I pal of mine just tried a float tank out and said it was a great experience. I’ve never tried one. That got me curious to get feedback here about the similarities and differences of iaming, float tank practice, and iaming while floating.
I guess a related question that’s been percolating is that sometimes I’ll do an AYP practice session while lying down, especially if I’m very distracted for better relaxation.
AYP is unusual in my experience in that it ‘allows’ one to lean back on something while practicing. I’ve now become acclimated to doing it that way and seems to allow for greater relaxation.
Thanks for any thoughts on and around this topic!
-Yoda
Yoda, try meditating with back against the wall while in bed, with a pillow at your lumbar.
As for floatation tanks, I’ve tried them. I wouldn’t combine them with meditation, personally. You can go nuts trying to block out all stimulation and get stuff “just right”, and yoga’s about finding the just-rightness of wherever you are.
Does seem like the recipe for insanity now that you put it that way.
Snorkle… that takes me back… when I was a kid, a fun thing to do was to jump in the pool with some weights on me and just lie there at the bottom. I definitely resonated with that similar scene in “Stranger in a Strange Land”.
It’s probably fine and good to meditate occasionally in a flotation tank, and it could provide a good teaser experience for some people who have not meditated…
But in the long run it probably won’t be a good replacement for meditation. One is just practical – for most people, they aren’t regularly available. Another though, is yogic: the posture is of significant value in medition. By and large, you won’t be in the posture when you are in the flotation tank.
Not that meditating in other postures occasionally is bad…
Did you know that the ancient yogis used something like the flotation-tank experience too?
You do the fish asana properly in a lake, keeping your upper lungs full throughout. The back of your head goes into the water, but your mouth stays clear of the water. It’s a little counter-intuitive, but if you do it right, you can stay totally still and float, and the water in your ears will act as ear-plugs.
This is what ‘the fish’ asana gets its name from.
well, also because it’s the pose that puts your mouth and your colon at opposite ends of your body, like a fish, and straightens out the kinks in the breathing pathways (which is one reason it’s so good for asthma).
Hari Om
I was thinking more of ‘Altered States’ with William hurt ( 1980);
The tank itself was unusual in that it was vertical, and looked like an old boiler, no snorkle req’d then your head would be above the water line.
agnir satyam rtam brhat Frank in San-Diego
I remember after Altered States people built them out of wood and styrofoam insulation, lined with heavy plastic,
then filled them with saturated salt water so you would float easily.
Then they closed the lid over their head and tried to do primal scream stuff. eeeckh.
I have done about 15 sessions over the last two years, but seldom lately. It affected me more before I started getting “serious” about ashtanga, going on a couple of retreats and upping my weekly practice.
It is like instant meditation. I felt more balanced, with a positive outlook on life and more generosity and compassion to my fellow beings. The effect lasted 2-3 weeks after every session (1-2 hours).
David:
“You do the fish asana properly in a lake, keeping your upper lungs full throughout. The back of your head goes into the water, but your mouth stays clear of the water. It’s a little counter-intuitive, but if you do it right, you can stay totally still and float, and the water in your ears will act as ear-plugs.”
Sounds interesting. When I have been to retreats in Thailand, I have gone out floating every evening to watch the sunset and then relax in navasana in the warm ocean, before dinner. Maybe I will try the fish pose next time. I can sometimes float in sweet water, but it is not as relaxing.
I can sometimes float in sweet water, but it is not as relaxing.
As you know, it’s very difficult to float in fresh water in a way that you can breath and stay absolutely still and your mouth and nose comfortably out of the water. The fish asana is one of them (actually it’s the only way I know). (Floating is salt-water is much easier.)
Floating in ‘the fish’ takes some getting used-to and is quite counter-intuitive. One thing is that you are arching your head back, almost as if you are pushing it into the water, and indeed your ears and eyes(?) and top of your face goes into the water. Only a certain amount of your body can stay out of the water, because of the law of flotation, and by letting most of the back of your head and upper face into the water, this is what allows your nose and mouth to stay well out of the water. You keep an arched back and your upper lungs full of air, breathing into your lower lungs.
But when you get used to it, its really lovely… 
It doesn’t much matter what you do with your legs, as long as you keep them under water. Keeping them flat is fine, and you can also let them go limp, but they can also be put in the full-lotus if you can do that (there will be enough friction in your thighs to keep them there).
2 to 3 WEEKS?
I could spend six months in the loving embrace of Jesus Christ with Buddha feeding me grapes and Krishna massaging my temples and all major effect would dry up within 48 hours (within a week I’d be suppressing road rage again and brooding over the bad behavior of ex-girlfriends)
Maybe I need to retry flotation tanks. I’ve tried twice, and it always made me edgy. You ping against one side, then veeeeery slowly drift back the other way, cringing as you wait for the oh-so-gentle collision with the other side. It was like the world’s slowest and most torturous game of “pong”, with me as the puck.
Jim this is hilarious: 
This paints a vivid picture in my head, I’d probably have the same reaction! lol
Jim–
Very, very funny!
-Yoda
Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement
I know this is a really old topic, but I’m thinking about trying an hour or two in a floatation tank. I talked with a cousin this weekend who knows a therapist in Calgary who owns and operates a tank, has very reasonable rates and comes highly recommended by my cousin. I know it is no replacement for daily meditation, and I am not hoping for that, but I think it would be really cool to have no major external stimulus (even just one time) while meditating. Here is a link to her (I think it’s a she) site in case anyone from central Alberta reads this and is interested in a place to try this. I thought I would have to go to some specialized University and pay a fortune if I ever wanted to do this properly. I’m excited to try and will let you all know if I turn into a raging primal beast 
…
http://www.members.shaw.ca/saitassignments/main.html
Love,
Carson 
Did you ever wind up trying flotation tanks CarsonZi?
I have done it a few times but for me I tend to need at least 2 hours to start getting to the good stuff, and it isnt cheap. They have float houses in Van and Kits now…
Seems like a great way to quickly get to pratyahara, so it is a decent compliment to yoga if obviously not a substitute. If it were cheaper I would go more often