9.17.2012

Monday, September 17, 1962: Isolation experiment


From The New York Times (September 17):

Michel Siffre was removed today from the cave in southern France where he spent the last two months in isolation about 400 feet underground.
He was emaciated, pained by the light and unable to walk without assistance.
Mr. Siffre, who is 23 years old and one of France's leading cave explorers, had entered the underground chamber in an experiment to determine how well man could withstand such conditions of isolation.
He had no way of keeping track of time and the only illumination he had was from flashlights. ...
Mr. Siffre passed much of his time exploring the Alpine glacier in which the cave is situated, making notes, listening to Beethoven recordings on a portable phonograph and reading Plato by flashlight. ...
Fellow cave explorers visited Mr. Siffre Saturday, and told him that his two-month period underground would be over in just two days. Mr. Siffre told them that he guessed that he still had two or three weeks to spend underground.

* Interview with Siffre (Cabinet magazine, 2008): @
* "Time Warp" (Cosmos magazine, 2008): @
* "Time out of mind" (BBC magazine, 2006): @
* Article on chronobiology (from Canadian Institutes of Health Research): @
* Associated Press article: @
* United Press International article: @
* Reuters article: @
* Articles from Le Progres newspaper (in French): @

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