This vinyl meditation LP contains nothing. Just forty minutes of silence.

With the constant and increasing bombardment of input we receive from the modern world, more people are turning to mediation to quiet the mind and reset the brain in order to cope.

Powering through the cyclic periods of fatigue you during the day may make you feel like you’re a master of your domain, but there’s a good chance that you’re hurting yourself. Study after study says that short breaks of quiet time (10-20 minutes) over the course of the workday isn’t a sign of weakness or laziness but the perfect way to recharge and increase productivity and creativity.

Anyone can mediate. All you really need is a quiet space and something that will define the time you will spend clearing your mind. It can be a clock or just the amount of time it requires you to go through a mental routine. Or you could buy this record.

Silent Mediation is a Kickstarter campaign launched to produce a 12-inch vinyl record that features 20 minutes of dead silence on both sides. No narration. No guiding words or sound. Just silence.

The idea comes from Eric and Ben, a father-and-son team who wondered what to do with the turntable Ben got for Christmas. I quote from the Kickstarter page:

“Silent Meditation was an unexpected project. My son got a record player for Christmas and was excited to buy his first albums. We went digging through used record stores and he came across an album he thought I would like, The Art of Meditation. It was made in the 1970s with dreamy cover art and it was only 6 bucks. As a fan of meditation, I bought it and took it home to play. The first part was an explanation why meditation was good for you, then came a few sternly guided meditations. It wasn’t at all what I wanted.

“But what was I expecting? What would I want from a meditation record?

“I thought about it, seriously, and then realized I just wanted silence. I wanted a record that created space. I imagined putting it on and listening to the first side. During that 20 minutes, dozens of thoughts would appear and disappear. Each listening would be totally different, a surprise, and another chance to be aware.

And before you ask, Eric and Ben realize that this is a bit silly. “Note: this does not require a record player to be fully enjoyed. Technically, it doesn’t even require this record.”

The project has struck a chord. As I write this, Silent Meditation is over 560% funded. More here.