My focus here/now will be on the past [portion of this ‘assignment’] that set me up to be involved in floatation work…
It was probably inevitable that I would end up involved with float tanks ….
When your last name is Wasserman, which means ‘waterman’ in german*, and you, from the age of 6 years old, are taking massages, steams in steam rooms, saunas, going to thermal mineral water springs with your maternal grandfather on vacations, you are deeply imprinted with the power, pleasure, and healing of the water element, in all its forms…
[It doesn’t hurt that also astrologically I am an Aquarian…the water bearer and humanitarian…something I also revel in….’I am the waterman, goo goo g’joob’, with all apologies/appreciation to John Lennon…]
As a result of these influences and my personal choices, I have sought out, in the past, every therapeutic, hedonistic treatment of massage, hydrotherapy, etc., that I could ever find…
I became aware of Dr Lilly and isolation tanks, conception-ally, in college, due to his book CENTER OF THE CYCLONE, and it was 10 years later that I was able to float for the first time
I had finished college, returned to my hometown, was working in my family’s business…
[from The Graduate: Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Benjamin: Yes, I am. Mr. McGuire: Plastics. ]
My father, a youthful, vital, ‘younger’ looking man than his actual age, who I was essentially patterning myself after, became ill and entered the hospital, and died less than a week later….
Needless to say, this was a profound moment and time in my life, and clearly new choices needed to be made…
It sent me into deep searches of health, nutrition, metaphysics, and spirituality…
In many ways, it freed me and I left the family business, and my hometown, and went on a bit of a gypsy journey….stumbling towards clarity???,
[what Dr Lilly called ‘movement towards Essence’].
Within 3 years I was trained in massage and hydrotherapy and was working at a resort hotel in Phoenix, AZ.
I saw that people would literally get up from the massage session, put their stress back on, and felt there must be something better that could help them…
It was during a trip to Los Angeles that I experienced my 1st float, which was profound, transformational, and life’s work committing and defining!
From that time/moment, I have been involved with floating ever since.
The healing, rejuvenating, transforming, and spiritual power of floating, not to mention its pleasure, bliss, and ecstasy has always motivated me, and I have always felt that I would endeavor to share and promote it for the rest [r.e.s.t.?] of this life…
There were many years of struggle and bewilderment that this most profound and powerful and positive technique and experience was ignored and even ridiculed by mass society.
No matter how difficult or how bewildered I may have felt by the non-receptivity of the larger society, I never could stop doing this work or stop believing in its value…
I opened a small float center in Houston, Texas in 1981, which I owned/operated for 7 years, offering 2 tanks and 2 massage rooms, and experienced many great miracles and healings of my customers, made many friends, and accomplished my goal of learning about floating from a point initially of little real knowledge and experience other than what I had read in books, and my few personal floats.
I certainly felt that my background in doing massage, working around the resort hotel, miscellaneous chiropractors, and rolfers, and that my love and commitment to serving my customers would and did serve me in good stead.
[I opened at a time when floats ‘sold’ for $15/hr, packages of 50 floats [1/week for 50 weeks] sold for $250.00. I agonized moving price to $20/hour, a very different economic basis than today…my 1st floats in renting tanks in 1977 at places available were $7.00/hour…]
Certainly the changes, wider acceptance, greater awareness, and obvious need for floating is hugely satisfying to me, and I appreciate being part of a more energized world-wide community of committed float devotees, centers, manufacturers, and customers…
We have a large role to play as we bring even greater healing service to planet earth and our fellow travelers and I appreciate being able to continue to do work that I love, find profoundly satisfying and profoundly needed….
Thank you for this opportunity of expression
David Wasserman
* my entire family background/ancestry is russian, and what is interesting is that my paternal grandfather either changed his last name, or it was changed by some other entity, a mystery that persists for me to this day. But it was a fortuitous event and very affecting choice for me.
—
David Wasserman, Owner, Oasis Relaxation Systems, San Diego, CA
