WHAT IS A FLOAT TANK?
Sensory Deprivation. Floatation Therapy. The Isolation Tank…
The Float Tank has many names, but for simplicity, we will refer to it as simply—Floating.
The story of Floating begins in the ’50s with a neuroscientist and psychonaut named John Lily. To try and better understand the nature of consciousness, Lily created an environment to isolate the human brain from almost all sensory inputs, and thus the float tank was born.
Since the 80s, when commercial float tanks entered the market, float centers have popped up all around the world. Notable “floaters” include Joe Rogan, Stephan Curry, Tom Brady, Richard Feynman, and John Lennon, just to name a few.
The process is generally done solo, and involves lying down in 12 inches of skin-temperature water, so salty that gravity gives way to total buoyancy (weightlessness). The float tank is in a light-proof, sound-proof room, creating a tranquil environment free from the chaos of the outer world. One simply floats effortlessly in the void.
After several decades of float research, floating became known by the scientific community as Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST). Yes, floating is incredibly relaxing. However, the float tank offers so much more than mere stress relief.
"The float tank is the most powerful tool I've ever used for developing my mind."
— Joe Rogan
HEAL
Floating relaxes the body in a way that simply isn’t possible otherwise.
Scientific research has shown that floating reliably reduces stress and helps recovery from burnout. One study showed that 100% of participants meaningfully reduced their clinical anxiety and improved their sense of serenity and well-being.
Floating relieves muscle tension and pain while improving muscle range and athletic performance. For this reason, float tanks are used by professional athletic organizations around the world, including the Chicago Cubs, New England Patriot, and Golden State Warrior (all won championships with float tanks in their facilities).
By activating the para-sympathetic nervous system, REST supports the body’s natural ability to heal. The respiratory rate and heart rate slows down, blood pressure and stress hormones diminish, and our brain wave frequencies shift from alpha and beta to theta and delta.
As the body begins to relax and open, old emotions, traumas, and injuries come to the surface to be transmuted and healed. This instinct towards healing is the primordial intelligence of the body—evolution’s eternal drive for change, growth, and transformation.
There's no better place on earth to process pain and heal old wounds than in the float tank.
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
— Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
DISCOVER
To enter the float tank is to enter the inner world of psyche—the Greek word for soul. By “turning off” the outer world, floating illuminates the inner frontier of consciousness. In some sense, everything you experience in the tank is something you brought in with you.
One’s disposition and environment (set and setting) when embarking on a float journey make all the difference. With curiosity and intention, in a safe and peaceful environment, the float tank functions as a spaceship of soul-discovery.
Furthermore, scientific studies reveal that floating enhances learning, cognitive function, and creativity. The tank has long been a haven for artists, empaths, and visionaries who are particularly sensitive to the world.
In the tank one connects to the void—that vast open space of possibility. There one might discover the muse, the great idea, the next song, the piece of art that desires to be born through you.
Even when the going gets rough (as floats sometimes do), floating can be an incredibly powerful and rewarding experience. There is no better place to do the hard “inner work” of transformation.
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek.”
— Joseph Campbell
TRANSFORM
More research on REST certainly needs to be done, but transformational anecdotes abound.
Reports range from chronic pain relief to life-changing trauma release, from increased clarity to breakthrough epiphanies, from transcending negative thought patterns to stopping addictive behaviors.
The float tank can also elicit altered states of consciousness, visionary experiences, and a profound reconnection to a more authentic Self. That’s what happened to me in January 2018, when 60 minutes in a float tank changed my life forever.
When I was 12, I dislocated my left hip. The doctors decided to surgically implant a large metal screw into my femur to hold my hip together. I had a long recovery, and years of chronic hip and back pain.
13 years later, I "woke up" in the float tank with a startling realization: the metal screw needed to be removed in order for my body to heal. Even though that float was emotional and intense, I trusted my intuition and got the clarity I needed to take action.
I began healing, floating regularly, and also practicing yoga. After 10 months of deep floats and hard practice, I underwent a second surgery to remove the invasive screw from my hip.
The recovery process was challenging, but I knew I had the tools to pull it off. So I upgraded to an unlimited membership at my local float center. I logged 50 or more hours floating in just two months following surgery, releasing the pain and tension trapped in my hips.
The float tank was so instrumental in my healing and recovery process, that I built True North Float to share this gift with others.
The physical aspects of my transformation with floating are just the tip of the iceberg. My float practice has helped me process my upbringing as a fundamentalist Mormon. I've released emotional baggage and old programming, connected to my most authentic self, and found my True North.
Floating is a disruptive technology that evolves consciousness, one curious soul at a time. The tranquil waters of life hold the key to our healing, soul-discovery, and metamorphosis.
Are you ready to embrace the sweet darkness of the float tank?
SWEET DARKNESS
by David Whyte
When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone,
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your home tonight.
The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.
You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.