Oakland Floats Featured in The Mercury News/East Bay Express

Angela Hill of The Mercury News and East Bay Express has written a fantastic expose on floating in the Bay Area, featuring her own experience at Oakland Floats:

“Do I have a body? I don’t know anymore. It’s dark in here, so dark I blink my eyes to see if they’re open or not, and I still can’t tell. I’m weightless. This must be what zero gravity is like. Maybe I’m in a space station, in a hibernation pod, sliding through the stars. Will I awaken on Mars?

No, this buoyant experience is taking place in the Oakland Floats spa. I’ve been bobbing in thick salty water for more than an hour in what used to be called a sensory-deprivation tank — now termed a float tank, the vehicle of float therapy.

First developed by researcher John Lilly in the 1950s and ‘60s, and once considered a hippie, trippy, new-agey wellness regimen, “floating” is now flowing into the mainstream alongside other fringe-gone-common practices like meditation and acupuncture. Devotees include pro athletes like Steph Curry and some fellow Warriors (Curry recently posted a promo about floating for Kaiser), plus members of the Cubs, the Seahawks, the Patriots – all doing it for what they say are rejuvenating mental and muscle effects.”

Read the rest here