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John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office.John C. Lilly may not have the name recognition of certain other twentieth-century scientists, but aspects of his work in neurophysiology and psychedelic psychiatry continue to reverberate throughout popular culture. His pioneering studies in the field of cetacean neurobiology during the 1950s and ’60s were the basis of Mike Nichols’s Day of the Dolphin (1973). He may be best known for inventing the sensory deprivation tank, the inspiration for Ken Russell’s vivid Altered States (1980). The latter film in particular grapples with Lilly’s late-career scientific standing, which was marred by his appetite for psychedelic substances and New Age mysticism.Composed of material found in Stanford University’s archives, talking-head interviews, and previously unseen footage preserved by Lilly’s late son, John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office (2025) presents a nuanced portrait of this controversial scientific figure. Codirectors Courtney Stephens and...

Attempts to converse with other species, such as dolphins, whales or even extraterrestrials, the use of isolation tanks and a recommendation “to get terror-stricken” — those are just some of the elements teased in a trailer for John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office. The film, written and directed by Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens and narrated by Chloë Sevigny, will world premiere at the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

Showcasing archival material, the essayistic movie explores the life and ideas of utopian neuroscientist John C. Lilly, who developed the isolation tank, or sensory deprivation tank, and whose unorthodox work and experiments on human and animal consciousness were as ambitious as they were controversial.

Putting a new spotlight on an era in U.S. counterculture, it shows how Lilly predicted that humans would be able to find ways to communicate with other species, particularly marine animals, but potentially also extraterrestrial life.