You can’t make this sh!t up.
Funded by the U.S. government, neuroscientist John Lilly flooded a house in St. Thomas—The Dolphin House—to explore whether dolphins could learn human language and help us communicate with aliens.
Inside, researcher Margaret Howe Lovatt lived with a dolphin named Peter and manually relieved his sexual urges to keep the experiment on track.
Tim Ferriss, in his 5-Bullet Friday, says:
“It was sent to me by a veteran friend who interfaced with military intelligence, and now, I can’t stop forwarding them to other friends.”
Trailers for “The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- John Lilly, the neuroscientist behind the “Dolphin House”, got NASA to fund this experiment as prep for communicating with aliens.
- Margaret Howe Lovatt lived in a flooded house with a dolphin named Peter—24/7—for 10 weeks, as part of a government-backed experiment to teach Peter English.
- Peter the dolphin became sexually frustrated, so Margaret manually relieved him…by hand…as part of the scientific protocol. (Yes, really.)
Watch “The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins”
You can watch it (with ads) on DailyMotion here. Just be warned, when I watched it there were a ton of ads — very annoying.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 90/100
- IMDB Rating: 6.8/10
- No Rotten Tomatoes ratings available
Director’s Note: Directed by Christopher Riley, this BBC documentary pulls from archival audio, 1960s footage, and new interviews. It plays like a cautionary tale about human ambition, ethics in science, and what happens when you mix LSD, loneliness, and dolphins.
Release Date: June 17, 2014 (BBC Four)
My Review of “The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins”
The Setup
This is one of the strangest animal experiments ever attempted. A scientist named John Lilly was obsessed with dolphin intelligence and believed they could be taught to speak English. He convinced NASA that it would help with alien communication research.
So in the mid-1960s, Lilly’s team set up “The Dolphin House” in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Margaret Howe Lovatt, who had no formal scientific training, moved into a flooded house and tried to teach Peter the dolphin to talk. What followed was a bizarre mix of idealism, pseudoscience, and questionable judgment.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Margaret was selected because she was curious and patient (not a scientist). She was 23 and had no formal background in marine biology or linguistics.
- They flooded an upper-floor room in St. Thomas (called “The Dolphin House”) so Margaret and Peter could live together and maximize contact time.
- Peter learned to mimic the pitch and cadence of a few English words—like “ball” and “hello”. But his speech sounded more like squeaky air brakes.
- John Lilly’s interests gradually shifted from neuroscience to LSD experiments with dolphins. Yes, he tried giving them acid.
- After the project ended, Peter was moved to a smaller tank in Miami. It was there he stopped breathing and died. His handlers described it as dolphin suicide.
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- Dolphins, according to Lilly, mostly communicate about three things: food, sex, and danger—making them very human in some ways.
- NASA’s interest in this experiment was based on the logic that if we ever encountered intelligent life, they probably wouldn’t speak English—and dolphins could be a stand-in.
- Margaret has said she still doesn’t regret her role and felt deeply bonded to Peter, despite the criticism.
Wrap Up
If you’re into docs where science goes completely off the rails, this one’s a must-watch. Just be ready to question every line ever drawn between curiosity and ethics.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc