Float Therapy: A first time metaphysical experience.

**This is my personal experience in a float tank and connecting with the Norns**

Recently we went got three float tank sessions so myself, roommate Anna, and their partner Morgan went downtown on a cold February morning to try that experience out. Only Morgan had partaken of this experience before and was apprehensive but open. Myself and Anna were excited but didn’t know what to expect. We envision sensory deprivation chambers as enclosed pods that could be claustrophobic and the plot device in a Dean Koontz horror novel. Would sleep? Relax? Astral project to another world? Be terrified of the darkness? Who knew? This was an adventure.

Upon arrival we learned that that everyone is assigned a room and, in that room, there was a place for clothes, as you do this totally nude, a shower for before and after, and each person had their own float pool. Instructions were given – a lot of detail around the earplugs – and then we were off to 60 minutes of darkness.

I was the tallest and largest of the group, so I got the largest float room, although each layout was a little different for the set up around the room. I followed the instructions and entered the body temperature warm pool filled with a large quantity of magnesium sulfate, aka Epson salts. The lights in the outer room are motion sensitive and there is a soft light in the float room with the pool. I stepped in closed the door to keep the warmth in, got comfortable in the water, and turned off the light.

Darkness. Total darkness.

It’s a little overwhelming at first. Floating and still slightly drifting in the shallow pool, gently bumping the sides of the pool. It’s disorienting but I reminded myself it is four walls and when I need to get out, I’ll follow the walls to the door. I decided to relax and just breathe. (note for anyone going to try this: rest with the arms above the head, not at the sides of your body – a world of difference).

I cleared my mind and just existed. Time doesn’t matter there and no way to know, so you also let that go. I had brought a perthro inscribed labradorite oracle stone with me that I had set out on the shelf next to my clothes, and I decided to send my energy towards it. Once connected, I reached out in this total darkness and silence to the Norns whom I have been reading about and working with. I felt like this was the perfect environment to learn from them, as if I was at pool among the roots of Yggdrasil. The Norns are supernatural beings but not goddesses, so the energy was closer to my own rather than connected to the Divine, making the connection easier.

I sent out the call through the oracle stone and they picked up. Due to the darkness I had kept my eyes open and was staying at the nothing in front of me; until that changed. Slowly it felt like there was dimension and texture in the darkness above me, like looking at a cloudy night sky on a dark moon.  I leaned into it, floating naked in this water, I felt transported to another place. It was like their voice in my mind was downloading the information I needed to know and at the same time was like watching a blurry movie. The presence was felt but to focus in on them was impossible, as if blurred for witness protection. Maybe they are not faces a man sees unless at the end of life or witnessing death. I’m not entirely sure of anything happening except that my body and consciousness were touching another realm. Catching shadowy glimpses up the Great Tree and the roots surrounding and then back to the darkness of the float room, in a very calm cycle. If I could have figured out how to stand up and climb out, I would’ve left this mortal plane altogether. But I didn’t. I floated, learned, and listened. I couldn’t tell if it had been five minutes or five days and it felt both eternal and a blink of an eye. Just existing as a being in the universe. Floating.

And then the light came on, pulling me back to this reality and telling me there is 15 minutes to get out, showered, dressed, leave. I left the chamber, in a daze, like my spirit was slowly pouring it self back into my body and try to adjust to the corporeal form. This was only an hour. One infinite hour.

I definitely plan on going back. My friends who came with didn’t have the same exact experience but we all were still processing on the car ride home. Quiet, disconnected, trying to understand what that was for each of us. It was amazing.