What is floating?

Floating brings us back to our natural state - that core meditative state. With 1,500 pounds of Epsom salt and 200 gallons of water, your muscular system is transformed by the mimicry of the Dead Sea. Floating helps reduce stress and pain, alleviates anxiety, and improves sleep. The high salinity content allows your body to effortlessly float on the surface of the water, effectively eliminating gravity while magnesium-rich Epsom salt alleviates your aches and pains. 

 The more you float, the better it gets - you find the flow and realize you can just let go, trusting the water to hold you so you can let the healing begin. 

 Floating is sensory deprivation - sensory deprivation, or R.E.S.T. (reduced environmental stimulation therapy), is the removal of stimuli from our senses and it allows for profound rest similar to deep theta sleep. To achieve this level of sensory deprivation in our float tanks, each room is soundproof and the water temperature is the same as your body which removes the sense of touch. 

Absent from sensory stimuli, and along with an almost gravity-free environment, your central nervous system gets a rest allowing your mind, body, and soul the chance to recharge, refresh, and refocus the healing energy to where it is needed.

History of Floating

In 1954, John Lilley, a neuroscientist, worked with the National Institute of Mental Health on a project of isolating the brain from external stimulation, ultimately creating the first isolation tank. Originally known as sensory deprivation, the term was conceptualized, and Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy was born (R.E.S.T.). Since the beginning, much research has been done worldwide to explain and quantify the effects of floating. The flotation tanks have evolved and modern commercial tanks and pools that are now in use now offer a hygienic and welcoming atmosphere.

“I didn’t just feel relaxed, I felt like the giant baby at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’.”Justin Moyer, Washington Post

the Essentials of Flotation

We live in an overstimulated, over-stressed, non-stop world. We need downtime.

When you eliminate external stimulation, the sensory input part of your brain no longer has to process the constant information. Just one hour in the float tank, and the creative, relaxed part of your brain can emerge and play. Without the constant pressure of analyzing the world, your body lowers its levels of cortisol, the main chemical component of stress.

When you aren’t having to fight gravity, the physical body is free to allow muscles, bones, and joints to take a break.  Your peripheral nervous system regulates, and that unused energy begins to refocus on homeostatic responses like healing and resting.

The high-density Epsom Salt solution allows for your blood and lymphatic system to flow freely throughout your body. Research shows that  40 minutes into your float, your brain stops producing Alpha and Beta waves, and floating takes you deeper into a Theta and possibly even the Delta state.

one more thing

Floating is accumulative and has been clinically shown to have longer-lasting benefits the more you float. Every float is unique, so remember to re-book!

“I emerged in a profound daze. I spoke slowly and quietly, like a smooth-jazz DJ, to the person at the spa desk who inquired how my session had gone. I felt more rested than if I’d slept for 16 hours on a pile of tranquilized chinchillas.” - Seth Stevenson, Slate