Breatharianism — A Fraud?

Breatharianism is a belief that life is possible without consuming food and water. People who (claim to) practice this technique or a lifestyle are called breatharians. They believe that the life is attainable by only breathing and gazing into the Sun. They call it existing on cosmic micro-food. This is not a new concept — ability to refrain of food and drinking is a common theme and a desirable trait in Buddhism, together with psychokinesis or clairvoyance. We're not going to judge or try to disapprove anyone's beliefs. We're going to introduce the most famous breatharians, and you should judge for yourself whether it's a legitimate spiritual path, cult, or a scam. Lately, people have been calling this movement "a disguised eating disorder".

People Who Claim To Be Living Without Food

One of the most famous breatharians in the world currently is 80 years old Wiley Brooks. He's the founder of the Breatharian Institute of America, and claims to live without food and water for 30-ish years. He's been giving lectures about his lifestyle, and claims that he's been living in the “5^th dimensional world” where there's no pain and suffering, only love, unlike here in 3^rd and 4^th dimension. He also claims that in the past lives he was Jesus Christ himself, Zeus, Joshua, Eliah, and Shah Jahan — the emperor of India and builder of the Taj Mahal, among many others. Wiley breaks his fasts with a burger and a coke, claiming it helps to add balance.

Another practitioner is 87-year old man named Prahlad Jani. He claims that Goddess Amba has been taking care of him since he — as an 11-year old boy — went to live in Jungle. He dresses like a woman, wears jewelry and flowers in his hair. This man claims he's been living without food and water since 1940. Medical research has been conducted on this man and doctors claim he didn't show any weakness even after many days without food, but some people tried to discredit him by saying he had helpers bringing him food.

Valeria Lukyanova, famous “living Barbie doll” is another practitioner of this lifestyle. This girl had numerous aesthetic corrections to make herself look like a human doll, and she definitely succeeded.

READ Is Intermittent Fasting Healthy?

Jasmuheen is a former business manager, turned breatharian. She claims she started with this lifestyle in 1992, and she sold many books and appeared in many films. This woman made a lot of money with her supposed sun gazing. One Australian television invited her to prove the things that she preaches, but after only 48 hours the doctor who was monitoring her health and bodily functions said she was dehydrated and her blood pressure was high. She said it was because of the air-pollution, so they took her to a mountain on the third day. She said she felt great, but she lost a lot of weight, became weak the same day and doctor said her kidneys would fail if she continued with the experiment, so she's been known as a fraud ever since.

These were some profiles of people who claim they've been living only of air and sunlight. Do they sound spiritual and credible, calculated and money-hungry, or plain crazy — judge for yourselves.

Could Long-Term Fasting Be A Real Thing?

Same as with many dubious lifestyles, breatharians claim that the technique requires years to fully master — one of the usual excuses they have prepared when someone tries it and offers proof that it's not working. If it works, why don't they teach everyone how it's done and thus solve world's hunger problems? Oh, it takes years to master, right.

Proponents of Breatharianism often cite Nicola Tesla who, according to them, believed this lifestyle was attainable — but the citation is pulled out of context. Tesla was talking about how other planets could be inhabited because some other species could exist without nourishment like food or oxygen. It looks like he rather wanted to believe, like many of us do.

So many times things have been proven to be true, even though at first it sounded impossible, even stupid. The 87 years old Prahlad Jani sounds like an interesting man. His ability to stay okay without any food while being monitored for two weeks is truly amazing and weird. But don't forget people have different abilities, someone learns how to walk through the fire without harming the feet. Or at least learns how to deceive us in believing so. Everything has a logical explanation, and even though we may never hear it, this has too. The Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences said in their statement for ABC News that if this phenomenon exists “it would have immense application in unraveling secrets of medical science...”

One of the possible reasons why monitoring often remains unpublished is because nobody wants to spoil their good name in science circles with something this unlikely and uncommon. Something like this can't be reported fully from a neutral point of view, and people probably fear for their name, and being mocked by the entire scientific community.

Is Any Kind Of Fasting Healthy?

People choose to fast for many reasons, some of them are related to health, some of them with physical appearance, and often religion. While complete and long abstinence from food could be dangerous, science has confirmed some benefits of intermittent fasting:

1. it can improve digestion

2. it cleans and detoxifies the body

3. it teaches us to appreciate the food more

4. improves mental clarity

5. helps in losing excess weight

6. better sleep

7. better attitude

8. resistance to disease

9. helps in learning about modesty and moderation

10. reduces the allergies, and much more.

Besides the benefits, fasting also has its bad sides. People who fast can feel lightheaded, dizzy, fatigued and have a low blood pressure. It can be risky for them to drive or operate heavy machinery. Also, weight lost by fasting often backfires and person gains even more, just because our bodies tend to go to overeating mode after they've been deprived of nutrients for a long time. Long periods of fasting can damage the kidneys and liver.

READ Fasting: Pros and Cons

Trying to fast for long periods of time, or even worse — trying to live the Breatharian lifestyle without medical supervision could be dangerous. Many breatharians' deaths have been reported throughout the world. Also, don't look directly into the Sun, it's dangerous for the eyes. It's very important to take everything you hear and read with a grain of salt.