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Michel Siffre

Michel Siffre
Siffre in 2009
Born(1939-01-03)3 January 1939
Nice, France
Died25 August 2024(2024-08-25) (aged 85)
Nice, France
Occupation(s)Scientist, Geologist

Michel Augustin Francis Siffre (3 January 1939 – 25 August 2024) was a French underground explorer, adventurer and scientist.

Life and career

Siffre was born in Nice, where he spent his childhood.[1] He received a postgraduate degree at the Sorbonne six months after completing his baccalauréat. He founded the French Institute of Speleology (Institut français de spéléologie) in 1962[2] (not to be confused with the French Federation of Speleology).

Véronique Le Guen [fr] and Michel Siffre

Inspired by the space race, he explored how humans experience time by spending two months cloistered 130 meters below the surface[3] in the abyss of Scarasson (Punta Marguareis) without time cues on a glacier, from July 1962.[4] He then organized several similar underground experiments for other speleologists. In 1972, Siffre went back underground for a six-month stay in a Midnight Cave in Texas.[5] He found that without time cues, several people including himself adjusted to a 48-hour rather than a 24-hour cycle.[6] The notes of his experiments were used by NASA.[citation needed] Several astronauts[who?] reported experiences similar to those experienced in underground experiments such as loss of short-term memory to being isolated from external time references.[citation needed] His final excursion in a cave ran from November 1999 to February 2000; he celebrated the New Year there, but missed the actual date by four days.[1]

Siffre died from pneumonia in Nice on 25 August 2024, at the age of 85.[1][7]

Publications

  • Hors du temps. L'expérience du 16 juillet 1962 au fond du gouffre de Scarasson par celui qui l'a vécue, Julliard, 1963
  • Des merveilles sous la terre, Hachette, cop. 1976
  • Stalactites, stalagmites, cop. 1984
  • L'or des gouffres: découvertes dans les jungles mayas, Flammarion, 1979
  • Dans les abîmes de la terre, Flammarion, 1975
  • La France des grottes et cavernes, Privat, 1999
  • A la recherche de l'art des cavernes du pays Maya, A. Lefeuvre, 1979
  • Découvertes dans les grottes mayas, Arthaud, 1993
  • Beyond Time, Translated by Herma Briffault, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c Risen, Clay (24 September 2024). "Michel Siffre, 85, Who Studied Mind From the Depths of Caves". The New York Times. p. B11. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  2. ^ "Spelunca Memoires" (PDF). Spelunca Memoires. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  3. ^ Burke, Olivia (29 April 2024). "Man who lived in cave with no concept of time ended up experiencing unbelievable effect on his body clock". LADbible. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  4. ^ "Michel Siffre et son horloge de chair". Le Monde. 22 July 2004. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009.
  5. ^ Damien Dubuc (5 May 2017). "Michel Siffre : « Sous terre sans repère, c'est le cerveau qui crée le temps »". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 28 April 2018..
  6. ^ "Caveman: an interview with Michel Siffre". Cabinet Magazine. No. 30, summer 2008. 2008.
  7. ^ Addio a Michel Siffre, pioniere degli esperimenti di isolamento (in Italian)

See also

Bibliography

  • Schut, Une histoire culturelle de la spéléologie, L’Harmattan.
Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Siffre