[artistic (OP)]

You close the door and windows and off the lights (if its faulty and noisy) on a very quiet midnight, and you hear deep silence.(so noisy) Is silence some noise or what?

Don't make me angry, I have advanced "Green Technology".

[another_someone]

Don't know what it is like where you live, but around here, there will always be some noise around the neighbourhood, whether it is the rumble of distant traffic, the noise of the wind, people walking nearby, aircraft flying overhead, or just the wildlife nearby.

George

[Mjhavok]

It's a signal being directly transmitted into a neural receiver in your brain.

[artistic (OP)]

Oh that's bad but my place in the night there's little traffic and wind noise is low. In Singapore we don't normally find wildlife   taking a stroll around here....

Don't make me angry, I have advanced "Green Technology".

[neilep]

Hmmm !!..I suppose silence may generate the imagination of noise....

It can be quite unsettling ...the total absence of sound....but even in the quietest of places there are sounds to heard....even if it's your own bodily functions...or an insect crawling somewhere....a floor bard creaking...etc etc

I think it goes to show that we need to hear things....so that we know we are alive !


Men are the same as women, just inside out !

[eric l]

Neil, you have a point there.  When I take a walk, the farther I'm away from sources of "noise", the more I become aware of the noise I make myself :  the legs of my trousers rubbing along each other, the noise of the grass that is crushed under my feet...  at a standstill, my own breathing, maybe even the sound of the blood passing trough my veins.  The lower the level of the noise around you, the more you turn up the sensitivity of your noise receiver system.

[neilep]

Thank you Eric.


I think you are absolutely right about increasing the sensitivity of your noise receiver system..... our perception of sound becomes noticeably acute in times of silence !!

I spend a lot of time alone at night....and when everybody is asleep ...like you..I become aware of my own breathing and heartbeat etc...sometimes it gets a bit unnerving and I have to turn the radio on..or even just make some noise.

I have often wondered what it would be like to experience one of those sensory deprivation tanks......I do not think I would last very long !!

Men are the same as women, just inside out !

[artistic (OP)]

Everytime there is almost no/no noise, there's this booming sound and I can't hear clearly.

Don't make me angry, I have advanced "Green Technology".

[Karen W.]

I like silence for a little bit, sort of, but I would go freaking nuts without music or the television or someone elses voice or my own for that matter.. NUTS I SAY NUTS!!I get really scared alone in the house and I hate it! Have since I was A kid and still do. I like to hear the tv or some music as I go to sleep!! That is no guarantee I will sleep, but it eases my edginess being alone!! I like a walk in the woods and singing to myself. I do love the woods!!By the way, the woods are never silent and I can sleep there very well as I sleep like a baby in the woods. The sound of critters scurrying around and the nocturnal birds flying about busy with their dailey routine. Sounds of acorns falling to the ground and leaves stirring on the forest floor as the critters move about! Have any of you ever went out and camped in the woods during a huge thunder and lightening storm. It is one of the most awesome things I have ever done, but it was also scarey, but exhilerating at the same time. Hurricane left me with the same kind of energy, hard to explain. I am like a kid in the wind, I love windy days! I feel like I could fly and the sounds are great! Definitely not silence! I like hustle and bustle and busy noise, children laughing cying fighting and screaming and making me crazy. I thrive on it!! Every day!!!

Karen

[moonfire]

I love silence...I embrace it!  I love the woods too Karen!  I love hearing the sounds of crackling leaves, sticks, etc.

"Lo" Loretta

[Karen W.]

Loretta where have you been ? The silence has been deafening without you!!!

Karen

[another_someone]

quote:Originally posted by neilep
I have often wondered what it would be like to experience one of those sensory deprivation tanks......I do not think I would last very long !!

When sensory deprivation is used to disorientate suspects during interrogation, they don't use silence (as we all agree, there is no such thing, because even one's own body makes sound), but rather they use white noise to bot out all sound.

George

[another_someone]

quote:Originally posted by moonfire
I love silence...I embrace it!  I love the woods too Karen!  I love hearing the sounds of crackling leaves, sticks, etc.

As a teenager I used to go swimming at the local baths.  The noise in the baths, with all the sound and all those people bouncing of the hard ceramic walls, was horrendous; but with I liked to do with simply go down to the bottom of the 4 metre end of the pool, and sit under water until my breath ran out – that was nice and peaceful and quite, with the water absorbing or reflecting all but the lowest frequency sounds – and in any case, one had to try and slow one's body down just to conserve oxygen, so it was all very relaxing (at least for 5 minutes, until I had to come up for more air.

George

[gecko]

whats the deal with the noise you hear when you put your ear up to something hollow? like a sea-shell or bottle? its been explained to me but i dont think seriously.

[eric l]

That's just the sound of the blood in your veins !  The sea-shell or bottle acts in two ways :  it deaffens the sounds from the outside world, and it echoes the sounds coming from your own body.  As the shell is placed close to your ear, the sound of your blood will be louder than  for example your breathing !

[Soul Surfer]

The ear is an active device and produces noises as well as detecting them.  It is possible to test if babies have normal hearing by putting a sound in their ear and listenig for what is called the Kemp Echo.

An anechoic chamber can provide very quiet conditions when all you can hear is the sound of the blood going theough your ears or other body noises it can be very unnerving.  I've been in one of the best that we had in our research laboratory.

Nowadays I have a bit if Tinitus which is perceving sounds when none is there but I can always tell the difference between real sounds and my tinitus even if they are quite similar

Learn, create, test and tell
evolution rules in all things
God says so!

[rhobind]

My understanding, according to Satre's Being and Nothingness, is that there is a "nihilating withdrawl" of the observer from the observed. It is the moment when it ceases to be "hearing" and becomes "my hearing something" and it is actually an onotlogical interpretation. According to Martin Heideggar (Introduction to Metaphysics) such "nihilating witdrawals" are really "interpretive tendancies" which must be "thrust aside" to "gain access" to Being as it reveals itself. When once succeeds (whether through zen, or philosophy, or whatever) in actually reinterpreting without nihilation then there is no "separation" between onself and the universe, space, time and matter are seen as just interpretations not realities and "objects" certainly do not contain any "being" that is capable of sustaining them. I am touching with my eyes and ears and not just with my hand. One then sees the true nature of the universe as One. This means that the idea of hearing nothing is wrong. In our "modern" "common" metaphysics I am either hearing something or it is just a psychological process, and I am really hearing nothing. The, truth to me is neither. It is I am - hearing, I am hearing, I am hearing. Hearer-->Hearing-->Heard becomes Hearing-->Hearing-->Hearing. Out of that all of the interpretations are made. The world remains "objective" only in the sense that the essence is in a way that can be interpreted spacially. Once one does one distorts the meaning of being and "objects" then appear - but they as well as their "kid brother nothing" are only illusions. That is why material science is so limiting to me. It is incapable of describing the simplest of experiences. It is a kind of a reduction of something wonderfully rich into someting mathematical and objective. Nevertheless I do love the math.

[chris]

Actually there's not really any such thing as silence because the hair cells in the inner ear, which carry out the job of turning sound waves (vibrations) in the air into electrical signals the brain can understand, also produce sounds themselves as they work to "tune" the cochlea, where they are resident.

With a sensitive enough microphone you can hear the ear working!

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Have any of you ever went out and camped in the woods during a huge thunder and lightening storm. It is one of the most awesome things I have ever done, but it was also scarey, but exhilerating at the same time.

I did it on the Christmas night at 2018. It was my third experience climbing a mountain. It was a stormy night, so we decided to camp mid-journey and camped in front of a hill. During the whole night, I tried to sleep while hoping that the hill behind us wouldn't collapse and hurt us all.

[cowolter]

No. Technically, silence is the absence of sound or noise, so it's not something that can be heard - just as darkness cannot be seen, because it is the absence of light.