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This nOde
last updated February 17th, 2024 and is permanently
morphing...
(first emerged April 30th, 2002
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Dr. John C. Lilly, M.D. (1915- ) is a physician and psychoanalyst specializing in biophysics, neurophysiology, electronics, computer theory, and neuroanatomy.
inventor of the Isolation Tank Method
illustrated in the film, _Altered States_ (avi)
authored:
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Lilly's
life and work at the forefronts of human knowledge encompass
the major themes of the twentieth century. His dozen books
have sold millions of copies worldwide. A distinguished brain
researcher even before he became a public figure, Lilly has
sown the seeds of several scientific revolutions, including
the theory of internal realities, the hardware/software
model of the human brain/ mind, and the initiation of
worldwide efforts at interspecies communications with
large-brained dolphins.
Devoted to a philosophical quest for the
nature of reality, Lilly pursued a brilliant academic
career among the scientific leaders of the day, mastering
one science after another and eventually achieving a perspective
that transcends the centuries-old conflict between
rationality and mysticism. He has lived in the company of
associates and intimates including Nobel physicists Richard Feynman and Robert
Milliken, philosophers
Buckminster Fuller,
Aldous Huxley, and
Alan Watts, psychotherapy
pioneers
R.D. Laing
and Fritz Perls, spiritual teachers Oscar Ichazo and Baba Ram
Dass, and a host of luminaries, inventors, writers, and
Hollywood celebrities.
Today, John Lilly
stands as the twentieth century's foremost scientific pioneer
of the inner and outer limits of human experience. He is a relentless
adventurer whose "search for Reality" has led him repeatedly
to risk life and limb, but whose quests have resulted in
astonishing insights into what it means to be a human being in
an ever more mysterious universe.
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Lilly: "Historically this implication ( that
the experiences reported were caused by the tank isolation ) is
incorrect. The history of my experiments with the tank show from
1954 to 1964 recorded no negative experiences. The isolation
itself floating in water
was not negative.... As long as no
psychedelics,
hallucinogenic, or mind-altering
drugs are used in the tank, ordinary non-ill persons with
"non-altered states of
consciousness" in general need not
fear tank isolation as a cause of "altered states" of
consciousness. "Where then does the movie's brochure
quote come from? It comes from the period 1964 to 1966 when I
was researching the effects of
LSD-25
on myself in the isolation tank. These experiences were dramatic
and quite different from non-drug use of the tank before or
after that period of research.... My present use and experience
of the tank is quite undramatic, restful, and restorative. As
the second title of the book implies my current goal and use is
for the profound relaxation which I find it very easy to allow
in our Samadhi Tank." This is not to say he didn't like the
movie _Altered States_.
"The film is a fine
portrayal of some of my experiences in the isolation tank
during the researches on my own mind with LSD-25. As my wife
Toni said, while crying during the presentation, the film is
"externalized poetry of the 'inner' experiences." My feeling
was that everyone making that film somehow must have had
similar experiences in order to do such a good representation
of "altered states." The acting by the researcher and his wife
to us was very moving. It reminded us of some of our own
experiences written up in my book, "The Scientist: a Novel
Autobiography", in which Toni saved my life several times."
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- John C. Lilly
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