In 1967 taking recreational drugs was not uncommon for western culture, as was taking psychedelics such as LSD. Drugs were undeniably a pretty iconic representation of the hippie era, with LSD enthusiasts intending to expand their minds and show their commitment to peace.
A research unit named The Dolphin House was basically a flooded research unit where scientists used LSD, among other techniques, in the hope to understand the language they called Dolphinese.
Controversial at the time and only more fucking weird 50 years later, The Dolphin House was a research facility where scientists used LSD to communicate with dolphins.
The results from the NASA-funded research facility indicated that reading the signals of a tripping dolphin pretty much proved impossible. LSD made the dolphin about 70% more vocal with researchers, claiming that individual noises made by a dolphin represent individual words and they actually can form sentences. This of course, is controversial, just like the idea of giving LSD to an animal who can’t consent to taking psychedelic drugs.
One of the stranger things that happened during this time was the sexual relationship between scientist Margaret Lovett and male dolphin Peter, who became sexually interested in Margaret.
Margaret lived in The Dolphin House six days a week as part of her studies, however sexually stimulating male dolphin Peter was not particularly a requirement. The very controversial studies conducted by Lilly made Dolphin-funded research much more difficult in the future.
In short, Lilly’s studies indicated that LSD has both an depressant effect in humans and animals, and a dolphin on LSD just doesn’t shut up.
Via IFLScience.
