I’ve known about “sensory deprivation tanks” for at least the last fifteen years, or so I thought. Even though I had heard about many of the touted benefits (deep meditation, accelerated healing and drug-free magical mystery tours), I still secretly wondered, why would I (or anyone else for that matter) want to go and bob naked for 60 minutes or more in a pitch-dark, womb-like pod filled Epsom salt-saturated, warmish water? It sounded just a little alarming.

Lilly once instructed a young female protegé to live alone with a dolphin for many months, interacting with him on any level that seemed right. Eventually they both got pretty lonely and that interaction took a turn to the amorous.

Floating has become a creative catalyst for the process of many artists and innovators. Extraordinary minds as diverse as Richard Feynman, Buckminster Fuller, Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, and Graham Hancock have found floating useful. Actors such as Jim Carrey, Jeff Bridges, and Susan Sarandon, are devotees of sensory deprivation tanks. Comedian Joe Rogan has one at home and touts his tank as a cognitive enhancer, think tank, and psychotherapist all rolled into one.