In ‘Silent in me’ two radio makers leave no stone unturned to get ‘beyond thinking’

Can you get your head completely still by skydiving? Can you banish all thoughts by locking yourself up in the Dead Room, the quietest room in the world at TU Delft? Or does it help if you learn to masturbate mindfully?

It’s a fair in the minds of radio makers Bas Menting (25) and Mart Meijer (23). The brooding DJs of Radio 538 therefore want to know how far you have to go to completely stop your thoughts, to get ‘beyond thinking’. It leads to a two-year search.

It can be followed in the six-part podcast Silent in me, which they self-released. Bas Menting and Mart Meijer leave no stone unturned, from singing bowl therapy to exposure to extremely high and low temperatures. Such a quest in twelve experiments can quickly become vague, but they are too sober for that. They seek advice from science. Editor Melanie Metz of the popular science magazine Quest Psychology (‘100 percent hover-free’) she assists.

But the heads of these young dogs cannot be put on ‘mute’ just like that. They do, however, understand better and better how their brain works. How to relax. Not by evoking a startle reaction and letting the adrenaline rush through the body, they experience, but by rest and concentration.

For example, if they go static freediving under supervision. You then float on your stomach with your face under the water and hold your breath for minutes. They discover that you can stay underwater for much longer than you think possible if you overcome some mental obstacles. The ‘don’t try this at home’ warning sounds loud and clear in the podcast.

Drugs is another path they briefly take – weed and magic truffles. They don’t do this carelessly either. They speak to a mother whose son was so head-over-heels that he lost himself in drug use and eventually ended his life. That is of course not the way the radio makers are looking.

The last episode is called hytta i skogen, Norwegian for cabin in the woods. In the forests of Norway it has to be done after all – to get the head completely still. Whether and how this works is actually the least important. Again, the journey is more important than the destination.