40 jours en dehors du temps, le film de l’expérience unique au monde Deep Time (40 days out of time)

14 mars 2021, l’explorateur-chercheur Christian Clot s’enferme avec 14 volontaires, 7 femmes et 7 hommes dans la grotte de Lombrives en Ariège française. Durant 40 jours, ils n’auront plus aucun accès à la lumière du soleil ni à une montre : la première exploration collective sans accès au temps!

[ENG] On 14 March 2021, explorer and researcher Christian Clot locked himself with 14 volunteers – 7 women and 7 men – in the Lombrives cave in the French Ariège region. For 40 days, they will have no access to sunlight or a watch: the first collective exploration without access to time!

(A savoir : un autre film sur cette expérience existe, diffusé sur Arte, présentant plus spécifiquement quelques uns des travaux scientifiques ménés durant l’expérience) : “Deep Time” de Guy Beauché, Zed/Arte, 2023.

Plus d’info : https://deeptime.fr
A lire : 40 jours sous terre, de Christian Clot, Robert Laffont, 2021 (https://urlz.fr/qyzu)
3 prix pour ce film : Prix des Lycéens (Festival Paris-Science) et 2 Prix du public (Festival “Regards d’altitude” et festival “Les Clefs de l’Aventure Humaine”).

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Mais aussi :
Internet : adaptation-institute.com / christianclot.com / melusinemallender.com
Instagram : human.adaptation.institute / christianclot_explorer
LinkedIn : human adaptation institute / christian-clot

40 jours hors du temps, un film réalisé par Mélusine Mallender et Christian Clot
Produit par Darwin Production et Human Adaptation Institute (https://adaptation-institute.com)
Musique : Myma (https://myma-music.com)
Grotte de Lombrives (Ariège, France – https://www.grottedelombrives.com)

Avec : Christian CLOT et les 14 deeptimers : Arnaud BUREL, Johan FRANCOIS, Nicole Huebert, Damien JEMELGO, Emilie KIM-FOO, Marie-Caroline LAGACHE, Marina LANÇON, François Mattens, Alexis MONSEIGNY, Jerome NORMAND, Margaux Romand-Monnier, Kora SACCHARIN, Martin SAUMET, Tiphaine VUARIER.
Base arrière : Mélusine MALLENDER et Jérémy ROUMIAN

Partenaires : Petzl, Grotte de Lombrives, Mairie d’Ussat, Le département de l’Ariège, Forclaz by Decathlon, Ursa, Sodi, Spéléo Club du Haut Sabarthez, Airstar, Aventure Vericale, Axis Communication, Canon, Crosscall, Factem, Logic Insrument, Eneloop, Katadyn Group, Optimus, Treck’n Eat, Planetsolar, Point Soleil, Ptc Fayat Group, R2 Training, Geoslam, VR Maze, Cnes.

This is it. We’re all going to the other side. We’re going to lock this door, and we’ll be in the cave for the next 40 days. Does that suit you? If you have any final doubts, it’s now. You still have the right not to walk through that door, and decide that 40 days is too long for you, But if you want it, now’s the time. Does it work? So I’ll let you pass, one by one. Arnaud, Tiphaine, Emilie… You won’t forget us in 40 days? See you in 40 days. Deep Time
40 days out of time It’s only at that moment that I really realised what we were doing. I’ve just locked myself in a cave with 15 other people without any access to sunlight, without any access to temporal information, without any access to the outside world, and we don’t know what’s going to happen, and at the same time, we’re going to do something unique, so that makes me… It transports me. I think this expedition project is one of the craziest and most complex I’ve ever put together, I’ve been leading expeditions around the world for 25 years, because we wanted to put it together very, very quickly. It all started with a situation we’ve all been through is COVID-19 which suddenly confined people to their homes, and at one point there were more than 5 billion of us on the planet confined at the same time. A completely crazy situation that led to, at a given point in time, as the various confinements take place, loss of sense of time, loss of understanding of how a day is organised, loss of the ability to plan for the future. In a nutshell, people were starting to get confused. I immediately thought of the famous Siffre’s missions, who shut himself away in caves to try and assess the ability of the brain and body to understand time. And I said to myself that I had to set up this kind of project, but with a group. And… it had to be done now, immediately, not in five or six years. And we looked everywhere for a cave. We finally found this cave at Lombrives, which was perfect for the expedition. And then the cave had to be installed. There, that’s good, balanced? It’s a bit of a strange expedition because I’m going on an expedition and this is the first time I’ve brought a gas cooker with me! So, I don’t know, I’ll have to think about our mental health anyway, I’m thinking about it. Yanis, who is currently… How’s the cave keeper getting on? Quiet today Ah, it’s quiet today. There are only people who are very enthusiastic about carrying things. Fortunately, we need them! It takes a lot. We found ourselves with dozens, hundreds of people working to make this mission a reality. We assembled 4 and a half tonnes of equipment in the cave, food and study materials, enough to live on for 40 days, on the backs of men and women. We’ve set up a sleeping area, we set up a science hut, A floor was installed in its entirety to protect the cave, but also to have a living space. An incredible installation that took just 4 months to complete. 14 March
20h
day 0/ cycle 0 We’re starting a mission that’s mind-boggling. There are 5,000 people who have climbed Everest, 500 people who have been on the ISS, 19 people who have had timeless experiences on their own, or 2 and never anyone in a group, mixed, working on the cognitive notion, working on the group and working on the community. For the next 40 days, you’ll have no sense of time at all. Don’t any of you have a mobile phone? Didn’t any of you take a watch? In a moment I’ll be handing out the diaries. You’ll have to fill in forms, fill in questionnaires, take part in studies… It’s not going to be the most pleasant of times. Every evening you’ll have to pick up your equipment, which has no time, I should point out, so that you can fill your diaries. It’s all going to be a bit boring, But tonight, right here, right now, is our welcome meal in our cave, so enjoy it. Kora, It was curiosity that drew me into this cave, who made me want to have this experience, living without a time reference for 40 days Because it’s… It’s an adventure, I love it. I know lots of colleagues who have said to me “no, I’ll never do it, no, no, no, without me”, and my family too. If we ever have big eaters… Can you pass me my mug? I’m carried away by the project, the intellectual idea of… to travel in time, out of time. It’s psychologically insane. Lombrives is a vast cave over 4 km long on 2 levels, separated by an 80 m chasm, with immense volumes like the cathedral hall, which could contain Notre-Dame de Paris. We set up the camp in the cemetery gallery, 800 metres from the entrance. Just over 700 metres separate us from the scientific hut and the Lion gallery, where our sleeping space is installed, A zone of silence where everyone can absolutely respect their own rhythms. Waking up in total darkness is particular. The reflex to look for a watch or a phone to tell the time is quickly disappointed. We’re all that’s left, our own signals, a fine-tuned perception of our sensations that has been somewhat lost over the centuries. We need to reclaim it. It’s our only indicator of the passage of time. We’re now fully immersed in this timeless experience. So, how did you sleep, Damien? Listen, very, very well. I woke up once during the night, well during the night… And then I was like “no, I’m going to stay”. And I felt I still needed to sleep too, so I took advantage of it. Yeah, actually, it’s just weird waking up. And then say to yourself, well, every morning it’s going to be like this, in the dark, we don’t know what time it is, and then you fill in your scientific questionnaire, “What time is it?”, I imagine it’s 10 o’clock, 9 o’clock, I don’t know. That’s it, you’re already going crazy, you’re talking to a helmet. Arnaud Good morning, it’s 2am. How did you spend your night? I haven’t slept a wink. I must have been up for an hour. One terrible night I was cold. The first night was horrible. I’m afraid of the dark, I’m afraid of total darkness. So when I found myself sleeping in my tent, I was completely lost. I was lost in time and space, and I had to go on an inner journey to say to myself “wait, listen to your body; your body is telling you: you’re tired, so get some sleep”. How was your first night?
Well, not very well. I was kind of expecting it. I don’t like being cooped up. This new sensoriality with the little drops, the total calm when nobody moves or, on the contrary, the little drops that fall. What am I most afraid of? The most frightening thing, I think, was waking up and being all alone. that everyone else is asleep, I wake up in the middle of the night. and there’s nobody there. It was the craziness of the experience that attracted me. To think that, in my small way, I’ll be able to contribute to scientific research. So that’s it, we’re all happy to be here. Our common enemy is the humidity we battle with during the day and in the evening in our tent. We exchange grandmother’s remedies to each other, little tips on how to find solutions to combat this. My main fear before entering the cave was anxiety, after a while, by not being able to see the light of day. What are you doing, Alexis? Right now I’m telling all the other crew members what zone I’m in; because the cave is divided into several zones, a living zone, a habitat zone, where you spend the night, a zone of silence and then a zone for exploration and so on. So now I’ve come back from the sleep zone and I’m here in the main living area. That’s the quest I’ve been on for the last fifteen years: Understanding the human capacity to adapt. How human beings, confronted with new life systems, manage to return to a stable life, almost normal, despite the conditions which, have become abnormal. So of course, what does a cave have to do with being out of time? Firstly, time is one of the most important markers in our lives, losing it is a huge anomaly. But then there’s what we’re trying to do, it means studying lots of different situations and trying to understand whether there are any adaptation mechanisms, always coming back, whatever the situation. And if that’s the case, then maybe we can learn to adapt better. Are we going to eat all that? We need to find solutions to replace the fridge and the market every day, so we’re going to put them in wood chips to absorb all the moisture. We’re going to do the same with onions, cabbages and oranges, so we can have our own little market right here. I wasn’t excited before entering the cave, I didn’t feel like it. I didn’t like living without sunshine, without family, without friends, without my freedom. It’s a gift of myself, because I think we’re giving something here, in this cave. The water is above us, in a suspended lake just over 25 m above sea level. So we’re going to climb these 25 m and then it will become a daily rehearsal for the Deep Time crew, to fetch water and bring it back down. As most deeptimers have no knowledge of rope techniques, this will be one of our most urgent tasks: teach them to use ropes independently to fetch water, and explore the second level of the cave. Do you think it’s late? I think, because I’m really tired but I can’t tell what time it is. It makes me wonder “how much do you have to listen to yourself ? if I continue to live with everyone, or if, too bad, if you haven’t had a meal, if you haven’t seen everyone, you go to bed. Hello Emilie, So, what time do we get up? My time to get up. Did you sleep well? Too good! We’ve been waiting 24 hours for you! Most deeptimers reach the end of their first standby period, but Émilie only wakes up From the first cycle onwards, there are major discrepancies, with very different sleep patterns. Right, let’s eat, let’s eat. I think it’s 11pm. I’m very sleepy. And in fact everyone is here, Everyone’s just sitting there, playing, we haven’t had dinner. Well, I… No more. Time for bed. I dreamt of hibernating one day During the first few cycles, the Deeptimers get their bearings and learn all the tasks to be carried out in the cave: to fetch water, manage waste and follow scientific protocols, Create electricity by pedalling and learn caving techniques. And perhaps even more importantly, to find their own rhythm in a world where there are no time indicators. I can’t wait for us to be autonomous, so that we can go there in peace. I burnt myself while cooking. Normally, tubes should be dated when they are opened, except that I don’t know what date it is. So I’m going to give you the number of our cycle. We are cycle number 3. We talk in cycles, and a cycle is the period between one awakening and the next, with a period of wakefulness and a period of sleep. Yesterday we started science and I’m quite happy to have started science because, as it’s my responsibility, I felt I was doing less than others before because everyone had a responsibility that started from the outset. So very happy. Here it is: capsule code 1… So, in fact, we are in the process of synchronising capsules in order to monitor the internal temperature of the team members. so that we can correlate this information with the information we gather using the EEG system for sleep, and hormones with little saliva droplets that they have to chew in the morning and evening. During Deep Time, we carry out around fifty different protocols with some forty researchers who can be divided into 4 categories: The first category is the human being as a physiological system; we observe cardiac functions, central temperatures and rhythms, we have sensors that will provide objective data, for example, actimeters that record all our activity and periods of wakefulness and sleep. We can then compare this data with our own estimates and feelings. How long do you think I’ve been up? 17h The second category covers everything to do with human cognition and the brain. This includes cognitive functioning, decision-making and brain plasticity, which changes depending on the situation. That’s why we’re carrying out protocols just before and just after the cave, such as MRI scans, which can be used to map the brain and observe changes, changes in the brain. And thanks to the data collected during the experiment, we are trying to understand why there were certain decreases or increases. in certain areas of the brain. We also study our emotions and our sensory abilities, which are so important in adaptation mechanisms such as listening, perception and smell. And that’s it. I must look pretty good. What the hell am I doing here? Cloves, yuck. The third major group of protocols is collective functioning. So we carry out ethological and psychological studies. It’s the whole organisational system. We try to understand how the group synchronises, how it works together. And of course, the fourth group of protocols is the environment. We can’t understand human beings and how they function if we don’t understand the environment in which they live. So we’re going to try to understand this cave in all its aspects: temperature, humidity and types of gas in the air. That’s all you need to study over the 40 days. to understand human adaptation to a new way of life. So here I am, in the middle of the night, eating… all alone ! The life camp balloon is off or on as decided by the deeptimers, provided that at least five of them are present. I hope we can separate the flour. Flour is a global thing, you see. Well, no, I don’t agree. There are people who eat bread, and people who don’t eat bread, some people eat rusks, others don’t. I eat chapatis and bread. I don’t see why I couldn’t have… But then we’ll never reach a common consensus, because everyone has their own desires, their own wishes, and there comes a time when quantities are limited For 40 days, 15 of us, in difficult conditions, it was impossible to avoid a few argument. But when this happens, everyone present gets together to talk about it and come up with solutions that everyone accepts. Strong cooperation to avoid any major crisis. That way everything will be fine. And try to keep his attention, so that it’s clean. If you’re the last to leave, be careful, and when the first ones arrive, you have to tidy up too. We’re in the process of putting in potting soil and repotting planters… to make little vegetable gardens for the next forty days. I chose seeds that were a bit hardy because the conditions here aren’t necessarily ideal, the temperature is rather low. So there’s a bit of greenery in a world where there isn’t much. Still no idea what day it is, what time it is. Everyone has a different opinion. It’s destabilising, Clearly, what we’re experiencing is bewildering, and we’re only just beginning to get to grips with it. in the fifth cycle, for my part. So that’s… that’s very disturbing. Here we’re really outside life, we’re in another life, another world. After six cycles in the cave, it’s time for me to get out. I was there to launch the image work. Pregnant, it was out of the question for me to stay any longer, despite my desire to do so. So I’m enjoying my last few moments in the cave. Oh, Mélu, are you sure you don’t want to stay with us? You’re in the cave, aren’t you? Come on, one last little coffee? So, what’s the prognosis?
Well, I’m in Cycle 6 I also have cycle 6 and I’d say it’s Monday at 11am. Me cycle 7, Monday 1.45pm. Cycle 7, I’d say it’s 5am. Cycle 7 Monday 1pm Cycle 7 starts and I think it’s mid-day Sunday. Why don’t we wake everyone up and see what they think? Now I’ll go and check. Thank you very much, kisses, I’m off, I’m running away. It’s really strange to go through this grid. It’s next door, but it’s another world. It’s another world that’s been created. They will continue to travel outside time and I will resume the normal flow of time. I wonder what time it is. It’s Monday, Monday morning, I’m sure we’ll be here on Monday. We couldn’t shift that far. There’s already light, so I’m not arriving at night. It’s crazy, isn’t it, you can smell the damp. A voice could be heard. I’m a survivor. Who’s coming out? Who’s that running away? Exactly, it’s crazy stuff. So diagnosis, diagnosis? So the big question is: what day is it and what time is it? Several of us wondered about this and I said it was Monday morning around 9am. It’s 6.24pm on Sunday. 20 March 2021-6.45pm
Outdoors: day 6/ Cave: Cycle 7,
Sunday 6.24pm! Sunday 6.24pm, OK, right! And I thought I was going to arrive in the morning! I’ve just wake up. We’re all waking up now. It’s the early birds that are getting up now. … and getting up for Monday in fact. …rising for cycle 7. Cycle 7 But now I’m out! And I was in complete jetlag. Which is crazy, because, in fact, it’s opposite, it’s just behind, 500 metres away. And I was jet-lagged, as if I were in Tokyo. It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? I can’t wait to see them when they come out and to see how things went inside, because now, no news, almost Apart from news of their transit. So what are you going to do about it? I’m going to go and get a can of toilet. For us, outside, we have a whole life and logistics that continue over these 40 days. The aim is to have at least three or four people working in shifts every day. First of all, we have to make sure that nobody interferes with the experience. Then we have to rotate regularly to get rid of all their waste. In fact, we have no idea when they are going to dispose of their waste. We can never bump into each other because we’ve set up a airlock system. You can go inside the airlock and collect all the cans, waste water and so on, are going to evacuate, clean up all this and then come back to drop it off so that they can collect it. Are you trying to hear if anyone’s there? There’s no noise, so we’re sure they’re not there. We’ll be able to cross the passage to see if they’ve dropped off cans or not. There are two completely separate worlds. We live with the light of day, the passing of time, the mobile phone that rings non-stop to manage all the organisation, here and abroad, and the life of the project. We’re a life support system, in fact, for the people on the inside. They have no idea of the logistics of what’s going on out there. So in about 4 cycles. In around 4 cycles, Emilie will be 30. I don’t know. It took us 5 minutes to calculate this. Yes, because we’re talking about the “them” cycle or the “me” cycle? Because Madame has two cycles less Especially long cycles! So today we’ve got some good news for you: is that in our Lombrives cave, we have a newborn baby. A tiny radish sprout appeared today. We’ll soon be eating radishes in a cave! Cave: 10th cycle
Outside France: 12th day We’ve been here for ten cycles. At last we’re going to explore this cave. We’ll descend into the chasm, 45m of abseiling, after 30m of split abseiling, and then the 2nd level opens up. I’m really stimulated. I’m usually pretty euphoric, but this time it looks like this feeling is increased tenfold, in fact, by exploring the 2nd level. It’s something out of all proportion. Disproportionate, both in terms of technical difficulties because it’s so committed. The 45m abseil is pretty scary. Damien, what’s it like here? It’s magnificent! I think it’s sumptuous. Every time, there’s always something new. It’s surprising. It’s a really amazing feeling, a really amazing emotion, because I thought I was experiencing the complete opposite, having certain anxieties, have the fear of confinement, and so on. And in fact there is a form of freedom. It’s worth overcoming your fears. I feel totally at ease in this time in the cave. When you’re out exploring like that, time flies. For me, it’s something out of time, an exploration. I could probably go a whole day without noticing. It’s just hunger, thirst and tiredness that tell me that time is running out. I’m in love with it. I’ve fallen in love with this area. I’m very happy here. It’s a temple for me. It’s a sanctuary. There’s something there that’s really strong. Now we’re really in another world. It’s calm, it’s peaceful. It’s moving. All the richness there is in these places, all the fistulas, all the stalactites, all the concretions. The emotions conveyed by these places. It’s terribly beautiful. Happy birthday to you! Cave: 14th cycle
Outside France: 17th day It’s my 30th birthday! Look out, look out! Look at that! It’s delicious! Don’t we eat well in the cave? Oh yes! Bon appétit, everyone. And bon appétit! Which cycle are you in, Christian? Fourteen And I’m on 11, three cycles apart. You sleep too much! But I don’t sleep too much! I think I did 36 hours there. 36 hours of what? Standby. Not waking up, no. But a sleep-plus-stand cycle is possible. Ah, but that’s easy! Yes, that’s easy. A cycle, yes. A 36-hour cycle? In reality, they’re a long way off. The longest sleep was 31 hours in a row, and the longest sleep awake was almost 50 hours. The longest cycle lasted over 70 hours. All the deeptimers regularly exceeded 45-hour cycles. For the same person, all cycles are different in length. Their rhythms are therefore highly irregular, but are partly synchronised with their desire to cooperate with others. The synchronicity of a group is much more social than biological. I listen to myself a lot more. When I want to go to bed, I go to bed. From time to time, I hesitate to take naps at home, saying to myself “Well, it’s already 7pm, I’m tired, but I’m not going to start my night now and I’m not going to have a nap either”. In fact, here, I go for naps and then I wake up 3 or 4 hours later and then it’s too bad and I shift, and that’s no problem. Because, in the end, the fact that no one has a timetable and no watch, everyone is out of step, so it’s not a problem for the social group. The advantage of not having a watch is that you’re never late, so that’s really nice! Hello Damien. Hello Emilie. I’m doing a performance for… what is it? The Tour de France? For the European tour? I don’t know now! We’ve covered so many miles! Didn’t you sleep? No! I’m still in the past! You’re in the future. Did you stay with Marie Caroline? No, Marica passed through the future very quickly! But we weren’t in the same space-time. Oh, dear! OK, fine! Enjoy your meal! See you soon. Well yes, we’ve got to get a move on, my little François. Yes, we do. No. We do our job, we’re conscientious. I don’t have the impression that every ten minutes you say “I’m tired, let’s go”. We do things, but at some point … But just a little! Yes, it’s true We need to see how we’re doing, but in any case we need to do more than we’ve been doing over the last few days. You don’t do it by putting yourself under pressure in the morning. I don’t want to get up in the morning and think “quick, quick, I’ve got to have a quick lunch so I can take lots of photos”. No, it’s: we have lunch, we take the time to have lunch, we chat and then if we warm up, well, fine, we work for half a day, a day, we do very well. And if at any point you don’t feel like doing it, you wait 1 or 2 hours and then do it. Just because you have no time in Deep Time doesn’t mean you have to let yourself go. For the efficiency of tasks for the image group, whether photo or video, I have to admit that I find it a real hassle, because it makes you feel completely out of place. There’s no tension, really, in the group. We need to get in sync, in fact. Everyone accepts, in fact, that sometimes when you get up for breakfast, you have to go straight to work. Now we’ve entered a complicated phase. There’s less desire, less motivation. You lose your memory. You stop a task in progress because you don’t even know why you started it. Social interaction between us drops sharply, as later analyses will confirm. Everything seems to be falling apart, even the equipment. Everything rots, breaks down. We’ve really entered a phase of apathy. You very quickly lose your memory of short moments that have just happened, all the residual memory, about the morning itself, who we had breakfast with, what activity we did. There are even some, I’m not one of them, but there are even some who can’t remember what they did 1/4 hour or half an hour before. Oh yes! If I don’t write it down, I’m having a really hard time remembering. Sometimes I forget things in the short term too. But this time I don’t feel like I’m forgetting any more. I think it’s getting colder and colder. It’s a strange thing. The body doesn’t get used to it at all, quite the contrary. My fingers are rotting. With the cold, but it’s not that cold. I have sensitivity in my fingers. So Christian advised me to soak my fingers in warm water. So I’m doing it. Every time we have to change our lives, we go through this phase. That moment when you realise that you have to generate a new normality, because the old norm no longer exists. This explains the mental fatigue, sometimes the loss of willpower and the loss of meaning. which unfortunately can bring a person down. “My emotions are…” let’s say “neutral”. Here I am filling in for François who has asleep on the table. I note that he is asleep. That way, when he wakes up, he can see that his nap is over. Suddenly it’s pitch black. It comes all at once. It’s a power cut that cuts us off from everything. Cave :17th cycle
Outside: 21st day, 5.12pm Tiphaine, what’s going on? Well, a minute ago we heard a little Djjzzz and everything went black. With the water bottle, that should be enough. Switch off all your headlamps. We have charged headlamps. We don’t know if we’ll be able to recharge them, so that means we’re not going to… We don’t do anything useless with our headlamps, in fact. This means that our movement zone is really up to the science box and the airlock. What are you doing, Margaux? I light up my vegetable garden, and then I have breakfast. Is there anything strange about that? There’s no electricity, there’s no power. There’s no power, is that it? I’m glad you’re only seeing it now, but it’s good. I thought you were going to bed. There I was: well, that’s it, I’ve shifted, I’m waking up when everyone else is going to bed. They turn off the balloon. No, they didn’t. All right, then. Shit! Welcome to the dark. It’s going to be annoying if this continues because it means we have to be careful with energy. So we’re going to stay confined to our living quarters. There will be no more exploration and I think it’s going to be very complicated for some people who do a lot of it. We’ll see what happens. It’s going to be a different atmosphere! We’re going to hope that the electricity comes back. As long as there’s gas to fuel the cooker and we can cook, that’s good enough. I think I can live in the dark with melted chocolate. I find that incredible. Just goes to show that even the problems that make people stressed don’t stop us from eating. We’re fine. 1,2,3, sun ! I can see it. 1,2,3, sun ! I can see it. 1,2,3, sunshine! I can see it. Jeannette and Louis have just come out of the cave, as this is Jeannette’s first visit, and what happened? Well, I don’t know. In fact, not very much. We went to do an inventory of the place and there are 3 cans waiting for us. There’s obviously a bit of a problem. What Jeannette doesn’t know is that when she arrived in the main room of the airlock, the cathedral, there was no electricity or light. That means they have no electricity at the moment. But we have some on our side, so it’s only partial, but they may need it a bit more than we do. We’re only halfway through the experience, so that means half the experience in the dark. There’s no electricity at the cathedral, so we’re going to see if everything is switched on. How does it work? Off. There you go! That must be it. Well, we’ll go and have a look. Oh p****** this cave is just too beautiful! I’d forgotten. Oh, I’m going to bed. That’s it, we’re not cold any more, strangely enough. The light is warming us up. It’s clearly psychological. It’s getting better. We hope it holds up for a few more cycles. It feels good. Even without the balloon on, it’s welcoming. It’s great to see the lights out there. It’s great. I’m reassured. I wouldn’t have liked to do twenty cycles like that, not at all. Give me the batteries. It’s interesting because a few days ago we had a fairly intense discussion about : Isn’t this light too much? Something that brings us too close to everyday life. And some of the crew thought it might be a good idea to cut it, to take that light away. And make the conditions a little tougher. As far as I know, this question has not arisen since the break. I think that’s good. Because in fact this experience isn’t there to get you into trouble. It is there to install a system of life that would be capable of becoming sustainable in a new situation. Because if our world evolves, our world changes, if events happen on the planet, our aim will not be to be in a constant state of survival where we’re on overdrive, giving everything we’ve got. It’s about being able to live. It’s difficult to get out of these phases of apathy, because often you don’t even realise you’ve entered it. We need an external stimulus. For us, it will be threefold: firstly, the group, which plays its role to the full because we realise that we couldn’t function without it. Then there’s this cave. It’s splendid, with a desire to discover and explore. Try on the left. It’s good. And that creates wonder. A key factor in adaptation is wonder, which allows us to believe in the future. Time just flies! And finally there are the tasks we have to do and when I remind everyone of their importance and purpose. It’s a kind of trigger. Everyone has rediscovered the desire to make it happen. Cave: 23rd cycle
Outside France: 32nd day And then, almost magically, everything starts up again. “Toulouse, 25 August 1903, the Montagné and Boué families, after having
had a good lunch and visited the cave”. In the Lombrives cave, as you can see at the back, people have written on the wall. Our task is to record and take photos of all these glyphs, which has not yet been done. The next one… Is there nothing else up there? I’m discovering lots of things. I love understanding the story behind certain glyphs. It’s really cool. We’re rediscovering the cave, discovering places where people have come to inscribe phrases. It’s a real symbol. I think it’s great. I realised that the sun’s cycle is a huge pressure and that, in fact, it’s right here, I was allowed to say that I got up, had breakfast and did all my exercises, all my meditation, I could read and at the end I could say that it was just the beginning of my morning. On the outside I could never say that, because even if you remove all the social constraints, in fact you still have this constraint, that the sun is about 24 hours long and you can’t really get away from it. And here it is. In fact, it’s a freedom I’ve never had before. So we’re on a waste expedition here. We’ve come a long way. We clean every nook and cranny, in a little hole under the big stones and of course the waste mission, It works because there, you see, even in the holes, there is waste. How old is this? Isn’t there an expiry date? We found beer, we found… After that, there’s a lot we can’t identify. A pink lighter, but I can’t remember where it was found. We’re going to scan the chasm in 3D and then make a digital model of it. which will complete the digital model of the entire cave that we are currently building. Big job today surveying the 3D cave with the Zeb Horizon. We are surveying the famous abyss and have therefore set up a rather complex operation, with a beautiful abseil of almost 80 m, starting from the footbridge, the old footbridge, which we equipped to make it safer. You’re not in the loop. All right, great. It’s magnificent! The underground lakes are crazy! It’s crazy to think that under your feet there are galleries, lakes… And for it to be natural. This will be the moment of truth. Yes, we’ve been waiting for 40 days now, and we haven’t passed through this airlock. And now, for the first time, we’re going to be able to go up to the top and find them. Let’s go. It’s a bit addictive though! 22 April 2021
20h
day 40 / cycle 30 Here, we’re taking it discreetly, step by step. To maintain the element of surprise. At this point, we have no idea what time of day they’ll be there. they are. It’s OK, look, the balloon is lit up. Here, the balloon is lit, This means that he must, There are some who are awake. Well, we’re going to say hello to them. Hello Ah yes, that’s the surprise. Congratulations. How are things? Well done, you’ve done it. It’s a pleasure. Congratulations. Thank you Jérémy. Are you crying? it’s over, we’re going out, it’s going to be great. No. Yes, yes, yes. I don’t want to leave. You’re already here. I realise that, because we’re sad, we’ve succeeded perfectly in the experiment. Because we’re sad to leave, it means we’ve adapted to this territory and that we were comfortable enough there to feel that it was our world at the same time, our home. I’m telling you, when I saw them coming, I said to myself, it’s not possible. It’s too early. What a crazy cave! I didn’t want to go in and now I don’t want to come out. The cave surprised us to no end. The Deep Time experiment, whatever the scientific data that emerges from it, is a complete success. While 40 days passed “outside”,
the deeptimers lived from 24 to 31 cycles. A “gap” of over 10 days. Deep Time represent:
2100 hours of accumulated scientific data. 52 research protocols in 9 fields.
1,560 glyphs inventoried 4.6 kilometers of gallery topographed in 3D
900 kilos of ancient detritus removed. The data show that synchronicity is not
primarily biological or systemic, but social: it is generated by the desire and need for cooperation
between those present. On average, 8.7% of the brain’s gray mass
underwent decreases or increases, then returned to its initial state after 2 months.
A demonstration of brain plasticity as an adaptive function. 18 months after release,
the deeptimers are doing well…