The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography

Rating:
Summary: FAR OUT
Review: After reading John Lilly's "The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography," I have come to realize that drugs can indeed expand the mind. My own mind has expanded just by reading about John's far-out trips, and I didn't even need to take drugs myself! The danger in pursuing this course, however, is that the mind may expand so far past the current human consensus reality that those stuck in it will either find these ideals laughable or frightening. What is truly frightening though, is that no one can disprove the realities that John Lilly experienced while conducting his drug and sensory deprivation experiments.

I discovered John's work through an extraordinary coincidence... [When I decided to research him again twenty years later] I found that he had left our reality for good only a couple of weeks before.... Although I did not know the man personally, I will miss him dearly, and the world will feel the void left in his wake. Goodbye John, and good luck.

Rating:
Summary: Five Stars for His Life and Work
Review: After reading John Lilly's "The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography," I have come to realize that drugs can indeed expand the mind. My own mind has expanded just by reading about John's far-out trips, and I didn't even need to take drugs myself! The danger in pursuing this course, however, is that the mind may expand so far past the current human consensus reality that those stuck in it will either find these ideals laughable or frightening. What is truly frightening though, is that no one can disprove the realities that John Lilly experienced while conducting his drug and sensory deprivation experiments.

I discovered John's work through an extraordinary coincidence... [When I decided to research him again twenty years later] I found that he had left our reality for good only a couple of weeks before.... Although I did not know the man personally, I will miss him dearly, and the world will feel the void left in his wake. Goodbye John, and good luck.

Rating:
Summary: An intriguing biography
Review: An intriguing biography of Lilly's work in animal communication, brain research and flotation tanks.
Much of his work is valuable and continues today in the form of NLP, meta states and human mental
development.

Rating:
Summary: John Lilly for President!
Review: Boy, would that change things a bit! Dr. Lilly is an authority on some far-our stuff: dolphin communication, isolation tanks, and Ketamine. Mix them all together and what do you get? I don't know, but I wouldn't lend it my car. GREAT BOOK.

Rating:
Summary: FAR OUT
Review: Lilly lived close to my house in his final days and I read this book with particular interest. I was very disappointed. He seems to evince very little knowledge of modern parapsychology eg out of body experiences (a la Monroe) and his own "travels" and "contacts" seem to me implausible and more likely the outpourings of a deranged or drugged imagination than science. In all such areas the question of standards of evidence is key. I am not sure Lilly gave the matter any thought.

Rating:
Summary: An intriguing biography
Review: One of my four most influential authors, I first read of John in an Omni magazine and I do not remember what the story was about. Soon I was drawn to his books on dolphin research and I read every thing that he has written on them. He was the foremost pioneer and one of the best in dolphin research. One of his goals was to communicate with dolphins and he came pretty close but gave it up when he decided man was not ready for that knowledge. The movie "Day of the Dolphin" originates out of his dolphin research and showed how man has taken his research and knowledge, suppressed it to the public, and used it for power and political gain. One of the largest influences on me of the dolphin studies was my understanding that there were intelligent beings on earth either on par with or superior with humanity. Knowing and accepting this has been very influential in my life and how I have grown. I followed along on the rest of John's writings and learned from and was influenced by them as well. His books on spirituality and the world beyond our consciousness have lead me beyond many of the walls placed in front of my mind by our society. The movie "Altered States" originated from Lilly's book "The Center of the Cyclone" which was about his experiences with altered states of the mind. The presence of CCG's, or the Coincidence Control Group, that John met when out of his body has stayed with me since reading of them. For John was told by them that we have control of small scale coincidences but the CCG works with the large scale coincidences. His autobiography is a great overview of all that he has done and leaves me with awe and a desire to see and understand the world beyond what I have been taught.

Rating:
Summary: Transrationality.
Review: This man knows a lot of stuff about the collective unconscious, human motivation, drugs, dolphins and the whatnot. He's important. Very important. Weird things happen when you read this. Watch for "coincincidences." They happen all the time.... This book investiagates those coincidences, and inclinations towards LSD and K... you might lose yourself, become one with the network...