True Mysteries and Oddities

Originally Posted by Fadedflower

How about crop circles? Aliens or hoaxters?

Why only two choices? The premise must never assume the conclusion.

See this post for Crop Circle discussion.

Originally Posted by Carne Seca

The Taos hum. I've felt/heard it myself a time or two while camping in that area. It was similar to a Semi diesel engine when it's idling, only it's more felt than heard.

Ahh yes, the Hum. This can truely be considered a mystery, although kind of a boring one don't you think? First made popular by Unsolved Mysteries in the 80's. Back then there was only the Taos Hum. (it's one of my favorite episodes because it's starts out with Robert Stack alone in a sound studio as if he's producing an album. He turns to the camera as if startled and starts yammering about mysteries.) Sightings covered it in the mid 90's, at which point it was becoming more popular and occasionally reported in places other than Taos.

For those that don't know, there are areas around the globe where about 2% of local residents report hearing a hum in the distance. It's never close or loud. It's most often described as the sound of an idling engine off in the distance just at the edge of perception, although some hear it a bit more clearly to the point of it being a bothersome distraction. There is the Taos Hum in NM, England's Bristol hum, the Auckland Hum in New Zealand, and the Kokomo hum in Indiana, to name a few. In some places it is more likely to be heard by young people, in some places old people. Sometimes it's heard by more women than men, other times it's heard by more men than women. Some people hear it better up higher like in a tower or building. Some people hear it more clearly when they are below ground. Some people hear it all the time, others only occasionally, and still others hear it at night and others during the day. Some people find ear plugs help, others find that they do nothing. No one has managed to record this hum, although they can reproduce it with equipment.

One thing is for sure, there seems to be no pattern to who hears it or when or even how. The only common thread is these people all live in the same areas. Obvious explanations, such as industrial equipment and radio towers, have been ruled out, and no natural source has been found. Mass hysteria has been put forth as an explanation, but considering the number of people who hear it is actually quite limited, this seems unlikely. Folie en famille also doesn't fit in all cases. In addition, the people who hear it are not likely to be prone to mental illness. Tinnitus and the similar true phenomena of people hearing radio frequencies have been suggested, but the people who suffer from those things hear different sounds, and not the hum. There is a muscle inside your ear called tensor tympani which many people can voluntarily tighten to produce a low humming sound extremely similar to the The hum; a lot of people interpret this as hearing the blood rushing through their ears. This muscle sometimes tightens on it's own or in response to pain and can even get stuck, offering a condition that probably explains at least some of the cases of hum.

The leading theory is that the hum actually has many sources, some undoubtedly natural although undiscovered, and some man made. Others have medical conditions or have fallen victim to suggestion and confirmation bias. In other words, it's a collection of different phenomena that have been grouped together. Since the hum has yet to be recorded, it's very existence is still in question. Ultimately, even if we apply all these explanations collectively, that still leaves many cases of the hum unexplained.

But since research has produced no testable evidence, the only thing we have is personal experience. As with anything unexplained for which we only have anecdotal evidence, it is likely that when the phenomena is better understood the mystery will diminish.

those rocks are quite mysterious. maybe theres a property of the rocks that has yet to be found?

ive never heard of this humming thing. maybe its not literally a sound(air moving). maybe it is something coming from those areas that skips the 'microphone' part of our ear. it affects our hearing circuits inside the ear. sort of like if we had an electromagnet next to the microphone cord, it will change the electrical flow in the wire depending on the magnetism, thus creating a change in sound. but if we tried to record that sound, we couldnt do it because it doesnt really exist. just a thought...

Originally Posted by Fadedflower

I've visited Chaco Canyon Anasazi ruins, New Mexico and I felt a wierd vibrations from the rocks when I placed my palms on them.

I live about twenty miles from there. We don't go out there much. It's really spooky.

every once in a great deal of time its rains then winds push the rock very slowly

Originally Posted by Sinsay

every once in a great deal of time its rains then winds push the rock very slowly

nope. if that were true, smaller rocks would travel further than heavier ones. theres a few other reasons that i dont remember. but i think they showed it wasnt wind

Vagina- Vagina is the center of the universe, Vaginas are amazing, they never get boring they can stretch and then go back people will do all sorts of crazy things to get some time with one, they make people, we all climbed out of a vagina-Their magic, Thank God for Vaginas

Most of the so-called gliding stones originate from an 850 ft-high (260 m) hillside made of dark dolomite on the south end of the playa, but some are intrusive igneous rock from adjacent slopes (most of those being tan-colored feldspar-rich syenite). Tracks are often tens to hundreds of feet long, about 3 to 12 inches (8 to 30 cm) wide, and typically much less than an inch (2.54 cm) deep.
A balance of specific conditions are thought to be needed for stones to move:

• a saturated yet non-flooded surface,
• a thin layer of clay,
• very strong gusts as initiating force, and
• strong sustained wind to keep stones going

Another intriguing unexplained phenomena is that of underwater noises. The ocean holds true mystery in it's unexplored depths. We so far lack the ability to clearly see and study much of the ocean, but we can hear it. In fact some of the ocean is regularly monitored for sounds by something called the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array. This system has picked up 6 different sounds that are peculiar and unexplained.

The most popular is called 'the bloop'. Detected in 1997, it has made it way into science fiction plots and conspiracy theories. The bloop was more than a one time occurrence. It was heard several times that summer coming from a remote part of the south pacific, with weeks going by between events. The bloop was very loud, loud enough to be captured by multiple censors as far as 5000k apart. The profile of the sound is not that of an explosion or cave in, but most closely matches those of living creatures. However the sound was so loud that the creature making it would had to have been much larger than anything we are aware of. This was on the scale of an underwater volcano. You can find many recordings of the bloop on the net, along with many outrageous theories. Never the less, this remains unexplained. As sounds go, it's rather dull.



The bloop isn't very interesting to listen to, but the next sound that came in 1999 is creepier. It's called Julia and sounds like a spooky alien or ghost voice. This one lasted 15 seconds and was loud enough to be heard across the entire hydrophone array. The profile resembles a whale much more so than the bloop, but we know of no whale capable of being that loud.



Here are the rest of the unexplained sounds

The Train, also caught back in 1997, sounds like a far off underwater train.


The Whistle also comes from 1997, a popular year for weird sounds apparently. This one was caught by only one hydrophone. It sounds like ghostly moans.


The Slowdown, same year. Sounds like some sort of industrial equipment shutting down. Doesn't match any known ship or submarine pattern, and again, this is the deep deep ocean. Heard one time from three different hydrophones, so it was pretty loud.


This last one, Upsweep, was present in 1991 (when the hydrophones went online) and has been heard seasonally ever since, peaking in spring and fall, although it has been diminishing. It can be heard across the array and localized to an active volcanic area. This one is most likely to be natural, but the source is still unknown.