
Is the Hum, a mysterious noise heard around the world, science or mass delusion? - doener
https://newrepublic.com/article/132128/maddening-sound
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cpncrunch
From reading through the article, it certainly sounds like mass delusion /
tinnitus.

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joshu
I hear it. I think it is some perceptual artifact - when everything is really
quiet, I hear it, but even the slightest noise drowns it out. I wonder if it
is the sound you get when you strain too hard to hear?

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cpncrunch
Could be. You might be hearing the blood in your ears or something similar. Is
it high pitched or low? Does it go away if you relax, or if you ignore it?

I occasionally hear high pitched tinnitus, but usually only very briefly.
Generally for me it is associated with worry/stress, and if I relax it
immediately disappears (after a second or two). This kind of tinnitus that I
occasionally hear just sounds like a high pitched whine, so I don't think it
is related to blood flow or other body function. My guess is that it is just
an overactivation of the limbic system.

Also, I just noticed that if I concentrate on listening, I can hear a fairly
quiet high-piched tone. I assume this is just some background neural white
noise signal. Normally it is not noticeable unless I consciously listen for
it. I imagine it could get annoying or louder if I paid too much attention to
it.

Another possibility it that it is just a kind of auditory hallucination that
your brain generates when there is no other input, similar to closed-eye
hallucinations:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-
eye_hallucination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye_hallucination)

