First some notes of my state at the time. When I was driving by I was feeling a little tired and I wanted to take a nap. I figured that I could either take a nap at the park or I could rest in the tank. I thought resting in the tank would be a good a place to rest as any so that is part of the reason I took that route.
Now in the time since I last went in the tank I have heard some interesting accounts from people. First, some people have told me that they are able to very distinctly feel their pulse and their blood pumping in their body when they are just sitting at their desk. I personally was shocked by this because I have never been able to just feel my pulse. Some people tell me they are so sensitive to their pulse they find it distracting. I found this interesting. I have a hard time going out of my way to feel my pulse manually. One night I tried lying as still as I could in a dark room to see if I could sense my pulse. If I concentrated very hard I could, but it was not easy. It felt like my body was going to sleep.
Now at this point I was somewhat familiar with the sensory deprivation tank drill. I hopped right in and started floating. I was much more comfortable with it than I was the first time I did it. The first time I did not know how to let my body relax and so some of my muscles felt achy. This did not happen this time. I was very relaxed this time for some reason. I did notice right away that my hand felt some pain. It turns out I had a few cuts on my hand that were being burned by the salt water. I thought this burning might mess up my "singal-to-noise" ratio, but after awhile I stopped noticing it. The first time I was in the tank I was able to notice very distinctly that I could feel all the aches and pains of my body very distinctly. At least for the first 10-15 min.
At this point I just floated there in the tank. It was pretty relaxing. I think I just zoned out for the hour I was in there. Supposedly in the first episode of Hawaii 5-O a sensory deprivation tank was used as a torture device. I am not sure how this would work, because I personally found it to be pretty comfortable. I have heard some people are uncomfortable in the tank, but I really do not experience that. This time I did not experience a heightening of senses as I did the first time. At least not nearly as much. I am not sure why. The tank was definitely dark and quiet. Prehaps even more so that the first time. I wonder if the temperature is correct. I might bring a thermometer next time. I read a story that the guy who invented the sensory deprivation tank got visited by aliens while being in there. That definitely did not happen to me. I have a suspicion that he had other things going on that I do not consider advisable. I have a read that a recent study from 2009 found that some people experience various hallucinations. I never experienced anything like that either. Mostly I was just hanging out with myself. I actually do not remember much about it. Nothing notable happened. I tried similar tests with my tactile sense as I did the first time, but I did not feel my sense of touch had been heightened. As I mentioned earlier, according to the Meyers Briggs test I am a very highly intuitive person. More so than everyone I have tested except one person. I wonder if I am becoming even more intuitive and even being in the tank does nto heighten my senses. Alternatively maybe being tired reduces the effect. This is my first guess actually. The first time I did this I was very alert. It may help to be mentally alert. I will have to test this more. Also, I tried to just feel the pulse of my body while I was in the tank, but that was a no go as well. I did not feel my pulse at all.
In the last month I have been told I am a "sensual learner," and a "kinesthetic thinker." This is probably true to some degree. Recently I was building some mechanical structures, and I very much naturally like to feel out the prototypes to understand how tolerances and stiffness effect how things go together and operate. When I was a machinist I could get some sense what a .001" slop in a 1/4 inch hole felt like. I had a tactile feeling for what being .005" off on a cut felt like. At the same time though when I was a wrestler it was very difficult for me to physically remember wrestling moves from day to day. I found later that I learn these kinds of tasks more easily if I visualize them in my mind. Regardless, I started thinking that given our current computational power, CAD, and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software we may be able to tactily let engineers feel what their models look like before design. This could be very helpful. What if the designer could see and feel the stresses/deflections as he manipulates what he is modeling, and then on-the-fly makes changes to improve the design. This could be powerful. It could also help with introducing artists and sculpters into the design of engineered structures. I will be thinking about this more.
In summary this may be a kind of negative result day, but now I am getting a sense for the limitations of the tank for reducing "signal-to-noise: ratio in humans.
