 Between last year and this year that I have noticed, there are two of them. One, you said the age difference in people coming to use the tanks has dropped. And we're now dealing with 17 realists, high school students, which is so exciting. That's not happened before, since I've been around. And the second part is that the number of centers we thought last year, there was a peak in the number of centers that have been started, but this year is later. And I wonder if we could just see the show of hands, how many of you are in the kind of center right now? I don't know if I can see, help you look and see what kind of the center could be. Maybe 20%? Or 20%? Maybe 30%. Okay, how many of you have opened in 2014? Maybe you won't be opening this year, but you'll plan to be opening next year. It's open. This is true. Okay. I want to tell you the story of Holly, who is a young woman who lives in Grass Valley. We come from Grass Valley. It's a very small town. There are 10,000 people in the playoffs of this year. A very special place, very special people here. And she who wrote there, went to high school there, and at age 23 realized that he had never traveled. And so she arranged a trip and she went to visit her brother in Chicago and a friend in Detroit. And when she got to Detroit, her friend says, hey, Allie, the in thing right now is floating. And guess what? There's a place in Grass Valley where you can go and do it. And that's how she ended up on our doorstep. She showed up to do the tent, thank you, the next in thing. And what she brought in her float was that she was supposed to make a difference in the world. And that what she had to offer as an artist was to work with the youth to give them successful art experiences. And the course of her float led her to see that she wanted to live to make a contribution rather than to become a consumer. That's pretty potent. The people who are coming to us for training now in this new wave of center owners has to do with people who are coming because of their own passions for floating. Some experience happened to them, like what happened for Allie. They thought that it was so exciting that they want to be in a business that supports other people. It's not that they want to make money, but money is not the driving force behind them. And that is in a different perspective also. They want to run businesses as well and have those businesses support the world. The thing about that for me is that that's how we start. You know, we've had experience with floating. We wanted to be there. That's what we wanted to do. We knew that. And so we got into the idea of working with thanks. Now, Glenn was already in a relationship with Dr. Nellie because he had done a workshop with him. And so he had already started making tense experimental ones when Allie came into the picture. I knew nothing. I didn't know anything about the language of consciousness. I was a teacher of a special ed in McGill in Los Angeles. And I just didn't know any of these things. I happened to be part of a research study in floating. And it was a friend of mine who was getting his master's thesis on the floatation plan. This tech had been built by Glenn. And Glenn had been given permission by Dr. Nellie to make tense with himself as well as for others. He had made some early plywood versions and I was in one of them that was being tested. At that time, John Nellie had named our company, Samadhi, which I didn't know what that meant. And I knew that John used a book by Patanjali called How to Know God. And so I got a copy of the book to find out what is this word Samadhi, what does it mean. And the definition I found was during contemplation when consciousness only of the object of meditation, let me say again, during contemplation when consciousness only of the object of meditation happens. I have been thinking about that. I figured, well, where do we get an assignment? And that's does to a colleague. And we thought that we had the responsibility to nurture the welcoming of soldiers and tanks. That was what our sacrifice. He told us what to do when we woke up in the morning and when we had any business decisions today. Those of you starting with your passion for floating can use that kind of an idea, I believe, to serve the cause of your business. Your clients will feel that and probably pass it on. What I think is very useful about the words calling for assignment is that they keep you matched to your own intention. We had two tanks in our home for four years before we opened the first ever public club business in Beverly Hills with five tanks in 1979. We were real worried whether we were going to make enough money. And we hired a marketing professor to do some research with our clients. And what he found out was that people who were coming were all cultural creators. Who has heard of that term mentioned in the media? Maybe four people out of about 350 I guess. And who's heard it not in the media but heard it somewhere else? Okay, good. About 20 people. There was a Stanford University psychologist, a professor who did research in the late 70s, who discovered that there was a new group that was with different value systems from the group, the criminal group that had been in society for years and years. This is the group that had been in society for many years, the term modern. And their values were personal success and financial gain. And they were into consumption. There was a small group, the term traditional, that had reaction against that group. And they were mostly religious fundamentals. The cultural creatives that were just developing in society had the values of spiritual and personal growth. How many of you have that? That's about 80%. Equality for all. Everybody who viewed the world holistically. Everybody who want to help create a new and better life. Everybody I'm so surprised. And authenticity is extremely important. Everybody. So there is one thing that is pretty strange about us. And that is we all think we're alone. That there are very few of us. Well, that's good. That's great. That's changing. That was, that used to be a very big part of cultural creatives that they thought they were alone. And it's not surprising because I don't think most of you have heard stories in the media of them talking about cultural creatives. And in 1979, there were 3% of the population were cultural creatives. By 1999, 26% were cultural creatives. By 2008, 35% of the population were cultural creatives. And by present, it's over 50% in Japan, Europe, and the United States. Can you imagine how destructive it would be for the powers to be if we all realized, appreciated our numbers and our potential strength? Yes. You know, we just had it in on this for a long time because we get kind of tempted by people from all over the world. And there was this guy who was part of the American Boxing Olympic team being trained in like classes in New York. And he had been in touch with us about his tank for quite a while. And he called one day and he said, oh, I want to be in California. And I have a chiropractic, sports chiropractic friend. And he said, once with me, we want you guys to come. And we went and we thought, hey, maybe somebody wants to have another tank or, you know, we look at this possibility of business. We were in there for 3 minutes and after the hello's, they were both talking about their own spiritual experiences. And we had that experience so many times where our presence seemed to be an opening of a doorway where people could talk about their spiritual life, about their belief system, what they knew was correct. And so the, whereas cultural creatives have been, they've been looking for us, I mean, that's just what happened. And it seemed like whenever anybody came to our center, even if they were very sprayed, if we kind of scratched beneath the surface, we would find somebody who was spiritual. So it still may be hard for all of us to appreciate that these values are real for others and that we can count on them for our business. But big business doesn't have any problem with that. Mitty Cooper, there we go, is advertising to the ecological continuance of cultural creatives. Here Starbucks is and here Apple is talking to the spiritual continuance. So some people starting centers have the money to do it and are into it for the money. I think better than marketing to the, to the moderns, it's better to emphasize the values of the cultural creatives and their risk if they are modern people, it's to be able to learn about the cultural creatives. There are also people who have to borrow money in the opening center and I would suggest that they should start small and borrow as little money as possible because if they end up in a situation where they're, where money is tight, they may end up focusing on money and not paying attention to the values of the cultural creatives. The third group I want to talk about are, have got money and they are passionate about it and their risk I think is maybe not so strong anymore but at one time at least it was thinking that they're alone and playing safe and marketing to the moderns. I think it's very important for them to stay true to the cultural creatives. As most of you know, there's a guy by the name of Joe Rogan, he's a comedian who's been promoting the tank and he has said that through any difficult endeavor, you get to know yourself, you put your character to the test and you get results. So what is it that limits our evolution? I think that it's our inability to deal with our promise and our fears. Well, that's a little complicated because we want to evolve but we don't want to deal with our fears. So the market for our tanks, it's those who want to evolve but they still may be afraid and they want to deal with their fears and they may have fears such as drowning, darkness, suffocation, finding out something about themselves that they don't like. Wouldn't it be wonderful if clothing could help people to deal with their fears? Well, we can help people because many people have fears before they vote the first time. So if we can help them with that, then they may really be interested in what we have to offer. Well, we've investigated what fuels these fears and the biggest thing is that it's not okay to be afraid. They are afraid that it's not all right. The second thing is that they won't be in control of the situation. And the third thing is that they have to float a particular way for a particular length of time. Well, we have found that without taking their fears of possible ground, suffocation, and so on away, if we say many people have fears before, we say this either on the phone if somebody expresses fear or in person and we always put it at the beginning of the orientation when we're introducing a person to the tank. We say many people have fears before they vote the first time. And people who have fears of being afraid, they introduce you aside and feel so relieved. And we say you are in control of this situation. You can get in and out whenever you want. You can leave the door open. You can put your towel in the door or you can close the door. You can use it in whatever way is comfortable for you. Do you remember that woman who came? At our first center, we were doing very well. There was a big article in the paper and we were running full. And a woman came in one day and said, after five minutes of being in the tank room, came out and said, she could shoot. Would you mind if I brought a chair in there and just sat next to the tank and yell, I'll pay you? Fine. You know, we told you your job is to be comfortable. You want to do that, that's fine. She made an appointment for day number two and day number three and did the same thing. And on day number three, when she made her appointment for the next day, she said, tomorrow I'm going to get in the tank. And she did. And she came out glowing just like people come out when they get out of the tank. And that was, you know, I just thought back to this one year, whether the same she felt was every day for the self. And can you imagine the incredible power that she took for herself away and she had developed as a result of doing that, that she could then use into the rest of her life. Come talk to me, please. I have been floating for about two years. When right there in the middle of my float, I'm afraid of the dark. Now, that seems peculiar. At home, I'm afraid of the dark now. And I haven't been in for two years. And so I knew I had some looking as to what exactly about the dark was I'm afraid of. And what I saw was that I was the youngest of three sisters. And because of that place in the family, then I was the toy. I was the one that they did things with, like, walking in the closet. Which was terrifying to me. And, you know, once I saw that and just ran the pictures over and over again, it, you know, it took a session or two. But that is it. It was long. So that happened to me when you had one. A good one. Yeah. So I've been floating for 41 years. When I was up here at Portland last year, after the conference, a float-on person named Christopher has made a vertical float tank. And I floated in it. And you float vertically. You have weights put on your ankles. And I floated. And I was in it. And after about five minutes, it seemed like a bullet constrictor had put around my chest. And I was absolutely terrified. And I pulled myself up so that my chest wasn't under the water. And the tank subsided. And I started breathing again. I don't know, maybe I was. I wasn't around. Not present, not at all. I was somewhere else. And it subsided. And I let myself back down into it. And the terror comes back. And I moved myself out. And it gradually subsided. And I let myself go back in. And it raised up again. And I did that back and forth for half an hour before I got out. And I was so thankful. I was so excited. I was so appreciative that there was this thing that was locked in my body and it had been there, I think since the age of two. And I had a chance to deal with it and handle it. It was absolutely incredible. I was so, so wonderful from having had a chance to do that. So as Joe Rogan says, through any difficult endeavor, you get to know yourself. You put your character to the test. And you get results. So minimizing floaters' fears so they don't happen lessens their opportunity to evolve, producing a less powerful result. Well, okay, so we don't have to have floaters' fears. What about our fear of not making enough money? Well, I don't wish to take your fears away from you any more than I want to take the floaters' fears away from them. But I know you can handle your fear. Revealing what we have said here, learning more about the culture of creatives and focusing on those values and paying attention to yourself, I'm convinced that you can deal with your fears easily. Also, realizing feeling fear and doing it anyway is a great catalyst for growth. You understand how appreciating the cultural creative market influences how you manifest your center. Understanding the market and its values, you will make the right business decisions. You are a cultural creative, so you are on the market. So focus on what your needs are and address that in your business. I came up with this idea about how people are building centers or re-arranging them. And the word I got was individuation. That first center that we built after working from home for four years, we were so meticulous about the details as if you can imagine this. Five rooms going straight across the wall. I embroidered number for each door. One, two, three, four, five people. I embroidered number doorways. And you have a small office as well as a big reception area. And he made desks at a right birch that we trimmed with dark walnut trim. And the furniture that was in the center, we used a palette that was given to us by a local color specialist who suggested that the walls of the reception area be painted the rose colors of spring sunset. We did. It was perfect. When I remember what we did, it said the place became our spirit. We were embedded in that place. And we viewed each part of it with our ideas, our passions, our creativity. We brought there everything we had learned from Dr. Ridley. All the things we had learned working from home about how to introduce people to the tents, how to be with them when they came out. We invented systems, mechanical systems that kind of let people know their time was up. We learned how to introduce the press and how the press interviewed us to get the maximum benefit. We wrote center operations manual. This was a physical manifestation of our assignment. We noticed that it resonated totally with the vibe of the tent itself. The more you put into the center, the more you will draw those who want what you have to offer. With tank centers that all have floats, showers, solutions, temperatures, supreme clarity and so on, I'm suggesting that you bring your specialty, your spark, to review your business with your spirit, individuation. I think it's a good thing. So when floaters come out of the tank, how do you treat them? Well, you want to evolve and they want to evolve. Some floaters want to be alone so you create a private little space in the reception area where they can be by themselves. But those who want to talk, can you use that opportunity for you to evolve and for them to evolve? I think the answer is yes. And the way to do that is by you being more present. Let's look into that a little bit more that may or may not be understandable to you. I think we live most of our life in our mind. We're thinking about the past. We're thinking about the future. We think about projects. We think about relationships. We're constantly having this mental habit going on. There's another place different from the mind called being. A space of presence. Normally most of us don't know how to be present or how to get there unless we're long term meditating. Imagine a time when you learn how to ride a bicycle or drive a car or some other complex activity like swimming that can't be learned real simply. Probably what you did is you practiced the first part and you got that one part and you kept doing it until finally it became a habit. You were doing it automatically and now I don't even have to pay attention to it. And there it's going. My subconscious is operating it and I don't even have to pay attention to it. And then I get the second part. I work on the second part and I do that for a while until I can finally get that to be automatic, official. My subconscious does that part. I don't have to pay attention to it. And I keep doing that until I get the whole thing and finally I'm able to be driving for 20 miles. Don't even remember having driven that for those 20 miles and I'm talking to somebody in the car and tuning the radio at the same time. I do the same thing with eating. I no longer have to worry about the tea on my fork. Well, some of us have to do that again. Anyway, for the soup on our spoon it's become pretty automatic. We can be talking to all sorts of things while we're eating. Generally we can be talking with people and do an under stuff. So our talking has become individual, automatic and the subconscious is able to do all of these activities and we don't have to be around at all. When are we present? Well, if we're in extreme sports, we do skiing, downhill racing, we may have to be completely present. Or maybe we're involved in a project where time stands still. We will be more present. Or our child seriously hurts himself and suddenly we are completely there. I think many charismatic performers what we appreciate about them is how they're more present. So when we're present and we are effectively we're more functional, we're more there, we're more capable. This space of being, space of spirit I think is also where creativity and inspiration come from. In history people, crazy people have been asked how do you get to be creative? How do you come up with a new idea? And I think if you go back and you listen to them you'll find it often they're saying get rid of the mental chatter. But it sets the mind aside and you've got to become more present. I'd like you to imagine something for a minute. I would like you to, you may want to close your eyes and imagine that you're in the top of the mountain, snow covered mountain and you're looking out over the scenery and you see other snow-capped mountains and the environment is bright and scintillating, shimmering and the dress warmly and you feel warm but you feel the cool wind on your skin. You feel it howling, you hear it howling and you have a sense of peace, serenity. And off in the distance you hear the twinkling of little bells from the monastery on the other side of the valley and you are present. Thank you. It takes time to process the past or the future in our life. We have all this mental chatter. Eventually if we spend long enough or frequently enough floating this mental chatter may subside and we move to being to spirit to become more present. Most time machines take you from the present to the past or the future. Ours takes you from the past or the future to the present. Samani tank time machine for the present.