The idea of losing your senses voluntarily is attracting a growing number of Manitobans.
Float.Calm is a sensory-deprivation centre recently opened in Winnipeg, where clients like John Campbell go to use high-tech tanks 90 minutes at a time.
The tanks are filled with 400 litres of water with 850 pounds of pharmaceutical grade Epsom salts mixed in. Once inside, all your senses are essentially turned off by darkness, silence and weightlessness.
"This is a way to gently disconnect and reconnect with yourself," said Campbell.
Owners Leah Dawn & Brad Dauk started the business after trying floatation in the U.S.
"We decided to drop everything in life, completely change directions, saying let's just open a float centre…and that's what we did," said Leah in Float.Calm’s chill space where dozens of first-time floaters have documented their experience on a chalk wall.
Sensory deprivation isn't new for Manitoba.
Starting in the 1950s, a psychologist named John P. Zubek started decades of pioneering research on the topic at the University of Manitoba. His work is still read by colleagues today.
"He is still considered one of the best scholars that ever was at the University of Manitoba," said Brian Hubner, who works at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.
Dr. Richard Shore, a clinical psychologist in Winnipeg, said when your brain is not used to receiving this much silence, it essentially creates noise in its place.
He said it can create relaxation or hallucination, depending on your state of mental health.
“I think if it’s something someone is interested in, they should take a risk and see how they do,” he said.
The water in the tanks is filtered in between every client and there is a bit of bromine in the solution for sterilization.
Float.Calm is working with the province to set safety standards for all float centres in Manitoba.
