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How Did an Octopus Change a Diver's Sense of Time?

Robert Greene says six or eight months with a female octopus altered a free diver's whole concept of time, because the diver was living in her time and time passed at a much different rhythm, and that trying the experiment with a dog might show something similar.

The diver grew up on the coasts of South Africa and cold-dived in incredibly cold water through a kelp forest, a forest underwater of magnificent kelp where the weirdest creatures live, including octopus. He was free diving and exploring an insane landscape, not looking for an octopus, when they slowly became friends and had a slightly erotic relationship. A love interest comes through in the description: the octopus grabbed his arm and he could feel it, and at one moment she held him as they floated together to the top. She laid eggs and died. He was heartbroken. He had been filming the whole thing and was going to create a film. An octopus lives for three years at most. She was attacked by a shark, lost some limbs, and the limbs grew back, so intense experience was compressed into the three years. Being close to her felt like living in her time period and in her world.

Human experience of time is relative to lifespan as well. Insects that live for a month make the point. Encounters with other species can alter a person's concept of time.

Grokipedia·South Africa

Transcript

Access the Sublime & Live Your Best Life | Robert Greene ·

Huberman Lab

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