What is the deepest silence you have ever experienced?

I was once in an acoustically dead chamber at a university lab. The room was a cube, the walls covered entirely in sound-absorbing material. The floor was a suspended mesh that divided the cube in half vertically. Virtually no sound could reflect in this chamber, so all you could hear was what reached the ear directly from the source. The person showing me the chamber fired a starter’s pistol, and it made just the slightest pop.

It made me very conscious of my ears, as if my brain was sending up a dozen red flags that something was terribly wrong with them, and they needed my urgent attention

In a cave in the middle of the Anza-Borrego Desert. It was also the darkest place I have ever been.

When I had full noise reduction headphones on when I had a hearing exam.

I’m with @crisw

Caves in Calaveras county California a few years ago.
The darkest dark one can experience and very silent as well.
I was feeling some anxiety after about 45 seconds in the dark when we turned off our lights and stood in silence. Very INTENSE!

Around midnight, on the side of a road, on a mountain between Sedona and Flagstaff. I stepped out of my car into total—I mean total—silence so loud I swear it roared, and blackness so deep and sky so close that it felt like the stars were pressing down on my head. A profound, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

My mom’s hospital room when I was holding her hand after she took her last breath, waiting on the next one that never came. The silence was deafening.

@Chyna If I could give you 100 GA’s for your response, I would do so . . . there is no silence like the missing next breath. It has the power to deafen and to devastate . . .

i once slept in a hut in the rural village; very similar to the cave experience that @crisw and @Coloma have described. It’s really feels as if the world is closing in.

Similar to Austinlad, I also stepped out of my car on an empty road during the night. There was also a very awkward silence for a few moments when a girlfriend invited me to dinner with her family in highschool. That seemed like an eternity, though.

After your heart stops, you never realize how loud the blood pounding through your ears is, till it ceases. On that note, anesthesia is a deep silence too.

3km underground in Cango Caves in South Africa. Exploring them for pleasure’s sake. It was peaceful and yet eery.

Like @chyna, it was in a hospital room. I had my hand over my father’s chest and watched him take his last breath. I remember hearing someone say, “daddy?!?” and then silence. It seemed like time stopped. I felt my husband’s hand touch my shoulder, and I turned and looked at him. Still no words. I kissed my father and we all left together.

It wasn’t until hours later my husband told me that I was the one who called out for him.

I miss him so much.

I’ve been many places with silence and peace. High in the mountains on a beautful summer night with stars that felt like you could touch them there are so many. I was there when 4 of my children passed and it does become very silent and so real. When I passed away I went into a white room that was so very silent and some communication came from the mind and other communication openly. I am building a silent room for my meditation. I’m going to use one of the bedrooms downstairs and sound proof it. I love to spend time in silence and think about life and all its experiences.

@cak I know, I miss mom too.

I once spent some time in a sensory deprivation tank. I thought I was gonna go buggy! Heh!

@CaptainHarley Really I bet that was really different. How did things go for you did it do what you expected? I’m going to try the sweat lodge and see how that is.

Actually, I did it on a sort of “dare.” A psychologist friend of mine bet me that I couldn’t stay in one for more than a hour and a half. I lasted two before I got out ( felt like I was going apeshit buggy )! LOL!

I actually started to hallucinate!

I can imagine it takes training to stay there for long periods. Wow very impressive would you do it again?

I suppose so, but they would have to pay me! : D

I would love to try it but I would do it with getting an answer or two in mind.

Oh? DO tell! : ))

It would be like meditation but I would think you could go very deep into it where answers are available. I would have to think on the purpose of using the tank and come up with the questions I would ask.

You might indeed find some answers. It’s an intensely interesting experience. : ))

In a cave with a bunch of spelunkers who all blew out their carbide lamps at the same time and sat silently enjoying some weed that had just been passed around.

A much less profound, but agonizing silence—when randomly, all conversation around you stops at the same time, creating a silence in which you blurt out something stupid. And the few moments afterward, before everyone scurries to pick up a conversation thread and forget the inopportune silence.

I have to tell you this one your story reminded me of it @anartist. I had a couple of friends and we had a cave we had helped make. It went underground for around 200 feet and it was walkable in there. Myself and two friends were in there one day. We had some candles that we blew out when we heard someone coming. There were three of them feeling their way along the sides of the cave. They did not have any light but had been there before. I got down on my knees and as they came close I grabbed ones legs and yelled out. He just collapsed and passed right out. The other two just started screaming and heading for the exit. I just about hurt my ribs from laughing.

LMAO @Summum !!!

You have a mischevious streak! : D

Silence. It happens to be one of the things I love about an empty church. The silence is so beautiful and it’s enhanced by the light streaming in through the stained glass windows, the sense of everyone’s prayers embedded in the air, the walls…it is like a deep well.

Walking through a field around midnight when it was snowing…