This morning, me and Edith Vaillancourt, we had a wonderful experience at Iso Spa flotation center in Ottawa.
I floated away into nothingness in their flotation tank. I think this is the first time i experienced sensory deprivation since i got out of my mother’s womb. Total darkness. Total silence. Bodily sensations disappeared as i floated away into nirvana.
Well, the nirvana did not last too long… After a few minutes of bliss, the calmness went away. You know, i am not the “sit still quietly for a long time” kind of guy. In the tank, the silence was so pure that, for the first time in my life, i heard my eyelids click. I could not believe it. Open, close, clic, clic, clic, clic, clic. Open or closed eyes, the darkness is so pure that my brain does not register anything. Now comes a state of sensory hypersensitivity. The little drop of sweat that formed on my cheek suddenly tickles and i get an irrisistible urge to scratch. My body wants to move and it is sending me messages of discomfort. I stick to the plan: stay an hour in the tank.
How much time have i been in? I have no idea. Maybe 10 minutes. Time dilates so much in these states of mind that it is difficult to assess the passage of time.
Eventually, i forget about the physical discomforts and minor itches. My minds start to fly. I lose myself in stories and thoughts. A part of me is just aware that this is just my mind trying to make sense of this experience. After my body, it is my mind that goes crazy. Don’t control anything, just be aware and let go. Just let go.
Eventually, mind and body have calmed down and i get this simple idea that sticks: there are no altered states of counsciousness, there is no special trick, there is nothing. Stop searching, stop running after my own tail and just enjoy this moment: there is just now and everything is fine.
I will definitely go back…
Original post Facebook, May 2017
Martin Pham Dinh 