Psychological Torture

The project is called Deep Time. Right now, 15 people are sealed in a pitch-black cave in the south of France. They have zero access to watches, phones or any other means to monitor the passing of time. Forcibly cut off from the outside world, the volunteers have signed up for what will no doubt prove an extreme psychological challenge. The reason these eight men and seven women have subjected themselves to this bizarre ordeal is all part of a scientific experiment. The aim: to investigate the effects that losing all sense of time has on the human body and mind.

“Losing time is the greatest disorientation there is,” the group’s website explains. “It is this aspect that the mission Deep Time wants to understand better.”

The group entered the Lombrives cave in Ariège on March 15, and will remain entombed for 40 days, until they taste sunlight again on April 22. They have four tons of supplies to physically sustain them and access to a pedal-powered dynamo to provide light in cases of emergency. Each volunteer is also wired up with sensors so that scientists can chart how they physically adapt to life underground.  READ MORE