Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
It happens every once in a while, a tv show or a movie will feature a float tank and the entire industry gets a jolt as if to say “we made it to the big time!”
But not all float tank cameos are created equal, so which one does it the best? What is the best representation of floating in media? Graham and Ashkahn go through the list of everything from Altered States to Stranger Things to find out what it is.
Show Resources
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Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: This is Graham.
Ashkahn: And this is Ashkahn.
Graham: And today’s question is-
Ashkahn: I’m gonna back you up with the question.
Graham: All right. Do it. “What’s the most accurate representation of float tanks in TV or movies do you think?”
Ashkahn: That was good.
Graham: Yes.
Ashkahn: It was a nice question.
Graham: We can just skip the intro and start making our questions into music.
Ashkahn: What was the most accurate representation of-
Graham: Yeah. Did you absorb any of that question?
Ashkahn: I wasn’t really listening. Yeah. Say it again.
Graham: What’s the most accurate representation of float tanks in TV or movies do you think? And you in this case refers to both of us.
Ashkahn: Do I think? I see. Talking to me.
Graham: Us. Us.
Ashkahn: Hmm.
Graham: What do you think, then?
Ashkahn: Well, let me start throwing some contenders out.
Graham: All right.
Ashkahn: Let me throw some contenders out. All right.
Graham: The Simpsons.
Ashkahn: The Simpsons. Yeah, the Simpsons one wasn’t bad. It was pretty small. It was much smaller than a float tank would be.
Graham: Right. Kind of like a float capsule.
Ashkahn: Yeah. And they lifted you up and put Homer into the back of a truck, and he fell down a cliff.
Graham: But Lisa’s experience was not bad.
Ashkahn: That’s true. That’s true. Yeah.
Graham: As far as it goes, for like a psychedelic kind of float, she had a good one, I think.
Ashkahn: Epiphany sort of float.
Graham: That might be one of my votes, actually, Lisa’s experience in the Simpsons.
Ashkahn: All right. Let’s throw it on the board.
Graham: Or just decide right now.
Ashkahn: That’s it. All right. Cool.
Graham: All right. Bye, everyone.
Ashkahn: Have a good day. So that’s a good one. I think Stranger Things gets a pretty good mention. They actually went out of their way to explain what the heck was going on.
Graham: I don’t know how they heated up the little kiddie pool they were dissolving all the salt in, but-
Ashkahn: No, that part wasn’t very good.
Graham: You need like a titanium inline heater to bring that thing up as fast as they did. You know what I’m saying?
Ashkahn: I’m not sure an egg is quite as good of a system as a hydrometer. They just put an egg in there, so that probably wasn’t the best.
Graham: But we did use an egg in Float On for our first few years in business to measure it.
Ashkahn: Yep. Yeah. And it would just cook as it went through the heater.
Graham: You got a little float dinner going.
Ashkahn: At least they kind of explained it. They got the amount of salt that goes in pretty right, which was nice.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: So that was cool. We’ve seen news broadcasts where they don’t get that right.
Graham: “Let’s go check out this flotation device where they put in 20,000 pounds of Epsom salt per hundred gallons of water.”
Ashkahn: So they did better than real people reporting on real life, which is impressive.
Graham: Which you never expect from fake people. There’s the classic Altered States.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Altered States.
Graham: Also didn’t do a terrible job.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Well, there was the whole devolving into the monkey thing.
Graham: Like I was saying, they did not do a terrible job.
Ashkahn: Everything else about the float tank seemed pretty legit.
Graham: When they go to find it and it’s just like covered in salt and stuff. The Ye Olde Float Yank. Let’s repair this. I’m like, “Yes.” Probably been inactive for like one day.
Ashkahn: So, yeah. Well, they also had the Bachta container float tank thing in the beginning, which I’m not sure if anything quite like that ever existed.
Graham: But we did use one for the first few years in Float On.
Ashkahn: Yeah. It held the eggs a lot better than modern float tanks. Fraiser had an episode with a float tank in it.
Graham: I haven’t seen that one.
Ashkahn: Yeah. It was pretty good. They don’t say anything wrong. It’s there. It’s visually in one of the shots, and it’s just kind of used as a plot device. They don’t exactly explain it very much or anything, but certainly nothing inaccurate happened during the period of time that the float tank was on the show.
Graham: Yep.
Ashkahn: Gotta give that some credit.
Graham: Yeah. I believe you.
Ashkahn: There’s Fringe. I haven’t really seen Fringe, but it seems like someone gets into a float tank and like travels through time or dimensions or something.
Graham: Which, also, again, sounds remarkably accurate to me.
Ashkahn: Inhabits other people’s bodies. I should probably watch the show, I guess. Pretty sure it’s something like that. Something like they’re a demon, inhabit other people, and each episode ends with them getting exorcised out of the person they inhabit. No, I read the Wikipedia page. I’m pretty sure that’s the show.
Graham: What about Minority Report?
Ashkahn: Yeah, so that one’s interesting because they actually hired a float tank manufacturer.
Graham: Which is awesome.
Ashkahn: To build that, to design that crazy thing.
Graham: So if, were you to have three psychics floaters you wanted to throw into a joint three person float tank –
Ashkahn: Three pre-cogs to put in there.
Graham: That is the actual float tank you would-
Ashkahn: Kind of like pooped out little prediction balls or something.
Graham: Yeah. One exists. There’s a manufacturer who’s already built that float tank, so in that sense it is designed by a real manufacturer.
Ashkahn: The story we heard is the director of Minority Report, whose name I don’t know, went and floated and had a really good experience and got inspired to put that sort of thing into the movie, and then he found a kind of float manufacturer to help him design the thing for the movie set, so that’s actually a little piece of float inspiration.
Graham: You mean Steven Spielberg?
Ashkahn: Oh, shit. Is it really Steven Spielberg?
Graham: You said that, and I was like, “Oh, boy.”
Ashkahn: Well, you had to look it up, so let’s not give yourself too much credit.
Graham: I was just confirming it. Thanks for breaking the fourth wall there. Yes, what I did when Ashkahn talked was confirm that he said something horribly wrong off screen or off tape, What do you call this? Off podcast.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Off mic.
Graham: Off mic. There we go.
Ashkahn: So far we’ve chosen a lot of things that all seem pretty good. I don’t know about the Fringe one. I’m not sure if you really inhabit other people’s bodies as a demon when you get into float tanks.
Graham: And that Fraiser one sounded cool. What about-
Ashkahn: Well, let’s read the question again. What is it specifically? The most accurate description?
Graham: What is the most accurate representation of float tanks in TV or movies?
Ashkahn: So the thing is, the less they say about it, the less they’re there to get anything wrong. The most accurate thing is probably like something where-
Graham: Someone referencing it. “Oh, I went floating the other day.”
Ashkahn: There’s was an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, as well, with a float tank in it, and they literally just showed the float tank for a moment, and that was pretty much the end of it. That’s pretty accurate. Well, actually, you know what? It was like sitting out in the middle of a mall or something, not even in a room, so maybe that one doesn’t count. We’ll cut that one from the list.
Graham: Johnny LaRue’s Discount Deprive O Rama.
Ashkahn: That’s true. That one’s pretty.
Graham: Other than the joke part of it, it’s shockingly accurate.
Ashkahn: The part where they climb inside of a float tank.
Graham: Yeah, they smoke a cigar in there.
Ashkahn: There’s an entire subterranean lair with dozens of people partying in there.
Graham: But they call it tank three and tank six in the beginning. Until they get to the visual punchline, it’s actually remarkably accurate.
Ashkahn: All right. Yeah. Also I think the least accurate depiction of float tanks in the media as well. I think it also has that award.
Graham: So I’ll just go ahead and say it. That’s the most and least accurate.
Ashkahn: That’s it. All right. That’s our answer.
Graham: I can’t think of anything out there, again, other than something that like references it only very lightly that gets things 100% correct. I actually can’t think of too many just completely negligent representations of float tanks other than ones like the Bachta tank kind of Altered States one where they stray very far from reality kind of consciously. You know?
Ashkahn: Yeah. Or maybe Johnny LaRue’s Discount Deprive O Rama.
Graham: With the giant subterrain, but that’s a joke. It’s like Homer getting tossed in the back of a truck. Can you think of any, it’s like a drama where their purpose is not to make a joke. They’re trying to actually realistically depict a float tank and they just do the worst possible job.
Ashkahn: They just totally screwed it up.
Graham: Yeah, they just like bomb. All the facts are wrong.
Ashkahn: Float tanks don’t really show up that much. I think we just named every reference I know of.
Graham: Yeah, there’s not a huge sample size. I think, usually, what happens is for these shows, someone suggested they include a float tank, and that person probably knew about them.
Ashkahn: Yeah, someone had to have floated at some point, right? Yeah.
Graham: Short Bus is another one I actually think does an okay, kind of okay job.
Ashkahn: Yeah. I haven’t seen that. Have you seen it?
Graham: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. For sure.
Ashkahn: Do you remember the float tank?
Graham: It shows two people. It’s like a couple’s float tank. It has someone smoking inside one.
Ashkahn: Well, here’s the thing-
Graham: It’s made out of wood, which is dangerous. You know?
Ashkahn: There’s this old float tank from the 80s called the Floatarium, and if one of you out there has an old Floatarium, there’s a manual that comes with the Floatarium from the 80s. There were some Floatariums built that had hot tub features, hot tub jets built into the float tank, and they put like a lip on the ground in the middle of the float tank so that you could prop your legs against it and sit upright in the back. Literally, the instruction manual for the old Floatarium has a picture of two people sitting in the back of a float tank with champagne glasses in their hands.
Graham: That’s so good.
Ashkahn: Drinking champagne with hot tub jets on in a float tank.
Graham: It’s so good.
Ashkahn: And that’s real. That’s like real life.
Graham: So there you go. Most movie and TV references get it better than manuals for float tanks. Or at least that one.
Ashkahn: All right. That’s it. We got Discount Deprive O Rama as the winner and loser.
Graham: And if you have more fun, non-controversial topics to ask us, definitely shoot them along to-
Ashkahn: I spaced. What’s the website?
Graham: Float tank-
Ashkahn: Floattanksolutions.com/podcast. I know that. I know that one.
Graham: All right. Have a good one.
Ashkahn: Bye, everyone.
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Editors Note: This is a revision of a past blog post, updated to reflect the most current sanitation methods and standards
In a perfect world, you could just pour water and salt into a float tank and it would stay pure and clean and fresh and salty forever. In the real world, conditions in the water are constantly changing, so keeping your water safe and clean takes a fair amount of vigilance.
This post covers how we maintain basic water quality in the float tank, except for sanitization methods, which will be covered in their own beastly sanitation blog post. Stay tuned for that coming out next week!
Floating, mental health, and wellness
This post will explore the intersection of floating with the concepts, beliefs, and experiences related to mental health and wellness, with a focus on anxiety and depression. I’ll explore my own story as it relates to floating before diving into the current intersections of floating and mental health, with a look at past, current, and potential opportunities for research and personal growth.
Massage, Acupuncture, and Float Tanks… A Chat with Sandra Calm
We’ve seen lots of float centers that aren’t just float centers.
Many have massage, some offer counseling, some have yoga classes next door. Lots of people start out either by incorporating float tanks into a larger business, or with float tanks only being one of many modalities at their center. Being specialists in floating, Float On has not mastered anything else.
So, to help gain insight into this growing aspect of the industry, we contacted our old friend, Sandra Calm. She started up The Float Shoppe here in Portland with her husband and podcast sensation, Dylan Calm, back in 2011. When they first opened, they had just two float tanks, and slowly added acupuncture, massage, counseling, along with two more tanks. Talk about expansion!
She was more than happy to take some time for the industry to help us understand just what it’s like to run a center with multiple services by answering some questions.
