<Subsonics are inaudible, extremely low frequency, yet very powerful sound waves. In nature they almost always are linked to danger and thus trigger the fight or flight response. They are also quite rare. However, in the world of the Industrial Revolution they became steadily more common. Today, millions of us live with them. Only a fool would say that there is no effect on our health.>
I have not posted for a bit but am very much alive with a great deal still to be said. I have been on an involuntary voyage of exploration and discovery that has included stops at stress, periodic paralysis, potassium, vitamin D, hyperthyroidism, and various other ports of call.
While I will have to allow the details to filter in with time, I will try to begin the process with this post. Do remember, however, that the experience is still being processed and research is ongoing.
The story begins with stress, the least appreciated of the foundations of Parkinson’s Disease. Between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays a “perfect storm” began to build as currents from life, money, health, family, etc. all converged on Ground Zero – yours truly.
As the new year advanced the pressures increased until by early Spring cognition began to slip. At least, that is the only explanation that I can offer for the final actions that sent me spiraling away for a few weeks. For any Tolkien fans out there, I held my breath and jumped into the Abyss with the Balrog and have returned clad in white. For those who need an interpreter, I made a major mistake, recovered, and have figured some things out that I will share as they develop.
The mistake lay in deciding that it was time to have a patch of pine trees removed from around my home. They had gotten to a stage where they were falling more and more and were increasingly dangerous. And so, a local contractor began to remove them, one by one. There were about three acres of them and my house was near the center. The job was expected to take two weeks but weather stretched it to seven. Seven weeks of hell.
The crew of four, in addition to chainsaws and other mundane tools, depended very much on a sort of modified bulldozer called a “skidder”. The skidder was what moved the logs around. It emitted a deep, low rumble of a sound that, because of the weight and solid contact with the ground, penetrated deep into the bones which seemed to then vibrate as well.
This rich spectrum of sound frequencies dropped below the levels that the human can normally hear and into the range called “subsonic”. Subsonic sound is very powerful and not normally encountered in nature. One of the few places that our ancestor’s would encounter it is in the roar of a big cat, such as a tiger, as it sprang. The subsonic portion of the roar triggers a brief paralysis and the tiger dines.
So, my inner reptile found itself trapped in my house as the roar of predators came from all directions. Fight or flight triggers were pulled again and again until one evening I found myself curled like a fetus in the floor unable to move even enough to open my eyes. And, while this state passed in about an hour’s time, I had an opportunity to think. In fact, I had several such opportunities. I will take up my tale again from this point.
But I would like to point out something here. In nature, subsonics are rare and are always a sign of great danger. In modern society, they are common. But the primitive part of our brain has no reason to see them as benign.
In fact, they can be deadly as studies of populations living near airports, for example, have shown. Is it possible that there is a role for this in the maladies of our modern society? (to be continued)
And What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
<Subsonics are inaudible, extremely low frequency, yet very powerful sound waves. In nature they almost always are linked to danger and thus trigger the fight or flight response. They are also quite rare. However, in the world of the Industrial Revolution they became steadily more common. Today, millions of us live with them. Only a fool would say that there is no effect on our health.>
I have not posted for a bit but am very much alive with a great deal still to be said. I have been on an involuntary voyage of exploration and discovery that has included stops at stress, periodic paralysis, potassium, vitamin D, hyperthyroidism, and various other ports of call.
While I will have to allow the details to filter in with time, I will try to begin the process with this post. Do remember, however, that the experience is still being processed and research is ongoing.
The story begins with stress, the least appreciated of the foundations of Parkinson’s Disease. Between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays a “perfect storm” began to build as currents from life, money, health, family, etc. all converged on Ground Zero – yours truly.
As the new year advanced the pressures increased until by early Spring cognition began to slip. At least, that is the only explanation that I can offer for the final actions that sent me spiraling away for a few weeks. For any Tolkien fans out there, I held my breath and jumped into the Abyss with the Balrog and have returned clad in white. For those who need an interpreter, I made a major mistake, recovered, and have figured some things out that I will share as they develop.
The mistake lay in deciding that it was time to have a patch of pine trees removed from around my home. They had gotten to a stage where they were falling more and more and were increasingly dangerous. And so, a local contractor began to remove them, one by one. There were about three acres of them and my house was near the center. The job was expected to take two weeks but weather stretched it to seven. Seven weeks of hell.
The crew of four, in addition to chainsaws and other mundane tools, depended very much on a sort of modified bulldozer called a “skidder”. The skidder was what moved the logs around. It emitted a deep, low rumble of a sound that, because of the weight and solid contact with the ground, penetrated deep into the bones which seemed to then vibrate as well.
This rich spectrum of sound frequencies dropped below the levels that the human can normally hear and into the range called “subsonic”. Subsonic sound is very powerful and not normally encountered in nature. One of the few places that our ancestor’s would encounter it is in the roar of a big cat, such as a tiger, as it sprang. The subsonic portion of the roar triggers a brief paralysis and the tiger dines.
So, my inner reptile found itself trapped in my house as the roar of predators came from all directions. Fight or flight triggers were pulled again and again until one evening I found myself curled like a fetus in the floor unable to move even enough to open my eyes. And, while this state passed in about an hour’s time, I had an opportunity to think. In fact, I had several such opportunities. I will take up my tale again from this point.
But I would like to point out something here. In nature, subsonics are rare and are always a sign of great danger. In modern society, they are common. But the primitive part of our brain has no reason to see them as benign.
In fact, they can be deadly as studies of populations living near airports, for example, have shown. Is it possible that there is a role for this in the maladies of our modern society? (to be continued)