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.