…Researched and contributed by Solomon Thomas.
Extreme athlete Beatriz Flamini has emerged from a cave in Granada, Spain after spending 500 days underground, with no contact with the outside world.
Flamini entered the cave on November 20, 2021, as part of a science experiment to study the impact of social isolation on people, as well as the effects of extreme temporary disorientation on people’s perception of time.
Flamini was monitored by psychologists, researchers and speleologists, who are experts in the study of caves, throughout her time underground.
She reportedly drank 1000L of water, read 60 books and spent most of her time exercising, drawing, and knitting woolly hats.
Flamini said she was “still stuck on November 21, 2021” and didn’t know anything about the world when she emerged from the cave.
She was also 48 when she entered the cave and spent two birthdays alone in the 70m (230ft)-deep cave.
None of the support team made contact with her and she did not speak to a soul for nearly a year and a half.
Today, Beatriz was shown on the Spanish TVE station climbing out of the cave smiling and hugging members of her team.
Despite the hardship, Flamini branded her experience “excellent” and “unbeatable”.
However, she also revealed that all the time spent alone had caused her to suffer what she called “auditory hallucinations”.
She also added one of her most difficult moments was when the cave was invaded with flies, leaving her crawling with bugs.
Flamini loses her sense of balance after being stuck in a darkened cave.
It is thought she may have broken a world record for the longest time spent in a cave, but the Guinness World Records has yet to confirm whether there is a record for time spent voluntarily living in a cave.
It previously awarded the “longest time survived trapped underground” to the 33 Chilean and Bolivian miners who spent 69 days 688 m (2,257 ft) underground after the collapse of a mine in Chile back in 2010.
Scientists have used Flamini’s stint underground to study the effects of extreme temporary disorientation on people’s perception of time.
The experiment has shed light on the human mind’s capabilities and circadian rhythms.
Flamini was kept out of the loop and, when she entered the cave, Queen Elizabeth II was still alive, Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine, and the world was still in the midst of the Covid pandemic.
Flamini revealed that she started to lose track of time after about two months, and at one point, she had to stop counting the days.
She thought she’d been underground for “between 160-170 days”.