October 15, 2014
October 9, 2014
A Battlestar Galactica float to start the day.
Slept in today and woke up at 2:30pm. I did a brief bit of work and then headed to Float House to meet up with Mark and Hannah for their first floats. I ended up listening to Bear McCreary's Battlestar Galactica solo piano mix again and by the third song I had relaxed enough for closed eye visuals to occur.
There were waves of white lights that had a distinct impression of Cylons ascending into Heaven while wisps of quick red strings of light shot downward and felt like humanity descending into hell. This float was rife with emotional undertones that flowed along with the music.
As it progressed I noticed a large crack of light leaking in the back of the tank and had to compensate. I kept my left eye closed and positioned myself in the tank so that it would not impeded my visuals too much. After this distraction the music got more uplifting in nature and I felt revitalized and was uplifted into a state of cleared void space. There was a brief pause between tracks and during this silence I became aware of the cooler temperature of the water. I did a minor stretch and submerged my feet under the waterline and right as the next song began I was bombarded by visual clutter filling up my void space.
I used the flame and the void technique and was able to clear it out by the first chorus of the song and felt a strong sensation of my body going numb and limp. There was a moment where I couldn't feel my breath or heart beat and with the next note of the piano I reemerged into a full awareness of my time and place within the tank. I opened my eyes and then found and measured the light leak to inform the guys about it. Did a couple more stretches to ease my muscles and got out to have a wonderfully soothing shower. Overall a good and insight float.
There were waves of white lights that had a distinct impression of Cylons ascending into Heaven while wisps of quick red strings of light shot downward and felt like humanity descending into hell. This float was rife with emotional undertones that flowed along with the music.
As it progressed I noticed a large crack of light leaking in the back of the tank and had to compensate. I kept my left eye closed and positioned myself in the tank so that it would not impeded my visuals too much. After this distraction the music got more uplifting in nature and I felt revitalized and was uplifted into a state of cleared void space. There was a brief pause between tracks and during this silence I became aware of the cooler temperature of the water. I did a minor stretch and submerged my feet under the waterline and right as the next song began I was bombarded by visual clutter filling up my void space.
I used the flame and the void technique and was able to clear it out by the first chorus of the song and felt a strong sensation of my body going numb and limp. There was a moment where I couldn't feel my breath or heart beat and with the next note of the piano I reemerged into a full awareness of my time and place within the tank. I opened my eyes and then found and measured the light leak to inform the guys about it. Did a couple more stretches to ease my muscles and got out to have a wonderfully soothing shower. Overall a good and insight float.
October 8, 2014
A little Gojira to wrap up the night.
Tonight, I listened to Gojira's album From Mars to Sirius in the tank.
It was an interesting experience indeed. I was able to settle myself down cognitively and still myself physically by the end of the first song. I didn't need to implement the use of my mantra due to heaviness of the music and by focusing my attention on the lyrics. If my mind wandered, I would simply lock into the music again and kept my attention on the words. It was honestly the first time I paid full attention to the words of the songs after hearing this album countless times in the last few months since I was first introduced to it. I focused on slowing my rate of breath down and by the time Unicorn came on I was able to slip easily into my visual space and my breathing became involuntary.
Instead of my typical starscape my whole visual field was covered in red glowing embers. As my eyes shifted across them they would move and were molding themselves into various forms and would transition back into an expanse of coals. This did last for quite a while and I was really surprised at how clear my mind was. I was absorbed by the music and at some points I even felt it surrounding my whole body and I my fingers, arms, and feet would twitch along with the tempo. Near the end of the album I had faded further into the void and when the song From Mars came on I was ecstatic with a full immersion into the words. This verse particularly seemed to be imprinted upon me and I found myself repeating it while I was showering.
Took off from the red place
In the sky I fly
I have lost my reason
And I've made my sense
From up there I will see
Where I'm From
And where the force of love
Will tell me now to go.
When the music had ended I was really hesitant to get out but I knew Nick was waiting on me to wake him. Got out with the drums and riffs of the album repeating in my head and humming them as I reflected on the float.
May 11, 2014
24 Hour Day - Lemmy Rock Out, The Beatles Float, & a John. C. Lilly Reading.
TL;DR I've been up
for over 24 hours now and feel like Motorhead's Rock Out after an amazing audio float at Float House listening to The Beatles and then emerging out and listening to Graham Talley from Float On promoting the
re-release of Dr. John C. Lilly's cult classic Programming and Metaprogramming
in the Human Biocomputer, which goes on sale May 15th through Amazon.
I had a great night
at work with Brad. Hypnotoad ended the shift perfectly. Went home, Lou was up
so we watched the documentary Lemmy. If you haven't seen it, watch it. At 5am I
laid down in bed and was listening to The Beatles Anthology 3 Disc 1. While Mean
Mr. Mustard was saving paper, I realized that I had to be up in 3 hours. The
decision was instant. I got out of bed and went into my office, lit a smoke,
and cracked a Red Bull and created myself an hour and 35 minute long The
Beatles floatlist consisting of Revolver and Abby Road, plus three of my
favorite songs from their Anthology; Dig A Pony, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, and
Black Bird. I then converted it, while waiting I sorted about 536 HD landscapes
for use at work and smoked more cigarettes. Once it was done, I left for Float
House, arriving at 7:35ish. I was greeted with smiles and hugs and my Friday
night after party started as I headed into the tank.
I took a wallop of
my tincture with some delicious Easter Bunny chunks, had myself a refreshing
shower. I gave the guys the signal and they started the music. I got into the
tank and positioned myself close the speaker. Revolver began and I realized I
had to readjust the speaker to that it was more centre and I could position
myself with my head within the clearest and loudest audio zone.
With the first notes
of I'm Only Sleeping I was able to slip right into the void along with the
music and it was a warm soothing embrace with the tank at a temperature 97.3F.
My mind wandered slightly and I realized that I had not crossed my feet to allow
my toes to be fully submerged under the water (toes can becomes hypersensitive
to the slightest temperature change and create the sensation of being in a
'cold' tub, similar to when you would normally use your feet to turn on the hot
water for a minute or two to warm up your bath). I found a comfortable position
with my right foot crossing onto my left and continued practicing my
breath work.
After that, the
sitar of Love You To kicked in and I opened my eyes and slowly the starscape
appeared. While refocusing my eyes, the stars shifted and randomized patterns
emerged. Within those patterns I ended
up applying the Flame and the Void technique,
while focusing on the progressing notes I picture a small candle burning
in the centre of my visual field and the randomized patterns surrounding it
took more definite shapes and I began my clearing process of feeding the
images, thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations into the Flame. I smiled.
The feeling was a lot stronger and more focused then when I was in bed earlier
listening to The Beatles Anthology and the idea for the float came to me.
The starscape then
reappeared behind the Flame and expanded rapidly. I focused strongly upon the
left side of my visual field and a bolt of some sporadic substance flew to the
right and I instinctively followed creating a wide array of trails that took on
immediate cellular shape. Single and multicellular organisms moved through the
viscous environment and competed for resources, attacked and absorbed each
other using predation as the selective pressure. This continued on in
population surges that flowed along with the music.
It was ended with Oh
Darling. I was brought back to awareness and started to notice that sweat was
collecting on my face, I sat up, opened the door and wiped my face off. I laid
back down and left the door open and lightly closed my eyes and drifted along
with music. As I felt the cooler air rush along the surface of my body and the
water I felt a refreshing clearing effect. With my eye lightly closed I could
see the colors change through my eye lids and I visualized walking through the
Octopus's Garden.
With Here Comes The
Sun I closed the door and laid down and my mind instantly went blank and I
rolled my eyes into the back of my head and the white lights from beneath came
on. When I looked forward again I had a flash of many sporadic images, one that
distinctly stood out was of a chest tattoo with a large tangled tree's branches
forming into the face of a wolf. I then shift the personality of the tattoo and
it became a wolverine within the branches. Repeating the Flame and the Void I
was able to clear my mind again and went into another warm embrace of the music
for remaining of Abbey Road.
When Dig a Pony came
on I awoke and without realizing it was stretching out my arms and legs, slowly
started to move my fingers into a fist and sat up. Got out of the tank to the
cycling shades of color and had a shower with Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Blackbird,
and The Ink Spots song I
Don't Want To Set The World On Fire.
I got out of room to
a transformed Float House. It was a great beginning to a new day, even if
somewhat post float foggy and semi tired.
The lounge had
become a book reading. Graham Talley of Float On
was there on tour promoting the re-release of Dr. John C. Lilly's cult classic
Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer which goes on sale May
15th through Amazon.
I took some time to
process my float, chat, and smoke a few cigarettes while writing my draft notes
for this post. Heard some great Lilly anecdotes and readings. I had that mental
state of being at school again, like on those days after an all nighter reading
the relevant literature and then absorbing the a fresh and experienced
viewpoint. Paying attention to Graham's
talk, but when that unknown nugget appeared my mind would wander with the
subject and comparing them to my own concepts. When this occurred I would look
to my left at the white sunlight gleam through the frosted glass on the door
beside me and the movement of the small leaves from the sapling outside were
quite soothing. I thoroughly enjoyed the talk and learned quite a bit.
When it ended I
hung around for a bit and then headed home and wrote this.
Audio floats have a
wonderful uplifting feature to them for me. Music is a trip, silence is a
journey. Today's float was very visual and I was happy with the amount of
control I had, but it lacked that lucid immerse that comes from my silent
floats. All in all, I need to call my mum now and tell her I love her.
April 19, 2014
Float 88 - Pink Floydscape
Stoned out
of my mind Pink Floyd float. Listened to Meddle and then Obscured by Clouds.
This float was truly one of a kind and had a deeply impactful meaning and
revitalization for me...
I believe
that I have perfected my ritual of entering the tank and preparing it's
environment to my personal taste. I had a pre-emptive shower and ran the pump
for 20 minutes or so with the heating pads cranked up, went and then smoked a
joint and had a smoke before getting into the tank. The temp was 97.5 and then
I left the door open for the first few minutes while I got in with my head by
the door and stared up at the shifting colors of the LED lights (which sub
sequentially caused my visuals during the float to be very color dynamic). I
then closed the door and switched positions to the back end with my head by the
speakers. I was able to quickly enter into the void and heavy visuals started.
The amount
of things that I saw were baffling. I used the flame and the void technique to
help clear my mindscape, but when certain images occurred I did focus solely
upon them. For example, multiple occasions I saw a distinct form of an aged old
patriarchal bonobo appear (my power animal?) and hold it's place amongst the
chaotic swirling images surrounding it with an extremely stern and forceful
presence. This then faded and another bout of evil faces within my lower right
field of view emerged. I then started to force movement of my eyes and applied
various levels of pressure on my optic nerve. Looking far upwards and rolling
my eyes into the back of my head caused massive amounts of white and blue
lights to fire upwards from below to beyond me. A handful of spasmodic twitches
then occurred and I closed and opened my eyes to reset.
When I
opened them again I was somewhere within a cellular world with monads evolving
and consuming each other, when I focused upon one individual cell it divided a
few times and then out of nowhere it became multicellular. During this period,
I started to notice that my toes were becoming cold and it induced a feeling of
a cooled down bathtub, I put my attention on my toes and all of a sudden it hit
me about the subject effect of temperature upon my consciousness during the
float. I moved around a bit and found that by crossing my legs/feet I was able
to fully submerge my toes under the water and officially found my new and
improved floating posture. While figuring this new posture out a drip of salty
condensation feel upon my right nostril and into my mustache and due to the
startling nature of it I took a big inhale (I breathe most often through my
nose in the tank) of salt water went into my nostril. I exhaled immediately but
was too late to stop a slight drip of it hitting the back of my throat. I
coughed and ended up having to get out of the tank and having a shower to clear
off my face and wash out my mouth. Oddly this occurred right at the end of
Meddle and as Obscured by Clouds began I was re-entering the tank.
I
practiced a bit of my breath work and played around with a few mantras while
losing myself in the music. My mind started to become clearer and clearer and
my internal conversations began. I debated about Nietzsche's Will to Power, me
thriving off being a devil's advocate, and that amazing discussion that I had
with Gregory the night before. There was an overwhelming emotional of
acceptance that has occurred and realizing what I can do with my own nature
when I want to. This then transitioned into a more defined argumentative
experience with my internal debate on the ever changing and growing nature of
Float House. Projecting a handful of possible futures I was delighted to test
the metaphysical verses that each small decision can have. Also, when I reflected
back to Buddhist ideal of having to polish and purify the mirror of the mind,
yet in truth the is no mirror, my mind instantly went black and there was a
strong sensation of me 'flying' through the intensity of space, in my new
floating captains chair position, with stars, nebulas and galaxies soaring by
me. They speed and rate of projection was tied directly now to the notes of
Pink Floyd. At one point, my attention was then drawn to the word 'Choice' and
in a flash of intense images I lived and died three times. Each time I was
faced down by the same Patriarchal Bonobo. No words were spoken but a deep
understanding was transferred. A sense of conflicting moralities was swept over
me, but with each conflict there was a surrendering to it, "without pain
and suffering we would have nothing".
The final
chanting of the album began and a strong wave of hilarious laughter consumed me
and I laughed deep and heartily as I exited the tank. Tom Waits "Old
Shoe" started playing while I was cleansing myself in the shower and I
sang loud and proud. The cycling of colors were also extremely pleasing and
added to the impression of my ever forming ritualization of my floats.
April 4, 2014
80th Float
This morning before work I had an amazing Float. It was like an extension of my float from last night but more Lucid in nature ending in maniacal laughter.
I made very good use of my mantra and breathe work allowed me to enter the void space quickly. Then used the flame and the void to clear my mind. Once in a lucid dream state I changed the color of the floor to a bright red. Then I instantly transported myself to St. Patricks and walked around the pews and up to the alter and set that mother a blaze. I watched the flames climb the walls and spread. I could feel the heat on my face and walked down the aisle to the front door and watched as the flames followed me across the pews and start climbing into the choir.
I exited the building and watched as it then changed to a full exterior burn and started laughing like a maniac. Could not stop the laughter and had to get out when salt water got into my eyes. Kept laughing during my shower. I was only in the tank for 35 minutes.
I made very good use of my mantra and breathe work allowed me to enter the void space quickly. Then used the flame and the void to clear my mind. Once in a lucid dream state I changed the color of the floor to a bright red. Then I instantly transported myself to St. Patricks and walked around the pews and up to the alter and set that mother a blaze. I watched the flames climb the walls and spread. I could feel the heat on my face and walked down the aisle to the front door and watched as the flames followed me across the pews and start climbing into the choir.
I exited the building and watched as it then changed to a full exterior burn and started laughing like a maniac. Could not stop the laughter and had to get out when salt water got into my eyes. Kept laughing during my shower. I was only in the tank for 35 minutes.
January 24, 2014
69th Float
This morning after
work I had an intensely short but sweet float. The Tank was so nice and warm
that I simply melted into the void. After a few rounds of my mental workout I
slipped into a state of bliss and joy and it felt like I was being covered in
silk. Not just like a silk blanket being put on top of me, but being molding
tightly over my whole body. I opened my eyes wide to check if it was real and I
was instantly privy to an amazing view of space filled by an expansion of white
stars and blue galaxies, all the while still maintaining that molded in silk
feeling. While gazing at this I started to hear soft chanting in the distance.
As I focused my attention on the sounds it became clear that is was exactly
like the Pink Floyd song AbsoluteCurtains.
That then dissipated
and my visuals shifted to more darker imagery. I had previously been looking at
pictures of the riotsin the Ukraine and I was placed above an old city, looking down upon a
scene of burning chaos. The area looked war torn, almost apocalyptic, the city
was spewing thick black plumes of smoke while swarms of people in gas masks ran
around tossing debris at each other. It was interesting to note that when I
reflected on my emotions at this point I was neither sad, or mad, or glad. The
best description I can make was that I felt very detached from the scene but
yet in awe at its surging power, both physical and social. This got me thinking
of a section from StephenBaxter's Weaver where a young woman describes her experiences during the
London Blitz.
I dwelled on this
for a bit and then shook it off and SUCCESSFULLY willed myself onto an asteroid
sailing alongside a massive red dwarf star. I could see multiple planets
orbiting in the vast distance and then started to laugh maniacally while
overcome with that sweet taste of accomplishment. After that my moustache began
itching my nose and I satisfied it with a good hearty scratch, which lead me
into another Jeff Goldbloom chaos theory
moment of awareness of the subtle movements of the drop of water along my skin
and coursing through the hairs of my beard.
I lol'd again and then did some basic
stretches, got out of the tank, and had a shower. I had only been in
tank for 45 minutes.
January 18, 2014
Audio Floating With Finntroll
I have come to realize that one of my favourite things about active floats within the tank is that I can immerse myself in an almost infinite amount of settings, both positive and negative. One oddity about me I've noticed is that I am always drawn to both ends of the spectrum.
A good example of this was a float I had before christmas where I listened to 25 minutes of my go to meditation music, insuring that I was in a deep state of Theta when I then had it transition into one of my favourite folk metal EPs by Finntroll, Visor Om Slutet. The album is a themed ballad about a Troll attacking a small village in an isolated fjord. There are many ups and downs in the tone and mood of the music and when it started playing within the tank I was transported to a Skyrim Valley hot tub and was overcome with an extremely peaceful feeling during the first minutes. It is hard to describe all that occurred after that. The album was such a roller coaster of personal sensations, emotions, and ideas that there were movements of pure clarity and others of pure fear. That being said, it was an exhilarating experience and I look forward to trying it again.
September 14, 2013
40th Float.
I started today off
with a float before my night shift and was lucky enough to end my shift with
my 40th Float at Float House and I
experienced another intensely 'present' audio float.
It started off as I
went through my mental clutter and as each thought emerged I fed it into the
flame of a candle, which is a technique called The Flame and the Void that I
learned while reading Robert
Jordan's Wheel Of Time series and have found to be extremely using when
meditating and within the tank.
Then I let go of my body and it was highly emotive to start off and I was overcome with waves of what I can only describe as bliss and compassion flowed around and through me as I listened to Time and Space. I could feel the music in my body and each note swept through me and caused a feeling similar to chills going down my spine and into my extremities through my nerves but instead of that creepy chills it was accompanied with a strong positive emotion.
I Noticed that I was able to create waves of yellowish red energy of enclosing patterns by slowly closing and opening my eyes.
This proceeded to
then morph into a white and black pattern similar to the swirling designs seen
often in porcelain.Then silence
occurred and I became aware again of my breathing and started to practice the
breathwork technique of in through my right nostril and out through the left.
Then Surface of the Sun came on it was an exhilarating sensation as I focused on the subtleties of the background sound effects of his heart beat and breath underneath the building piano and orchestra. Again, waves of bliss surged through me along with the notes and surges of the music.
Then Surface of the Sun came on it was an exhilarating sensation as I focused on the subtleties of the background sound effects of his heart beat and breath underneath the building piano and orchestra. Again, waves of bliss surged through me along with the notes and surges of the music.
When Pangaea started I began to reflect on how during all of the above emotional sensations that I just went through, I had very faint and sporadic visuals that didn't really focus upon my visual cortex. I tried using my gaze manipulation tricks with little result. I do feel that when I float after having taken my Concerta it does inhibit the visual and dream states that I do have when I float before my meds. But yet, this float was more emotionally focused. Is there a connection? Or is this just another variety of float? More must be read and experienced to find out.
It is these kind of
differences that I have been noticing to be occurring within my own cognitive
processes and consciousness while using the float tank and I am become more
and more interested in trying to find out the relation to my own
neurochemistry and endocrinology is definitely something I would lobe to
pursue for a masters thesis.
When pink Floyd came on I could barely hear it so I just got out. 50 minute float felt like 2 hours of hiking my Mindscape and I as I exited the tank with laughter and a massive smile on my face.
August 15, 2013
Audio Float #3
First half was settling in with minimal visuals, there was a memorable experience of the whole tank illuminating blue light from beneath me and a radiating feeling of 'glow'.
After 2nd Crash Test Dummies song I became aware of the temperature of the water being a bit cool and got out. I ran the pumps and checked the gauges and found that one of them was slightly unplug so only 1 heating pad was working. Fixed this and watched best of Dune quotes and did a load of laundry.
Re-entered tank @ 12:45. Started where I left off on the play list.
I don't know where to start. I entered the void quickly and wisps of smoke and coloured patterns emerged.
During the heavy beat of music I had a overly red hued vision of a group of men in ski masks opening the tank and grabbing me out by my legs. My heat rate increased and I immediately formed a small flame and focused all that emotion and energy into it, more images fueled the flame brighter and brighter. Faces of orcs, goblins, genlocks, and shades went into the flame and as it grew I was able to force the flame back down into the candle through my will alone. This then transitioned quiet well into Elegy where the stars opened up and I explored the nebula's and stars across time for a while.
Then as the next song came on I was overcome with a quickening sense of stimuli as clouds of gas spun and millennia passed as a planet was formed from the star dust. This then lead to what felt like information overload as my eyes darted around and tho used of flashing images of nature and its beauty and cruelness was witnessed. As cities grew and crumpled across the land I zoomed out and saw a starship fire something at the planet and with a bang the atmosphere ignited and all life died as the planet burned.
It was so much for me that when the song ended I was breathing heavily and I suddenly remembered the name of the song, Pangaea, and I realized I just witnessed the creation and destruction of a world with my minds eye.
I then underwent a wide range of deeply emotional moments as Kara's Coordinates and Assault on the Colony played. There were obvious differences between the two dominant tones of mood through colour.
The more aggressive drum beats and musical pieces were always red hued and some images included a predator sitting upon a black carved stone throne on top of a vast pile of skulls. Hundreds of evil faces with vivid features flashed by from almost all recognizable lore and fiction that I can think of, which had a distinct anime feel to the images. The more pleasant pieces had me uplifted into the stars again surrounded in flashes of whites, blues, and greens. It was simply breath taking.
As the surface of the sun came on I was immediately placed with a front row seat for a storm of solar flares across a star. This was from a window in a ship resembling the one in the Doctor Who episode 42. Also, during this I heard an arrangement of quotes from Dune going through my head with me chanting internally "the sleeper has awoken".
Repeatedly throughout both floats I had reoccurring image of a direct front view of an owl and coyote. This were very distinct and overlaid many different parts of my visions.
Then It's a Sin to Tell a Lie came on and I sang along and went through my 'wake up' movements and looked back upon my experience and laughed. I was suddenly alert and wanting to write down the experience. Subsequently the selection of Bach's cello suites was a poor choice because I often use it for background music while working or mentally focused on a task and was unable to slip back into the void. I emerged from the tank refreshed and full of laughter.
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