Deep Self: PRofound Relaxation and the Tank Isolation Technique

Interesting reports on the early days of float tank development by John Lily

From the jacket: "Dr. John Lilly, author of The Center of the Cyclone and Man and Dolphin, draws upon 22 years of groundbreaking sientific research to present his remarkable theory and techniques of isolation therapy, showing rader to to unfold and expereince new degrees of self-awareness and personal harmony. Dr. Lilly has been studying isolation therapy ever since he developed this method in 1954 and the Nat'l Institute for Mental Health. Since 1973, he has been working in California with scores of men and women volunteers who have recorded their extraordinary experiences..." This is a dated, but fascinating book. It has detailed instructions on how to build an isolation tank. Many personal reports of people's floating experiences, by Richard Feynman, Andrew Weil, Werner Erhard, Burgress Meredith, Gregory Bateson, Stan Grof, Sam Keen, Ralph Metzner, Robert Anton Wilson. Discusses possible use of psychopharmacological agents while in the tank.

If you are looking for this book it is obvious that you know something about Lilly and his work, so I will provide here only a few insightful quotes from the book in cojunction with some comments about this particular work; and state that "The Deep Self" is THE book on this subject... Sadly, I know it is out of print, but it is a priceless source of informationt that I highly recommend, whatever the cost. As mentioned...Here are some quotes from the book, followed by a comment correlated with the content:Page 130, Chapter 9: Mental Effects of Reduction of Ordinary levels of physcial stimuli on intact, healthy persons. "If one is alone, long enough, the mind turns inward and projects outward its own contents and processes; the brain not only stays active despite the lowered levels of [sensory] input and output, but accumulates surplus energy to extreme degrees." Lilly, aware of and trained by the Arcia/Shamanistic/Gurdjieff/Sufi/Dream-Yoga-systems, saw that man cannot concieve of anything but himself - his identity/personality/ego - and that this limitation can only be overcome by "eliminating" the source of this personal self, as much as possible. As Lilly says,"An ego observing itself generates only circular data; i.e., that it experiences only what it wishes and allows itself to experience." So, he pionered the floatation tank as a form of sensory isolation in order to transcend the limitations of the ego and dig deeper into experience. In this book he cites experiements that he conducted for the government and medical institutions in cojunction with LSD, dolphins, and "healthy" persons. He then sets about instructing the reader on all aspects of building and using an isolation tank. And then, elucidates his experiences, as well as those of aquaintances, in the tank. Another quote: page 70, The search for reality. "I confirmed (a I had earlier suspected) that wholly complex domains of thought/feeling/doing/memory [lay] below my levels of awareness [and] acted so as to program my current beliefs about 'what is real.' Inner reality had its own laws, distinct from (and many times counter to) the laws of outer reality...I finally realized that the depths of mind are as great as the depths of cosmic outer space...The province of the mind has no limits; its own contained belifes set limits that can be trancended by suitable metabeliefs (like this one)." Lilly technically approaches, in a scientific/observational manner, all processes belonging to and of the central nervous system in his consciousness altering attempt to break, wide-open, the unknown. He lays out gradients, levels, sign-posts, if-you-will, of the inner journey, and leaves the mind longing for a deeper experience - Something, anything, that trancends the norm. What I continue to find interesting is how the "unknown" presents itself, when allowed. Lilly says "The range of phenomena available to the normal human mind is much greater than "society" will permit or a