sssssssshhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

‘Quietest place on earth’ causes hallucinations

While we all can appreciate getting some peace and quiet every now and then, you might be surprised to learn that there’s only so much of it the brain can take.

That’s what scientists have discovered based on the reported experiences of those who have spent some quality alone time in Orfield Laboratory’s anechoic chamber, a room that’s so soundproof, it’s officially listed as the “Quietest place on earth,” according to Guinness World Records.

Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the acoustic chamber is comprised of 3.3-foot-thick fiberglass acoustic wedges, double walls of insulated steel and foot-thick concrete, which enables it to be 99.99 per cent sound absorbent with a decibal rating of −9.4 dBA. Any sounds below the threshold of 0 dBA is undetectable by the human ear. And at such a low decibal level, the environment becomes so disconcerting that people have actually started to hallucinate.

“When it’s quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You’ll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly, Steven Orfield, the lab’s President and founder, told The Daily Mail. “In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.”

The fact that mere absence of noise causes people to psychologically fall apart shows the degree to which we, as sensory beings, rely on the everyday ruckus constantly emanating around us. For instance, Orfield points out that audio cues within any environment help to orient people to their surroundings. But when there’s nothing but utter silence, the mind struggles to make sense of what’s happening or where it is. That means that “if you’re there for more than half an hour, you have to be in a chair,” he added.

And the longest anyone’s ever spent in the chamber? 45 minutes.

0

💬 4 comments

4 Comments

layla_drifts· 25d ago

That seems worth a trip to the twin city! I once had the wonderful opportunities of spending time in geodesic domes and even building one and discovered that in the center of the dome all the sounds reflect into you causing something almost like the opposite of an echo, but equally intense and beautiful. One day I ate 4g of cubensis and enjoyed the acoustics of the dome.

0

brightwillow· 25d ago

Wow JBG! ~ There's something you don't hear of everyday (hey, that's a pun even) I would so love to give that a try - along with float tanks and just about any intense sensory-deprivation apparatus. I am especially interested in the tanks, I am not claustrophobic, which is weird because I'm everythingelse phobic for the most part...anyway nice find. Very intriguing!

0

nadiya44· 23d ago

...... wicked ;x

0

earnestdeer· 23d ago

That's really cool. I may have to hear this for myself. I want to experience my psyche partially fall apart due to lack of sound. As long as there are some cool visions

0