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For the R.E.S.T of you

Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy, or REST, is a very effective clinical tool for working with stress related disorders, chronic pain, habit disorders anxiety disorders and personal enhancement programs. REST offers the benefits associated with relaxation training, hypnosis, meditation and biofeedback; both in the physiological and the cognitive dimension.

There are two basic forms of REST, Flotation REST and Chamber REST. Flotation REST utilizes the Flotation Tank, as it is commonly called, in which a person floats supinely in a skin-temperature aqueous solution of saturated Epsom salts in a light free, sound reduced chamber. Flotation REST sessions (25-90 min), and have been applied to stress related disorders, chronic pain, anxiety disorders, and sports performance enhancement.

We have an American scientist to thank for the floatation tank. Dr John Lilly was working with the US National Institute of Mental Health when he first devised an isolation chamber in the early 1950s and found himself a champion of the benefits of floating.

He was investigating what happens to the brain when all external stimuli are switched off. The theory, before his work, was that the brain would shut down and drift into a coma-like dreamless sleep.

Lilly was able to show this was not true, and that the brain carried on, creating its own input, sifting information and working but in a more creative way: "I found the tank was and is a rich and vast source of new experience. One is not deprived, one is rewarded," he said.

The benefits of floating are well documented. Epsom salts, which are mostly magnesium sulphate, are so effective at lowering blood pressure that in a recent US study, scientists found that pregnant women suffering from high blood pressure caused by pre-eclampsia did much better when treated with Epsom salts than when anticonvulsant drugs were used.

The combination of being weightless and having no external stimuli encourages the body to relax deeply. Like meditation, it slows down the brainwaves and stimulates the production of mood-boosting endorphins, which is why you feel so good when you step out of the tank.

Floating is used by sportsmen and women to accelerate recovery after strenuous exercise - there are wonderful anecdotes about second-rate US baseball teams acquiring tanks and soaring straight to the top of the next league - and it is even said to rebalance the left and right sides of the brain, so that you get your most creative insights not during a brainstorming business meeting but while silently blissing out in a tank of warm, salty water

"Isolation Tanks: The State of the Art"

Esquire August, 1983

A recent body of research into tank experimentation in hospitals, clinics, and graduate psychology departments was made public for the first time at Denver, and from a welter of medical statistics and laboratory data emerged convincing evidence that even brief sessions in float tanks can cause mental and physical transformations. Among the revelations: Indications that floating stimulates the brain to secrete endorphins, the neurochemicals called the body's own opiates. The endorphin effect would explain the pain relief and euphoria floaters experience. Anecdotal evidence and preliminary research showing that floating results in a spontaneous reduction or elimination of habits such as smoking, drinking, and drug use and counteracts addiction-withdrawal symptoms. A report from St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton, Wisconsin, where a yearlong statistical analysis of the effects of float tanks revealed solid success rates ( a 70-85 percent improvement) in treatment of a wide range of problems, including anxiety, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular ailments, migraine and tension headaches, chronic pain, hypertension, and recovery from cardiac surgery. Hospital administrators are so impressed that the hospital tank is now seeing heavy daily use, attended by two full-time stress-management specialists. Tests of floating's effects on hormone levels, showing sharp decreases, maintained over long periods, of sympatho-adrenal activity (including cortisol and ACTH, both associated with stress and heart disease); and evidence that floating reduces anxiety and stress.

"Five (Make That Six) Who've Tried It."

Houston City Magazine December, 1979

The tank also doubles as Scott's afterhours think tank. "One of my jobs is to take data and feed it into a computer to construct three-dimensional models of the earth's surface. In the blackness of the tank, I utilize the computerlike qualities of the brain - I program data into myself and can actually see the resulting models in my visual cortex." In short, he hallucinates models which he'll later construct: "I visualize them in the tank just as if they're on a computer screen. I use different colors, get lots of detail. I'm just at the beginning stages, but the tank has amazing potential for use by artist, by designers, by people like myself who do technical work, by anyone, really, who works with his brain. Of course, my colleagues don't quite understand what I'm doing." "I do complex litigatons, with lots of different parties standing in all kinds of relationships to each other. I think the tank will be of tremendous use in getting a clear, overall

picture of a lawsuit. But up to now I haven't used it much in my work - I'm too busy relaxing in there, getting away from my work."

"Tanks, but I'd rather float my troubles away"

New York Post Trends June 4, 1981

Women seem to reap most beneficial rewards. Sessions in a tranquility tank unknot forehead tension and relax tightened strings of the face. "I look and feel ten years younger," is not an uncommon comment. Plastic surgeons have always understood the aging factor of tension. When muscles behind the skin are in stress, they are reflected on the skins' surface. When tensions are removed, the skin becomes as uncomplicated as a baby's smooth visage.

Health Medical

"The Day of the Dolphin is Over For John Lilly; Now, His Human Subjects Get Tanked"

People Magazine

I personally find that the tank is an absolute necessity in order to recover during the day quickly and easily from overloads brought about by too much activity, too much exchange with other people. If I am worn out during the day, instead of taking a long nap, I go into the tank for half an hour. For example, one day recently I became exhausted shoveling gravel and decided to go into the tank. The day's residues slowly disappeared. I did not go to sleep. I entered an abstracted state. There was no body, no external reality, only the floating, the darkness and the silence. I came out of the tank completely refreshed.

"Floatation tank: A new way to rid your body of whatever ails it"

Winston-Salem June 14, 1984

"This is a very simple and old-fashioned method of relieveing stress," she says. "You can't get any simpler."

"Endorphins trigger isolation-tank euphoria"

Brain Mind Bulltin January 23, 1984

Isolation tanks, known to reduce blood pressure in hypertensive patients, may prove to be excellent tools for normalizing stress, Turner concluded. "They provide a passive experience, rather than a learned one, and give people a renewed sense of control over pain and tension." Turner: Physiology Dept., Medical College of Ohio, Toledo 43699

"Isolation Tanks: The State of the Art"

Esquire August, 1983

Your Health

"Float Those Pounds Away"

Weight Watchers November, 1983

"Whatever you hear while in the tank sticks in your mind and remains there," explains Dr. Borrie. "It has a more profound effect on you because you hear it in a situation that's totally foreign from your daily routine. In the tank you want to do the right things. And the reasons for wanting to do them become stronger later on, even when you have a competing urge." In other words, what do you do while floating in a tomb-like tank listening to a voice telling why and how to lose weight? You pay attention!

Sports

"Flotation For Recovery and Visualization"

Muscle & Fitness January, 1984

In effect, the tank experience can duplicate the mental focus achieved through self-hypnosis or other forms of meditation. In this state, a person can employ the visualization techniques valued throughout bodybuilding. You can imagine your physique as you would realistically like it to look so you'll have a clear goal to work toward. Picture yourself handling heavy poundages or mastering form in a particularly difficult isolation exercise. This subconscious input - mental practice - affects the mind the same as physical practice. The next time you try the poundage or movement, your mind signals nervous responses as you imagined them, helping you achieve your goal. In fact, sports-performance training and other forms of superlearning are proven benefits of flotation tanks.

"Floating Off To Lotus Land"

Delaware Today January, 1986

As a serious athlete, Wier says he floats "to decrease the recovery time from the abuses of training for rugby. I go in stiff, and come out with a very positive physical response." These toxins, which cause tension and soreness, apparently leave the muscles much more quickly after a float than they normally would.

"Cowboys Floating Into the 80's"

The New York Times May 18, 1981

The Dallas Cowboys who voluntarily enter the room climb into the team's new sensory deprivation tank, a white fiberglass box that is eight feet long, four feet wide and four feet high. One by one, they float on their backs in water for an hour at a time in a peaceful world where their minds can be cleared of mistakes and pressures, and then refilled with information that can help win football games.

"Flotation for Recovery and Visualization"

Muscle & Fitness

Determinded to add density to your physique, you blast every bodypart with maximum workout intensity. It leaves you tired, and now you worry about overtraining when you need to concentrate on heavy reps. Somtimes you wish you could just float off into space for a while to get your second wind. Now you can. Floating on your back in a warm saline solution, shut off from light and sound, you are freed of 90% of your usual sensory stimulation. You're suspended in a state of deep relaxation. Healing, even from chronic pain, proceeds at a most rapid pace. Worries or hang-ups can be brought into focus and confronted; stress can be breathed away. Visualization techniques, so successful among body-builders, are now easy to employ. You even have the potential to mentally practice athletic skills or engage in other forms of advanced learning.

Ancient & Modern

"Five Great Ways To Relax"

Prevention August 1981

Lost to antiquity is the first person to discover that water'hath the power to soothe tense, overwrought spirits. In all likelihood, this momentous event in human self-care history transpired when some perturbed cave dweller accidentally stumbled into a shallow and mildly warm hot spring after a harrowing day at the mastodon factory. When the startled screams turned to soft sighs, the therapeutic bath was born.

Oakland Tribune, Aug 27, 1981

Imagine that you are floating in an ocean, completely supported by salty water. You cannot sink. It is pitch black, you can hear your heart beat and the thoughts that are making noises in your mind. Sooner or later those voices in your head dissipate. You feel yourself falling into another space and time. You are in control and you can take this experience anywhere you want to.

Fears

"Is hotter than a hot tub"

Los Angeles Herald Examiner May 13, 1980

As I'm briefed in the waiting room - not unlike a dentist's, except for the big demonstration tank - it is explained that samadhi is an ancient Sanskrit word for "a high state of consciouness." Right now, I'm at the state of consciousness called panic, wishing I'd been assigned to cover a less threatening story - like a prison riot.

"Discovering the inner self"

The Oregonian August 22, 1984

"Hello darkness my old friend/I've come to talk with you again." Even the words from the old Simon and Garfunkel hit inscribed on a small black plaque above the lid-like door of the tank don't chase away the butterflies in the pit of your stomach when you step into the tank for the first time. Your fingers grope around in darkness searching for the lid, just to make sure it really does open from the inside. It does. You feel a little more relieved.

"Tanks For The Memories"

Argus Magazine February, 1981

"Most people enjoyed it. They could be with their own selves in there, to have true solitude. Most expected to be afraid, but it was not frightening. It was almost always positive. The only complaints were about physical discomfort - it was too humid, or whatever."

Applications

"Afloat in a Solitary Sea Of Epsom Salts"

Texas Edition December 20, 1981

For Jay Alverson, a 34-year-old Denver policeman, floating is a way to cope with a stressful job. "It gives me a positive outlook," he says. Pamela Knight, a 31-year-old training consultant from Austin, Texas, finds that floating helps her "think clearly" and solve problems. William Pryor, 40, a Deland, Fla., psychologist, says he likes the sensation of being in the tank. "I enjoy letting my body melt away from my mind," he says.

JCL & J Shurley

"Tanking"

Omni August 1980

Shurley believes the greatest benefits of isolation will come from systematic use of the tank as an educational and therapeutic tool. "Most of our institutionalized learning," he asserts,"has to do with symbols. But there is also experiential learning- of a different order, but very important in its own right. One of the things we can learn about only through experience is our own self. Being alone with ourselves is part of that process." Shurley, like Lilly, has lost count of his own tank sessions; he thinks that resistance to tanking will crumble as more people try it. "Most people who are creative," he declares,"enjoy it very much. People who feel they have to count things and be in control are uncomfortable at first. If they ride out that initial discomfort, they usually like the tank, too. Just about the only persons who never get to like it are claustrophobics or those who don't like any isolation situation that might make them acquainted with their own fantasy life.

"Isolation tank: it's 'permission to let go'"

Independent Journal September 7, 1981

"I think that in our culture we need a socially acceptable place where we don't have to answer the telephone or answer questions from our children or argue anything with anybody," says behavioral scientist John Lilly. "When you get into this box of water, that's it. For an hour or two hours or whatever, you can escape all of the demands and pressures and transactions that are usually required of you. In a sense, the tank is an official permission to just let go." Consider gravity. That ubiquitous force is always tugging at us, trying to throw us to the ground, pull our blood to our feet and bow our heads. "One of your major jobs all day is just holding your head up. Computing gravity and how to foil gravity is where most of your energy is going during the day," Lilly said. "Gravity is the major force that wears you down. But in the tank, that job is gone. You are floating horizontally, even your head floats. "All muscles that have been working to hold you up against gravity can now let go." The result, he said, is rest and relaxation more profound than most people ever experience - "a surcease from total activity."

"Samadhi"

Oui January, 1980

He found himself an enclosed tank, filled it with warm water, rigged up a breathing device and jumped in. "I moved into universes containing beings much larger than myself, so that I was a mote in their sunbeam, a small ant in their universe, a single thought in a huge mind, or a small programme in a cosmic computer. The first time I entered these spaces, I was swept, pushed, carried and whirled, and in general beat around by processes which I could not understand, processes of immense energy, of fantastic light, and of terrifying power..." "Spending time in there seems to reduce aggression and violent feelings. It lowers the blood pressure and relaxes people with heart conditions. I can see a time when offices have tanks that people can slide into for an hour or so for deep relaxation. Think what good tanks could do in places like Tokyo and New York, where there is so much overcrowding that the rat mentality is taking over. It's a true nourishment for the soul."

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