Silence Stimulates

I live in a very rural area, that experiences minimal traffic noise or other urban disturbances. In fact, many friends consider it to be the far-out boonies. I need the tranquility. Over the last few decades researchers have documented many ill effects that society's noise has on people. Epidemiologists have shown a high correlation between noise and high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep loss, and immune system damage. Five years ago the UN's World Health Organization found that some 340 million Europeans (a bit more than the population of the US) annually lose over a million years of healthy life, due to noise. That's one hell of a toll!

Noise pollution has been recognized for a couple of generations as having a deleterious impact on human health and well being. As a person who built a career on studying the mechanics of noise reduction, I'm not at all surprised at the negative impact of noise on people. It's what my career was all about! It's also a major reason why I took leave of the urban life three decades ago and sought refuge and a healthier (and quieter) life in the woods of Appalachia.

I sought solace in the quiet I found out here. I avoid noisy machines—rototillers, tractors, and other small engine devices—in favor of doing as much by hand as possible. It is not only cheaper and more peaceful, but gives my body the exercise that it needs.

I have written before on this blog about my desire for tranquility and solitude. In quiet moments I seek calmness, I tune into inner thoughts, I can even come to sense the oneness of existence. I have found quiet to be soothing and healing—especially knowing that noise is unhealthy. The root of the word noise is the Latin word nausea, meaning “seasickness.” (The Latin word naus means “ship.”)

But that reasoning suggests that quiet (or silence) is primarily an escape from something. It's replacing a “thing” with “no thing.” Quiet, in this sense, is just an absence of noise; silence is just the lack of sound. Is silence really just a negative entity?

The key here is what's going on in the brain—our ultimate sensory response either to noise or quietness. The science of brain scans has exploded in recent years and is providing lots of evidence of what's going on in the brain, as it responds to various sensory inputs. Some recent research is showing that activity in the brain is stimulated by silence, just as much as when we hear sounds. A certain network of neurons lights up when sounds are heard, but quite a different set of neurons fires when quiet ensues. So the brain is just as active when quiet prevails. To the brain, silence is not a negative entity. Mental work is happening then too.

These recent findings fuel my need for quiet even more. Where silence once represented an escape from a clamorous world for me, I have come to see that it's not an escape from, but a coming to something: a state wherein my brain stays engaged—but no longer in an unpleasant way. It's now active in an agreeable and even creative way. In fact, it's doing the healthy work of silence. As Paul Simon wrote over 50 years ago,

              And the vision that was planted in my brain

             Still remains

             Within the sound of silence.