As part of an ambitious scientific experiment, experienced mountaineer and adventurer Beatrice Flamini spent 500 days isolated in a deep underground cavern with virtually no human contact and no sunlight. Flamini went there at 48 and left at 50 she. The woman says it’s like rest and relaxation for her.

Experiment

When she finally went out last week, Flamini summed up her experience as “great, unique”.

I actually didn’t want to go out.
– added later.

When asked how she maintains her sanity, she replied, “I get along really well with myself.”

Flamini was greeted by a small crowd of doctors, scientists, journalists and ordinary people and told them he was surprised his time was up.

I was asleep—or at least dozing off when they came after me. I thought something happened. I said, “Already? No way.” I haven’t finished my book yet.”
Flamini said.

• And he had a lot of books. The scientist says he read about 60 books during his stay underground. Besides reading, she also spent time writing, drawing, knitting little hats and documenting her experiences with two GoPros.
• Although Flamini was almost alone during his time underground, he was somewhat supervised by a team of scientists who left their food without contact and collected the waste.
• Flamini was determined to keep communication to an absolute minimum and insisted that scientists not tell him about the death of a loved one.
• According to NPR, Flamini estimates that he only spent about 170 days there, and after about two months he did not realize how time flies. This is a pretty big discrepancy between its perception and the actual time elapsed.

What is all this for?

By sending it underground, scientists hoped to better understand how a person would cope with such a long independent caving journey. And what better way to observe this than to recreate a real situation? The project was dubbed “The Cave of Time” and based on Flamini’s experience, that’s an apt name.

Doctors and scientists want to examine the impact of this experience on his health. NPR notes that several universities are interested in studying the effects on circadian rhythm and time perception.