Testimonies from the internet

My very first float experience was around 1984 when a psychology professor told our class about float tanks. I was intrigued, and knowing very little about it found a float center in Sarasota, Florida and decided to check it out. Probably the first 45 minutes I spent "trying" to relax and get rid of "unwanted thoughts!" Then the most spectacular thing happened... no mind. I felt as if I was floating out in the middle of the universe. That I was nothing, yet connected to everything. I felt a sense of peace that I have never felt before or since then, as if I knew why I was here. ~When the music came on I truly didn't want to get out. The first thought I had upon stepping out of the tank was, "everyone needs to experience this..." and, "someday I want to run a float center to help people achieve that sense of peace!" Well, it took almost 20 years for me to come back to this place, but I'm so very thankful that the universe listened to my request. Hope all of you out there in float land are enjoying the journey! Thank you for floattalk! Peace, Collette Weber

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This is Ruth in Missouri. I've only gotten to float once. I wish I had more experience to draw upon, but this would have to count as my most memorable float. I cautioned myself for days before "not to expect too much". From reading all the literature on the subject that I could get my hands on, both online and off, it was a very real possibility that it could take multiple times before the sort of experience I imagined and hoped for might take place, and there was no guarantee that it ever would. When I was a small child, I "floated" in our huge old claw-footed tub as often as I could for as long as Mom would tolerate me being in there. Laying back, letting the sound be filtered out by the warm water, lights off, was the best use of bath time I could come up with before the age of 10. Later, when I got too tall for the tub, I'd float as best I could in swimming pools. Looking back, I wonder now how I shut out the noise, lol-- but the way it felt, alone at the far end of the pool, was that time suspended and I was in my own world under sharp blue Carolina skies with the Blue Ridge mountains on the horizon. By no means were these small glimpses at floating anything like a tank experience, but they did whet my appetite for the possibilities when I ran across the concept years later. Even so, I did not want to set myself up to be disappointed by unfair expectations. When I got to the tank, I tried to let go of thought, tried to set aside expectation. The first part of it, I was trying to get used to the physical feeling of being in the water, the sounds and so on; trying to remember not to touch my eyes with salt water on my hands; trying to forget anything but the "moment of now". The next segment that I am aware of was the "Oh, I'm relaxing. Oops. I'm thinking about the experience instead of having it, let go." Letting go, and then do the same thing again. Lather, rinse, repeat, lol. After some time, no idea how long, I actually began to let go in my mind and entered a sort of dream state. Its sounds way over the top, and I doubt I would be sharing this at work, but you asked :) Images came up, clear and sharp, that were of incredible vistas. I felt like I was hovering over fantastic places and could go anywhere. I had conversations with a number of persons, real and somewhat imaginary -- like my Dad, who had passed away a couple of years before--- saw marvelous things and felt as if I had accessed some part of me that I had never been able to get to before with such ease. When I came out of the tank, the feeling of peace and well being that filled me was priceless. It was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had. I am well aware that it might never be the same again, but I can't wait to try.