Would you be brave enough to sit on a chair that can send you into an ‘altered state of mind’ within minutes?
That is the wild promise of the Aiora chair, a futuristic seat designed by scientists from the University of Essex and British furniture company DavidHugh LTD.
Using a new principle called ‘pure planar motion mechanics’, the Aiora chair reproduces the sensation of floating in zero–gravity.
According to the designers, this creates a similar effect to being suspended inside a sensory deprivation flotation tank.
Since 2018, psychologists have been studying how this strange chair can change the sitter’s brain activity.
Lead researcher Dr Nick Cooper, of the Centre for Brain Science, says: ‘Several of our studies have revealed patterns of brain activity similar to those reported in long–term Buddhist meditators, and remarkably, in people with no prior meditation experience.’
However, the chance to relax like a pro meditator doesn’t come cheap.
If you want to splash out on your own Aiora chair, you’ll face a hefty £9,950 bill.
The Aiora chair, developed by scientists from the University of Essex and British furniture company DavidHugh LTD, claims it can put people into an ‘altered state of mind’ within minutes
The chair simulates the sensation of floating weightlessly. Studies have shown that sitting in the chair produces brain activity similar to that of skilled meditators
The Aiora chair works by trying to reduce the sensation of gravity and friction to a minimum while sitting.
Each of the individual parts – the headrest, arms, backrest, and seat – move along individual horizontal paths so that they aren’t accelerated by gravity like a swinging rocking chair.
At the same time, very smooth bearings cut resistance and friction to a minimum, allowing the chair to follow your body’s natural movements.
Dr David Wickett, the designer of the chair and co–founder of DavidHugh Ltd, says this system is so sensitive that ‘even breathing can lift the entire body’.
The result is that the sitter doesn’t feel pressure in any one spot, making it feel as if they are floating rather than sitting.
This is so different from simply sitting in a normal chair that people usually need a few minutes to ‘learn’ how to float rather than fighting to control their movements.
‘Whilst floating in weightlessness is extraordinary in itself, what is even more remarkable is what people report after experiencing the chair with eyes closed,’ says Dr Wickett.
‘People often report being in a boundless space, experiencing illusions of movement, and being without thought.’
Researchers say the chair reduces the amount of sensory information being sent to the brain, which allows for deeper states of inner perception
What is surprising is that this doesn’t just make the chair extra comfortable; it appears to have a measurable effect on the brain.
Dr Cooper and his team at the University of Essex have found that people tend to enter a ‘non–ordinary state of consciousness’ within five to 10 minutes of sitting down.
Dr Cooper told the Daily Mail: ‘We see increases in slow wave brain activity over time, when using the chair.’
These changes are particularly pronounced over the right frontal areas, which are associated with various brain control mechanisms, and the fronto–central cortex, which is associated with cognitive tasks requiring concentration or attention.
‘We are intrigued by changes to a particular slow wave brain activity, the “frontal midline theta” that is very similar to what we see in expert meditators,’ says Dr Cooper.
Although the researchers have plans to release a peer–reviewed paper on their findings soon, they still aren’t quite sure why this happens.
Dr Cooper says: ‘At the moment, we hypothesise that this has something to do with the way that the chair dramatically reduces the amount of sensory input that the brain is receiving, and so therefore allows a more internally based attentional focus to take over.
‘However, we can’t be more specific than that at the moment.’
The Aiora chair has a similar effect to sensory deprivation flotation chambers (stock image pictured)
If this is the case, it would mean that the Aiora chair has a similar effect to sensory deprivation flotation chambers.
These chambers use extremely salty water to suspend someone in a state of neutral buoyancy to remove the sensation of pressure caused by gravity.
Combined with total darkness and soundproof headphones, these ‘float tanks’ drastically reduce the amount of sensory information a person receives.
Spending a period in this state has been shown to cause a wide array of positive effects, ranging from deep meditative brain states to significantly reduced blood pressure.
