexico, the Auckland Hum or the Windsor Hum. While these sounds are clearly heard, no one seems to agree on the source of the sound: It could be produced by electrical equipment, an unfamiliar animal sound (such as the toadfish), the Jet Stream shearing powerline posts, volcanic eruptions, lightning static, ocean wave vibrations, or internal biological auditory signals.
If you stop and listen, there are sounds everywhere. But The Hum is not tinnitus, which has a much higher sound frequency. I’ve had tinnitus for years; when it’s quiet, I can hear up to eight tones of ringing in my ears. It’s something that affects around 15% of the population, but the only time it really becomes an issue is if it triggers a fight-or-flight response in a person – I’ve heard that the more you focus on the ringing, the more you hear it (the more it bothers you). In almost half of the people who have tinnitus, it can lead to phases of anxiety or depression, likely linked to that psychological fear response. Some people don’t even realize they have tinnitus – they automatically, subconsciously distract themselves with sound (music or television being common tactics). The causes of tinnitus vary, but in my case, I know exactly when it started: I was flying from London to Glasgow, and I had a head cold. The flight was just at that altitude where your ears almost pop, and it was excruciating. I can still hear fleas sneeze and “tell you if they’re male or female”, but the ringing is always present – I just ignore it for the most part. I hear so well that I sleep with earplugs each night – otherwise, I can hear electricity in the walls, and a battery charger at the far end of our home sounds like a car alarm to me!
Have you heard The Hum? Do you have tinnitus, and if so, does it bother you in any way or are you able to ignore it?
If you’d like to learn a bit more about The Hum, and what it could be or what it could mean, please click here for a 12-minute BBC report on the issue.
Stephanie Huesler 
Yes, I’ve heard The Hum. We were camped in the desert just to the east of Death Valley by a ghost town called Rhyolite. It was strange and a bit disconcerting. And yes, I have tinnitus. Had it since I was five. It’s the result of being treated with penicillin, I think (that’s how we found out I was allergic to it). I’ve learned to ignore it, but there is no such thing as silence.
Interesting! I wonder what the source of that Hum was? In a ghost town, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t anything industrial…
Sometimes, when I’m vacuuming, the tinnitus tones blend with the sound of the vacuum and I actually hear a song! I start humming in that key – making lemonade from lemons, I’d say!😉
We’ve never figured out where that hum came from. We were, literally, in the middle of nowhere…a Nevada desert. But we all heard it. Very strange.
I’ve had tinnitus for years, and it rarely bothers me. I can hear the ringing clearly when I stop to think about it, so I don’t usually give it brain time.
Exactly! We’ve got other things to do than listen to our ears. 😉
Hi Stephanie, I remembered you from years ago and thought I’d look you up. So sorry to hear you have tinnitus as well. I’ll be 50 years with it next year thanks to my dumb(er) teen years playing electric guitar for a basement party – standing directly in front of an amplifier turned all the way up. If I could go back, I’d knock some sense into myself. Never heard it called multi-tone – that would describe mine as well. I’d hoped with age and my hearing range dropped below the tinnitus tone(s) it would just go away. Unfortunately no. Intense concentration on whatever I’m doing lets me ignore it.
We have a hum here in Sequim, Washington – though most describe it as a deep rumble. Some think it’s because we live on the Cascadia fault line – others blame a business nearby that bonds dissimilar metals with intense hydraulic pressure and explosive force. We’re not far from a Naval Air base that frequently dispatches a squadron of fighter jets to fly a loop over the Olympic Peninsula – the rumble may be the fighters running their engines against a baffle / abutment.
Blessings to you and yours! Jack Helser
Yes, if we could write letters to our younger selves…but then again, teenagers know it all, right? 😉 The real question is whether or not we’d listen to our older, wiser selves…!
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