Yesterday, I walked into an unfamiliar room and got naked.
I took a warm shower, tiptoed over to a large, clam-like apparatus, and climbed in.
I closed the clam shell behind myself.
All around me was warm, salty water and complete darkness and silence.
I was in an isolation (or sensory deprivation) tank.
For the next hour or so, I lay there in the darkness, waiting for the visions to start.
At least, that’s what I’d read would happen. I got this idea from Paddy Chayefsky’s novel Altered States, in which a scientist starts experimenting with sensory deprivation and psychedelic drugs, and winds up transforming into an ape-like creature who runs amok in Central Park.
The story in the book is less kooky than this quick summary makes it sound.
And kooky or not, this story was enough to make “sensory deprivation” something I very much wanted to try.
Which is a lesson to keep in mind if you are trying to convince people of anything — particularly anything unusual, or something they might not know they want.
Just consider:
Had I read a sales letter, an advertorial, or a blog post with a headline like, “How to induce safe, drug-free hallucinations,” odds are the message would have just bounced off me.
In the best case, it might have gotten me interested, but it would have caused all sorts of objections and doubts to pop up as well.
But a story, in an obscure novel from 40 years ago, was enough to get me to seek out a “float” halfway around the world, without inquiring about the price, safety, or effectiveness of this experience.
And this all happened without even a call to action. Speaking of which:
If you are selling something to an “unaware” audience, and you want to try a story-based approach in your sales emails, then you might find some valuable pointers here: