Sensory Deprivation Tank
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Sensory Deprivation Tank
Joe Rogan talks about his isolation tank.
These, are just some of the drugs that are going to screw your life up, if addicted to any of them. Cocaine, ice, magic mushrooms, along with their close relatives in the world of illegal drugs, they are usually bought and consumed by people looking for the ultimate out-of-body experience. It is no longer enough to have fun, or to have a lot of fun. People need to go beyond just "have fun" now, they need to be high at the very same time. I have talked to a friend who has taken one or two of those drugs listed above, and he was telling me how strange and experience it was when he decided to take drugs. He's not a very bright guy, and had a record of smoking three packs of cigarettes a day while being in camp. But despite all his nicotine consumption, illegal drugs are something he wants to stay away from, especially after that one time he decided to give it a shot. He didn't like the way he lost control of himself, the way he 'flew' out of his body and was completely knocked out afterwards. That's what drugs do to you, and the government does not like that very much. So in most parts of the world, these drugs are banned and outlawed, especially in Singapore where the possession of any drugs can be punishable by death.
In essence, however, the experience you get while taking drugs is not very much different from, say, an extreme state of meditation. The difference lies probably in the fact that drugs tend to have negative effects on your body if you overdose on them, while meditation is a form of relaxation very much encouraged by the society these days, and gradually being embraced as a great form of pastime. Of course, taking drugs is also a very expensive habit in relative to meditation, and you can't just snort cocaine in public whenever you want to. There isn't a law stating that you can't meditate in the middle of Orchard Road though, which is why a lot of people are turning into that to achieve a state of Zen. Of course, meditation is not "fun", it doesn't give you the same experiences, not a lot of drug alternatives can. People are not going to find meditation as a replacement for drugs because sitting there with your eyes closed and zoning yourself out just doesn't sound very exciting. Plus, it is time consuming, and not a lot of people can appreciate that in our fast-paced world. What if there is a replacement to drugs, that has zero side-effects and achieves the same level of excitement and the out-of-body experience thrill seekers look for?
Introducing, the Sensory Deprivation Tank, or the Isolation Tank as some would prefer to call it. The isolation tank was first used by a psychologist named John C. Lilly in the 1950s, and the aim of it was to experiment with physical isolation and how that may affect the way our minds work. This is how an isolation tank works: imagine a giant tank big enough to fit a human being in, and you fill that up with water just enough for you to float in it. After that, pour ridiculous amount of epsom salt into the water so that the density of the water becomes higher than an average human being, disallowing you to sink while you are floating inside the tank. Then the water is being heated up to average human body temperature at 93.5 degrees fahrenheit. The tank is soundproofed, so you cannot hear anything from the outside, and it is pitch black on the inside so you cannot see anything with the hatch closed either. If the water itself hasn't been treated with chlorine, your sense of smell would seize to have any effects as well. Now imagine yourself in this soundproof water tank, and just floating there like a dead body, just your thoughts bouncing off the walls of the tank for an hour or two. Yeah, just imagine that for a while.
Of course, I haven't actually been inside an isolation tank, I just got to know about it tonight in front of my computer. But I have done quite a bit of reading regarding this new form of meditation, and it is really quite interesting to begin with. After a certain amount of time just floating inside the tank with waters heated up to your body temperature, your mind begins to forget where your body ends and the water begins. It almost makes you feel like your body has melted into the water, leaving just your soul floating about in mid-air, which is quite an experience by itself. For the first five to ten minutes, according to Joe Rogan who has an isolation tank in his home, you start to think about things you wouldn't normally think about, your life and the things that you have done, things that you should have done, maybe the ones that you shouldn't have done as well.
Then after the first phase of the meditation, things really start to become a little psychedelic in nature. Your mind starts to feel confused and disorientated, simply because the senses weren't able to pick up physical objects in the surroundings to recognize itself. It loses the ability to know where it is, what it is a part of, basically anything to make your brain recognize that you are you, that you are a human being. According to Joe Rogan's explanation in the video below, you start to forget that you are actually an actual human being, but rather an energy of sorts, just shooting around your mind and be a part of the world, the universe. It all sounds very unbelievable I suppose, a little out of this world to fully stomach here. But I do believe in that somehow, I want to know how it is like to break out of my body and to be with a part of this world altogether. The kind of out-of-body experience that we've all secretly harbored the desire for.
I remember what some of the people I know claimed their out-of-body experiences to be. I recall a guy called Charles in my platoon in the early days of army, and he was a pain in the ass to say the least simply because he pretended to be a person he was not. Short, fat and stubby, he always tried to take charge of things, to pretend that he was in control of every situation when he was clearly not. He claimed to have half a kidney left, and would use that to skip every toilet cleaning duty or physical training in camp. Wiping the mirror would strain his back too much, and bending down to clean the sinks would cause him to puke - though, he never puked before. He was a hypocrite, a fake, a pretentious bastard whom nobody liked, except his caucasian girlfriend whom he claimed to be attached with, her name was Vanessa.
Anyway, I remember the bunch of us just sitting around the parade square after a rehearsal for out passing out parade, and he suddenly shouted to everybody that he had an out-of-body experience. He was a very religious person, and he even brought a giant wooden cross to camp and scared the living daylight out of his bunkmates when his half naked body danced around the corner of the bunk with a cross raised above his head and strange words being spoken in the dark. He said that he had a vision, right there and then in the middle of the parade square, something about flying out of his body and into the clouds, holding hands with a pair of eagles and then meeting Jesus Christ, something like that. I was sitting next to him, and I laughed so hard that he almost felt the urge to strangle me on the spot. But I wasn't the only one that laughed at Charles' out-of-body experience, everybody did.
It could have very well been a trick of his mind, a short circuit that caused the brain to malfunction for a split second. Or, maybe his medication was acting up and causing him to hallucinate at the wrong place and at the wrong time. Nonetheless, I don't think that that would constitute as an out-of-body experience, more like a technical glitch in the head of some sort. Like your computer being stuck halfway through opening a program, something like that. After hearing about the concept of the isolation tank, I became rather interested in finding out more about it. It seems like it has been well received as a form of meditation, providing a way to relief stress and pain for users all around the world, who has given only positive feedbacks to this strange therapy. I think this is a beautiful way to break out of one's body without the need to take drugs, what kind of negative health issues are we talking about here, anyway? You can't even submerge yourself in the water, let alone drown inside the tank. Unless you have an extreme case of claustrophobia, I don't see how the isolation tank can be of any harm to anybody.
I also read, that there are spas in America that provides this kind of services, and I wonder if the same can be said about Singapore as well, if such a thing is legal at all. Perhaps my family can finally put the storeroom to good use, after clearing out the old junks and the old furniture. It can definitely fit an isolation tank in there, all we need now is an air pump and truckload of salt. Maybe some kind soul out there would be kind enough to buy, or build, me an isolation tank, or at least pay for such a treatment. Because seriously, it is definitely something I'd like to do before I die, to know how it is like to not be me for an hour or two. How intriguing is that.
Joe Rogan talks about his isolation tank.
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on Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 1:06 AM.
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