The Book of Floating: Exploring the Private Sea

Sensory deprivation tanks are one of those strange retro things that never seem to go away. Invented in 1954 by the truly bizarre Dr. John C. Lilly, they experienced a surge of interest during the New Agey/human potential movement of the 70s, culminating in the sci-fi horror thriller Altered States. These days they’re back, with cameos in the hit Netflix show Stranger Things. You too can try float therapy, with franchises and spas in every major city.

As far as guides to floating go, this is apparently it. Hutchinson went in as a skeptic, and came out a true believer, and this book is a breathless pitch for the benefits of this type of therapy. You can do anything with a tank, from perfecting your golf swing to curing cancer. Hutchinson doesn’t know how it works, but offers explanations using every pop-science understanding of the mind available in the 80s. All of these theories are probably Not Even Wrong, but if you accept the premise that the mind can affect the body, and that something like meditation affects the mind, then stripped of its New Age vibes, floating is a great way for distracted and stressed people to unwind and focus.

Chapters 16 and 17, which focus on breathing exercises, self-hypnosis, and visualization, are the most useful for a novice floater, and strongly complemented the brief instructional video that my location provided. I’m not going to claim that float therapy is some sort of universal key for unlocking the human mind, but in the short term it has helped my neck pain and writer’s block.