Flotation-R.E.S.T. is one, and often described as the most potent method, for achieving this zero-point of sensory stimulation. As a technology of studying the mind in isolation it was first explored by Dr. John Lilly. Lilly, a famous and pioneering neuropsychologist, cyberneticist, interspecies communicator, and researcher into the nature of conciousness, invented several versions of flotation-R.E.S.T. before settling on what has become the standard version. In our laboratory, Flotation-R.E.S.T. consists of a darkened, sound-attentuated chamber - an enclosed fiberglass tub measuring 99" long, 56" wide and 45" high on the outside. The inside dimensions are 90" by 48" by 41". This chamber is filled with 10 inches of a dense epsom salt solution with a specific gravity of 1.30 and maintained at 94° Farhenheit. The specific gravity of 1.30 means that the solution is 30% denser than water which enables even the skinniest of people to float comfortably on the surface lending a unique sense of weightlessness almost unheard of in any other context. The temperature is kept as close to average skin temperature as possible which further reduces tactile stimulation. Subjects wear aquatic ear plugs to further reduce sound and to keep the salt water out of the ear canal. Typical sessions last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.

Why is it called R.E.S.T.?

R.E.S.T. as a distinct entity stemmed from it origins in the controversial study of "sensory deprivation." Sensory deprivation is a phrase associated with a particular series of studies at McGill Univerisity in the early 1950s which focused on the potentially adversive effects of enforced isolation amidst monotonous stimuli. "Sensory deprivation" may in fact be a misappropriated term when applied to this series of experiments. Often these experiments did not aim to reduce the overall amplitude of stimuli, but rather focused on a limited and unvarying range of stimuli. For example, the McGill technique required subjects to lie on a bed for prolonged periods of time, wearing cardboard cuff and gloves and presented with white noise and diffused light. The dramatic results of these studies included reports of hallucinations, stress, and intolerance for the experimental conditions. These striking outcomes were heavily publicized in the Cold War atmosphere of the late 1950s and eventually "sensory deprivation" became equated with brainwashing and torture. Indeed, the techniques pioneered at McGill were later adapted as methods of interrogation and as such the term "sensory deprivation" has come to mean something wholly different from the study of the (often beneficial) psychological and physiological effects of voluntary isolation.

The term R.E.S.T. was coined in the late 1970's to make a clear seperation between sensationalized negative reports of forced isolation and the R.E.S.T. condition, which does not "deprive" the subject of his senses or alternatively overload the subject with one particular sensory input. Rather, R.E.S.T. is a study of normal human subjects in an altered environmental condition which approximates as closely as possible a sort of zero point of sensory input. The key factor in REST research, as opposed to classic "sensory deprivation" studies, is that it is the environment which is modulated and restricted; the subject is left as unfettered as possible by experimental conditions. The goal then is to explore the make up of mind-body interactions when seperated from usual visual, audio, and tactile frames of reference. (For more on the history of "Sensory Deprivation" as opposed to REST, please refer to Restricted Environmental Stimulation: Research and Clinical Applications, Suedfeld, P. 1980)