How to Find Silence in a Noisy World | Op-Docs 360

[street sounds] [siren wailing] [footsteps] [fire engine honking] [car horn honking] It’s hard to imagine that a sound could transform someone’s life, but it happened to me. [truck rumbling] [insect buzzing] [bird chirping] I was 27 years old and on one of those road trips between your old life and your new one. [bird singing] I pulled over to get some rest. [thunder crashing] As I lay on the ground, I watched a storm develop. I remember hearing the thunder define the far reaches of the valley as the storm passed over me, drenching me. [rain pounding] This was the first time I experienced true listening. I guess you could say that was my baptism. [thunder crashing] [rain pattering lightly] [birds singing] [woodpecker hammering] By holding a microphone, I became a better listener. I learned that a microphone doesn’t listen for what’s important. It doesn’t judge. It doesn’t interfere. [sea bird cawing] My whole life I had been listening for what was important rather than taking things in with equal value. [frogs croaking] Every place has a sound. [water rippling] A passing breeze that indicates a weather change. [wind blowing] [bird cawing] The first bird songs of spring. [whistling wind] And the shifting tide reminding us of the celestial ballet. All of these experiences connect us back to the land. Just listen. [birds chirping] [high pitched screeching] [birds chirping] [waves and sea birds] Silence is the poetics of space, what it means to be in a place. The whole topography of the surrounding landscape is revealed to me in the many layers of the echo that come towards me. [waves crashing] And I think to myself … I know exactly where I am. [footsteps on sand] Silence isn’t the absence of something, but the presence of everything. When I speak of silence, I mean silence from noise pollution of modern life, sounds that have nothing to do with the natural acoustic system. [sea birds calling] Silence is the presence of time undisturbed. It can be felt within the chest. It nurtures our nature. [waves crashing] And silence is on the verge of extinction. [silence] [airplane engine] There is not one place left on planet Earth that is set aside and off limits to noise pollution, not one square inch of silence left untouched by the modern world. [horns honking] [jackhammer thudding] Our typical anti-noise strategies offer no relief. (MUFFLED) Earplugs, (MORE MUFFLED) noise canceling headphones, (REGULAR VOLUME) even noise abatement laws offer no real solution, because they do nothing to help us reconnect and listen to the land. [helicopter rattling] And the land is speaking. [insects and birds chirping] When I listen, I have to be quiet. I become very peaceful. [birds singing] And I think what I enjoy most about listening is that I disappear. I disappear. [woodpecker hammering] [high pitched screeching] [birds singing] [high pitched screeching]

Channel: The New York Times

Views: 297,957

Keywords: how i found silence, finding silence, how to find peace, finding peace, finding quiet, 360 video, virtual reality documentary, noise pollution, what is noise pollution, vr documentary, op-docs, op-docs 360, how to disappear, news, new york times, op-docs nytimes, nytimes video, the new york times

Id: qUxMdYhipvQ

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 01 2018