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Sensory Deprivation Tanks

Started by Arturo, May 10, 2017, 02:05:00 AM

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Arturo

I've been meditating lately and I can see improved focus after about a week of doing it. I heard about sensory deprivation tanks and wonder if anyone here knew about them or what they do. I heard on the Joe Rogan podcast that they can induce psychedelic states but I'm just looking for something to drown the sound out.
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

Icarus

That was all the rage a few years back.  There were places that an individual could rent for an hour or a day. There was no sound, no light, and often had water as in a shallow swimming pool. SOme of the users of such places reported positive outcomes.....peace, tranquility, and all that.

I have a book about the orchestration of biologic rhythms.  It is about circadian clocks. More than a few volunteer research experimenters have been spelunkers. The "cave men" would isolate themselves underground for long periods of time, 100 days or more.  The rhythmic wake/sleep cycles were pretty well established as being the same as ordinary above ground existence.  The cave dwellers did have some spooky psychiatric quirks after the self administered, long term, isolation in a  soundless, cold, dark, place.

As a matter of fact I suspect that cave people are nuts in the first place. I can harbor that belief  strongly because I am very much claustrophobic. ...

One of the most upsetting experiences in my life was in an MRI machine....one of the kinds that send you into a small tube like structure and no way in hell you can get out of it unless you press the panic button that the operator/technician said would signal them to remove you from the tube and the panic. What if the operator was a fiend who liked to torture people. That MRi technician would not respond to the panic button and what if the panic button was not even functional and it was all a diabolical lie. Forty five minutes in that noisy hammering hellish tube was/is more than a fraidy cat can endure and hope to survive sane after the fact.

The one time that I did that MRI torture was an adventure in mind over wildly irrational fear.  I had been in the distant past an exceptionally skilled motorcycle mechanic.  While in the tube, I forced my mind to paint mental vivid pictures of a complete disassembly and reassembly of a Royal Enfield single cylinder motorcycle engine. The fear driven realism was vivid. I handled mentally and vividly manipulated every bolt and nut in that engine, piece by piece and in the proper order of disassembly and subsequent re-assembly. That was one of the most strenuous exercises of total concentration in  my whole life. If only I could have concentrated that spectacularly well during my struggles with my university calculus classes. But then I was not in fear of my life in calc class.

I got out of the hell machine intact, but in the immediate aftermath it required two heavily re-inforced margaritas to calm myself down........So if there is some positive  outcomes of isolation tanks, I ain't ever going to enjoy such an experience.  Isolation tanks are the instruments of Lucifer himself for some of us. A cool place to be for others.

Dave

Helping with sone resesrch I also spent some time in "total immersion" in an MRI machine, it would be hell for a claustrophobe!

But, but like you, Icarus, I turned my mind to the "practical" things - trying to work out all what the gear was for, why a "Farady cage" was around the thing, how they could use it as a spectrometer, why I had had my BMI checked and had to push a pedal with one foot to lift a bucket of water 300mm to the timing of a metronome. . . . .

But, I was also getting paid £50 per session so that was a happy thought!
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Arturo

I'm going to improvise a tank with my bathtub. I'll do a couple short videos of before and after.
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

Magdalena

Quote from: Arturo on May 10, 2017, 05:06:13 AM
I'm going to improvise a tank with my bathtub. I'll do a couple short videos of before and after.

I hope everything goes well.

"I've had several "spiritual" or numinous experiences over the years, but never felt that they were the product of anything but the workings of my own mind in reaction to the universe." ~Recusant

Arturo

Quote from: Magdalena on May 10, 2017, 05:25:37 AM
Quote from: Arturo on May 10, 2017, 05:06:13 AM
I'm going to improvise a tank with my bathtub. I'll do a couple short videos of before and after.

I hope everything goes well.


So do I. Here is the before video if you or anyone is interested.

https://youtu.be/fiNTjV43LyY
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

hermes2015

William Hurt was in an interesting movie called Altered States that revolves around experiments with one of these tanks. Try and get hold of it.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

Arturo

It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

Arturo

Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 06:43:46 AM
William Hurt was in an interesting movie called Altered States that revolves around experiments with one of these tanks. Try and get hold of it.
👍👍👍👍
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

Dave

Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 06:43:46 AM
William Hurt was in an interesting movie called Altered States that revolves around experiments with one of these tanks. Try and get hold of it.
I think I remember thst, many years sgo. Was it in B&W?
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

hermes2015

Quote from: Gloucester on May 10, 2017, 08:19:39 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 06:43:46 AM
William Hurt was in an interesting movie called Altered States that revolves around experiments with one of these tanks. Try and get hold of it.
I think I remember thst, many years sgo. Was it in B&W?

No, it was in colour. It isn't that old (to us oldsters) - 1980-ish.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

xSilverPhinx

Can't say isolating myself with limited sensory input is something I would like to do as I'm sure I'll just get bored. If boredom would result with limited isolation, I wonder what sort of mental state I'd be in with near total sensory deprivation.   :rainbowpuke:

I also heard that near total sensory deprivation might induce hallucinations after a while, but I don't know if this is true.  :nyancat:

I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Dave

Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 08:26:31 AM
Quote from: Gloucester on May 10, 2017, 08:19:39 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 06:43:46 AM
William Hurt was in an interesting movie called Altered States that revolves around experiments with one of these tanks. Try and get hold of it.
I think I remember thst, many years sgo. Was it in B&W?

No, it was in colour. It isn't that old (to us oldsters) - 1980-ish.

Ah. Found the one I was thinking of, "Mind benders", 1963, Dirk Bogard, B&W.
QuoteA British scientist is discovered to have been passing information to the Communists, then kills himself. Another scientist decides that they might have brainwashed him by a sensory deprivation technique, but he doesn't know if someone really can be convinced to act against their strongest feelings. So he agrees to be the subject in an experiment in which others will try to make him stop loving his wife.

Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

hermes2015

Quote from: Gloucester on May 10, 2017, 03:25:21 PM
Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 08:26:31 AM
Quote from: Gloucester on May 10, 2017, 08:19:39 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 06:43:46 AM
William Hurt was in an interesting movie called Altered States that revolves around experiments with one of these tanks. Try and get hold of it.
I think I remember thst, many years sgo. Was it in B&W?

No, it was in colour. It isn't that old (to us oldsters) - 1980-ish.
Ah. Found the one I was thinking of, "Mind benders", 1963, Dirk Bogard, B&W.
QuoteA British scientist is discovered to have been passing information to the Communists, then kills himself. Another scientist decides that they might have brainwashed him by a sensory deprivation technique, but he doesn't know if someone really can be convinced to act against their strongest feelings. So he agrees to be the subject in an experiment in which others will try to make him stop loving his wife.
I will try to find it. I like Dirk Bogarde.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

Dave

Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 03:32:41 PM
Quote from: Gloucester on May 10, 2017, 03:25:21 PM
Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 08:26:31 AM
Quote from: Gloucester on May 10, 2017, 08:19:39 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on May 10, 2017, 06:43:46 AM
William Hurt was in an interesting movie called Altered States that revolves around experiments with one of these tanks. Try and get hold of it.
I think I remember thst, many years sgo. Was it in B&W?

No, it was in colour. It isn't that old (to us oldsters) - 1980-ish.
Ah. Found the one I was thinking of, "The Mind benders", 1963, Dirk Bogard, B&W.
QuoteA British scientist is discovered to have been passing information to the Communists, then kills himself. Another scientist decides that they might have brainwashed him by a sensory deprivation technique, but he doesn't know if someone really can be convinced to act against their strongest feelings. So he agrees to be the subject in an experiment in which others will try to make him stop loving his wife.
I will try to find it. I like Dirk Bogarde.
Used to but my tastes seem to have moved on . . .
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74