MINNEAPOLIS -- Can the Quietest Place on Earth cure the phenomenon known as "popcorn brain"?

The term applies to a scattered attention span, exacerbated by social media use, that sends one's brain flitting from one idea to the next, much like kernels bursting in the microwave. I'm feeling it now, struggling to write a column in the face of so many shiny objects — from the next item on my to-do list to breaking-news notifications.

Enter Orfield Laboratories. Decades ago, this spot — once home to recording studio Sound 80 — was known for helping birth some of the most notable music to emerge from Minneapolis, including Lipps Inc.'s "Funkytown," Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" and Prince's early demo tape. Now it's on the map for its world-renowned silence.

The lab's anechoic chamber ("an-ih-KOH-ic," meaning it's free of echoes) is so quiet that the lab's owner, Steve Orfield, ays you may hear things you've never heard before. The quieter the place, the more sensitive your ability to truly listen becomes.

"If you stay in the anechoic chamber for 30 to 45 minutes, you could hear your own heartbeat," he says. "You could hear your knees and elbows scraping together when you move your joints. You can hear the blood flowing in your carotid arteries up to your brain. You're the show."

If the idea of "being the show" intimidates you, you're in good company. I'm thankful to live in a time when I never have to be alone with my thoughts. Podcasts and playlists can entertain us on our walks. A million diversions beckon from our phone. Why sit down and focus when I can watch a video of a horse farting on a Siamese cat?

But don't be fooled by myths about entering Minneapolis anechoic chamber. Over the years, outlets have reported that spending more than 45 minutes there would drive a person insane.

On TikTok, a false rumor spread that Orfield Labs would pay millions of dollars to anyone who could stay in the chamber for an hour. Calls to the five-person staff inquiring about the cash prizes have been so incessant that Orfield says he is hoping to pursue legal action against the sources of those claims.

But there was one rumor that was true, known as "The Orfield Challenge." For a story published last year, a New York Times Magazine reporter was determined to clinch the record for the amount of time sitting in the dark in the Quietest Place on Earth. It had been previously set at two hours, so she reserved the chamber for three hours.

"She did last three hours," Orfield says. "She beat the last record."

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