John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office

Michael Almereyda & Courtney Stephens
United States | 2025 | 89 min
Swiss Premiere
Language : English
Subtitles : French

A film essay about the mysteries of consciousness and communication surrounding the figure of neurophysiologist and “psychonaut” John C. Lilly, a daring experimenter with dolphins and psychedelics. Lilly’s work carried him into realms of radical self-investigation, while his research also helped bring marine mammals into the collective dreamlife of the 20th century.

If you believe our empathy for dolphins stems naturally from their charm or intelligence, you’re once again confusing culture and nature. The primary architect of this confusion — and of its lasting influence — is John C. Lilly. A neuroscientist and self-proclaimed "psychonaut," Lilly began his research on dolphins in the pursuit of understanding the brain and language. But ambition, acclaim, and psychedelics soon formed a volatile cocktail, propelling him across the porous boundary between science and fiction. His attempt to communicate with cetaceans was merely the starting point of a descent — or perhaps an ascent — that transformed him from curious scientist into media icon and countercultural guru.
Mining and masterfully assembling a rich and eclectic trove of archival materials — from scientific and nature documentaries to Hollywood films, TV broadcasts, early computer graphics, and home movies — Almereyda and Stephens, guided by Chloë Sevigny’s narration, craft an astonishing web of connections. Drawing from literature, politics, ethnography, and pop culture, they conjure the very film John C. Lilly might have envisioned during one of his altered states of mind…
Sergio Fant

Courtney Stephens
John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office, 2025
Invention, 2024
Terra Femme, 2021
The American Sector, 2020

Michael Almereyda
John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office, 2025
Tesla, 2020
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William Eggleston in the Real World, 2005
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Nadja, 1995
Escapes, 2017
Marjorie Prime, 2017
Paradise, 2009