Issue #5

2000

By Nicholas Ashfield

This ol’ world getting to you?

You can escape, quickly and very effectively, the thousand and one shocks of mortal existence by climbing into a modern day time capsule—the flotation tank.

Floating was developed in California (but of course!) by folks seeking ways of experiencing altered states of consciousness. The float tank or capsule creates a unique environment where water is heated to body temperature and then supersaturated with over one thousand pounds of epsom salts. This creates a buoyancy twice that of the Dead Sea, such that everyone bobs like a cork on the surface. Cover with a lid and fit with a light-tight door, add a fan for fresh air, a light, perhaps an audio system, and you have a modern float tank.

Showering up before your float, you already have a sense of delight, an expectation of escaping your personal world and its stresses. Entering the tank and closing the lid, you lie on the warm water and float effortlessly. Slowly your body tensions ease as you merge with the still salt water. The elementals of planetary life—sight, sound, temperature and the effects of gravity—no longer press on your nervous system. These basic stimuli consume up to 95% of the energy of your nerves.

Your mind shifts beyond time and space into the Deep Self. Partway through the float, your consciousness may resurface, then slip away again. Then comes the knock that tells you your time is up.

Emerging from the tank, you feel wonderfully refreshed. The eyes love to look again, the mind delights in perceiving. Joints are loose, the body flowing. Your hour in the float capsule has been worth four to six hours of sleep in terms of rejuvenation of your nervous system.

In the ‘70’s a movie called Altered States brought floating to the perception of the general public. The image presented in the movie was somewhat bizarre in that the star floated in the upright position while connected with wires to research equipment. One night he does drugs, enters the tank and emerges as a primal beast.

In the modern float experience, we float in the reclined position fully supported by the salt water, no drugs are allowed, and we are delightfully undisturbed. When we emerge from the womb-like capsule we are soft and childlike, yet strong and aware.

One can try variations in floating. Bodywork before the float will often enhance the experience. Music or relaxation tapes can be played. Tanking for two allows people in close relationship to take their combined energy into the float experience.

In the ‘80’s there were scientific conferences on the effects of the float tank. Research found that brain waves move from beta (normal conscious thinking) to alpha (aware but no thought forms) after about ten minutes in the capsule. Many people get into higher delta and theta brain wave states as the float progresses. Nervous system function shifts from fight or flight mode to relaxation response, causing rebuilding of body tissues.

Did you know that you exhibit fish-like gills during an early stage of your foetal development? Some researchers maintain that floating resonates with aspects of the brain developed in very ancient times when humans lived partly in the sea.

Want to re-ignite your spirit and recharge your batteries? Check out floating. Michael Hutchison, author of The Book of Floating and Megabrain, calls the float capsule the most profoundly relaxing environment yet developed.

Nicholas Ashfield is the Director of the Toronto Healing Arts Centre and Tranquility Floating, Toronto’s only float tank centre.

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