

Why I love the nothingness inside a float tank - sergeant3
http://aeon.co/magazine/psychology/why-i-love-the-nothingness-inside-a-float-tank/?/

======
christiangenco
Here's Richard Feynman on sensory deprivation tanks:
[http://pastebin.com/42YhjjYg](http://pastebin.com/42YhjjYg)

From his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"[1].

1\. [http://amzn.com/0393316041](http://amzn.com/0393316041)

~~~
anc84
Direct link
[http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393316041/](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393316041/)

------
hbosch
> [...] convinced that a council of invisible cosmic entities governed
> reality.

Kind of odd to throw that out as an affirmation of this man's eccentricity,
when billions of human beings consider this absolutely normal.

~~~
JohnBooty
Perhaps somewhat related. The other day I read that DMT produces psychedelic
experiences that often involve a common thread that is somewhat similar to a
"council of invisible cosmic entities:" multiple technologically advanced
entities.

    
    
         Strassman (2001) reported that “about half” of the 60 volunteers entered 
         what he described as “freestanding, independent levels of existence” of a 
         highly unusual nature. These places were inhabited by what volunteers 
         described as intelligent “beings”, “entities”, “aliens”, “guides”, and 
         “helpers”... ...Strangely enough, reports of these kinds of beings seem 
         to be unique to DMT, as Strassman was unable to find anything similar in 
         the research literature on other psychedelic drugs.   
         
         There were some consistent themes in experiences of entity contact. 
         Participants frequently reported that the beings seemed to be waiting for 
         them. Volunteers were subjected to an examination by these beings in what 
         appeared to be a technologically advanced setting. Volunteers felt 
         like their mind and body was probed and tested, or even modified in some 
         unexplained way. The beings communicated with the user through gestures
         
         ...Strassman noted the striking parallels between these entity contact 
         experiences and accounts of alien abduction. 
         
         Intriguingly, many volunteers refused to believe that these experiences 
         were hallucinations or dreams, as they seemed too real. Strassman reported 
         being initially quite baffled by and unprepared for the frequency of these 
         entity experiences among his volunteers...
    

As an atheist and somebody who has never used psychedelics I find this
fascinating.

------
mmonihan
I've been to 5 different float centers and every single one cites Joe Rogan as
the inspiration for starting. Kind of amazing.

Also, I'm working on a VR setup to use in the tank. Still in its infancy, but
shows some promise!

[https://instagram.com/p/5PyBmhw842/](https://instagram.com/p/5PyBmhw842/)

~~~
sanoli
Joe Rogan is cool and all, but the stuff he praises is often in line with
"whoa, i took this and it opened my eyes to the REAL reality, man". Not much
science or thoroughness behind anything. One time I listened to this podcast
where he was trying to sound scientific when questioning the moon landing, but
it was just as weak as the "where are the astronaut's shadows" people.

~~~
roc
I know exactly what you're saying; that stuff would drive me crazy in his
podcasts.

I figured out he was just very much biased toward things that are _exciting_.
Things like the moon landing being fake, or bigfoot being real, etc. And while
he gave that stuff probably too much benefit of the doubt, he isn't immune to
evidence or rationality.

For instance, Bigfoot and the moon landing conspiracy stuff are now dealt with
in a politic "I personally can't disprove it, but it seems pretty unlikely,
and all the evidence tends to come from people who are thoroughly full of
shit".

And since the SyFy show, he seems to take a much more skeptical view on new
assertions.

Except when it comes to Graham Hancock, Randall Carlson, et al. They still get
a lot of slack. But even then, he tries to steer it toward the tangible
archaeological/geological data and away from the woo-woo conclusions.

------
devinfoley
I did this once. I fell asleep. After 2.5 hours (I had only reserved one
hour), they came banging on the tank to wake me up.

~~~
deuplonicus
I'm one of the engineers contracted to build new hardware and software
controllers for one of the major suppliers of these tank systems. There are
intercoms now, better temp control, better lighting abilities, and much more.
Though, we still need a iOS and Android app.

------
semerda
Float tanks rock! Note to newbies; you need about 3 sessions to really get
into it and learn to let go faster.

Forget sitting meditation. Flotation therapy is the easiest way to get a brain
and body massage. There are also heath benefits from the Epsom Salt used
inside the tank to make you float.

I wrote a bit on this topic few years back here:
[http://www.theroadtosiliconvalley.com/local-
california/float...](http://www.theroadtosiliconvalley.com/local-
california/floatation-tank-isolation-tanks/) and why it's a perfect tool for
engineers to let go and relax after a busy day of coding ;-)

------
codeshaman
After reading this article, I just went ahead and did a floatation session and
here I am back after my first 1 hour float.

It was a great experience and 1 hour is definetely not enough to understand it
all, but there is a lot of potential there.

The physical sensation itself is really interesting - you feel like a fish and
you want to move like a fish in there (doing S movements with your body), then
you hear the sound of your bones cracking and liquids moving through your
body. The most disturbing was the sheer noise that I constantly have in my
ears - a kind of tinnitis which resembles the sounds of a modem and it felt
like the noise amplified as I was thinking about emotional things.

You also realise just how much sensorial input our mind processes at any point
and how much of reality is filtered away automatically.

I had just a couple of instances when I really 'floated away' for maybe a
couple of seconds, but then my mind would always jump back and take control of
the situation.

I suppose if I go to more sessions, I will learn how to extend them and go
deeper and deeper into the meditative trance state.

The feeling of not having all this sensory input made me feel small, almost
microscopic to the point of wondering - who am I, really ?

And that is a good question to ask yourself.

35 EUR/hour is a bit expensive though - but they have sliding prices if you
buy more sessions so I'm probably going to do that.

~~~
HenryTheHorse
> then my mind would always jump back and take control of the situation.

In Buddhist lingo, that's the Self, always clinging to sense-impressions,
trying to manipulate them and mistaking them as something personal.

------
joelrunyon
Tried this out a few months back. Wrote my experience up here -
[http://impossiblehq.com/sensory-deprivation-
tank/](http://impossiblehq.com/sensory-deprivation-tank/)

------
zoba
In my experience, float tanks are "fine" but nothing that great. Typically you
can rent them by the hour, and I got the feeling that to truly experience one,
you'd need to do it for multiple hours, or perhaps even a day.

Apparently Feynman enjoyed them, and even smoked marijuana before entering
them on a couple occasions. Not something I'd do, but, I can imagine that
would add to the effect.

One warning if you try the tank: the water is extremely salty...so if you get
an itch anywhere on your face, be sure the water doesn't contact your eye...
man does it burn.

~~~
visarga
Poor man's alternative - a meditation eye mask that gives you total darkness,
a good set of earplugs for silence, and a comfy mattress or just sit in a
regular meditation position. After 30 minutes, the lack of spatial information
and total silence removes you from your surroundings, you get a feeling that
you don't know any more where you are, there is no world, just your mind. Can
be scary or impressive.

~~~
eru
> just sit in a regular meditation position.

Why not lie down?

~~~
kseistrup
You're more likely to fall asleep when lying down.

------
cooperadymas
> _The film’s success spoke to floating’s ongoing mystical allure. After
> sports teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles and the Philadelphia Phillies
> installed float tanks in their training facilities in 1980, they won the
> Super Bowl and World Series respectively. By the middle of that decade,
> celebrities from John Lennon to Robin Williams had acquired tanks._

Err... John Lennon died in 1980. The Eagles lost the 1981 Super Bowl. What
other inaccuracies might be in the article?

~~~
GuiA
Apparently John Lennon used a floatation tank in 1979:
[http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Bio-Lennon-Kicked-
Heroin-H...](http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Bio-Lennon-Kicked-Heroin-Habit-
By-Floating-/id-7e78827f7fd8b1c7560f182aaf4dd07e/)

The Eagles did lose the 81 Super Bowl, but maybe it's a typo for "made it to
the Super Bowl", which is considered an achievement in itself in sports?
(particularly if the team had a poor track record the years prior)

------
kazinator
Ha, the _Altered States_ movie instantly came to mind just by association with
the headline. Read down a few paragraphs and, hey, there it is!

I saw the movie as a kid on late night TV. One fine day just a couple of years
ago, I suddenly remembered it, googled for a while (not remembering its name)
and watched it again.

The movie contains a Jeckyll-and-Hyde trope which is so laughably impossible
that the screenwriters don't even bother trying to weave in a shred of a
plausible explanation for it that a seasoned sci-fi aficionado could swallow.
If you can get past that, the film as such is decent and entertaining.
Certainly enough to impress a twelve-year-old kid into looking for it thirty
years later to watch again.

------
thirdtruck
Are these useful to someone with tinnitus, or does the ringing render them
intolerable?

~~~
tjradcliffe
No worse than normal, at least for me. I found the experience dull. Always
having some internal auditory stimulation may have been part of the cause of
that.

Also, I meditate very easily and prefer a whitenoise environment for
meditation. And I'm very happy in my own head and used to being alone. So the
whole thing was not much a novelty in any respect, and the lack of whitenoise
made it suboptimal for meditation.

I wonder how people's response to these things varies as they move along the
extroverion-introversion scale. It seems plausible that extroverts would find
them a much more novel and disturbing experience than introverts.

~~~
lsaferite
The fact that a float tank would never be true sensory deprivation makes me
sad.

Having tinnitus drives me crazy. Not in literal sense, it's not like I focus
on it all the time. But at night when I hear the crickets and other nightlife,
I mourn the lack of silence in my head.

------
ghodss
For those who want to try it out in San Francisco, Reboot Float Spa[1] is a
great facility.

[1] [http://rebootfloatspa.com/](http://rebootfloatspa.com/)

------
harperlee
It would be great to float in there and have VR (Oculus Rift or similar), that
could end up being a very immersive experience (pun intended :P)

