A Guide To NYC's Sensory Deprivation Tanks

Sensory deprivation floating is enjoying a nationwide renaissance. Earlier this month, the Post reported that there are currently 267 float centers in the U.S., up from 85 just four years ago. New York, arguably the city most in need of respites from stimuli, finally seems to be joining the trend.

There are now six places to float in the city, and the first outside of Manhattan, Lift Floats in Carroll Gardens, opened in June (read Gothamist's review of the Lift experience).

Six might not seem like much, but it's a big increase from the Giuliani and Bloomberg eras, when there were only one or two places in the city to float at any given time.

The float boom of the '80s produced more than a dozen sensory deprivation spots before the AIDS epidemic scared away customers and forced most centers to shutter their doors. City float center operators credit the recent growth in popularity to comedian, UFC announcer and former Fear Factor host Joe Rogan, who for years has evangelized the physical, spiritual, and psychedelic benefits of spending time in a sensory deprivation tank, an activity now commonly described as "floating" on his podcast.

Regardless of the precise container used (there are float pods, tanks and suites), floating is deceptively simple: you float naked, typically for an hour, on your back in skin-temperature water mixed with roughly 1,000 pounds of Epsom salt in a small chamber that is both light and sound proof.

First developed by Dr. John C. Lilly in 1954, sensory deprivation (later called REST - Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy) has been shown to have a variety of health benefits, including decreasing inflammation and pain, improving sleep, and reducing stress and anxiety. Studies also suggest that floating increases theta waves, which are the type of brain waves normally produced while transitioning between a sleeping and waking state. These are also the type of brain waves produced during meditation, meaning that floating can often feel like dreaming while awake, (many users do report hallucinations) and some studies have shown that sensory deprivation produces heightened creativity.

While committed floaters and float professionals claim the benefits of floating accumulate with regular use, you don’t have to be a regular to enjoy the perfect antidote for daily stress and screen obsession.

BLUE LIGHT FLOTATION

Sam Zeiger installed his first sensory deprivation tank in his Chelsea apartment in 1985 and has seen other float facilities come and go ever since. Zeiger’s Blue Light Floatation is the lone bridge between the float craze of the ‘80s and today’s resurgence. Over his thirty years in the business he has become both a water-purity obsessed master technician (he treats all water with an Electron 5 purifier before it gets anywhere near the tank and uses Diatomaceous earth to increase filter performance) and an expert float counselor. He doesn’t take reservations online (“I’m not geared for user-friendly,” he told us), and he considers the client phone call that sets up an appointment to be the beginning of the session, which includes a lengthy pre-float orientation and a post-float cup of tea in his book-lined living room. “It’s very intimate,” Zeiger explained. “Every float is very different.”

Blue Light Floatation. 148 W 23rd St
Manhattan. 212-989-6061. $80 for a one-hour, $110 for 90 minutes. $210 for a three session package.

VIBRANT SEA

One of the newest places to float in the city, Vibrant Sea officially opened in January after a soft opening last fall. This modest wellness center, which also offers colonic hydrotherapy, nutrition consultations, and an infrared sauna, is located in a first floor East Village apartment. It has no sign, but it does have a friendly, neighborly, and slightly DIY feel. The float tank is in the basement, which opens to a surprisingly peaceful courtyard where co-owner Christina Pistone hopes to start having potluck dinners with regular customers, many of whom seem to follow Joe Rogan’s advice to supplement the mind-altering powers of the tank with additional substances. "Half of our patients come in with their eyes glazed over,” said Pistone, a certified clinical nutritionist and colon hydrotherapist who owns and operates Vibrant Sea with retired engineer Peter Blom and colon hydrotherapist and healing guru Gil Jacobs.

Vibrant Sea. 528 E. 5th Street. 646-429-9470. $90 for one hour, $120 for 90 minutes, $150 for two hours.

LA CASA SPA AND WELLNESS CENTER

Along with Blue Light Floatation, La Casa Spa and Wellness Center is one of the old guard of the New York City flotation scene. Opened 22 years ago by Dr. Jane Goldberg, La Casa boasts a walk-in floatation chamber. Dr. Goldberg, who is also a psychoanalyst specializing in psychological oncology, calls her center, which offers 15 different treatments, “seriously holistic,” and claims that Michael Flatley came to La Casa to float before his Riverdance performances. The entry/lounge area feels like a jungle oasis transported to Flatiron and that, combined with the unique openness of the floatation chamber (which eases feelings of claustrophobia) makes La Casa one of the more relaxing places in the city to float.

La Casa Spa and Wellness Center. 41 East 20th Street. 212-673-2272. $80 for one hour.

ASPIRE CENTER FOR HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Any strict rationalist with an interest in sensory deprivation without the spiritual and consciousness-cleansing overtures might feel most comfortable floating at the Aspire Center for Health and Wellness. Aspire offers a variety of traditional services, including physical, occupational and speech therapy, along with a float pod and a float chamber, the latter of which was added three years ago by partner Dr. Rob Schreyer. Dr. Schreyer often recommends his patients take a float session before physical therapy, citing the anti-inflammatory and stress reduction benefits, while noting that his long term goal is to get insurance companies to cover floating (he also says he doesn’t charge existing patients for using the tank). But it’s not just New Yorkers in need of physical therapy who float at Aspire: the staff says MMA fighters and Wall Street bankers alike come to float recreationally.

Aspire Center of Health and Wellness. 248 West 35th Street Manhattan. 212-453-0036. $90 for 60 minutes, $130 for 90. $75 floats on Wednesdays. Float packages, including combination packages with floating and massage or acupuncture available.

INFINITY FLOAT AT Q FLATIRON

Infinity Float is part of Q Flatiron, a healing facility owned by alternative healer Noran Malouf that is home to seven practitioners, including a nutritionist, an acupuncturist, a colon hydrotherapist, and even a quantum physicist. The facility acquired a float suite a year and a half ago, which is comprised of a walk-in chamber with a ceiling full of twinkling stars (they can be shut off with a switch inside the tank). The center has an airy and immaculate lobby and a New Age vibe. Malouf noted that John C. Lilly gets credit for creating the modern sensory deprivation tank but that similar attempts at seeking sensory deprivation have existed in the spiritual traditions of China and India for centuries. The facility emphasizes the holistic healing aspects of floating, and encourages participants to experience LŪX lights before floating, which is a session under a series of quartz crystals cut to a specific frequency and color that shine and pulse above each of the body’s seven chakras.

Infinity Float. 224 5th Avenue, 3rd Floor. 212-213-8520. $115 for one hour, $249 for three one-hour sessions. Summer introductory special: $60 for one hour, $180 for three one-hour sessions.

LIFT / NEXT LEVEL FLOATS

Lift / Next Level Floats is the newest and largest addition to the list of places to float in NYC, and the only float center outside Manhattan. Gina Antioco and David Leventhal met at a float conference in Portland, Oregon in August of 2013, and two days later agreed to go into business together. Lift Floats is strictly a floating facility (no colon cleansing here), and features three float pods and two float rooms. Lift Floats’ expansive lounge is made for relaxing in the weird dream state that you’ll find yourself in post-float, and offers tea and a kaleidoscope collection. The recorded voice that addresses you when you enter and exit a pod gives Lift Floats a bit of space age feel, but it was more traditional technology that was used to insulate the facility from the noisy bar below. “We basically had to build a sound studio,” Antioco told us.

Lift / Next Level Floats. 320 Court Street, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn. 718-701-0808. $99 for one hour, $199 for first time three float package, monthly packages also available.

Josh Keefe is a freelance journalist from Maine.