Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

The Noise You Stopped Hearing

13 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief talk, Eckhart Tolle explains that many people live in a constant, subconscious state of unease that they accept as normal. He likens this mental background noise to the hum of a refrigerator that runs unnoticed until it stops, revealing an unexpected silence. This persistent unease is described as the condition of "ego‑possessed unconsciousness," a lack of ease with the present moment. When one becomes aware of this hidden hum, the contrast with true silence becomes striking, opening the possibility of experiencing the present without the ego‑driven background disturbance.

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One could say even not being at ease with the present moment, a certain state of an underlying unease for millions of people in this world is a normal way of being. But if it becomes your normal state, you don't even recognize it in the same way that you don't recognize the noise of a refrigerator that's in the background because it hasn't stopped for hours perhaps, and suddenly the noise of the refrigerator stops and you say, oh, Wow, it's so much nicer suddenly, the silence in the room. And you didn't even realize that there was no silence in the room because there was this continuous hum in the background. You couldn't identify it anymore. And so many people have the continuous unease. Well, that is the background to whatever they experience, and that's the state of ego-possessed unconsciousness.