Watch People Try Sensory Deprivation Tanks

Consider yourself warned: when you watch these people try sensory deprivation tanks, you're going to go look up Groupon offers in your local city (not that that's precisely what I did after I saw it). There are many ways to relax, unwind, and find your inner zen, many of which having originated in the East are becoming more popular in the West (think: yoga, incense, and so on). By all accounts, this is a pretty wonderful thing. What it means is that we're starting to recognize that we're more than just robotic bodies maneuvering through some rando time-space continuum. We have hearts and souls and our emotional health is truly just as important as anything else.

But could you imagine losing the sensation of your body for a bit? Or, more specifically, for a few hours? The experience of a sensory deprivation tank serves to essentially make you lose sensation of your body. "You're a brain in a jar" as one woman described it in the video. You lay in water that is the exact degree as your body temperature, so you don't feel it. The water is also extraordinarily concentrated in Epsom salt, so you effortlessly float at the top (the salts also detox your body while you're laying there). Essentially, your thoughts and feelings are the only things you're really conscious of, and because you can't control or distract yourself with anything else, you have to face them, or more commonly, just let them go.

If it sounds terrifying, that's because it sorta is! But as the instructor in the video explained, the objective of life in general is to be able to let go of the thoughts and feelings that don't serve us, and this is just another innovative way to train ourselves to do so. As you'll see, the participants were wary at first, but after their experience, they were completely zen'ed out, not to mention a little wobbly! See for yourself:

There are many health benefits to trying a sensory depravation tank.

Though the fact that it is just *ridiculously cool* is enough reason for me.

The participants had some initial concerns:

... And understandably so. I mean, after being told you're "going to a place within yourself that you've never been" for a casual few hours of floating alone in salt water, it's a little intimidating!

Ultimately, everyone was pretty wobbly (and pretty amazed).

The participants came out and had to regain their balance (ha!) but ultimately, they had nothing but positive words: they said that it was freeing, and like nothing you've ever experienced before. Though their exits from the rooms are pretty funny (and a little drunk-looking), it only makes it that much more enticing.

Check out the whole video here!

Images: YouTube