Altered states of consciousness during Floatation-REST, Helena Hruby | 2024 Float Conference

[Music] So hello, my name is Helena Ruby. I'm from Fryborg and I want to present my doctoral thesis on flotation rest and I present the first quantitative study of my PhD project and I work together with um Stefan Schmidt, Justin Feinstein and Mark Vitman and in this presentation I want to show you that flotation rest leads to altered states of consciousness ASC that includes the distortion of subjective time and the dissolution of the body boundaries and we found out that the dissolution of the body boundaries leads to less anxiety. So first of of all I want to give you some more background information about what ASC are. ASC are inducible by psychological or pharmacological procedures for example psychedelics, meditation or yoga. They are temporarily limited episodes mostly visible. They are subjective experiences with alterate perception of the internal for example feelings and thoughts and the external world for example hallucinations and they can lead to changes in sense of self and time. The current research on ASC takes place for example in the context of psychedelics, meditation and flotation rest. And we know that ASC can be induced by psychedelics and meditation and also by flotation rest. But there is a lack of systematic quantitative research studies on ASC during flotation rest. Studies on psychedelics and meditation show that people experience a reduced sense of time and a reduced sense of the bodily self and a feeling of unity with the world. So let's have a look at research on flotation rest. We know that flotation rest has proven positive effects on mental and physical health. Psychological increase on positive mood, reduced anxiety symptoms, reduced stress and burnout symptoms, enhancement of psychotherapic process and physiological reduced pain, increase on relaxation, decrease in blood pressure and alterate body perception. So my main research question is what role do ALSC play in the emergence of positive mental states because there are proven positive effects through flotation rest but nobody knows why and the induction of ALC could be an explanation. So let's have a look at my study. So we had 50 healthy participants and I used a randomized control study with a repeated measures design with three assessment time points. The experimental condition was flotation rest and the control condition was bed rest. In the flotation west condition, we used the cabin for two from floater away and participants floated in a salt room of epsom salt. There was no side and no sight sound and the temperature was 35°. In the bed rest condition, the participants laid on a water bed in a salt room. So the walls of the room are made of salt stones. So you you can see it in this picture. These are the salt stones and there was no sight and no sound too. The temperature was 28°. The first session was a familiarization session where subjects had the opportunity to try out both conditions for 30 minutes each. This was done to reduce effects of novelty and to ensure that any questions could be answered prior. Here we measured some demographic data and personality questionnaires. In the two subsequent sessions, participants floated for 60 minutes and they laid on the water bed for 60 minutes. There was one week in between the three sessions. In both sessions, we had pre and post measurements. The order was balanced across all the three sessions to control for sequence effects. So now I want to show you my instruments. For the measurement of the trade variable absorption, we use the telan absorption scale. Abs absorption means the ability to focus entirely on an activity without being distracted resulting in a kind of merging with the activity itself. For example, when you're reading an exciting book or watching an exciting movie. Then we had emotional state variables for example valance and arousal. This was measured by self as assessment mannequin scales. Then we had relaxation and stress, mind wandering, fatigue and anxiety measured by visual analog scales. Then we had ASC and this was measured by the phenology of consciousness inventory PCI and the body boundaries were measured by the perceived body boundary scale and time with inventory on subjective time. So I will show you now the most important instruments for my hypothesis. Here you can see an example for the time measurement. We used the question did you lose your sense of time during floating resting? This was a variable time distortion and participants could answer on a visual analog scale not at all or extremely strong. Another question was how long did the 60inut floating or resting session subjectively feel? This was a variable estimation of duration. So now I show you the measurement for the body boundaries. Participants could choose between not perceptible body boundaries and clearly perceptible body boundaries. So you see the figures they have different body boundaries here weaker and here a little bit stronger. Okay. Now I want to show you my hypothesis. This is a shtric representation of the expected direct effect as direct C. This is um oh sorry um this is the direct effect and the indirect effects A and B. So we expected that flotation rest leads compared to bed rest to AC that includes more time distortion and weaker body boundaries. And we expected that flirtation rest leads compared to bed rest to less anxiety, less tension, less stress, and more relaxation. Furthermore, we expected that improvements in emotional well-being are mediated by the experience of ASC. So we put ASC as a mediator. So we can see this mediation. So regarding absorption, we expected that stronger absorption leads to improvements in emotional well-being and more intense ASC. So the sample characteristics, we had 50 healthy participants and the average age was 29.5 years. There were no dropouts. 68% had a university degree. 90% floated for the first time and 48% used contemplative techniques daily or weekly for example yoga or meditation. So it is a convenient sample of educated individuals with some contemplative experience. Okay, now it gets interesting. So we can have a look at the first results of the emotional state variables. So here you can see the graphs show the median within the two conditions. Here we see that both conditions significantly reduce arousal, anxiety, tension and stress. So at this point one might ask whether there's any difference at all between flirtation rest and bed rest. But I can assure you there is a difference. So let's have a look at my next. So here you can see the difference between flotation rest and bed rest. So we found out that flotation rest leads compared to bed rest to less anxiety, less tension and less fatigue. So let's have a look at the results for ASC regarding time and body boundaries. We see that flotation rest leads to more time distortion and overestimation of duration and weaker body boundaries. The dissolution of the body boundaries is a very strong effect. So you can see the difference really big. And another interesting result is that flotation rest leads to an overestimation of duration compared to the control condition. The real floating time was 60 minutes. And when you have a look at the median, you can see that the participants estimated time as 60 minutes very accurately. So you can see it here. It's almost 60 minutes. So that's why I want to give you more detailed information about this variable. Here you can see the histogram of the variable estimation of duration within the flotation rest condition. The histogram shows the distribution of the data. The estimate of the time was measured in minutes. That's the x-axis. And the histogram shows the median of 60 minutes. This is a gray bar. But also two groups, one with overestimation and one with underestimation of the duration. So there is a high variance in the data. And when taking this distribution into account, it aligns with the experience of time distortion during flotation rest. So let's take a look at the results of the PCI. Two variables are significant. Flotation rest leads to higher alterate state and to higher alterate experience. The variable alterate state measures if there is something different from normal state. And alterate experience means changes in body and time perception, perceptual experiences, spiritual and transcendental experiences. So flotation R leads compared to bed rest to more intense ASC. We correlated the variables time distortion and body boundaries with the PCI variables alterate state and alterate experience. And we can see that more time distortion and weaker body boundaries correlate with ASC. This shows that time distortion and the dissolution of the body boundaries are altered states of consciousness. So now I show you this results for the trade variable absorption. We found out that the trade variable absorption has an impact on the body boundaries. The stronger the absorption capacity, the more the body boundaries dissolve. We used a nonparametric regression analysis. So the coefficients you see here are not standardized. Okay, then let's have a look at my mediation analysis. So first we can see there is a significant direct effect from the condition on anxiety. So flotation rest compared to bad rest to less anxiety. So but if we include the mediator body boundaries this significant direct effect disappears and this is called a complete mediation. So it means flotation rest oh sorry um leads to weaker body boundaries and weaker body boundaries leads to less anxiety. So body boundaries mediate the effect of the condition on anxiety completely. So flotation rest itself is not the reason why anxiety is reduced but the experience of the dissolution of the body boundaries is an important factor to reduce anxiety. In my discussion, I would like to emphasize the point that we use the strongest control condition so far. Flotation rest and bed rest led to significant degrees in arousal, anxiety, tension, and stress. And we found out that flotation rest leads to less fatigue, anxiety, and tension, and more ASC. That means weaker body boundaries and more time distortion. and the loss of body boundaries mediated the loss of anxiety. The personality trait absorption led to ASC. So almost all results are conformed to my hypothesis. So that's why I'm really happy and that's I'm really glad to present these results to you. So good luck. [Applause] So I want to show you this again because it's very important. The loss of body boundaries mediates the degrees of anxiety. That means ASC is an important factor to reduce anxiety. It shows a novel mechanism by which flotation rest exerts its anxolytic effects. So now you can explain this to your clients. It's a far better situation than before. Before you had could say, okay, flotation rest leads to less anxiety, but actually we don't know why. We don't know what's going on. But yeah, go on. So it's a far better situation now. Now you can explain this and more information means more safety. So my study can be seen as fundamental research in the field of ASC and complementing other studies with psychedelics, meditation and so on. My results also have relevance in the field of psychotherapy. Here there are promising results in clinical research regarding psilocine and they found out that the induced ASC through psilosubine can help in different psychotic disorders. So flotation rest represents a good alternative to taking a substance. It is a safe and controllable way to induce ASC with almost no side effects. Furthermore, Kilkun found out in a pilot study that the therapeutic process can be improved after flotation rest. Of course, my study has some limitations. For example, there's a difference between the conditions. While participants were lying on the water bed wearing comfortable clothes, no clothing were worn during floating. Maybe this affects the dissolution of the body boundaries. Furthermore, there are different type temperatures. The water in the flotation west condition was 35° warm and the water bed had a temperature of 68°. Another aspect concerns to our sample. 48% of the participants had prior contemplative experiences on a weekly or daily basis. So this could have had a positive impact on the experience of ASC as contemplative experience facilitate easier access to ASC. But I checked this statistically and there was no impact on the experience of ASC. If you are interested in more details of the study, you can find the article online. Okay. And now I want to give you a short outlook of my next qualitative study of ASC. During flotation rest, I did microfenmological interviews with 13 participants. It is a more detailed qualitative assessment of subjective experience with a valid and reliable method that analyzes ASC in depth. The special thing about this method is that it gives you information about the temporal unfolding of an event as well as detailed content information. So you get to know the different time phases of an event and here I find out what's going on when the people experience a dissolution of a body boundaries. So at the moment I'm analyzing the interviews and I have first results and I will publish a second paper and maybe I can presentate this results to you on the next con conference. [Applause] So um I want to acknowledge the owners of the health practice planner in Fryborg where the flotation rest cabin and the bed rest is located and Jenny and Colin Stanville Smith from Flutterway as well as the funding agency. So thank you for listening. That's all I have for you. [Music]