Floating in a Sea of Stars
The difference between an indoor sensory deprivation tank and an outdoor hot tub
Floating in a sensory deprivation tank had been a dream of mine for a long time, and I had a lot of ideas about it. For some reason, I thought it would be round or oval, with a lid over it like a small Airstream, or maybe a big barbecue. But no, it was a little rectangular room with body-temperature water of the exact salinity for a human to float perfectly in it without sinking. I also thought the pool would be deep and wide, so that I couldn’t reach out and touch the walls or bottom of the pool. But the water was barely knee deep and not quite as wide as my spread arms. So I had to make an effort not to touch the walls or bottom. I had to stay very still.
The sensory deprivation chamber had a few controls: there was a controller for the lights, so you could decide if you wanted a low glow or total blackness; and there was a controller for sound, so you could decide if you wanted silence or some soft New Age meditation music. To be fair, the soundproofing was excellent, so if you wanted silence, you got total silence.
I had expected, going in for the first time, that I would want to float in total darkness and silence. But as it turned out, I got bored pretty quickly, so I turned on the music, but kept it dark. I…
