Float Toronto

Where would you say the most peaceful place in the world is? Most would probably say high atop a mountain, deep in the rain forest or at the bottom of the sea, but what about downtown Toronto? Surprisingly, overstimulated Torontonians have been finding a place of deep relaxation and rejuvenation right in their hometown at Float Toronto, housing the city’s first sensory deprivation tanks.

The concept is simple: remove all sensory input to allow your nervous system to rest, thereby allowing your entire body to enter into a restorative state. How is this achieved? By lying in a 8 by 10 foot bathtub of sorts filled with highly salinated water with a perfectly regulated air and water temperature, in complete silence, darkness and solitude for one to two hours.

“After a while,” explains co-owner Sean Lavery, “the boundaries of your body dissolve and you can’t tell where your body ends and the air begins.” Sean and his business partner, Jesse, were so impressed with their initial experience of floating while living in Vancouver that they loaded up their car and drove across Canada to open one of Toronto’s first float centres. They opened their doors in August 2014, and the tanks have been full ever since.