Therapy

Luna Float Spa (Image, by Luna Float Spa)

Floating

On June 4 I again visited Luna Float Spa, in Colorado Springs. This was my second visit. See this link for my first visit. On this visit, I used the larger pod…I think they called it “The Colorado”? In any event, it was larger than the first one I was in and I like have more open space in there to float around in, without worrying about hitting the sides….though I did notice that it seemed to take a while for me to stop “knocking around” inside. I don’t get claustrophobic, so that was never an issue. Actually, I find them both kinda cozy to be in. This pod also didn’t have the multi-colored lights. I like the blues and purples of the other lights for presentation…but once I’m in there, I turn all lights off, so it really doesn’t matter when the rubber hits the road.

Here are the sensations I had this time around:

Saw a tight “bundle” of vertical “pipes,” like either from an organ…or on a ship, then, immediately following that…
Saw a man standing and hugging an armload of newspapers! Like he held about a foot of them against his front, newspapers opened vertically*
Saw image of a bright blue “summer” sky above deciduous tree
Saw many flashes of imagery that I no longer remember, though some I do recall were about:
- Different and multiple images of people
- A partial conversation or two (I actually heard these partial conversations!)**
- Bright lighting…like I thought the pod’s or the room’s lights had come on…but when I opened my eyes—nope, pitch dark
- Dull yellows and some blue, only an instance or two of blue this time and one stark, bright, well-defined red
Jerking body, arms
Tingly and expansive-feeling in hands and body (typical mediation feeling)
My consciousness feeling expansive (typical mediation feeling)
Also near the end I felt like my thumb and index fingers of my right hand were holding a knob of some kind! Very odd! This felt so freaking real…I was moving my fingers…and even moving my fingers, it really honest-to-God felt like I was hold some kind of knob that was about 2 inches in length and about an inch wide. Of course, there was “nothing” there….

*This was probably the most intense imagery I had the entire time! This guy was as clear as day to me, standing tall, and “hugging” or holding-fast to a large mass of opened newspapers (draped lengthwise against him)! His garb was non-descript, but it happened so fast that I didn’t really get into what he was wearing—I was more curious about the danged newspapers! Who was this guy, I asked myself? Is he another me in another time? I never did get any answers…still don’t have any….

**There were at least two instances of flashes of actual conversations going on, though I couldn’t exactly make out the words…or if I had made out a word or two they were lost on me because of the sheer weirdness of hearing actual conversations going on in my head that I wasn’t actively partaking in!

When I was done, it was so danged hard getting out! My physical relaxation was so

The Luna Dreamwave Pod. (Image by F. P. Dorchak, June 4, 2016)

incredibly “complete and thorough”…my entire body felt like concrete floating in water! Man, it took me a while getting up and out of there! I was so out of it, I actually had to pause on bent knees while still inside the pod.

But the image of the “newspaper” man! It was quite sharp, clear, and defined! I kept thinking who is this guy? And the more I thought about the other images, I wondered if maybe they’re images from other “me’s” that I just seemed to sync up with. You know…when you find yourself daydreaming or drifting off…and you catch yourself and snap out of it—but for a moment you’re kinda “meditating” or “elsewhere”? I wonder…if maybe in this sessions I had made contact across other times and me’s during these hypnogogic/daydreaming moments. But, whatever it was, it was very weird, very fascinating, and I loved it!

Freezing

Then, after getting out and talking with the owners for spell, they told me about this new “thing” downstairs in their building that I’d noticed on the way up. It’s called Colorado Cryospa. It cites these benefits. The long and the short of it is that you’re stripped down (obviously in private!) and exposed to 2-3 minutes of up to -300 degrees of dry cold.

Yup. You read that right.

It’s like being “packaged” in dry ice! They give you booties, gloves and some shorts (I’m sure women get a top) and you stand in this vertical “tube” with a thermometer at head height and liquid nitrogen vaporizing all around you. You can see how cold you’re going. Then they lower the temperature and you can see the temps plummet! You only really need to go to about -175 or so, they say, to reap the…um, benefits…of cryotherapy, but I went to -250 degrees.

It was cool, pardon the pun!

You see all this “fog” forming around you just like dry ice! I was chuckling and smiling during all this! I mean, it was so danged weird! Then they have you turn every so often so the whole body is uniformly frozen. I felt like a piece of meat-on-a-stick being flash-frozen! And, surprising, it really wasn’t that bad! You’d expect frost bite, skin going white-then-blue-then black…remembering all you’ve been told about not touching dry ice (and I did—once…)…all you’ve ever been told about extreme temperatures and the human body and its tender flesh. But it doesn’t affect you in quite the same way.

It’s a dry cold.

(it’s a dry heat…)

It’s not actually touching you.

I never actually bean to shiver—and then, only a very little!—until we hit the -250 degrees. First my legs began the slight, sporadic shiver, then my whole body began to join in…but it’s nothing like you imagine. And the staff was right there with me. We were actually talking and joking around, because your head and shoulders are exposed above this tube. It just wasn’t that cold—as cold as I expected -250 would feel like—because it wasn’t moist cold. It’s exactly like that “it’s a dry heat!” joke. Think sauna but in the opposite direction!

The theory behind this is that when you go down to these extreme temps, your body goes into a “fight or flight” mode—I called it “the death mode”; I said just call it what it is!—and begins to shunt blood flow from the extremities to the organs, like when you really would be freezing to death. But since you’re only “there” for such a short time, and you come back to room temps quickly (you can feel the temp difference immediately, once it stops), your body gets (according to them) all these endorphins and “overcompensates” with healing stuff. It was originally developed for Rheumatoid Arthritis, but claims to have benefits for other issues. For depression, they say: “People who suffer from anxiety and depression receive hormonal benefits.” But, of course, you have to have multiple sessions, and close together. I only did a single, free session, because this outfit is new and had a thing going on with Luna Float Spa.

Apparently cryotherapy has been used in Japan for years. Of course. But, I’ve never heard of this kind of therapy before…or if I have, I’d long forgotten about it. It was cool, again, pardon the pun. But, it really just doesn’t interest me in doing, though it is actually kinda interesting in and of itself. The staff asks you all these health questions, have you review said questions and sign a waiver, then they take your blood pressure before you go in to make sure you’re okay to enter. So, be honest about any physical conditions.

And as I was actually going through it all, I couldn’t get this silly, fascinated grin off my face!

It’s just so…weird!

Seriously? I’m doing what to myself?

Oh, my wife is gonna really love this when I tell her….

But…I can’t say that I honestly felt any kind of “supercharged” afterwards…but I didn’t feel wiped throughout the day (Saturday, which turned out to be a long and busy day).

Now, I did on Sunday…I was extremely wiped and sluggish when I got up, and it took me quite a while to get my ass in gear. I felt drained. Sluggish. We had a thing later in the day-through-the-evening, and it took me the better part of that Sunday to get going…but I just didn’t feel like I was “shot full of endorphins,” like Morgan, one of the Luna Float Spa’s owner’s, said he felt like after he’d done this.

So…would I do cryotherapy again?

No. Doesn’t interest me right now, and it’s one more thing to pay for, though the rates seem reasonable. But it might in the future. See the “Local news link” link below.

Floating again?

Definitely! I love the experience!

But, go ahead, give them both a try, if you’re physically up the cryotherapy! Both are recommend for the sheer experiences of them!

Local news video link.

Luna Float Spa Contact information:

Website: www.lunafloatspa.com/

Phone: 719/309-6776

E-mail: Contact@LunaFloatSpa.com

Luna Float Spa First Blog Post

Address:

Luna Float Spa
202 E. Cheyenne Mtn. Blvd., Suite R,
Colorado Springs, CO 80906

Hours: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m., Mountain Time