She's a 530-pound bottlenosed dolphin. He described her physiology, mentioning her 88 razor-sharp teeth, her pectoral and dorsal fins, and other parts of her anatomy. She's an M.D., only in her case it means medical dolphin. The doctors in the room laughed, but Cole wasn't simply being funny. The healing power dolphins seem to have on human beings has fascinated scientists, psychologists, and lay people since at least the early 1960s, when neurophysiologist and dolphin researcher Dr. John Lilly began his studies of the dolphin brain and dolphin-human communication.
Some theorists take the new-age, spiritual view that dolphins are extraterrestrial beings or angels.
Others think swimming with dolphins is a powerful, joyful experience that just makes us happier and thus healthier. Cole is looking in another direction. He is among a group of scientists and researchers searching for a scientific explanation behind the healing effect of dolphins. In 1991, he founded the AquaThought Foundation in Torrance, Calif., a privately funded academic research organization that studies the neurological impact of human-dolphin interaction. To assist in their research, Cole and his colleagues at AquaThought developed a VR experience called Cyberfin, which is probably the closest thing you can get to meeting a dolphin face to fin without getting wet.