Float Therapy

March 11th: I feel great today.  I’m clear-headed, relaxed and surprisingly pain free; all the result of my very first float therapy session, which was yesterday.  What is float therapy?  It’s a way of achieving deep relaxation by spending an hour or more lying quietly in darkness, suspended in a warm solution of Epsom salt.  Other commonly used terms are float pods, float tanks, isolation chambers, sensory deprivation tanks, or REST (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy) chambers.  I know it sounds like some new age treatment, but really, it’s been around since 1954 when Dr. John C. Lilly, a neuropsychiatrist, experimented with the effects of sensory deprivation of the brain.  The first commercially developed float tank was developed in 1972 and though it was developed in the States, it was the Europeans who took the idea and ran with it.  Momentum is now gaining in the States as Americans search for alternative methods of healing physically and mentally.

I did not seek this out; it came to me by way of Australia, a recommendation from a friend looking for ways to relax.  It came to me in February, a month when I was studying “Bliss”, the second stage in the Great Round of Mandala, an art therapy program based on the developmental theories of Carl Jung.  Bliss is filled with images of water, like a baby in a mother’s womb and the sea, a fertile watery space of infinite possibilities, or our bodies which are made up of 70% water.  Bliss is the predawn moment in between the dreaming sleep and waking consciousness; a brain wave “theta” state of meditation, intuition and memory.   Theta can be achieved many ways, including the watery sensory deprived experience of a float tank.  I seemed destined to give this a try, if for no other reason than to further my exploration of this psychological stage.

The slow brain waves of theta state induce calmness and relaxation, sometimes lasting for days or weeks.  My word for 2017 is stillness and I’m having trouble achieving this on my own.  Sensory deprivation could jump start this initiative because after all, what else is there to do in an enclosed pod or tank other than lie there?  It didn’t occur to me until many minutes into my first session that someone who has difficulty doing nothing for 15 minutes might have trouble being still for 90 minutes.  But I surprised myself, only in the last 15-20 minutes of the session did I become fidgety and have this overwhelming need to no longer be floating.  Rather than give up, I simply sat in the dark with my back against the chamber wall until the music started playing, an indication that my time was up.  If I achieved theta state it was only for about 5 minutes, but I can totally see how with practice this time could be increased.  Even without theta, sitting quietly in the dark for an extended period of time relaxed me and my mind.

There are pain relief benefits associated with the absorption of magnesium from the high concentrate of Epsom salts.  I have been in pain off and on for years from inflamed and torn tendons in my elbows and pinched nerves from degenerative discs which I aggravated with my recent attempt at developing a restorative yoga practice.  Most of the talk is about the relief of muscle pain and spasms, but I am optimistic and was willing to give it a try for nerve pain.  Afterwards I was discouraged; the pains I arrived with I left with.  However this morning I was pleasantly surprised to wake up pain-free.

There are other benefits of magnesium as well: increased energy, anxiety reduction, help in regulating calcium levels, migraine prevention, and improved sleep to name a few.  I wasn’t even aware of the sleep benefit until doing a little research for this blog post.  This past year I’ve struggled with random bouts of insomnia and last night I fell asleep early and slept soundly through the night.

My experience was in an isolation chamber.  The owner shared that it was the same make and model of the chamber used by Robert Downey Jr as if this added credibility to his business.  A chamber is like a small room which allowed me to stand and sit without having to open the door.  The water was 2 feet deep and contained about 700 pounds of dissolved Epsom salts.  And yes, you can float in 2 feet of water.

The door threshold was a little higher than the water level so it’s easy to step up and over to get in and out of the chamber.  The walls to the left and right were within reach, and the walls above my head and below my feet were just a few feet away.  I never felt lost in the space.

The door was opened with a nudge and closed pulling on a long vertical bar handle so I never felt trapped in the space.  It was easy to crack open the door for a little fresh air and close it again to resume the deprivation experience.  The chamber was in a room about the size of a bathroom.  I could easily exit the chamber and shower off and leave if at any point I found the experience to be unpleasant.  Having this much control eliminated my claustrophobic tendencies.

The chamber was pitch black and perfectly quiet.  Ear plugs were worn to keep out water which only added to the silence.  It was so quiet I could hear my heart beat.

Last night I was enamored more by the novelty than the benefits, uncertain as to whether I would schedule another session.  But today I’m re-considering.  In this moment I’m so grateful for a good night’s sleep; a day filled with clarity and energy; and a day free of pain even after sitting and typing this exceedingly long blog post, something which usually enhances the pain.  I’m going to conduct my own experiment and schedule another session in a few weeks to see if the benefits can be repeated.