I Floated For An Hour In a Sensory Deprivation Tank--Here’s What Happened

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My eyes are open, but I can’t see anything.  As I float on my back in ten inches of water containing 1,500 pounds of dissolved Epsom salt, I slowly raise my arm until my hand is just a few inches from my face.  Despite the fact that there aren’t any light particles hitting my eyes, I can see what appears to be the outline of my hand against the inky blackness of the chamber.  I move each of my fingers rhythmically in succession, turning my hand from side to side at the same time, and again I’m able to pick out the motion even though I’m suspended in complete darkness.  My mind has just created a projection of the movement it expects to see, as clear as day even though the chamber is darker than night.  I’m five minutes in, and I can already tell this is going to be an amazing experience.

When I first heard about the concept of floating a few weeks ago, I knew it was one of those realms of human experience I had to try.  The idea of shutting myself off completely from external stimuli sounded simultaneously calming and terrifying to me, a state of existence nowhere to be found in nature and one our brains didn’t evolve to accommodate.  John Lilly, an American neuropsychologist also known for his exploration into the effects of mind-altering drugs, conceptualized the first isolation tanks in the fifties.  Since then, they’ve been used to treat conditions ranging from everyday stress and anxiety to chronic pain and mental disorders.  With the unprecedented amount of distractions people face today, the concept of completely shutting off external stimuli by floating in an isolation chamber is quickly working its way into the mainstream.  New float centers are popping up almost weekly in cities and suburbs nationwide as people look to find some sense of peace in an increasingly noisy world.

I chose to try my first float on a Monday evening after work so I could gauge just how effective it’d be at helping the issues and concerns of the day melt away.  They recommend first time floaters start with an hour session, but those more experienced often go for 90 minutes or longer.  Upon arrival, the therapist led me to one of two areas where the float sessions were held.  The area consisted of a shelf to store my belongings, a shower to rinse off before and after the float experience, and an ominous-looking door that led to the float chamber itself.  Sanitation being a primary concern, she assured me that the water was filtered through a multi-tier system between each session as well as exposed to UV light and ozone to further kill any remaining bacteria (this is actually a standard set by a governing body for float tanks).  She told me I’d have a full hour in the chamber and that she’d knock on the chamber door to indicate the time was up.  After she left, I took a quick shower, put in the provided set of earplugs, and nervously stepped foot into a muggy room of complete blackness.

Comedian Joe Rogan is one of the more notable floaters out there, who swears by their ability to induce a feeling of weightlessness and completely relieve the tension in your body (he’s described it as “F***ing incredible”).  I’ve always sank like a stone in swimming pools, so I was surprised to find I was able to float effortlessly after laying on my back--I guess 1,500 pounds of Epsom salt will do that.  Upon entering the chamber, I was immediately struck with air so humid it seemed to wrap itself around me like a blanket.  The chamber held the unpleasant musk of a sweaty locker room immediately following a game, but I had been assured that this was completely normal and didn’t pose any health issues.  As I closed the chamber door and the last sliver of light hit the backs of my retinas, I finally appreciated the full weight of the term isolation chamber.  I can’t remember the last time I felt so cut off from everything, but was excited to explore how my body and mind would react.

The body’s vestibular system is responsible for managing its sense of balance and spatial orientation.  Using input from the eyes and ears, it sends signals down various projection pathways (including the spinal cord and cerebellum) to produce the right amount of movement in your appendages to stay level and coordinated.  In the absence of external stimulation, this system has no input with which to keep the body coordinated, which can produce feelings of disorientation.  After lying on my back for several minutes, I began to experience this firsthand.  It started with a spinning sensation, as if my body was rotating around the chamber like the hands of a clock.  I moved my arms outward in an effort to distribute my body’s weight more evenly, but that only further upset my body’s sense of balance.  It didn’t help that the water is set at a precise  93.5 degrees, which is the temperature which makes it difficult to tell where your skin ends and the water begins.  Knowing that the spinning sensation was a natural byproduct of removing external stimulation, I decided to just enjoy the ride, which ended after a couple minutes.  Once the spinning stopped, an overwhelming sense of calm took over me and I settled in for the remainder of the session.

Because there wasn’t any light inside the chamber, it didn’t matter if my eyes were open or closed.  I decided to keep them open to see if I’d experience any of the hallucinatory or visual effects that people have reported after inducing short-term light deprivation, and was not disappointed.  About fifteen minutes into the session, I saw what appeared to be a constellation of thousands of pinprick points of light slowly moving across my field of vision.  The lights began swirling like a galaxy before fading from view and leaving behind patches of ambiguous colors like the kind you see on the backs of your eyelids when you close your eyes after looking at the sky.  As long as you’re still alive, your brain is always active in some way.  If you’ve ever tried to meditate, you know how hard it is to sit still and think about nothing while random thoughts keep popping in and out of your head.  In the absence of external stimulation, the brain will generate its own, projecting patterns and colors where none exist in physical reality.  This is something that most floaters report to some degree, and I definitely include myself among them.  The underlying emotions I felt while it was happening were a combination of curiosity and wonder, as if I was accessing an entirely new state of being for the first time.

After what I can only guess to be about thirty minutes, the visual effects and disorientation disappeared, leaving behind a sense of calm I had never experienced before in my life.  I was completely alone, but I didn’t feel isolated--somehow, I was at peace with every aspect of the situation.  For the next thirty minutes, I let my mind slip into a dreamlike state halfway between being totally asleep and totally awake, allowing random thoughts to pop into my head as they saw fit.  I was perfectly content to just be--not analyzing, planning, or concentrating on anything in particular.  In fact, scientists have classified the type of brain activity that occurs during similar states of calmness and relaxation as “theta waves”, the second lowest brain wave frequency next to delta waves, which occur when you’re deeply asleep or otherwise unconscious.  The theta state is sometimes accompanied by unexpected, unpredictable, dreamlike but very vivid mental images that can sometimes be mistaken as hallucinations.  I didn’t personally experience anything like this but can certainly identify with the dreamlike state.

The large amounts of Epsom salt dissolved into the water undoubtedly furthered my state of relaxation.  Epsom salt is high in magnesium, which plays an important role in regulating bodily functions like muscle control, electrical impulses, energy production and the elimination of toxins.  Due to the changes in diet and agriculture that have occurred over the last century (thank you, processed food!), most of us are magnesium deficient, which the National Academy of Sciences has found to attribute to the high rates of ailments such as heart disease, stroke, and arthritis that Americans suffer from today.  While magnesium is often poorly absorbed through the stomach, it’s easily absorbed through the skin by osmosis, which is why regular Epsom salt baths have long been recommended to maintain proper magnesium levels in the body.  This also helps explain the heightened feelings of calm and relaxation inside the float chamber--magnesium is a natural stress reliever and necessary for the body to bind adequate amounts of serotonin, a chemical within the brain that creates a feeling of well being and relaxation.

When my submerged ears picked up the dull thud of knocking on the door, the first thing that entered my mind was “is it that time already?”  The hour was up, and it was time for me to exit my cocoon of enlightenment and re-enter the real world.  As I stood up, my legs felt so wobbly I had to grab the handrail on the side of the tank and it occurred to me that this was probably how Neo felt when he first became unplugged from the Matrix.  My eyes squinted to adjust to the sudden influx of light and as I turned the shower knob to rinse the salt off my body, I began reflecting on what I’d just gone through for the past hour.  I hadn’t experienced any sudden epiphanies, nor had my outlook on life changed in any meaningful way (not that I was expecting either--after all, it’s just a dark bath of salt water at the end of the day).  What I did take away was a deep sense of calm, peace, and appreciation for the power and complexity of the mind.

The heightened state of relaxation lasted until my head hit the pillow that night for one of the deepest crash sessions I’ve had in years.  The next day, I felt a lingering sense of calm but it wasn’t nearly as intense as it was immediately following the float session.  All in all, I have zero regrets from trying the experience and will absolutely do it again.  If the cost weren’t so prohibitive ($75 for an hour at the place I visited), I’d probably do it once a week but will most likely settle for once every couple months or so.  I highly recommend the float experience to anyone who meditates regularly, as the removal of external stimuli enhances the mind’s ability to settle into a meditative state.  But, you don’t need to have any background with meditation in order to fully appreciate the effects of the float chamber.  If you get claustrophobic easily it might not be a good idea, but you can always choose to exit the tank at any time if you feel uncomfortable.  Whether you’re looking to experience a totally different sphere of human activity or you just want to escape from the real world for awhile, floating is something you should definitely put on your radar.