FLOATATION THERAPY
Serene escape
As I float in complete darkness, suspended in 10 inches of warm water saturated with 650 pounds of Epsom salt, one thought keeps rattling around my mind: “You are experiencing zero gravity for the first time since the womb,” Louise Van Engelsdorp, co- founder of West Coast Float had explained earlier. Astrophysicists might dispute the technical accuracy of her claim, but this blissful sense of weightlessness is undoubtedly profound. When I emerge 90 minutes later, I feel reborn.
Floatation therapy. Sensory deprivation. Isolation tank. Whatever you call it, this fringe approach to deep relaxation has been bouncing around since 1954, when John C. Lilly, an American neuroscientist and consciousness pioneer (a.k.a. the man who talked with dolphins) developed the first float pod to study the origins of the brain’s energy sources.
Van Engelsdorp attributes floatation therapy’s recent revival to our hyper-wired, multitasking, digitally draining lifestyles. “People are looking for ways to disconnect and find tranquility.”
Floatation therapy is said to offer benefits for both mind and body. Physically, it can relax muscles, relieve chronic pain, reduce inflammation, flush toxins and help one rejuvenate from sleep deprivation or recover from jet lag. On the West Coast Float website, it’s claimed that “90 minutes of floating is equal to four hours of solid sleep.”
Ashleigh McIvor DeMerit, Olympic gold-medal-winning freestyle skier based in Whistler, swears floating was the only thing that relieved her debilitating headaches last winter when she suffered from a concussion. “For me it was more beneficial than massage,” she says.
On the mental side, studies have shown that floating can be effective in the treatment of depression, anxiety, chronic stress and addictions. Anecdotally, it has helped artists (creative inspiration), writers (blocks), business executives (focus) and athletes (performance). But as Van Engelsdorp explained, these breakthroughs don’t happen right away.
Before the slower (theta) brain-wave patterns take over (the kind experienced just before falling asleep or during deep mediation), you have to quiet down that pesky right brain; the side that keeps twitching with thoughts like: “Your nose is itchy,” “I’m hungry,” and “Gosh, my breath sounds awfully loud even with wax plugs in my ears.”
Let it go. I heed Van Engelsdorp’s advice and try to switch from thinking to visualizing. I summon up a self- hypnosis technique learned years ago.
I start drifting off. Suddenly, I feel like I’m spinning around, then falling forward in free flight. I want to roll over and go to sleep, but I can’t. I’m too buoyant. My legs start twitching, like a baby kicking in the womb.