The Note You Never Wrote

Another day, another bus ride, another trip to another city.

Here's something you may not know about the Choir: they can cause hallucinations. I know what you're thinking: "Surely you mean auditory hallucinations, since they only manipulate sound?" No and don't call be Shirley.

Have you ever heard of infrasound? It's sound on frequencies lower than 20 Hz. Normally, it doesn't have any affect on humans, but increase the sound pressure and you get something that causes uneasy feelings in people. And when I say "uneasy feelings," let me just quote that Wikipedia article: "anxiety, uneasiness, extreme sorrow, nervous feelings of revulsion or fear, chills down the spine and feelings of pressure on the chest." So yeah, there's that.

So this stuff supposedly is what causes "hauntings" (so you can blame the Choir for all those stupid Ghost Hunters type shows). But guess what happens when the infrasound is on the same resonant wavelength as the human eye? Well, it creates optical illusions, that's what.

I've experienced these hallucinations. You think it's bad hearing people insult you? Just imagine seeing a crowd of people surround you and berate you, all your friends and family, everyone you love telling you just how worthless you are. Just how they wouldn't care if you died, if you killed yourself right then and there.

I honestly don't know how I survived. It was afterward that I realized the white noise trick: don't hear anything, don't listen to anyone. Block out the world and they can't hurt you. Well, mentally, that is. They can still hurt you physically. Hence the running.

So next time you're all alone and break out into a cold sweat, just think about this.