› Forums › Discussions and Practice Journals › Sensory deprivation tanks
This topic contains 17 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by villum 1 year, 8 months ago.
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February 18, 2013 at 3:10 pm #1249
Does anyone here have experience with sensory deprivation tanks?
February 18, 2013 at 3:40 pm #1250I’ve done it. It’s nice, and different, but I don’t think it really adds anything for me personally. It’s just not that far removed from lying down with earplugs and an eyemask.
February 18, 2013 at 4:16 pm #1251Oh hmm. Did you do it a lot?
I became interested when I heard a description of it that sounded like what the advanced stages of this practice do – 3rd gear. I heard while in the tank, with experience, one masters the ability to let go, letting go from the act of letting go, ext ext.
February 18, 2013 at 4:54 pm #1253Then there’s this: Altered States
I’m sure that your experience would be COMPLETELY different. No worries at all.
February 18, 2013 at 5:01 pm #1255I don’t understand how taking away visual and auditory sensation can make you let go any more than your regular meditation, when letting go has little to do with just removing visual or auditory ‘stuff.’ You still have all your ‘trying’ and ‘doing’ and mental chatter, mind states etc…
So then, what about the sensory deprivation tank would allow for complete letting go?
February 18, 2013 at 5:29 pm #1259The idea was that when the brain is not attending to these sensory inputs, it does other stuff. Supposedly your sensory experience becomes indistinguishable, it ostensibly disappears. You reach a state where you just are, and unusual stuff happens, like psychedelic experiences. Whatever significance that has
February 18, 2013 at 5:30 pm #1260Uh thanks Andy
February 18, 2013 at 5:31 pm #1261Its also tactile sensations, lying in a body of water warmed to the same temp. as ones body eliminates the distinction between outside and inside?
February 18, 2013 at 5:48 pm #1263Actually Andy please explain what you suggest by that post of yours. I just do not get it.
February 18, 2013 at 6:13 pm #1264I think Andy was joking
February 18, 2013 at 9:00 pm #1266I have not used a tank, though I’ve had many altered states and some psychedelic experiences (a few via drug use, many more via trance or meditation practice). There’s not anything wrong with playing around with mental states (jhanas are a sort of deep trance state, for that matter). But insight into the nature of reality comes from practicing insight, from investigating what’s going on in the mind right now, not from having nifty experiences.
One can do all sorts of tricks to play around with consciousness, but the thing one is trying to get at (assuming one wants to wake up) is to see clearly what exactly is happening right now. Whether that “right now” happens to be floating in a tank, washing dishes, writing a report, cleaning the car, walking the dog, whatever.
Life before awakening, life after awakening, life during the seeking process – at any time, life is what’s going on right now. That’s your whole life: this moment right now. That’s it. The discomfort with that is wishing for it to be different. The process of insight is about taking apart that discomfort and wishing, so that one comes to see what’s really going on here and now rather than being entangled in all that wishing and resistance.
Having exciting (or unpleasant) states of consciousness is, ultimately, rather irrelevant. can be entertaining or scary, but doesn’t really make a difference. If you apply insight/investigation to it, then that is beneficial. But you can get the same benefit applying insight/investigation to your sensory experiences in normal consciousness all day long and it’s just as effective and less complicated, cheaper, and more practical. Potentially more effective, too, because you don’t build up a concept around altered states having special meaning, which is just another thing you have to let go of.
February 18, 2013 at 9:23 pm #1268I’ve been hearing about these tanks recently, too. Haven’t tried one. I wondered if they might not be another means of inducing A+P, since people compare them to psychedelic experiences.
Even if they do not lead to insight, let’s not forget what a revelation simple relaxation can be for people. Stress management is a huge cultural blindspot and major social problem. Anything that helps with that is good for everybody.
I’m guessing that reducing sensory input bears some (limited) relevance to the cycle of dependent co-arising, so the claims of spiritual experiences might not be totally fatuous.
Also, on the one hand we have serious people taking seriously the notion of scientific induction of awakening. On the other hand a lot of suspicion toward a spirit of experimentation with credible reports. (The tanks were invented by biologist John Lilly.) It’s curious.
February 18, 2013 at 11:54 pm #1270They’re said to induce no self experiences too
February 19, 2013 at 9:07 am #1276The relaxation thing is probably quite relevant. There does seem to be a link between bodily tensions and attachment/resistance. Perhaps why various bodily practices that induce deep relaxation and make one attentive to (and teach one to release) physical tension – like yoga, tai chi, qi gong, etc. – can be supportive for “spiritual development.” If you’ve ever gotten a therapeutic massage, you may have noticed that the release of muscle tension can result in crying, for instance.
I suppose the caveat would be that if one does various things that may trigger A&P/”no-self” type experiences, what that’s going to do is set off that lovely A&P/dark night pattern that many people get into and stay in for many years, until they develop a good insight practice, inquiry practice, surrender practice (depending on their tradition) to work through it effectively instead of just continually grasping at the openings and resisting the contractions.
February 19, 2013 at 9:49 am #1278Limbic, when you say “one masters the ability to let go,” it sounds like people are using the tanks for some kind of sustained practice? If the tanks and the subculture around them favor a particular meditation approach, I think ultimately the outcome would resemble whatever outcome that meditation leads to.
There’s a traditional instruction to find a place in the forest to meditate. While it’s very cool that a lot of us can modify the practice to work in household environments, it might be nice to modify the environment to benefit concentration, with a tank for example. I use white noise and ear plugs.
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