FLOAT TANKS TWO: THE HISTORY

Born a Catholic in St. Paul Minnesota in 1915, John Lilly quickly went beyond the teachings of the Church. He read Huxley’s “Brave New World” and philosopher George Berkeley, (whose writing foreshadowed quantum physics by about three hundred years). When Lilly began experimenting with the pathways of consciousness in the 1950’s he was trying to discover if awareness originated in our brains. Do we generate it, he wanted to know, or are we simply conduits for it? Are we gods, or merely flesh instruments reacting to sensory stimuli? Lilly’s idea was that if he eliminated all external sensory contact with the world, and analyzed brain activity, he might find some answers.

One of Lilly’s many visionary research projects involved Dolphin/human communications. He was trying to find ways to create a language through which the two species could speak to one another despite radically different vocal equipment. Lilly did not just try to teach Dolphins human words, he endeavored to learn their language, immersing himself in the sounds of their high-frequency sonar utterances. Dolphin brains are larger than human brains and Lilly quickly came to perceive the astonishing sophistication and complexity of their language. He believed that real conversation between humans and dolphins was just around the corner. He also understood that a larger, galactic community could not, indeed, would not include humanity as members until we could first learn to fully relate with our fellow Earth-species. Like many farseeing geniuses, his work sometimes traversed a murky border between rigorous science and fanciful experimentation.

Lilly once instructed a young female protegé to live alone with a dolphin for many months, interacting with him on any level that seemed right. Eventually they both got pretty lonely and that interaction took a turn to the amorous. Forty years later, that same woman, now settling into a less experimental phase of life, doesn’t like to talk about her inter-species affair. Was it immoral or cruel? Was Lilly a mad, voyeuristic scientist to encourage it?

“ALTERED STATES” & PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF FLOAT TANKS

Three Part Series: THE LILLY PATH TO FREEDOM

Part 1 ~ EXPERIENCE

Part 2 ~ JOHN LILLY & THE HISTORY OF FLOATING

Part 3 ~ BENEFITS & TYPES OF FLOAT TANKS

Places To Float:

Highly Recommended:
Float Lab   (310) 208-0000

https://floatlab.com

Floatation.Com lists many places to float worldwide:

http://www.floatation.com/wheretofloat.html