James Nestor , author of DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves , takes us on a transformative journey into the ocean.
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed
The next time you're at the beach your body will undergo the most profound transformation you can naturally experience. This is not a psychic prophecy; I don't have precognition. The transformation I am describing will be physical, and it will be real. It's the result of millions of years of human evolution, a trigger of ancient genes which you and all other humans share with billions of other deep-diving animals.
It looks something like this: You will be lying on the sand. Your skin will be warmed by the sun. You will become hot and thirst for a swim in the ocean. You will pick yourself up and stroll to the water's edge, wade calmly into the lapping waves, and jump in. The moment your face submerges in the sea's salty waters, a Hulk-like metamorphosis will trigger. Blood will begin rushing from your hands and feet, up your legs and arms, and into your core; your heart rate will reflexively lower 25 percent its normal rate; your mind will enter a meditative, almost dreamlike-state. If you choose to dive deeper, the transformation will grow more profound until you bare only a passing resemblance to your terrestrial form. You will become a water animal; a fish, essentially.
Scientists call this transformation the mammalian dive reflex or, more lyrically, the Master Switch of Life. They've been researching it for the past fifty years.
The term Master Switch of Life describes not one but many switches, or reflexes, that are spurred when we enter the water. These reflexes affect the brain, lungs, and heart, among other organs, they work in concert with other triggers in the body to protect us from the immense underwater pressure of deep water and turn us into efficient deep-sea-diving animals. The equivalent pressures of such a deep dive on land would kill or injure us, but not in the ocean. The ocean has different rules, and often requires a completely different mindset to truly comprehend.
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