I’m sure many of you have heard of sensory deprivation tanks. They’re small tubs filled with saline water designed to keep you afloat. They usually leave you in pitch darkness with earplugs, which, in combination with being afloat, is supposed to reduce stress and such.
Well, I had never tried one and quite frankly I nearly forgot such types of treatments were available. It was only after my psychology professor brought them up in class that I remembered their existence. It was only one presentation slide, but it was pretty cool and seemed immediately accessible for a broke, depressed college student.
I did a little research when I got home from campus that day. There were all sorts of local shops touting their own version of the sensory deprivation experience. Some were bigger, some were smaller, some used “synergistic” salts in their water, etc. But there was one listing that caught my eye.
“TRY OUR NEW SENSORY SATURATION TANK! THE FIRST OF ITS KIND!”
I followed the hyperlink, and it took me to a page beaming with color and vibrancy. I’m surprised there was no seizure warning. The URL looked like randomly generated gibberish but my browser assured me it was secure. The background of the page cycled through all the colours of the rainbow and there was a singular text box displayed in the foreground. In all cursive, it beckoned:
Have you ever wanted to push your mind to the limit? Have you ever wanted to see what you’ve been told you couldn’t see, and feel what you’ve been told doesn’t exist? Do you want to hear the most titillating music and taste the finest food ever to be put on a plate? BOOK WITH US NOW!
It’s funny, because I didn’t know who “us” was. There was no brand or logo or trademark symbol anywhere. Just this text box being framed by flashing colours, with a “BOOK NOW” button below it. Of course, I had to press it.
There was no indication as to what software was being used to facilitate their bookings. Usually there’s a little watermark or something that says “Powered by XYZ Technologies”, but still nothing. I selected a date and time for the following week and proceeded. I filled out all the personal details and hit submit. Surprisingly, the process took me straight to the “THANK YOU” page, completely skipping over payment. Alarm bells were going off left and right in my head, but I was curious nonetheless.
The next week came around fast and soon I found myself charting directions to the facility. The drive was short but the path was pretty nonsensical. My maps app was telling me to drive down this street, then go back down that street, then drive around this block, then return smack dab to the middle of a rundown strip mall.
This place was hanging on for dear life. Long abandoned retail units were marked by the stains of the signs that once adorned their storefront. There were a few cars peppered throughout the parking lot, and a few directly in front of what were the last remaining shops at the front of the mall. Panning westward, I saw the shop I was looking for. Not because it had any signs, but because there were tacky RGB lights stickerbombing the window.
I entered cautiously and the door chime alerted the lone employee to my presence.
“Hi there, are you Mason?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m here for my 6:00 appointment in the sensory saturation tank.” I replied.
“You’ll reach Nirvana soon,” she said with a straight face as she motioned for me to follow her. I gave a forced smile and tailed behind.
The woman was well into middle age and wore an inconspicuous blue shirt with black dress pants. She was barefoot, which I had only noticed when she walked around the counter to guide me to the tank. Her toes had the bare nailbeds exposed. I shuddered silently as I walked behind her, really starting to worry about what I’d gotten myself into.
When we reached the end of the hallway, the woman told me that the tank was ready and that I could change and leave my belongings in the room to my left. She said she’d keep a timer for 60 minutes and come collect me when my duration was up. With that, she gave me a cordial smile and walked back to her post at the counter.
I entered the room on my left and placed my clothes, cell phone, car keys, and wallet in the lockbox they had. A water bottle sat on the lone table, which I assumed was for me and downed hastily assuming I’d get no nourishment in the next hour. The room was lit by a single incandescent bulb hanging down from its wire in the middle of the room. I ducked it on my way out and entered the tank.
I waded into the dark pool and positioned myself on my back. Strange. This didn’t feel very stimulating at all. This was just a sensory deprivation tank. Chuckling under my breath, I nodded to myself in jest at what an idiot I was. Still, I couldn’t complain about a free treatment. Before I could finish smiling, though, something grabbed my foot and yanked me down to the bottom of the pool.
I made a hard impact with the floor of the tank and felt the grip release from my ankle. I caught myself and stabilized in the water. I started struggling to return to the surface as I felt my breath leave my mouth in bubbles.
Something was wrong. It was taking forever to reach the top. There’s no way the tank was that deep; I was standing in it just a minute ago prior to getting on my back. I continued to pull upwards but to no avail. My lungs became heavy like cinderblocks as they grew saturated with water. I passed out on the spot.
When I came to, I was on my back, naked, staring up at a bright white light. It was so bright that I couldn’t tell what exactly was emitting it. I sat up. I coughed up some foul-tasting water and looked around at the empty, ice white room.
That was when the high hit me. My heart was beating like a drum with my vision following in tandem. The room was shimmering and colours were bursting out at me. Whatever was in the water, it wasn’t Epsom salt.
I stood up extra slowly so as not to fall over from disorientation. I felt great. My head was light, and my vision was colourful and rhythmic. It was great for the few seconds that I could enjoy it before being rudely interrupted.
I heard a knock on the wall to my right. Strong, heavy-handed strikes. I knew just from the way that it knocked that whatever was doing it wasn’t in the greatest mood. All I did was stare since my motor skills were heavily impaired. Just then, a giant red centipede phased through the wall and crawled over to me. I was terrified but immobile with fear as it approached and opened its jaws in my face. I thought it was going to eat me.
“I’m going to go get my mother. Will you stay here while I do so?” It asked in a high-pitched echo.
What the actual fuck. It didn’t help that this thing was distorted and shimmering due to my screwed-up perception in the moment. My heartbeat was thumping in my ears. Before I could open my lips to respond, it slithered away on its back and phased right through the same wall once more.
The room went dark immediately after.
I stood there, my eyes adjusting to the sudden void I was in. The darkness pulsed in waves before my eyes. Humanoid figures materialized out of the void and disappeared just as quickly all over the room. I chalked it up to the otherworldly inebriation I was in but couldn’t react even if I wanted to: whatever I was drugged with made my muscles feel like jelly.
After a few seconds, I was feeling ecstatic despite my circumstances. It felt like I was on an endless ascension induced by every drug I had ever tried, simultaneously. I got used to the figures as I panned around, strangely enjoying the shadow show I was subjected to. A counter-intuitive relaxation was beginning to set in before I realized that one of the silhouettes was not disappearing like the rest.
It was crouched down some distance into the void, rocking back and forth. I guess my attention must have alerted it, because it stood up amidst the other disappearing figures and turned to me.
“Why have you come back? …run as you might, try as you may, fight until your muscles give out. Idiocy has sealed you here, as it did to me.” I saw the outline of a noose descend from the darkness above and pull the figure by its neck into the endless black expanse. All of the figures disappeared that instant.
Creak. A door opened somewhere off in the distance.
Loud, thumping footsteps grew closer and closer. The invisible force stopped at what seemed like inches away from my face. I held my breath, suppressing a mental breakdown. “Enjoying your experience? There’s plenty more where that came from.” The disembodied voice then ran off in the same direction it came, followed by a door slamming shut.
Dozens of unseen doors creaked open in unison. My head felt like it was about to explode at this point. “Trounce him,” a female voice commanded from the distance. Hundreds of footsteps fell closer and closer before I got tackled to the floor and wailed on. I couldn’t do anything. I tried with all my might to struggle free; each of these invisible hits landed with the force of a jackhammer. I thought I was going to die from the sheer amount of injury being inflicted on me. I passed out.
The distant ringing of an iPhone timer woke me up. I immediately sat up and looked around. I was on the bench next to the deprivation tank. No more shimmering, no more colours; I was sober again.
I gulped the glass of water that was next to me like a kid after playing around in the summer heat all day. I couldn’t tell if it was old or if the water here just tasted disgustingly weird.
I stood up slowly. slightly disoriented from the whole experience. I walked out naked, not caring that I was in the nude as I searched for the disgusting woman that put me through this.
There was no sign of her. I walked over to the ringing iPhone on the front desk and discovered that it was mine, with a third-party timer app displaying “00:00:00”. I dismissed the alarm and went to the other room to get dressed and collect my things, intent on leaving ASAP.
I walked back out to my car under the night sky and started the engine before clutching the steering wheel with both hands. In my rear-view mirror, I saw a head popping out of the floor inside the shop. The woman was peering at me from some sort of trap door. I shuddered and pulled off onto the road.
The experience was harrowing upon reflection. But I have to say, it was kind of… fun?
Something keeps irking me to go back to the website. I don’t remember bookmarking it, but there it is in my favorites list, marked by a rainbow-coloured icon and a site title instead of the previous gibberish:
“COME AGAIN SOON :)”