The Quiet Center

By John C. Lilly and Philip Hansen Bailey Lilly

Book Overview

The Quiet Center presents the core of Dr. John Lilly's groundbreaking isolation experiments, edited into an accessible format for a new generation to embrace the revolutionary thinking of this fascinating scientist. It is a book that distills the essence of Dr. Lilly's philosophies--higher consciousness, the varieties of isolation experience, heightened awareness--and minimizes the scientific jargon to make his theories and examples accessible to the general reader who is searching for heightened conscious experience and serene self-awareness. As a pioneer in the research of animal intelligence, altered states of consciousness and isolation tank experiments, Lilly, like his peers Timothy Leary, Alan Watts, Carlos Casteneda and Charles Tart, can and should be read by a whole new generation seeking to extend his ideas that blend science and philosophy as a means to see new truths to themselves and to seek shelter from the onslaught of external stimuli in today's society. Whether the reader can use an actual tank or devises their own "isolation space," The Quiet Center is the first word in isolation therapy for the new millennium.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579510590
• ISBN13: 9781579510596
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Ronin Publishing (CA)
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Altered States Of Perception

A great overview of Dr. John C. Lilly's work and ideas. The book includes practical advice on how to create your own void space, an environment isolated from sensations, without investing a lot of money in a floatation tank. However, I don't think it is really necessary to isolate oneself from sensation in order to find one's inmost self. This can be done in sensation rich environments where there is something to experience on all levels. But sensory deprivation in a floatation tank is probably a good way to exerience an altered state of perception without the use of psychoactive drugs or a lifetime of meditation practice. Dr. Lilly also had interesting ideas about how to liberate ourselves from our belief systems in order to expand our mental horizons. It is amusing to find such "thinking outside the box" advice coming from someone who pioneered research into a sort of isolation box but that is precisely what the floatation tank experience is meant to be, sending the mind on a journey outside the tank. Unfortunately, this book has many annoying typos and gives the impression of being a self-published title by his surviving relatives.