Sometimes people listen to themselves. In a quiet environment, they isolate themselves and listen to the voices that come from within.
But would you really want to listen to the voices that come from within you, from your organs: your stomach, your heart, your lungs, even the sounds coming from the blood flowing in your veins?
There is a way to do that: visit the Orfield Laboratory in Minnesota, USA, known as the quietest room in the world.[1]
This room, which made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, is constructed to be 99.99% soundproof. It is built with thick fiberglass, double-insulated steel walls, and surrounded by 30 centimeters of concrete. Additionally, the walls of the room are covered with special insulation materials. Experiments related to sound are conducted in the room, and some tests applied to NASA astronauts are carried out here as well.
The sound intensity in the room, which causes a maddening silence, is -9 decibels.[2] The sound intensity in the quietest known rooms is normally 60 decibels. The human ear’s threshold of hearing is 0 decibels, which is why one cannot stay in the room for long. The record for staying in the room is 45 minutes. Although it may be surprising to initially hear the sounds of our organs, it becomes torturous over time. It is impossible for us to live in a room that is incompatible with our nature. Because all our organs and systems are created in harmony with factors such as sound, light, and heat in the world. For example, our sense of sight is connected to the cells in our eyes and the rays of the sun.
Our ears are sensitive to low-frequency sounds, but our Lord has given us the ability to hear sounds as needed. We can perceive sounds with frequencies between 20 and 20,000 Hertz. This way, we are not disturbed by the sound of an ant walking on the ground or the flapping of bird wings in the sky. Life would be so difficult if we constantly heard the sounds coming from our organs or the murmuring of blood flowing in our veins.
In fact, we have an extraordinary hearing system. Even in a crowded environment with many different sounds, a person can focus on one and hear it. An orchestra conductor can distinguish the sounds of 28 different musical instruments simultaneously, concentrate on a particular sound, and notice any errors. Measurements have shown that the ear can distinguish between two sounds with a difference of 10 thousandths between their frequencies.
Every living being has been granted the ability to hear according to their needs. Some examples: Bats can perceive sounds between 716 Hz and 113,000 Hz, owls between 200 Hz and 12,000 Hz, pigeons between 1 Hz and 4,000 Hz, penguins between 100 Hz and 15,000 Hz, and whales between 15 Hz and 3,000 Hz.[3]
While dolphins have weak senses of smell and sight, their hearing is much more developed.[4] With a system similar to the “sonar” device given to dolphins, sounds from kilometers away can be easily heard. These sounds that the human ear cannot perceive spread in the form of waves in the water. If these sound waves encounter an obstacle, they bounce back. The time it takes for the sound to go and hit a fish or a rock and come back shows the distance of the prey or obstacle.
Our Lord has equipped all living beings with appropriate organs and systems so that they can find sustenance, protect themselves from enemies, and live in the conditions of this world.
[1] “Inside the quietest place on Earth”
