If you hear some sounds that other people cannot hear, this does not mean that you are having auditory hallucinations and it’s time to see a psychiatrist. Perhaps you belong to the category of so-called Hamers. The term comes from the English word hum, meaning hum, buzzing, buzzing.
Strange complaints
The phenomenon was first noticed in the 50s of the last century: people living in different parts of the planet complained that they constantly heard a certain uniform humming sound. Most often, residents of rural areas talked about this. They claimed that the strange sound intensifies at night (apparently because at this time the overall sound background decreases). Those who heard it often experienced side effects - headache, nausea, dizziness, nosebleeds and insomnia.
In 1970, 800 Britons complained about a mysterious noise. Similar episodes also occurred in New Mexico and Sydney.
In 2003, acoustics specialist Jeff Leventhal discovered that only 2% of all inhabitants of the Earth can hear strange sounds. Mostly these are people aged 55 to 70 years. In one case, a Hamer even committed suicide because he could not bear the incessant noise.
“It’s a kind of torture, sometimes you just want to scream,” this is how Katie Jacques from Leeds (Great Britain) described her feelings. - It's hard to sleep because I hear this pulsating sound continuously. You start tossing and turning and think about it even more.”
Where is the noise coming from?
Researchers have been trying to find the source of the noise for a long time. In the early 1990s, researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory at the University of New Mexico came to the conclusion that hummers hear sounds that accompany traffic and production processes in factories. But this version is controversial: after all, as mentioned above, most Hamers live in rural areas.
According to another version, there is actually no hum: it is an illusion generated by a diseased brain. Finally, the most interesting hypothesis is that some people have increased sensitivity to low-frequency electromagnetic radiation or seismic activity. That is, they hear the “hum of the Earth,” which most people do not pay attention to.
Paradoxes of hearing
The fact is that the average person is able to perceive sounds in the range from 16 hertz to 20 kilohertz, if sound vibrations are transmitted through the air. When sound is transmitted through the bones of the skull, the range increases to 220 kilohertz.
For example, the vibrations of the human voice can vary between 300-4000 hertz. We hear sounds above 20,000 hertz worse. And fluctuations below 60 hertz are perceived by us as vibrations. High frequencies are called ultrasound, low frequencies are called infrasound.
Not all people respond the same way to different sound frequencies. This depends on many individual factors: age, gender, heredity, the presence of hearing pathologies, etc. Thus, it is known that there are people capable of perceiving high-frequency sounds - up to 22 kilohertz and higher. At the same time, animals can sometimes hear acoustic vibrations in a range inaccessible to humans: bats use ultrasound for echolocation during flight, and whales and elephants presumably communicate with each other using infrasonic vibrations.
At the beginning of 2011, Israeli scientists found that in the human brain there are special groups of neurons that allow one to estimate the pitch of a sound down to 0.1 tones. Most animal species, with the exception of bats, do not have such “devices”. With age, due to changes in the inner ear, people begin to perceive high frequencies worse and develop sensorineural hearing loss.
But, apparently, not everything is so simple with our brain, since over the years some people stop hearing even ordinary sounds, while others, on the contrary, begin to hear what is inaccessible to the ears of others.
How can we help the Hamers, since they suffer so much from their “gift”? A number of experts believe that so-called cognitive behavioral therapy could cure them. But it can only work if the problem is related exclusively to the person’s mental state.
Jeff Leventhal notes that today the Hamer phenomenon is one of the mysteries whose solution has not yet been found.
I think it’s no secret to you that sometimes you need closer contact with a person. But not every person can do this. Most often, this is hampered by the fact that the person will not listen to your beliefs, since he has his own point of view, which is above all others.
If you try to tell a person what he does not want to hear, then you will not win his favor, but in this case he may become an enemy to you. The most basic rule is that a person hears what he wants to hear.
Dale Carnegie wrote that 75% of the people you meet tomorrow need pity, give it to them and they will love you. If you want to interact with people more successfully, then simply find out about their problems and offer solutions, although sometimes ordinary pity is enough.
Along with this, remember that you need to tell people what they want to hear. Remember the questions that require a positive answer? When a person asks you for something, he wants to receive a positive answer. If you are asked to come in fifteen minutes, then you should not argue and say that it will only be possible in sixteen. This information will be unnecessary, the person is waiting for you to agree to come, and if you come in twenty, no one will pay attention to it. Just say that you will come - this will be enough when communicating with a person.
A person likes to be proud of him, and therefore will love everyone who will praise him, but at the same time, he will do everything possible and bad to those who dare to “rut him against the grain.” Don’t play with your interlocutor, but play along if you want to achieve a positive result for you. Lies are completely excluded, you need to tell only the truth, but do not forget that there are many “truths” and they want to hear from you exactly the one that is recognized by those with whom you have to communicate.
Give the truth in parts, in doses, leaving room for maneuver. If you want to see a reaction in an extreme situation, when a true opinion is expressed, an objective assessment, take provocative actions, but do not allow offensive, offensive words and expressions. The opinions expressed by the interlocutors may be polar opposite, but this is normal, just express your own, respect other people’s, do not criticize, but take note.
Refrain from evaluative phrases and expressions, this is alarming and frightening. Sympathy evokes positive emotions, compassion, relaxes, but instantly repels. An unreasoned assessment leads to a state of confrontation, even if it is correct.
Try to respect each other, avoid insults and even hints of them. My pompous speech is not instruction or edification. From time to time, I turn to the community, to a group of “comrades” with thoughts expressed “on paper” that cannot be cut down with an axe.....
Remember, in childhood there was a game called “deaf telephone”: children sat in a row, and the leader’s word was passed from one to the other. And we always wondered why a completely different word reached the last person. Maybe someone has hearing problems, or someone cannot clearly pronounce the hidden word? Quite possible. And now we have all grown up a long time ago, but we have not stopped playing “deaf telephone”.
Communication interference
Each of us interprets the information received in our own way. The fact is that we do not just perceive the flow of information, we pass it through our experience. For example, a young man says that he is not yet ready for a serious relationship, and his girlfriend hears from him that he wants to break up with her. But in fact, for him, a serious relationship is family, joint property and old age, and for a girl, it’s just being together and loving each other. They see the same situation differently because they were brought up in different conditions, different attitudes were put into them.
Filter
There is a “filter” in our minds that filters out information that contradicts our views. Sometimes he can play a cruel joke on us. A typical example is a young couple in which the young man is an abuser: he controls his girlfriend’s every step, does not let her go anywhere and constantly forbids her to do something. And the girl believes that she is endlessly in love with him and all his restrictions are a manifestation of love, she wants to believe this, although in reality everything is completely different.
We don't want to listen
We spend 70% of our time (excluding sleep) in verbal communication. We enter into communication, sometimes without even noticing it. Communication can happen not only through words, but also through gestures. A chance meeting of glances on the subway is also communication. And such regular communication is exhausting. Concentration decreases, and we may miss some details from the conversation and perceive it differently.
Emotions
Communication is carried out through language. Language is a tool, a set of signs and symbols that helps people communicate with each other. But language is not devoid of emotions, sometimes they do not just interfere with the conversation, but take over it. This can be seen in the example of a quarrel, when negative emotions take over and distort the perceived information in such a way that the original thought is lost.
Thinking through
We all love to think for others. Instead of questioning and clarifying the situation, we begin to turn on our own imagination, make assumptions and move away from the available facts. Behind this may be various fears, self-doubt and many other problems. I often had to observe how girls thought for young people: “no, he doesn’t like people like me, his ex-girlfriend is a hundred times more beautiful than me, he won’t even look at me,” but it’s impossible to know such information for another person, maybe it's not like that at all. Her own fear of being rejected or some kind of complex makes a girl believe that she will never receive attention from such a guy, although he already communicates well with her.
At least two people participate in communication, and you need to be able to listen. Since we cannot fully understand a person, we can at least try to get closer with the help of questions. Active listening helps us clarify some points, expand the narrative, and extract important details. We need to move from words to semantic content.
Ecology of life. Psychology: Many people have the belief that it is possible to know what another person feels and wants to do in contact with me...
Many people have the belief that it is possible to know what another person feels and wants to do in contact with me.
In this post I would like to separate flies and cutlets.
Is it true that we can read other people's nonverbal reactions. But when we read them, we give them our own meanings and our own meaning.
For example, another person suddenly frowns. I can think that:
He frowned because this was his reaction to my words here and now;
He frowned because, in connection with what I said here and now, something popped up in his mind that made him frown;
He frowned because he was holding a grudge against me;
He frowned because he found me unpleasant;
He frowned because he wants to show me how he feels about me;
He frowned... (the list is endless).
The phenomenon is that he frowned.
How he feels, only he knows.
What these feelings evoke in him - only he knows.
What he wants to tell me in this way (and whether he wants to?) - only he knows.
This way we can actually see the reaction. But we may or may not attach meaning to it ourselves. Only the author of the reaction knows the true meaning.
All the meanings we attach to the behavior of other people say about us and that:
If I were in his place, I would frown for such and such a reason;
- I usually frown when I experience such and such feelings.
There is a series called “The Theory of Lies”. I don’t like it because it conveys the idea that people express all emotions in the same way. Since I had to live among different social and cultural groups, I have experience that proves that people can express facially (I'm not talking about actions) the same emotions in different ways. For example, contempt can be confused with disgust, embarrassment with joy, fear with surprise.
What is the danger of such confusion? Because, interpreting what is happening to another person, we begin to interact and respond not to his true reaction, but to our interpretation of his reaction.
And here a misunderstanding/misunderstanding arises:
You wanted to offend me!
- and it wasn’t even in my thoughts!
- You don’t care what I’m going through!
- I'm just thinking about your words!
For example, as a child I was often accused of indifference simply because I did not immediately react to what I heard, but thought about it first. And as a result, I really spent a lot of energy trying to prove to others that I was alive and warm, and not seeing emotions in other people, I, like my parents, accused people of indifference. Now I can give myself the right to think and react slowly, and in this regard I can give the other person the right not to express emotions immediately. This changes people's relationships greatly.
The conclusion suggests itself: in order for relationships to become clear, so that you can more easily interact with other people, it is important to assign your own interpretations, take responsibility for your assigned meanings, and allow yourself your own ways of reacting in order to allow others to be themselves. This approach allows you to be interested in each other’s reactions, hear each other, come to understanding, and at the same time remain yourself in the relationship.
AND about the meaning of relationships as I see him. When relationships are dependent, they are based on the fact that people require each other to satisfy their needs (and this is why they are destroyed). When a person finally takes responsibility for self-care, the meaning of the relationship changes - the relationship in which I can be myself with all my unique reactions and feel safe becomes important. That is, the meaning of the relationship between two self-sufficient (independent people) I see is the development of trust and a safe comfort zone. published
If you hear some sounds that others cannot hear, and the doctor at the clinic throws up his hands in surprise, do not rush to contact a psychiatrist.
Perhaps you are just one of the so-called “hammers”. Hum is the name given to a persistent humming noise observed in certain places on the planet and heard only by a few people.
They first started talking about it in the 1950s, when people began to complain from different places about a uniform, incessant hum. Since then, scientists have hardly budged in the study of this unusual phenomenon. Little is known about him. This noise is a pulsating or uniform irritating low-frequency hum, reminiscent of the sound of a diesel engine idling.
Hamers complain of headaches, nausea, dizziness, nosebleeds and sleep disorders. However, the sound is heard more often in rural areas, and the sound gets louder at night.
In the UK, evidence of a mysterious noise has been recorded in Leeds, Bristol, and Scotland. Moreover, the first case dates back to 1970, when 800 people complained about it at once. It was also reported by residents of New Mexico and Sidney.
In 2003, acoustics expert Jeff Leventhal found that only 2% of all earthlings can hear this sound. Moreover, most often this gift is possessed by people aged 55 - 70 years. According to him, there is at least one case where an incessant hum drove a person to suicide.
Those who hear the noise call it torture. "It's kind of torture, sometimes you just want to scream. It's hard to sleep because I hear this pulsating sound all the time. You start tossing and turning and think about it even more," says Katie Jacques from Leeds.
Scientists cannot yet determine the nature of the phenomenon and explain why it affects people. In the early 1990s. Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory at the University of New Mexico tried to solve the mystery. However, they ultimately concluded that the source of the hum was transport and factories.
Some researchers suggest that the noise is actually an illusion. Allegedly, patients hear a hum, which in reality does not exist. Others believe it is the result of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation or seismic activity that only a select few can detect.
Some experts suggest that those with the gift undergo cognitive behavioral therapy to help cope with the noise. However, there are still no prerequisites that the secret will be revealed in the near future. “This mystery has existed for the last 40 years, and it may remain one of many mysteries,” Leventhal notes.
Some astronauts also hear inexplicable sounds in orbit around the planet. In 2004, astronauts aboard the ISS repeatedly heard an unusual metallic sound. Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri said the noise sounded like "the beat of a drum."
“The crew heard a sound reminiscent of a crushed metal tin can for one second. Perhaps this sound could be associated with some kind of device inside the station. What it is cannot yet be determined, but in any case, the check that the crew carried out shows “that there are no changes either in the instrument compartments or in the atmosphere of the station, which would change instantly if there was a breakdown of the casing,” Russian Space Agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov said earlier.
Since then, the source of the noise has not been identified.