More to see

research information http://hailthefloaters.pbworks.com/FloatResearch

Nassim Haramein

I just discovered Nassim Haramein. He is a physicist. He has reworked Einstein's equations from General Relativity and added the idea of a spinning universe, where Einstein assumed a static universe. His reworking makes sense of the observations of the expanding universe without having to invent dark mass or dark energy. Then he turned to the atom and reinterpreted an atom as a mini black hole. He can explain the proton nucleus held together by gravity with no need for the strong nuclear force.

He believes the universe is a fractal with the same pattern at all scales from the tiniest subatomic scale, through our world scale to galaxies.

Most exciting of all perhaps is the link between physics and consciousness. He redefines consciousness as the information flow between the pattern of the universe and matter and energy. Everything flows in and out of the vacuum energy which is everywhere and contains the self organising pattern of the universe.

Watch one of his videos here

Can you float with piles???

This picture comes from Metro magazine on line. The question it prompts is: "Can you float with piles?"

OK what are piles? That's the common name for haemorrhoids and many people suffer from them at some time in their lives. I have no idea if the Mummy was caught in that painful expression due to piles but then again "We should never, ever doubt, what nobody is sure about?"

It is a great pity that many sufferers, not just Mummies, do not realise that painful piles can be "manually adjusted" and this adjustment is a really good idea.

Piles are a prolapse of the local inflatable sacs around the anus which are part of the system for keeping seepage inside and your underpants clean, (usually). They (the sacs) are filled with blood and when healthy they form the water tight seal about 2.5 cms (one inch) inside the anal sphincter. Bill Bryson is very good on this subject in "A short history of nearly everything".

OK so now we are clear what we are talking about, these sacs can inflate with blood and protrude through the aforementioned anal sphincter causing discomfort and pain. They can get stuck there ("strangulated" is the charming medical term) and the picture then gets worse and worse.

Getting to the point, if you float in a salt solution with protruding piles it can hurt like hell. You won't find this important advice on many websites but it's true.

However there is good advice to be had and I will summarise it here. Number one, get rid of the library you keep by the toilet bowl. Staying too long "at stool" is a prime cause of piles and reading on the loo is a very bad habit especially if you know you are prone to piles.

Number two; be prepared with creams and stuff and take the time after straining away, and wiping, to push those grapes-of-wrath back inside with your fingertips. You will need to learn the trick of relaxing that sphincter to allow the inflated piles to deflate and pop back inside where they belong. That is a really worthwhile trick to learn because while outside, those ballooning grapes can not just itch, not just feel uncomfortable, they can get worse, bleed and so on.... I don't want to get more graphic than I have already.

If you cannot succeed at this trick, or if they do get worse, do overcome your embarrassment and get medical help, you know it makes sense, and in the meantime save floating for another day.

couple floating

Couple Floating - is it a good idea?

Maybe two can float as "cheeply" as one.

I came across couple floating by accident. Now what kind of accident could that be? The ceiling gives way upstairs and down comes a very surprised carpet plus dozing bloodhound? Splash!

Well no, it wasn't that kind of accident but if the float tank is big enough, sooner or later the idea will crop up.

Quite a few float centers have couple floating now, so a quick survey reveals that half of all new customers come for the first time as a couple! That is a tricky statistic because you could take it that since we are talking about couples, then all new customers are in couples but that's not quite true.

Setting aside the big pools where half a dozen or more people can float and giggle at once, the centers with couple floating at the moment are all using the big floataway float tanks. What happens?

There's no doubt about it; you can get most people to try any new experience much more easily as a couple. Whether it's a big fairground wheel, a Thai restaurant or a float tank, we just have more courage in pairs.

Of course it really needs to be someone you know pretty well, that's obvious but since you can both wear swimming costumes it doesn't have to be intimate.

It's the future. Just imagine the positive scenarios! resolving conflict, celebrating an anniversary, or just trying this new thing, floating stress away.

would John Wayne fit in a float tank?

John Wayne was a big man even though he was born in a small house, that's his house !

And even so, yes he would easily fit in a float tank. And float.

Here is where you can find a whole lot more about John Wayne biography

boating floating noting

These bears were in Vancouver,
they may be floating still,
the larger one's a mover,
the smaller faster still.

They have a large enclosure,
where wolves once scampered free,
the bears were added, oh sure,
they ate the wolves for tea.

But now they look so happy
and often dine on fish,
which are not half so snappy
and fit a smaller dish.

They float there in that water
their noses all you see
relaxed , just as they oughta
and really quite stress free.

reference! [ http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/1746fb/ grouse mountain],/ref>

fertility

Fertility and infertility. What has it to do with float tanks?

About half of the one in seven couples having trouble with conceiving, are affected by stress. This is general stress and the stress of not being able to concieve, one of those vicious spirals.

There are many studies now showing how important stress is and how relaxation is vital in trying to conceive. It's not surprising that that evolution has provided a regulatory effect in stressful times when pregnancy could threaten the survival of the woman.

So what is the best way to deal with stress? Floating is the answer.

Easy to fit into a routine
No drugs involved
No skill required
Effects of one float last for days
Private and confidential
Feels good
No side effects
Natural
Can be combined with massage or hypnotherapy
Easy to find a float centre, here are some links:
where can I float?
the federation of float tank makers
directory of float centers

Dan Brown

Well have you read the Lost Symbol yet? I don't want to spoil the surprises, Suffice it to say our hero at one point ends up in an isolation tank. It's along way removed from our beloved float tank.

Robert Langdon is not at all relaxed.

However the book has already sold millions of copies and there is no comparable fictional reference giving a positive view of floating.

So I guess why I started this blog. We need some positive vibrations.

float inspiration USA

This US float inspiration has nothing to do with John Lilly. Now that I look at the picture again, it's in Yellowstone by the way, it looks less inspiring than it did in life. I can explain that.

East of the park there is the town of Yellowstone, and on the South side of the street there is a great place with a micro-brewery and a Pizza restaurant where I had the best house Pizza of my life, and there you can buy real beer, like English real ale I mean. I took some comfort there, as the song says, and afterwards the hot springs looked so inviting. Of course, most of them are boiling hot and fatal but inspiration comes in many temperatures. The nice yellow colour is from cyano bacteria that love that heat and live on sulphur (or sulfur). And Epsom salt is Magnesium Sulphate (or sulfate) so there's the link.

Technical note the heat of formation of epsom salt crystals is 3384 kJ/mole, one of the highest of common crystals (sodium chloride is only 411). Maybe that's why dissolving the salt steals so much heat from the water. The solubility of epsom salt in water goes from just o.22 kg/li in freezing water to 0.68 kg/li in boiling water and we use 0.5 kg/li in the float tank giving a density of 1.25 kg/li solution. So if your float tank gets too cold, you do get a mass of salt dropping out. It stays supersaturated for a while, then something nucleates the first crystal and whoosh, a whole load falls out of solution all at once. Its an experience to see. Unfortunately it will take you all day to recover the salt and this is not a good experiment to try in your float tank.

Now as far as I know there is no float tank in Yellowstone, nor in the glacier national park, grand tetons, and so on, maybe the natural scenery is relaxing enough.

Yellowstone is sitting on the biggest caldera volcano in the world and if it decides to blow one day we will all need float tanks with some special adaptations.

I will do some back checking and add some links to that brewery maybe.

By the way here is a site that lists manufacturers of float tanks, as far as I know the only such site
the federation of float tank makers

If you see anyone floating in Yellowstone, it won't be me and they may not be very well. Or inspired, or inspiring, but timing is everything. As my Homer toy says "Why are all the slow drivers in front of ME" Homer of course is the most famous user in the world of a float tank and everything he says is an inspiration. Here's another one:
"If God didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them of meat?"

I shall think about that at the start of my next float session. It's so deep.

A funny thing happened to me in the float tank

For me, float sessions vary.
Yes, they are always deeply profoundly relaxing, reaching that special state we call "afloat".
I prefer no music when I am floating but once I decided to experiment.
The music I chose was Peter Schickle version of PDQ Bach Cantata and Fugue, (I think).
(The label is damaged).
(No chance of a sale on ebay in that condition so what the heck?)
It was difficult because I only have a vinyl version and that is scratched from the days of sharpened wooden needles, not accupuncture, - gramophones.
However it was done and timed not to begin the session but to start after twenty minutes, when I knew I would be more or less asleep. Supine and asleep, hands at my sides, centred perfectly in the float tank by the rythym of my slow breathing.
I know it was played, I have witnesses, (well I had witnesses before I wrote this blog).
I have no recollection, no conscious recollection of hearing the disturbing work yet I feel I remembered the applause.
Obviously it entered directly into my subconscious where it resides.
Jung called it synchronicity.
Do you recall the famous scarab incident? Must I recount it here ? You can google "Jung scarab" and find out. Not "young scarab" that is a completely different subject.
Anyway, the record mentioned, you may know already, has a reference to the possibility that PDQ Bach's melodic form or somesuch stuff, marked him out to be potentially the greatest billiard player of all time. What a loss.
As I said I had no recollection after the session but went on my way home until I found I was in a strange part of town, I had been daydreaming or just daying, and I was lost. I had arrived at a snooker hall in a back street, the door already ajar and the clinking sounds of balls colliding, the softer thuds of the cushions and the smell of beer and cigarettes. Not my usual haunt.
I felt compelled to enter and adjusting to the dark interior I edged around the walls to observe the several tables and the small clusters of bent men. One table in particular had a small crowd, rapt by the progress of the game in play. I slid sideways until I could see through a gap between chalked elbows. The green beize was lit by the huge lampshade hanging above casting nose shadows on the distant faces on the far side of the table. There were just two balls left, the black and the white. The lay was tricky, black against the cushion. I assumed from the tangible tension that the result now hung on this last ball. One man was bent low nose almost touching, his cue pistonning in and out in empty air as he assessed, every forward stroke not quite touching the white.

I was unable to understand his angle, so I waited with the others but suddenly a black bird flew in the door and straight over the table in a swift, squarking, panicked, dash. The cue struck the white low, it lifted movinf too fast to see well, but it struck the nearest man on the head and bounced up, straight up, just as the flapping flag of a bird turned and made for the door, the chink of light his hope of another day. By Jove, he caught that ball and departed with it outside and was never seen again.

Pandemonium reigned. Shouts of "Omen" filled the air, and other words, until suddenly silence as, to a man, they turned and noticed me hovering at the side, a stranger. Twenty staring faces, startled, amazed.

I had to say somthing: my mind blanked.
From somewhere deep I found myself, heard myself saying
"Four points away. I think."

Cauliflower conscious in a float tank?

We see here the actual cauliflower used in the experiment

You can see if you look closely the electrodes used to look for electrical waves (Cauli-wobbles)
while the subject was in the float tank.

Method: The cauliflower was chosen for size, attractiveness and suitability from the one I had. It was clearly the most promising vegetable for the detection of waves.

Electrodes were attached to the lateral cortex and monitored with a high impedance, high gain amplifier and recording apparatus. (unfortunately the recording apparatus was more suitable for acoustic waves so no record of the experiment remains).

The cauliflower was trained in the use of the float tank, and introduced to the interior. No colour therapy was used.

Results:
After floating immobile for 40 minutes, clear cauliwobble waves in the theta and alpha bands were detected indicating a deep profound relaxed state. Since this state is mildly suggestible as in hypnosis, suggestions were made to the cauliflower for later research.

The most successful of these was the suggestion that the cauliflower was proficient in French. Following this suggestion the cauliwobble waves took on a pronounced Omegane form which persisted for several minutes.

After floating the cauliflower was evidently relaxed and stress free, and was dripping on the towel provided in a free and passive way for half an hour. There was no pain as far as we could tell.

Conclusions:
It is early days for the development of consciousness in vegetables but this technique clearly has potential for further work.
We found the cauliflower had a compatibility with cheese but unfortunately we had not tested for this before the floating experiment and so no conclusions can be drawn.
We invite others to verify the results of these experiments while others are prepared.

More about a float tank

A simple float tank

Imagine a paddling pool about 7 feet diameter, that's about 2.1 metres, and it can be 10 inches deep, or 25 cm.

When the water is two thirds full, add a whole lot of Epsom Salt and stir till dissolved. Actually its 1 kg of salt crystals for every 2 litres. That's about 4 pounds per US gallon. 432 kg in this imaginary pool!

Add some kind of external heater with some hoses and a pump to heat it all up to the right temperature and you have a basic float tank.

Why Epsom Salt?

Well you can float in sea salt which is mostly sodium chloride (as in the Dead Sea) but that salt stings and it also sucks water through your skin by osmosis so your fingers wrinkle. Epsom salt is Magnesium Sulphate a very different salt. You can float in it for hours and you will still not wrinkle like a prune.

It's a very convenient salt to use for that reason but there is an even better reason that was discovered recently. Magnesium is transported through the skin and that is good. We also get magnesium from our food and it is an essential element for life, involved in many metabolic pathways. However in many places our diet is low in Magnesium and many people walk around with a partial deficiency. This can cause headaches and other pains, loss of energy and appetite, listlessness, actually the list goes on and on.

Why does it go through the skin? It should be a surprise. The skin is usually a good barrier to salts, we don't absorb sodium through the skin from sea water, but we do absorb magnesium. It doesn't have to be in the float tank concentration, a little in the water (as there is in all sea water) is enough for the process to work. There is a specific skin transport mechanism built into our cells which transports the magnesium. When there is enough in the bloodstream, the kidneys remove the excess bringing the balance to the right level. Actually people have been adding epsom salt to foot baths for many years and there turns out to be a real chemical benefit. So floating corrects magnesium deficiency as a bonus.

What about the sulphate? Well it turns out we can absorb that too. Sulphate ions are essential to digestion processes and are usually efficiently retained by the gut because they are not easy to get from the diet. However that efficiency tends to drop in old age so there is another benefit here too, improved digestion from floating!

Now to get back to the float tank idea. There is a lot of emphasis on the history of the float tank from its invention as a tool for sensory isolation. The modern commercial float tank is not really like that, there are lights inside and speakers. The lighting is subdued but not necessarily pitch black. The fact is the relaxation power of the float tank does not come from absolute sensory deprivation but from floating in the warm water with no disturbances to stress you.

The whole sensory deprivation thing has been an albatross around the neck of modern floating practice which is all about relaxation and stress relief.

Let's put that aspect of the past behind us. There are now hundreds and hundreds of float tanks in regular commercial use and thousands and thousands of people have floated to find stress relief beyond their wildest dreams, and pain relief free from tablets. They come out feeling, and looking younger. They write wonderful testimonials in the comment books.

This blog is an attempt to spread the word so that even more people can discover how great this simple technique is.

Floating is so easy. The benefits are so many. Too easy I suppose, people are wary of getting into a float tank although many of them are bigger than their own bathrooms! There is a credibility gap that something so easy can be so good. After all it's not so far removed from a long hot bath. I could say that everyone knows how good that is but the trend towards showers is well advanced any many baths go unused except as handy laundry baskets. The float tank is a natural evolution from the hot bath, it's a pity really it developed out of that sensory thing. Tarred with that altered states brush, what a bad start.

Definitions and explanations

Floating has turned out to be the most popular keyword for my subject but that may be because it has many meanings, So I'm excluding the debris found by round the world sailors, and the floating point arithmetic thing and everything to do with going public on the stock exchange. This blog is about floating in a float tank. I wish the word tank could be avoided but it's so common I have to use it.

What is floating? Floating is for people, most of us will float in water if we keep really still although a small percentage will sink. To make floating easier just add salt to the water and you have sea water which has a significantly higher density than pure water, but not really enough unless you consider the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is a sink from which there are no ways out except by evaporation, so it has become very salty with many salts though it's mostly common salt, sodium chloride. Everyone knows you can float reading a newspaper in the Dead Sea.

What is Floating-2? If you put salt in a tub of water and heat it to a comfortable temperature, and if the tub is big enough that you don't touch the sides, then you can float easily without going to the Dead Sea. The temperature should be just right, I reckon 35.4 Celcius which is 95.7 Fahrenheit. However I know that humans vary in their core temperature by as much as a degree C but still that's about the right warmth. Close off the wind with a cover, so that you can relax and you have a float tank. You have a wonderful tool to use for many enlivening tasks.

Why would you want to float?

Here we have a kind of mystery. Floating like this in warm water is so pleasant and has so many benefits, but why? Michael Hutchinson in his book "The book of floating", one of the very few books on the subject, has seven explanations. But let's compare it with idling in bed or lazing in the sun, very similar and related relaxations. Doing nothing and feeling warm just feels good and perhaps it's silly to wonder why. Floating has a couple of important points in its favour.

First point contact.

The water supports you by applying pressure all over your immersed skin. The maximum pressure will be at the lowest point, about 25 cm (10 inches) below the surface. This pressure is still lower than normal blood pressure and that's important. In a normal bed the contact pressure is enough to overcome blood pressure so just there, the blood is squeezed away. The result is that we need to move regularly during sleep to allow the blood to return to that part of the skin. That needs a control system and nerve and muscle activity.

Second point heat

A bed may be warm but you are still providing the heat by muscle action and biological processes. In a float tank that perfect temperature allows some heat loss from your core processes of staying alive but there is no need for muscle action.

So the result is your body relaxes. So what?

This is the amazing part. I don't know how this evolved in humans, but the fact is in a floating position in the warm water you really, really relax. You relax so much that unexpected things happen to you. It feels so good for a start. Your brain realises that postural control is longer required. That apparently normally occupies a large part of the brain and takes energy. Your brain also relaxes in a special way. We know this from the study of brain waves. These electrical signals, measured as potentials (voltages) on the scalp, are alternating at various frequencies which can be correlated with activities. They are grouped into bands of frequencies and one band is called theta. Theta brain waves are correlated with profound relaxation as achieved by skilled meditators for example.

That's not all, the brain releases endorphins in profound relaxation. Endorphins are natural pain killers, very powerful ones in fact. Floating brings pain relief and this can be a near miracle for some sufferers. Chronic pain is not a very helpful feature of our lives. Once pain has warned, or prevented further damage (you pull back without thinking when acute pain strikes) what purpose does it serve? It's quite natural that the body should have a way to turn off pain when it's not required, how sad that it does not always work or that we cannot just choose when to turn it off. These effects, the release of endorphins are not under our conscious control but if we make the circumstances suitable, the latent body abilities kick in.

What Else?

Stress is what else. Stress is really another mystery and that word stress covers way too many things. One of the common definitions is that unwanted stress is not from hard work or hard problems (actually the opposite usually) but from a feeling of lack of control. Most people enjoy solving problems. But having a problem that is outside your control is stressful and can be measured as perceived stress in a questionaire. So what causes this kind of unpleasant stress? Working for an unfair boss or system that you cannot escape, not having the money you need to buy food, not being able to conceive, trying to find the right home, being in a difficult relationship, being lonely, there are plenty of stressors.

Now if a situation is outside your control, it may be bad but why does it generate this stress? Stress like pain can outlive its usefulness for survival. In other words a lot of stress which blights peoples lives should be called "perceived stress". To just give one example getting stressed out about not being able to conceive is not helpful at all. In fact studies have shown that it further reduces your chances, it's counterproductive.

The wonder is that floating relieves stress. Obviously it doesn't make problems go away but it does relieve stress about those problems and often that is enough to see the way out. It's enough to get a good night's sleep after worry has caused sleepless nights. Insomnia is itself a stress, a vicious circle of stress when sleep is so necessary to health.

Where can I float? float center finder