Michel Siffre Explained

Michel Siffre
Birth Date:	3 January 1939
Birth Place:	Nice, France
Death Place:	Nice, France
Occupation:	Scientist

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 (French: 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. Several astronauts reported experiences similar to those experienced in underground experiments such as loss of short-term memory to being isolated from external time references. 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

• 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

See also

• Chronobiology
• Circadian rhythm
• Maurizio Montalbini

Bibliography

• Schut, Une histoire culturelle de la spéléologie, L’Harmattan.

Notes and References

1. News: Michel Siffre, 85, Who Studied Mind From the Depths of Caves. B11. 24 September 2024. 24 September 2024. The New York Times. Risen. Clay. limited.
2. Web site: Spelunca Memoires. Spelunca Memoires . 14 April 2023.
3. Web site: Burke . Olivia . Man who lived in cave with no concept of time ended up experiencing unbelievable effect on his body clock . LADbible . 30 April 2024 . en . 29 April 2024.
4. Web site: Michel Siffre et son horloge de chair. https://web.archive.org/web/20090519052133/http://presse.ffspeleo.fr/article.php3?id_article=1287. 19 May 2009. Le Monde. 22 July 2004.
5. 2008. Caveman: an interview with Michel Siffre. Cabinet Magazine. 30, summer 2008.
6. https://www.scintilena.com/addio-a-michel-siffre-pioniere-degli-esperimenti-di-isolamento/08/25/ Addio a Michel Siffre, pioniere degli esperimenti di isolamento