You might have disturbed by the noise many times and tried to spend some time in silence. Whenever we get upset we want to sit somewhere quietly. I always believed that we should learn to enjoy the silence. But have you ever heard, someone being disturbed by the silence? Yes, a violinist was..!! Because he was in anechoic chamber at Orfield laboratory.!!
Recently I bumped into an article which mentioned about the anechoic chamber of Orfield laboratory, Minnesota. It is known as the quietest place of earth and it is 99.9% sound-absorbent.!!
The anechoic chamber is a small room, massively insulated with layers of concrete and steel to block out exterior sources of noise, and internally lined with crosshatched buffers that absorb all sound. Even the floor is a suspended mesh to stop any sound of footfalls. If a soft whisper is measured at 20 decibels, the anechoic chamber is 1/16th of that. It was said that being in an anechoic chamber for longer than 15 minutes can cause extreme symptoms, from claustrophobia and nausea to panic attacks and aural hallucinations – people literally start hearing things. A violinist tried it and hammered on the door after a few seconds, demanding to be let out because he was so disturbed by the silence. But that record has been broken by George Foy.
George Foy had decided to go on a mission to find the quietest place on Earth; to discover whether absolute silence exists and his journey ended up in anechoic chamber. He booked a 45-minute session, no one had managed to stay in for that long before.
The door was shut behind him when he entered the room. It was dark in the room since the light can make noise.(Ohh!! I didn’t know that). He said, at first being in such a quiet place felt like nirvana. Then, after a minute or two, he became aware of the sound of his breathing. The dull thump of his heartbeat became apparent. As the minutes passed, he started to hear the blood rushing in his veins. He says ears become more sensitive as place gets quieter. He frowned and heard his scalp moving over his skull. He said that, it was eerie, and a strange, metallic scraping noise which he can’t explain.
Then he stopped worrying and began to enjoy it. He didn’t feel afraid and came out after 45 minutes. Everyone was impressed that he had beaten the record. He said, “Having spent so long searching for quiet, I was comfortable with the feeling of absolute stillness.”
He says, his desire for silence changed his life. He finds making space for moments of quiet in his day is the key to happiness. Silence gives us a chance to think about what we want in life. Our hearts fill with tranquility when we learn to enjoy silence; not only outer silence which is the absence of sounds but our inner silence that is closing the doors of the mind. That silence would be more blissful I guess. But indeed, tough one to achieve it!! But if one manages to achieve that inner silence, his heart will be the quietest place on earth!!!
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