At one point Dr. Aden exclaims that the treatment of his work is like "Philo Farnsworth all over again." Philo Farnsworth was an eccentric inventor who had to spend many years in court battling with the RCA corporation to finally receive the credit for inventing television.
The title is derived from the saying "Turn on, tune in, drop out", popularized by Timothy Leary, known for experimenting with LSD and other psychedelic drugs.
This episode contains references to "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll. One of the protagonists is actually called Alice, Dr. Aden refers to himself as a hookah-smoking caterpillar and is last seen with a hookah next to him, and the sentence "down the rabbit hole" is used several times by multiple characters. In the video found by Dr. Ray, Dr. Aden tells Alice to "Come back", just like the caterpillar in the novel. Also in the novel, the caterpillar's first question to Alice is "Who are you?" which is of course also the name of The Who's title song for the show.
When Dr. Aden asks Sara about her clearance, and she quips "about 5'9"...", that is Jorja Fox's actual height.
This episode shares many similarities to the tv show Fringe including an eccentric doctor with a fondness for hallucinogens, a sensory deprivation tank, a long lost office hidden at a university, and, of course, a focus on fringe science.