The contested edges of this subject — directed-energy weapons, Havana Syndrome, "the Hum," "targeted individuals," and fast-moving data-center reports. For each: what's documented, what's claimed, and what's still unproven.
Most of this site is about the measurable, documented case: a neighbor's audio equipment producing low-frequency sound that travels through shared walls. This page is for everything adjacent to it that gets asked about — the claims that sit on the edge between established science and speculation.
We don't leave these on the floor, and we don't dismiss them as "crazy." Dismissing something real as a conspiracy damages credibility just as much as overclaiming does — directed-energy weapons are a live example: the U.S. military's Active Denial System "heat ray" is real, deployed technology. The useful question is never "real or fake"; it's what exactly is documented, what is only claimed, and how would you tell which one applies to your situation.
Each entry below is tagged with how well-supported it is. This page is a reference, not medical or legal advice. For the measurable core of the subject, start with the Research Library and Documented Cases.
Claimed — what people assert, in its strongest form.
Documented — what is actually established or on the record.
Unproven — the part that has not been demonstrated.
How to tell — how to work out whether it applies to you.
Claimed
A covert, concealable device is being aimed through walls at an individual — a microwave or "energy" weapon producing the residential symptom cluster (pressure, a sense of vibration, sleep loss).
Documented
State and military directed-energy systems are real. The U.S. Active Denial System is a vehicle-mounted 95 GHz millimeter-wave "heat ray" for crowd control; LRAD "sound cannons" are deployed acoustic devices (see the Edrei case); and the microwave auditory ("Frey") effect is a genuine laboratory phenomenon. These systems are large, power-hungry, and line-of-sight.
Unproven
That a concealable, civilian-deployable device is being used covertly, through walls, against private individuals to cause these symptoms. No such device has been demonstrated, and the size, power, and line-of-sight needs of the fielded systems argue against a hidden neighbor-scale version.
How to tell
Residential cases here have an identifiable acoustic source — usually a neighbor's audio equipment — that can be measured with a dB(C)/dB(Z) meter and tied to a specific unit. If there is a measurable acoustic signal with a source, you do not need an exotic weapon to explain it.
Claimed
A foreign adversary is attacking U.S. personnel with a directed-energy or acoustic weapon.
Documented
The symptoms, reported by government personnel since 2016, are real. A January 2025 ODNI update found five agencies judge a foreign cause "very unlikely," while two judge a "roughly even chance" that a foreign actor had developed — and, in one view, used — a novel device, both with low confidence. NIH (2024) found no MRI-detectable brain injury. ODNI · NIH
Unproven
A specific weapon or perpetrator. The assessment is genuinely split and unresolved — not settled in either direction.
How to tell
This concerns government personnel and a possible novel device — a different context from a residential neighbor with consumer audio equipment. We keep the two separate so that residential complaints are not dismissed by association.
Claimed
Coordinated harassment by distributed groups of strangers using "voice-to-skull" (V2K) and civilian directed-energy weapons.
Documented
The psychiatric literature (Sheridan & James, 2015; Lustig et al., 2021) characterizes the gang-stalking / TI belief system as persecutory, with no validated mechanism for V2K against individuals. Separately, genuine, prosecuted acoustic harassment exists — the Seachrist case used ordinary speakers with an identifiable source.
Unproven
Voice-to-skull, distributed civilian DEW networks, and the mind-control framing.
How to tell
Identifiable source + a measurable signal + correlation with a specific neighbor points to a credible residential case. Distributed strangers + no measurable source + symptoms that follow you everywhere is consistent with the TI pattern — and warrants a medical and audiological workup, not as a dismissal but to find the real cause.
Claimed
A mysterious global low hum, sometimes attributed to secret infrastructure or weapons.
Documented
Some hums are real and traceable: the Windsor Hum in Ontario was linked to U.S. Steel's Zug Island plant and stopped when it idled in 2020 (see Documented Cases). A July 2026 NTNU study links many "Hum" reports to a form of low-frequency tinnitus — internal, not an outside sound (ScienceDaily).
Unproven
A single global source, or a covert cause.
How to tell
Record with a C- or Z-weighted meter and check whether it stops when you leave the building, wear earplugs, or the suspected source is switched off. If nothing measures and the hum follows you everywhere, see an audiologist.
Claimed
A specific low frequency (the "brown note," around 7 Hz) can incapacitate a person or cause loss of bowel control, and infrasound can be used as a covert weapon through walls.
Documented
Militaries have researched acoustic weapons, and audible crowd-control devices (LRAD) are deployed. High-level infrasound can cause annoyance, a pressure sensation, and, at extreme levels, measurable physical effects.
Unproven
The "brown note": repeated testing has failed to show any frequency that reliably causes loss of bowel control. Covert infrasonic incapacitation of individuals through walls at residential levels is not established.
How to tell
Residential exposure is about annoyance, sleep disruption, and measurable low-frequency pressure — not incapacitation. If the claim involves being "knocked out" or physically disabled by a hidden tone, that is the myth, not the documented effect.
Claimed
Chronic low-frequency and infrasound exposure causes systemic tissue changes across organs ("vibroacoustic disease").
Documented
Proposed by Castelo Branco & Alves-Pereira (2004) from studies of aviation and other heavily exposed workers.
Unproven
The concept has not been independently replicated and is not accepted by mainstream acoustics or medicine.
How to tell
Treat VAD as a hypothesis, not a diagnosis. Document measurable exposure and well-established effects (sleep disruption, annoyance) rather than relying on VAD framing in a complaint or claim.
Claimed
Wireless, EMF, or 5G exposure causes the same symptom cluster as low-frequency noise.
Documented
EMF is real, and the symptoms reported under "electromagnetic hypersensitivity" are real to the people experiencing them.
Unproven
Double-blind provocation studies have not shown that people can detect EMF, or that EMF causes the symptoms. It is a distinct question from acoustic low-frequency noise.
How to tell
If symptoms track a measurable acoustic or vibration source and shared walls, that points to low-frequency sound — which you can measure and act on, a more productive path than EMF.
Claimed
Specific continuous levels near AI and crypto data centers — e.g. facilities running up to ~96 dB (backup generators ~105 dB), and ~50–62 dB inside nearby homes — with a cluster of health effects.
Documented
Real litigation is underway — Valenzuela (Dowagiac, MI) and the Granbury bitcoin-mine suit, which survived a motion to dismiss — and governments are acting: Prince William County, VA adopted dB(C) limits. See Documented Cases.
Unproven
Many specific decibel figures are single-source and not independently verified, and health causation is not established.
How to tell
This is a live, fast-moving area. We keep the reports but flag the unverified figures; follow the court records as they develop.
The core distinction between documented residential cases and adjacent claims.
Court-documented cases with outcomes and primary sources.
The peer-reviewed evidence base on infrasound and low-frequency noise.
How to measure a low-frequency source and build a record.
Know of a claim we should add, or evidence that moves one of these from "unproven" to "documented"? That's exactly the kind of thing this page should track.
Structured symptom logging, evidence export, and documentation tools for low-frequency noise cases.