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Originally from the North of England. Growing up my mother had a huge leather bound book full of stories of ghosts, alien sightings, spontaneous combustion, fairies, ghouls and more. You name it, it was in there. And I was fascinated. I've often thought about that book. I'd love to ask my mother about it but alas, she is no longer with us. So I resolved to create this site. It's the closest thing to it I could get. I hope that some of the joy I had reading that book is passed on to you here today.

The Hum Man With Fingers in his ears
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4% of the world population hears “The Hum”

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And I am one of them. I’ve lived in varied places in the UK. Born in a sprawling city, moved to an isolated island for a while and I now live in a village. No matter where or when, the hum has been there. It’s a low hmmm noise that honestly, 99.9% of the time I’m not aware of. I also wasn’t aware (until very recently) that others hear it too. I just thought it was a weird thing my ears did.

As I type this, I’m trying to pop my ears to rid myself of it. It never works, but it’s a response to the noise I have developed over years.

Can you hear what I hear?

I’d say I’m one of the lucky ones. Tuning it out is second nature. Some cannot do that. Even worse, some experience dizzy spells and headaches because of it. The most it has effected me is keeping me awake at night. I found that to be especially true while living on a small island. With no background noise (cars, people etc), the hum became more noticeable. The first two weeks living there trying to sleep was almost impossible.

And it appears the hum is a modern phenomenon. Early hum attributed reports date back to the 1940’s and 50’s. In London and Southampton, over 2000 people are said to have reported hearing the hum over this period of 2 decades.

David Deming, a hum sufferer and scientist from the USA, investigated the hum in 2004. In his paper, titled: “The Hum: An Anomalous Sound Heard Around the World” he cites not just the early hum reports from London above, but also gathers reports and data from around the globe. It’s a fascinating study but one which ends in frustration. Spoiler alert, David does not pinpoint the source of the hum.

Destination Unknown

While it appears the Hum was originally noticed in the UK, it wasn’t long until other areas of the globe started to report it too. In Taos, New Mexico in 1992, Catanya Saltzman, a trained dancer, wrote a letter to the local newspaper complaining about the sound. The hum was so bad for her, it effected her inner ear balance and career.

Interestingly, the letter met with a small minority of the community agreeing with her. An investigation into the Taos Hum was launched in 1993. This one gets a little sprinkling of conspiracy here. A newsweek article from 1993 claims that “Rep. Bill Richardson, a member of the House intelligence committee, told a packed Taos town meeting that the Hum is defence related and asked the Pentagon to shut it down.”

John Deutch, Under Secretary of Defence at the time responded, “My staff has concluded there is no program, classified or not, which would cause this hum.”

The Windsor Hum tells a similar story. In 2010 the Canadian city of Windsor started getting reports of complaints from residents. Again the same thing. A low rumbling noise heard by a large minority of residents.

Remarkably similar stories have come as far a field as Bondi in Australia, Bristol in the UK and even Hawaii. But the best one has to be from Auckland, New Zealand. Here, Dr Tom Moir investigated the mystery sound and he even managed to record it. You can listen to the sound at around the 1.30 minute mark of this news report.

Research into The Hum

While David Deming’s and others research failed to find a source for the hum, it has been built upon. Dr Glen MacPherson, a science teacher, took up the baton.

He created the website, thehum.info in 2012, Since then it has gathered information from sufferers around the globe. The site includes an interactive map of those effected by the hum that you can click on and see their locations. You can also submit your own data through a survey asking questions and a tone generator to match the noise you hear.

Possible causes of The Hum

Natural phenomena such as volcanoes, meteors, waterfalls and ocean waves have all been discounted by researchers. It has been reasoned that because only a small percentage of the globe hear the hum, it cannot be an acoustic sound.

Others have attributed the hum to urban noise from air conditioning units, ventilation fans, diesel engines or even water pumps. As someone who still heard the hum while living on a remote island, I’m not convinced.

David Deming thought it could have been caused by radio signals used to communicate with submarines. These need really low frequencies and can evoke an auditory response in humans. It would also call back to the Taos Hum and the since denied defence related excuse.

But, no, it’s probably not that either. Why? Dr MacPherson built a box to shield out such radio frequencies and stepped inside. Instead of the hum disappearing, it did the opposite and became louder.

So if it’s not an external source, is it coming from inside of us? Does there seem to be a small percentage of humans that all have this internally generated sound? Personally, I think that this is the likeliest explanation.

The Hum, for now at least, continues to be a truly global mystery.

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