During our seminary days when we were in Thrissur , there were about a hundred of us in the community. At lunchtime or dinner time, everyone would be conversing in the dining room, right? The chatter noise would be very loud. I don't know how, but it happens sometimes. For a second - just one second, everyone would become silent, as if they had put off the switch. Everyone would look at oneanother. Normally, if the rector wanted to make some announcement, he had a bell like the one they used to call an attendant or a nurse in offices or restaurants or hospitals. After the bell it would take a second or two, for everyone to become silent. But, this is not that way: no one had rung the bell, but somehow, all a hundred people would become silent at once, as if someone had pulled the plug.

Sometimes someone would comment, "An Angel passed by." Whether so or not, everyone would look around, as if wondering what had happened, and then go back to their conversations.

Some movies make us feel the mood with such silence. 'A Thin Red Line' - the war with lots of sound suddenly stops and makes us feel such a profound silence on a large scale. Another movie that comes to mind is 'Titanic': we experience the deafening silence after a noisy struggle between life and death in it. In such films, the sudden deep silence is used as a technique to deepen the audience-experience.

Our Professor Dr. K. Luke had told us that such a natural phenomenon happens in forests and nature. He has read that many people have testified it as a moment of great emotional and spiritual experience. It does not happen every day or once a week. Now, when I Googled, I see that the reason for such abrupt silence is the presence of predators. Smaller animals, birds and insects all become alert in the presence of predators. (That doesn't seem very plausible to me. It's hard to believe that within a circumference of half a mile or so, the trees, leaves, wind, crickets and cicadas abruptly become still for several minutes!)

In any case, many people experience such a phenomenon. Nature as a whole becomes alert. In most cases, such an experience usually frightens humans to a great extent.

However, for a few, such a temporary pause in the rhythm of nature leads to a heightened level of awareness. Such moments of complete silence, when the environment becomes still, lead to a lightning connection with nature, one's own inner self, and the divine.

It is one of the most mystical experiences in nature!