I'd seen the horror of the movie Altered States way back when, plus Homer and Lisa taking their own journey by way of the float tanks at Karmaceuticals, Springfield USA and I even saw an episode of Ab Fab featuring Edwina and her own float tank.

It's a large enclosed bath like area of water, with a large door that can be left open. I guess it's about 12 inches deep and the water's very cleverly heated to the same as that of the skin. There's around 350 kilos of salt in the tank - which means you float like a cork and without any effort - this allows you to completely let go and put your faith in the buoyancy - with the salts pushing you upwards and gravity pushing down - you enter zero gravity (much cheaper than a trip on the space shuttle) and because the water is the temperature as the skin - you can't tell what part of you is in the solution and what part is out - soon you body disappears and you're just left with yourself - I imagine this is what you try and achieve through meditation but this all seemed to happen without any effort on my part - it was all so dreamy.

Music is played at the start and again to signal the end of the session, though I must admit I nearly didn't notice and could have easily stayed in there for much longer, it's a place somewhere between the womb and home. The shower at the end was fantastic and to be honest I could hardly stand I was that relaxed.

Floatation tank use is said to be extremely similar to meditation but without the huge effort and time that's usually associated with learning how to meditate. Because the buoyancy of the Epsom salts is pushing you upwards and gravity pushing down, you enter a virtual zero gravity environment - with the water heated to same temperature as your skin, it becomes difficult to tell which part of your body is in water and which part is out. Providing you are still and not thinking of too much you will find that you loose contact with your body and end up just with your "self"

You will enter a Theta brain state whilst in tank for long periods - This State is associated with reaching higher states of consciousness, deep relaxation, meditation, increased memory, focus, creativity, lucid dreaming and the hypnologic state which is an area normally associated with pre deep sleep; in this state you can experience visual imagery, so it can feel like your dreaming but you also feel as it you are conscious at the same time.

You body enters many beneficial physical and mental states; with blood pressure reduced, along with oxygen intake (can lower as much as 50% due to the fantastically relaxed physical state whilst in the tank).