The Float Tank Therapy Phenomenon

The recent interest among health professionals surrounding the various benefits of float therapy is not a phenomenon that has been triggered by hearsay or myth, but actual facts. By actual fact, what is meant is that the therapy or treatment as some may prefer to view it as has been based on empirical evidence that has been delivered by scientific/ clinical studies.

Most people have probably already heard about the amazing benefits of float tanks and the therapy associated with them. Float therapy a it is generally known is not something that just crawled out of the woodwork recently, as the fundamentals of float therapy began in the 60s, advocated by a Dr. John C Lily. Prior to that, even centuries ago, pilgrimages were made over thousands of miles by people who went to the Dead Sea to ‘float their illnesses away’. The modernised concept by Dr. John was at first ignored in the 60s and to an extent even ridiculed and regarded as being something ‘for the hippie culture’.

According to stories (unconfirmed sources), even after the ‘hippie culture’ faded and eventually disintegrated, many who had experienced the sensations brought about by float therapy continued to use it. Float tank sessions were still available at private clinics and in private homes (mostly celebs and high calibre sportsmen) as these proponents of float therapy found it to be very useful towards enhancing concentration, heightening creativity and optimising performance.

Still, medical professionals simply wrote it off as a ‘placebo’ related element until more and more people started declaring that the therapy actually helped them to not just sleep better, but also heal faster, allowed them to tolerate higher levels of pain, improve stamina and much more. This growing evidence became difficult to ignore and float therapy eventually got the medical community to examine the therapy with a wider and more objective lens. After years and years of studying the therapy, it was only recently (a decade ago) enabled by the advancements of current technology that astonished them.

The finding was that by blotting out external stimuli such as sight, sound, smell, heat and gravity, the brain changes its state of functional frequency and sets itself at a theta state which means that the brain is placed in a deep suspended mode. This is due to the fact that a substantial amount of brain processing power is no longer needed to contend with external stimuli which are removed during float therapy (hence, sensory deprivation tanks).

This helps the brain to focus on inner healing so to speak instead of being preoccupied with externalities. What the brain does during float therapy is that it recalibrates our biological system completely and reboots the system with each float therapy session leaving the individuals in a clear, calm and present state.

Currently the perspective of the medical professional has indeed changed drastically and most have accepted float therapy as a supportive medical treatment based on the fact that the therapy acts as a catalyst towards optimising biological functions at the cellular level which is where ‘everything happens’.