Enigma News

Here are some fascinating new "takes" on Whitley Strieber's latest book, Soving the Communion Enigma, from NPR reporter Rick Kleffel. To read them and hear them, click here, here and here. You'll notice that when Kleffel was recording his interview, he heard strange noises. Whitley talks about that here.

• soving the Communion enigma

Kleffel's review is quite well-written, as is Solving the Communion Enigma. Folks, for those of you who haven't read the book yet, it's well worth your time to read. Whitley is one of the most compelling authors alive today and he doesn't disappoint with this one...it's an outstanding book.....a literary tour-de-force in which the author poses the questions that need to be asked, but which are generally ignored, or avoided, by the larger society. I couldn't put the book aside, and read it in a single sitting, deferring food and sleep until I had finished.

I can clearly hear a very high pitch ringing in the taped interview described as the highest pitch on a glass harmonica. I can only bear to listen for a few moments as it is so pronounced and continuous that it is giving me a headache. I have tired listening to different parts of the interview and it is always present. I am not sure that it is not an artifact of the recording equipment. I am a musician but I have never heard that sort of sound in all my years working with recording equipment. I would be curious to know if anyone else can hear it.

I can hear it. So it's not above 15.000 Hz. And clearly the mics pick it up which they should. It's totally like tinitus.

Wow. Hear it distinctly. I think it's close to 15KHz. I only say this because it sounds a lot like the whine generated by a non-flatscreen TV's flyback transformer, which hovers about 15.734 kHz. There are limitations in the MP3 encoding format that would put an upper limit on it. I don't have time to look at the details of this MP3 (e.g. bitrate), someone want to fire up a decent digital audio editing suite and do a spectrum analysis?

I can hear it too. It's giving me a headache.....uggh.

"That sound, happily, does not appear on the audio." says the article. It DOES appear on the audio. Just like tinnitus, to me. I'm listening on a tablet and it's there.

Yeah, I put it to another person. She also hears it.

As best as I can determine, the high pitched frequency you can hear is in the range of 9050 to 9060 Hz. You would have to get someone with better software to get any closer than that. The peak I could see was only small but was quite obviously there...I could only guess at what could cause that type of sound.

Can't hear it. But my computer speakers are pretty crappy. I'd be interested to know the age of those who can hear it. After 40, don't we lose some of the outer ranges of our hearing?

FWIW, there's a peak of -53.188282 decibels @ a frequency of 9060.095215 Hz. Median for that frequency range (~9KHz +/- 200Hz) is otherwise about -75 decibels.

I found this which might have some bearing on it...

www.crystal-radio.eu/enlaagdoorlaatfilter.htm

"In some crystal receivers we can hear a 9 kHz tone (**see note) interfering the audio signal, the strength of the tone can vary during listening. This is caused by the fact that more then one radiofrequency can reach the detector diode, the diode works as frequency mixer. After the diode we don't only have the audio signal, but also the difference between the station carrier frequencies, and this is 9 kHz. Maybe the diode gives also frequencies of 18 and 27 kHz etc. but this is too high to hear. Even strong local stations can at night be interfered with the 9 kHz tone.".

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