#Urban float skin

From rumbling trucks, smartphone screens, and crowded sidewalks, city living accosts the senses.

It’s no wonder that the concept has been embraced by urban dwellers. There are two in Seattle: Float Seattle in Greenlake, and Urban Float in Fremont. Since 2012, there’s been an annual Float Conference (in Portland, of course), and small float businesses have cropped up in major cities across the world. The last few years have seen a resurgence in their popularity. “Relaxation tanks” were big in the ‘80s, but their popularity lost steam in light of the AIDS scare. (Lilly left the NIMH after determining the government agency stifled his creativity he later undertook a project teaching dolphins to speak, and was convinced that the universe was governed by a council of cosmic beings.) Lilly, who studied sensory deprivation at the National Institutes of Mental Health. The technique was established in the ‘50s by John C.

#Urban float skin

The water is extremely salty, effortlessly supporting the floater’s weight, and is heated to skin temperature, so it’s hard to tell where you end and the water begins. They are completely dark, save a faint blue light that floaters can choose to flip on, via a button on the side of the tank. The tanks block outside noise – and floaters are instructed to wear earplugs to minimize the sound of water sloshing around them. My rational brain knew I was safe – I was just floating in a sensory deprivation tank, and could leave its dark, stuffy confines whenever I wanted – but it felt so wrong to be feeling nothing.įloating tanks are designed to eliminate sensory input. I had never felt claustrophobic before I lay down in this coffin-sized tank of warm, salty water, but I felt a panic attack coming on. You’re going to die in here, I thought to myself.