“Hello everybody! So check out this episode where I take you into a deprivation chamber, and tell you more about their purpose and the experience of floating. A very special thanks to Edward Arroyo for facilitating me at Float Space LA.” – Cynthia Troyer
In Like Cyn – Season 2 Episode 3
Deprivation Chamber
If you would like to schedule an appointment with Edward Arroyo as your floatman check out his website
Published to YouTube November 19, 2015
IN LIKE CYN – SEASON 2 – EPISODE 3
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
In Like Cyn
Season 2 Episode 3
Deprivation Chamber
[Cyn: Cynthia Troyer; EA: Edward Arroyo]
Cyn: Hello, hello and welcome to another episode of In Like Cyn.
Cyn: Awwww!
Cyn: And today’s it’s a beautiful summer night, and we are heading out – to do something really interesting… Float! Have you ever just floated?
TITLE: Cynthia Troyer, screenwriter
Cyn: Have you ever heard of a deprivation chamber? This is what I’m going to do, and I’ll tell you all about it so come along on this little journey with me. This is a really interesting concept – Floating, being deprived of all light, sound and you’re floating in water.
Cyn VO: I jumped in the car and I headed for Highland Park.
TITLE: Deprivation Chamber
TITLE: Float Space – LA, CA
Cyn: Okay, so I’m here. I’m here at this place, this little magical place up in the hills overlooking Figueroa.
EA: My wife is the daughter of the family that started this industry.
TITLE: Edward Arroyo – float instructor
EA: And they started like – they got together with Dr. John Lilly at The National Institute of Mental Health. He was working on a project – he started a project to study the brain. And one of the things that they wanted to find out is if the brain were dependent on our senses for functioning. If the brain had its own experience or its own sensation. So, one of the things that they decided to do, or he decided to do was to set up an experiment where they tried to eliminate all sense data – and see what biologically, bio-physically that would produce.
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EA: And so the first – what they did was they took their cue from World War II where they were actually studying the behavior of deep sea divers. He started with vertical tanks. Where in water they would immerse you, and you’d sort of have this deep sea divers helmet –
Cyn: Interesting.
EA: And they would put weights around you to keep you vertical. In this tank. Later on they went horizontal and they took away all the equipment and stuff. And they started realizing that was the best way to start to minimize the sense data. And so –
Cyn: I can see that because being underwater is somewhat as close as you can have to being in space. Space would probably be more optimal. To study this.
EA: Yes.
Cyn: You don’t have a gravity effect on you.
EA: Absolutely. And you know, being in the sea minimizes the amount of gravity on earth – our experience of gravity on earth. Short of free-falling. I mean if we’re freefalling we’re still feeling the wind against us, but yeah, the ocean is the closest to that. Simulating being weightless situation. But you have to understand that there are two things when you’re born that you’re subjected to – gravity and vibration. Because vibration comes in the form of sound and light. And sound and light trigger our senses to start to wake up.
Cyn: And I’m gonna have to tell you all about my experience when I get out. Because I’m going floating!
Cyn: So I have accomplished step one and I have washed all of my hair and make up and my body and I’m heading toward the tank.
CUT
Cyn: The blue room.
Cyn VO: A deprivation chamber. Floatation Tank. Float Tank. John C Lilly tank, An R.E.S.T. tank. Sensory Attenuation Tank. Now most commonly called an Isolation Tank – were first used by John C. Lilly in 1954 to test the effects of sensory deprivation.
Cyn: Ooooo, it looks scary – it looks kinda like a coffin.
Cyn VO: Lilly, a medical practitioner and Neuropsychiatrist, experimented with sensory deprivation in combination with a psychedelic agent – usually LSD. He sought to discover an old neurophysiology question – what keeps the brain going and the origin of its energy source. He studied the origins of consciousness and its relation to the brain.
EA: And it’s salty water.
Cyn: Okay.
EA: And it’s going to um – make you float. And ah – the first time when you first lay down, you may feel some waves, so you just extend your arms so that you can um – stabilize yourself. You know. And ah, after that you can do the Macarena. You know however way you’re gonna wanna – you’re going to be in there for an hour, so you’re going to be trying all sorts of ways that make you feel comfortable. The whole part – the whole point of this – is this is a really super delicious relaxing – ah relaxing environment.
CUT
EA: Here’s some ear plugs. Okay, because the water’s going to come up to about here. Ah –
Cyn: Okay.
EA: And then um – once the music starts I will leave. And then you can leave your towel on the bench, you can hang your bathrobe here.
Cyn: Okay.
EA: And ah you get in.
CUT
EA: The other thing about this is – is that the idea of sensory deprivation is to minimize your perception of your body, the air, and the water. So, it’s designed to try to minimize the seam between those three things. So because the air is humid, you might – and you give off heat and heat from your breathing and your body there is going to be a temperature rise. The air might seem to get thicker. It is kinda getting thicker, but you’re not running out of air. I’ve had people float all night long and not run out of air. This is all about letting go. The toughest thing for us to do, is do nothing.
Cyn: And I’m ready to go into the deprivation chamber. Yay, I’m excited and nervous, at the same time. I have to do – I get to do this naked.
Cyn VO: A solution of Epsom salt increases the water density, allowing the human body to float. I spent an enlightening hour floating – meditating.
Cyn VO: Real world sounds were intense when I got out – everything seemed to hum.
Cyn: Hey.
EA: Hey.
CUT
EA: Now with technology and our experience we’re – we’re growing all these layers man. And so we’re changing very quickly, so — It’s not like once you get it you can – you’ve got it forever. You know. Because I’m frickin’ learning it every time I get into the tank. You never get there, you know, because life is not – still. Although, you know, when you’re still as moving and living and changing thing – being in stillness you have that contrast, and you know, suddenly it brings attention to – oh this is what I am – I’m a living changing thing.
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Cyn VO: Join me every Thursday for a new In Like Cyn.
Cyn: Hey everybody, thanks for watching the video! Subscribe! All the social media links that are here – are down below. Click subscribe. Look for a new In Like Cyn every Thursday.
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