Reiki or a float tank: who each one is really for
By Vanessa Chugani · Updated October 2026
Choose Reiki if you want someone with you while your body settles, useful for ongoing stress, grief or anxiety. Choose a float tank if you want to be completely alone, with no voice, touch or conversation. Some people use both: the float tank for silence, Reiki for support that continues after the session ends.
Both offer time away from everything, but the mechanics are different. In a float tank you are alone in body-temperature salt water, floating in the dark, with nothing asking anything of you. In a Reiki session someone sits with you while your nervous system settles, whether that is in the room in Canggu or at a distance. One removes input entirely, the other adds a steady, attentive presence. Neither is better on its own. The right one depends on whether being completely alone sounds like relief or like one more thing to manage by yourself.
| a Reiki session | a float tank session | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | You lie down, clothed, while Vanessa works with light touch or with hands just above the body, in person or at a distance. | You float alone in body-temperature salt water, usually in darkness and silence, with no one else present. |
| Who is with you | Vanessa, throughout the session, whether you are in the room in Canggu or joining by distance. | No one. Staff wait outside the tank; the float itself is solitary. |
| Sound and light | Usually quiet with soft light, and you can speak if you need to. | Darkness and silence by design, meant to remove outside sensory input. |
| What people report afterward | People often report sleep that comes more easily and pain sitting further away, among other things. | Deep physical relaxation, with the effect usually tied to the float itself. |
| Cost | EUR 188 in person in Canggu, EUR 138 for a distance session, with three and five session packages at EUR 388 and EUR 588. | Varies by studio. Ask the float centre directly for current pricing. |
| Best for | Ongoing stress, grief or anxiety, or wanting support from someone who stays in contact afterward. | Wanting complete solitude, with no voice, touch or conversation involved at all. |
Which one suits you
A float tank suits you if what you actually want is to disappear for an hour: no voice, no hands, no conversation, just your own body in warm water and the dark. If being touched or spoken to right now sounds like too much, or you simply want to find out what total sensory quiet does for your mind, a float tank is the better call, and you do not need Reiki to get there. Reiki suits you if what you are carrying needs company while it settles, the stress that has been running for months or the anxiety that keeps you up at 2am. It works whether you are in the room in Canggu or joining at a distance, and what people report afterward is sleep that comes more easily and pain sitting further away.
Related questions
Can I do both a float tank and Reiki?
Yes. Some people float for the silence and come to Reiki for the support. There is no conflict between the two, and trying both is a reasonable way to find out which one you actually want.
Is a Reiki session the same kind of break as a float tank?
Not really. A float tank removes input: no sound, no light, no touch. A Reiki session keeps someone with you the whole time, in Canggu or at a distance, while your nervous system settles. The method is different even where the outcome is similar.
I do not like being touched. Does that rule out Reiki?
No. Reiki can be done with the practitioner's hands held just above the body rather than on it, and a distance session involves no touch at all. If you would rather have zero contact and zero conversation, a float tank is the simpler choice.