Silence is golden and at times that is why you feel like you need a little peace and quiet to reflect back on your life, away from loud music  people, social media and internet. You need to recollect and focus on what’s ahead and you go to your room and lock the door in order to get the peace and quiet you need. Well, how then would you like to get as close as possible to what true silence really sounds like that it becomes unbearable after a short time?

It turns out that too much quiet can drive you crazy or at least make you hallucinate, as found out by scientists at Orfield Labs in Minneapolis. They did their research in an anechoic chamber which holds the Guinness world record for the world’s quietest place at -9.4 decibels.

As humans, we can only detect sounds above 0 decibel, the chamber is virtually soundless. The room consists of a mesh floor, walls lined with meter-long sound-proofing wedges and a meshed ceiling. People inside the chamber can hear their own stomach, heart or even ears as the ear makes its own noise when it does not detect any sound.

The key to the level off silence is the fact that the walls, floor and ceiling absorb all sound, rather than reflecting it, as most surfaces do, thus the term “anechoic” meaning no echo.  For those who had a chance to visit the chamber, they say that it is not an especially pleasant experience, especially in the dark. The longest anyone has ever spent alone in the chamber is 45 minutes.

This chamber was also nicknamed as the dead room since nothing seems alive, all sounds are sucked. Upon entrance, you will notice that it looks really remarkable and it’s the kind of place you want to just sit in, meditate and relax. After a couple of minutes, it starts being all strange, you can hear your blood pumping through your veins and your breathing sounds are very loud.

There is a really unexpected, almost oppressive silence and the fact that nothing is reflected back to you means that even the sound of your own voice seems strange in your ears. In a normal situation I would think that it’s depressing when there is no background music, but this chamber runs short of adjectives to describe its state.

It’s really a funny interesting but at the same time weird kind of experience, I mean, who wouldn’t want to experience this kind of silence that can cause hallucinations. If this kind of rare places excites you, then contact Silverbird Travel Plus Agents who will arrange this trip to the U.S.A for you.