the relaxation experience
“When one or more senses are restricted, the sensitivity of the other senses is expanded”.
We see this daily when the blind have an increased sense of touch and hearing, when the deaf have an increased sense of touch and sight, this is living proof that the senses are strengthened when one is weakened.
The question is what happens when all our senses are restricted?
“Sensory Deprivation” meaning our senses are deprived of external stimulation from sound, temperature, light, gravity and other people.
The floatation pool has been the best device ever created to cut down the amount of external stimuli that reaches our senses, but humans have been using sensory deprivation techniques of various sorts for thousands of years.
In primitive societies men prepared themselves for hunts by withdrawing from normal activities and cleansing or purifying themselves by isolation within a small shelter or alone in a spot away from the village in silence, they believed this sensory deprivation increased their ability to hunt. Recent studies show that short periods of sensory deprivation deeply increase your sense of smell, taste, sight and hearing. Maybe our ancestors were not so primitive!
In more recent times sensory deprivation has been used in the training of spiritual leaders, witch doctors, monks, priests, gurus, mediums, shamans and other spiritual seekers often have periods of total silence, retreat into small caves and dwellings or dark rooms, they believe this brings them closer to their beliefs and deeper levels of prayer.
The sensory overload of city and modern life requires periods of recovery, we have adapted our own form of isolation via naps, sleep, daydreaming, listening to music and deep involvement in reading we may call it “escapism” or “time out”. Clinical studies have shown conclusively that infusions of quiet; peace and solitude of the ocean, forest, mountain or the country are essential to maintain our health and our sanity.
“Once we have shut out sound, light, touch, gravity, other people and movement, what we have left is our self.”
Floatation can induce levels of relaxation that can relax every muscle in the body.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
