John Cunningham Lilly (January 6, 1915 September 30, 2001) was an American physician, psychoanalyst, psychonaut, philosopher and writer. He was a pioneer researcher into the nature of consciousness using as his principal tools the isolation tank, dolphin communication, and psychedelic drugs, sometimes in combination. He was a member of the Californian counterculture of scientists, mystics and thinkers that arose in the late 1960s and early 70s.