Deaf Man Finally Hears Music For The First Time

Austin Chapman and his new hearing aid.

For film maker Austin Chapman, music had always been a mystery he could never quite comprehend. He could see people gyrating on the dance floor or singing at the top of their lungs in their cars, but their actions were foreign to him. Austin had been born "proufoundly deaf", which meant that while he wasn't totally without the ability to hear, sounds were so drastically reduced that they were little more than muffled noise without a hearing aid. Even with his old aids, the subtle changes that made music so powerful were totally lost on Austin. The devices meant to help him hear were simply not able to pick up the higher frequencies in music.

"All music sounded like trash through my hearing aids," he confessed on his film studio's blog. Last week, however, Austin was fitted with a new set of hearing aids and suddenly his world was turned on it's head. "The first thing I heard was my shoe scraping across the carpet; it startled me. I have never heard that before and out of ignorance, I assumed it was too quiet for anyone to hear. I sat in the doctor’s office frozen as a cacophony of sounds attacked me."

With his new hearing in place, Austin set out to figure out why there was so much fuss over music. That night, his friends began to offer him a whole range of music with tastes ranging from Rolling Stones to Michael Jackson and more. While sitting in the car, Austin heard Motzart's Lacrimosa for the first time and found himself moved to tears.

"At one point of the song, it sounded like angels singing and I suddenly realized that this was the first time I was able to appreciate music. Tears rolled down my face and I tried to hide it. But when I looked over I saw that there wasn’t a dry eye in the car."

With his world suddenly opened, Austin reached out to the Internet for help in picking music to take in. He posted to the popular site Reddit and received incredible support and feedback with over 14,000 responses to his original request for music within mere hours of his post. Despite this, Austin states that he still enjoys silence the most as it helps him think, but he is immesurably greatful for all of the suggestions on music selection.

"The Reddit commenters also helped me realize what a gift I have now, being able to enjoy utter silence and music at the same time. Not just that, but in a virginal unbiased way that very few people have," he told the Huffington Post.