rapture of the deep
1/27/07
“The first stage is a mild anesthesia, after which the diver becomes a god. If a passing fish seems to require air, the crazed diver may tear out his air pipe or mouth grip as a sublime gift … I like it and fear it like doom. It destroys the instinct of life.” Capt. J. Y. Cousteau (1953)
clinically, the condition is called 'nitrogen narcosis.' it's the brain's response to the increase of gaseous nitrogen when a diver sinks below 100 feet of sea water. they fall a bit too far from the world above and little too close to the one below, and then they feel the most profound euphoria: the 'rapture of the deep.' once caught in its spell, the only cure is for the intoxicated diver to seek shallow waters.
but some don't.
despite logic and science and a dwindling oxygen supply, they get lost in their rapture and choose to stay. they opt for the serene, weightless world underwater instead the stale, coherent one they were born into. then they live out their final moments in what can only be complete contentedness.
the symbolism is rich, and a graceful suicide is still suicide; but really, what's there to be found in shallow waters?