Summary
Luke Story sits down with Crash Hoefler, the inventor and founding director of Float Lab Technologies in Venice Beach, California, to explore the world of sensory deprivation tanks. Crash has been building flotation tanks since 1999 and shares his journey from the live music touring world (working with bands like Urge Overkill) to becoming a pioneer in the float tank industry. He discusses how the brain responds when sensory input is removed, noting that rather than shutting down, the brain actually becomes more active and available for creative and introspective work. The conversation covers the science behind floating, including how the majority of brain processing power is normally dedicated to gravity navigation and sensory input. By removing these demands in a float tank filled with Epsom salt solution at skin temperature, the brain frees up enormous capacity for creativity and self-improvement. Crash also addresses sanitation standards in the float industry, his work with the National Sanitation Foundation, and his patented cellular influence device that uses underwater audio for enhanced float experiences. Luke shares his own deeply personal experiences with floating, describing it as highly spiritual and psychedelic without any substances. The episode emphasizes that floating is a tool for continuous self-improvement and that the experience varies greatly from person to person, with some finding it transformative and others needing multiple sessions to connect with the practice.
Key Points
- The brain dedicates the majority of its processing power to gravity navigation and sensory input, and floating frees up this capacity for creativity and introspection
- Float tanks use water with dissolved Epsom salt at 1.25 density, heated to skin temperature, creating a zero-gravity sensory-free environment
- When researchers first removed sensory stimulation, they expected the brain to shut down but found the opposite: the brain became more active and sought new avenues for processing
- Float tanks experienced a decline in popularity during the AIDS era due to sanitation concerns, which Crash has worked to address through NSF standards
- Crash developed and patented the cellular influence device (CID), combining float chambers with underwater audio for enhanced experiences
- The experience is highly individual; some people have profound revelations while others need several sessions to connect with the practice
- Consistent floating can function as a tool for continuous self-improvement, with the brain becoming more adept at channeling freed-up processing power productively
Key Moments
What a sensory deprivation tank actually is and the zero gravity experience
Luke explains how float tanks work by matching water and air temperature to skin temperature, eliminating all senses to create a zero gravity experience without going to outer space.
"And the water and the air are the same degrees in temperature as your skin. So the idea here is that you're losing all senses and creating what could be best described as a zero gravity experience. So without having to go into outer space and lose gravity."
Float tanks as the ultimate sober high and psychedelic experience
Crash describes how float tanks produce a naturally psychedelic experience without any substances, allowing consciousness to expand and creative problem-solving to emerge during extended sessions.
"But first, they're scared. What are you going to do? No, for nobody to go in there, they're going to try it. So down here then, so I built, that's when I built the tall one. I took the one that I had like a DeLorean, and I took the top of it, and I said, let's build this thing up another three feet and then put a flat door on here and see if that'll penetrate past this concept that people have for fear, you know, that I don't understand, but this should do it. You know, there's a room."
Float tanks free consciousness from bodily limitations
Luke describes how floating removes the physical body from the equation, allowing consciousness to freely expand beyond its normal limitations, making it an unparalleled tool for personal insight.
"Like, I like having those things I can kind of brace myself and sort of stretch and just kind of move my joints and then go back into the relaxation. Cool. So that's the tank. And there's different types. What I like about yours, too, are they more like a room. I wouldn't even, like, it's a chamber, yeah, but I've been in some, like I've been in those old school samadhi ones that are like a little coffin, and then I've been in some that are like a pod. And I'm not particularly a claustrophobic person, but I think it's just generally for people probably way easier for them to walk into an actual."
Six-hour float sessions and falling asleep in the tank
Crash shares that he used to do six-plus hour float sessions when doing deep personal work, and both discuss how you can fall asleep and drift in and out of consciousness during floats.
"So the small, so when I came here then, so then. So then it was like, oh, I'm in trouble. If nobody's going to get in the thing, it'll never, because that was my intention to get people to do this because it was so cool. I thought, man, I thought I'm going to sell thousands of these things. It's so awesome. Because I was just getting off of some stuff I'd been doing. And this was like a perfect thing to be doing, going, whoa, this actually delivers some goods. I mean, I'm doing that, and I'm feeling this. And it was all adding up in my head really well. And I think everybody, because that was before I realized that a lot of times my."
