Today I experienced the Sensory Deprevation tank. Or as the cool kids now call it, the "float tank".
A lightless, sound profit tank where one floats (yes, actually floats) in a bath of Epsom salt water. Set at skin temperature, one loses the ability to tell where ones skin ends and the water begins...
First developed in 1954 by John C. Lilly, a neuro-psychiatrist, the tank was meant to research the effects of sensory deprivation on the human mind and body. But what emerged was a really interesting approach to physical therapy, relaxation and deep meditation. This, despite its appearance of medieval torture contraption.
Ok, so I am a meditator and a water-lover. So, I was really excited about spending 90(!!!) minutes just floating about in the quiet. Then I looked online (a quick nod to my previous post on the benefits on internet, please) and saw the contraption ....and started having second thoughts...
It's actually a pod. Dark, humid, small, lonely.... Will I get enough air? What if there is a problem? Will they hear me in there? What if....? What if...? What if...?
But my body hurts after 2 weeks of surfing and a big night in heels. Others I know and trust have done it. Ok, let's do it!
You show up at the Float House in Gastown and it's all very quiet and calm.
Nick at the front desk asks you your favourite colour then proceeds to give you a little tour and offers up a free hug. A real hug. Thanks Nick.
Nick leaves and as you stand there alone in your private float/shower room, the tank eyes you from the corner, awash in the light of your "favourite colour". Somewhat disconcerting yet calming all at once.
A quick rinse, ear plugs in place, time to enter the tank! As you try to gracefully slide into the tank, your body hits the water and you have to fight the weird balancing act of trying to brace against something in your buoyant state, attempting to close the hatch behind you.
But I'm in. And I'm weightless. And it's dark and all I can hear is my heart and my breathing.
Honestly, it took several minutes for me to allow my muscles to relax; to stop fighting the perceived need to brace or strain or resist. No need... just float.
And as I breathed and brought my attention to different parts of my body, I felt muscle relax that had compensated for injuries passed or days of stress, just let go. And eventually I slipped away...to a place somewhere between wakefulness and dreaminess; that place just before you fall asleep, where your aware of dreams as they start the dance around in your mind...
Ninety minutes later I came to, to the sound of quiet music being piped in.
Sleepy and calm and deply relaxed, I swayed and stagard my way home. Dangerously oblivious to the world around me, in a haze of edorphines and a magnesium enduced loss of muscle control, I finally make it home. 8:30pm and ready for bed.
Good night.
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