gattino
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2003
- Messages
- 2,516
I'll save you a long read ...nothing spooky happened.
Still, as part of my occasional series of "try it for myself" reports on fortean linked activities, yesterday I went with a friend to a flotation centre, to experience floating in a sensory deprivation tank (pod, but tank sounds bigger and scarier)
What is it and what's it meant to do? Sensory deprivation speaks for itself...by floating in skin temperature water in pitch darkness with ear plugs in, you deprive your brain of the regular input from your senses of sight, sound and touch. Smell and taste take care of themselves. Deprived of anything coming in for it to work with, but you nonetheless being conscious and awake, the brain/mind purportedly starts doing other things. What other things is a vague and varied notion. But according to mutliple youtube videos and online magazine articles people (generally i must say "other" people and seldom the ones reporting on it) may have hypnogogic hallucinations, have visions, hear voices, see geometric or psychedelic patterns, get in to deep problem solving conversations with themselves...in fact the reports vary from the simple and common seeing points and flashes off light to the pure scifi notions of other dimensions and altered states of consciousness. It's also meant to be a perfect mental state, like Ganzfeld, for psychic awareness to take place. And that, if anything, is what interested me. Having no idea precisely what i wanted out of it i made an on the side arrangment with a friend far away to try and transmit his activities to me while i was in there....
Whatever mental benefits it may have, it's meant to be a great physical and stress relieving, deep relaxation, treatment and so flotation centres exists in major cities around the country. I'll assume the details and procedure for the one i attended - Float Level in Manchester - would be typical of all others.
There are several lockable rooms, each with a pod and a shower. The pod is a space age looking bath with a pull down hood. The water is no deeper than up to your elbow and is full of epsom salt which allows you to float. Both these things make drowning or sinking impossible. The size of the pod is bigger than people apparently expect..i would say about three times the width and twice the length of a bath. You put in ear plugs, shower, and climb in - naked (I'll give you a moment to picture me. Enjoy yourselves). You pull the lid closed and lay back arms above your head and try to relax completely and let the water support your weight. There are blue and green ambient lights which you can switch off as soon as you're ready - if ever - and music is played for the first ten minutes to ease you into it.
In my case it had the opposite effect...the anticipation of the pitch black being joined by complete silence had my heart going a bit as if something was going to suddenly happen. That and the warm air in there (due to the heat of the day outside) had me mentally rehearsing panicing and getting out after a few minutes. But i resisted and eventually it did become insanely comfortable. You stop noticing the water or yourself moving, and its like the air itself is a memory foam cushion.
I imagine - and understand - that anyone with any kind of stress or worries or whatever would get huge therapeutic relief from it..but i live a stress free life and have nothing on my mind so its hard for me to judge any obvious alteration in my mood or well being.
I tried to keep my eyes open to avoid simply falling asleep. Though sometimes i couldn't be sure if they were open or closed.And then...well..nothing. I was so versed in what might happen i spent the whole time alert and analysing it all, willing visions to appear, particularly to see what the friend was up to. But I didn't "see" anything. Not quite true...at one point i did perceive a light shape starting to form but it didn't become anything.
Eventually, suddenly, the pitch black turned to light monochrome ambient grey and my heart started pounding, thinking my brain has done something, effecting my visual field in response to the lack of input from my eyes...something weird may be about to happen...but then the music started to fade in indicating its coming to an end...and i glanced to my right and realised i could see my own hand...the sudden shift from black wasn't my brain, it was the light in the room coming on and creeping through a gap in the pod.
At least I think it was...when i told the girl on reception she didn't know what i was talking about and denied putting any light on at all. Hmm.
Michael, the friend in the other room did claim to have had an initial experience in his pod..he said he saw his own face clear as anything staring back at him. The woman on reception said people have all kinds of psychedelic experiences. Not me. It's like when i went to be hypnotized..i spend the whole time thinking about what's happening now and what's about to happen next.
Again i understand from reading before i went that it takes two or three goes to let yourself properly settle into the experience and just let things happen. But having not had anything sufficientely tantalising to make me rush back for more I'm not sure i'll be in a position to test that claim.
The physical sensation of floating however was very unusual and wonderfully comfortable, and the novelty of saying i've been in a sensory deprivation tank - i'll stick with that word - made it worth doing.
Still, as part of my occasional series of "try it for myself" reports on fortean linked activities, yesterday I went with a friend to a flotation centre, to experience floating in a sensory deprivation tank (pod, but tank sounds bigger and scarier)
What is it and what's it meant to do? Sensory deprivation speaks for itself...by floating in skin temperature water in pitch darkness with ear plugs in, you deprive your brain of the regular input from your senses of sight, sound and touch. Smell and taste take care of themselves. Deprived of anything coming in for it to work with, but you nonetheless being conscious and awake, the brain/mind purportedly starts doing other things. What other things is a vague and varied notion. But according to mutliple youtube videos and online magazine articles people (generally i must say "other" people and seldom the ones reporting on it) may have hypnogogic hallucinations, have visions, hear voices, see geometric or psychedelic patterns, get in to deep problem solving conversations with themselves...in fact the reports vary from the simple and common seeing points and flashes off light to the pure scifi notions of other dimensions and altered states of consciousness. It's also meant to be a perfect mental state, like Ganzfeld, for psychic awareness to take place. And that, if anything, is what interested me. Having no idea precisely what i wanted out of it i made an on the side arrangment with a friend far away to try and transmit his activities to me while i was in there....
Whatever mental benefits it may have, it's meant to be a great physical and stress relieving, deep relaxation, treatment and so flotation centres exists in major cities around the country. I'll assume the details and procedure for the one i attended - Float Level in Manchester - would be typical of all others.
There are several lockable rooms, each with a pod and a shower. The pod is a space age looking bath with a pull down hood. The water is no deeper than up to your elbow and is full of epsom salt which allows you to float. Both these things make drowning or sinking impossible. The size of the pod is bigger than people apparently expect..i would say about three times the width and twice the length of a bath. You put in ear plugs, shower, and climb in - naked (I'll give you a moment to picture me. Enjoy yourselves). You pull the lid closed and lay back arms above your head and try to relax completely and let the water support your weight. There are blue and green ambient lights which you can switch off as soon as you're ready - if ever - and music is played for the first ten minutes to ease you into it.
In my case it had the opposite effect...the anticipation of the pitch black being joined by complete silence had my heart going a bit as if something was going to suddenly happen. That and the warm air in there (due to the heat of the day outside) had me mentally rehearsing panicing and getting out after a few minutes. But i resisted and eventually it did become insanely comfortable. You stop noticing the water or yourself moving, and its like the air itself is a memory foam cushion.
I imagine - and understand - that anyone with any kind of stress or worries or whatever would get huge therapeutic relief from it..but i live a stress free life and have nothing on my mind so its hard for me to judge any obvious alteration in my mood or well being.
I tried to keep my eyes open to avoid simply falling asleep. Though sometimes i couldn't be sure if they were open or closed.And then...well..nothing. I was so versed in what might happen i spent the whole time alert and analysing it all, willing visions to appear, particularly to see what the friend was up to. But I didn't "see" anything. Not quite true...at one point i did perceive a light shape starting to form but it didn't become anything.
Eventually, suddenly, the pitch black turned to light monochrome ambient grey and my heart started pounding, thinking my brain has done something, effecting my visual field in response to the lack of input from my eyes...something weird may be about to happen...but then the music started to fade in indicating its coming to an end...and i glanced to my right and realised i could see my own hand...the sudden shift from black wasn't my brain, it was the light in the room coming on and creeping through a gap in the pod.
Michael, the friend in the other room did claim to have had an initial experience in his pod..he said he saw his own face clear as anything staring back at him. The woman on reception said people have all kinds of psychedelic experiences. Not me. It's like when i went to be hypnotized..i spend the whole time thinking about what's happening now and what's about to happen next.
Again i understand from reading before i went that it takes two or three goes to let yourself properly settle into the experience and just let things happen. But having not had anything sufficientely tantalising to make me rush back for more I'm not sure i'll be in a position to test that claim.
The physical sensation of floating however was very unusual and wonderfully comfortable, and the novelty of saying i've been in a sensory deprivation tank - i'll stick with that word - made it worth doing.
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