Float packages

Combine your float with other wonderful therapies and exciting activities

Roxiva RX1 light sessions

We are pleased to be able to offer sessions with the Roxiva RX1 light machine for your transcendent delight. These are immersive journeys into beautiful imagery and blissful moods.

A unique combination of pulsing light is used to produce amazing states of consciousness. The light stimulates specific brain wave patterns often associated with joy, intuition, creativity and meditation.

Lie back and close your eyes as your face is bathed in the warm glow of the light, and the gentle pulses lead your awareness through landscapes of fractal geometry. The frequencies of the pulses entrain your brainwaves and allow the slower alpha and theta waves to dominate, usually found during deep meditation and the hypnagogic reverie between sleeping and waking.

Kaleidoscope

You are in control: just open your eyes to find yourself back in the room, calm and relaxed. Behind closed eyelids the light conjures beautiful visions in your mind’s eye, and stimulates feelings of wonder, clarity and peace.  Not only is it fun, but it makes you feel good afterwards too!

Embark on a visionary journey with the Roxiva RX1 light machine, and find yourself delightfully transported.

How does it work?

You will be shown to a dedicated therapy room, talked through the process, and given plenty of opportunity to ask any questions. After completing the safety questionnaire you will recline and get comfortable. Put on the headphones, relax, and close your eyes… when you are ready your guide will start the session.

Allow the light and sound to transport you away from the world for a while, through beautiful imagery and blissful moods, and gently back again. Return to find yourself relaxed and revitalised.  After your light session you can chill out in the lounge and help yourself to a complementary cup of organic tea. Take your time to return to the world gently.

 

Roxiva light

Light plus float equals Amazing!

Follow up your light session with a float to discover the powerfully complementary effects. The deep relaxation you feel in the float pod allows thoughts to slow down, and the slower alpha and theta brain waves to dominate. Choose a light session followed by a float, and you will begin your float from the deeply relaxed state the light leaves you in. The float creates a space of profound peace without the distractions of the world, in which the effects of the light experience can further unfold and develop. Light plus float is more than the sum of its parts. Explore that unique synergy at Float in the Forest.

If you want to book a light session and a float, please check availability of both light and float before making any booking.

Feel free to call 01594 715215 and we can help you book in!

The history of Hypnagogic light

The power of flickering light has been used by humankind for millennia to enter visionary reveries and transcendent states of consciousness.

Anyone who has gazed into the flickering flames of an open fire will be familiar with the ability of light to soothe our mood and guide us into meditative spaces. Over the centuries the surprising power of specific frequencies has been discovered and rediscovered.

Mesmerising flames

Around 200AD Ptolemy found that he began to see patterns and colours and felt a dawning state of euphoria when flickering light produced by the spokes of a spinning wheel played across his face. In the 16th century Nostradamus would receive visions as he watched the sun through closed eyelids while waving his spread fingers to interrupt the light.

In the early 1800s the phenomena of flickering light became the subject of scientific experiments: Purkinje wrote of experiencing spirals, crosses and stars when waving his hand between his eyes and a gaslight, Brewster discovered similar results running alongside railings in low sunlight, and Helmholtz described what he termed ‘shadow patterns’. Perhaps the first application of the flicker effect in a clinical setting occurred in late 19th century France, when Pierre Janet shone light through the spokes of a spinning wheel to increase relaxation in his patients at the Salpetriere hospital.

Electronics and brainwaves

The power of flickering light really began to be understood with the invention of the EEG in the 1920s, which brought the ability to directly measure the effect of different stimuli upon brainwaves. In 1934 Adrian and Matthews used a car headlamp and rotating wheel with spokes to discover the natural ability of the brain to follow the rhythm of the flickering. They found that when a person sat in front of the light with closed eyes their alpha rhythm would become coordinated with the pulses of light. A flurry of experiments followed, exploring the physiology of what was called at the time “the flicker following response”.

The invention of the electric stroboscope in the late 1940s allowed greater precision in the timing of the light, and enabled a pioneer of brain science named William Grey Walter to conduct studies with thousands of test subjects. The 1950s was a period of advancement in the understanding of brain waves, with Grey Walter exploring the correlations between the physical effects of flicker stimulation upon the brain and the subjective experiences it produced, and publishing a popular account of his findings in his book ‘The Living Brain’. Around the same time Kroger and Schneider noticed that some radar operators were entering trance states while watching the rhythmic flashing of the dot on the screen.  They built the first electronic clinical photic stimulator which they called the “Brain wave Synchroniser” in order to study the effect further.

The Dream Machine

William Burroughs was another contemporary of Gray Walter who was drawn to the hallucinatory effects of flickering light described in ‘The Living Brain’, though for different reasons. He and Brion Gysin saw the potential of it as a means of exploring the nature of consciousness, and perhaps even as a tool for enlightenment. Gysin persuaded his technically minded friend Ian Somervielle to come up with a simple solution to produce flickering light in the 8-12 Hz alpha range: a cardboard cylinder with precise slots cut in it, sat on a record turntable, with a bulb hanging inside. They called it the Dream Machine, and it became popular among artists, musicians, and explorers of consciousness on the fringes of the culture during the 1960s and beyond.

Dream Machine

Brainwave Entrainment

Scientific research into the physiological and psychological effects of flickering light continued, meanwhile the work of Burroughs and Gysin influenced many who were drawn to explore the effects of flickering light in their own direct experience. Technology developed, and by the late 1980s it was possible to buy a variety of electronic ‘mind machines’ which used light, and in some cases sound as well to achieve ‘brainwave entrainment’ (the new term for the same natural ability of the brain to follow rhythms in external stimuli). In those pre-internet days, information on tools for self exploration was shared in physical newsletters sent to subscribers in the post, and one such was Michael Hutchinson’s MegaBrain report. This included articles on the latest research, such as studies of the brainwaves of Buddhist monks during deep meditation, and first hand reviews of the mind machines that enabled users to share similar states.

During the 1990s a subculture grew up around the mind machines, with enthusiasts of the technology providing opportunities for others to experience their effects at festivals and events. Those who had experienced the benefits for themselves often wanted to share those benefits with others, and to spread awareness of the devices. The advent of virtual reality added to a growing interest in the power of technology as a tool to explore and change the nature of our consciousness and our relationship with the world. With the burgeoning internet, ideas and technologies of virtual reality gradually penetrated popular culture, and other technologies such as biofeedback and brainwave entrainment were carried along with them, under the umbrella term of ‘cyberdelics’.

Blissful state

Lucia No 3 Light

Austrian doctors Dirk Proeckl and Engelbert Winkler blazed the trail of using 21st century technology to deliver brainwave entrainment with light. Engelbert had a near-death experience as a child which fostered a fascination with the healing and awakening that can accompany ‘seeing the light’, and a desire to be able to bring that power into his practice of psychotherapy. His friend Dirk, a neurologist, had made a lifetime study of altered states of consciousness. Together they built a stroboscopic light machine which they called the Lucia Light to use with their patients. With further development they made the third iteration of the device commercially available in 2012: the Lucia No 3 Light.

Will from Float in the Forest first experienced the Lucia No 3 Light at the 2017 London Cyberdelic conference thanks to Mat Harvey of Mount Analogue. It stood out from the various virtual and augmented reality devices because it empowered the user to explore their own unique inner spaces, rather than imposing a world from outside. Will realised that this was something special which could complement floatation very well.

The evolution of the hypnagogic light machine

The amazing experiences produced by the Lucia No 3 Light inspired the development of more hypnagogic light machines, making those kind of experiences more accessible to more people. 2014 saw Guy Harriman develop the Ajna Light in Thailand, and Jimi Simpson brought out the Pandora Star in the UK in 2015. Dirk and Englebert made a more portable version of the Lucia light available in 2018: the Lucia No 3 Light Home Portal. Then in 2021 Jimi Simpson and Lance Carter integrated stroboscopic light and precisely timed audio into their new device: the Roxiva RX1.

Roxiva RX1 Light sessions are available at Float in the Forest!

We are delighted to invite you to discover the transcendent delights of the Roxiva RX1, a state of the art light machine with integrated audio to enhance the experience. Light and sound are combined to produce powerful brainwave entrainment, and to gently carry you into experiences of wonder and beauty. Embark on a journey with the Roxiva RX1 light machine, and find yourself delightfully transported.

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