Michel Augustin Francis Siffre (3 January 1939 – 25 August 2024) was a French underground explorer, adventurer and scientist.
Michel Siffre | |
|---|---|
 Siffre in 2009 | |
| Born | 3 January 1939 |
| Died | 25 August 2024 (aged 85) Nice, France |
| Occupation | Scientist |
Life and career
editSiffre 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).
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 cave in Texas. He found that without time cues, several people including himself adjusted to a 48-hour rather than a 24-hour cycle.[5] 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][6]
Publications
edit- 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
edit- ^ 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.
- ^ "Spelunca Memoires" (PDF). Spelunca Memoires. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Michel Siffre et son horloge de chair". Le Monde. 22 July 2004. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009.
- ^ "Caveman: an interview with Michel Siffre". Cabinet Magazine. No. 30, summer 2008. 2008.
- ^ Addio a Michel Siffre, pioniere degli esperimenti di isolamento (in Italian)
See also
editBibliography
edit- Schut, Une histoire culturelle de la spéléologie, L’Harmattan.
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