{"id":679,"date":"2021-11-07T10:31:04","date_gmt":"2021-11-07T10:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/?p=679"},"modified":"2021-11-09T15:21:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T15:21:36","slug":"jacques-mayol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/?p=679","title":{"rendered":"Jacques Mayol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jacques Mayol<\/strong> (1 April 1927 \u2013 22 December 2001) was a French diver <\/strong>and the holder of many world records in free<\/strong> diving<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jacques
Jacques Mayol<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The 1988<\/strong> film The Big Blue<\/strong>, directed <\/strong>by Luc Besson <\/strong>was inspired <\/strong>by his life story <\/strong>and that of his friend<\/strong>, Enzo Maiorca<\/strong>. Mayol <\/strong>was one of the screenwriters <\/strong>and authored <\/strong>the book Homo Delphinus<\/strong>: the Dolphin Within Man <\/strong>of his philosophy about the aquatic origins of humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jacques Mayol during the release of his novel ‘Les dix rois de la mer’ on May 30, 1989, France. (Photo by Pool BRETON-MOUTON \/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mayol’s fascination <\/strong>with dolphins <\/strong>started in 1955 <\/strong>when he was working as a commercial diver <\/strong>at an aquarium <\/strong>in Miami<\/strong>, Florida<\/strong>. There he met a female dolphin called Clown <\/strong>and formed a close bond with her. Imitating Clown<\/strong>, he learned how to hold his breath longer <\/strong>and how to behave and integrate himself underwater<\/strong>. It is the dolphins that became the foundation of Mayol’s life philosophy <\/strong>of “Homo Delphinus<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jacques Mayol and Enzo Maiorca<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Throughout his book L’Homo Delphinus<\/strong>, Mayol expounds his theories <\/strong>about man’s relationship <\/strong>with the sea <\/strong>where he explores the aquatic ape hypothesis <\/strong>of human origins<\/strong>. He felt <\/strong>man could re<\/strong>–awaken <\/strong>his dormant mental <\/strong>and spiritual faculties <\/strong>and the physiological mechanisms <\/strong>from the depths of his psyche and genetic make-up to develop the potential of his aquatic origins, to become a Homo delphinus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jacques Mayol in the deep.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Jacques Mayol predicted <\/strong>that, within a couple of generations, some people would be able to dive to 200 m <\/strong>and hold their breath <\/strong>for up to 10 minutes<\/strong>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacques Mayol (1 April 1927 \u2013 22 December 2001) was a French diver and the holder of many world records in free diving. The 1988 film The Big Blue, directed by Luc Besson was inspired by his life story and that of his friend, Enzo Maiorca. Mayol was one of the screenwriters and authored the… Continue reading Jacques Mayol<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions\/832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}