In an increasingly busy world, we all search for a quiet place without noise and distraction. However, it’s important to understand that quiet is very different from absolute silence.
Complete and total silence is nearly impossible to find; in fact, it’s only available in one place on Earth. Here, the silence is so loud that people become completely disoriented, lose their balance, and even hallucinate. No one has ever lasted more than 55 minutes before begging to be let out.
The Quietest Place on Earth
While one might think that the quietest place on earth can be found in the middle of the ocean or a vast desert, it’s actually in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
There, a company called Orfield Laboratories built a completely silent anechoic chamber that is so quiet, those inside literally lose their minds in just 30 minutes.
The Orfield Laboratories Anechoic Chamber
Steven Orfield, the founder of Orfield Laboratories, built the anechoic chamber as an experiment to determine not only how quiet a place can be but also how that silence affects people.
The actual design of the room is exceptionally complex. It’s made of 3.3ft-thick fiberglass acoustic wedges and double walls of insulated steel and concrete, which eliminate 99.99% of all sound.
The Orfield Laboratory Chamber Is Literally the Quietest Place in the World
The Orfield anechoic chamber is not just extremely quiet; it was actually awarded the title of “Quietest Place on Earth” by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2005.
When inside the chamber, a person can legitimately hear their bones moving and their blood flowing. As Steven Orfield explained, “You’ll hear your heart beating; sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly.”
In the Chamber, “You Become the Sound”
Orfield continued, “When it’s quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear… In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.”
This unimaginable silence also leads to several body and mind reactions that completely disorient everyone who spends time in the chamber.
People Cannot Stand in the Quietest Place on Earth for More Than 30 Minutes
Orfield also explained that people cannot stand up in the chamber for more than 30 minutes before becoming completely off balance.
He said, “How you orient yourself is through sounds you hear when you walk. You take away the perceptual cues that allow you to balance and maneuver. If you’re in there for half an hour, you have to be in a chair.”
Hallucinations Also Begin at the Half Hour Mark
Additionally, around the 30-minute mark, most people start to experience anywhere from mild to intense hallucinations.
While each person reports different kinds of hallucinations, it’s often compared to the experience of taking psychedelic drugs, where sometimes, the visions and feelings are beautiful and inspiring, and other times, they are quite terrifying.
An Intense Spiritual Experience
Orfield explained that many people who spend time in the chamber report having intense spiritual experiences.
The company website states, “We have witnessed many seeming miracles, some of which have explanations and some of which remain mysteries, as a result of time spent in our anechoic chamber.”
No One Has Lasted for More than 55 Minutes
However, even those who have a positive or even miraculous experience inside the chamber eventually beg to be let out.
According to Orfield, the longest a person has ever lasted inside is a mere 55 minutes. While he and other researchers are certainly curious as to what would happen to someone after an hour, they won’t know until they find someone who can actually do it.
Could the Anechoic Chamber Be Used for Therapy?
While the experiment regarding how people handle complete silence is interesting in itself, Orfield hopes that the chamber could eventually be used as a psychological therapy.
Orfield wrote on the company’s website, “We remain curious about the nature of the chamber’s impact on all people, its therapeutic properties, and how it can influence human perception. While anechoic chambers are traditionally used to study products, ours is becoming also about the people.
Anyone Can Visit the Quietest Place on Earth
What’s incredible about Orfield’s anechoic chamber is that it is open to the public; anyone can make an appointment and experience the quietest place on Earth.
While it does cost $600 an hour, and you may only last a half hour, some say that the experience is like nothing they’ve ever felt before.
The Absence of Sound May Be Able to Change Your Life
It’s strange to think that simply the absence of sound could change someone’s life, but that’s exactly what Orfield and many others believe.
As Orfield explained, the chamber absolutely provides “therapeutic and spiritual effects” that could drastically improve one’s mental wellness.
