Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Can you listen to silence? Our brain does.

Thought this might hold a bit of interest for you sound obsessed folks.

Brain hears sound of silence.

Adding even more mystery to the old addgage, If a tree falls in the forest....

Interesting article. Who knows it might also lead to making better audio devices with better understanding of how we perceive sounds. I’m always hearing something anyway, tinnitus.

Standing inside an anechoic chambre(like Axioms), I can attest to the fact that somehow, silence can be heard in some strange kind of way.

You can't hear the silence, but since all other noise is basically gone, you can hear your own body's sounds really well. Especially your heart beating and blood through in your ears.

Yeah, it's more of an 'ambient feeling' I think, if that makes any sense.

I haven’t been in an anechoic chamber but with the curtains in my apartment the horizontal cues were missing so when the HDTV was off and it there was no light of any kind it was very disorienting. I mean even in a cave you can get a sense when your near something but this felt more like a void.

Speaking of caves, I was actually going to use that as a comparison of sorts, myself. I went into a very large and long cave in Venezuela many years ago(about 6 miles long and perhaps an average of 75-100ft diameter. The tour guides turned off their lanterns for a few seconds when we were deep in the cave, and it was indeed very disorienting....absolutely pitch black, and quiet to the point of near panic! You knew you were holding your hand an inch in front of your face, but couldn't see it or make it out at all. Guachero Cave Venezuela.

I’ve never been in a cave that wide(sounds cool) but I imagine it would be similar since the walls are far enough away you wouldn’t get the immediate feedback you don’t even realize you are use to hearing as the sounds of your own movement are reflected back to you. I’ve only ever been in narrow caves like the volcanic ones in northern AZ and some of the Japanese caves in Okinawa and other Pacific islands from WWII.

I've never been in an anechoic chamber, but I've read many times that some people find it very disturbing. I've been in a few caves in a 'lights-out' moment, and it's true - you're not prepared for the level of darkness.

Turning out the lights in a cave, or going into an anechoic chamber achieve is a taste of what a full sensory deprivation experience achieves...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/hallucinations/

On the other hand, there's are those that enjoy the 'liberating' experience of sensory deprivation. I know that there are restaurants where one dines in complete darkness. The idea being that the deprivation of sight forces your mind to focus intensely on the taste of the food. Not sure I'm brave enough to try it, but it's a fascinating idea.

http://www.darkdining.com/index_main.php

I wonder if anyone's thought of creating a restaurant that combines both total darkness and an anechoic chamber... Perhaps the sound of one's chewing would be deafening.

I know Richard Feynmann used sensory deprivation chambers a number of times. I don't know that he did it for any reason other than it was interesting to him what he could do. He wrote about being able to move his center of consciousness out of his head.

I suspect that the reason for this is that several of our main sensory organs are on our head. Without those, there's no reason to think that our mind is there.

The Sound of Silence is my favorite song.

How's that for intellegent contribution to the topic?

that is an awesome song, one of my favorites as well...

I just wish I could find better recordings of it. All I have is the Live in Central Park one and the original CD issue.

That is the one I have, both on vinyl and CD...

Excellent article,

People also say they hallucinate in Isolation Tanks.

Easier way to do it than that . . . .