Honking car horns, ringing telephones, screaming children.  When the sensory overload that is modern life has pushed the needle on your stress-ometer into the red, you may want to try what many believe to be the ultimate relaxation experience by literally getting away from it all in the peaceful confines of an isolation tank.

Once the exclusive playground of experimental psychologists, the isolation tank experience has gone mainstream.  Dozens of spas now offer hour-long relaxation sessions in custom-designed floatation chambers filled with roughly 10 inches of water containing as much as 800 pounds of epsom salts.

The result is a fluid environment in which the human body is extremely buoyant.  This allows your nose and mouth to remain above the surface while your ears remain underwater to reduce auditory distractions.  The water is also heated to body temperature, which enhances the floating experience by making it hard to sense the boundary between water and air.

Studies have shown this isolation tank experience—also known as floatation therapy—releases endorphins that help alleviate a wide range of chronic stress-related maladies from anxiety to depression.  The relaxation experienced has also been proven to boost theta brainwave activity associated with enhanced creativity, concentration, and problem-solving abilities.  Enthusiasts also claim the benefits become more pronounced with repeat experiences.

If you’re still skeptical, you may be interested to know that some of the most brilliant minds of the 20th-century—from comedian George Carlin to Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman—have been fans of the isolation tank experience.

If you’re interested in trying this extraordinary experience, take a few minutes to check out the very helpful and informative isolation tank FAQ and first-timer’s guide on FloatFinder.com.  The website also offers a handy map-based guide to flotation centers around the world.

MORE EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES:

The Nose Knows: This custom perfume experience gives sensory overload a good name.

Meet The Manatees: Here’s where to try floating with the most gentle marine mammal we know.

Many moons ago, I knew a young woman who—despite being, ahem, somewhat vertically-challenged—dreamed of becoming a member of New York City’s famed Radio City Rockettes.  If you’re an equally passionate amateur dancer with some training in jazz and tap and a curiosity about what life is like for members of the world’s best-known dance troupe, I’m betting you’ll dig these two once-in-a-lifetime Rockettes adventures.

The Rockette Summer Intensive is designed to give aspiring professional dancers a taste of what it takes to join this famous kick-line.  The week-long dance education program includes six hours of daily instruction from current Rockettes dancers and choreographers, a seminar with inside info on the Rockettes audition process, and a grand finale performance where you’ll get to dance on the same Radio City Music Hall stage where the Rockettes have been wowing sold-out crowds with their eye-high kicks for decades.  While there are no guarantees, it’s worth noting that this summer intensive program has helped more than 40 young dancers earn a coveted spot in the Rockettes line-up over the past 10 years.

If you’re a more casual dance enthusiast, check out the one-day Rockette Experience.  This scaled-down version of the week-long summer intensive includes three hours of dance  instruction from one of the Rockettes’ choreographers, along with a mock audition interview, photo opps, and a behind-the-scenes tour of Radio City Music Hall.

Either way you go, it’s a pretty safe bet you’ll end up having an extraordinary experience that’s sure to make you the envy of your next dance class.

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Fashion Designer Dreams: 4 Fab Ways To Make Your Fashionista Fantasies Come True

Grown-Up Camps: Why Let Kids Have All The Fun?

If you’re one of the millions of serious birders in North America, sooner or later you’ll find yourself running out of new indigenous species to add to your life list. When you reach that point, you’ll want to check out the mind-boggling array of global birdwatching expeditions put on by the nice folks at Birdquest.

This 30-year-old British operation offers tours to just about any exotic birdwatching destination you can imagine, and a few you probably can’t (seriously, how many people do you know who’ve been birding in Djibouti?). They bill their outings as “The Ultimate In Bird Tours” and, with regularly scheduled expeditions to all seven continents, it’s hard to argue that point.

Birdquest’s worldwide network of tour leaders include leading field ornithologists, professional bird artists, and authors of well-respected field guides for several prime birding destinations. This expertise generates impressive results for their guests, who often go home with hundreds of new additions to their life lists.

If you consider yourself a truly hardcore birder, however, you’ll want to check out Birdquest’s World Record Bird Tours. On an upcoming “megaquest” to Kenya, for example, they hope to break their own record of spotting an amazing 835 species in one trip. Wow.

Add encounters with a variety of non-feathered friends from polar bears to Sumatran tigers, and you have wildlife expeditions that definitely qualify for the title of extraordinary experiences.

MORE EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES:

Feathered Friends: Vermont’s British School Of Falconry

Bush Planes & Brown Bears: Get Up-Close-And-Personal With Alaskan Grizzlies

For those of us who grew up on sci-fi movies and television shows like Forbidden Planet and Lost In Space, the idea of a world full of robots seems like some far-off fantasy. Which is precisely why this weekend’s RoboGames—a three-day event certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the planet’s largest open robotics competition—seems like such an extraordinary experience.

This six-year-old San Francisco-area geek-fest features the highly imaginative creations of individuals and teams from more than 20 countries, competing in dozens of events ranging from soccer to sumo. The stars of the show, of course, are the battling bots that come in sizes from 5.3 ounces to 340 pounds. But there’s a more civilized side to the event as well, including robots who make music and mix a mean cocktail. There’s even a chance to meet techie celebrities, including MythBusters wiz-kid Grant Imahara.

For an entertaining look at what to expect, check out CNet’s great RoboGames audio slideshow. And if you go, remember to say thanks—or should we say domo arigato—to all the automatons you meet.

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Shuttle Launch Sideshow: The Next Best Thing To Blast-Off

Spain’s La Tomatina Festival

In a world where many people have come to view flying as an ordeal to be endured, there are still lots of us for whom the act of leaving terra firma behind remains an adventure to be savored. If you’re one of us, you owe it to yourself to book a seat on the first zeppelin to take to the skies above the U.S. in more than 70 years.

The company responsible for the zeppelin’s return to America, Airship Ventures, offers one- and two-hour flight-seeing tours around San Francisco Bay in the 246-foot helium-filled Eureka, as well as occasional cross-country flights as they reposition the zeppelin for tours in southern California or Monterey (if you have your private pilot’s license you can even take a turn at the controls). Between the zeppelin’s gentle flight characteristics—three 200-horsepower engines in rotating nacelles allow pilots to make this 747-sized airship hover, climb, and descend like a helicopter—and its huge panoramic windows, there simply isn’t a better platform for airborne rubbernecking out there.

Then, of course, there’s the sheer rarity of the experience. The Eureka is the largest airship in existence and one of only three zeppelins operating anywhere in the world, facts that should earn you some bragging rights back home.

Ultimately though, all that grown-up appeal vanishes the moment you climb aboard. From aerial views of Alcatraz and the city’s dramatic skyline to an amazing Golden Gate fly-by, even serious “been there, flown in that” aviation geeks (umm, like me for instance) are likely to find themselves with their noses pressed up against the glass like wide-eyed 10-year-olds.

In the end, it’s this sense of wonder that makes these zeppelin flights such an extraordinary experience. Even for all those poor jaded folks who insist they don’t like flying.

MORE EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES:

Full Of Hot Air: How To Be Part Of A Mass Ascension At The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

High-Flying History: Take Off In A World War II B-17

Lindbergh’s Legacy: Powered Hang-Gliding Flights Above Lucky Lindy’s Maui Home

If you read Part 1 of this series, which featured seven way-cool summer camps for kids, you may have come away wishing there were a way us grown-ups could get in on the fun. At least I know I did.

Which lead me to put together this list of adult-only “camps” that’ll give the tweens and teens in your life just as many reasons to be jealous:

Hollywood TV Star Fantasy Camp

Get ready for your close-up as you play your part in this “made-for-TV” crime drama.

Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camp

Five days of jamming in laid back settings ranging from small combos to big bands.

Camp Winnarainbow

Run away to join the circus at this far-out program put on by hippie legend Wavy Gravy.

World Poker Tour Boot Camp

Raise your game to the next level at these two-day clinics taught by tournament pros.

Space Camp

Always wanted to be an astronaut? Well, now you can at least train like one!

Bull Riding Camp

Here’s your chance to experience the longest eight seconds of your life from atop a rodeo bull.

CIA Boot Camps

Foodies can join Culinary Institute of America instructors for the tastiest “camps” anywhere!

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Rock-n-Roll Fantasy Camp

Michael Jordan’s Basketball Fantasy Camp

There are more than 12,000 summer camp programs in the U.S.  Most of which are designed to fill their campers’ days with activities that haven’t changed much in decades.

The seven summer camp programs featured below are another story altogether.  While their themes run the gamut from filmmaking to fine cuisine, the one thing they all have in common—other than the fact that a lot of adults will wish they could sign up—is the fact that they offer kids a chance to actually live out the kind of extraordinary experiences they thought were only possible in movies, TV, and video games:

Feel The Force

This three-day Jedi Experience, held in conjunction with a traveling Star Wars exhibit, gives younglings a chance to learn the ways of the Jedi, build their own lightsaber, and more.

The Big Boom

Older teens can have a blast at this Summer Explosives Camp designed to introduce them to university degree programs that will allow them to blow stuff up for a living.

Rock The House

These week-long Power Chord Academy camps give young rockers a chance to write songs, perform on stage, lay down studio tracks, and even star in their own music video.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Aspiring filmmakers attending Pali Adventures’ Film Institute will get the chance to write, direct, shoot, edit, and premiere their own short-feature.

Fashion Designer Dreams

Teen fashionistas will flip over these five-day FashionCampNYC programs that let them experience all aspects of the fashion business, from working for style magazines to designing for the runway.

Now You’re Cookin’!

When the budding gourmets attending the Kids Culinary Summer Camp of Vermont aren’t learning serious kitchen skills, they’re off enjoying tasty field trips to local bakeries, cheesemakers, and restaurants.

Burn Rubber Baby

Those video arcade driving games will look like child’s play once kids have the chance to spend time behind the steering wheels of Camp Motorsports’ scaled-down race cars and dune buggies.

For a seemingly endless list of other interesting summer camps for kids, check out MySummerCamps.com.  And tune in next time for a rundown of grown-up camps that prove kids don’t always have all the fun!

MORE EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES:

Civil War Adventure Camp

Rock-n-Roll Fantasy Camp

Since deciding to chuck all the trappings of a so-called “normal” life back in 2006, Nora Dunn has been traveling the world and chronicling her experiences on her blog The Professional Hobo.  Seeing as how this is an extraordinary experience an awful lot of people aspire to, I thought it’d be interesting to look at the full-time vagabond life Nora’s created for herself to see what we can all learn about living out our dreams:

Hobo Nora

What prompted you to do this? Does this lifestyle choice reflect a deeper philosophical outlook?

I was on the brink of my 30th birthday, running a successful financial planning practice in Toronto when a long string of illnesses finally made me realize I was burning the candle at both ends.  One day while feeling especially trapped by the super-busy lifestyle I’d created, I thought “I just want to retire!”

I wanted to explore the world. I wanted to climb mountains. I wanted to do humanitarian work.  There was so much I wanted to do, I didn’t even know where to start.  But the one thing that I knew for sure was that I wasn’t going to be able to do half those things on my list if I waited 30 years for a more conventional retirement to get started.

What kind of resistance did you encounter once you decided to do this, both from others and from the voice in your head?

For as long as I can remember, the voice in my head  had been telling me I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing.  So when I made this decision, it was finally happy!

As for everybody around me, I encountered almost unanimous support. There were some people who just couldn’t understand why I’d want to sell everything and travel the world, but the most common reply was “Oh wow! I wish I could do that.”

How has the reality of this experience measured up to your expectations?

Measuring any of my experiences that way is pretty difficult.  I “expected” Costa Rica would be my first destination, and I’ve yet to make it there.  Instead, serendipity has led me to new places over and over again, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  My life is constantly evolving and it actually exceeds any expectations I could have set going in.

What has been the best part of the experience so far?  What has been the worst?

Some of my best and worst experiences have been one and the same. Twice in two years my boyfriend Kelly and I found ourselves caught up in natural disasters, including the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in Burma (Myanmar) and the worst bushfires Australia has ever seen.

But even though these might seem like negatives, they actually became high points as we spent our time volunteering full-time with the relief efforts.  To fully understand what I mean, you can read the complete stories of our efforts with the Burma cyclone relief and the Victorian Bushfires on my blog.

You’ve been in Australia for some time now—do you still consider yourself a wanderer or have you begun to settle down, maybe without realizing it?

Coming off the cyclone relief efforts in Burma, the Victorian Brushfires, and a week in the hospital with Dengue fever was all pretty exhausting, so we’ve been happy to stay in one place for a while.

Right now, Kelly has been lured in by a rewarding job that will mean using this area as a home base for a bit.  But I’ll be doing some solo traveling around Australia, New Zealand, and Europe and will return just in time for both of us to uproot completely and find a new place to explore next year.

What advice would you have for someone who was thinking about following a similar dream?

Do it! Okay, for a minute, I thought of leaving it at that, but here are a couple of more specific pointers:

• Put your financial house in order before setting out. Juggling debt on the road is hard, unless you have enough money coming in to both make those payments and pay for your travels.
• Speaking of money, you need to find a way to earn a location-independent income if you want to make long-term travel financially sustainable.  Once you figure this out though, you’ll have the freedom to live—and work—just about wherever you want.

You can also follow Nora’s exploits on Twitter @HoboNora.

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Trolling around the internet last week, I noticed that today is Harry Houdini’s birthday.  Which got me thinking about the state of “magic” in our culture and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke’s famous quote:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

In an era of computer-generated trickery ranging from software-doctored photos in magazines to entire computer-generated worlds in movies like Avatar, the idea of someone performing old-school prestidigitation seems almost quaint.  Just the same, anyone who’s ever been wowed by updated versions of these traditional magic acts as performed by the likes of David Blaine or Penn & Teller understands that there’s some part of the human psyche that truly enjoys the experience of being mystified by illusions so finely crafted and deftly executed that the word magic definitely seems to apply.

Whether you’re an aspiring professional magician or just a curious amateur looking to pick up a few simple tricks to amaze and amuse friends and relatives, I think you’ll find these two annual events to be true extraordinary experiences:

Society of American Magicians Annual Convention

June 30 – July 3, 2010; Atlanta

Founded in 1902, Harry Houdini was the longest-serving president of this organization whose members include everyone from Siegfried & Roy to David Copperfield.  Their annual get together includes special programs for young magicians, a circus sideshow-style midway, contests, and nightly gala performances.

International Brotherhood of Magicians Annual Convention

July 6-10, 2010; San Diego

With 12,000 members in 73, countries, the I.B.M. is the world’s largest organization for professional magicians and amateur enthusiasts. Their four-day convention includes lectures and workshops taught by internationally known magicians, a dealers area where you can try and buy some of the latest tricks, and several large-scale nightly magic shows.

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There’s A Spell For That: How To Magically Transport Yourself To The Land of Harry Potter

A Visit To Hollywood’s Magic Castle

If you’re a scuba diver, it’s a pretty safe bet that you spend a fair amount of time dreaming of new underwater worlds to explore.  The problem, of course, is that with so many spectacular dive sites around the world, you may have a hard time deciding where you want to go next.

Fortunately, there are a handful of dive trips that qualify as truly extraordinary experiences. The kind of once-in-a-lifetime aquatic adventures you’ll be talking about to anyone who’ll listen for many years to come.

So to give a little focus to your wetsuit wanderlust, I’ve pulled together this list of what many dive travel experts believe to be the world’s most over-the-top underwater experiences:

Pearl Diving

Divers have been harvesting pearls from the waters surrounding Bahrain for 4,000 years, and these trips to the local oyster beds prove they’re still producing some of the finest examples in the world.

Underwater Overnight

If you simply can’t get enough time beneath the waves, the Jules Undersea Lodge offers you the rare opportunity to actually sleep with the fishes.

Lost City of Atlantis

You may have thought that the story of Atlantis was a myth, but these dive tours will take you to explore manmade structures that some believe prove this legendary sunken city’s existence.

Graveyard Of The Atlantic

For history buffs and wreck diving aficionados, this area off the North Carolina coast offers a chance to dive on dozens of sunken vessels ranging from World War II-era freighters to the German U-boats that sank them.

Whale Sharks

The waters around sleepy Holbox Island, Mexico are home to one of the largest annual gatherings of the world’s biggest (and gentlest) fish, which gather here each summer by the hundreds.

Creature Feature

While there are lots of reasons to dive the warm waters off Key Largo, Captain Spencer Slate’s weekly subaquatic circus (starring barracuda he feeds fish held in his teeth and huggable six-foot moray eels) has to be seen to be believed.

Shark Diving

If climbing into a shark cage in the crystal clear waters off the California or Baja coast while being circled by great white sharks the size of compact cars isn’t exciting enough for you, well, I’m afraid you’re simply beyond help.