“The FLOAT STL experience was thoughtfully designed for people seeking to optimize and transform their lives, minds, and bodies,” according to the company’s website. Owners Kevin McCulloch and Jacob Resch launched their first location in midtown in 2015 and have facilitated over 50,000 floats with their second location, added in Maryland Heights in 2016.
I first found out about the practice of floating through a place I worked, when all employees were given certificates for one free float at FLOAT STL. My initial thoughts were, what is FLOAT STL? Is this a milkshake place…or do we get to ride a float in a parade? I hadn’t heard of floating, let alone seen anything like it. I was intrigued by the zero-gravity experience, but I was also skeptical and a little terrified of being trapped inside something called a “Genesis Pod.”
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Although nervous about the tiny space, I decided to go with the pod among the three different tanks to choose from. The pod is a clam-like structure that is filled with water and Epsom salt to help you float. Upon entering the water, I immediately felt motion sick. It was recommended online to take medicine if you have motion sickness, but foolishly, I thought the experience would be the same as floating on a raft in a pool and didn’t. After some time, the feeling went away and I lost sense of where the water stopped on my body. I was finally able to focus on relaxing.
But that was the problem—I kept focusing on trying to relax so much that I couldn’t clear my mind. It wasn’t until the tail end of the 60 minutes where I actually started to let my thoughts go. Before I knew it, it was time to get out. I don’t participate in any mindfulness activities such as yoga or meditation, but if I had, it might have been easier for me to unwind. Next time, I plan on doing a 90-minute float to give myself enough time to relax. I should also make sure my day is free of responsibilities so that I’m stress-free and not worrying about crossing those things off of a to-do list once I’m out of the pod.
When you can let go though, McCulloch says, the practice is supposed to help you with that never-ending treadmill of thoughts. “Anxiety, stress, pain, sleep, and inflammation are the main things that it solves,” says McCulloch. “On the positive side, it helps with clarity, creativity, positive mood, inspiration, and other things that might be less quantifiable but ultimately lead to positive life changes that are sometimes difficult to understand until you are having that experience.”
McCulloch and Resch, both trained psychotherapists, were inspired by the practice, but the closest places to float were in Chicago and Austin. The two shared a love for floating and worked to bring it to St. Louis. The practice is now accessible to St. Louisans—and the St. Louis Cardinals and Blues players who regularly visit.
Now McCulloch and Resch are putting the practice’s benefits to the test and have partnered with Washington University to conduct a study analyzing the difference in effect that meditating and floating has on the brain. It’s a project that has been in the making for roughly three years.
“Floating can happen in many places, but our interest is to move the practice forward in a way that helps the public gain a better understanding of it and also help develop the practice so we can better utilize it,” McCulloch says.
A set of identical twins studying at Washington University are undergoing an eight-week process where one of the twins will meditate twice a week while the other twin floats twice a week. The twins’ brains were scanned using MRI neuroimaging before the study began and will be scanned again once the study is concluded. Todd Braver, a Wash. U. professor of psychological and brain sciences, radiology, and neuroscience, is conducting the exams to measure changes. To get the most accurate results, the variables of the floating experience must be consistent and the twins’ identities must stay confidential.
“Currently, people understand that mindfulness training helps to improve attention control, emotion regulation, and self-awareness,” McCulloch says. “We’re now able to be comparing a regular float practice with the most validated mindfulness training practice. We believe this ultimately will show that a regular practice of floating will be even more effective in helping with attention control, emotion control, and self-awareness.”
