Soon after his release he re-initiated his research. In and out of the isolation tank, Lilly studied how different concentrations of ketamine in the blood corresponded to changes in levels of consciousness. But a near-fatal bicycle crash in 1974 finally ended this drug study. On a long, twisting canyon road near his home in Malibu, Lilly was blissfully zipping along on his ten-speed when he lost connection with the external world. His bicycle was moving at 30 mph when the chain fell off and the wheels locked. Lilly was launched over the handlebars onto the hard pavement shoulder-first. He spent nine days in the hospital, suffering a broken collarbone, scapula, several ribs, and a punctured lung. His reputation and credibility were also seriously injured as a result of these events. To some of his orthodox colleagues, Lilly spoke more like a space cadet than a scientist, and his unconventional approach to research was mistaken for addiction. "When one is doing research on a substance, one takes it so frequently that outside observers can say you're addicted, but that's a very bad definition of addiction. Any good research is obsessive and compulsive," Lilly explained. He spent the rest of the 1970s and '80s pursuing his research into ketamine (under safer conditions) and in isolation at his ranch in Malibu. He also reinitiated his efforts into dolphin communication in hopes of using newer and more sophisticated computers available at the time as an interface between man and dolphin. In the 1990s he relocated to Hawaii and continued to travel around the world giving talks on his dolphin research.