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Show TMSwniMf WNMSln.AM38.1t83 CfcrMiclf-- 7 MOD Float your cares away at Salt Lake Bodyworks sides of the tank. Since the air is about the same temperature as the water, it's possible to lose your Chronicle Feature Editor sense of bearing. You might as well be floating in outer space. When I first got in the tank I When I first heard about the new flotation tank at Salt Lake was struck with a brief sensation Bodyworks, the first thing that of sliding down a water a slide. came to my mind was the movie The feeling lasted only a few minAltered States. You know, that utes, and then I was left to conclassic science fictionhorror film template the darkness. To put it B about some poor sap in search of bluntly, I started to get bored. I'm not generally accustomed to enlightenment who ends up regressing too far and becoming a trying to achieve tranquility. In neanderthal. Intrigued, I called kindergarten, when we were supSalt Lake Bodyworks and asked if posed to close our eyes and relax I could try the experience myself. during nap time, I was always the According to Nancy Merkley kid that would cheat by fidgeting and peaking around the room. Rainey, the owner of the estabg Not that I'm high strung or anythe lishment, hallucinations depicted in the thing, I just like to keep busy. For film aren't really what her clients probably the first 25 minutes in I think generally hope to accomplish. "I that damn tank all could million the I were about things that mainly got it because have to I withneeded still accomplish that clients that have never been day. out pain." I don't' think that I'm the first According to Rainey, once a is there the inside is tank, person to find himself getting person no sense of gravity. "There's, no bored during a therapy session in BY MARCO LEAVITT UC X t V N 1 1 u VY ft f :A mind-expandin- pressure on the spine." Other health benefits claimed by Salt Lake Bodyworks in their flyers include the relaxation of the cular system, induced theta brain waves associated with disciplined meditation, and the reduction of stress hormones. As the name implies, a flotation tank is a big container filled with water. Despite being elongated, it's shaped something like the old foam containers McDonalds used to serve their Big Macs in. Lying inside the tank, a person can soak for hours in heavily salinated water that is kept at roughly body temperature. With the lid closed, there is absolutely no light. Being buoymus- ant in the salinated water, you more or less float, without any contact with the bottom, or the an flotation tank. Michael Hutchinson, a writer "who has chronicled the benefits of the tanks in his book The Book of Floating claims that boredom is actually a desirable effect. In a chapter titled "The of Boredom," Benefits Hutchinson gives an account of the scientist Peter Suedfeld whose studies may indicate that boredom plays a part in the tank's ability to help people overcome ingrained behavior such as smoking. Suedfeld has a two factor theory which he defines as Stimulus and Unfreezing Hunger, Attitudes.' Without going into a lot of details, the theory seems to state that a person without stim- uli becomes sensitive to any input. Habits become less fixed, and are more susceptible to being ; i CHRONICLE sea-co- sea-co- 581-040- Software developed at students with hands-o- n neuroradiology, gross anatomy, and anatomical models have also been added. The disc contains close to 40,000 images. Material on the disc came from 52 different institutions, Chronicle Feature Writer There have been many different .theories about how students learn. In the early days, students learned by rote, engorging volumes of use- two professional societies, and includes contributions from more material. than 200 individuals. memorized less, The disc is a generic videodisc Educators since have debated the value of lectures, texts, exercises, (i.e., the same images can be used homework, and labs. The question in multiple ways). It has no specific purpose but can be repurposed as was, "What combination helps stuneeded in various instructional proSlice of Life, best?" the dents learn videodisc can The multi-medieducation a medical grams. a videodisc NTSC on any program developed here at the. be played bar hand a with controller, University of Utah's Eccles Health player as such or code reader, computer Sciences Library, answers that quesor IBM compatible Amiga, tion. .The cornerstone of the Slice of Macintosh computers. When the videodisc is suppleLife program is the Slice of Life mented with various other Slice of videodisc, a visual database of medical images. "The Slice of Life Life computer programs available, videodisc was created back in 1986 the user has a very powerful multiinstructional tool. Some of by Dr. Suzanne Stensaas," Andre media for the products currently offered by St. Pierre, director of marketing of Life include: HyperBrain Slice of a out came "It said. the program, Macintosh HyperCard 2.1 a medical 5.0, students; need from her designed as a core they wanted an alternative way of application for neuroscience shell or learning, specifically neuroanato- . resource whose thou-education purpose is to commy. She accumulated several coplement, supplement, or substitute sand slides (hers and those of for a traditional nueroanatomy laba on lleagues) and put theni videodisc using the technology oratory; HyperHeart 2.0, a program Media that teaches five subjects of the , available at Instructional heart: embryology, anatomy, physiServices here on campus." edinewest Life the ology, pathology and clinical diagVI, of Slice Reinarz PHOTOPaul CHRONICLE of tion, is notable for the addition of nosis; HyperHistology, a program Medical student Ben Remington demonstrates the advantage dissections of that provides an electronic teaching on the HyperHeart 2.0 com- - 1500 anatomical aid educational Life of Slice the assistant for a laboratory course in using David L. Bassett's 12-in- o . . out-of-pri- nt ch 0. U. Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy. Excellent endoscopy, BY CHRISTOPHER W. DEGN puter program. PHOTOPaul Remarz flotation tank designed to reduce stress. Nancy Merkley Rainey, owner of Salt Lake Bodyworks, with a pened. I seemed to lose all ten- true. Everything was a little bitI changed. sion in my body. I was also struck brighter, and louder than I hadn't entered the tank with set objectives. I wasn't trying to with a vivid recollection from my remembered. As was her custom, the San Rainey spoke with me a little bit quit smoking, or any other nasty childhood of being in discoverabout the experience. We disand Francisco I comment aquarium habits, so can't really While cussed the benefits of relaxation, on Suedfeld's theory. I did undering a manatee, or off to but I didn't mention the sea cow. had kids other the however. gone sorts of go a hunger When we' were finished chatting, Physical hunger that is. Perhaps it look at dolphins, or the shark I left in search of a I really juicy was the similarity of the tank to tank, stayed behind and For the bethamburger. those Big Mac containers. I was watched that Salt Lake Bodyworks is located ter part of an hour I had wondying to leave and find a ham1615 S. Foothill Drive. For an at to be like would it what dered burger some where. frozen motionless a become I be about to lump appointment, call Nancy After what judge blackness. I in Rainey at Merkley much 30 minutes, pretty are I finally left the tank, all Sessions $30 an hour. Add When the in to staying resigned myself the assistance of a trainer senses $10 for tank for the full hour. For that last the usual cliches about the or be to hypnotherapist. seeming sharper appeared half hour, a strange thing hap provides experience normal human histology; and To Toe, an interactive health assessment videodisc used by nursing and medical students alike. Slice of Life is committed to cus- Head tomer or end user satisfaction. "Slice of Life has some computer programs that the students use and have come to love," said Ben medical Remington, a third-yea- r student here at the University of medical students Utah, "First-yea- r find looking for things in a micro- scope a little difficult because they're not really sure what they're looking for. The Slice of Life program uses arrows, numbers, and letters along with the images on the videodisc player screen, to show you that 'this is this'. After doing it on the computer, doing it in the lab for real is very easy, because you know what's going on. ' "One friend of mine, a mother of five, said that HyperHistolgy saved her life because it cut out the hours of guesswork in finding things. She got to the wet lab and they knew exactly what they were looking at, and what they were looking for. "You've got to meet the need of the end user; that's who you're doing it all for. If you don't know who you're doing it for, don't do anything," St. Pierre concluded. Slice of Life plans to stick around for a while by updating its videodiscs and interactive computer programs. HyperBrain VI for the Mac and version VII for Windows is see "anatomy" on page eight |