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Ricky asks Karl if he would give up his real life to live in a virtual-reality isolation tank, and Karl discusses his thoughts about happiness. Karl finally laughs. Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington, Season 2, Episode 13.

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Ladies and gentlemen I am Peter Suedfeld and I truly appreciate the invitation to speak to you and I regret that I couldn't be there to do it in person. It is a source of great pleasure for me to know that there is once again a conference of people involved in the Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique known for short as R.E.S.T.
It has been a long time since the last one and I wondered if there would ever be another. Although I know that your interest focuses on floatation R.E.S.T. the original 1950's version was chamber R.E.S.T. and called sensory deprivation. After trying different techniques the most commonly used technique became having the subjects lie on a bed in a totally dark and sound proof room for up to 24 hours. Early reports of hallucinations, disorientation and high anxiety turned out to be result of procedural errors and not the stimulus reduction itself. When those errors were corrected, sensory deprivation was easily tolerated by most volunteers and the bizarre effect disappeared.
In the 1960's systematic research programs appeared exploring effects of basic psychological and psychophysiologicalb processes.
During the next decade the 1970's attention also moved to the use of the technique in psychotherapy, health psychology and behavioural medicine. By 1980 Rod Borrie and I had coined the term R.E.S.T. to replace in inaccurate and somewhat scary term sensory deprivation. Researchers in many active laboratories had established that chamber rest has the following beneficial health effects.
It is an unusually powerful tool in smoking cessation, even more so when paired with another effective treatment and reduces relapse rates dramatically.
It reduces alcohol intake in borderline alcoholics.
It reduces phobic reactions; it is effective in weight reduction among over weight subjects. It reduces the symptoms of acute LCD and PCP psychosis, autism, schizophrenia and disorientation in Alzheimer patients. It reduces memory loss after electroconvulsive treatment. 1970's were also the decade when floatation rest became prominent after John Lilly invented the (float) tank in which dissolved Epsom salts allowed people to relax in shallow skin temperature water.
You all know how the tank works but you may not all be aware of its established uses, Rod Borrie talk will go in to more detail, but here's a list of effects found in anything from one to a dozen or more studies. Reduced physiological signs of stress and tension, blood pressure, stress hormones, heart rate and so on. Improvement in positive mood states reduced psychological, anxiety and subjective stress. Increase spontaneous recall of pleasant autobiographical memories, decrease in chronic tension headaches, decrease in chronic pain from various causes, including rheumatoid arthritis and pre menstrual syndrome. Decrease severity of obsessive compulsive symptoms. Decreased muscle tension amongst cerebral palsy patients. Increases in perceptual motor performers in pilot training and athletic tasks such as basket ball, ski racing, darts, rifle marksmanship and tennis.... And enhancement of other treatment methods including medical hypnosis and meditation.
In the 1980's research on health benefits proliferated, commercial tank facilities for public use spread around the world and the field began to organise itself. The International Rest Investigators Society (IRIS) and the Floatation Tank Association, respectively the scientific and applied parts of the field held conferences and issued publications. Most of this efforts lost momentum in the 1990's. Why has R.E.S.T. not continued to be studied and applied evermore widely? Objective reviewers agreed that despite promising results not enough rigorous research has been done. In addition, there is no overall theory to explain the wide variety of positive effects. This is a problem for scientists, although not pragmatic practitioners. I also think that R.E.S.T. has suffered from its treatment by the mass media and text books.
First it was linked with torture and brainwashing, then with what was considered "far out" mystic conditions. Here John Lilly's combination of experiments with drugs and floatation and Paddy Chayefsky's film Altered States did the field a disservice. Last as the melodramatic data were discredited by further research text book authors ignored progress in R.E.S.T. and a new generation of students and professionals didn't learn about it.
I hope that this conference with start a new decade of revival which will move R.E.S.T. toward the appreciation and utilisation that it deserves. The commercial and scientific arms of the R.E.S.T. community should make an effort to work together in finding and then applying new and solid facts to nourish the field. This meeting may encourage new steps in both directions. I wish you high levels of stimulation, enjoyment and productive interaction. Thank You.

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