Meet Me in Silence

This film chronicles my year-long experiment sitting in complete silence in the anechoic chamber at Orfield Laboratories. The chamber is a hidden gem in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Guinness World Records touts the Orfield chamber as The Quietest Place on Earth. It attracts people from around the country and the world because of this record. I went for the first time out of curiosity. The thought of this kind of silence scared me as much as it fascinated me. I never expected I would want to make it a year-long habit.

Sitting with a handful of strangers for an hour on each visit through the Lab’s group perceptual silence experience, I document my inquiry into whether the surreal, human-engineered silence of the anechoic chamber can be a pathway to healing and awareness.

Lab Executive Emma Orfield Johnston likes to say that I am the only person on earth to have spent so much time in the silence of the chamber in the company of strangers. Given that a program to sit with others likely doesn’t exist at any other of the few anechoic chambers in the world, she may be right.

What’s most important to me about this film is that in a time of deep divisiveness in our country and world, a story of silence just might offer some breadcrumbs of connection and healing.

Thanks to Emma Orfield Johnston of Orfield Labs for being my thoughtful and thought provoking host throughout the year. And to the thirty-seven strangers with whom I’ve sat (so far).