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On attempting to deprive one’s senses
First, an update on my trip to the Sensory Deprivation chamber….
Two weeks ago, I took a trip out to Boylston, MA to a “healing arts center” that had a Sensory Deprivation tank for the purpose of what is called “flotation therapy.” This trip was a part of my journey in experiencing alternate states of consciousness.
Long story short: The place was about an hour out of Boston. I left with plenty of time. But, of course, I have a lot of trouble finding this well hidden place. I try calling them and no one answers of course. I eventually find the place, but the extra half hour of searching made me about 10 minutes late leaving me only about 45 minutes in my appointment. I quickly get ready and hop in the salt water in the tank. I lie there floating around, it’s pretty dark. I’m taller than average, so I bump into the sides of the tank a bit. This irritates me since its distracting, but I eventually calm down and get to a stable floating state so I’m not bumping into anything. My mind chatters away like usual when I can’t go to sleep at night. I eventually start to calm down. And then. all of a sudden, I see a strong glow of light coming from above my head. At first I freak out a bit since no light goes into a sensory deprivation tank, right? RIGHT??
I sit up a bit and rest on my elbow (the water is only about a foot deep) and crane my neck to see where the light is coming from. I see 5 circles with light coming from them. I sit up a bit and start feeling around the walls of the chamber, did I hit a button that turns on light in these things? are some people into light in the chamber?
As I sit up, unbeknownst to me, water starts to drip down my forehead…..and into my eyes. I was quite frustrated at this point. Ah! Son of a bitch! Goddamit!! ( I cuss like a sailor sometimes. Bad habit. This is probably the censored version.)
I get the salt-water-in-the-eyes situation remedied, and I lie down trying to at least relax for a bit. As I lie there, I hear the door slam from someone coming into the building. I then hear voices of people talking.
I get up and get ready to leave.
Before leaving, I asked, “Is the tank supposed to have light in it?” Person working: “Yeah. You can’t let it distract you though. You just have to relax.”
the hell???
~
Let me think about the steps I went through:
- I heard from a number of sources about sensory deprivation which made me think that it was certainly a novel experience I should try
- I even further researched it online (looking up other sources on the topic, looking at different tank manufacturers), still trying to better understand what it was like
- I found a place and asked about the experience there and what it entailed, which seemed to match up with all the other sources.
- The chamber that the location had was even from one of what was supposed to be one of the leading Sensory Deprivation tank manufacturers (Samahdi Tank Co.)
- I booked an appointment and confirmed my appointment.
- I left on course to arrive more than 30 minutes early
- I had the number in my phone to call in case I got lost
Outcome:
- I was late
- the tank had light in it and I could hear quite easily things going on around me
By going to a chamber professionally made for sensory deprivation, I had assumed that my senses would be effectively deprived. Maybe there would be some vibrations that they couldn’t block out, but for the most part, it would be dark and quiet. This seems reasonable right? It’s a quite direct assumption I think. And alas, this assumption turned out to be blatantly wrong.
I took a number of prudent steps to make sure things went well, but the most basic assumption–that my senses would be mostly deprived–turned out to be blatantly false.
On setting up business meetings
I go to a lot of meetings at major corporations. For a meeting where you will be meeting with another company to give a presentation, the list of things you need to do is pretty absurd in order to ensure a successful meeting:
- is there definitely a conference phone in the conference room so my colleague can dial in?
- is there a projector?
- do i have the final presentation slides on my computer? who does?
- do i have the final presentation slides on a flash drive in case we can’t use my computer? do we have them in .pdf form in case powerpoint does not work for the other computer?
- do we need to be registered with security?
- do we have access to the conference room a half hour before the meeting start time so that we can get setup and ready?
- is someone available to sign us in early enough for us to get into the conference room and setup before the meeting starts?
- do the attendees from the other side know why they’re coming to this meeting?
- do we know what the other attendees want from this meeting?
- do we have the agenda agreed to? Is it the “real agenda”?
- are all the attendees on my side properly prepped and know what they need to do?
- do we need some sort of screen sharing technology up and running for remote attendees? can I set it up externally? or does the hosting party need to set it up internally?
- do I need to have something installed in order to share my screen?
- does everyone understand the goals of the meeting on our end?
- If my colleague’s cell phone dies or doesn’t have signal and can’t dial into the meeting, am I able to present his slides for him?
- What questions do we need to ask?
- What can we find out about the people that will be attending? have we done our research on them as individuals?
- Have I spoken to everyone on the other side of the table before?
- what don’t I know that is going to trip us up?
- do I have my computer? power chord? pen? paper?
I could actually keep going with this list.
the level of risk is probably higher than you think
Taking a careful look at these two examples brings to light how much can (and usually does) go wrong. It’s true, I’ve shown up at the wrong site (it’s easier than you think). My boss has gone to a meeting where they didn’t have a conference phone in the conference room. I’ve certainly been to meetings where someone’s time was wasted because they couldn’t get the A/V equipment up and running. All these things happen and always threaten to derail the mission.
And sometimes even the most basic assumptions are completely wrong. Check your premises I suppose.
Now scale this up to more uncertain areas of operation. New relationships. New technologies. New businesses. In a more complex system, there are even more things that can go wrong.
It’s hard, but I try, as often as I can, to ask myself, What are the assumptions I’m making? Are they correct? what are the risks? are there any steps I can take to prevent them?
Bearing in mind how hard it is to go lie down in a pool of saltwater or sit in a room and talk with a group of people in a useful manner, it seems like a damn miracle that anything ever actually works.
-Kevin
10.4.2011
