Seemingly Supernatural Behavior of a Sound Machine

In recent days I have noticed a particularly high level of spooky behavior from a sound machine I own, which has included things I am utterly unable to account for.  When no one was touching the machine, the machine underwent various types of  changes of state, which seemingly cannot be explained through any imaginable conventional explanation. Before discussing the spooky behavior, let me thoroughly describe the machine and its normal behavior. 

Description of the Sound Machine

The sound machine is shown below. It is one I bought quite a few years ago, a machine that has almost always worked with perfect reliability and predictability. I have used the machine for years to make a soothing "waterfall" sound while I sleep. The manual of the machine is here. 

Reading in a clockwise direction from the lower left to the lower right, the bar-shaped buttons on the upper part of the machine are:

• Rainforest
• Ocean
• Thunder
• Summer Night
• Rain
• Waterfall

Let's call the six choices above the "six sound channels," and let's call those bar-shaped buttons the "sound channel buttons." Pressing the "Power" button in the middle of the bottom row of circular buttons (and pressing on one of the sound channel buttons) will cause the machine to produce the selected sound. Until it is unplugged, the machine will remember whatever sound channel was last selected. So, for example,  if I press the Power button and press "Rain,"  the machine will make a rain sound. If I press the Power button again to stop the sound, and then press the Power button later to turn back on the sound, the machine will make the rain sound (the last sound channel I selected).  And, to give another example, if I press the Power button and press "Waterfall,"  the machine will make a waterfall sound. If I press the Power button again to stop the sound, and then press the Power button later to turn back on the sound, the machine will make the waterfall sound (the last sound channel I selected).

There is one exception to what I noted above.  The machine's "memory" of what was the last sound I selected is what computer experts call "volatile" memory, meaning that is a memory lost when the machine is unplugged.  If you unplug the machine, it causes the "current sound channel" to reset to the Rainforest sound channel, no matter what sound channel you had last selected. 

The circular buttons in the front of the machine read as follow:

• Hour
• Timer
• Radio
• Power
• Al Set
• Al Mode
• Min

The Hour button and the Min button (standing for Minute) can be used to reset the time shown on the machine. Pressing the Power button causes the green light above the Power button to become lit (if it is not lit), or causes that light to become unlit (it the light was lit). Pressing the Power button also causes the machine to make whatever sound is the current "sound channel," as long as the volume is set high enough. Pressing the Radio button turns on "radio reception" as a seventh "sound channel."  So if the Power button was lit, and you pressed Radio, you would hear a radio station. Unplugging the machine and plugging it back in will never result in the machine making a sound, unless you have also pressed the Power button, causing the green Power light to light up. 

The device on the left side of the machine controls the volume, and the device on the right side of the machine controls the current radio station (which is relevant only if Radio has been chosen as the sound channel). 

The back of the machine looks like this:

At the back of the machine are four things:

• FM/AM switch
• Backlight High/Low
• DC Jack
• Projector On/Off

The FM/AM switch is relevant only if Radio has been selected as the current sound channel. The "Backlight High/Low" button controls how strong the lighting is of the front digital time display. The DC Jack is a slot where you plug in the DC power. The Projector On/Off button controls some projection feature that I never use. 

The back of the machine has a unit where batteries can be inserted, but I have never used batteries with this machine. The sound machine is plugged into a double-outlet shown below. The black power supply unit shown below gives power to the sound machine. The white electrical cord is for a fan about a meter from the sound machine. There is no known problem with this outlet. Last summer I ran the fan every night using this outlet, without ever experiencing any abnormality such as a power interruption. 

The sound machine is located on the floor about a meter away from the edge of the bed where I sleep. There is no possibility that any leg movements or blanket movements could cause one of the buttons to be pressed. 

When you pull the power supply so that the machine is unplugged, the following will happen:

(1) The clock will reset to 12:00 (without showing a blinking time). The displayed time will continue to advance as time passes. So, for example, if you unplugged the machine, plugged the machine back in, and came back 10 minutes later, the displayed time would be 12:10. 

(2) The sound machine's "volatile" memory of the previously selected sound channel will be lost when you unplug the machine. After a loss of power the current sound channel is always reset to the Rainforest channel. So, for example, if you had set the current sound channel to "Ocean" by pressing on the Ocean button while the Power light was showing, and if you then unplugged the sound machine and plugged it back in, then if you were to press the Power button you would hear the Rainforest sound. 

I don't know whether there is any such thing as Internet-connected sound machines, but this humble device I bought for little money many years ago is certainly no such thing, ruling out "hacking" as an explanation for any of its strange behavior. 

Spooky Behavior of the Sound Machine, November 7 2022 to December 14, 2022

Below are some of the very strange results I have got in recent months from this machine:

• On November 7, 2022 I six times saw (at various times of the day and night never close to 12:00) the sound machine  have a time close to 12:00. It was just as if each of these six times the power to the clock was being interrupted, and then restored, causing the time to be reset to 12:00 (the clock on this device doesn't blink when the power is interrupted).
• On December 11, 2021 at about 8:30 PM I noticed that the displayed time on the machine had dimmed. This is exactly what you would get if you had switched the Backlight High/Low switch on the back of the machine from High to Low. But no one had adjusted that switch or even touched the sound machine.  
• Between December 11, 2021 (about 8:30 PM) to December 12, 2021 (about 10:00 AM) I noticed that about 15 different times the sound machine had switched from making sound to becoming silent, even though no one touched the machine. During each of these times the clock had seemed to reset to 12:00. It was just as if about 15 different times the machine had been unplugged for an instant, and then plugged back in.
• There was several instances of gigantically improbable synchronicity on this night. I looked at the sound machine about 15 different times on this night, but never more than a few seconds at a time. During one of those roughly 15 times, the machine reset to a 12:00 time while I was looking at it but nowhere close to touching it. Annoyed by the machine turning off so often, I turned on a fan to create the "white noise" I desired. Two times while either turning the fan on or off, the sound machine reset to 12:00 at the instant I was touching the knob on the fan. There should have been no causal connection between these two events. The fan and the sound machine are plugged in different slots of a wall double outlet. I estimate that the chance probability of such coincidences is less than 1 in a million.  Test attempts to reproduce such an effect produced no success. I later tried quite a few times turning the fan on and off, and it never had any effect on the sound machine.  
• On December 13 during waking hours there were quite a few additional cases of the sound machine inexplicably resetting to 12:00 and becoming silent.  Twice this occurred while I was lifting the machine up to inspect it, even though the machine stayed plugged in the whole time. These seemed like additional cases of extremely improbable synchronicity. 
• On the night of December 13 to December 14, there were six additional cases of the sound machine resetting to 12:00 and becoming silent.  On this night I recorded changes in the "sound channel" after the machine reset to 12:00 and became silent. If caused by a loss of electrical power or by unplugging the machine, this always causes the sound channel to reset to the Rainforest channel. But something different happened. The sequence of sound channels that occurred from the resetting events alternated between the Rainforest channel and the Waterfall channel. 

Let me describe very exactly what occurred on this night of December 13 to December 14 regarding the sound channels. By "a while later" I mean a time that might have been quite a few minutes or longer than an hour. The sound machine was never touched during this night. 

(1) When I went to bed the machine was making the Waterfall sound, and had the correct time. 

(2) A while later the machine went silent, resetting to 12:00. When I pressed on the Power button, the machine made the Rainforest sound. I reset the sound channel so that the machine made the Waterfall sound.

(3) A while later the machine went silent, resetting to 12:00. When I pressed on the Power button, the machine made the Waterfall sound.  This is not what would have happened from any mere interruption of the electrical power. Whenever you unplug it, the machine always resets the sound channel to the Rainforest channel. 

(4) A while later the machine went silent, resetting to 12:00. When I pressed on the Power button, the machine made the Waterfall sound.  This is not what would have happened from any mere interruption of the electrical power. Whenever you unplug it, the machine always resets the sound channel to the Rainforest channel. 

(5) A while later the machine went silent, resetting to 12:00. When I pressed on the Power button, the machine made the Rainforest sound. I reset the sound channel so that the machine made the Waterfall sound.

(6) A while later the machine went silent, resetting to 12:00. When I pressed on the Power button, the machine made the Rainforest sound. I reset the sound channel so that the machine made the Waterfall sound.

(7) A while later the machine went silent, resetting to 12:00. When I pressed on the Power button, the machine made the Waterfall sound.  This is not what would have happened from any mere interruption of the electrical power. Whenever you unplug it, the machine always resets the sound channel to the Rainforest channel. 

Twice on this night there seemed to be additional cases of synchronicity. One of the times mentioned above I awoke and heard no sound from the sound machine, finding it showing a time of 12:00, just as if it had reset at the same moment I awoke. A loss of the sound should not have caused me to awake. Another time I awoke to hear the sound machine making the Waterfall sound, only to hear the machine go silent a few seconds later. 

Finally my sleep was done on this night, and I awoke about 9:30 AM on December 14. Checking the sound machine, I was astonished. The machine now was making the Waterfall sound very clearly, but there was no time displayed on its clock. It was not merely a dimmed time display, but no time display at all. No type of fiddling with the machine can get it to reach this state of making a sound but showing no time. A knob on the back of the machine (marked "Backlight High/Low") allows you to switch between a bright display of the time and a dim display of the time.  But the machine does not allow you to turn off the time display while the machine makes any of its sounds. You can unplug the machine to stop it from displaying a time, but if you do that the machine will not be able to make any sound.  When I unplugged the machine and plugged it back in, the time display was as bright as ever.  The "Backlight High/Low" switch on the back of the machine was still set to "High," meaning the digital time should have been displaying in full brightness.

 I wonder whether this state of the machine was some kind of "life after death" symbolism. The machine was showing no time on its clock, as it can do only when unplugged or "dead."  But the machine was clearly making a Waterfall sound, as it can do only when plugged in or "alive." The combination of the two states rather suggests a "deceased but still living" motif. 

I wrote and published on this blog the above account of events of December 11,2022 to December 14, 2022 on the morning of December 14, 2022, using notes I had taken as the events occurred.   While some of the events described above could be explained by some far-fetched idea of repeated power interruptions, we have in the account above three types of events that cannot be explained by any mere power interruption. 

Realizing how inexplicable was the machine state described above in boldface, I tried to photographically document it, but foolishly only took a photo rather than a video. If I get this effect again, I will take a video and post it to www.youtube.com.  On a previous day in 2019, I had great success in capturing inexplicable device behavior in a video, as you can see by reading the post here. 

 

Keep checking this post for additional updates on this strange tale.  I have attached some letter labels to parts of the machine, and I wonder whether the machine's strange behavior will result in events that will effectively be the spelling out of meaningful letter sequences.  

Update #1: December 15, 2022

During the past 24 hours I saw an additional case of synchronicity.  I picked up the sound machine to inspect it, and the clock reset to 12:00 as I was merely holding it (although I had not done anything to unplug it).  Also when I awoke around 10:00 AM I found the digital clock time was dimmed. You can only dim that clock time by pressing a button at the back of the machine (the Backlight High/Low button), but no one had pressed that button during the night.  The clock had been displaying the time at full brightness when I went to bed. 

Update #2: December 16, 2022

On this night I observed dramatic phenomena:

(1) First, while the sound machine was making the Waterfall sound, I heard a kind of sound sputter, in which the sound faded and then resumed its normal sound.  I have never heard this effect before from this machine. 

(2) About twenty minutes later the sound from the machine stopped. I looked at the machine and saw no time displayed, not even with dimly lighted numbers. I went into another room to get my camera to film this state. When I returned the sound machine's clock showed a time of 12:00 in bright numbers.  We have here a kind of reset different from all other resets I have seen, something resembling what would have happened if the power to the machine had been interrupted for about 30 seconds, not just an instant.  

(3) Minutes later, the sound machine reset its time to 12:00. But now the time display showed an effect I have never seen before with this machine: the displayed time was fading in and fading out. I got a video of this effect, showing this fade-in/fade out effect occurring over the course of about 30 seconds. I took the following video on this day, showing quite clearly the repeated fading in and fading out of the sound machine's clock time:

After the event shown above, I unplugged the sound machine and plugged it back in. Its clock display was then bright and steady for the rest of the day. Modern digital clocks don't show any flickering effect towards the end of their lifetimes. This sound machine has never undergone any physical damage, and I expect its clock to keep working for many additional years.  A Google search using the phrase "digital clock time fading in and out" fails to produce any accounts of such a thing. 

During all of the mysterious sound machine resets described in this post, there was in the room a separate digital clock using red numbers to display time, which never showed any irregularity, and never showed any sign that the room had any power interruption. That clock using red letters is a type of clock that will always produce blinking numbers after a power interruption, until its time is reset.  

The effects described above are so inexplicable they reminded me of the opening narration of the old TV series "The Outer Limits":

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. ... You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits."

Update #3: December 21, 2022

The sound machine worked perfectly without any anomalies between December 17 and December 20. On December 21 the machine stopped making sound and reset to 12:00, at 12:30 AM.  The rest of the night it ran fine.  Abour 2:40 PM I found the sound machine displaying no time (not even in a dim light). Pressing the machine's Power button caused the time display to show a time of 12:15 in a dim light. Unplugging the machine and plugging it back in caused the machine to revert to a full bright display of the time, with 12:00 showing as the time. There is no way to fiddle with the machine to get it to reach a state in which the machine is plugged in but no time is displayed.  The machine always shows the time when unplugged and then plugged back in.  

Update #4: December 24, 2022

The sound machine worked without any anomalies on December 22 and December 23. I found the machine on December 24 displaying the correct time. Pressing the Power button to turn on the sound, I found the machine making only a kind of sputtering or groaning noise. Again, we have the machine in a state it can not be brought to through any amount of fiddling. I cycled through each of the sound channels, without the sound ever changing. Unplugging the machine and plugging the machine back in restored the machine to its ordinary state. 

Update #5: December 26, 2022

The sound machine reset three times, resetting its clock to 12:00, and becoming silent.

Update #6: January 2, 2023

I woke up in the middle of the night to find the sound machine's clock displaying numbers that were just barely visible. The numbers had been fully visible with normal brightness when I had gone to sleep. There is a switch at the back of the machine allowing you to change the brightness of the clock's displayed time, but no one had touched that. When I woke up in the morning the sound machine's clock displayed the time in its normal brightness, much brighter than when I had seen the sound machine's time in the middle of the night. 

Update #6: January 3, 2023

I woke up in the middle of the night to record a dream. The sound machine's clock displayed the time in normal brightness. I soon noticed that the time was not displaying on the clock. A few minutes later, after writing down a dream 1 had, the sound machine's clock was showing in normal brightness. No one had touched the machine. Again, we have a strong element here of synchronicity. 

Update #7: January 7, 2023

When I went to bed the sound machine's clock displayed the time in normal brightness. In the middle of the night I could see that the machine now displayed the time in only half its normal brightness. 

Update #8: February 14, 2023

During the past 30 days I have used the sound machine every  night, without any irregularity in its performance. This seems to rule out any kind of "dying machine" hypothesis as an explanation for the effects described above. 

Update #9: March 22, 2023

After more than a month of completely normal behavior, my sound machine started acting spooky again on March 22, 2023. First the machine stopped making any sound, at about 2:30 AM. I pushed a button to restore the waterfall sound it had been making. Then at 4:34 AM the machine stopped making any sound again. I restored the sound again, only to find the sound stop two additional times. The last time in addition to the sound stopping, the clock time had dimmed  very much, being no longer readable. After restoring the machine to its normal state, with it making the waterfall sound, the machine worked okay for several more hours. 

Update #10: March 24, 2023

After working normally on March 23, the sound machine again turned off mysteriously four times during the night of March 24. During such events, there is never any disturbance in a digital clock I have in the same room. 

Update #11: March 25, 2023

The sound machine again turned off mysteriously five times during the night of March 25. In the past seven days when I would press the Power button to turn back on the sound after one of these turn-off events, about half of the time I would get the "Waterfall" channel and about half of the time I would get the "Rainforest" channel.   

Update #12: March 26, 2023:

There were several additional cases of the sound machine turning off its sound mysteriously. This night I spent only about a minute looking at the sound machine, but I saw (1) the clock on the machine resetting its time from 12:18 to 12:00; (2) the brightness of the clock display increasing noticeably as I watched it. In both cases I was not touching the machine. 

Update #13: March 27, 2023:

The sound machine turned off mysteriously only once, at 2:13 AM.  Pressing the power button in the middle restored the waterfall sound. Whenever that happens, you cannot explain it as a mere power interruption, since the machine resets to its default "rainfall" sound when you unplug it. 

Update #14: March 28, 2023:

The sound machine turned off mysteriously three times. The first time there was a very strong synchronicity. At the very moment I pressed the Power button to turn on the sound, at about 10:00, the clock reset to 12:00. I press that Power button every night to turn on the sound, and I have never before seen the time resetting when I pressed this Power button.  

Update #14: March 29, 2023:

The sound machine's clock stopped displaying when I pressed the Power button, even though the Waterfall sound could be heard. Normally pressing the Power button merely turns on the sound when you press it. 

Update #15: March 31, 2023:

After I pressed the Power button to turn on the machine's sound, the clock light flickered, and a few seconds later the sound turned off. The machine's sound also turned off mysteriously two other times. 

Update #16: April 1, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off two different times. One time after the turn-off, pressing the Power button produced the Rainforest sound. The other time,   pressing the Power button produced the Waterfall sound. 

Update #17: April 2, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off one time in the night. 

Update #18: April 3, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously reset its clock to 12:00 twice during the day. 

Update #19: April 4, 2023:

In the middle of the night I awoke. Within about twenty minutes that I was awake, the sound machine mysteriously turned off three different times. Before I fell to sleep, I saw that the light on the machine's clock had mysteriously dimmed, and that the light seemed to be varying in brightness, like the effect shown in the video above. When I woke up in the morning, the clock had returned to its regular brightness. 

Update #20: April 5, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off seven times. At 1:00 I looked at the clock on the machine, and could see no time displayed. As I looked at the machine, its sound turned off, and the clock display turned on, now showing 12:00. At 1:09 AM the sound volume seemed to get lower and lower. and when I looked at the clock I could see no time displayed.  After 2:00 AM the sound and clock worked normally. 

Update #21: April 6, 2023:

Two different times the sound from the machine gradually faded out, before suddenly returning to its original volume. If you had made measurements of the volume of the machine every second, it would have been something like this: 6 decibels, 6 decibels, 5 decibels, 4 decibels, 3 decibels, 2 decibels, 1 decibel, 0 decibels, 6 decibels, 6 decibels.  

Update #22: April 11, 2023:

Eleven different times the sound from the machine mysteriously turned off.  Most of the times the Waterfall sound resumed when I pressed the Power button, such as would not occur if there had been any power interruption (which would have caused a return to the default Rainfall channel). 

Update #23: April 12, 2023:

This night as soon as I tried to turn on the sound machine's sound, I got a very eerie effect. Here are the exact words I wrote just after seeing the effect:

"Turned on power button at 10:00. Clock reset to 12:00. But it did not advance. Froze at 12:00 for 3 minutes in dim numbers. Finally the time progressed to 12:01 -- number still dim. Unplugging and plugging in restored bright numbers."

The sound machine has an electronic digital clock, but the time on the machine froze for three minutes, staying at 12:00. Only after three minutes did the sound machine's clock start progressing to times beyond 12:00. 

Eleven times last night, the sound machine mysteriously stopped making its sound, with the time resetting to 12:00. The machine has no battery, and is plugged directly into an electrical socket. During the less than six minutes I spent looking at the clock this night, twice I observed a "fade out and restoration" effect. It went like this: the waterfall sound from the machine would get softer, softer, and softer, and simultaneously the time on the machine's digital clock would get dimmer, dimmer and dimmer until finally you could not see the clock numbers, and the machine was silent or almost silent. Then instantly the clock numbers would return to full brightness, and the machine would return to its full previous volume.  It reminds me of the diminuendo effect that the late tenor Franco Corelli had mastered. 

Update #24: April 13, 2023:

There was only one anomaly, which I filmed. When I pressed the power button (which normally just turns on the machine's sound and lights up a little light above the power button) the sound machine went entirely dark and silent for a second, with no clock time showing. A second later the clock numbers could be seen (showing a correct time of about 10:00),  and the sound could be heard.  The machine has never done that before when I pressed the power button. 

Update #25: April 14, 2023:

The sound machine turned off mysteriously four times. There was a repeat of the  diminuendo effect that had occurred on April 12. The clock numbers faded, and then the sound got softer and softer until no sound could be heard. About ten seconds later the clock numbers suddenly showed at full brightness and the sound returned to its normal volume. 

Update #26 April 15, 2023:

When I went to turn on the sound machine's sound by pressing the Power button, I saw the machine was not displaying any time. Being plugged in, the machine should have been displaying a time. I pressed the Power button, and still no time displayed for about ten seconds. Then suddenly the clock light turned on.

Update #27 October 12, 2023:

During the past six months I have used the sound machine every night, and it has acted in a completely normal manner. This just makes the previous spooky behavior seem all the more striking. 

Update #28 October 16, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off its sounds at around 2:15 in the morning. Finding the clock time still displaying, I turned the sound back on. In the morning I found the machine both silent and without any clock time displayed. I pulled the plug and out and put it back in. No clock time displayed. I did that again, and the clock time showed only dimly. I pulled out the plug again and put it back in, and now the clock numbers showed at full brightness. 

Update #29 October 17, 2023:

Seven times during the night the sound machine mysteriously turned off, each time during a different hour. Three of these times the machine mysteriously turned off a few seconds after I woke up. Once the machine mysteriously turned off while I was thinking of my deceased father. 

Update #30 October 18, 2023:

Nine times the sound machine mysteriously turned off.

Update #30 October 19, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off so many times I lost track, but I know it was more than a dozen times.  Once the machine mysteriously turned off a second after I had turned it on. I took videos showing the effect of the clock numbers mysteriously fading in and fading out.  They showed an effect like that shown in the video above. 

Update #31 October 20, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off about five times. 

Update #32 October 21, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off about seven times. I once saw the clock numbers on the sound machine looking dark, and I saw the numbers seem to fade in and fade out, before finally resuming full brightness.  

Update #33 October 22, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off about five times. 

Update #34 October 26, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off more than a dozen times, all at night. There was another case of the sound machine's clock numbers mysteriously fading out slowly before returning to full brightness. In the great majority of the cases listed above, the mysterious turn-offs of the sound machine occurred only at night.  

Update #35 October 27, 2023:

The sound machine mysteriously turned off more than a dozen  times, all at night.

Update #36 October 28, 2023: 

The sound machine mysteriously turned off about eight times, all at night. I could see an effect of the clock numbers of the untouched sound machine slowly fading out, and then suddenly returning to full brightness. 

Update #37 October 29, 2023: 

The sound machine mysteriously turned off four times, all at night. I could see an effect of the clock numbers of the untouched sound machine slowly fading out, and then suddenly returning to full brightness. 

Update #38 October 30, 2023: 

The sound machine mysteriously turned off four times, all at night. 

Update #39 October 31, 2023: 

The sound machine mysteriously turned off about eight times. I could see an effect of the clock numbers of the untouched sound machine slowly fading out as the sound dimmed, with the clock numbers then returning to full brightness.

Update #40  November 1, 2023: 

The sound machine mysteriously turned off many different times, usually (it seemed) very soon after I had turned it back on (typically less than a minute). 

Update #41 November 2, 2023: 

The sound machine mysteriously turned off about five time.. I took a video of the machine, which I watched in the morning. The video showed the clock numbers changing from barely visible to not visible, and then suddenly becoming bright again, when no one was touching the machine. 

Update #42 November 3, 2023: 

The sound machine mysteriously turned off about seven times. I saw the clock numbers fade out to become completely dark, and heard another example of the slow fading out of the sound (the diminuendo effect), before the machine returned to normal.