Cousteau famously coined the term “the rapture of the deep” in reference to nitrogen narcosis during some of his seminal dives. He explains in The Silent World that during some of his earliest dives, the call of the deep was ever present, and the thoughts of descending deeper and deeper only strengthened with depth (for reasons that are obvious to us now).

Some people peer over a coral wall into the deep blue and become panicked. Others see it as a relaxing void of which they can seemingly float endlessly atop. The first time I ever stared into it I was entranced - sitting at the surface with my snorkel like a perfect dive rescue dummy. The thoughts of what mighty undersea battles, mythical creatures, and eerie voids of space lay beneath were paralyzing in the most beautiful way…

Were you afraid of not seeing the bottom the first time?