South America and South Africa

Today I did something I read about 20ish years ago when it was rumored that loony Michael Jackson bought a saltwater tank in which he lies completely sheltered from sounds and light. (I know, it is silly to waste precious brain capacity with saving such useless no-no-information.)  It sounded to me and I guess it was intended that finding your refuge in such a tank is a coffin-like-experience and people doing that are not very, ahhm, trustworthy.

Just a few words to the concept: a water tank about twice the size of a person is floated with water about one foot deep. An enormous amount of salt is diluted so that the solution has a salt-concentration similar to the Dead Sea and is fully saturated. Any additonal salt wouldn’t be absorbed by the water but would sink to the bottom of that tank. Bacteria and viruses are killed by the salt and also an UV treatment so that the level of disgust is kept accetably low. However, the result is that the person in the tank is completely buoyant and doesn’t feel any force of gravity. And since there are also no sounds and, if someone wishes so, no light it feels like floating in the big nothingness.

I had to take a shower, wash my hair (something I just did 30 minutes earlier but as the facilities were well maintained and very clean I complied with the procedure) and then had to go into the water just wearing my birthday suit. (Even swim-gear would provide too much buoyancy so that  the free-float experience would be disturbed.) The body-warm water actually felt somewhat slippery, almost slimy, like over-concentrated dishsoap. Well, I managed to lay down without doing the slapstick thing I used to do and then did what I can do best, namely nothing. I relaxed my muscles, floated, controled my breathing and tried to control my impatience. After about 5/6 of the time in my legs and lower back tensions loosened I didn’t even know that they existed (the tensions not the legs and back). Music set in when the hour had passed and it was time to re-enter the world. I am sure I had a big smile on my face when I was floating to pay the 30 bucks for the 60 minutes, at least it felt so. (http://www.floatutila.com)

There are similar tanks in London, Manhattan and many other cities and it is highly recommended to try it out if you have the opportunity as long as the price is still reasonable (USD 30 was actually a special price, normally they ask for USD 55).

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,447811,00.html