The Sound of Silence

Have you ever been somewhere that is COMPLETELY silent? I have. They can be hard to find these days, but possible.
When I'm somewhere silent, I notice something: the silence seems INCREDIBLY loud!
Try this: next time you're home alone, when all lights are out, and the a.c. is off, LISTEN. You can also get this effect by laying underwater in a bathtub when the house is silent.
You hear this ringing noise that is sometimes pulsating.

What the french toast causes this?!

reply to post by gatorboi117


Vibrations of your body and ears etc (soul?) and your surroundings I guess.

reply to post by gatorboi117


That is tinnitus.

As you grow older and your ears are damaged from use the hairs that pick up the sound waves get "broken" in certain frequency ranges and it cause that ringing that you hear.

Everybody has it.

The sounds you hear -- hissing and pulsing -- are the sounds of your own body. You can actually hear the blood flowing in the veins and arteries near the ears. In absolute silence, I can actually hear my own heart beating and the the movements of my internal organs (many of them, like your intestines, are actually moving as they work).

Some of the hissing you hear is background stimulation of the auditory processes -- sort of "noise" that normally is so low that it is not noticeable in the presence of ambient sound.

Your body is really an amazing thing.

well when people are put into sensory deprivation tanks they hallucinate. maybe what you are experiencing is a mild form of that. personally I've always wanted to try sensory dep. to see what my mind dreams up