Evanston Float Center

At Evanston Float Center, we understand the daily stresses of life. We all experience the aches and pains created from stress, school, sports, physical labor and work. We all experience the constant noise and distractions from the internet and cell phones. At Evanston Float Center, we want to provide a unique place for people to get away from the daily distractions, where your mind and body can truly relax, rest, and rejuvenate. Through the use of float and massage therapy, we believe one can get centered, improving the body's health and natural healing capabilities.

Combining massage therapy with floating can enhance the experience. By getting a massage before floating, a deeper feeling of relaxation can be achieved during the float session. When already relaxed prior to going in to a float session, the ability to get to the theta wave state can come more quickly and the body can start the natural healing process. When receiving a massage after a float session, the body is already in a deep state of relaxation. This can aid the massage therapist to massage more deeply into the muscles getting all the knots and pains worked out.

Patients reported far more relief from anxiety and stress from flotation than any other modality. For depression, flotation was equal to counseling at near 70%, with relaxation training at 53% and physical therapy and medication at 20%. Patients also claimed to have reaped a variety of other benefits from flotation, reporting improvements in sleep (65%) , mental concentration (77%) , energy (46%) , interpersonal relationships (54%) , ability to work (35%) , ability to cope with pain (88%) , ability to cope with stress (92%) , and feelings of well-being (65%) resulting from flotation REST.

There's no doubt that floating works - as a therapeutic, educational and entertainment tool it has powerful effects on a number of levels, including the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. But why is the floatation environment so effective? What can be so actively beneficial in an essentially passive device? This is a question that has intrigued scientists, and today there is floatation research going on in laboratories around the world. The evidence accumulated so far falls into a number of distinct, though interrelated explanations. Among the most important are as follows:

More interesting than the well known alpha waves generated by the brain in moments of relaxation, are the slower theta waves, which are accompanied by vivid memories, free association, sudden insights, creative inspiration, feeling of serenity and oneness with the universe. It is a mysterious, elusive state, potentially highly productive and enlightening; but experimenters have had a difficult time studying it, and it is hard to maintain, since people tend to fall asleep once they begin generate theta waves. One way of learning to produce theta waves is to perfect the art of meditation. A study of Zen monks conducted by Akira Kazamatsu and Tomio Hirai, in which the monks' brain-waves were charted as they entered the meditative states, indicated that the four meditative plateau's (from alpha to the more sublime theta) "were parallel to the disciples' mental states, and their years spent in Zen training." Those monks with over twenty years of meditative experience generated the greatest amount of theta, the monks were not asleep but mentally alert. However, since many of us are unwilling to spend twenty years of mediation to learn to generate theta waves, it's helpful to know that several recent studies (at Texas A&M and the University at Colorado) have shown that floating increases production of theta waves. Floaters quickly enter the theta state while remaining awake, consciously aware of all the vivid imagery and creative thoughts that pass through their minds, and after getting out of the floatation environment, floaters continue to generate larger amounts of creativity-promoting theta waves for up to three weeks.

In a series of seminal studies produced over the last twenty-five years, Paul MacLean, chief brain researcher at the National Institute for Mental Health (US) , has produced convincing evidence that the human brain has three separate physiological layers, each corresponding to a stage in our evolutionary history. In this "Triune Brain Theory," the most ancient layer is called the reptile brain, and it controls basic self-preservative, reproductive and life sustaining functions. Sitting atop the reptile, brain is the iambic system, which MacLean had dubbed the visceral brain, because generates all our emotions. The most recent part of the brain to develop is the "thinking cap" of convoluted gray matter called neocortex, seat of our abstract, cognitive functions; memory, intellect, language, and consciousness. While many of these three separate brains have overlapping functions they are all quite different in chemistry, structure, action, and style. Three brains should be better than one, but unfortunately, due to a ruinous design error, there is insufficient communication and coordination between the neocortex and the two older levels. This lack of communication results in a chronic dissociation between the higher and lower brains, which MacLean calls schizaphysiology, and which we experience in the form of conflicting drives - unconscious and conscious, savage and civilized, lusty and loving, ritualistic and symbolic, rational and verbal. There are times when the levels do act in harmony, as in peak experiences when body and mind unite in exhilarating moments of vitality, when our actions come effortlessly, spontaneously. But it's hard to predict when these perfect moments will occur. Now there is evidence that suggests that, due to heightened internal awareness and decreased physical arousal, floating increases the vertical organisation of the brain, enhancing communication and harmony between the separate levels. Floating, it has been hypothesised, can provide us with peak experiences almost at will.

Because of biofeedback research (including Johns Hopkin's researcher John Basmajian's conclusive study of subjects consciously firing off single motor-unit neurons) , we now know that humans can learn to exercise conscious control over virtually every cell in their bodies. Processes long thought to be involuntary, such as the rhythm and amplitude of our brain waves, healing, blood pressure, the rate or force of heart contractions, respiratory rate, smooth-muscle tension, and the secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters are now thought to be controllable. The way biofeedback machines work is by enhancing concentration', by focusing on a single, subtle change in the body, which is being amplified by the machine, we are able to shut off our awareness of the external environment. This shutting-off of external stimuli is exactly what the floatation environment does best - almost as if in an "organic" biofeedback machine, in the tank every physical sensation is magnified, and because there is no possibility of outside distraction, we are able to relax deeply and focus at will upon any part or system of the body.

It is recommended that you do not have any caffeine (coffee, energy drinks, certain teas, etc.) for several hours beforehand as it can make you and your system jittery during the float. Also, not to shave or wax the day of your float since the salt water can irritate your skin. Eating a light meal about an hour to 90 minutes ahead of time stops your stomach from sounding like an angry monster while you float. Most importantly...relax. The tank will help achieve this, but if you arrive relaxed, the experience will be more beneficial for you.

Floating during pregnancy is a safe and effective way to reduce pain, stress and simply relax, rest and rejuvenate. Floating is excellent for women in their 2nd or 3rd trimesters and the weightless environment can be beneficial to both you and your baby. Floating while pregnant takes the strain off your spine and feet, which can help with the aches and pains that normally occur when being pregnant. You can even create a deeper connection with your baby while you float as you experience a feeling similar to what your baby feels floating in your womb. We do, however, recommend that pregnant women avoid floating during the first trimester. If you have any concerns about the effects of floating on your pregnancy, we ask you to consult and get permission from your physician before you float.

While there is no guarantee that the salt won't strip some color from your hair, we recommend that you check if the water running through your hair in the shower at home is fully clear. If there is still some color coming out you should wait a couple of more days.

The water is fully filtered 3-5 times between each float, passing through an intense filtration system for particulate matter. Ozone gas, a powerful oxidizer and disinfectant, is also injected into the water which kills all known bacteria, viruses, yeasts and a lot of other things you don't want to know about. Furthermore, the Epsom salt solution is naturally sanitary; the combination of the high concentrations of Epsom salt and a small amount of disinfectant make it cleaner than a pool and nearly impossible for microorganisms to survive.