Deciphering the Hum: Autism, Electricity, and the Global Phenomenon

Do autistic people hear the hum too?

Andrea Piacquadio | Pexels.com

I’ve been watching The Listeners, it’s based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Jordan Tannahill. I’d looked it up online before it premiered on BBC1 to find out what it was and what the ‘hum’ is. I started to make parallels with autism and how some autistic people say they can hear electricity. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like that apart from the odd bit of static and whistling noises I assume we all hear occasionally (unless you’ve been diagnosed with tinnitus where you hear the noises more or less all the time).

The noise is like a buzzing sound, but I don’t know whether I’ve tuned it out or simply don’t hear it. My sensory processing issues seem to centre more around touch, tickling and tingling feelings in my skin and hearing sounds coming from different directions to where they originally came from (the skin sensitivity is possibly linked to synesthesia).

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In The Listeners, Claire begins to hear what she only describes as a humming sound. She seeks answers to what it is and where it’s come from. She joins a mixed group of people who all hear the ‘hum,’ which has become their way of life now. This escalates into something darker, but I won’t give away any spoilers here.

If you’ve seen it, is it quite as sinister as it seems in the BBC1 drama?

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