CWC Docs: John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office

John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office (2025) uncovers the story of daring experimenter Dr. John C. Lilly, a scientist who dedicated his life to radical self-investigation and unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and communication. Through extensive archival research—including historical footage, personal writings, interviews, and home movies—the film traces Lilly’s innovative career, from his groundbreaking neurobiological research of cetaceans (dolphins and whales) to the more speculative realms of mysticism and countercultural experimentation. As his work intersected with broader social shifts during the Cold War and the drug-infused counterculture, Lilly pursued radical experiments in sensory deprivation and dolphin communication, while also using psychedelic substances such as LSD, ketamine, and psilocybin to chart new pathways to human and animal consciousness. He garnered fame as both a serious researcher and a pop culture curiosity, inspiring films like The Day of the Dolphin and Altered States. Directors Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens, along with narrator Chloë Sevigny, explore the pioneering and often controversial career of a man who dove into the psychonautical unknown. Filmmaker Courtney Stephens joined moderator Joshua Baldelomar (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a discussion of John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office. Courtney Stephens is a writer/director. Her non-fiction feature, Terra Femme (2021) , composed of amateur travel footage shot by women in the early twentieth century, was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and has toured widely as a live performance. The American Sector (2020, co-directed with Pacho Velez) explores the legacy of the Cold War on American self-understanding, following dozens of fragments of the Berlin Wall installed around the US. Invention, a hybrid fiction feature, premiered at Locarno in 2024, where it received a Pardo for Best Performance. Her films have been exhibited at MoMA, The National Gallery of Art, The Barbican, Istanbul Modern, Walker Art Center, and Thailand Biennale, and film festivals including the Berlinale, Viennale, Thessaloniki, IDFA, SXSW, Hong Kong, and NYFF. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and grants from California Humanities, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Art. In addition to co-curating the miniature cinema Veggie Cloud since 2014, she has organized film screenings for The Getty, Flaherty NYC, Human Resources, and Museum of the Moving Image. Her writing has appeared in BOMB, Film Comment, Cabinet, Filmmaker, and The New Inquiry. Joshua Baldelomar is a PhD candidate in the Film and Media Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara. His dissertation traces how media practices shaped relations and knowledge among brain scientists, patients, and publics in the early to mid-twentieth century across disciplinary and national boundaries. It also examines how scientific media inspired public and artistic forms that both accepted and questioned emerging notions of selfhood increasingly defined in neural terms. His research has received awards from Domitor and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, and has been supported by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, the Max Kade Foundation, and the Osler Library at McGill University, among others. This event is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center. The Carsey-Wolf Center is committed to screening documentaries from across the world that engage with contemporary and historical issues, especially regarding social justice and environmental concerns. Documentaries allow filmmakers to address pressing issues and frame the critical debates of our time.