For an hour, I died! NO
light. NO sound. Only the beating of your heart and each
breath that you take is all that you hear.
Well and something else…. I
didn’t know what to expect. My friend
and beautician extraordinaire, Shannon told me it would be an experience that I
would not forget.
I decided after a phone call with the lady at www.therapods.com
in Fayetteville that it was something that I wanted to try. I thought it would be interesting to take my
son, who is 10 years old. We both have
sensory issues and the thought of complete sensory deprivation was very
intriguing to me.
I picked Donnie up from school and headed to
Fayetteville. A little nervous but
excited. I think my biggest concern was
having to get my hair wet. LOL. And
leaving looking like a drowned rat. But
I had a hair appointment just after so I relaxed into that though and would
rush right out to meet Shannon.
We parked in front and walked in. Greeted by a very friendly lady who had so
kindly spent almost thirty minutes on the phone with me the week before
answering all my questions. I tend to
way overthink things. I was concerned.
How can you float in a tank for an hour or two and possibly fall asleep
and not drown? Was I putting my son at
risk? Could he drown? How could I relax worried about him? But she assured me that because of the dense
content of the magnesium salts and the shallowness of the tank that no one has
ever drown in the history of float tanks except for one person that shot up
with ketamine (think Michael Jackson and horse tranquilizer) and these have
been around many years. Funny how I have
never heard of them.
The smell of essential oils, mostly lavender immediately saturated
my senses as we sat down. We were
greeted and given a tour, a bottle of water and some paperwork to fill out.
My son was enamored with the digital virtual fish tank. He was giddy with excitement.
We were shown the chamber and my son was quite curious about
the filters and machines that fed the tank.
Our host gladly showed him everything he wanted to see.
When it was time I entered the soothing spa like room. A large shower with stone tile welcomed
me. It was warm and soothing. It is required to take a five minute shower
with shampoo and body scrub before entering the tank. I stepped in and turned on the water and
waited for it to warm up. She had told me not to get it too hot, which I love
hot showers, so that when I got in the tank it would not feel cold. The tank is body temperature 98.6 so you have
no sensory difference between the water and your body.
I finished the shower and stepped into the tank. The magnesium salts stung the razor streaks
on my lower leg. That dissipated within
a few minutes. I sat down slowly and
then laid back. Shannon had told me it
takes a while to really relax. I
anticipated that and just closed my eyes.
I chose to put earplugs in to keep the water out my ears. It was completely black. NO light.
Not even like at night when you are in bed and your eyes acclimate after
a few minutes and you can see in the room.
Nope. Pitch black. Nothing!
I felt the heaviness of my head.
I think I read somewhere that the human head weighs about 15
pounds. I could every ounce. Of course my hair is quite thick, so mine
probably weighs about 50. I could feel
the strain on my neck as I tried to let my head relax. Would my whole head go under? Would the water come into my face or nose?
I finally was able to let go and see how far it would sink
into the briny bath. It stopped just at
my ears and I was able to completely let go.
I knew that I wouldn’t drown in that moment. I felt so curious that I the temperature of
the water with my body temperature kept me from even feeling the water. I let go of my racing my mind. Not an easy thing. The thoughts came and went. I started to hear what nothing sounds
like. I don’t think I have ever heard
nothing and then I noticed that I could hear every beat of my heart. Every beat!
And every breath. In and
out. I was in suspended animation. Nothing.
Just nothing. Oh how I embraced
that feeling of nothing. With all my busy life and all the noise. Being on the autistic spectrum. So very hypersensitive to every vibration. Even the electricity hum in the walls can be
screaming at me sometimes. Everyone in
my life needs something from me. I am a
constant well of giving and pleasing. In
that moment all that was, was me. My
breath, my pulse. All that
mattered. All my fears got quiet. All my anxiety dissolved like toxins in the
water all around me. I was essentially
in the womb?
And then after a while, wondering if I would fall asleep I
drifted into a trance like state and heard music. I was a little annoyed. Were they playing music in the hallway? How insensitive I thought. I paid good money for this experience. How inconsiderate and my anxiety rose. The music was like beats. It was inaudible almost. The rhythm erratic and incomprehensible
almost. I tried to make out the melody
but it escaped me just as I would start to mesh with it. I relaxed around it finally and felt
strangely at ease with it.
Shannon asked me at my hair appointment a few hours
later. “Did you hear it?”
I sat in the fumes of hair bleach and stretched scalp in
foil and asked, “Hear what?”
“The music.” She
smiled from behind me her reflection in the mirror.
“What music?” And
then it hit me what I had experienced and thought it was some inconsiderate
person playing music outside the chamber, even though I knew the whole spa was
completely quiet and no one but the owner there, who would never be
inconsiderate with loud music that could be heard in the chamber. Maybe a next door business I thought. “Yes!”
I told her. “ I heard it. Very annoying, but then I just relaxed into
it.”
“That’s your body biorhythm.” She grinned bigger. “Too cool, huh?”
And then it hit me.
The sound was like no other. I
heard every breath every heartbeat and then those rhythmic sounds, unlike any I
had ever heard. I realized I had never
been quiet enough in my whole life to hear this phenomenon. I was amazed and it made total sense.
Shannon told me that our DNA has a rhythm. It is unique to only you and scientists have
actually mapped this. There is an online
group (http://www.yourdnasong.com/) that
will map your DNA and put an audible music to the beats. Your own bio-song. There are even reports of dysrhythmic
biorhythms that have been identified and when the music is created they fill in
the missing beats and have cured illness and even seizure disorders by
listening to the corrected version of your bio-song.
I heard my unique bio-rhythm. How cool is that? This will totally change my experience going
back. I will listen for it in awe now.
I noticed as I suspended my life in that chamber that as I
almost drifted to sleep I would jerk.
Restless leg? I treat restless
leg in my patients with iron supplementation.
I immediately got my iron checked the next day and it was low. I had no
idea I had some restless leg. I guess in
the regular bed as you fall asleep you don’t really notice a few jerks.
I could feel the electricity as my nerves short-circuited
and caused the spasms in the jerks. I
might have otherwise fallen asleep.
Next time I go back, I will have my iron levels up and
excitedly anticipate the bio-music.
After an hour the slow dim lights came on. I was worried that I could not relax for a
whole hour. Meditation has always been
so overwhelming to me. How could I just
turn off the noise? Turn off the world. For a whole hour! Now I know that I can. It was an amazing experience. I’m going back very soon.
I have been reading a book about a neurosurgeon that was in
a coma for a week and had a near death experience. My friend Pat gave it to me and told me it
would change my life.
His experience was that the space beyond the physical is
loving and nurturing without the urgency of this physical time space
continuum. I realized that I had almost
touched that. Much like the deprivation
chamber. NO fears. NO anxiety.
NO concerns.
Connecting with our higher self. A self that only knows love. Only knows peace. No pain, no fear. We should all take that time to connect with
that peace. Tell em’ Dr. T sent ya. ;-)
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