Millions of people have seen those unusual waterbox contraptions featured in movies and TV shows, but few people know what they actually do. I just found a new video that does an excellent job of explaining what a sensory deprivation tank does to a person – highly recommended if you’ve ever been curious about it.
Note: There’s a 10 second commercial before the video plays
I just came across an article called “How To Create Your Own Flotation Tank” at www.ehow.com/PrintArticle.html?id=5105871. I wanted to take a minute to explain why putting Epsom salt in your bathtub is not an effective alternative to the floatation tank. Here’s what the article says:
Introduction
Flotation tanks were first used after WWI to treat shell shocked soldiers. The salt content helps to calm the nerves by stimulating the bodies endorphins. Flotation tanks are expensive to have made, but there is a way to create your own flotation tank without all the costs.
Instructions
Difficulty: Easy
Things You’ll Need
6 Pounds of Epsom Salts
Step One
Before starting anything, rinse the entire body off with warm water, making sure to get rid of any dirt, body oils, or skin care products.
Step Two
Shut the bathroom door, as well as any windows.
Step Three
Run a warm bath, ideally the temperature should be around 84F, give or take a couple of degrees.
Step Four
While running the bath water, pour the epsom salt directly under the running water.
Step Five
Turn the bathroom lights off, and try to block any light from entering the bathroom. Also get rid of any surrounding noises. Noise cancelling earphones or earplugs may be helpful as well.
Step Six
Settle in to the bath, until the water is at the upper neck or right below the ears. Soak in the bath treatment for about 15 minutes.
- end of article -
The Problem With Creating A Floatation Tank In Your Bathtub
Epsom salt is the primary component in a floatation tank, but 800-1000 pounds of dissolved Epsom salt is used in a floatation tank. Claiming that 6 pounds of Epsom salt is just as effective as 800-1000 pounds is just silly. You need 5 pounds of Epsom salt per gallon of water to create the zero gravity effect of a floatation tank.
To elaborate on the zero gravity effect of a floatation tank, 800 pounds of dissolved Epsom salt will cause you to float like a cork, and the constant pressure of gravity is momentarily suspended. This has a healing and stress reduction effect that a few pounds of Epsom salt in your bathtub can never approach.
Fortunately, you don’t have to buy a floatation tank to experience the benefits. You can just visit your nearest floatation center and compare that experience to sitting in your bathtub. If you want to make the comparison even more striking, try a floatation tank on a day when you’re particularly stressed out, or when you’re experiencing muscular pain of any kind.
About fifteen years ago, when I was living in Madison, Wisconsin, a flotation tank center opened, right in my neighborhood. I had heard of flotation tanks, but had never actually experienced one. So, feeling curious, I walked over to check it out, one spring afternoon.
It was a very small place: just a reception area and then a back room with two (or perhaps three) tanks, and a couple of showers. The tanks looked ominously like large metal coffins, which gave me a queasy feeling in my stomach. Still, I was up for trying it, at least once.
SUFFERERS of MS and ME are being invited to take part in the second phase of a floatation tank trial.
The six-week programme, run by Float SW, which has centres in Saltash and St Agnes, will follow on from the pilot scheme launched in December 2008. Float SW aims to compile a report for the NHS to show how floatation therapy can help patients deal with muscle pain, poor sleep patterns, stress and fatigue.
Clare Berry, managing director of Float SW, in St Agnes, said: "We have already seen some patients with MS and ME get remarkable benefits from floatation therapy during phase one of the pilot.
"Such things as pain relief, improved levels of contentment and more energy mean that most patients on the trial are reporting great benefit."
A floatation tank, which is filled with a heated Epsom salt solution to body temperature, enables clients to float effortlessly on the surface, thereby inducing relaxation.
The course costs £100 and participants need to be able to float weekly.
All participants, who wish to, will get automatic inclusion in a longer NHS funded trial starting later this year.
For more details e-mail enquiries@floatsw.co.uk or call Clare on 0844 669 8756.
As I mentioned a couple posts ago, Google Images (images.google.com) has provided very different results for the term "sensory deprivation tank" than doing a regular Google search. I was recently rewarded with this painting by Ray Rum, entitled Vision of Loveliness, the most beautiful piece of floatation tank-inspired art I’ve seen. You can see more of Ray Rum’s work at rayrumart.com.
I just came across this fascinating publicity stunt at SuicideGirls.com:
Drummer to the stars, Josh Freese, is selling himself to sell his new album, Since 1972. Inspired by the value-added packages offered by his buddy Trent Reznor for the last Nine Inch Nails release, Freese has come up with his own gift-with-purchase plan — only his is a whole lot wackier.
Those that are willing to pay a little more than the base price for Josh’s new solo album are offered a plethora of incentives. At the $50 price point you get a five-minute "Thank You" call from Josh, who promises you can "yack it up" about whatever you want. Since Josh has worked with some of the biggest and/or coolest names in the business — he’s a member of The Vandals, Devo, and the on-hiatus A Perfect Circle, and has played with NIN, Sting, and Guns N’ Roses — there’s a lot of ground to be covered in that brief call.
As you rise higher in price, the bizarreness of the stuff on offer increases. Items on menu (which can be viewed at JoshFreese.com) include a trip with Josh to a sensory deprivation tank followed by a steak and all-you-can-eat shrimp dinner at Sizzler — for an investment of $500. A visit to the Hollywood Wax Museum or lunch at Spearmint Rhino with Josh and a member of either The Vandals or Devo (your choice) will set you back $2,500.
For $20,000 Josh will write and record two songs about you that he will then make available via iTunes (you can even sing backup). And, for a $75k, you get a signed CD and Josh in your band for a month. Not got a band? No problem. Other options in this super limited edition of one include having Josh as your personal assistant / cabana boy for a couple of weeks.
Of course behind all of this silliness, Josh has a very serious intent; to get a little more attention for his second solo album than he got for his first (which was released in 2000). And his crackpot scheme, which also involves crazy golfing and a nefarious trip to Tijuana and calls on the services of many of Josh’s celebrity buddies such as Twiggy (NIN and Marilyn Manson), Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam) and Maynard James Keenan (Tool), is working. The UK’s mighty Guardian has written about Josh and his multi-tiered promotional plan, as have NPR, The Boston Herald and numerous other newspapers and websites. The cost of the album may just be $7, but the attention Josh is getting for it is priceless.
Doing a Google Images search for sensory deprivation tank brought up several results that I’d never found on dozens of Google searches for the same term. I was pleasantly surprised to find many websites I never knew about, including one that I had to share with you – The Floatel, an art design for a floatation center in London. You can read more and see the fascinating drawings at http://www.audioh.com/projects/floatel.html.
This is a comment I posted in response to the US News & World Report article on chronic pain:
The Solution To Back Pain Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About
My heart goes out to the millions of people who suffer back pain. I’ve been there, I found a solution, and my goal is to share this solution that doctors will never tell their patients about.
From 1995-2001, I suffered intermittent sciatic pain caused by a pinched nerve in my lower back. When it first started, I felt intense pain for a few hours and then it subsided. But every few months, it came back worse. It got to the point that in the spring of 2000, I was nearly paralyzed with sciatic pain for 2 weeks. I was only 28.
I took pain medications, I got massages, I spent many hours in a heated pool, I went to a chiropractor, I stretched, I got acupuncture, I got physical therapy. Nothing worked. I thought my last options were cortisone injections and/or back surgery. Desperate to find a natural and side-effect-free solution, I tried floating in a floatation tank.
For the entire week prior to visiting the floatation center in 2001, I was barely able to sleep because lying in bed was so painful. I was barely able to feed or bathe myself. Since I was living by myself, I had to drive myself to the floatation center, which was unfortunate because that made the pain far worse.
I walked into the floatation center looking like a rusted-out zombie. Every step sent shooting pain through my body. But within 45 minutes of floating weightlessly in the Epsom saltwater, I was pain free! Not only that, the muscles around the pinched nerve that were so tight from responding to the constant shooting pain were now loose and flexible.
Pain medication dulled the pain slightly, but it never eliminated it. Muscle relaxants didn’t work at all, they only made me groggy. Standing in the heated pool for hours took some of the edge off, but it was only temporary relief. I’d been living with such intense pain for 6 years, I didn’t think anything could eliminate it, but the floatation tank did just that. There are no side effects other than improved mood and lower stress, due to endorphins being released as a result of the deep relaxation.
My doctor took x-rays of my back and concluded that I should be in constant pain and have difficulty walking straight. That’s not the case any longer. After doing some research, I learned that the floatation tank is also effective for pain caused by fibromyalgia (another group of people that my heart goes out to), sore muscles (due to athletics, charley horse, restless leg syndrome) arthritis, late term pregnancy (back pain), and more.
I’ve published the most informative educational website about the many health benefits offered by floating. Since I’m not selling anything, I hope the folks who run this website won’t mind me mentioning the address – floatforhealth.net.
My desire is that everyone who can benefit from this virtually unknown therapy will be introduced to it so they can make an informed decision about how they treat their pain. Your doctor isn’t going to tell you about this. I encourage you to do your own research
Restricting Environmental Stimulation (REST) to Enhance Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder With Schizotypal Personality Disorder
W. Rand Walker, Robert F. Freeman, and Daniel K. Christensen, Washington State University
Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) was used adjunctively in an imaginal exposure plus response prevention treatment for a subject with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with comorbid Schizotypal Personality Disorder. An audio loop tape was used as the eliciting stimuli during exposure to REST. Psycholphysiological measures and self reports indicated a substantial reduction of arousal to fear-evoking stimuli, as well as a marked reduction in OCD symptoms. Additionally, imaginal ability and attention to the task appeared to improve in the REST versus non-REST condition in this data-based single case report. Restricted environmental stimulation may enhance the effectiveness of imaginal exposure in patients with treatment refractory OCD.
Restricting Environmental Stimulation (REST) to Enhance Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder With Schizotypal Personality Disorder
The Solution To Back Pain Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About
My heart goes out to the millions of people who suffer back pain. I’ve been there, I found a solution, and my goal is to share this solution that doctors will never tell their patients about.
From 1995-2001, I suffered intermittent sciatic pain caused by a pinched nerve in my lower back. When it first started, I felt intense pain for a few hours and then it subsided. But every few months, it came back worse. It got to the point that in the spring of 2000, I was nearly paralyzed with sciatic pain for 2 weeks. I was only 28.
I took pain medications, I got massages, I spent many hours in a heated pool, I went to a chiropractor, I stretched, I got acupuncture, I got physical therapy. Nothing worked. I thought my last options were cortisone injections and/or back surgery. Desperate to find a natural and side-effect-free solution, I tried floating in a floatation tank.
For the entire week prior to visiting the floatation center in 2001, I was barely able to sleep because lying in bed was so painful. I was barely able to feed or bathe myself. Since I was living by myself, I had to drive myself to the floatation center, which was unfortunate because that made the pain far worse.
I walked into the floatation center looking like a rusted-out zombie. Every step sent shooting pain through my body. But within 45 minutes of floating weightlessly in the Epsom saltwater, I was pain free! Not only that, the muscles around the pinched nerve that were so tight from responding to the constant shooting pain were now loose and flexible.
Pain medication dulled the pain slightly, but it never eliminated it. Muscle relaxants didn’t work at all, they only made me groggy. Standing in the heated pool for hours took some of the edge off, but it was only temporary relief. I’d been living with such intense pain for 6 years, I didn’t think anything could eliminate it, but the floatation tank did just that. There are no side effects other than improved mood and lower stress, due to endorphins being released as a result of the deep relaxation.
My doctor took x-rays of my back and concluded that I should be in constant pain and have difficulty walking straight. That’s not the case any longer. After doing some research, I learned that the floatation tank is also effective for pain caused by fibromyalgia (another group of people that my heart goes out to), sore muscles (due to athletics, charley horse, restless leg syndrome) arthritis, late term pregnancy (back pain), and more.
I’ve published the most informative educational website about the many health benefits offered by floating. Since I’m not selling anything, I hope the folks who run this website won’t mind me mentioning the address – floatforhealth.net.
My desire is that everyone who can benefit from this virtually unknown therapy will be introduced to it so they can make an informed decision about how they treat their pain. Your doctor isn’t going to tell you about this. I encourage you to do your own research