This Tribe is dedicated to the flow experience through floating and the floatation tank, a "tool" designed to create a condition which is ideal for the relaxation and rejuvenation of the body/mind.

Flow is a state of deep enjoyment, complete absorption and total concentration theorized by pioneering social scientist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and illuminated in his best-selling "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" (Harper Perennial 1990), a book cascading with liberating insight on how to derive real happiness moment-by-moment and taste the true richness of living.

Floating is a very positive experience for the body and mind. It is a way to achieve total relaxation, heighten all the senses, and experience relief from aches and pains. While floating, the body is free from the usual forces of gravity. Users float weightless on their backs atop a ten-inch-deep pool of skin temperature (93.5F) water inside a dark, enclosed chamber that is a little larger around than a twin sized bed and chest high. Eight hundred pounds of Epsom salts are used because it raises the density of the water, making it easy to float, and because it has a silky feel which is very good for the skin. The complete comfort of the iso-thermal supportive bath in the dark and in silence affords a complete physical - mental - spiritual resting place. By shielding the body and mind from external "environmental" stimulation, the tank reduces its workload by up to 90%, conserving vast amounts of energy, which is then redirected inwards. The effect is called the parasympathetic response, or Relaxation Response.

Floatation is a creative space, a private sea where you can slow down time enough to reflect deeply on yourself (to mirror). The tank allows users to set goals, examine belief systems, envision personal success, examine the cause and effect relationships in all areas of our lives, take inventory of all the relationships in our lives -the connection between our mind, body, and spirit; between our actions and our goals; between our surroundings and ourselves. Between our thoughts, words, actions and emotions. Floating also allows us to increase the power of our ideas.

The float tank originated from American government research into the physical origins of consciousness - the links between mind and body. In 1954, while working at the National Institutes of Health on isolation, solitude and confinement, Dr. John Lilly MD - a top government neuroscientist - invented the floatation tank to maximally isolate sensory stimulation to "better understand what the mind does without exterior influence. This, he discovered, gave people access to a range of "higher" brain functions. His ideas became the basis of floatation REST, a scientific approach to deep relaxation called Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique.

Benefits of floating may include reduced blood pressure, improved sleep patterns, sharper concentration, heightened creativity and total relaxation. Research shows that the effects of a two-hour float session are equivalent to a full night of deep sleep, making it one of the most efficient and effective natural relaxation techniques available. In fact, within a few minutes a floating one can reach a depth of relaxation which takes many years to achieve by classical meditation techniques.

Floating has many different applications. It is used by competitive athletes (for visualizing their inner game or for recovering from an injury), by musicians, artists, students, and business people (for enhancing creativity and retaining details), in conjunction with therapies (like massage or hypnotherapy), for stress relief, for pain relief (from arthritis, back pain, or muscle pain), for meditation, for relaxation, even for sleeping.

Floating has been explored by many individuals at the leading-edge of our culture ... Nobel physicists Richard Feynman, Robert Milliken ... philosophers Buckminster Fuller, Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts ... psychotherapy pioneers R.D. Laing, Fritz Perls ... spiritual teachers Oscar Ichazo, Ram Das, E.J. Gold ... holistic health guru Dr. Andrew Weil ... creative artists John Lennon, Robin Williams, Peter Gabriel, Jeff Bridges, Kirk Douglas, William Hurt, Neil Young, Robin Williams, George Carlin, Susan Sarandon, Kris Kristofferson, Burgess Meredith ... athletes such as the Dallas Cowboys, Carl Lewis, the US and Australian 2000 Olympic team, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Phillies ... and a host of other luminaries and celebrities from all walks of life.

We invite you to share your experiences and insights as they relate to this topic.

http://flowtation.tribe.net