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Derren uses sound in his stage shows, one to 'enhance' the induction process when selecting volunteers and another to 'clear' it from the mind afterwards. I felt no effects, good or bad, at all...

your talking about infrasound. Richard Wiseman has used it in his seance..

http://spacedog.biz/infrasonic/sounds/infrasonic

EDITED: ^^ Arg, beaten to it!

Rather than high frequency sound you could go with ultra low frequency sound, called infrasound. I have no idea how you would make a device to generate it, but I've seen a program where they made a house feel "haunted" using it. Its generally inaudible, but you can still feel it (have to watch the volume on it, just because people cant hear the sound, doesn't mean it can't damage the hearing.)

But yeah, for that sort of effect, low frequency sound is better than high.

Wikipedia (as unreliable as it can be, this time its pretty factual) writes:

"Infrasound has been known to cause feelings of awe or fear in humans.[16][17] Since it is not consciously perceived, it can make people feel vaguely that supernatural events are taking place."

Mr_Grue wrote:I believe the initial research into the spooky effects of low frequency standing vibrations was triggered by the apparent haunting of a new research lab. There was an air-conditioning fan that was kicking out the vibration, giving people a sense of being watched, and edge-of-vision hallucinations. It wasn't until someone was repairing a fencing foil, and saw it begin to sway, unaided, in the vice, that they realised there was a physical cause.

Also this, when was this? I remember reading about it. Something to do with the fan sending the vibrations down the air duct which was messing with the air pressure somehow.
Replicating that might help with the seance effect

Here y'go.

linky

Thanks, had forgotten all about that

I seen this a few times and I wouldnt mind knowing how to do it, I think there is more to it then what meets the eye..no pun intended... ok it was intended.

TLS

Coming back to the original question about the staring competition. I saw the video of the Derren Brown pseudo-stooge on youtube. My impression afterwards was, that it is more a trick than a real hypnotic skill. Just a hint: dual reality principle. The stooge was not a stooge but might have understood later on that his part looks different from the viewers perspective. That risk always exists, when you use the mentioned principle and the assisting person is able to watch the show later on on tv.

Matthius88 wrote:There was something the government was thinking of putting in place a few years ago that emits a very high frequency sound for dispersing, as I remember it, "gangs of youths".

Don't even mention that! I walked past one when I wasn't even aware of them, so I wasn't expecting it, and man did I have a shock! Deeply unpleasant feeling.

Oh, and by the way, a machine has been devised for riots that vibrates at the same frequency as the organs in the human body. You can guess.

Tell me about it. Of course I am grateful to the benevolent government for putting me in place like the evil delinquent creature I am, and making shopping as uncomfortable as possible for me which of course by agitating me means that I am less likley to get... agitated (???)... and not stab any more old ladies.

I hate those machines...

kolm wrote: people might truly feel very uncomfortable with just 'hearing' the sound, would be interested to know if this is the case

It can be.

Oh, and someone else mentioned using a laser pointer. I'm fairly sure that was a joke, but just in case someone were to misinterpret it, DON'T. It can permanently blind people.

SamGurney wrote:Tell me about it. Of course I am grateful to the benevolent government for putting me in place like the evil delinquent creature I am, and making shopping as uncomfortable as possible for me which of course by agitating me means that I am less likley to get... agitated (???)... and not stab any more old ladies.

Pretty sure it's not the Government, it'd be private shops. Their legality is dubious at best...

The whistle machine things, the shops, or the government? In any case I think all should be illegal

In the QI Forum we've been discussing infrasound and ultrasound, and the Mosquito device: HERE.