 We're here to remember the contributions of John C. Lilly to the float community, which really wouldn't exist if it wasn't for him, at least not in the form it is today. Who knows if someone else would have discovered Float Tank in the basement of the National Institute of Health and realize that this was the way for him to really investigate his obsession with learning about the relationship between the body and the mind, and using it to experiment on himself. So back in the 1950s, John C. Lilly first started to experiment with floatation, and it's pretty exciting to go back and look at that today. So he's still a bit of a controversial figure, and I think there's a book stage right that I left there. Let me go and grab it really quick in a minute, but Lilly is known for having really popularized the idea of floatation, and that's been going on for several years. Thank you. And lately, we've been republishing a lot of his writings. So he's best known for the center of the cyclone, the scientist and novel autobiography. There's also a book, which I think is, I'm not sure if it's in print, but probably should be back in print, again, called The Deep Self, Profound Relaxation and the Tank Isolation Technique. There's been a lot in the media lately about John Lilly, some of it pretty sensationalistic. So I think that going back and reading some of his books will give us a better idea of what he was really coming from and the seriousness of his approach and the incredible creativity that he brought to investigating consciousness that really inspired a lot of this stuff. So this book is just about to be re-released by Consciousness Control Publishing, and I read this a few years ago and just blew my mind so much that I wrote a play about it. So I've been doing a one-man show based upon the scientist, but also incorporating a bunch of his other work as well, Center of the Cyclone, Programming and Metaprogramming, the Human Biocomputer, and other books like that. And I think Coincidence Control Publishing is right on that side of the outer concourse. So if you have a chance, go over there and look over some of their new really, really beautiful editions of John Lilly work. So we're going to do a section from our show that's actually being performed tonight and tomorrow night at the Denver Press Club. The section we're going to do right now with Freddie Katz, my musical director, is what we call John Lilly's First Float. So take yourself back in time, about 60 years in the basement of the facilities at the National Institute of Mental Health, John Lilly is about to embark upon a new chapter in human consciousness. And of course, we're talking sensory deprivation, so why do we need music for that? Good question. I guess what you would call what you're going to hear tonight is this afternoon is the sound of silence. I entered the tank. Salt water solution so I can lay in the water comfortably with my face above water. Air plugs in. Light shuts off. Scent and taste negligible. The sensation of my body at first feels like things are pressing against me, but I soon realize that it's internal tension, nothing more. I try to relax. For half hour, the usual concerns and worries of self-talk cycle through my head. I catch myself thinking, calm down and let go, and in time the sensation starts to fade. This point, I should be unconscious. According to the reactive brain hypothesis, my head should be shutting down, starved for external stimulation. But it's the opposite. I am active and alert in the darkness. Euphoria, the experiment had worked. Data generation, results I could point to, career success. But as the self-congratulation fades, I am left with well. This experience, the exterior world starts to fade. Along with it, it's hopes and fears. It's not there. I've been putting it there. Let go and go into the silence of the darkness. It's restful, relaxing. Enjoy the experience, accepting it. The stillness is broken by reflexes and habitual movements, stimulus, hunger, finger strokes and other, and voluntary splashes, causing the water to move and shift. Tiny sensations become huge. Desire to leave the tank presents itself, and sometimes I do, but then, other times, resisting the impulse from my body to reassert itself, I press through. Things quiet down once again, and then the thoughts come back stronger than before. No longer simply everyday thoughts. This is intense psychodrama, reveries and fantasies on a very personal and emotional level. Once I thought I could share with you, but I can't. They're too personal, too revealing, too dark. Finally having fought through the mundane plan-making, the bodily tension, the psychodramas back in the void, but at a higher level, I have achieved escape philosophy. Not an escape outward, but inward. I have found a place inside myself, one which I can carry along, and where, if I lay breadcrumbs of consciousness that I need to take me back, I can return to this zero point, ultimate void and ultimate peace. I have found the center of the cyclone. If you found that at all interesting and you want to hear more, the show goes into all aspects of John Lindley's story, his journey, I guess you would say, from being a establishment researcher to something quite different. Thanks again for having us. Thanks Graham for inviting me, and I can't wait to hear the rest of the speakers. Have a great conference, everyone.