Floating and the Anti-Gravity Explanation
Excerpt from “The Book of Floating” by Michael Hutchison
Gravity is probably the greatest cause of health problems in the United States
The focusing of the body’s weight on small parts of the body, and our upright posture leads to stress and structural problems in other comparatively weak spots: knee and hip joints, lower back, neck and abdomen. The heart has to work harder than it should to pump the blood upward from the lower body, struggling against gravity. Our bodies try to compensate for the strain of gravity by adopting rigid postures, with the result that we develop chronic muscular tension causing lower back pain, neck pain, tension headaches and a wide range of tension-related problems. These problems include shallow breathing, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, ulcers and asthma.
It has been estimated that some 90 percent of all the activity affecting our central nervous system is related to gravity, as if some vast computer were incessantly occupied with tedious arithmetical problems, leaving only a small part of it free to run the programs that deal with important questions.
The exhilaration we feel in the tank is something imprinted in our genes, something we have always known, always longed for: the release from gravity, the escape from the body, the freedom from the pull of the cells – that is, Floating.
Anti-Gravity and the Float Tank
Because of Epson Salts-saturated water, the human body is completely supported, bobbing on the surface. By lowering the gravitational muscular tension, we enable ourselves to perceive or detect much smaller sensations, that is, to intensify our sensations.
By relieving gravitational pressure on joints, tendons, ligaments, bones, and muscles, the tank alleviates temporarily the chronic pain of such ailments as bursitis, arthritis, tendinitis, and traumatic or structural pains from bruises, sprains, broken bones and muscle strain.
The release from gravity also allows the blood to circulate more freely and completely, reaching parts of the body than may be unhealthy because of cardiovascular constriction and in the process allowing the heart to operate more efficiently with less effort. Another result is a drop in blood pressure, the pulse rate and respiratory rate slows.
One of the most common responses to the float experience is a feeling of coming home, to a familiar place. But I think it goes even deeper, to a cellular, perhaps precellular level, to sensations that are native to our collective unconscious. The exhilaration we feel in the tank is something imprinted in our genes, something we have always known, always longed for: the release from gravity, the escape from the body, the freedom from the pull of the cells – that is, Floating. Try Floating today!
