The Beast – My Encounter
Note: This article is my personal experience after creating a mini-sensory deprivation chamber in my bathtub. This was written the day after I encountered the beast. For more information on the elements of a sensory deprivation chamber, see this article, specifically parts one, four and five.
I am have been trying to replicate the sensory deprivation chamber in my bathtub. It does seem like a surprisingly large number of variables are possible to replicate. Specifically:
- Water (hug sensation)
- Temperature – (still need to work on this. Specifically a heater that will keep the temperature at 95 degrees – most heater thermostats don’t go this high. Perhaps I can find a timer that goes on during based on temperature and then find a manual heater)
- Pressure- the parts in the water do have some lessening of pressure
- Gravity- the parts in the water do have less gravity
- Muscle Tension- The muscles can let go
- Smell/Taste
- Darkness
- Hearing- Can put in the Macks earplugs – I wonder if there are stronger ones.
Currently, the difficulties with the bath approach include:
- Lack of effective temperature regulation, monitoring and stabilization
- The bent over feeling, plus the back being against the hard bathtub, leave one feeling sore right afterwards and the next day
- Earplugs don’t seem to block out all noise and underwater noise
It would seem that there is still plenty of work to go, but the Lilly Pod seems like an amazing start.
Last night I decided to float in my bathtub at about 1am. I started off and both the bath water and air seemed too hot. I turned off the air heater and lowered the bath temperature. At one point it felt about right.
I was definitely in the zone. It was definitely a bit uncomfortable, the bath is a little small for floating, but that’s okay. After a while I my eyes closed. I could feel my mind churning away in a daydream like flow of peaceful and blissful thought. Time disappeared. There was no beginning and no end, just peace.
Then Suddenly…!
I felt something. It was fast and sudden. I was startled and began to flail. My body was shaking and convulsing inwards, towards the fetal position. My hands, forearms and elbows were rattling back and forth. I was prey and the predator was coming for me.
I opened my eyes and there was a large scary creature hovering over me. The creature was grabbing me. It was terrifying and it was all happening so quickly.
The creature came into focus in the super dim red light. (The room had been dark. The creature had turned on the ganzfeld effect light I had created.) The creature/demon had long hair and looked familiar. It was grabbing me and its face and a curved feminine shape. The creature was looking less scary and very familiar. It was my wife!
(The Misses told me later that she had come into the bathroom and I had been snoring. She light tapped me then I jumped up, made a deep, primal, guttural, growl and grabbed her arm.)
I stopped shaking and slowly calmed down. We chatted. I couldn’t regain the train of thought, but I had the distinct feeling that I had previously been awake and that a meaningful flow state of thought had been taking place. I yearned deeply to return to that dreamy, rich, pleasant, meaningful, enjoyable frame of mind, but I couldn’t. I got up. It was 4am. I felt good and relaxed (and shaken) and I went to bed.
