If you take a 15-minute car ride from downtown Minneapolis, you’ll find a nondescript concrete building with ivy climbing its exterior walls. Orfield Laboratories sits a block away from a bowling alley called Memory Lanes and directly across the street from Skol Liquors. Inside Orfield Laboratories is an anechoic chamber that has been certified by Guinness as the quietest place in the world.
Many years ago I was doing work at Camp Roberts military base. I was working on the wiring that runs between explosives bunkers. The sergeant escorted me to the location, left me alone, and went back to retrieve the keys for the bunkers as well as armed soldiers to observe my work and shoot me if I made the wrong moves. Keep in mind that because there were explosives, I could not have any wireless devices turned on nor the vehicle's stereo. It was so silent out in the middle of nowhere that I actually had to tap my foot in the dirt or the only sound I heard was my heartbeat in my head. It was horrible. I have never felt the feeling of "losing it" and the sound of absolute silence really made me wonder.
I have often wondered what it would be like to go into a sensory deprivation tank.
It’s good- VERY good. You want at least 90 minutes and like many other things, the second time is MUCH ether than the first- the first time, you are just sorts getting used to everything.
One random but of advice: Wipe the ceiling with a towel before you go in. (Condensation can drip onto yer head/eyes)
Many years ago I was doing work at Camp Roberts military base. I was working on the wiring that runs between explosives bunkers. The sergeant escorted me to the location, left me alone, and went back to retrieve the keys for the bunkers as well as armed soldiers to observe my work and shoot me if I made the wrong moves. Keep in mind that because there were explosives, I could not have any wireless devices turned on nor the vehicle's stereo. It was so silent out in the middle of nowhere that I actually had to tap my foot in the dirt or the only sound I heard was my heartbeat in my head. It was horrible. I have never felt the feeling of "losing it" and the sound of absolute silence really made me wonder.
We are all built differnt.
I value pure silence so much that there are times (few and far between these days) that I will even unplug the fridge so the compressor doesnt irritate me. Doesnt work so well in the city, but out in a rural area..
In Alaska (and YTC), I've been alone in some pretty remote locations, both summer & winter, day & night. There has always been something to hear.
Don't misunderstand, it's been incredibly quiet. I just don't think it's the level of quiet they're talking about.
When I asked my Dad what I was still hearing, he said that sound you hear in the dead of silence is "The World Running (i.e. the machinery that makes it all happen)".
[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 12-30-2018).]
You want quiet...6,000 feet over lake Huron..just kill the motor. levers forward, mags off, everything outside is equally black . You now built a black-hole glider
I'd give my left nut to do that again....but, it will probably never happen.
[This message has been edited by MidEngineManiac (edited 12-31-2018).]
