Sensory Deprivation Tank

A world devoid of all senses; touch, feel, sight, hearing. A complete elimination of all sensory input in order to provoke a state of complete tranquility, similar to that reached in meditation...No light, soundproof, warm water to minimize your sense of touch, and zero-gravitational sensations ...

Unfortunately, in my case, that didn't quite happen. Having left meditation sessions in the past, I did not completely reach that state of complete and utter unease. Nevertheless I left the tank feeling lighter, as if worries had evaporated into thin air.

The water is laden with epsom salts in order to allow the body to remain afloat... this wasn't completely the case with my head, as my eyes slipped underwater on several occasions, causing a slight and discomforting prickle in my eye, and bringing me back to reality. Not that I managed to evade it completely at any point, as many online experiences claim is supposed to happen. Supposedly, deprivation of the senses is supposed to evoke hallucinations and in some cases, out-of-body experiences (typically to practitioners of meditation). 

Interestingly enough, the original intention of the sensory deprivation tank was to test the brain's behavior to a lack in external stimuli, predicting it would either fall into a senseless coma or dreamless sleep or on the contrary, would create experiences in the form of hallucinations. Dr. John Lilly, the inventor of the tank (amongst many, many things) put these to the test to find that both the hypothesis proved to be true. On one hand he could choose to let go and relax, in which case his consciousness would take over and generate visuals. OR he could control his thoughts, focusing his consciousness, and create his "trip" in a process similar to lucid dreaming. 

I think I can safely say I had too tight a grip on my thoughts, preventing that thought flow and the consciousness to take over. Nevertheless, at one point I did manage to let go a bit... I started out focusing on past memories, which lead to what seemed like a float down memory-river as random images of the past started to flow one after the other. 

One quote I found quite interesting from the expert on electronic brain stimulation himself; 

"So within yourself you do have at least the circuitry to exert control over these systems. You can create a sense of well-being, or you can create a sense of fear out of the operation of your own bio-computer. That's the most important message we have in regard to self meta-programming. I saw that in the tank."