It’s official: nothing in life is free

Alright, I’ll admit it.

I inhaled.

I sat down and took in a nice, long breath to clear my mind. It wasn’t just me. There were three of us sitting around six glass containers of bubbling water with calming scents filling our nostrils.

At first it felt kind of funny, and made my eyes water. But after a few minutes, I was starting to feel mild effects. But that was about it.

It was the first time I did oxygen.

That’s right, oxygen. O2. Air.

Should’ve known when buying bottled water became commonplace, but I can’t believe times have gotten so weird that people are actually paying money to breathe oxygen. I’m suddenly reminded of a bumper sticker I once read that reminisced that oxygen should be considered a drug.

The Eighth Element sells it by the minute at any one of its oxygen bars stationed around town – on Thursday nights at Blue Spark, 15 S. Howard, and the Twilight Room, 112 S. Monroe; and Friday and Saturday nights at Dempsey’s Brass Rail, 909 W. First – and at private functions.

First made popular in the late 1990s in Las Vegas and originating in Japan in the 1960s, oxygen bars are showing up at spas, corporate events, malls, casinos and bars across the nation, and now they’re in Spokane.

O2 at Eighth Element runs $5 for five minutes, $9 for 10 minutes, and $14 for unlimited all night use. While Eighth Element owners Chaz Barce and Aaron Murakami don’t encourage sucking the 95 percent oxygen and 5 percent aromatherapy for more than 30 minutes at a time, they claim there are no health risks from breathing close-to-pure air.

Oxygen bars are set up like something out of a deleted scene from the movie “Bladerunner.” Patrons sit around the chic O2 bar like they would at any other bar, except they are wearing nose hoses connected to bright colored concoctions of water and scented oils (you get to keep the nose hoses by the way; they are not re-used).

The scents are found in aromatherapy – lavender is calming, eucalyptus is focusing, and peppermint and orange are stimulating, according to Barce and Murakami. Murakami runs Top o’ the Line Total Health Shoppe at 809 W. Garland. Barce is a computer geek, actor, ninjutsu black belt and entrepreneur who grew up in Deer Park.

“It makes you feel really good, and it gives you energy,” he said.

Taken out of context, this sounds like something you might have been advised to say “no” to when Basehead Billy offered it to you in middle school, but the buzz you get from sniffing O2 is nothing like sniffing glue – uh, so I’m told.

A couple of folks I talked to said they used it to help focus and become more alert after a few drinks, or even to cope with a hangover. A few people said it helps with headaches. The Eighth Element Web site ( www.theeighthelement.com) claims the American Lung Association has an oxygen bar at its annual Oxygen Ball.

Barce is careful to drop a disclaimer: “One woman said it helped get rid of back pain, and that’s great, but we sell this for recreational use only.”

Now don’t get it twisted, breathing a little O2 after getting wasted at the bar all night doesn’t mean you should get behind the wheel of a car. While it doesn’t hinder judgment, it doesn’t improve it either, Barce said.

“One guy was with his girlfriend or whatever, and she was plastered. He asked if it would help her sober up and I said, ‘No, she’ll still be drunk when she’s done,” he said.

Spokane business owner Andrea Hubbard swears by the hits of oxygen.

“After a long day at work, I had some oxygen, and it turned me right around and I was ready to emcee a program that night,” she said.

In other words – and this may come as a shock – there are people who claim that breathing air might actually be good for you. But only the polluted stuff is free.