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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Nim: [QB] Andrew: My paper [i]is[/i] in swedish, but here's an abbreviated form, adapted to forum format, with occasional additions. LOA, I'm sorry if it's a lot of text, if you have trouble with that during headaches. I promise you it'll be worth your while, though. [QUOTE]How it works: Basically, being in a floatation tank affects four of the five bodily senses. It's lightproof so the eyes are the first things to relax. Hearing gets affected by your ears being underwater, usually you get issued earplugs as well, against the underwater sounds. Your smell gets kind of defaulted due to breathing the fumes of the epsom salt in the water (german "health" salt, not sea salt, good for the skin's healing abilities). The greatest effect, of course, is the lifting force of the salt water and the neutral temperature, blurring the line for where the surface ends and the body begins. Pressure and tightness in the spine, neck and all joints disappears. Arms, hands and head float on the surface and as long as you don't move, the muscles and tendons don't give off any notice either, making it possible to have a slight out-of-body experience or being in space. It's good to read up on this before the first times and talk to the people running the place to get a feel for it. A normal session lasts an hour and if you are sufficiently relaxed (usually during the second session) your brain activity relaxes too; the brain works with different brainwaves in different modes. You work in beta waves when you're awake, alpha-waves when you're shutting your eyes and relaxing, theta waves in the short time just before you fall asleep (kind of a bridge) and then delta waves for deep sleep or unconsciousness. During the last twenty minutes of the floating session, it is possible to get down to theta (yes yes ha ha lron) or delta levels, allowing for a period of sleeping awake, which kicks the immune system into high gear, improves marrow production, stimulates serotonin leves and is optimal for mediation and prayer. During this time the contact between the brain halves improve also. Indeed, for mental discipline it's best not to get carried away by trains of thought and instead stand back in your mind and just accept and wonder at the things flying past, non-judgementally. One hour of floating is regarded as 4-6 hours of sleep, depending on your level of relaxation and how used you are you are to the procedure. Target groups: Primarily, floating is used for stress control but it has proven effective on people with chronic pains, tense headaches, migraine, psoriasis (stress related), rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. It's doubly effective on psoriasis patients, due to both taking away stress and having a therapeutic effect on the skin, due to the 36% epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) water, making skin soft and hair lithe. <small>[i]I like that word, lithe. I so rarely get to use it in a sentence. ... Hm.[/i]</small> Reactions: There are no side effects whatsoever, since essentially it's just returning to the womb for a while. It usually takes two or three sessions to get accustomed to it, you don't even let your head rest freely on the surface of the water until after about 15 minutes, it's an inherited instinct. Like with Neo and the building jumping test. There are very many variations of tanks but usually it's a very large, slightly rectangular box. It's always large enough so that a normal person cannot reach the walls or roof while lying on the surface, for obvious psychological "immersion" reasons. The water's about a foot deep, 600 liters or so. Again, as for claustrophobia, it won't affect a normal person, you forget all that when you start experiencing the weightlessness. But if you're a person who can't go into a public restroom stall, then you need to see a shrink. Regardless. For some people, the silence and tranquility can seem irritating, if your usual day is spent in a clamor of phone calls, music and noisy work places and if you notice you dislike quiet rooms. Ironically these people are the ones most in need of doing floating or just basic anti-stress activity. An important effect of floating that was the chief interest of its creator, Dr John Lilly, was the altered state of consciousness achievable through the practice. Emotions and thoughts from long-term memory and the subconscious can be allowed to resurface. Some people can react to it but it's very rare. The altered state and general softness after a floating session can be likened to a mild drug buzz, similar to taking LSD; you get very creative and attentive for several hours after, but the capacity for logic thinking and hard mind-work is slightly diminished, scientists believe this is because the left (logic) side of the brain slows down during floating or sleep, while the activity in the right (creative) side increases. You shouldn't do floating before a school test or a boardroom/office meeting, it's also important to let yourself "land" to get as much out of the experience as possible. Take out some "me"-time, go home and listen to music, write a sonnet or masturbate (oh yes, that's right, I went there). Perhaps a combination of the three. The water is 36% salt, a third more than the Dead Sea, so, you know, don't rub your eyes. It also tastes bitter (if you're like me, the curiosity gets you in the end). Have fun, and if anyone tries out floating, please give me feedback, I have only talked to a few who have tried it. It's interesting to compare experiences. $$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ It can be highly tempting to...touch yourself in such an optimal environment, just to see what happens. Well what happens is floating clinics commonly have wires installed to administer a strong electric current if they have reason to think you are approaching your unmentionables. For legal reasons, IIRC. Standard boilerplate. Then they take your clothes and you have to run home in your birthday suit. Traditionally it ends up on page 5 or 6 in the local paper. That's were acupuncture is a much better therapy. No risks of getting fresh there.[/QUOTE] [/QB][/QUOTE]
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