David Lynch has a small coffee table book called "Catching the Big Fish" where he talks about the value of Transcendental Meditation (TM) for creativity. He compares creative ideas to fish, with little "fish" hanging out near the surface of our consciousness. If you want to catch big "fish," David suggests that you need to dive deep down to where the big scary creative ideas live and that Transcendental Meditation helps you go to these deep places. I don't have a spare $2000 to go learn the trademarked brand of Transcendental Meditation but I have uncovered several tools that I have found useful for going deep that don't involve coughing up 2K to a guru or joining a cult.
Meditation is great but if you are like me, your mind probably wanders all over the place or you just end up getting bored and tooling around Facebook, which feels hypnotic but has no lasting benefit. Sometimes I'll chant with prayer beads to help get my monkey mind to shut up. I can get to some pretty cool places in 5-20 minutes but I would say I'm still skimming the surface where only small and medium "fishes" reside.
The deepest I've ever gone without the aid of hallucinogenic drugs has been from a 90 minute session in a sensory deprivation chamber.
If you've never tried it, floating is a truly wonderful experience. The float tanks are enclosed tubs of water that are heated to just above body temperature and filled with 600-800lbs of epsom salts. The salts create this super dense viscosity that allow the user to float on the surface with ease. It is black out dark inside the chamber and the user should wear earplugs or hope that the facility is silent because that is the point-- to be void of all sensation. No lights, no sounds, no weight on your bones. It's an opportunity to shut everything down and give your brain an opportunity to recharge.
Usually the sessions run somewhere between $60-$75 for 90 minutes but you can get discounts if you reserve them for 3 or 4 hours at a time.
I wish I could do this everyday but I've honestly only gotten to experience it once due to the high expense.
I have however found a cheap and easy hack that gets you pretty darn close to the sensory deprivation experience in the comfort of your own bathtub.
Using a Bedtime Bliss eye mask, Mack's ear plugs and a few cups of epsom salts, I've been able to submerge myself for a period of time and have similar benefits. My bathtub is pretty small so I more or less need to pretend like I don't have legs but other than that, I was able to get into a deep meditative state and from there, I found the creative goodies I was looking for.
Well, they weren't exactly the creative "fish" I was looking for but they were BIG ideas. I didn't actually know I was looking for these creative gems, but once I found them, I recognized them as the treasures that they are.
I'm honestly very excited to share the goodies that I found but I'm not going to today as they are to be used for a project I am presenting next week as something that scares the crap out of me.
I plan on using sensory deprivation moving forward as I have also found it to be a great way to rest my adrenal glands, unwind from a tough day and release anxiety in addition to being a tool for going deep into a meditative state.
I'm always looking for ways to improve my creativity as well as my health. What are some of the tools that you like to use? Please list your favorites in the comments below.
I do wish one day to experience a sensory deprivation chamber. In the mean time I am SO glad my parents taught me meditation young.
This is really informative, I see this post helping. Making an impart in someone life is very inspiring. I love it
My mind wanders around too and going deep does help for sure. I'm from Oregon.
Where in Oregon? I'm in Portland.
Grew up in Forest Grove and lived in Portland for 3 years. Nice to meet you, Amanda.
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I love with this photo and your post because i love with Deep adventures Thanks for sharing..