PandoraStar Amnesia

The poll I ran through Instagram the day after, curious to see if anyone had heard of PandorStar before: 95% voting no, they have not.

I’m scrubbing through Groupon and come across a ‘deep mediation’ listing at Newport Float Therapy. I purchased the tickets and told a friend I had a surprise for us. We had an appointment set up, connected with the woman at the front desk and she hands us two waivers to fill out. I was confused as I assumed it was a visual mediation experience you watch and listen to, what did we need a waiver for? My friend looks at me like.. what are you getting us into?

After completing the waivers, the woman walks us straight back to the last room on the right. It’s a small room with two beds that are head to head with some sort of light fixture machines right above. It was mostly a white walled and empty room. She briefly explained to us that we will use the headphones to listen to relaxing frequencies and can control the volume while the lights above us would be flashing, our eyes to stay closed. Now I’m thinking about this video I had watched a few months back where Hamilton Morris had done something very similar. And while it’s different than what I had originally assumed we would be coming here to do, I thought it would still be an interesting experience. The woman didn’t say anything further and left us to begin.

Right away I was seeing a multitude of fractal shapes, patterns and colors. Apparently I put one arm over my closed eyes and was saying I was feeling really out of body though I don’t remember this. I do remember suddenly seeing my life flash before my eyes, though it was strange. I was being shown seemingly unimportant rooms that I had grown up in, for example: my elementary schools’ multipurpose room. I was trying to focus in on these rooms but they were flashing by in nanoseconds. My friend said I suddenly and quickly sat up and took my headphones off seemingly out of nowhere. I later learned that we were in the experience for 20 minutes which I have no recollection of whatsoever.

In the moments that happened next, I had zero sense of self as though I was in a body but I was not me nor anyone with any prior memories. I had no idea where I was at or who this person, my friend, was and why were in this strange room together. I kept asking “where are we?”, “who are you?” He explained where we were and I asked again and he said something jokingly, thinking I was also joking around. I remember feeling really scared. He stayed calm and kept trying to ground me but all I could think was that I needed to find a way out as soon as possible. I grabbed my belongings, quickly walked out of the room, saw the front door and made a run for it. I looked to my right and saw the woman at the front desk, she’s looking at me weird and for some reason that began to spark my memories back, sort of.

I don’t remember anything I said to her, only the feeling that I was talking to her for what seemed like awhile and what felt like manically. It was all so strange, as though I was feeling for the first time, processing out loud for the first time. Then we walked out the door and I recognized my car sitting in the parking lot. I had drove us there originally and I don’t know why he let me, but I began driving us back home. We were in the city we had both grown up in so we knew where literally everything was, my house only a few streets away. We’re at a red light and I recognize the signs, the stores, the street names but I can’t seem to remember how to get us back home.

He drove the rest of the way and once back, though I was still really out of it, I slowly began to feel more like myself. Though everyone could see it in my eyes, hear it in my voice, I kept reassuring, mostly because I was scared and needed time to reflect and process what happened. I’ve always experienced strange and unexplainable things though this one threw me for a spin. I immediately went looking for answers.

I posted a 24 hour survey on my social media out of curiosity to see how many people had even heard of this before. I read reviews and looked into others experiences. I watched so many YouTube videos. I looked into the company of the light machine, PandoraStar, of whom I had reached out to but never heard back from. There are 3 different companies that manufacture these deep trance mediation machines: PandoraStar, Anja Light and Lucia. I only ever heard back from Ron Becker at Newport Float saying: “I’ve never had someone have such an intense experience in the 4 years I’ve had it, and I’ve had thousands of people use it! We set people up on it but don't watch them them while they are under the pandora, as most would see this as rude most likely! I can assure you this is the strongest reaction I've had with thousands of clients! I have a 66 year old lady that uses a super strong program twice a week before floating and has never had any issues. Never heard of such a thing.” - Aug. 2, 2018.

I wasn’t finding anything remotely close to what I had experienced, until I came across this article from Cris Beasley: The 4-Minute Digital Acid Trip: PandoraStar. Like a needle in a haystack I had finally found one person who had an unpleasant experience, stating that everyone else they had spoken with had relatively wonderful experiences. It reminded me of why I’ve always believed in the power of sharing stories and why I also decide to share my experience. Sometimes, hearing about someone else’s experiences can provide a perspective we needed.

In my reflection on these types of moments, my curiosity has always led me to research and dive into different perspectives; a strange and fascinating experience in itself to ponder. I’m no stranger to out of body experiences, astral projection, meditation, visionary journeys nor deep psychedelic experiences. This was just so…different. And while I don’t feel as though I have many more answers, I cannot say I would or would not deter others from experiencing something like this. As this is what we came here for. To experience, to feel, to remember, to forget. There are many things in life that remain unexplainable. However there is no reason to fear the unknown experiences we consciously choose to participate in. Sometimes, the answer is waiting to be discovered within the very questions we ask and in the exploration of all that we have yet to understand.