Quietest Place on Earth: anechoic chamber at Orfield Laboratories in Minnesota.

[Michel]

Here's an interesting article on state of the art ultra sound proof rooms. Some people just can't handle the experience of being in the chamber, but others enjoy it. One's experience in the chamber isn't that of total silence since one's bodily sounds become relatively loud. So you could use the sound of your heartbeat as meditation object. I have considered soundproofing one of my rooms, but it would cost a fortune, and would be less than totally soundproof.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/may/18/experience-quietest-place-on-earth

[Jhanananda]

Yes, I found a very quiet canyon to camp in about 14 years ago, when the charisms began to go off-scale for me.  It was in this canyon, where there was no sound of the wind, and not even a bug, or bird.  There I heard the sound of my heartbeat, and I meditated upon it, until the sound charism took over dominance.

Actually, you do not have to go as far as an anechoic chamber. If you are handy, sound-proofing a room is not that difficult, nor costly; and I think it is a good idea to do for contemplatives who live in suburbia, or an urban center.  The basic technique is firring out the room with 2x4s, floor, walls and ceiling, then sheet rocking over the fir, then tacking carpeting to all of the surfaces.  The windows and doors would be doubled as well.  You can even make it easier on yourself, by just laying carpet all over the walls and ceiling and double thick on the floor, then you could have a tapestry, or carpet that rolls down over the door and windows.

[Jhanananda]

I had an after thought about making a small anechoic chamber inexpensively.  A local friend of mine is interested in Lucid dreaming, and he has been talking about building himself a portable deprivation tank-of-sorts that fits over his bed.

So, this is one way it could be done on the cheap. A 2 plywood 4x4x6 foot boxes could be made out of 1/4" thick plywood that is held together on a 2x2 framework.  The bottom box would lay on the floor with your bead inside of it, with a few inches gap all of the way around.  There would be 6 2x2s extending above the bottom box about 3 feet (1m). 

The second box would be its lid, which would fit loosely over your bed and around the bottom box, overlapping by 1 foot, and resting on the 6 2x2s. There would be a gap between the two boxes of a few inches that would allowing for the free flow of air.  Both boxes would be covered entirely with carpeting inside and out.  The combination of 2 layers of carpeting and 1 layer of plywood should make the inside of the box quite sound-proof.

[stugandolf]

Jeff,  By extension then one could use a similar arrangement enclosing a chair... Any problems here?  Stu

[Jhanananda]

Yes, Stu, I agree, a similar box could be created to accommodate sitting meditation either in a chair or on the floor.

[Michel]

You could take this idea one step further. How about a small, highly insulated, soundproof, sleeping/meditation enclosure with "temperature control" that could be placed inside a room? It could accommodate a foldaway bed, foldaway desktop, foldaway meditation chair, etc., as you suggested up thread. But if heat or A/C is a requirement, then that is a solvable problem. I imagine it would require very little heat to keep the enclosure warm, of course depending on how well it's insulated. Your body heat, and perhaps a solar powered incandescent light bulb (25W maybe?) on a dimmer switch could provide the heat. A super low noise ventilation fan would be useful. For keeping it cool, one could jury-rig a smallest you can find, low-powered fridge compressor, etc., solder your own copper pipes, etc., keeping the compressor outside the enclosure in a soundproof box. My guess is it would hardly take any power to keep it cool.

I was thinking of your situation, Jhananda. This might solve your problem of keeping warm in winter - and not only that. There are a million variations on this theme. There could even be a market for something like this.

[Jhanananda]

An electric blanket is all that it would need to keep warm in.  Keeping it cool silently is another problem.  I suppose solid state refrigeration would work.

I will go for a small camper on the back of my deuce and half parked in the middle of no where.  When it gets cold, then I will go down hill.  When it gets hot, then I will go up hill.

I tell you what, I am an old guy with a bad back, so I could not possibly maneuver the materials required to build a silent meditation box.  So, whomever wishes to go into the business of building and market silent meditation boxes, can receive a public recommendation from me in exchange for making a small donation in support of the GWV from time to time.