The brain’s evolved vigilance actively forecloses the possibility of true silence

Evidence

I find that, far from getting more anxious, I grow steadily happier with this silence of the anechoic chamber. After all, this may be as close as I will ever get to perfect silence. It feels soft and comforting. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 496 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Some who have spent time in less extreme chambers than Orfield’s have reported feelings of panic, disorientation, dizziness, and nausea; the last two being further indication of the tight connection between balance and hearing. Others who have gone in alone and in darkness to experience the chamber as a form of sensory deprivation environment have demanded to be let out after only a short time inside. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 474 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

To be perfectly silent is to be perfectly dead. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 611 (#builds-on, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: People instinctively generate noise to assert existence against overwhelming emptiness — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 224; Total silence is equated biologically and symbolically with death itself — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 611; Pure, absolute silence has never existed and cannot exist — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 603 (+29 more)

Related

• Extreme near-total silence can trigger panic, disorientation, and physical illness (similarity 0.91)
• Total silence is equated biologically and symbolically with death itself (similarity 0.91)
• People fear true silence because it threatens rather than merely rests their worldview (similarity 0.90)
• Extreme physical silence can produce deep restfulness rather than only distress (similarity 0.90)
• Near-total silence in an anechoic chamber relaxed him more than sensory-deprivation tanks did (similarity 0.89)
• The brain amplifies internal noise so total silence cannot be perceived (similarity 0.89)
• Total sensory absence can feel generative rather than merely frightening (similarity 0.88)
• Deep silence can feel like a sensory presence rather than mere absence (similarity 0.88)
• The desire for silence outlasts and exceeds mere relief from noise fatigue (similarity 0.88)
• Total silence can overwhelm the mind as an alien, unbearable presence (similarity 0.86)
• Pure, absolute silence has never existed and cannot exist (similarity 0.86)
• Silence is not the mere absence of something else, but a complex positive phenomenon (similarity 0.86)
• Contrary to the view that silence perception is merely the cognitive accompaniment of an absence of experience, perceptual systems can track events with no positive sensory content. (similarity 0.86)
• The unattainable ideal of absolute silence is necessary to resist noise’s control (similarity 0.86)
• People instinctively generate noise to assert existence against overwhelming emptiness (similarity 0.85)

Library Connections

• Extreme physical silence can produce deep restfulness rather than only distress #contradicts (0.85) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 496
• Extreme near-total silence can trigger panic, disorientation, and physical illness #corroborates (0.82) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 474
• The idea of an absolute silence functions as a necessary reset point for thought #contradicts (0.80) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 531
• Total silence can overwhelm the mind as an alien, unbearable presence #corroborates (0.80) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 222

Broader Connections

• People fear true silence because it threatens rather than merely rests their worldview #corroborates (0.78) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 462
• Perfect silence as an unattainable absolute still functions as real and necessary #expands (0.76)
• Silence is a positive presence rather than mere absence #complicates (0.75) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1294
• In near-total silence a person may hear the mechanics of their own body #exemplifies (0.70) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 578