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AIBU?

4 different people, all hearing the same creepy thing.

129 replies

applemousey · 03/08/2020 09:33

Sorry, I did post this in health but got very little response. I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this, or has any idea what it could be? (Spoken to neighbours, no church/shops close by)

My grandmother has been declining with what seems the beginning of dementia for a couple of years. She's now in palliative at home, (cancer) with my DF staying there.

She complained of 'church music' a few years ago every night, keeping her awake. Also the neighbours were 'having parties' playing 1920s music. It was assumed by family (and drs) it was the onset of dementia.

A year ago my aunt and uncle stayed there (they live overseas) and my uncle complained of the music keeping him awake.

My DF stayed a few months back and heard it himself. He looked everywhere and couldn't find it, it had woken him up.

The care nurse who has been staying overnight, unprompted said she had heard the music, she said it's quite common, she's heard it before in other dying patients homes as well as other nurses reporting similar experiences. Just wondering if anyone has had this before? All I can find online is audible hallucinations, but surely this can't happen with 4 separate people? And is there a logical explanation?

OP posts:
RyanBergarasTeeth · 03/08/2020 09:36

No idea op but that does sound facinating and creepy!

KingOfDogShite · 03/08/2020 09:39

Have you checked all the radios are turned off? I spent all Friday telling my son to turn his music down only To realise it was music coming out of my headphones from when I’d been for a run and not turned it off.

I think there’s more likely a technological answer to this than a spiritual one.

applemousey · 03/08/2020 09:42

I've only found auditory hallucinations online, confused how that could be all four people though! I'm tempted to stay myself on our next visit, DH is adamant if he heard it he would be able to find the (logical) source of it - but I thought my DF would of, he's very anti-woo and an engineer, he always finds the logical reasons behind things!

OP posts:
1Morewineplease · 03/08/2020 09:44

How very odd!
I have heard of very old thick stone having a possible means of retaining some sort of sound resonance that has somehow been released over time but not music itself.

I am marking my place on this thread for further posts.

I am sorry to hear about your grandmother.

applemousey · 03/08/2020 09:44

@KingOfDogShite no radios on, DF checked the loft incase. DG does not have a lot of technology in the house, no WiFi or mobile phone, just a tv and a house phone. DF has checked things, like the fridge humming, pipes etc.

OP posts:
ElizabethMainwaring · 03/08/2020 09:45

Wow, that is interesting.
You're right, it isn't audible hallucinations.
I have them, and they are very sudden, quick sounds, think door banging, dog barking.
Perhaps it's something similar to poltergeist? They are connected to puberty, so perhaps it's something to do with transition.
Good luck with your research, and sorry about your grandmother. Flowers

Fanthorpe · 03/08/2020 09:47

I’m a bit bemused by the care worker, she’s being dramatic I’m guessing.

There’s some sort of resonance somewhere, pipes, central heating, power lines, a loose window frame.
Or a neighbour!?

Fearicecream · 03/08/2020 09:47

I doubt the radios been on for years @KingOfDogShite

Lelophants · 03/08/2020 09:48

No radio with alarm?
Is it a neighbour?

ParadiseLaundry · 03/08/2020 09:52

This has just reminded me, when I was a teenager there was a very old woman living next door.

I bumped into her daughter who was visiting her. She told me with amusement that the woman said I had been playing church music through the night. I had only been listening to music with headphones at the time but apologised anyway. The woman told me not to worry and said her mum was very hard of hearing anyway so even if I had been playing loud music she wouldn't have heard it.

Very creepy that a care nurse also said it's common that she can hear it too!

Poppyismyfavourite · 03/08/2020 09:54

it must be an acoustic trick of some kind, maybe due to the layout of the land/buildings you can sometimes hear church music?
google "whispering galleries"

applemousey · 03/08/2020 09:55

The neighbours have been spoken to multiple times, they've lived there for well over a decade and had no idea what the music could be or where it was coming from as they don't hear it, and said it wasn't them (no to late night tv, music, radio) and not particularly religious so no late night prayer.

OP posts:
Kottontail · 03/08/2020 09:58

Sorry about your grandmother. It sounds spiritual to me.

Chanjer · 03/08/2020 09:58

I stayed in a hotel room one night and could hear the most perfectly reproduced but whisper quiet classical music. You could hear it through the whole suite like it was playing on speakers equally spaced around the space

Otherwise the hotel overnight was soundless

The music will be piping from somewhere, through air-conditioning ducts or pipes or whatever, sound waves are bonkers

WearyandBleary · 03/08/2020 10:09

My neighbours have their radio on all night playing music. You can only hear it at certain times.

They also don’t admit it because they are embarrassed I think - separate rooms for sleeping And probably the wife falls asleep with it on.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 03/08/2020 10:17

We stayed in a Scottish castle hotel once and were kept awake by intermittent singing. We mentioned it to the receptionist in the morning, who was baffled, as was the manager. It was off season so they just moved us to another room. It turned out to be a workman who was doing something in the kitchens, he had to work at night because the kitchen was in use during the day. What we were hearing was him singing along to the radio, although we couldn't hear the radio.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 03/08/2020 10:22

Also noise works weirdly depending on the direction of the wind and atmospheric conditions. There could be music playing quite a long distance away, like choir or church organ practise, but it's only audible in the care home occasionally. I live a reasonable distance from a tram line, about 10% of the time I can hear the sound of wheels on track when I'm in bed really clearly, the rest of the time I can't hear it at all or it's so faint that it's barely noticeable.

L8Bloomer · 03/08/2020 10:28

Sounds like an end of life thing to me. I don't find it so hard to believe that a person approaching death can ''hear'' music that isn't there. Whether it's one of their recognised senses or whether it's an internal ''palliative'' comfort when the body knows its time is nearly up, I just don'e find it that hard to get to grips with.

FortunesFave · 03/08/2020 10:28

We regularly hear our back kitchen door open and close and a man's heavy sigh.

When you look, the door's shut tight. Locked more often than not. The sound is unmistakable. I know a lot of people on here will pooh-pooh the idea of anything remotely woo but I think there's something left behind here.

I have heard of the music phenomenon often.

zen1 · 03/08/2020 10:32

Does she have one of those wireless plug-in doorbells? We heard all manner of weird music (nursery rhyme tunes etc) playing intermittently a few years ago and it was music from elsewhere being picked up by the doorbell receiver.

sparepantsandtoothbrush · 03/08/2020 10:36

@L8Bloomer so all 4 people who have heard it are approaching end of life? 🙄

FiveShelties · 03/08/2020 10:37

My Dad was suffering from dementia and for the last few weeks before he died he kept saying he had heard the local Brass Band playing. He had played trumpet in a brass band when he was a young man. We heard nothing but he said how much he enjoyed listening to it and he was always calmer on the days after he had heard it - very strange.

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cheesecurdsandgravy · 03/08/2020 10:38

I live about 200m from a Church. I can hear their organ in certain rooms in my house, but not in the garden.

Over lockdown while it was very quiet, I enjoyed listening regular practise from the organist quite clearly while working away in the back bedroom, but again, I couldn’t hear it in the garden.

Fanthorpe · 03/08/2020 10:41

I don’t doubt that elderly people hear music that isn’t there, tinnitus, auditory hallucinations are perfectly understandable as the brain ages.

iwantmyownicecreamvan · 03/08/2020 10:42

@L8Bloomer If it's an end of life thing, why can other people hear it too?

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