Pioneering psychonaut and neuroscientist John C. Lilly is best known for his work in the 1950s exploring whether humans and dolphins could communicate. His NASA-sponsored research—in which he gave dolphins LSD and took it with them—contributed to the broader field of animal cognition and interspecies communication that continues today, now powered by artificial intelligence. In addition to his strange studies on dolphins, Lilly developed the sensory isolation tank, designed to explore the effects of depriving the brain of external stimuli. This tied to his interest in altered states and eventually to his continued experiments with Ketamine, LSD, and other psychedelics, aiming to explore their potential for expanding human consciousness. By the 1970s, Lilly became captivated by what he called the Earth Coincidence Control Office (E.C.C.O.), cosmic entities he encountered during his journeys to inner (and outer?) space. Far fucking out.
John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office is a new documentary about this visionary's life of high weirdness, unconventional science, and utopian ideals. Trailer below. Directed by Courtney Stephens and Michael Almereyda and narrated by Chloë Sevigny, this is the story of "a person who, with considerable fluidity, traded scientific investigation for adventures in mysticism, fantasy, and showmanship."
The film premiered at the International Rotterdam Film Festival last month and comes to the MoMA in NYC on February 25.
Previously:
• The woman who fell in love with NASA's LSD-dosed and sex-addicted dolphin
• The Dolphin House, a documentary on John Lilly and Margaret Howe's attempts to communicate with dolphins
