Science has proven that some of us can HEAR silence

The Oxford Dictionary defines silence as “the complete absence of sound.” We hear sound. If there’s no sound, there’s silence. And we can’t hear silence. Or can we?

Tell that to any radio announcer who has to deal with dead air. Trust me: NOTHING is louder to a radio person than silence. Science, though, says that many people have an ability to “hear” silence.

Actually, we don’t “hear” anything. Instead, scientists have determined that the brain perceives and processes silence is it does sound. This explains why we pay so much attention to situations were sound disappears, even if it’s an awkward pause in a conversation or the space in between loud claps of thunder. From the Daily Mail:

he claim is based on seven experiments involving 1,000 people, which showed tricks on the mind, which work with sound also work with silence. As some amateur magicians and illusionists know, if you play someone one continuous electronic tone or two separate tones of the same total duration, their brain will trick them into thinking one tone lasts longer. And in the new study, people also thought one continuous silence was longer than two separate ones, suggesting the brain processes absolute quiet in a similar way to sound.

Paradoxical? Counterintuitive? Absolutely. But the brain deals with reality in mysterious ways. Cue the Simon and Garfunkel.