Silence is wonderful to listen to

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33739, 11 January 1975, Page 10

Silence is wonderful to listen to

(By

DAVID GUNSTON)

“Oh, for a bit of silence,” we’re sometimes inclined to say in this noise-ridden world of ours, though admittedly more usually if we’re over 40! Well, there is a need for silence in all of us, whatever our age. And the experts are trying to impress that simple fact upon us. Dr Dominick Barbera, a prominent New York psy-cho-analyst and an author on psychiatry, is greatly concerned with our disregard of the true virtues of keeping quiet. ’’Productive or reflective silence,” he says, ‘‘is a quality that all of us should - encourage and develop within ourselves. One important reason why many of us today live in a superficial manner is, I

feel, the fear of becoming silent within ourselves, and listening to the truth of the matter.” It used to be said that silence is the only really (successful substitute for brains, but there is apparently more to it than that. We are all of us familiar with people beset with the urge to talk for talk’s sake: many of us succumb to that temptation all too readily. In spite of the fact that the world is today noisier than it has ever been before, and that many folk consider it far too noisy for peace of mind — even for health — we nevertheless do enjoy some noise more than we realise, even when no other person is present. The background radio, the clatter of traffic, the chatter of passers-by all help to make us feel less

’’lonely,” less aware of • ourselves. Warns Dr Barbera: ’’Many of us at times' either refuse (or do not know how) to be silent or how to listen effectively. By becoming silent and looking actively within ourselves, and by seeking constructively for the truth about ourselves and the world we live in, we shall! arrive at a realistic, • dynamic and complete! awareness of what is — - and so we shall come into! a truthful and healthy pattern of existence.”

Pundits have always 1 advised on the benefits ofoccasional silence. One! man went so far aus to 1 declare: “Only silence is’ great: all else is weakness,” and his extreme point of view is partially, shared today by the late’ General de Gaulle. He once declared: ’’Nothing more enhances authority than silence — it k the crowning virtue of the; strong, the refuge of theweak, the modesty of the; proud, the pride of thehumble, the prudence of* the wise, and the sense offools.” Total silence ; And it’s also worth rem-* embering that “twofold sil-! ence is the song of love.” ’ Quite a thought for pop-,’ singers there. Of course, no one wants! unnaturally complete andtotal silence, rare on this planet anyway — and said, by those who have actually; experienced it as rather! frightening, even terrifying.; One scientist after a! short spell in a specially-sound-proofed room called it “deadly . . . you become! alarmed by the normally; unheard things — the hiss and throb of the blood in your arteries, the gurgling of your stomach, the rustling of your clothes.” !

No, silence is still golden, and good for us! But like everything else, always in moderation, •