![]() ![]() Unlike the salt pool I visited, most flotation tanks are enclosed environments, and the practice of floating sometimes goes by the acronym REST, for reduced environmental stimulation therapy. More recently - perhaps due to the hyperstimulating climate of the digital age - the tanks have resurfaced with a vengeance. During the following two decades, they became popular with artists seeking enhanced creativity. Lilly, who had an interest in expanding human consciousness, developed the first flotation tank in 1954. Today’s salt pools and flotation tanks reportedly offer similar benefits to their legions of devotees. Spa waters were purported to offer a variety of healing powers, such as improving skin health and exorcising mental demons. Halotherapy ( halos is Greek for “salt”) was first used in therapeutic mineral baths at 12th-century Polish resorts. I felt grounded in an unfamiliar and pleasant way. Sidewalks crowded with texting pedestrians, unseasonably hot weather, ongoing political catastrophes - none of these had their customary frazzling effect. Relaxing in that salt pool at Aire Spa in New York City was transformative - and not just while I was floating, but for the rest of the day. It’s like floating in space, if space were a warm place illuminated by candles instead of stars. Deep, lung-filling breaths make me even lighter. Remaining suspended in this position is effortless. Soon I untangle my arms and rest my head on the railing. Even in this odd position, the sensation is pure weightlessness. This time I let my feet float up, toes bobbing at the blue surface. I paddle cautiously to an unoccupied corner and tuck my elbows behind the railing. Rather than fighting the water’s buoyancy, they rest their heads on the railing. It’s now occupied by a few regulars: an older couple and a younger man whose long swim trunks bloom in the water. This is neither magical nor calming, so I climb out.Īfter a few rounds in the other pools, all of which bear Latin names recalling the public baths in the ancient Roman empire - caldarium, tepidarium, fridigarium - I return to give the salt pool another try. Instead, I find myself gripping the metal railing at the pool’s edge, resisting the saline’s natural buoyancy by forcing my feet to the floor. I’m waiting for the salt to soak into my skin and magically calm me down. ![]() Not sure what to do, I crouch near the wall so the water reaches my neck. ![]() The chest-deep salt pool is pleasantly warm when I climb in. Even in a suit, it takes a moment to get comfortable. City dwellers used to bathe only in public bathhouses, and in the buff. I hang up my robe and fiddle with my swimsuit next to a vacant salt pool, feeling the self-consciousness that typically accompanies any first visit to a ritual-bath setting. My eyes are fixed on the glowing turquoise pools below. I step gingerly down the stairs in the dark, trying not to trip. It feels like a steamy church, with wooden cathedral ceilings and marble floors lit by votive candles. The dark, cavernous room is silent except for the sound of trickling fountains. ![]()
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