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The Big & Dandy Sensory Deprivation / Floatation Tank Thread

I run a float center in the Pacific Northwest with some friends of mine, and it's truly a great experience. If you can use the tank properly, I'd say it's better, dollar-for-dollar, than any drug. Using it in conjunction with drugs is certainly interesting though. A lot of people are into building their own tanks and such, but my advice is to go try one out before buying or making your own. It does take a while to learn how to exist inside the tank without bringing all of your external expectation of stimuli. My first time in the tank, there was a process where my psyche was basically telling me to let go and stop trying to control the process. When I finally was able to do that, let go completely, that's where the real adventure started.

I see a lot of people who expect it to be like acid or mushrooms (a la Joe Rogan). The truth is the experience inside the tank is a lot more mundane, but the calming effect lasts for a long while after you get out. It's basically the same thing as deep meditation without having to spend years training your body to ignore the outside world. Anyway, I'm interested, has anyone from this thread tried out a tank since it started?
 
im just going to try it out in two weeks ! happy me :) first time sober and then will see
i would love to do ketamine there ofcource
 
Stealingvanity's advice about trying it out before buying your own is good advice if you can find a float center. I think you'll need at least 4 or 5 practice sessions before you learn to trance out properly. The thing is, in a lot of places the nearest float center is very far away, and even if one isn't just an hour inside one will run you around $40 minimum. Buying a tank is really expensive, too, but I'd think you could rig up the essential components of one for a lot cheaper than the used tanks go for ($2500) if you had enough space in a quiet environment. You need about 800 lbs of epsom salts dissolved in water filled to a depth of 9 inches or more in a container about the length and width mentioned in these plans. All that salt is what keeps you floating high in the water. Then you'd need a water bed heater set at 95 F (the temperature of the skin's surface), a space heater set to the same, as well as an aquarium filter to keep it clean. You could put the whole thing inside a large tent to get total darkness. Assuming you have the tent, space heater, and the room for it already the cheapest I can imagine it being done for is $7-800.
 
psood0nym said:
longtimesunshine: If you're not using sensory deprivation with psychedelics I'd recommend practicing getting yourself into hypnagogic states. From my very limited experience it seems that sensory deprivation and hypnagogic hallucinations are similar, but even if they aren't learning to switch into a trance-like state is advisable if you want to get the most out of sensory deprivation.
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I've noticed the exact same thing about sensory deprivation tanks and hypnagogic hallucinations. I've never been into a sensory deprivation tank while on drugs.
 
i did it last week for only about 45 minutes on a moderate dose of morning glory seeds, and it was pretty uncomfortable. not mentally or emotionally, just physically. I had some cuts and I just couldnt really get into it, I was wriggling around and shit

but then again, it was my 3rd day of binging on these morning glory seed extract pills, so I wasnt in a great state anyways

still, i wont try it again for a while because i didnt really get anything out of it
 
I tried one session 30 or so years ago, but was too impatient, at that age, to get anything out of it.
Suggestion: eat some shrooms, watch "Altered States", THEN go float...worked well for William Hurt...:\
 
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Haha, John Lilly maybe - didn't William Hurt degenerate into a crazed humonkeylus? ;)
 
Since this is bumped again I'll report back and say that I did, eventually, try an iso tank on two hits of acid and that it was boring. My brain produced bizarre, unpleasant auditory effects out of silence, but otherwise I was just lying in the dark. The most intense part was bluffing my way past the centre's front desk. Wouldn't waste an hour of a trip trying that again. This was about a year and a half ago. YMMV.
 
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just to remind people that are considering tripping in a tank that it is best to have some experience with floatation before. also nothing really happens first few times one floats, you need at least 3 times to get used to maybe even more. also nothing will happen before at least 30mins even with experience and going in for more than 1h is also going to be better.
also some tanks are just not made too well with problems with sound insulation, temperature control, air flow etc. so don't judge all by one
 
Sensory deprivation is for well off adults with leisure time, and I mean that in two ways. The uninteresting way to use a tank is as a spa item:relax and tune out in touch-less isolation for an hour because you have the cash for the luxury. The proper way to use them, though, is in a situation where you can go in over and over again, learning to shift into phase. Achieving anything interesting via sensory deprivation will of course be a subtle endeavor, as, by definition, any little interruption during a session de-deprivates you. Personally speaking, I'm certain that if I owned a tank and had a period free of commitments I could use it to enter states of suspended lucid hynagogia, since I've done this intermittently in bed. The tank just makes those liminal Sunday morning drifts between the realms easier to slide into, to stay in, and relish, at your leisure. Once I got good at it, then I'd take the dissociatives.
 
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Sensory deprivation/floatation tanks

This Tuesday I will be having my first experience in a sensory dep tank. Pretty excited, I've been wanting to try one for a very long time.

As I'm sure most of you know, the inventor of the tank, Dr. John C Lily, would use various psychedelics in conjunction with the tank, ketamine in particular, and had many bizarre and mystical experiences.

Since ketamine is scarce where I live, I was planning on using a moderate dose of insulfalated methoxetamine. I am quite familiar with the effects of the compound, and they seem like they would go spectacularly in an environment with as little external stimuli as possible.

Anyone here have personal experience using a tank with or without a psych or disso?
I'd love to hear your experiences and any tips or suggestion to getting the most out of my tank experience
 
Ha I'll be going to a float tank this Tuesday, too. Coincidence? Maybe.

I was thinking about taking a mescaline dose, but my float is early in the morning and I don't want to wake up too early. I've been one other time, and it was very relaxing. I felt like a big bowl of jello afterwards.
 
Sounds cool. Hope it goes well. If youve never used one before (i havent) maybe try it sober first..
 
That's awesome man, glad to know a fellow BLer will be floating somewhere out in the cosmos of the tank with me.
Mescaline has always caused nausea for me, I'd hate to feel like I was going to vomit.

If I wasn't planning a candyflip new years eve, I'd take a decent dose of L and go into the tank at the 3 hours mark, but since circumstances are just that, MXE will work.

I've thought about floating sober my first time, but decided to float altered because these opprotunities are rare for me. I've been wanting to float for 5 years and I'm just now getting to it. Floatin it Lily style.
 
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Ineffable14 said:
If I wasn't planning a candyflip new years ever, I'd take a decent dose of L and go into the tank at the 3 hours mark, but since circumstances are just that, MXE will work.
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Taking a dissociative like MXE in a sensory deprivation tank is really dangerous! A lot of people have died doing K in the bathtub. Why don't you take LSD in the tank, and then just take more LSD (+MDMA) for NYE?
 
I won't be taking such a high a dose I won't be able to move. I've never been so out on mxe that I felt I could reposition myself or notice if something was physically bothering me, so I'm not too worried about it. Id love to take L in the tank, but my float is only two hours and honestly I'd rather save my tolerance for a CF on new years.

Also, a lot of the deaths I assume your speaking of, the doses of ketamine were k-hole and above, and just about all of them were IM users. I aprretiate the harm reduction enthusiasm of your advice, but I am full aware of the risk I am taking, and I assure you I'll be ok. :)
 
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