Living in the city, we are always surrounded by so much noise and shouting; it’s almost frightening. I live in the city, and sometimes the noise is so bad that I feel like I’m going crazy. But the blog I want to write about today is not sound pollution; rather, the opposite of it. It’s about Silence.
Silence is something all of us like. We want to be in a quiet place always. That’s why noise-canceling headphones sales have gone way up over the years and are still growing. Everyone likes to be in their bubble and not listen to other people. And so, we like to be in a quiet place.
Apparently, the quietest place on earth is an anechoic chamber in Minneapolis. Anechoic is Latin and basically means no echo. They achieve no echo through the foam wedges which are put on the wall and even the floor on a spring floor, and down below there are all of these wedges.
What happens in this room is that the low-frequency sound will come in and, by the shape of it, bounce and just keep bouncing pretty much forever until it just gets lost in the wall. And then high frequencies are more so going to get absorbed into the foam itself.
There are reports that it is impossible to stay in one of these rooms and remain sane for a significant period of time. The record is apparently 45 minutes (it’s not, it’s just a myth). I felt a little claustrophobic. And yet, it felt like there is a lot of pressure on my head. So, the question is why would that be?
So, what I figured is just because when you listen in a normal room, there is a lot of reverb. To your ear, that means there is a lot of space, but there is none of that in here, so it feels claustrophobic. It feels like you are in a tiny room, like you could be in a coffin. I think it is really an anxiety response. Because if you are used to having these sounds around you and then you don’t anymore, you start to panic because you don’t have something you are used to, and I think that anxiety can increase, cause some stress, and maybe that’s why people go crazy or hallucinate with sound. It is just because they are trying to make up for what they are used to that isn’t there.
This room is kind of scary. First, you will hear any rustle of your clothing. So you move an inch, and you will hear it. Then you will hear any fluids that are in your mouth or your throat. You’ll hear them all moving around every time you move your mouth. And the longer you stay there, the more you will hear. So, you will start to hear the blood flow through your brain. Some people even say they can hear their heartbeat coming from their chest as well.
A violinist placed in one of these rooms was apparently banging on the door within a matter of seconds trying to get out. That guy says it’s impossible to stand up because you become so disoriented, dizzy, nauseous. And some people even hear oral hallucinations.
When I visited there, I thought it’s nothing like the people say it is. I mean, I can surely stay in a room without any light and sound for as long as I want, and I was able to stay there for over 2 hours, and it wasn’t too bad. I felt all the things from my heartbeat and the sounds I made when I moved, but it was kind of nice. But there are people who have a fear of many things, so the people who say that they can stay here for over 45 minutes or they start to hallucinate might be true, but it’s not everyone. There are people who find all sorts of situations really uncomfortable, like just being in a pitch-black room or being in a small confined space. So maybe those types of people would find this kind of unnerving. So, I think the myth that you can’t stay in here for longer than 45 minutes is busted, even though this is not Myth Busters. I still think it is not true, and I don’t think Silence Can Drive You Crazy…
