Sensory Deprivation

If your not familiar with sensory deprivation than keep reading. 

Sensory deprivation is an age old technique used to detach the mind from the many daily senses that typically fight for our attention and focus. Constantly on high alert (especially in today’s world), these senses pull and push the mind in all directions as they sense the world around them. From loud sirens, to the uncomfortable heat of your apartment, to the euphoric smell of your girlfriend. They all pull us away from our current thought and onto what ever sense we are perceiving.

What would happen is we were not perceiving any sense?

That was the exact thought of those who designed the sensory deprivation tanks – what if you didn’t perceive anything, and your mind’s attention was not being fought over for the attention of your different senses? What would the mind be allowed to focus on?

The history of sensory deprivation goes back far into the industrial military complex where resources have spent abundantly to understand the power of the mind. As with drugs, the military has always been fascinated with altered states of conscious and what effects it has on man. Mental performance, overall acuity, response time and so on. Beyond the physical benefits of muscle relaxation, and bone and joint relief was the powerful effects sensory deprivation seemed to have on the mind. In almost an act of decompression the mind begins to move away from the physical perceived reality, and almost departs from the body and all the feelings associated with the senses to begin exploring a much more senseless reality.

Many people who experience isolation chambers report vivid visual experiences and or hallucinations. Transported to a mental-space absent of physical attachment, floaters are subject to the vastness of their inner psyche. Recommended in packages of 3 or more floats, enthusiasts are said to experience enhanced benefits over prolonged 90 minute sessions. The tanks are for many, a retreat for the body and mind, and have become very popular for those seeking meditative states of relaxation. Similar to a massage, many floaters experience relieved muscle tension and an overwhelming sense of calmness after a session.

How does it work?

Float tanks, also known as isolation tanks, float spas, sensory deprivation chambers or whatever you choose to call them are centered on one major purpose, simulate an environment with no sensory stimulants. This means you do not feel, see, hear, taste or smell. The two last variables (taste,smell) are a bit harder to control, although relatively controlled, it is the first three that make most of the difference.

This processes of depriving the senses is done by creating a tank,chamber,pod, or whatever you want to call it, and filling it with salt and water. By filling the tank with roughly 100 pounds of Epsom salt ($800 dollars worth of salt) , enough to keep the body buoyant in water. You allow the body to rest naturally and unrestricted atop the water. Then by controlling the  temperature of the water to 98-99 degrees (the temperature of the human body), you allow the skin to feel nothing.

Laying motionless atop the water allows the mind to escape the every day feelings that we constantly encounter.

Try floating for yourself and let us know what think…