The History & Development of the Floatation Tank

The first floatation tank was developed in 1950 by the American neurophysiologist Professor Dr John C. Lilly while working at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Together with his associate Dr. Jay Shirley, Dr. Lilly became intrigued by the question of the origins of conscious activity within the brain. The question was whether the brain needed external stimuli to keep its conscious states active. Lilly and his associate set to work trying to devise a system that would restrict environmental stimulation as much as was practical and feasible. Lilly's first tank was one in which the floater was suspended upright, entirely underwater, head completely covered by an underwater breathing apparatus and mask (now you know where the producers of "Altered States" got their ideas!). Over the years Lilly continued his experiments with floatation, simplifying and improving the general design of the tank. Dr. Lilly found that he could float in a more relaxing supine position, rather than suspended feet downward in fresh water, if more buoyant salt water was used. Other refinements, such as water heaters with thermostats sensitive enough to keep the water at perfect temperature, an air pump to keep the air in the tank fresh, and a water filter for the re-use of the Epsom salts, were added over the years. By the early 1970's, Lilly had perfected the floatation tank in much the design used today.

Research on Floating

There is a wealth of material available regarding floatation and its effectiveness in a wide range of applications, particularly in a sporting and medical context. The following is just a small selection of publications that reveal some highly interesting data (well, as interesting as research data gets!), and even if you're a regular float devotee, some of these results will startle you. All of the clinical trials have been conducted by eminent scholars in their respective fields, running control experiments in tandem to ensure the accuracy of the results. In every instance, no matter what the scenario, subjects who have used the floatation tank prior to these tests have shown vastly superior results to those who did not float.

Some of these titles can be hard to find, but Michael Hutchison's definitive "Book of Floating" is widely accepted as the best book ever written on the subject, and we always have copies in stock.

Should you require any data for a specific area, please feel free to contact us and we should be able to point you in the right direction.