The benefits of sensory deprivation tanks are no secret: relaxation, deep meditation, soothing chronic muscle pain, increased athletic performance, and an overall sense of well being, but until now these benefits came at a hefty financial cost.
Zen Float has created an isolation tank that can be self assembled and is cheaper than its competition. Ideally it is paving the way for higher accessibility and lowered costs in the industry.
Much lighter than traditional models, the Zen Float Tent will weigh a little more than a water bed once you add the epsom salt and water.
Zen Float is running a Kickstarterto fund their idea, check it out for more details on the product. Whether you can afford to pre-order your own tank or not, it’s awesome to support a company that is hopefully going to make a huge difference for the collective conciousness.
Floatation tanks are increasing in popularity, offering eager psychonauts a chance to explore this unique state of mind of sensory deprivation.
The Brain Without Sensory Input
Deprived of external stimuli, the brain generates its own. Parts of the visual field light up in unrecognizable shapes, which eventually morph into more complex manifestations such as dots, lines and grated patterns.
With the advent of brain imagining techniques, scientists have been able to capture the brain basis of such finicky visual hallucinations during sensory deprivation. In 2000, one such study found that volunteers’ visual cortexes became more active after less than an hour of visual deprivation.
Hallucinations may also occur in other sensory domains:
For me, it was auditory: initially, I heard a beautiful aria drifting in and out, like music from a faraway phonograph; soon it morphed into a full symphony before settling into a simple, tribal beat. Incredibly, I did not recognize any of these tunes; my brain was spontaneously generating them. – Shelly Fan, Discover
Exercising Creativity and Concentration in the Tank
A small study of five university professors found that six 90-minute float sessions allowed them to generate more “creative” ideas, which coincided with a self-reported increase in free imagery and remote associations. Similarly, in a study with 40 university students, a single hour of flotation increased their scores on a standardized test used to measure creativity.
A far more researched effect of flotation is that it enhances performance in a variety of athletic and musical tasks that require high levels of concentration and visual-motor coordination, including basketball, tennis, archery and jazz improvisation. In a sample of 13 jazz students, four sessions enhanced their technical performance one week after the last flotation experience, suggesting the possibility of lasting benefits.
Dr. Peter Suedfeld, a pioneering psychologist in the field, speculates that flotation may enhance creativity and performance in a manner similar to that of sleep or meditation. Research has shown that during resting states the brain repeatedly rehearses newly learned skills and consolidates recently acquired knowledge for long-term storage.
However, Suedfeld says, compared to sleep or meditation, such “twilight” states are more easily achievable without prior training or conscious effort via flotation.
Physical Relief and Benefits of Floating
Cognitive perturbations only make up half of the flotation experience; far more noticeable are the physical effects.
In the early 1980s, a group of psychologists at the Medical College of Ohio initiated a series of experiments that looked at the physiological responses to floating. Both within and across flotation sessions, blood pressure and levels of stress-related hormones dropped – effects that persisted long after the cessation of the last flotation experience.
In 2005, a meta-analysis further confirmed that flotation was more effective at reducing stress than other popular methods such as relaxation exercises, biofeedback or relaxing on the couch.
Fritz the Cat is a 1972 American animated comedy film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi, the film was the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States.
It focuses on Fritz, an anthropomorphic feline in mid-1960s New York City who explores the ideals of hedonism and socio-political consciousness.
The film is a satire focusing on American college life of the era, race relations, the free love movement, and left and right-wing politics.
Pink Floyd The Wall is a 1982 British live-action/animated musical film directed by Alan Parker based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album, The Wall. The film is highly metaphorical and is rich in symbolic imagery and sound.
It features very little dialogue and is mainly driven by Pink Floyd’s music.
It depicts the construction and ultimate demolition of a metaphorical wall, alienation.
One of the best trippy movies ever.
Enter the Void is a 2009 French film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, labeled by Noé as a “psychedelic melodrama”.
The story is set in Tokyo and focuses on Oscar, a young American drug dealer who gets shot by the police, but continues to watch over his sister Linda and the events which follow during an out-of-body experience, floating above Tokyo’s streets.
Noé had tried various hallucinogens in his youth and used those experiences as inspiration for the visual style.
Including one drug experience where he traveled to the Peruvian jungle to try Ayahuasca. The experience was very intense and Noé regarded it “almost like professional research.”
This is purely a visual experience, don’t expect a great narrative – just trip out on the global neon candy-scapes.
Altered States is a 1980 American science fiction film adaptation of a novel written by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. It was the only novel that he ever wrote, as well as his final film.
William Hurt plays Eddie Jessup, a scientist obsessed with discovering mankind’s true role in the universe. To this end, he submits himself to a series of mind-expanding experiments.
A dazzling film for its time.
A cult classic by any definition, Terry Gilliam’s epic sci-fi film is a true “dystopian satire“. Brazil challenges known societal constructs.
Focusing on “satirizing the bureaucratic, largely dysfunctional industrial world that had been driving Gilliam crazy all his life” as Jack Matthews puts it.
Sensory deprivation tanks are a wonderful way to relax and meditate. The best way to eliminate all sensory input is to step inside a sensory deprivation tank.
Floating in a tank allows you to lose all sense of self and merge with the energies of the universe.Take a trip to the center of your inner-verse.
In part 1, we talk to Joe Rogan about what happens to the mind, body, and spirit while inside the tank.
In part 2, VICE Correspondent Hamilton Morris spends five hours inside a tank only to come out with more questions than answers. We head to Isolation Floatation in Colorado to learn more.
In part 3, VICE correspondent Hamilton Morris tests the Rolls Royce of sensory deprivation tanks at Cloud nine Float Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Each person enjoys a different experience when they float in an isolation tank for the first time. The Simpsons offers a satirical take on isolation tanks when Homer Simpson gets to experience being in one for the first time in the episode “Make Room For Lisa.”
The experiences of Lisa and Homer in their respective isolation tanks are as different as night and day.
Lisa undergoes a spiritual and mystical journey typical of what some people who float regularly report when they come out of a floatation tank. She sees an assortment of images and experiences life from the point of view of her cat Snowball and then Homer. Lisa learns to forgive his behavior and appreciate his efforts to bond with her by doing activities he doesn’t always enjoy.
Homer, however, seems only concerned on whether he can pee in the tank before starting his floating session. Once inside, his isolation tank is seized by repo men and falls out of the back of their truck on a sharp turn. It is found on the road by Ned Flanders and he mistakes it for a coffin. Ned buries the isolation tank and it breaks through the top of an underground water pipe. The isolation tank washes ashore on a local beach and is returned to the new age store. Homer leaves the tank feeling impressed by his “journey.”
Both experiences — one spiritual and the other comical — have positive effects on the relationship between Homer and Lisa. The same is true with others who float. They feel better about themselves and their loved ones.
Brian Rose & Nic Gabriel of London Real go Floating in an isolation tank for one hour @Floatworks, the largest floatation tank centre in the world. Watch as we enter into a weightless, soundproof, and completely dark chamber to induce theta brainwaves and a meditative state.
A very informative introduction to Floating for newbies. The video covers all the prep before going into the tank and the awesome benefits you get after your session is done.
Joe Rogan talks about his DMT experience and the joy of taking psychedelics then jumping into an isolation tank.
Joe Rogan – 5MEO-DMT Experience, Isolation Tank Interview
Joe Rogan trips out on what and how we say things on 5MEO-DMT and a caller talks about isolation tank experiences.
…When I did it I dissolved to the center of the universe and became a part of the cellular structure of all matter, it was the strangest experience ever…
Joe Rogan speaks on what the mind goes through in a sensory deprivation tank and the awesome potential you can achieve with one.
The first 20 minutes for me at least is sort of like a seminar on my life. It shows me all that the different issues in my life that I don’t like and that I need to fix, things that are bothering me, things about my own behavior that could have been better, and things where I disappointed myself
Then it will show me some things where I’m on the right track, this is good, continue here, continue doing this, continue thinking like this, continuing explore these ideas but then once it gets ME done, it’s like let’s clear all this bullshit in your life, let’s think about the big picture.
And then it’s pure thought, it’s like the mind completely untethered from the body and then I start contemplating everything, I start contemplating the universe, the role of human beings and each individual’s actions all accumulating to one specific event, I start thinking all kinds of crazy shit but without the body in the way.
The sensory deprivation tank — a temperature-regulated, salt-water filled, soundproof, lightproof tank that can isolate its occupant from numerous forms of sensory input all at once — has gone by many names over the years, but its overall design and purpose have remained largely unchanged: to find out what your brain does when it’s shoved into a box all by itself and left alone for a while.
Just Your Mind, All Senses Gone
Inside the tank there is no light, and therefore no sense of vision. You experience the kind of quiet that allows you to hear your muscles tense, your heart beat, and your eyelids close. The extreme buoyancy of the water lends your environment an almost zero-gravity quality. The lack of a temperature differential plays with your ability to perceive where your body ends and where the water and air begin.
John C. Lilly, Developer of the Isolation Tank
While John C. Lilly is certainly well known for developing the world’s first isolation tank, he was by no means a stranger to revolutionary, albeit sometimes strange and uncharted, areas of medical and scientific innovation.Lilly was a pioneer in the field of electronic brain stimulation. He was the first person to map pain and pleasure pathways in the brain. He founded an entire branch of science exploring interspecies communication between humans, dolphins, and whales; conducted extensive experimentation with mind-altering drugs like LSD and spent prolonged periods of time exploring the nature of human consciousness in the isolation tank.
Experiences in the Tank
Lilly claimed that the sensory deprivation tank allowed him to make contact with creatures from other dimensions, and civilizations far more advanced than our own. He would forever refer to his very first encounter with entities from another dimension as “the first conference of three beings,” the details of which are recounted in great detail on Lilly’s website. Lilly’s, however, is an experience that others who use tanks have rarely reported.
By comparison, characterizations of sensory deprivation like this one by comedian Joe Rogan begin to sound downright grounded — and Rogan’s descriptions of hallucinations, heightened levels of introspection, and the sensation that the mind has left the body are actually among the most commonly reported experiences among tank users. Even renowned physicist Richard Feynman described having hallucinations and out-of-body experiences while using sensory deprivation chambers.
Reports of a heightened sense of introspection and out-of-body experiences by tank users mirror those of people with extensive experience in meditation, and both practices have been linked to decreased alpha waves and increased theta waves in the brain — patterns most typically found in sleeping states.
When, Where To Try The Tank
You might think that you can just get into the tank and have a psychedelic trip right away, but it doesn’t work like that. Absolutely nothing might happen the first time. If you are interested in using the tank, practice meditating first. Meditation helps you develop that habit of “letting go”. If you can’t free your mind, your tank experience may be boring as you’ll just be floating with impatience and anxiety.
Depending on your proclivity for psychoactive drug use, sensory deprivation tanks can offer anything from a means to achieving relaxation and reflection to a vehicle that can aid you in your travels through time and space. And if you should feel the itch to explore what sensory deprivation might be able to offer you, you can seek out nearby tank centers over at Float Finder.
