My first floating 'inperience' was a wake-up call

Imagine lying in a weightless, senseless, and timeless abyss for a full 90 minutes. That is the Float Space Inperience.

Float Space is an inperience, an internal experience, whereby guests lie in a saltwater pool, located in a pitch black, silent room for 90 to 310 minutes. The Float Space inperience is designed to achieve many goals; from easing rheumatoid arthritis to meditative anxiety treatment.

As a hardline skeptic, I was doubtful about the benefits promised by Float Space. The idea that a salt water pool could absorb stress, anxiety, and offer the opportunity to ‘find your inner self’ sounded dubious. As an energetic organizer, with a rather concerning obsession with to-do lists, floating in a saltwater pool for 90 minutes sounded like a waste of time.

I was wrong. A waste of time? Nothing could be further from the truth.

My Experience

My experience at Float Space started with a warm greeting from Dustin, owner and manager of the facility. Dustin showed me to my float tank. He turned off the light, left the room, and closed the door, leaving me alone in a dark room with a salt water pool.

I gently eased myself into the pool, let go of the sides and effortlessly floated to the surface, carried weightlessly by the salt water. All light in the room faded out. With the room pitch black and silent, I realized that my only companion was my thoughts. I was to remain in this state for 90 minutes.

To say that I immediately relaxed and fell into a meditative state would be dishonest. Meditation takes training, and my training typically consists of focusing intently on a variety of Netflix shows. For awhile I fidgeted, playing with the water, finding ways to entertain myself. At one point I practiced bending my body into letters of the alphabet. After an unknown period of time, I started to let go. I sunk into the water, gathered control of my breathing and allowed my mind to wander.

When the soft blue light greeted me and the melodic music indicated it was time to leave the tank, I didn’t know where 90 minutes had gone. I hadn’t fallen asleep but had drifted in a dream-like state. All the thoughts, ideas, and ponderings, which had been ignored in favor of work, friends, family, and social media, were finally given priority. At Float Space, I had the opportunity to deeply consider my own thoughts. Float Space offered me solidarity, it allowed me to reconnect with myself. To say I was transformed would be an exaggeration. To say I was ‘recentered’ is too broad. It was like meeting a long-lost, old friend, feeling their embrace, hearing their warm words and finally thinking ‘I’ve come home’.

The Float Inperience

“Everyone’s floating inperience is unique,” says Dustin. “I started floating to ease my depression and anxiety. One of our guests is an Afghanistan war veteran. He floats to process painful memories, and therefore, work on his PTSD. The key feature of Float Space is the engineered, distraction free environment. When we’re free from major distractions, such as TV and computer screens, noises, and especially gravity and temperature, we are free from the programs that are dictating what happens inside our minds. This helps us reconnect and establish a deep personal relationship with ourselves in this present moment. At that point, anything can happen in your mind because everything is governed by thought instead of the external world. We can visualize and design novel solutions to our problems."

Since opening on May 15, 2014, Float Space has hosted more than 5000 floats. After starting in Beverly Hills in the 1970s, flotation therapy has become a popular treatment. A growing field of medical research is starting to demonstrate benefits of flotation therapy. A 2005 study published in the Journal of Psychology and Health analyzed over 27 independent studies, equaling 448 participants. This study concluded that there was strong evidence to indicate that floatation therapy ‘has positive effects on physiology, in the form of lower levels of cortisol, lower blood pressure, and an overall positive effect on well-being and performance.” Therefore, "floatation can be a useful stress management tool in addition to or instead of other stress management tools.”

If you’re dealing with stress, anxiety, depression or seeking self-transformation and optimization, Dustin encourages you to come and visit him at Float Space to explore the Art of Well-Being.