Part one on: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/user/blog/TheNaxx/view=80775751

First of, apologies for the period between part one and two, my hard drive got fried.

The investigation was very difficult to do. When i asked people if they wanted to participate (no budget to pay them), they would freak out, looking at me as if i wanted to do brain surgery on them. "I have to be in a totally dark float tank for an hour? Oooh , sorry, I have to, uhmm, knit some socks, I cant". Support from the academics wasnt easy either, "who are you and why do you want to do this? Why not a regular, bibliographical, all the same as always thesis?". All of them were pretty happy with things just as they were, all pretty happy and fat behind their desks, like ruling a discipline as if they owned it, conforming to ideas from 50 or 100 years ago. One of them that had some influence in the evaluation committee did support the project, so i carried it on.

The most difficult part was to eliminate the drug relation with it, along with the sort of neohippie vibe. That involved no drugs whatsoever, no dyed t-shirts and ponytails, no psychedelic posters. All had to be measured and registered, sobered up. As i did more research, i found out that this devices, the float tanks, were used, and probably still are used somewhere, as a torture and brainwashing device. In fact, they used to call it sensory deprivation back in the 50s, now its called sensory control; Friendlier? Maybe.

(As you enter the chamber or tank, you feel the texture of the salt in the water. Epson salt is very innocuous, it burns if you have cuts or irritated skin (shaved skin). You do not want it in your eyes too. The person in charge close the door of the chamber/tank, then you lay in the water, and float. The light goes out gradually, and then you start ur trip. Float tanks are the closest thing to floating in space here on earth. In time, you start to relax, since there is no outer stimulation, you stop thinking about outside, your head relaxes, your body relaxes. All you can hear is your own heartbeat and calm breathing)

The droogie friends wanted to try out the tank on weed and, of course, in shrooms or lsd. The sad part, oh, the shitty part, is that I could not allow it (sorry miles). I did not want to repeat the mistakes of the past, mixing this weird psychedelic tool with another psychedelic entertainment and tool, good ol´drugs. I like drugs, I love drugs, but I feel like operating heavy machinery with this fucking thing. I mean, float tanks? Who the fuck would dedicate loads of time and money to float tanks? I get money for each hour of floating, about 50 bucks. With 2 tanks on a rate of 15 people a day, its 750 bucks a day, 3750 a week, 15k a month, at full capacity and in the best of cases (not yet, we are still working on the center, so right now, Im broke). What do I care if people want to float while tripping out of their fucking minds? Aah...i found out what happened to J.Lilly, it wasnt just the ketamine. The thing is, the chamber's strong enough to trip you out. You dont need shrooms or weed. Check out this link:

  http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/drugs/mouse.html

Ill make it short, I swear: drugs dont drug you (Lol), they just control your own brain drugs, like serotonin or dopamine to activate or deactivate. The tank does important changes to your brain, from electrochemical changes (brainwaves) to hormonal changes. More subjective things also change, your consciousness, your awareness of things. A study showed that with a week of floating you can achieve what a Zen monk achieves in 5 years of meditation, the easy nirvana. Lilly got screwed cuz he didnt or couldnt see the potential of the tanks without the drugs, especially ketamine. The fact is, you do not need external drugs, youll be fine with ur own body drugs. Its the conditions of the float tank that makes you high, makes you think clearly. After you have floated for an hour, you just feel better, more focused, like the final stage of the shrooms without the shrooms.

So far, the float tanks been a hit. The phew people that have tried it out have loved the experience. I still have to see if I can live of it. Thnks fo da ridin.