Our nervous system has a specific sensory system or organ, dedicated to each sight (ophthalmoception), hearing (audioception), taste (gustaoception), smell (olfacoception), and touch (tactioception). Back in the 1950's, a hypothesis had it that if these senses to perceive stimuli were suppressed then the brain will go to sleep. Aforementioned in a previous post, this is the hypothesis John C. Lilly wanted to test.
Initial isolation tanks required tight clothing and breathing apparatus as participants were orientated vertically, entirely submerged. This brought problems to researching isolation as participants found the breathing apparatus cumbersome, distracting them from the experience and leading to fears of drowning.
Despite these limitations, to achieve an suppression of stimuli, Lilly created an environment that isolated patients from their environments through a number of ways. One way being that the water and air that submerges participants is the same temperature as your skin; roughly 34 degrees celsius. The lack of a temperature differential widened the perceived boundaries of the human body, altering the ability to know where the water ends and you begin; leading to widened levels of introspection. It's said that the suppression of sound stimuli brings an experience of the kind of quiet that allows you to hear your muscles tense, your heartbeat, and your eyelids close. The high salt content of the water brings a zero-gravity, weightless feel to tank users. As well as blindfolding participants.
In conclusion, from the characteristics of the isolation tank, do you think you would like to experience it one day? Please submit your comments below, I would like to hear your opinion.
- Jordan Saward
