Talking Shop: Let your senses float away

“Don’t worry,” the manager said as I was about to experience my first hour and a half floating in a 4-by-8-foot isolation tank filled with lukewarm water.

“You’ll be fine,” Ron Becker reassured me.

Becker was standing at his usual spot behind the front desk of Costa Mesa’s Newport Float Therapy, hailed consistently on Yelp as the best place to go to spend time in a sensory deprivation chamber to explore a unique state of mind.

I tried not to be nervous, despite the fact that I was about to be floating in a pitch-black tank filled with skin-temperature water, wearing earplugs and not much else.

This exercise is to help people relax, heighten senses and manage pain.

Floating in a tank of 1,000 pounds of dissolved magnesium sulfate — known as Epsom salt after a saline spring in Epsom in Surrey, England — is said to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, enhance concentration and focus, relieve pain from injuries and joint inflammation and, overall, enhance relaxation.

Flotation therapy businesses have been opening around the country, including Newport Float Therapy, which Becker opened in July.

“It’s a shortcut to that Zen state,” said Becker, a Costa Mesa resident who used to have panic attacks and kidney stones. The married father of three first tried the therapy 1 1/2 years ago. “It was shocking how therapeutic it was.”

Newport Float Therapy, which is typically booked with appointments from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, is clean and professionally run. The facility has two separate isolation flotation chambers designed and manufactured by Float Lab Technologies, a float lab system in Venice, Calif.

Each chamber provides commercial-grade ultraviolet and ozone disinfection, not just filtration, to keep the water free of microbes and sediment.

Nothing is needed when coming in for a float appointment. Each room has a private shower and mirror and is stocked with soap, towels and water bottles. All that’s asked before entering the tank is to rinse in the showers without soap to take off any body oils and residue. Earplugs are offered as protection against the salt water.

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I lay in the pitch-black tank and immediately rose to the top of the water because of the buoyancy caused by the Epsom salt. My eyes, nose and mouth remained fully exposed. I left the chamber door slightly open for fears of claustrophobia, but the tank itself is large enough to stand up in, and at any time, I could leave the chamber.

For 90 minutes, I was without light, smell, touch and sound.

The experience was boring at first.

Thoughts ran through my head.

“Don’t get salt into your eyes.” “Where are my legs?” “Relax.” “I need a glass of water.” “Relax.”

The next thing I knew, I was awakened by soft music, alerting me that my session was ending.

After using the chamber, I showered to remove the Epsom salt crystallizing on my skin and hair. My skin felt soft after lounging in a natural exfoliant for more than an hour, but more importantly, I felt a sense of peace and was in no rush to hurry through the rest of the day.

I did slam down a bottle of water as I felt dehydrated.

Sensory deprivation was actually pleasant.

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The practice was pioneered in the 1950s by physician John C. Lilly, who researched the nature of consciousness using isolation tanks, dolphin communication and psychedelic drugs. According to an analysis in 1997 by Dr. Roderick Borrie, well over 1,000 descriptions of sensory deprivation indicated that more than 90% of subjects found it deeply relaxing.

Jeffrey Bone, a psychologist and therapist who has treated patients with trauma, chronic pain, depression and anxiety for 11 years in Newport Beach, said he has referred a number of his patients to Newport Float Therapy after researching and trying the process himself.

Bone, who doesn’t prescribe medication, said he has referred his patients to float therapy because the isolation tank is a tool to make one calm and disconnected from the world.

“It’s a place to actually decompress and get the nervous system to relax,” Bone said. “You essentially have very little input into the brain.”

A float costs $49 for a 90-minute session. But if you’d like a tank of your own by Float Lab Technologies, the starting cost for a 4-foot-wide, 8-foot-long and 7-foot-high chamber is $42,500. The price doesn’t include shipping, installation or Epsom salt. Domestic installation is $2,500 with a 3-year warranty.

Becker, who plans to purchase two more isolation tanks for his location, is confident about floating’s business potential, saying he has about 14 to 16 clients a day, a roster that is 95% full of regular clients.

Lola Singer, 48, of Newport Beach, said she makes many visits to Newport Float Therapy for muscle recovery. Singer, a pole-dancing instructor, is in a 12-week training session for an upcoming competition.

“I’m hooked,” she said after finishing a 90-minute session. “I could come here every day. As a dancer, I need the Epsom salts for my muscles.”

Becker said his clientele lists athletes, from boxers to basketball players to an Olympic volleyball gold medalist. The two main benefits from the flotation chambers he cites are magnesium for the body and calmness and relaxation due to the brain slowing into Theta brain waves, waves that are slowed down at a frequency of four to seven cycles per second.

“I couldn’t believe the physical and mental benefits I had and people had after using it,” Becker said. “I encourage anyone just to try it.”

If You Go

What: Newport Float Therapy

When: Appointment only

Where: 1525 Mesa Verde Drive East, Ste. 110

Cost: $49

Information: (714) 429-1504 or newportfloat.com