DOSE:

2 hits

smoked

Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

170 lb

This is a report of my 8th time floating, 6 of which have been across the last twelve weeks. Each float is scheduled biweekly, mindset prepared 1-2 days prior. 34 year old male with about six experiences with mushrooms, two experiences with DMT (one a breakthough), and a daily cannabis user for 2+ years.

Before each float, I dress as comfortable as possible, usually in fleece, setting a mindset of relaxation and distancing my ego from the Game of society. With my wife this time, so I wait until we arrive at the studio in central Ohio too take 2 big hits from my pipe of good weed. Usually, I smoke and drive, setting the tone with calm music, mainly psychedelic cumbia and pink floyd's newest album.

Arriving there, I greet the staff I've come to know through my multiple visits, and drink green tea, calm the societal jitters before the 'ride.' (I've come to call it that because of the feeling before and after. It has a feeling, becoming more intense each time, that I'm about to take a big trip out, explore. For me, it doesn't feel relaxing unless I'm tired going in.)

Before hopping in, I got naked, took a quick shower and took a few preliminary notes:

'Float tank trip w/ pot.
going in hungry but excited.
Ready to Space out.
Explore
Let go.'

After putting in my earplugs and coating some scratches in vaseline, I walked in and laid in the white clamshell tank, pulling the door behind me.

I'm used to the tank now and know some steps I take to 'take off' : Don't think about relaxing, just lie down and let go. Turn off the light and just jump. If thoughts come, they can be ignored or pushed aside, sometimes visually.

Lying down, I'm completely gone. Total darkness and my ego is shattered. Usually it can take up to 20 minutes to forget I'm in a tank, that I have a body, what hot and cold are. This time, I took off almost immediately, some salt water sneaking into cuts that added some distraction. Though even the pain was accompanied with a visual -- a lightning bolt shocking the skin of my body. However the perception of that lightning bolt of that body was from the rear, somewhat distanced. As if the body had been a separate part of me that I could control at will.

It's difficult to recall what my thoughts were each time but I'll try to recall the best I can. I didn't enter a state of unconsciousness the whole trip, something that can happen when I'm tired. My whole trip was intense, rarely coming back to visit my body in the tank. It feels like a sea of possibilities in there.

Once my body relaxed, I began intentionally hyperventilating, quick breaths at the same pace for as long as I can focus on it. It's become a mental discipline. My first vision reminded me of others that I've had, chasing after more detail in hypnogogic images created from deep, colorful smoke. I also see outlines of gears, similar to the DMT world, but not as colorful -- like an outlined version of them. They feel similar thought.

So, I breathe heavily until I feel it's time to quit and exhale. My body is paused in space with no air coming in or out. I know my body's fine, but I see it from a very distanced perspective. As if I'm controlling my body from a separate state of consciousness, light years away. I know it's fine and I float (sometimes a feeling of standing up without gravity) in pure bliss, usually a purple in color, coming from my chest.

I went back to my normal floating state and watched a blue outline of my heart (seen from a third eye perspective, not hypnogogic) beat so slowly. I didn't count it, there was no ego. It was just beating and I watched it beat. Could feel it beating in my chest, a loud sound taking over all sound.

In the tank, I get a lot of meditation work done, but also use it the way I use a sweat lodge: to solve problems or enhance aspects of my real world life. Here are the notes I took after playing around in that headspace:

'ditch the phone
plans for park loop,
deep/intense hallucination back in baghdad
flew in
I love that part of my life
lucid dreaming and conscious movement is possible'

I'll explain: I've decided to go without a cell phone. It was something I had thought about doing, and I accepted the advice in the tank to 'ditch the phone'.

I've been working on a park behind my house and visualized plans for obstacles, fire pits and swings. It's been a long term project, but the tank gave me a clear look at where all my work needed to go. It was very visual, viewing the area from multiple distances and angles, giving me the opportunity to plot it all out.

I don't experiment with lucid dreaming outside of melatonin experimentation, but can see and feel how the tank can allow people to move consciously from mind states, evaluating their personal life experiences along with broader perspectives.

After getting back in, I had one of my hardest and most visually intense trips. I visualized flying in a Blackhawk over Baghdad down in a spiral to the front foyer of our office building when I was deployed. Though hyperventilation, I focused on every motion of the landing. I could see in detail the buildings I had once walked by and worked in. I landed and moved to the front foyer of the office building I used to work in. I could hear the echo of the marble walls and floors. The bathroom was to my right, the door 15 feet tall, behind me were more offices for contractors and soldiers. It was all there, and I was experiencing it all again, with a real appreciation for that year long experience in Baghdad. Coming back to my body, I moaned and hummed repeatedly, trying to find grounding back in some sort of reality. I found my body and centered myself on the breath. Finally, it died to a slow beat, allowing me to enjoy the state of nothingness.

Getting out a second time, here are my notes:

'This is where I am in time-space visualized
Antoine
Soccer
Why I didn't like him
-energy in house from problem my parents going through
-energy into a house affects the kids lives'

I was able to understand visually how time-space works. I couldn't iron out details, but here's the visual and understanding I received: Each lifetime is a rod on a line. The time line continues on and before. I saw lives as these colorful rods, each impacting other nearby rods with color. When viewing a group of rods, you can see different color mixtures from different angles. Time keeps going, but we only see our own perspective of time. In that hallucination, I was able to see it from a perspective beyond space and time.

The other notes refer to a second intense hallucination where I thought 'I traveled back to Baghdad, I can travel anywhere.' Through hyperventilating, I began my voyage back to France when I visited as a 12 year old boy. I felt like I was flying back in to visit the backyard of my friend Antoine's house, but the trip took me back to my parents house in the US where we didn't really get along. I saw the house we lived in and a few situations vividly. I thought about how I didn't care for him then, but that might have been my issue, not his. I thought about how my parents mood or problem during that time might have had an effect on that one situation. It went on to show me that as a parent, the type of thoughts, actions, words and energy you bring into a house can have a great impact on the memories of a child. I didn't find out why there was an issue 22 years ago, but I learned visually the importance of what a parent brings into a child's life.

Finishing my hyperventilation, I floated in the darkness. My mind started to wander back to my body in the tank in a shopping center, letting thoughts come to me without real clarity, just relaxation. I find it difficult to hyperventilate frequently because of the intensity of the trip -- visually and mentally. It seems like there's so much to process coming back. I feel torn to just let moments pass with euphoria or rush to my notepad to document.

After 1 hour and 45 minutes, the music had started to play, brightening my experience from beyond my hands to construct a giant web-of-light dome that was not seen but experienced, a very light blue dissolving to black from bottom to top. The music is always a signal back to the tank. Usually, I'm given 5 minutes of music to drift back in, but asked for 15 to play with visuals. I find it helps enhance the colors and detail in the smokey, hypnagogic images.

Stepping out of the tank, I shower and clothe, walking barefoot back into the lobby, now seen as a foreign area of business and odd Game playing. I couldn't talk. sitting on the couch, I observed my new situation, allowing myself to slowly come back to the reality I'm used to. It was so very vivid and baffling as to why all the people are out there working, toiling away. 'Boy, they sure do move around a lot.' I thought, looking out the window. It all seemed like another world to me. It felt like I could navigate it and I know I'd been there before, but it would be difficult to have a Game conversation with someone.

I took more notes while sitting in the lobby (some have been left out):

'Tripped my face off
wild ride
Back in reality. Jesus I feel like I just came back from a trip post-time.
Intense experience.
It's tough to gauge how long I've been gone.
Color is everything

Need a 100% sativa for the tank
120 minutes is much more intense [than a 90 minute]

There is no right and wrong - only the subjective perspective of each and the spectrum between.

Oh to be so comfortable in your life... freedom

What a beautiful and positive experience (life). I'm a lucky guy. Countin' my blessings.'

After leaving, my wife and I discussed our experiences over dinner. It was the most visual trip in the tank so far and I attribute that to frequent usage of cannabis and the tank, knowing how to use both in exploring. I feel that there is a great amount of potential for the sake of the self, humanity and our planet from using it. Using it to improve your Game life or personal life, it's an untapped tool all around.

I will be continuing with this biweekly routine for as long as possible, researching with Blue Lotus, Mugwort, and tryptamines.

[Reported Dose: "2 hour float tank 2 medium sized hits"]

Exp Year: 2014	ExpID: 108100
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 34
Published: Oct 14, 2019	Views: 2,503
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Floatation Tank (369), Cannabis (1) : Alone (16), Retrospective / Summary (11), Combinations (3)