I got tanked

Magwang

In the early 80s I tried sensory deprivation tanks (yes like the ones in Altered States but without the Mexican mushrooms).

It was like the 2nd tank that appeared in the movie - horizontal with salt water solution. For an hour or more. The mind is sure there "in for your face" as it where when there's no external stimuli present. It's very interesting to watch the mind calm down - and it really does. That's the tough part of meditation: the monkey mind. But in the tank you are able to really relax. I did't fall asleep - it can be very stimilating.

Interesting that this came to mind - torture and rendition makes the daily news. Ssensory deprivation is a common mind control technique used by the CIA (hi fellas, if your reading this!).

Has anyone else tried this?

::

buddhafoot

Ummm... no.

I was always afraid to try it because I didn't want to turn into a monkey.

-bf

harlan

My closest experience was working in a tv station. The tv studio was a huge soundproofed room. There was no echo, and there would be these 'odd' moments, when you worked next to a padded wall, and noticed 'the absence' of sound. I became very aware of how important sound is for human location of self (if that makes sense).

Magwang

buddhafoot wrote:

Ummm... no.

I was always afraid to try it because I didn't want to turn into a monkey.

-bf

LOL!

:wtf:

I laughed when I saw that movie too, but also scared the pi&& out of me at the time (I might have been high then). I think it is Ken Russell's best film, but yeah his films are weird (Lair of the White Worm, Tommy)

::

Magwang

harlan wrote:

... I became very aware of how important sound is for human location of self (if that makes sense)...

::

It makes sense!

At the Ontario Science Center in Toronto there is a sound-proof hallway, that is open above your head to the larger hall, so you stood in the middle of this huge museum with lots of crowds, but suddenly the sound is so quiet you can hear conversations from a distance, but without the background roar. Almost startling - and calming.

It is a strange experience when your convenmtional sense experiences have been modified even slightly. It makes you start to question your conventional reality experience.

::

buddhafoot

I was going to soundproof a room in my house for recording... now you guys have got me all spooked.

Will I go nuts being in a soundproof room!?!?!?!

-bf

Magwang

buddhafoot wrote:

I was going to soundproof a room in my house for recording... now you guys have got me all spooked.

Will I go nuts being in a soundproof room!?!?!?!

-bf

I don't think so. But - aren't you nuts already?

buddhafoot

Ummm... no?

-bf

Magwang

Can you be sure of anything you think?

[Laughing Madly]

buddhafoot

Honestly? No, I can't.

I get asked questions on here all the time and notice how my perspective changes all the time.

But... I'm also a nutjob and freely admit it. Sid Barrett looks like the poster-boy of sanity compared to me.

-bf

-bf

Magwang

See also Simulated Reality and Mind/Body Dualism

Brigid

I did something similar when I was working for Greenpeace out in Calgary. It wasn't a tank, though. It was just a special bed with these goggles that had lights that stimulated your closed eyes and while I was lying there I lost track of time completely and had these feelings that I was high up in the trees and I started to get very agitated because there were these sounds that I eventually realized were drums and I started flying through the tops of the trees to get to safety. It then dawned on me that I was a monkey. lol!! True story.

Simonthepilgrim

There is a distinction to be drawn, BF dear friend, between 'soundproof' and 'anechoic'. If, by soundproof, you mean that you want a room which does not allow sound to enter or leave but within which you can turn up the volume on the gramophone or nickleodeon, that is one thing. An anechoic chamber is one in which sounds generate no 'echo', no over- or under-tones. All sounds go 'flat'. Very disorientating very quickly, especially if light is also removed. If this is done as part of a generally threatening situation, it can induce psychosis. Alternatively, sensory deprivation has been used in a number of more positive ways.

We used to have a floatation tank at a local holistic centre. It was a treat that we used to give ourselves when we felt creeping 'burn out'. Loved it. An hour was always too short! Only drawback was that it was as draughty as a school changing-room when you got out. "After Awakening, the sh*t-shovelling" LOL

buddhafoot

Simonthepilgrim wrote:

There is a distinction to be drawn, BF dear friend, between 'soundproof' and 'anechoic'. If, by soundproof, you mean that you want a room which does not allow sound to enter or leave but within which you can turn up the volume on the gramophone or nickleodeon, that is one thing. An anechoic chamber is one in which sounds generate no 'echo', no over- or under-tones. All sounds go 'flat'. Very disorientating very quickly, especially if light is also removed. If this is done as part of a generally threatening situation, it can induce psychosis. Alternatively, sensory deprivation has been used in a number of more positive ways.

We used to have a floatation tank at a local holistic centre. It was a treat that we used to give ourselves when we felt creeping 'burn out'. Loved it. An hour was always too short! Only drawback was that it was as draughty as a school changing-room when you got out. "After Awakening, the sh*t-shovelling" LOL

I guess I would want both, then, Simon, dear friend.

I would not want the screams of my vict...umm... friends escaping from the room. Nor would I want sound bouncing around in the room either. Undesired "bouncing" of sound when recording is not desireable.

But!, as always, during our conversations... I just learnt a new werd!

-bf

Iawa

buddhafoot wrote:

I was going to soundproof a room in my house for recording... now you guys have got me all spooked.

Will I go nuts being in a soundproof room!?!?!?!

-bf

No more then you already are.:winkc:

Sabine

Oooh! Interesting!

Since I go to an arts school, we have these great, professional-grade soundproof practice rooms - they're all heavily padded, and the doors have two layers of glass with a vacuum between them, so our teachers can see if we're actually practicing piano/drums/violin/whatever or just taking a nap
Anyway. It was kinda like Harlan's TV control studio, in that, if you so choose, you can press a button on the wall to either simulate different performance environments (theater, cathedral, recital hall, etc) or to eliminate echoes completely. They're really good to meditate, or just chill out, in (if no one's hassling you about an assignment), but "losing" one of your senses for a while can get kinda freaky.

ajani_mgo

I guess context does do a difference...

Well if we are stuck in such rooms for a joyful cause (to calm down) of course we will! It would feel peaceful compared to all that bustle we face everyday...

But if youwere captured during war time by the enemy and you refuse to give intelligence, I guess getting stuck there would be scary, since it implies isolation... :rockon:

And yea... Bf, I would stay off those rooms for a while if I were you, cause' I don't think am getting anywhere nearer to sanity.