Transcript

My name is John Campbell.  I’m an orthodontist here in Winnipeg and I’ve been coming to FLOAT.Calm for a couple of years now.

Q.  How many times have you floated at this point?

A.  I couldn’t tell you exactly but I believe it’s over 100 – yeah!

Q.  As an avid floater how has floating impacted your life?

A.  It’s really hard to pin it down to one thing, I mean we all change over time and I’ve been going through a lot of changes in the last few years and I strongly suspect floating is a huge part of that and maybe it’s the biggest part, I don’t know.  It’s hard to distill down but I think it’s really given me space to make those changes.  Its helped clear my head for 90 minutes at a time, clear my head as much as I can, and it’s really given me the space to make those changes.  And the effect is really cumulative.  The closest thing I can compare it to is going to a gym.  You go to the gym and, you know, you feel good after your session, or you may feel not so good, but the cumulative effect is over time you feel stronger and better and it’s all this good stuff that just accumulates and that’s what I’ve noticed with floating, that it really has given me more space in my life to look inward and explore stuff.   

Q.  What would you say to someone going in for their first float experience?

A.  For the first time, it can be almost disappointing, at least for some people in that if they have expectations like they’re going to see cosmic things, and if you have that – great, I’m still waiting for those super cosmic explosions in my head.  But that has never really happened to me and certainly didn’t happen in the beginning.  It’s just very ordinary, but in an extraordinary way.  It’s just sitting with yourself for 90 minutes in comfort and darkness and relative silence, because you still hear your body, you become very aware of the sounds of your body, which are not unpleasant.  It’s very cool, it’s just ordinary but in an extraordinary way.

Q.  Why do we need floating now more than ever?   

A.  I think that human beings are wired for this.  We’re not wired for internet connection and our phone 24/7.  But we’ve evolved into being interested in that because humans are super curious so they’re just like checking things out all the time so that’s cool.  But we’re wired to have this quiet time by ourselves.  And this is the most wonderful opportunity to meet that requirement we all have deep down even though we’ve sort of forgotten it.

Q.  Can you talk about floating as a practice?

A.  Our ancestors would have gone hunting, they would have been out in the field by themselves, they would have been by themselves raising the children and looking after the children.  It’s a recent phenomenon that we’ve sort of got this 24/7 buzz in our heads.  And I love the buss, I mean, I love it too.  It’s not a superior thing where that technology is bad.  But you’ve got to get away from it.

Q.  What long term changes have you noticed from floating regularly?

A.  Again, getting back to the idea of space, it’s mental and emotional space that the floating provides me.  My mind buzzes, that’s just the way it works, and I think a lot of people have that.  And a lot of people who think about meditating they’ll say “oh I can’t meditate, I can’t quiet my mind”.  And I was like that too.  I was like, I’m not doing it right.  But in meditation, I just learned to put up with whatever my mind was doing and just let it go.  And I have found that floating is sort of meditation on steroids, for me.  And my mind is much quieter.  I haven’t got the Zen Buddhist monk thing down, not even close and I probably never will.  My mind is always going, but it’s a much slower pace.  I’m much more conscious of my thoughts.  And just throughout the day I notice more and more what my mind is thinking.  It’s not this automatic stuff that’s just flying around my head the way it used to be.  Its much more conscious, I’m much more aware.  And that’s something I’ve really really noticed.  I meditate on and off.  I float more regularly than I meditate and I can only put it down to the floating experience as quieting my mind all the time.  And again it gets back to the cumulative effect like going to the gym.  It’s like, go to the gym and yeah, I feel stronger, I feel healthier, I feel better, more flexible.  I feel awesome.  And it’s that cumulative effect of doing that work on a regular basis.  I find I’m way less reactive and I’m much more conscious of my reactions and sometimes I’ll still indulged in my reactions, but I’m much more aware of them.  I will get impatient but I quickly become aware that I’m impatient and I’m able to settle down.  So the effect of floating for me has been really amazing.  I can’t overstate it, but it’s a gentle gradual thing.  It’s not like you go in, see God, and come out. It’s a gradual experience.  But I love it.

Q.  Were you aware that floating was originally created as a way to study consciousness?

A.  That’s what the floating does.  It makes you more conscious of what’s going on in your head.  Because you’ve got this space.  And again, it’s a ritual where you’ve made a conscious decision.  I’m going to schedule this.  I’m going to go at such and such a time.  I’ve left myself 2 hours to get there and to get home, to do this.  This is important. And you’ve made a conscious decision to be conscious.  And I just love it.  And the more I do it, the more important it is in my life.

Q.  What would you say to someone who has never tried floating before?

A.  Don’t be afraid!  You’ve laid in a bathtub.  It’s not that different.  It really isn’t.  And that’s the thing…  The difficulty in describing floating is that it’s as ordinary as you can imagine, yet as extraordinary as you can imagine.  It has both features.  It’s not such a big deal. I mean, I think people can get too worked up about it “oh I’m in an enclosed space and it’s going to be freaky”.  It’s not freaky.  It really isn’t.  it’s like laying in a quiet bathtub and you don’t have your phone beside you.  I’m one of those people who has my phone and my iPad beside me.  I’m reading and drinking coffee while I’m in the bathtub.  But it’s just like laying in a beautiful warm bath.  And it quickly becomes a very normal thing.  Now for some people, it may take a few times. But it’s such a warm, and welcoming atmosphere, that it’s just not a big deal.  It is simple.  But it’s like learning to read.  Learning to read is the most simple thing.  You learn the alphabet, then you learn putting words together yadda yadda yadda.  And then you learn to read which is mechanical and not a big deal and after a couple of years you’ve mastered it.  And then it opens this wonderful amazing world of reading.  And it’s like WOW!  It’s not a big deal.  Floating is not a big deal.  But it’s a huge deal.      

Q.  Has floating brought on any epiphanies for you?

A.  I don’t necessarily associate it directly with floating.  My life has just undergone these amazing wonderful changes so I have had those epiphanies.  I’ve had those throughout my life and I’ve probably had more in the last 2 years than I have in my entire previous life.  But they didn’t necessarily come at the time of floating.  It’s like dreaming too.  I think that dreams have this amazing narrative and provide this wonderful information but you don’t always get them directly at that time when you wake up.  Its percolating in your head so that the effect is not isolated to your time of floating.  So I have had, I mean, I’ve floated so many times I can’t remember all my episodes, and I certainly have come out going WOW, blown away by what came to me.  But lots of floating is just like, yeah, that was great.  Now I’ve got to run some errands and do some other stuff.  But again, it really creates this space for amazing stuff to come.  And again, what floating has shown me is its shown me how much is inside me that wanted to get out.  It needed to get out.  And floating has helped to provide the space and to teach me and encourage me to allow that stuff to come out.

Q.  Do you have any advice for newbies?

A.  Practically speaking, it’s comfortable.  It’s not creepy.  This space feels very safe and inviting and comfortable.  I’ve never had a bad vibe here, never felt bad energy.  The water is wonderful.  I prefer it a little on the warm side so it’s often that temperature but you quickly get acclimatized.  I really can’t stress enough to people that it’s more ordinary than you think but the effects are more extraordinary than you can imagine.  And laying in water for 90 minutes, you don’t get wrinkled like you would in a bathtub.  So even in the middle of January when its -30, you go outside, you feel great.  Your skin feels soft and smooth.  It’s not like sitting in a bathtub from that respect because of the magnesium salts or the Epsom salts.  It’s just a comfortable thing and I just encourage everybody to give it a try, and maybe more than one try.  I think you have to give it a few and be gentle with yourself and allow yourself to maybe be a little bit freaked out or a little puzzled at the beginning.  But I think you’ll find that its really easier than you think, it’s not such a big deal, but if you keep doing it, it can be a huge deal and a wonderful experience.

Q.  Why would you say floating is so important? Especially now.

A.  The floating just really creates this space and I think it’s the most natural thing in the world.  Human beings are designed not to be crowded into little tiny spaces with a gazillion other human beings with their phones and their iPads and their laptops and all that stuff.  And I’m not putting that stuff down.  But we’re designed to be quietly walking in a forest with our own thoughts.  We’re designed to be lying awake at night under the stars with our own thoughts.  And we rarely get that now.  And floating gives us that.  And we’re wired for it.  There’s no doubt in my mind.  It would absolutely be impossible to imagine that human beings are not wired for quiet time. And not just ‘yeah well I go to sleep”, but no, your head is buzzing, you’re going to sleep, you’re worried about stuff, your phone is maybe ringing.  You’ve got your phone and your phone buzzes and you go Oh, Facebook!  OK. Got to check it out.  This is…you’ve consciously made the decision to be quiet, just as your ancestors did hundreds and thousands of years ago and that’s what we’re wired for.  So this is full circle.  Now it’s time for us to consciously go after those things that we were wired for, that we’re designed for.  So there’s nothing weird about this.  Human beings are absolutely totally designed for this.  This is not weird stuff.  Its only weird because we’re so used to the 24/7 electronic connection fog that we’re all in.