INNER TRAVEL

Here’s an excerpt from an essay that appeared in Esquire in the 1990s.

INNER TRAVEL

Once, when I was still living in New York, I visited a place called Tranquility to experience floatation in a sensory deprivation tank. This tank was egg-shaped and white and threatening, but I did as directed: I stripped, showered, put cotton in my ears, and climbed in, while someone behind me closed the lid. Inside the egg was blackness, and at first I had trouble getting comfortable. I lay on my back, the only sound my breathing. Bubbles kept coming out of my ears. This water was the same temperature as my body, and so buoyant I was soon suspended. Stars flew past me like sparks. I went a long, long way.