Inedia

Inedia (Latin for 'fasting') or breatharianism (/brɛˈθɛəriənɪzəm/ breth-AIR-ee-ən-iz-əm) is the claimed ability for a person to live without consuming food, and in some cases water.

[1][2][3][4] Documented studies on the physiological effects of food restriction clearly show that fasting for extended periods leads to starvation, dehydration, and eventual death.

[6] Some breatharians have submitted themselves to medical testing, including a hospital's observation of Indian mystic Prahlad Jani appearing to survive without food or water for 15 days.

[7][8] In other cases, people have attempted to survive on sunlight alone, only to abandon the effort after losing a large percentage of their body weight.

"[1] The 1670 Rosicrucian text Comte de Gabalis attributed the practice to the physician and occultist Paracelsus (1493–1541) who was described as having lived "several years by taking only one-half scrupule of Solar Quintessence".

[11][12] One such period was chronicled in a 2006 Discovery Channel documentary titled The Boy With Divine Powers, which reported that Bomjon neither moved, ate, nor drank anything during 96 hours of filming.

[16] The study concluded that Prahlad Jani was able to survive under observation for ten days without food and water, and had passed no urine or stool,[17] with no need for dialysis.

Sanal Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalist Association, criticized the 2010 experiment for allowing Jani to move out of a certain CCTV camera's field of view, meet devotees, and leave the sealed test room to sunbathe.

[22][23] Jasmuheen stated that she found it difficult on the third day of the test because the hotel room in which she was confined was located near a busy road, causing stress and pollution that prevented absorption of required nutrients from the air.

After Jasmuheen had fasted for four days, Berris Wink, president of the Queensland branch of the Australian Medical Association, urged her to stop the test.

Manek stated that sungazing was the key to his health,[52] citing yogis, ancient Egyptians, Aztecs, Mayas, and Native Americans as practitioners of the art.

According to the documentary, he was restricted to a small villa and placed under constant video surveillance, with medical supervision that included daily blood testing.

[57][58][59] Some Hindu religious texts contain accounts of saints and hermits practising what would be called inedia, breatharianism or Sustenance through Light in modern terms.

In Valmiki's Ramayana, Book III, Canto VI, an account of anchorites and holy men is given, who flocked around Rama when he came to Śarabhanga's hermitage.

In Canto XI of the same book, a hermit named Māṇḍakarṇi is mentioned: "For he, great votarist, intent – On strictest rule his stern life spent – ... – Ten thousand years on air he fed..." (English quotations are from Ralph T. H. Griffith's translation).

Paramahansa Yogananda's 1946 book Autobiography of a Yogi details two alleged historical examples of breatharianism, Hari Giri Bala and Therese Neumann.

[citation needed] Some breatharians claim that humans can be sustained solely by prana, the vital life force in Hinduism.