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My First Sensory Deprivation Experience

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.
1f606.png
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.
 
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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 twice the width and 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.
1f606.png
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.

What was the duration of the experience?
 
1 hour. plus ten minutes either side for showering etc.
 
Thanks for sharing that Gattino. I hadn't realised that there were opportunities for anyone to go to for that experience I thought it was only if you'd got involved in someones research project or something. Not sure if I'd want to give it a go myself but I appreciate your honest account and maybe if the opportunity came my way I would give it a go after all.

I'd also like to add that I always enjoy reading your posts. :)

Sollywos x
 
Of the many youtube videos ive found this is probably one of the clearest, most honest ones (as in not making extravagant claims or being technical..just showing you and giving an honest summary). Only thing id say is she says it felt like 2 hours...subsequently i was expecting to have a skewed sense of time, but not, felt less than an hour to be honest.

 
Wow not being irritated by people for a whole day! It would be worth this grumpy old lady doing then for that novel experience alone!

Was it expensive Gattino?

Sollywos x
 
Generally speaking and i believe in london you can expect to pay around £50 a go, but - typically - proportionally less the more you book as a package.

The one in Manchester is, one online article suggested, the cheapest they could find. It was £35 for a single session but £55 if you book one each for you and a friend, so that worked out at £27.50.
 
Generally speaking and i believe in london you can expect to pay around £50 a go, but - typically - proportionally less the more you book as a package.

The one in Manchester is, one online article suggested, the cheapest they could find. It was £35 for a single session but £55 if you book one each for you and a friend, so that worked out at £27.50.

Oh that's not as expensive as I'd imagined. I think I need to add it to my bucket list! :)

Sollywos x
 
Thanks for sharing your first hand research, Gattino!

I think it was in the book "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman" by the atomic physicist, Richard Feynman, but anyway, the author related that during his experience in a flotation tank his sense of ego shifted from his head to his solar plexus, IIRC.
 
during his experience in a flotation tank his sense of ego shifted from his head to his solar plexus, IIRC.
Wow. That would be a fun line of research for the individual and society generally - the shifting of the ego. Perhaps if everyone had a compulsory go at this stuff, we might see less conflict, both internally and out-ternally. I could sure use some of that.
 
It sounds like my experience with massage. At first you are very aware of what you expect to experience, but once you've done it several times, you can relax enough (egad, I can't type; I've had too much wine) to let your expectations go and just focus on the experience alone.
 
Three years on I decided to give floatation another go.

A little background detail...ive volunteered for a university study to see if float tanks aid psi results. Don't know when that will happen but thought with a bit of spare birthday cash id book myself a private session locally to reacquaint/acclimatise myself to the sensations in advance of doing it for science Went this afternoon. I confess it wasn't as appealing as last time... didn't quite feel that relaxed and once again just spent the entire time talking to myself analysing it rather than zoning out.

As last time i suggested a friend try an experiment and "project" an image of his choosing to my hopefully receptive mind during my session.

Unfortunately i can confirm once again my ability to visualise in the darkness is all but non existent. Visualising anything in my mind's eye seems to be limited to memory and dreams, rather than inviting spontaenous thoughts etc. In short i never really felt i "saw" anything...my mind occasionally hit on thinking fleetingly of shapes or objects, but in a faint dim, periphery of my mind's eye way. The will to see something no doubt contributed to my not "getting into the zone" (assuming there's one to get in to).

Nonetheless there were a couple of odd results.

Two days prior i reported to this same friend that he'd appeared in a dream. We were in a pool or lake, a presumed holiday setting. A duck appeared under the water, thrashing about and emerged under my friend's arm...it then passed from him to me and was on the back of my head. I was urging him to quickly take a picture. The dream meant nothing to my friend.

Well when I decided to book this float session and asked this same friend to try and transmit an image to me i recalled the dream and saw the obvious parallels...id be in a body of water and something (a duck in the dream) would pass from him to me, specifically the back of my head. This put me in a strange bind. Could it be that a duck would be the image he would choose? If i reminded him of the dream and its potential significance beforehand then he would either avoid the bird theme, or be lead by it...either would undermine its value as evidence of precognition. But if (as was the case) i didn't point it out in advance then should i happen to pick up mental images of a duck or birds during the session i wouldn't trust it to be coming from him at all, but from my own expectation.

AS i say i decided not to point out the potential relevance of the dream until after the experiment. Well as i say there were no visions, or clear mental images, but i consciously noted any and all objects my mind momentarily and dimly considered during the hour. Inevitably, as predicted, i distrusted and pushed aside anything avian that appeared in my imaginings...including chick, birds, egg, eagle, dragonfly...as probably products of conscious expectation. Oddly it never occurred to me til later to see any connection between those and another themed set of images around aircraft, biggles, flying helmet etc . I summarised most of what i could recall...minus the bird stuff...to the friend by text as soon as i was dressed.

The image he was mentally projecting (from his mind rather than a photo) was, apparently, an eagle.

Imagine my frustration...if id included that image in my summary, or even mentioned the duck dream, before he told me the target it would have surely seemed far more impressive than doing both afterwards.

If we believe anything happened here at all then we have a quandary. We might accept I had a precognitive dream inspired by the float and the target. But if so, is there any evidence than anything telepathic happened during the experiment? Were my unreported avian images brought about by my friends thoughts...or just by my own remembering of the dream?

One other oddity. My best friend Y, one of two who feature frequently in my reports here of dream communication etc, is staying here at the moment. I didn't involve him in, nor tell him about, the experiment as i knew he'd forget. But as i set off casually, half jokingly, I did say "transmit an image to me while I'm in there" and then gave him no further thought. Sure enough as far as im aware he didn't do anythng while i was away. But i later got wondering. The only time anythng appeared to grab my attention by appearing fully formed or unbidden in my imagination, to the point of thinking "oo....i bet that's the target!", it was the image of a goldfish bowl. So ive just asked Y if by any chance he's been looking at gold fish bowls while i was away. He said an ad for a gold fish (or "ranchu") had appeared on his facebook and had him thinking about his brother and his own goldfish which he'd left behind and not seen for the last few months..... (For completenesss I asked when this had happened. He said 5.10. At that point, i was out of the floation room and texting my other friend my mental impressions, it has to be said...so i must have "seen" the gold fish bowl maybe 25 minutes earlier.)

Anyway, make of all that what you will.
 
What occurred to me is that you may have been "ducking", as in avoiding, the target image you expected your friend to use, and sticking it in the back of your mind. Could this have caused difficulties in clearly seeing anything from him?

Based on your past reportings, I'd say the goldfish Y was pondering was a hit, as you seem to have gotten "previews" before.
What's time anyway, but an illusion?
 
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