Living: Nirvana in a Dank, Dark Tank

Seeking tranquillity? Slip into a watery coffin

To calm the spirit, Byron suggested, apply "rum and true religion." Alas for Georgian simplicities. The rum has turned to water, the religion to immersion. Relentlessly, Americans have sought spiritual calm in steam baths, saunas, Jacuzzi whirlpools and hot tubs. Now, in the quest for tranquillity, some of them are dunking themselves, in total darkness and aloneness, for an hour or more at a time in small tanks filled with 250 gal. of 93.5° salt water. Why? To achieve, through "sensory deprivation," surcease from...

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