Float Away Anxiety - Excerpt 7

We know floating as Sensory Deprivation, the removal of sensory stimuli, but actually it is the opposite: Sensory Enhancement, the amplification of sensory stimuli.

What actually happens in the float tank?  If we take a shower, we will not have this effect 20 hours later. Why is this long-term effect there after a float experience?

Feinstein asked himself the question which input our brain still receives during the float session. Is there anything reinforced when we take away all external stimuli? And this led him to the most important property of floating: Interoception.

Floating allows the brain to feel the internal world of the body. This signal, which is always hidden, is amplified during floating. That is why he says floating is not called Sensory Deprivation but Sensory Enhancement, but of the inner world.

The diagram shows where the floaters felt their heartbeat. Before the float and after the float. It looks like a hurricane around our heart! People feel their heartbeat everywhere, they even hear it in their ears and in parts of their head. Breathing and the abdomen are also perceived more but the heartbeat appears to be an essential part of the float experience.

To be clear: nothing was indicated to the test subjects beforehand. Everything was elicited and discovered naturally during the tests.

This is the 7th excerpt of 18 out of Dr Justin Feinstein's talk at Float Conference 2018, Float Away Anxiety. Research results can be found at:

https://www.clinicalfloatation.com/