What is it? Service Overview What is it for Sensory Deprivation Therapy
Medical Benefits of Floatation Therapy Floatation Tank Philosophy History
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

What is it?

Floatation therapy is a treatment using sensory deprivation within a floatation tank. It is a deeply relaxing body and mind treatment that allows you to experience total weightlessness and thorough relaxation by floating in over 800lbs of Epsom salts. Years of well documented tests show that floatation tank therapy not only has an immediate effect on pain relief and elimination of stress, it also promotes ‘whole-brain’ thinking. You will be able to relax, with the absence of physical effort to stay afloat, experience weightlessness and receive the therapeutic effects of a high concentration mineral salt bath.

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Service Overview:

Floatation tanks allows privacy and quiet as well, which means that this treatment is often compared to returning to a womb-like state. The floatation tank is in a private room with a shower and full facilities.

Our floatation service is designed for you to be in total control throughout the treatment. You can go in and out of the tank as you please. You can use the tank with the door completely open or you can close it. Any way you use it that is comfortable for you, is the best way to relax and enjoy the treatment.

The tank is designed so that it is not airtight. You'll have plenty of air. The tank environment is humid. There are 10 inches of water in the tank with 800 lbs. of Epsom Salt dissolved in it. When you lie back you will float like a cork.
Flotation sessions are just over an hour with typically 50 minutes spent in the tank. We book appointments and accept walk-ins depending on availability.

*Should remove contact lenses before floating*

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What is it for:

• Complete physical & mental de-stressing
• Clinically proven to help stress, anxiety and depression
• Deep muscular relaxation
• Rejuvenates energy levels
• Accelerates healing of injuries
• Deep relaxation, encouraging easier and deeper sleep
• Clinically proven to help people with Fibromyalgia, joint pain, and
  muscle tension relief
• Stimulates creativity
• Enhances performance using visualisation
• Ease inflammation

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Sensory deprivation floatation tank therapy

Sensory deprivation therapy utilises floating as a method of attaining the deepest relaxation one can experience, this type of sensory therapy can help to ease a number of medical conditions and symptoms.

Floatation therapy is used widely in the treatment of stress, anxiety, jet lag and to improve concentration and creativity. Flotation taps into the senses of the brain and is widely used by sports persons to improve performance. One hour of floating in a float tank has the restorative effects of 4 hours of sleep. This is mainly due to the effects of sensory deprivation caused inside the flotation tank.

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Medical benefits of floatation therapy

The use of flotation therapy has a number of medical benefits. In the gravity free floating environment the body balances and heals internally as all the senses are rested. Research shows that floating and flotation therapy measurably reduces blood pressure and heart rate whilst lowering the levels of stress related chemicals in the body. Old injuries and aches, (especially backache) experience relief as floating helps blood circulation.

This is one more medical reason that explains a sense of balance and well being in the floating patient's everyday life when using floatation tanks. Recent medical flotation research has shown more and more the importance of having a good balance of activity between the two cerebral hemispheres to guarantee a better state of physical, mental, and emotional health.

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Floatation tank philosophy

The present philosophy of floatation therapy is to offer people in the community the possibility of one more way of regaining aspects of health, physical, emotional or psychological. There are many schools of thought at the present time in medicine and psychotherapy that are oriented to teach people how to master their bodies and minds in order to achieve a state of deep relaxation. This is essential in the very highly pressurised society of the Western World. This new concept regarding the need for deep relaxation has been validated by recent research showing that up to 80% to 90% of people that go to visit a General Practitioner do so because of a psychosomatic or stress related disorder.

The advantage of floatation therapy using a floatation tank is that it enables most individuals to experience very deep levels of relaxation from the very early stages of this therapy. It has the advantage of the person not needing to learn any special technique to trigger the relaxation response. Other very useful methods like biofeedback, self-hypnosis, autogenic training, progressive muscular relaxation or meditation generally requires a period of learning the specific technique.

 Floatation therapy applications for sports people and athletes

• Deep muscular relaxation
• Accelerates healing of injuries
• Enhances performance using visualisation

 Floatation therapy benefits for business people

• Complete physical & mental de-stressing
• Deep muscular relaxation
• Rejuvenates energy levels
• Enhances Creativity

 Floatation therapy for students

• Stimulates creativity
• Promotes clarity of thought process
• Aids accelerated learning

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History of Samadhi Flotation Tanks

Dr. John Lilly, the inventor of the isolation tank, tested the effects of removing the stimulation of the outside world with experiments he set up at the National Institute of Mental Health Lab in the Virgin Islands. He limited stimulation to the minimum possible level while removing sources of discomfort and stress.

Dr. Lilly found that an isolation tank has several major purposes. One purpose is that the environment within the flotation tank allows an individual to utilize the time to contemplate one's problems and brainstorm solutions with very limited distractions.

Another purpose is for consciousness seekers who are interested in self-analysis, meditation, transcendental experiences and altered states of consciousness. These states can be achieved due to the minimization of the external world which allows the internal to be accentuated. Not only does it have effects on the mind but it also has effects on the body.

There are health benefits, it can help relieve pain, and has an influence on weight loss and sport performance. As Author Michael Hutchinson says, " In the absence of sensory input, the floater feels detached, free, at peace, Most floaters report enhanced mental powers. Virtually everyone finds the experience immensely pleasant. And, as one prominent scientist says, the tank provides a method of attaining the deepest rest that we have ever experienced."

Recommended Reading:

The Book Of Floating by Michael Hutchison

The Deep Self by John C Lilly

The Quiet Center by John C Lilly

Tanks For The Memories by John C Lilly

Water And Salt - The Essence Of Life by Dr Med Barabara Hendel and Peter Ferreira

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