And we'll all float on, ok.

Last night I had my first isolation tank experience. If you're not familiar, Wikipedia is your friend.

Essentially, you lay in a light and sound proof tank filled with about 10" of body temperature water that is extremely dense due to about 600 pounds of Epsom salt that is added, this in turn allows you to float without touching the bottom of the tank. The result is an environment where your body is deprived of its senses. You can't feel the water around you, you can't hear anything except your heart beat and you can't see anything besides what your mind creates.

Your body (and therefore your mind) is constantly being barraged with stimulus all day, every day. Even in a quiet, dark room while meditating you hear your furnace running, or birds, you see some light, you feel your chair, or a breeze, and this is our normal attainable minimum. To place yourself in a situation where you have almost zero stimuli being subjected to your body, your mind becomes free to not focus on anything but itself.

The tank I went to was in the furnished basement of a couples home in Manassas, VA. The husband and main proprietor owns three tanks with the intent to purchase a fourth in order to open the only float tank center in the DC/Baltimore area, hopefully including in-house acupuncture, reiki, and/or massage. The couple was very welcoming and I felt super comfortable in their home and in the tank room. Once I arrived we talked for about 15 minutes about the tank, experiences, what to expect and what a person can gain from floating. He was very grounded and professional, but we also spoke about meta-physical possibilities and other psychedelic topics you wouldn't think an Olympic-level pistol shooter from Texas would be interested in.

After showering, I entered the tank, closed the door behind me and laid down. Immediately I noticed the intense darkness and lack of sound with the exception of the slight sloshing of water. Just as quickly the thick water settled and I began to relax. I floated with my arms at my side, with not a single part of my body touching anything else. After about five minutes I began to feel an odd tilting and twisting of my body, as if I were slowly spinning in empty space. I'm guessing this was my brain trying to adjust to what it perceived as a lack of gravity, or any sort of spacial recognition whatsoever. Remember, your brain usually has multiple factors and input to help it gauge where it is in relative space. My brain was essentially saying "...woah."

10 minutes in is when I realized that I could no longer feel the water around me. The point where my skin ended and the water began vanished and I truly felt like I was suspended in an empty void. Fascinating. If I moved slightly (which I did VERY minimally) I could sense the water move, but not really feel it move. I was still aware that I was in the tank, but this notion would slowly begin to fade.

After about 40 minutes is when I became aware that my brain waves transitioned from beta to theta. Basically, my brain was asleep. I'm not talking about day dreaming, or zoning out, but asleep. But I was awake; fully conscious. You might not really see a difference between the two, but once you have the experience it'll make sense. It's impossible to pinpoint when this transition occurred, so my timeline is totally estimated. I had a few dreams, only one of which I can remember, where I witnessed the arrest of a French revolutionist in the late 1700's. Sure, whatever. It was during this period that I mostly forgot that I was in the tank. I existed more as just a thought than a physical body. Not quite an out-of-body experience, but close enough.

I was in the tank for a total of an 90 minutes, but it seemed more like 45. While in the theta state I totally lost track of time, but still exited the tank 10 minutes before my time was up. Interesting how the brain seems to have an internal clock.

Afterward I showered, dressed and went upstairs to chat for a while. I felt drunk. I was slurring my words, losing my train of thought and felt loose overall. Both my body and mind felt like it went through a massage. After the hour and a half drive home my legs still felt weak like Jello. My mind was extremely relaxed. Even the next day the same sense of calm is still apparent.

At the least I was expecting a relaxing time, akin to chilling in a pool and this trip definitely exceeded that. I can attest that even after one float it definitely lowers anxiety and stress, increases mental potential, self awareness and your overall well-being. I was hoping for a more psychedelic experience in conjunction with all that, but for my first float, I am extremely satisfied.You can't hope to become an Olympic diver by jumping off the spring board only once.