Someone asked a good question in the reddit float tank group:
People who float once vs making it a regular practice
byu/No_Location7898 inFloatTank
One thing the poster asks is:
on average, most people that float once do not return to float again.
I wanted to see what people here, who have presumably floated at least once and have an interest in it , thought the reason was for this.
I can only relate my personal history. I first learned of floatation in Los Angeles, CA. Perhaps around the year 1995 or 1996. I was a graduate student in Neuroscience at USC. I was loosely affiliated with a spiritual teacher named EJ Gold and they started discussing floatation tanks. In fact EJ Gold spent time directly with Lilly and the Perry’s live near his ashram in Grass Valley, CA. He wrote a book entitled “Tanks for the Memories” which is powerfully illustrated by EJ. At any rate, they recommended that I work with a relative of the Perry’s who was situated up the 110 towards the USC health sciences campus. He mentioned to me that he had figured out how to create the perfect environment for the tank. And when I went into his tank, I was like: “yes, this is it. This reminds me of the ultimate truth of what I am and what I will return to” … and I never went back. I saw an ad for another float tank a few months later and tried his tank once too. Never went back to him either That was all before 1999. Being born in 1969, I was only 30 years old. I was still a child. A child has no idea of spiritual practice, they just do different things and have no sense of boundaries or agenda. So, like a child, I just floated into afloat center and the floated away…
Then in 2009 I was practicing a rigorous Chinese Yoga called Falun Gong. For some reason, I decided to pack my bags and leave Columbus, OH to “try a float tank” and I ended up at Spacetime Tanks in Chicago, IL. I tried it once. At the end of the float some symbols showed up in my awareness. I realized this was tension discharge from the rigorous yoga. I stayed in Chicago for about 2 weeks. I returned home and I then bought a tank from Frank Rodriguez and set it up in my living room. I started advertising. And yes, each person came exactly once and each person had nothing to say to me after coming. And yes, I’m sure they enjoyed themselves.
The poster continues:
I understand floating may not be for everybody but it seems the average float center has a really hard time getting people to float more than once.
this is because the float experience is so good and lasts so long, there is no need for another float for a long time – there was almost 10 years between los angeles where I tried a float tank a few times and Chicago where I tried it a few more times before being convinced that there was something special there.
now, a friend of mine, Jason Demchok, an ordained Tibetan Buddhist priest, had a different reason for not returning to the tank – he was not keen on the hygiene of a publicly shared body of water. he prefers to get into his bathtub.
the poster then states:
I would think the hardest thing would be to get the person in the door the first time, not the second.
What he is thinking is that floating is similar to an activity where you want more after your first time… for instance, an addict keeps taking more and more of his drug and getting less and less results. he might also be thinking this is like a gym, where you have to continually work out to keep getting progress.
But here is the big thing about floating. It gives you an experience of needing nothing and being everything... including floating.
Is floating too expensive to do regularly?
maybe… I know that I would go to more sound baths if they were 10 times cheaper. The real answer is a float commune that operates a tank for cooperative purposes. But that is being done in Oregon already isnt it? But even though the Oregon thing is cooperative, they are still trying to generate enough revenue to maintain a commercial space.
another thing to note is: you only take medicine when you are sick. I am reminded of a woman in Greer, SC that runs a float center. Her other service is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. When you’ve tried a millon things and they all led to you being fleeced of cash or flayed alive in sensation, then all you need is one good float to contrast with all the other less efficacious services.
Does it over promise and under deliver for the average client?
this might vary from client to client. I think it delivers quite well. But it is similar to dying and then being reincarnated.
Conclusion
the title of the original post was “People who float once vs making it a regular practice” … this title is somewhat leading and indicates that the author would expect someone to try this, like it and want to make it a regular practice, similar to Mindfulness or something. But as he guessed, mindfulness does not cost as much and having to deal with reality interlock in terms of people and driving after a session is also less than ideal.
