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The Real Reason Old Buildings Feel Haunted (It’s Not Ghosts)

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You walk into an old building, and something feels…off. You can’t explain it. You’re agitated, unsettled, maybe a little on edge, and there’s no obvious reason for any of it.

New research published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience suggests the reason might be simpler than anyone wants to admit. The culprit, according to researchers at MacEwan University and the University of Alberta, is infrasound—very low-frequency sound, below 20 hertz, that the human ear can’t actually detect. It comes from aging pipes, ventilation systems, traffic, and industrial machinery. It’s essentially everywhere, and most people have no idea they’re being exposed to it.

The study recruited 36 participants and seated them alone in a room with either calming or unsettling music playing. For half the........

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