Sensory Deprivation Tank

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Any Aspies ever tried floating in a Sensory Deprivation Tank? What were your experiences?

I mentioned it before in another thread.
Very deeply relaxed feeling afterwards - my body felt like jelly, lasting for the rest of the day.
It can never be a complete sensory deprivation, there was definitely a smell from the salt used and my sense of smell is very acute.
It got a bit too warm and stuffy for me too although it's supposed to be body temp.
You can open the tank lid whenever you like, and you get to lock the outside door yourself.
There's a panic button if anything goes wrong.
Next time I would wear the earplugs.
The salt makes your skin and hair incredibly soft and silky.

The process is this:

You read the instructions then sign the disclaimer.
Decide on length of time and pay.
taken for a tour and made familiar with the equipment.
go into a small room where you have to scrub yourself down and wash your hair.
Put on the bathrobe provided.
Put your clothes and valuables in the locker and take the key with you.
Enter the tank room and lock the door.
Disrobe.
Press the button to alert staff that you're about to enter the tank.
Get in and close the lid, it's completely dark and soundproof.
There is a slight swirling of water every now and then, they explained this is the filtration process.
You float for however long you've paid for.
There is a foam thing to put under your head if you want it and earplugs are provided if you ask for them.
At the end there is a sudden swirling of water and the lights come on in a kind of gentle strobing effect, to wake you up I guess.
You get out and go shower and change.
You smile stupidly, drift about like a spaceman, fall into a heap and sigh for the rest of the day.

Some of what I read about those that used this type of therapy was:

Floating appears to be a way of reactivating very early memories in vivid detail. It can provide intense relaxation, a sense of deep calm. Some describe it like hitting the reset button on the mind. Some people experience hallucinations. A study, published in the “Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases,” indicates that the hallucinations experienced during sensory deprivation are caused by faulty source monitoring. Source monitoring errors are memory errors that occur when a person attributes an experience to a fictitious source. For example, a person may say that they saw a flying squirrel when they were children, when in reality they just saw one in a film.

Did you experience any of that?

No flying squirrels.
I didn't experience any hallucinations, repressed childhood memories, or mind reset afaik.
Do you have to do it repeatedly to get those results?

I think some people while they are floating try to reach back as far as they could into their earliest memories. This produces surprising results.

no but I'd like to try!

Haven't tried it, but I would like to.

Tried it once, very underwhelmed, found it annoying.

really? Please share. I am a bit scared having watched videos of people freaking out on YT. maybe it's all for the views.

I kept floating into the sides of the tank I didn't relax significantly and I found it boring.

I wonder if it is a function of time in the tank. Richard Feynman spent 2 ½ hour floating during his sessions. Also Feynman combined it with deep breathing relaxation therapy.

Richard Feynman was one of the great physicists of modern time. His research, which in part led to his magnum opus Quantum Electro-Dynamics, laid the foundation for much of theoretical physicists’ inquiries into the nature of the universe and reality. He is widely considered to be a “genius”.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, he was an early user of floatation therapy. He used it to experiment with hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. He subjected himself to at least a dozen 2 ½ hour float sessions. During these he experienced many hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. He arrived at the following conclusions. Hallucinations are not real. Imaging things are real does not represent true reality. “The reason, I believe, that I had an out-of-body experience was that we were discussing out-of-body experiences just before I went into the tank. And the reason I had a hallucination about how memories are stored in the brain was, I think, that I had been thinking about that problem all week.”

So in a sense what Feynman’s experiments showed him was that false memories were not real but influenced by suggestion. Psychologists have found that our recollection of everyday events may not be as dependable as we would believe. Moreover, even once information has been committed to memory, it can be altered. Our recollection of memories can be manipulated and even entire sets of events can be confabulated.


Overall, it seems that most people had positive experiences with floating.

A majority of participants who underwent REST therapy reported feelings of greater self-confidence, courage, and optimism about the future; stronger belief in their own abilities; increased awareness of love for family and friends, care for human beings in general and for future generations especially. They achieve greater benefit from therapy by achieving a deeper understanding of one’s own self.

^ Have you read The Memory Illusion?

wow I need this!

I will try and let y'all know how it went.

this is super interesting actually...does anyone know how/where to look for this kind of thing?

I did an internet search and found the following website that list float facilities by location. FLOAT CENTER LOCATIONS