Biography:Michel Siffre

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Michel Siffre
Siffre in 2009
Born(1939-01-03)3 January 1939
Nice, France
Died25 August 2024(2024-08-25) (aged 85)
Nice, France
Alma materSorbonne (Diplôme d'études supérieures en France (fr))
OccupationSpeleologist

Michel Augustin Francis Siffre (fr; 3 January 1939 – 25 August 2024) was a French geologist, speleologist and underground explorer. He is especially known for the chronobiology experiments he conducted on himself.

Early life, family and education

Siffre was born and raised in Nice, France.[1] His parents were Jean and Lucie (Roques) Siffre.[1]

He earned a degree in geology in 1960 at the Sorbonne.[1]

Career

Siffre founded the Institut français de spéléologie (French Institute of Speleology)[lower-alpha 1] in 1962.[2]

Véronique Le Guen and Michel Siffre

Initially Siffre was planning to study a newly discovered glacier 70 km (43 mi) from Nice by remaining within it for 15 days.[3] However, inspired by the space race, he extended the duration and examined how humans experience time by spending 62[4] or 63 days[1] without time cues, cloistered 130 m (430 ft)[5] below the surface in the abyss of Scarasson (Punta Marguareis) in the Maritime Alps between France and Italy.[1] beginning July 1962.[6] He subsequently designed or organized over a dozen underground experiments for other speleologists.

In 1972, Siffre performed a more extensive underground experiment, staying six months in Midnight Cave[3] in southern[1] Texas.[7] After the experiment, he concluded that without time cues, he adjusted to a 48-hour rather than a 24-hour cycle.[3] NASA studied his work,[lower-alpha 2] as did the French Army[1] and the US government.[4]

He conducted geology work in Sri Lanka and Guatemala, and he wrote books and delivered lectures about caves.[1]

Siffre underwent an additional cave excursion from November 1999 to February 2000; he celebrated the New Year there, but missed the actual date by three days.[1]

Personal life and death

After his 1972 experiment, Siffre suffered both acute and lasting effects, recovering from the isolation physically, mentally and emotionally only partially.[8] In debt from the experiment's significant costs (even though some of it was paid through government funding),[3] Siffre and his wife Nathalie divorced.[1]

Siffre died from pneumonia at age 85 in Nice on 25 August 2024.[1][9]

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

Notes

  1. ↑ Not to be confused with the French Federation of Speleology
  2. ↑ 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]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Risen, Clay (24 September 2024). "Michel Siffre, 85, Who Studied Mind From the Depths of Caves". The New York Times: p. B11. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/science/michel-siffre-dead.html. Retrieved 24 September 2024. 
  2. ↑ Drouin, Philippe. "Publications départementales et locales" (in fr). Fédération français de spéléologie. p. 24. https://spelunca-memoires.ffspeleo.fr/200509_Spelunca_memoires_28.pdf. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Siffre, Michel (Summer 2008). "Caveman: an interview with Michel Siffre". Cabinet (30). http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/30/foer.php. Retrieved 25 April 2010. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Spalding, Katie (April 2, 2025). "The Man Who Went Into A Cave And Accidentally Invented An Entire Field Of Biology". in Holly Large. https://www.iflscience.com/the-man-who-went-into-a-cave-and-accidentally-invented-an-entire-field-of-biology-78651. 
  5. ↑ Burke, Olivia (29 April 2024). "Man who lived in cave with no concept of time ended up experiencing unbelievable effect on his body clock" (in en). https://www.ladbible.com/news/science/michel-siffre-cave-experiment-body-clock-sleep-667774-20240429. 
  6. ↑ "Michel Siffre et son horloge de chair" (in fr). Le Monde. 22 July 2004. http://presse.ffspeleo.fr/article.php3?id_article=1287. 
  7. ↑ Dubuc, Damien (2017-05-05). "Michel Siffre : « Sous terre sans repère, c'est le cerveau qui crée le temps »" (in fr). https://www.lemonde.fr/tant-de-temps/article/2017/05/05/michel-siffre-sous-terre-sans-repere-c-est-le-cerveau-qui-cree-le-temps_5122609_4598196.html. 
  8. ↑ Spinney, Laura (August 8, 2018). "This man spent months alone underground – and it warped his mind". New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23931900-400-this-man-spent-months-alone-underground-and-it-warped-his-mind/. 
  9. ↑ "Addio a Michel Siffre, pioniere degli esperimenti di isolamento". 25 August 2024. Archived from the original on 26 August 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240826102948/https://www.scintilena.com/addio-a-michel-siffre-pioniere-degli-esperimenti-di-isolamento/08/25/. 
  • Schut, Pierre-Olaf (2007) (in fr). Une histoire culturelle de la spéléologie. L’Harmattan. ISBN 978-2296033917. 



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