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Comment by dzuc | Hacker News Reader

Well apparently one can hear one's own circulatory and nervous system: http://theresonator.blogspot.com/2007/04/john-cage-visits-an...

> Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence, but as he wrote later, he "heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation."

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I can attest to this. We have an anechoic chamber here at Michigan State and I've also been in the testing chamber at EV (Electro-Voice). Hearing the blood in your head and ears is quite odd, but the disorientation from not being able to place yourself in space is even stranger.

After reading this article, I immediately started to see if I could find one nearby and found out about the one at Michigan State. Would it be possible for me to go there and sit inside for a bit to experience this, even though I'm not a MSU student?

Likewise, I'd like to try this... it seems cool as hell!

Hey all -- I can see if I can arrange something. The chamber is in the basement of the Communication Arts and Sciences building and I teach in the College--but I don't know who currently runs it. Let me send some emails and see what I can do.

Sure thing, I'd be up for a trip out there and maybe we can meet up and grab food/drinks afterwards.

Send me an email since you don't have one listed in your profile! agscala@gmail.com

I'd be very interested in coming along as well, if at all possible. I'm near Michigan State often, doing UX Design at TechSmith. Feel free to email me at bulletsvshumans@gmail.com .

If you are able to make this happen, it would be very interesting if you could get the visitors to write a short note before entering about what they expect, how well they think they'll handle the disorientation, etc. After they're done have them write a similar note about their experience and how reality matched up with their expectations.

For all of us that don't have access to such facilities, this kind of before/after diary might be very interesting.

If you have heart issues and you have a period with no heart beat, even just seconds, the feeling of sudden silence is striking. I think it's likely that people just aren't aware that they can hear their heart beat all the time. It might just be me though, but I suspect not as I mentioned how quiet everything went to a cardiologist who didn't seem surprised.

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