Summary
Host Lance Baker sits down with Jason Wallace, owner of Newcastle Float Centre in Australia, for an in-depth conversation about the float tank experience from the perspective of someone who floats weekly and has logged sessions ranging from 25 minutes to nearly seven hours. Jason entered the float world as a pure skeptic after hearing Joe Rogan talk about floating on his podcast, initially thinking "no one thing can do that many different things." His first float left him more relaxed than he had ever been in his life, with the calm lasting about three days. The conversation explores the practical reality of floating in detail. Jason describes his typical float as 90 minutes to two and a half hours, during which he first clears physical aches and pains, then quiets his mind, and then enjoys the "candy" -- the creative, introspective space that opens up. His longest float of nearly seven hours felt like only 40 minutes, while a 25-minute session once felt like hours, demonstrating the dramatic time distortion that occurs in the tank. Jason views floating as a form of lifestyle meditation, comparing it to other activities he finds meditative like mowing the lawn and jiu-jitsu. Lance shares his own origin story of finding floating while dealing with a nine-year migraine and seeking meditation as recommended by a pain psychologist. His first float did not produce a quiet mind -- it ranted at him for an hour -- but the following week was the quietest his mind had been in a decade or two. Both men discuss how floating gives you what you need rather than what you want, sometimes surfacing confronting truths that are agitating but ultimately productive for growth and self-awareness.
Key Points
- Float sessions create dramatic time distortion: a 7-hour float can feel like 40 minutes, while a 25-minute session can feel like hours
- The first float often does not produce a quiet mind; instead, mental chatter comes pouring out, but the days following can bring unprecedented mental calm
- Floating gives you what you need rather than what you want, sometimes surfacing confronting truths about yourself that are difficult but productive
- Regular floating (weekly) allows a progression: first clearing physical aches, then quieting the mind, then accessing deeper creative and introspective states
- Even a self-described skeptic who could not float in a pool or ocean found the Epsom salt solution effortlessly buoyant and the experience deeply relaxing
- Floating can provide solutions to problems or at minimum a clearer game plan for approaching them, functioning as a decision-making and problem-solving tool
- The relaxation from a single float session can persist for several days afterward
Key Moments
Seven-hour float that felt like 40 minutes
Jason Wallace, owner of Newcastle Float Centre, shares that his longest float was just shy of seven hours but felt like only 40 minutes, while his average sessions run between 90 minutes and two and a half hours.
"I'd probably meditate more regularly than you'd probably think, but my active meditation is not necessarily sitting with crossed legs going on for 10 minutes. No, you've got the lifestyle meditation. Yeah, definitely. Definitely a lifestyle meditation. So with the float tank experiences you have, what would be the longest float you would have had over the years? Just shy of seven hours."
Pure skeptic converted after first float left him calmer than he had been in years
Jason describes how he was a complete skeptic after hearing Joe Rogan talk about float tanks, thinking no single thing could do that many things. His first float in Sydney left him more relaxed than he had been in years, with the calm lasting about three days.
"No one thing can do that many different things. He was talking about de-stressing and pain relief and excellent thing for meditation and all these other avenues that it fixes. And I thought, I can't even float in water, like in a pool or an ocean. My legs and my bum just perpetually sink. I thought, a fiberglass tub is not going to help me float. This guy is full of crap. And I thought nothing more of it. And then Trish, my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time,"
Going in with a problem and walking out with a solution
Jason explains his principle that the float tank gives you what you need, not what you want. He has consistently found that going in with a problem results in walking out with a solution, a clearer game plan, or simply not caring about it anymore.
"Yeah. I've found if I've had a problem, if I've gone in for a float, I've walked out with a solution. Yeah. Or I've come out, chilled out, and not caring. Or it gives you a game plan. It might not give you the actual answer you're after, but it might give you a clearer way of... If you go in..."
First noisy float vented all the mental chatter, then the next week was the quietest in decades
Lance shares that his first float was not peaceful at all, with his mind ranting at him for the entire hour. But the following week was the quietest his mind had been in at least a decade, because all the mental chatter had come out in the tank.
"And so I'd watch this roguer thing and I'm like, I wonder if there's a float tank here. If I'm going to start meditating, I'm going to try this. Telecharge it. Yeah. So I found it. You come up, send you a message, booked me in a couple of days later. And yeah, I wasn't sure what to expect. And I got what I expected. It didn't work. I didn't have a quiet mind and it didn't shut up my mind. Just it ranted at me like crazy for an hour. Very common. But..."
