Minnesota Place was Named ‘The Quietest Place on Earth’, and You Can Visit It
Have you been craving peace and quiet lately? I think many people have. Did you know there's a place in Minneapolis, Minnesota that was once the Guinness Book of World Record's 'The Quietest Place on Earth'? It's at Orfield Laboratories. While it's no longer considered THEE quietest place on Earth (the record was taken from them in 2015 by Microsoft), it's still extremely quiet, and you can visit it.
The room is called the Anechoic Chamber. It's pretty much a room full of those foam sound-proofing panels. It sounds like an unsettling experience. Orfield Laboratories hosts tours where you're taken into the room. One tour takes you in there for a short period of time, but there's another one called The Orfield Challenge where you see how long you can sit in the dark in the 'World's Quietest Room'.
The founder of Orfield Laboratories, Steven Orfield, spoke with Smithsonian Magazine back in 2013 about the world record. Steven said that "'you become the sound'" when you're in the room.
"When it’s quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You’ll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly."
Oh man, that sounds so creepy. I would go nuts! And actually, if you sit in a completely silent room for too long you could go crazy. The longest anyone has sat in the Anechoic Chamber was 45 minutes.
Speaking of unsettling, keep scrolling to check out the top 10 most haunted places in Minnesota.