John C. Lilly (6 January 1915 – 30 September 2001)
John C. Lilly was a physician, biophysicist, neurologist, and inventor who specialized in the study of states of consciousness. Lilly was a representative of the counterculture, which also belonged to Ram Dass, Werner Erhard and Timothy Leary. John Lilly was born on January 6, 1915 in St. Paul, Minnesota. At the age of 13, his interest in science and chemistry in particular began to emerge. He began to conduct simple chemical experiments. John
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John C. Lilly (6 January 1915 – 30 September 2001)
John C. Lilly was a physician, biophysicist, neurologist, and inventor who specialized in the study of states of consciousness. Lilly was a representative of the counterculture, which also belonged to Ram Dass, Werner Erhard and Timothy Leary. John Lilly was born on January 6, 1915 in St. Paul, Minnesota. At the age of 13, his interest in science and chemistry in particular began to emerge. He began to conduct simple chemical experiments. John studied at St. Paul's Academy, Dartmoth Medical School, California Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. In the latter, Lilly received a doctorate in medicine in 1942 and taught at this university from 1942 to 1956, simultaneously studying biophysics and psychoanalysis.
In the mid-50s, Lilly took up a post at the National Institute of Mental Health, where he studied neurophysiology. Lilly’s interest in the nature of human consciousness led him to invent a special insulating reservoir for experiments with sensory deprivation in 1954. This reservoir isolated sensory arousal as much as possible, making it clear what happens to the mind without external influence. The first experiments with sensory deprivation Lilly conducted on himself. These tanks brought him fame.
In 1959, Lilly founded the Communication Research Institute in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands and served as its director until 1968. There he worked on studies of dolphin intelligence and human-dolphin interaction. This work Lilly later continued in San Francisco under the auspices of the JANUS project.
While working for the National Institute of Mental Health, Lilly became familiar with LSD and other psychoactive substances. His first experience with LSD was in 1963. He began using ketamine and LSD in combination with insulating reservoirs as a method of consciousness research and metaprogramming. The results of these experiments were published in his work “Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer”. (Programming and Metaprogramming of the Human Biocomputer) Like all of Lilly's work, this one soon became available to the general public.
From the late 60s until his move to Hawaii, Lilly worked in his home lab in Malibu, California. Lilly no longer received government subsidies and worked with private funding. He also traveled extensively, taught and lectured at various scientific institutions and conferences.
Lilly was married three times. The first two marriages ended in divorce. His last wife Antornetta Leane Oshman died in 1996.
The life and scientific work of John Lilly influenced the creation of two films: Day of the Dolphin (1973) and Altered States (1980). The first film tells about the attempts of the Armed Forces to use dolphins as weapons, the second is about scientists trying to use psychoactive substances in combination with insulating tanks to study the reality of the brain.
Lilly spent the last years of his life in Hawaii. John died in Los Angeles in 2001 due to cardiac arrest at the age of 86. His ashes were scattered on the Pacific Ocean on January 6, 2002, at his last home in Maui, Hawaii.
Lilly’s work has made significant contributions to psychology, brain research, medicine, ethics, dolphinology and the study of interspecies interaction. During his life, Lilly made many discoveries and inventions, wrote more than 125 works in various fields of science. His work on dolphins and whales led to the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972.
“There were those who thought Lilly was a genius, but there were those who thought he was insane. I thought it was a little bit of both, says Jennifer Yankee Caulfield, a project participant led by John Lilly in the early '80s.