Sensory deprivation pod comes to Whitefish

Curiosity got the best of me when Keith Gardner asked if I wanted to try the sensory deprivation pod at the ISO Float Center.

I had never heard of sensory deprivation, but Gardner was convincing in his sales pitch.

The list of purported benefits from sensory deprivation is as long as it is varied. Many of Gardner’s clients use his float pod to help relieve stress, anxiety, depression, pain, muscle and joint swelling, fibromyalgia, insomnia and even jet lag. The heightened state of relaxation achieved during a float is also said to promote mental clarity and creativity.

“It makes everything more vibrant,” Gardner said. “When you go outside the colors will be brighter.”

Sold. Sign me up.

Honestly, the term “sensory deprivation” alone was enough to spark my interest. Our lives are almost always tuned to sensory overload with work, family, stress — it might be nice to mute the world for an hour.

Gardner gave me a tour of the ISO Float facility on Railway Street prior to my float.

A white clam-like float tank glows with green ambient light in a private room across the hallway from the front office. The pod is filled with about 10 inches of water mixed with 1,000 pounds of pharmaceutical-grade Epsom salt, making it effortless to float in. The solution is about six times more dense than the Dead Sea.

The water and room is kept at a constant 94 degrees — skin temperature.

Some clients float for a few hours, others book overnight sessions.

Gardner found floating after suffering a serious lower back injury about 10 years ago. He tried masking the pain with a regimen of pharmaceuticals, but that only led to addiction.

As a last resort, he tried a float pod in Bozeman.

“Bozeman was the closest float center, so I went and tried that,” he said. “My pain levels went down to zeroes and ones on a pain scale of one to 10.”

He now floats once a week for 90 minutes and remains pain free.

He warned that the benefits may not be totally obvious to first-time floaters. Most of my session, he said, would be spent aquatinting myself with the pod and learning how to find that state of total relaxation.

Following a brief how-to video, my hour float session was underway.

I quickly rinsed off in the shower, striped down, popped in some ear plugs and climbed into the tank. The water felt warm, not hot, and was a little slippery because of the salt.

I leaned back and instantly bobbed to the top. Floating was easy and only my face was above water.

Within the first five minutes, I made the horrible mistake of rubbing my eyes. The super dense salt water left a terrible burning sensation — clearly an amateur move. Luckily a squirt bottle of fresh water was provided and I quickly washed out my eyes to quell the stinging.

The next 15 minutes could only be described as uncomfortable — mostly because of my burning eyeballs — but also because of the claustrophobia that seemed to be setting in. With the clam lid shut, in total darkness and silence, I started to freak out a bit.

I needed to reboot.

I climbed out of the pod to regain my equilibrium on solid ground before giving it a second go.

About 20 minutes into my second attempt I actually began to experience waves of sensory deprivation.

Numbness isn’t the right word to describe the sensation. It’s more like no beginning or ending to the space around you. Like skiing through soupy fog on Big Mountain, there is nothing to give you a point of reference.

I came into the day too wired and curious to achieve a state of Zen — but I did find myself drifting in and out of self-awareness.

Right as I was reaching my comfort zone, Gardner flipped on the filtration system to signal that my session was over. An hour felt like 20 minutes.

I showered and slowly got dressed, almost exhausted from the experience.

But as I stepped outside, sure enough the world did seem a little more vibrant and brighter, just as advertised. And while I wasn’t suffering from any particular ailment at the time, my body felt loose and relaxed.

An hour later, I was back in full sensory overload, but the clarity lingered throughout the day.

The ISO Float Center is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For more information, visit www.isofloatcenter.com.