Last Thursday afternoon I trapped myself into a futuristic-looking pod and submerged my whole body into an epsom salt-water concoction. Why, you may ask?
I was getting to try out sensory deprivation, the act of blocking out all external stimuli, by laying down for an hour and a half in a sensory deprivation tank otherwise known as a float tank.
Float tanks were developed in the 1970s by neuroscientist and psychoanalyst John C. Lilly in an attempt to better understand the nature of consciousness and how it relates to the brain. Despite fading in popularity for several decades, float tanks are coming back into the mainstream.
The emerging popularity of the tanks can be attributed to some notable users. Comedian Joe Rogan has talked extensively about his positive experiences with float tanks on his show The Joe Rogan Experience and NBA superstar Stephen Curry is known for regularly going to tanks between games to de-stress.
Owner of Float Om, a float tank spa in Eugene, Ankush Vimawala is excited about the future of floating. He predicts an “increase in popularity as more and more people reap the benefits of floating.”
After hearing all the hype, I wanted to try it out for myself so I headed over to Float Om on 16th Ave. When first entering the lobby there is an interesting blend of new age spirituality with an assortment of essential oils and a bookshelf with numerous scientific books describing the ins and outs of sensory deprivation.
I was led through a hallway, back past a meditation alter into a room containing an odd looking chamber that bore a striking resemblance to a coffin. After showering and putting ear plugs in, I climbed into the tank, closed the opening door behind me, and hoped that I would be able to find my way out in the pitch black darkness.
After laying down in the tepid water, I closed my eyes and began to float. For what I’m guessing was the first 30-45 minutes of my float, I was distracted by my racing thoughts and the sound of my heartbeat.
Once I could relax, my mind quieted down and I began to slip into a weird state that resembled being half asleep. This, I later learned, occurred due to my brain going into a theta brainwave state, which is correlated with problem solving and an increased learning ability.
Time no longer mattered, and I was feeling as though I lost contact with my physical body. After what seemed like an eternity I heard music begin to play, which signaled it was time for me to get out of the tank, time to re-enter the outside world.

For the first few minutes after getting out of the tank, I felt as if I was in some sort of trance. Once I became more acclimated with the outside world again, I continued to feel extremely relaxed, both mentally and physically, for the rest of the day.
Ultimately, it was a crazy and awesome first time floating.
While floating brings a number of physical benefits, including speeding up injury recovery and decreasing pain due to the body absorbing magnesium through the epsom salt-water, one of the most significant things about sensory deprivation is that it provides the chance to take a timeout from our hectic lives and be completely removed from all external input.
We live in a time that is plagued by information overload. We are all constantly texting, emailing and using social media. Research from two British psychologists in 2015 has estimated that young adults spend an average of five hours a day on their mobile devices.
You can’t even go to a concert anymore without being bombarded by a flood of phones being waved in the air.
All of the constant distractions brought on by technology really take a toll on us. Despite opening up a whole new realm of possibilities, tech seems to be destroying our ability to live in the present moment. Besides just being a big waste of time, screen time has been linked to an increase in stress levels, lower sleep quality and diminished attention.
What better way is there to stop the onslaught of distractions than by experiencing sensory deprivation? These tanks could help cure us of our cell phone addictions and constant craving for stimulation.
According to Vimawala, “There is potential for people to become better human beings by floating.”