The Strange World of Breatharianism

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I went a year without eating but I had a lot of fat and meth

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

I'm actually glad we get 1 video per 3 months or so, since this is about the time I need to get ready for it.
Such a great work. Quality of these documentaries is incredible, and modern filmmakers, who keep going into reality tv direction, could learn a ton from them.

👍︎︎ 6 👤︎︎ u/itakmaszraka 📅︎︎ Oct 25 2020 🗫︎ replies

Ugh I didn't get the notification! Fuck the bell but I'm excited for this

👍︎︎ 7 👤︎︎ u/redeyedace 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

I thought I had heard of every pseudo science, conspiracy theory, esoteric topic...then this...it’s like a whole new rabbit hole has opened in front of me.

Now time to eat some tacos.

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/McNooge87 📅︎︎ Oct 27 2020 🗫︎ replies

Thank you so much for this video! I have known of this group for awhile, but mostly as a punchline or oddity - I'm glad to know the honest truth about Breathairians and how people could get sucked into such an obviously dangerous idea.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/GeorginaNada 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

YES great surprise on a Saturday.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/bravegregworld 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

For some reason I didn't think I would be too interested in the subject matter for this video, but boy was I wrong. Absolutely stellar work as always!

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/pheeze 📅︎︎ Nov 05 2020 🗫︎ replies

Fucking wack jobs period...the whole lot of them. It’s funny that most of these people look so gaunt and unhealthy...the walking dead. 𝐅𝐚𝐭 is needed in the human body for it to function

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/Willnox1 📅︎︎ Oct 24 2020 🗫︎ replies

is there a reupload of this video somewhere ?

EDIT: found it on archive.org

https://archive.org/details/the-strange-world-of-breatharianism

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/carado 📅︎︎ Apr 15 2021 🗫︎ replies
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In the spring of 2013, a channel titled "Living on Light" appeared on YouTube.   Throughout its three-month-long window  of activity, a Seattle woman who went by name Naveena Shine... ...regularly uploaded video  diaries detailing the progress of an experiment she was conducting on herself. "My name is Naveena Shine, and I am both the founder of Living on Light, and the subject in the first of our experiments.    Naveena's goal was simple. She wished to prove that a human being could  survive without eating. "So in this Living on Light experiment, we want to demonstrate that it's possible... ...for a human being to thrive withouth the need to ingest food into the physical body." Instead, Naveena would attempt to transition her body to use light as its only source of nutrition... ...a potential she believed everyone possessed, if they could only find a way to unlock it.  If Naveena could prove such a lifestyle was possible, she predicted that people the world over would begin to adopt it... ...ushering in a foodless utopia with an end to hunger and a return to symbiosis with the natural world.  "If it's actually true that humans do not have to eat food, it'll change everything we know about ourselves and out planet." "It will change the consciousness of humanity, and it will change everything we do in our world." Naveena's beliefs about the human body were nothing new. By her own admission, Living on Light was largely based on the similar claims throughout the decades of people absorbing nourishment through air and light. With methods such as pranic breathing and sungazing cited as replacements for eating and drinking.  Named after the claim that they need only breathe  in the nutrients needed to survive... ...they call themselves the Breatharians. "We can treat our planet entirely differently..."  "We can treat our lives entirely differently, when  we know that we don't have to eat." Naveena was no doubt familiar with the controversial history of breatharianism. And the several so-called breatharian gurus who had experienced brief celebrity within the fringes of the modern new age movement... ...later to have been exposed as lying about their lifestyle. Notable examples include Hira Ratan Manek, an Indian spiritualist who claimed to have not eaten for over a decade... ...instead, staring into the sun as a method of  maintaining vital functions, who was photographed at a restaurant in 2011. But Naveena was undeterred by such reputational blemishes. For her, Living on Light was an answer to a higher calling. "I see myself as being called to create this experiment and bring this vastly important information out into the world." Many interpreted Naveena's cheerful, sincere disposition as impressionable to the point of being delusional. Her experiment was met with overwhelming discouragement.... ...with the comment sections filled with reminders of the obvious  dangers of such an undertaking. But where most viewers of Living on Light saw a woman ensnared in esoteric mysticism, Naveena saw herself as on the cusp of groundbreaking enlightenment... ...referring to breatharianism as the greatest discovery the human race has ever made. So, on May 3rd of 2013, 65-year-old Naveena Shine ate what she believed might be her last meal and began her process of living on  light. "All the people who do this, who say they do  this, and there's thousands of them who say this..."   "I can't think that all of them are lying. I mean, I can't think that." "Specifically, how long did you go without eating?" "For me, on and off, pretty well just on water and tea for two years." The name of Naveena Shine's experiment was likely  taken from a self-advertised spiritual guru who came to prominence in the late-1990s. An Australian woman named Ellen Greve, more commonly known as Jasmuheen, published a book titled Living on Light... ...which detailed a 21 day process of transitioning into a lifestyle which no longer required food.   Instead, Jasmuheen claimed nourishment would be provided by prana, a sanskrit word meaning "breath" or "life force."  "Where are they getting their sustenance from if they're not getting it from food?" "Qi, the chi, the universal life force, or what we call 'prana.'" "Or if you're a religious person you would say you are fed by the light of God, and obviously that's very hard to measure."  Jasmuheen stated to have acclimated this lifestyle years ago... ...but still ate occasionally when the urge  to experience a particular taste arose. "I've been free from the need to take any nourishment from food now for 11 years." "That doesn't mean that I've had 11 years of  taking nothing, but in that time, yeah, I've had a piece of chocolate or cappuccino..."   "...or completely non-nourishing substance, because the path is about freedom." Despite failing to rise to mainstream popularity during the quasi-mysticism trend of the 90s...  ...a space occupied by new age juggernauts  like Deepak Chopra, she secured a loyal following reportedly numbering in the thousands.   Her critics saw her as a dangerous charlatan whose teachings, if sincerely followed, would lead to inevitable tragedies.   But her followers saw her as a vessel of ancient, forgotten knowledge, tasked with the duty of bringing about a shift in human consciousness in time for the new millennium. "We are going through a huge shift in consciousness." "It's obvious on the physical plane and it's obvious within the physical bodies of mankind." We could end hunger for good, Jasmuheen stated, if only we could reconnect to the alternate channels that offer freedom from physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual hungers.  The first week of Jasmuheen's 21-day Living on Light regimen, as detailed in her book... ...involved consuming nothing at all, solid or liquid. According to the blogs of people who have attempted this protocol, extreme fatigue, kidney pain, and the sensation of their mouths feeling glued shut... ...were common complaints within a few days of this initial phase.    But the book's assurance that this was merely the old spirit leaving the body, that these were signs of breaking through, kept them motivated to continue. The following two weeks allowed for the reintroduction of small amounts of water and diluted juice, but no food. It was recommended instead to channel pranic nourishment through meditation. "And simply saying, as the energy flows through you, 'feed me.' Mm? It's that simple." At the end of this 21-day initiation, individuals were promised a new body recalibrated to feed from the universe's pranic cache. In addition to her books and website, Jasmuheen would hold worldwide retreats charging fifteen hundred dollars for admittance. A small price, she argued, in exchange for no longer requiring caloric intake. "All my vitamins, all my minerals, everything that I need to maintain a fully healthy, vital, strong, regenerative body--youthing body, if you want that too--can come from prana... ...this can be maintained from the divine force within. The first of Jasmuheen's followers to die from Living on Light was in 1997. Reports suggested Timo Deegan, a 31 year old German kindergarten teacher...   ...had discovered her website, fell into a colorful  rabbit hole of promised enlightenment... ...and slipped into a coma after attempting the 21-day protocol. The second fatality was Australian Lani Morris.    Under the tutelage of a breatharian couple who were later found guilty of manslaughter, Lani Morris began to experience speech loss, paralysis and eventual death after little more than a week into Jasmuheen's Living on Light process. The black liquid she began vomiting days into the initiation...  ...the breatharian couple assured her was  a spiritual pollutant that needed to be expelled. Jasmuheen denied culpability. Perhaps they were not coming from a place of integrity and did not have the right motivation, she told the Sunday Times.    But it was after the death of her third follower, a 49-year-old woman named Verity Lynn... ...that the Australian media began to push Jasmuheen to renounce Living on Light. "I don't mean to belittle your your beliefs and I'm sure they're sincerely held, but there is a woman who is dead in Scotland..." "...as a consequence of following your principles." Along with a copy of Jasmuheen's book, authorities found Verity Linn's diary. The last entry indicated Linn didn't make it past the first week before collapsing of dehydration.    She was discovered lying in a secluded moorland  in northern Scotland by a passing fisherman.   Jasmuheen pointed out that in her book and on her website were disclaimers of personal accountability... ...including a checklist where aspirants were meant to self-assess their own eligibility... ...based on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual fitness.  Those who didn't meet such criteria as "feeling the presence of the Divine One Within" were discouraged from embarking on Living on Light. I effectively promote in that book absolute self-responsibility, use of personal discernment and self-mastery..." "Your responsibility to people who are silly enough to starve themselves." "None of the people who are involved in this see it like that." In an effort to quash Jasmuheen's growing movement, the television program 60 Minutes issued her an opportunity to prove the legitimacy of her lifestyle...  ...broadcast to Australian viewers nationwide. Jasmuheen agreed to a seven-day demonstration in which she would take in no food or water, monitored by 24-hour, surveillance, claiming it would be nothing more than a holiday. "You wouldn't watch me die, I'd come out smiling and laughing. It would be a holiday." And the controversial broadcast that followed would become a moment in breatharian history, referenced by both critics and advocates for decades to come. "Don't you think you should leave it to the  audience to decide and the people who've bothered...   to do in-depth research into what I'm actually  saying to decide?" What 60 minutes was proposing was a dangerous experiment, but nothing beyond what  Jasmuheen advocated inside the pages of Living on Light. But unlike those who had died attempting  it, Jasmuheen's progress would be attended by a physician who regularly monitored her vitals  throughout the week. As they met Jasmuheen in her home to escort her to the hotel where the experiment was to take place she was asked about   her refrigerator stocked with food. She claimed  most of it belonged to her partner, the carton   of creamer she kept for tea in case they were  guests. The experiment itself was short-lived.   After day two without food or water, the physician  began warning Jasmuheen of signs of dehydration   and elevated blood pressure. Jasmuheen claimed the city's air and its pollutants were preventing her   from properly feeding from her pranic source, so  60 minutes relocated her to a more rural location.   Her pulse continued to elevate, a sign of severe  dehydration, as well as a drop in blood pressure   and weight loss of over 13 pounds. Despite her  deteriorating physical state, Jasmuheen reported   being in good spirits. "It's Friday night, you  started on Monday night, how much water have you had?" "None." "None whatsoever?" "No. I'm not allowed." "How much food?" "None. I'm not allowed." "How are you feeling?" "I feel really good now I'm here." After day four the physician estimated Jasmuheen was experiencing around 11 percent dehydration. Her pulse had doubled since the beginning of the experiment and she was at   risk for kidney failure. It was recommended that 60  minutes bring everything to a halt, to which they   agreed. "It's too dangerous to continue?" "Very much  so, too dangerous to continue. 60 minutes would be...   culpable if they encouraged her to continue."  The decision to end the demonstration was a   divisive one. Many saw it as a clear debunking of  Living on Light. If a veteran breatharian such as   Jasmuheen couldn't withstand week one, how could  anyone be expected to survive it? Jasmuheen was   maligned in the press. She was even awarded the Ig  Nobel prize, a parody of the Nobel prize, meant to   satirize unscientific research. Other recipients  include scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, and   fellow new age guru Deepak Chopra, for his liberal  interpretation of quantum physics. But followers of   Jasmuheen's brand of breatharianism argued that  by ending the experiment early, 60 minutes had   disproved nothing. The dehydration, the quickened  heart rate, they claimed were normal and expected   aspects of her 21 day process. "I see no reason  why Jasmuheen should not have passed the test,"   wrote filmmaker and bertharian advocate PA  Straubinger, "but it was stopped by the 60...   minutes team who wanted to prove their story."  Jasmuheen's momentum in the fringe spiritual   movement was slowed, but not halted. Her presence  persisted well into the ensuing decades, cited   by many contemporary bertharians, such as Naveena  Shine, as being the authority on this way of life.   "A very exciting thing happened for me yesterday.  I managed to catch Jasmuheen before she went off...   on her tour. Jasmuheen lives in Australia and she's  kind of the guru, the authority, on Living...   on Light. Breatharianism. She's been a breatharian  for many years now, and so, you know, she...  lives breatharianism." Although Jasmuheen knew the  results of such experiments when taken too far, she   had skyped with Naveena to offer her encouragement. Even promoting navina's youtube channel from her   own Facebook page. But despite the clear influence,  Naveena Shine's version of Living on Light was her   own. One, which thankfully, did not require her to  abstain from drinking water. In fact, by the end   of the third week of her experiment the amount  of water Naveena was consuming was making her ill.   "I've been having a bit of difficulty with  drinking water. I just drink water and tea now. I...   let go of the coffee after a few days because it  was upsetting my stomach. But the water seems to...   have been doing that. I realized that one of the  things that was going on, I think I might have...  been drinking too much water. Because I just kept  drinking water, drinking water, drinking water." Like Jasmuheen and other breatharians who came after, Naveena could only offer an ambiguous explanation   for what she intended to use as sustenance. Her use  of the term light, she admitted was a metaphor for   an indescribable force. "We don't yet know if it's  actually light, or if the nourishment is coming...   from the air, or the sun, or from somewhere else."  Her daily routine included exercising, reading   and attempting to master the mind-body connection  she believed would allow her to access this form   of supernatural nourishment. All without leaving  her house for the duration of the experiment. She   had originally intended to offer her spectators  a 24-hour livestream, captured by cameras placed   in all eight rooms of her home, a venture she  disclosed put her in significant credit card debt.   "You'll be able to see every moment, every moment  of every day or night from anywhere in the world...   just by tuning in to the internet live stream  livingonlight.com for as long or as little as you...   like. You can just check in and see is she eating  or is she not?" But Naveena had overestimated   her technical and financial ability to host a  continuous live stream on her own website and   by the third week she seemed reluctant to promise  that it would ever operate as advertised. Naturally   this diminished her credibility. But based on her  appearance as the weeks progressed, many speculated   she was either not eating at all or eating  very little. By day 21 Naveena reported to have   lost 21 pounds, averaging a pound per day since  she'd started. Feeling this was sufficient, she   instructed her weight to begin maintaining itself.  "I've told my body that it's time to stop losing...   the weight now, it can kind of taper it off and  start stabilizing and in my experience the body...   usually does what you ask it to do, if you ask  nicely." Following Jasmuheen's public endorsement,   Naveena began attracting attention. When a local  news team arrived at her home for a profile   Naveena spoke with them optimistically about her  experiment, although her physical state appeared   questionable. "I'm actually feeling the need soon  to like sit down, Because I'm beginning to, um... yeah I think I need to lie down. Okay. So do  you want to turn the cameras off for a minute?"   Despite the technical setbacks with the  live stream she continued to film herself   to create a record of evidence, in the event  she was successful. "Every individual on this...   planet would have sufficient evidence for  them individually to say, yes this happened."   Naveena offered assurance that she was lucid  enough to stop if she felt she was truly in   danger of starving. When asked in an interview what  she thought of the deaths of previous breatharians   Naveena stated, "I don't know why they didn't  notice they were dying and I don't know why...   they didn't do anything about it." But at the end  of week 5 Naveena acknowledged she was approaching   the eight-week window where the prisoners and  the Belfast hunger strikes began to pass away,   and she intended to go at least 100 days,  well beyond the point anyone had survived.   Most of her audience continued to ask her to  stop the experiment. Several commented that they   would be reporting the channel for violating  Youtube's guidelines regarding self-injury.   "I hear lots of criticism that's coming in. I've  heard about it at least. Where everybody...   seems to be afraid I'm gonna kill myself  because I've begun to, that this is suicide and...   everybody's gonna come to my funeral. I don't think  so." But there was a small but ever-present band of   fellow mystics cheering Naveena on, proving the  movement of breatharianism was alive and well.   Although breatharianism is largely attributed to  Jasmuheen, Ellen Greve was only responsible for   resurrecting it. Throughout the 1980s  the breatharian movement was founded,   popularized, and swiftly discredited, by  an enigmatic figure known as Wiley Brooks. Breatharian advocates, such as Jasmuheen, often  claim that the movement has roots stretching back   thousands of years, originating from the yogis of  ancient India. But it's difficult to find usage of   the term breatharianism prior to 1972. In a book  titled "Dick Gregory's Natural Diet for Folks who   Eat," civil and animal rights activist Dick Gregory  wrote about a continuum of food consciousness, with   showing no food restraint whatsoever on one end,  restrictive diet such as vegetarianism somewhere   in the middle, and breatharianism, eating nothing  at all at, the other end. The Breatharian movement   is not often attributed to Dick Gregory, due to  his likely satirical use of the word. But the term,   along with many of its modern principles, was later  popularized by a smooth-spoken man from California.   Wiley Brooks made his public debut in 1981 on a  TV show titled That's Incredible. Wiley, a gangly   man of 130 pounds, was showcased lifting nearly  10 times his body weight. His secret, he said,   was that he hadn't eaten anything in 17 years.  "You haven't eaten for 17 years. You have not...   had a sandwich, a hamburger, hot dog, pretzel, a  piece of roast beef, fish, vegetables, nothing...   for 17 years?" "Right. Well let me explain  what breatharianism is for us, if I might...   Breatharian is--" "But you haven't eaten for 17 years?"  "Right, right. I don't eat, yes." As Wiley explained,   he was once overweight, mindlessly consuming  what he referred to as the typical American diet.   In pursuit of slowing the aging process  and becoming healthier, he stated he began   moving through the food continuum with regular  fasting, as advocated in Dick Gregory's book, until   reaching breatharianism. Although Wiley did  not invent the concept of breatharianism, the   specifics of the lifestyle, how to achieve it and  how to maintain it, were left for Wiley to create.   Wiley fleshed out the tenets of the movement  during his 12 hour seminars, or what he called   intensives. And to the 4,000 people who paid to  watch him speak, Wiley's message was this: Stop   eating and start living. "All of the constituents  that we need is taken from the air we breathe   and the fact is there is only one thing that keeps  the human body alive, and that is breathing. Wiley's   doctrine was solidified in a book he co-authored  with fellow new age dietitian Nancy Foss,   which they titled Breatharianism: Breathe and Live  Forever. With the tagline: The Healthy Diet for   Eternal Beauty, the book attempted to intersect  both the fad diet craze and the spiritualism   craze of the 1980s, two booming movements which  became notorious for preying on the gullible.   "When man reaches his perfect state of health and  natural state of being," chapter 1 begins, "he will   be in perfect harmony with his creator and require  no foods, water, or sleep." Those who read past such a   first sentence were lectured about the poisons of  food and how it was responsible for the negative   effects of aging. "All the things we've heard about  'we must get old and we must get weak,' and I think   I heard when I was a younger person that a man is  twice a child and once a man, and that is not the   case. When a person gets older and wiser he should  get younger." But if achieving the lifestyle were   as simple as not eating, it would have been a  short book. So, like the breatharian theologies   that came after, Wiley detailed a transitional  period. A full decade before Jamuheen's infamous   21 day process, there was Wiley's yellow foods diet.  14 yellow foods such as eggs, corn, and rum raisin   ice cream from Haagen-Dazs, were meant to purify  the blood of poison before one could mature into   a breatharian. Although Wiley never fully explained  the significance of the color yellow, he claimed it   was based on its vibrational frequency which was  designed to cleanse and detoxify the body. "Before we even get started our blood is poison, you see. We already start at a disadvantage when we're born."   Other lifestyle changes which were required to  complete the transformation, such as never drinking   water alone and only sleeping while facing  north, also seemed to need no further explanation.   Wiley's following was smaller than what Jasmuheen would cultivate in the 90s   but his brand of breatharianism managed to ensnare  a young actress whose career was just blossoming.   Michelle Pfeiffer had fallen in with a group of  aspiring Hollywood breatharians in the early 80s.   She later told the Huffington Post, "They were  very controlling. I wasn't living with him but I   was there a lot and they were always telling me I  needed to come more. I had to pay for all the time   I was there so it was financially very draining."  As she helped her husband, actor and director Peter   Horton, research a role for a movie about a South  Korean cult, she began to realize she was part of   a cult herself. Wiley's movement had experienced a  few years of unlikely success, but his time in the   new age limelight would be short-lived. Just  three years after his debut, Wiley's secret   habits would be exposed by his followers, sending  breatharianism into a decade of humiliated silence. "First you must kick the habit of eating, you see we...  ...that's right." Wiley's growing organization had   hinged on the promise that he hadn't eaten in 17  years, a claim he'd repeatedly made in interviews   and lectures. But in 1983, with breatharianism still  in its infancy, Wiley was outed by a breatharian   member for "sneaking junk food into his room  after everyone was asleep." "He'll eat a dozen donuts   in a sitting," said former breatharian Lavelle  Leffler, who claimed to have first caught Wiley   eating an omelet. When she didn't react, Leffler  stated he began eating around her more often.   Wiley's response to the allegations varied.  To one newspaper, he said of Leffler: "We were   romantically involved, we broke up, now she's out  for revenge." To another, he claimed Leffler was   upset over having recently been banned from the  breatharian institution after being caught stealing.   But other members began coming forward, saying  they witnessed Wiley emerging from a 7-eleven   with a bag of groceries, and later seeing the  empty food containers in his hotel trash can.   Modern constituents such as Jasmuheen would  later attempt to exonerate him by speculating   that the food was for someone else. "He was seen  coming out of a 7-eleven, McDonald's because he   was traveling with a group of people who eat." But  the damage to Wiley's reputation was irreparable.   Despite assuring his followers that the movement  did not depend on whether he, its founder, ate or   not, breatharianism suffered a critical blow. And  when breatharianism found its second wind nearly   15 years later, Wiley found he had no place in  it. "If you look out into the world, you'll see   all kinds of breatharians, but you probably won't  see me," Wiley said in a 2013 interview. "I don't get   invited to places to talk." Although very little  from Wiley's doctrines have endured the modern   evolutions of breatharianism, which mostly omit  Wiley's promises of immortality, ability to go   without sleep, and his yellow foods transitional  period, there are components of his early teachings   that have persisted throughout the decades. "Eating  is an acquired habit just like drinking alcohol   or smoking cigarettes." As epitomized in Wiley's  catchphrase "food is more addictive than heroin,"   the notion that human consciousness is  meant to evolve beyond the need for food   and that eating is merely an addiction, with hunger  being analogous to drug withdrawal, appears in many   current versions of the movement. The unique power  of the human mind to transcend its own biology   and will itself to live without food has also  been a foundational belief since the beginning.   "We read that the hunger strikers in Belfast died."  "Right." "You're living. What's   the difference?" "The difference is, very importantly,  they wanted to die." Similar assertions were stated   in Naveena Shine's videos. If her body began to  shut down, she seemed to think that it wouldn't   be the lack of food that would cause her to die  but the belief that she would die, categorizing   the death as more of a self-fulfilling prophecy  than a biological inevitability. And like Wiley's   early claims, she believed humanity's dependence  on food was meant to be grown out, of comparing   her own living on light experiment to cutting the  umbilical cord. "And when the umbilical cord is cut   it's terrifying for the baby." But as Naveena continued into the second month of her experiment   her enthusiasm was clearly waning. Her video  diaries, once teeming with promises of changing   the world, began to show struggles with self-doubt.  "I have no idea if I'm living on fight or not.   I could be starving to death."  "I have no agenda about being right about this. I would love it to be true. I would love that humanity had this tool that could possibly   save millions of lives and billions of dollars  and keep our planet healthy. If it's not true,   so what? If it is true, oh my god, how incredible is  that?" Criticism remained the majority of Naveena's audience response well into the sixth week of  Living on Light, with much of it unsparing, but   Naveena had yet to be disillusioned. When asked by a reporter for the Guardian what she thought of the   medical consensus that her organs would fail if  she continued, Naveena replied, "A doctor can't see   living on light because he looks through different  lenses." "The people yet cannot see the possibility   of living on light because they are living  the paradigm of 'it can't be done. Not possible.'"   A large portion of the criticism centered around  Naveena propagating a deadly idea, despite however   altruistic her intentions might, be but many also  suspected that Naveena was likely secretly eating   with living online being an elaborate ploy for  attention and donations, a justifiable speculation   given the history of breatharianism. This suspicion  was inflamed when Naveena admitted to introducing   a daily vitamin c supplement. She was already under  scrutiny for a morning tea to which she added what   she referred to as a splash of creamer. Naveena contended that neither counted as food, but many   told her she could no longer claim to be living on  light and therefore had compromised the experiment.   "I have started the Emergen-C, which seems to  be causing huge consternation somewhere, but   I think even that has only like 25 calories, so I'm  just going to say 'so what?'" Although Naveena appeared   to remain positive, she occasionally cited the  negative feedback as a possible message from the   universe that she was on the wrong spiritual path.  Naveena was also struggling physically. Her body   continued to cannibalize nearly a pound of adipose  and muscle tissue per day, despite her pleas for it   to stop, and by day 42 she claimed to have lost  35 pounds, experiencing frequent bouts of fatigue.   "Maybe I don't feel well for a couple of days,  maybe I can, maybe I can't. There's no risk there."   "On the other side of that: finding a technology  that can save the world. Save the world,   not feel very well for a day..." Despite Naveena's repeated assurance that she  would not proceed if she felt she was in danger,   many began to predict, both in the news and in  the comment sections of her videos, that the next   casualty of breatharianism was unfolding. The most  recent death linked to breatharianism had happened   only two years prior. A 55-year-old woman whose  real name was withheld from news outlets starved   to death in her home in Switzerland in 2011. Like  the breatharian casualties of the past, this woman's   death was a result of following Jasmuheen's 21-day  process, but she had gone to even greater extremes   than past victims, reportedly even spitting out  her saliva during the no-water phase of week one.   Although her death is linked to Living on Light,  reports suggest her inspiration for embarking   on this venture were the claims of a modern day  Indian monk named Prahlad Jani. According to the   lore surrounding Jani, who was 90 years old  at the time of his death in May of 2020, he was   blessed by three goddesses when he was seven years old, who have been providing him with a steady drip   of sustenance via a hole in the roof of his mouth  ever since. Despite Prahlad Jani sharing little   overlap with other prominent breatharian figures,  with no assertions that he could teach anyone else   to live without food or water, he's cited by many  advocates as proof that the practice is possible.   This is largely due to the so-called scientific  studies that took place throughout the 2000s   and his portrayal in a 2010 documentary  titled "In the Beginning There was Light". "Give a short encapsulation about what your film is  about." "My film is about the strange phenomenon of...   breatharianism. I researched is this true,  what is true about it. But it's really...   in the end not about eating or not eating. It's  really about understanding that we are more than...   these meat machines modern biology explains  us that we are." Although breatharianism never   disappeared in the years following Wiley and  Jasmuheen's prominence the movement seemed to   be lacking a public ambassador. But in 2010 a  filmmaker named PA Straubinger would release   In the Beginning There was Light, a controversial  film which sold over 75 000 tickets during its   run in Austrian cinemas, despite being labeled  problematic and anti-scientific by critics.   "Western science just isn't dealing with this  concept of life energy." The film presents itself   as a documentary, with Straubinger providing  voice over narration, spliced with interview   footage from alleged bartherians and members of  the medical community. Viewers are soon introduced   to Michael Werner, a former chemistry teacher  who claims to have stopped eating a decade prior   after completing Jasmuheen's 21 day process. His  relevance in the film centers around a 2004 study   in which Werner voluntarily stayed in an intensive  care unit for 10 days, consuming nothing but water   and unsweetened tea, observed by staff members of  the University of Bern's Institute of Complementary   Medicine. Werner completed the experiment, but like  other breatharians who underwent similar studies,   experienced physiological changes which  contradicted his claims. Elevated levels of ketone   production, consistent with individuals who were in  a fasting state, appeared in Werner's waste. Werner   also lost nearly six pounds, a significant amount  for dietary conditions he claimed mirrored his   everyday life. Like Jasmuheen, Werner claimed the  discrepancy was due to the poor air quality which   prevented him from pranic feeding. He allegedly  underwent a second experiment, but the film makes   no mention of the outcome, only that the results  are yet unpublished. But the bulk of the film   centers around the studies of Prahlad Jani, whose assertions  of not having taken any food or water for over 70   years surpass any other breatharian claim by a wide  margin. Draped in robes and jewelry, surrounded by   devotees, it seems almost blasphemous to doubt the  claims of Prahlad Jani, who, the film references,   was studied on two separate occasions in an  attempt to quote, "understand this wonderful...   phenomenon." in 2003 Jani was observed for 10  days and what is described as a sealed room within   India's Sterling Hospital. Oversight was provided  by a team of doctors, headed by the director of   neuroscience, Dr. Sudhir Shah. According to the  project's case summary, Jani was monitored in   person, as well as captured on CCTV camera during  the experiment, in which Shah claimed Jani did   not take any food or fluid, nor did he pass any  solid or liquid waste. "Not eat anything, did not...   drink, did not pass urine, did not pass stool." They  also claimed to observe, via twice daily sonograms,   urine collecting in his bladder, which, quote,  "decreased on its own without passing." "We could see...   formation of urine in his bladder, which was  reabsorbed from the bladder." The integrity of   the study was marred by many issues. Aside from  brief moments of Jani leaving the view of the   CCTV camera, bathing was also allowed during the  final days of the experiment. Straubinger claims   the doctors measured his bath water before and  after use, although nowhere in the case summary   is this mentioned. "I have to wonder of course, in my  skeptical way, whether some water just might have...   accidentally splashed down the man's gullet, while  he was washing up." Years later a similar study, this   time for 15 days, was conducted again by Dr. Sudhir  Shah to similar results. Dr. Shah continued to be   flummoxed by what he called "Jani's ability to  generate urine in his bladder" without drinking any   water. In an interview Straubinger accused skeptics  of the Prahlad Jani experiment of being ignorant. "The...   video surveillance can be watched by anyone," he  said. "But no one bothers. That's where I get upset."   When the interviewer asked if he had seen the  footage himself, Straubinger admitted to only   watching clips. But most of the skepticism wasn't  aimed at the footage, it was aimed at the doctors.   As pointed out by Sanal Edamaruku of the  Indian Rationalist Association, a group known   for traveling around the country and debunking  the supernatural claims of mystics and holy men...  "And most of these people who are claiming that  they're miracle men or holy men or saints are...   conmen." Dr. Sudhir Shah seemed suspiciously close  with the breatharian community. He'd also verified   the claims of sungazer Hira Ratan Manek, who'd  reportedly gone 411 days without eating, under Dr.   Shah's supervision, years earlier. Manek would later  be photographed sitting in front of a plate of   food inside an indian restaurant. And Straubinger's  reasoning that Manek is simply what's known as an   "eating breatharian" did little to salvage his  reputation. "Even if you pay me a billion dollars...   I will not eat." Although Straubinger argued  on his website that his film takes a neutral   view at what he calls "the strange phenomenon  of breatharianism," he became quick to argue   with those who showed skepticism of the lifestyle,  even defending disgraced breatharians such as Wiley   Brooks and Jasmuheen, revealing himself as one  of the movement's foremost modern champions. By   Straubinger's own admission, the intention of his  film was to evoke discussion. But those who know of   bertharianism's tragic history are familiar with  what happens when a non-critical portrayal of the   subject is introduced to the public. When the death  of the unnamed victim occurred a year after the   film's release, news outlets attributed it to the  documentary. Straubinger was successful in avoiding   repercussions, as the attorney who investigated  the death assured him that "an adequate causality   between the film and the death of this woman can  be excluded." But as is often the case following a   death linked to breatharianism, public scrutiny of  the practice was renewed. The film was labeled as   "dangerous" and "manipulative." And with interest in  the lifestyle renewed, Straubinger's objective   to bring breatharianism back into the public  curiosity was complete. "So first of all, I don't think I can do it. I stand in the place that it's already done. I don't know, maybe I'll catch up to that and maybe I won't." "And there are a lot of people who genuinely are concerned for safety and genuinely don't think it's possible and believe it to be dangerous. Now that I...   see all that feedback, I am really seeing that it  is totally dangerous." On June 16th, 44 days after   she began, Naveena announced she would be ending her attempt to live on light. "I am choosing to stop the...   experiment now. Because even if it's true, it would  be a mistake to put that out as if it's easy, as...   if it's real, as if it's anything." On her website  she wrote: "From the feedback I am getting, it is   becoming patently clear that most of the world is  by no means ready to receive the information I am   attempting to produce. Even if it were true that  a person can live on light and I were successful   in demonstrating that, I see now that it would be  synonymous with giving a loaded shotgun to a baby."   The feedback Naveena mentioned, while a reference  to the many discouraging comments she'd received,   was also a reference to the fact that very few  donated to her experiment. And after not having   left her house in a month and a half, she would  soon have to get back to work in order to afford   her living expenses. "The money side of this is  kind of irrelevant because money is just an energy,   so I'm looking to see what's going on behind that,  and very very clear. There's nothing like money   to bring clarity into a situation." For those who  had been following Naveena's video diaries, this   news was no surprise. Naveena had been voicing mixed feelings for weeks leading up to her announcement.   "This is way way too dangerous. People will look  at one tiny little thing and think they've got   the whole story, and then they will just go and  do it and kill themselves. Who wants to do that?"   Naveena's video feed, which never aired but appear  to have been recording the entire time, was given   a ceremonial shutdown. And the majority of  Naveena's audience congratulated her on the   decision to bring Living on Light to an early  conclusion. "And thank you for your participation."   As of 2020, the breatharian movement appears  alive and well, perhaps even at the height   of its popularity. A 10-day gathering in Italy  called the Pranic World Festival has taken place   annually since at least 2016. Pranic believers  from all over the world gather to listen to   celebrity breatharian speakers such as Jasmuheen   and Kirby de Lanerolle, who gained notoriety in 2013   for preaching breatharianism to a crowd of young  people during a TedxYouth talk. "I ran a marathon   for not eating for nearly three months." "Get a taste  of the lifestyle without food," the Pranic World   Festival invites. Although, it's mentioned on their  website that food will be provided at the event   with the disclaimer: "We don't want to be obliged  to call the ambulance." The connotation of the   term breatharianism has only worsened throughout  the decades. Jasmuheen is among those who have   distanced herself from the word, preferring such  synonyms as "pranic living." But modern promoters   such as Audra Bear and Ray Maor have both embraced the term, although when questioned about their   lifestyle admit to regularly consuming calories in  the form of juice, smoothies, and broth--taking their   claims of not eating into semantic territory. But  like all breatharians they still claim to attain   nourishment via prana, as demonstrated in Audra's  pranic breathing tutorial titled "How to Breathe" In 2013 Ray Maor even replicated Jasmuheen's   60 Minutes experiment. Despite Ray  collapsing to dramatic music on day four... ...Israeli television allowed the  demonstration to continue for eight days. Ray Maor stated that the goal was to prove  breatharianism exists, but many commenters pointed   out that going a week without food or water does  not indicate that it's possible as a lifestyle.   Nevertheless, there's no shortage of individuals  claiming to have gone years without consuming a   single calorie, solid or liquid, and are typically  referred to as "level four breatharians." "You know,   they don't urinate, it means that they don't have number twos--bowel movements."   Bizarre mythology surrounds these individuals.  Ray Maor claims that while they don't drink,   they are capable of absorbing the humidity in the  air through their skin. "They actually--their pores   of their skin open up by breathing. They usually  live in a place that is humid." Indonesian level 4   Victor Truviano, who claims to have not eaten since  2007, is so revered that people line up to stare   into his face for 30 seconds. But arguably the most  prominent of the modern gurus are a married couple   named Akahi and Camila. Starting out as students of  breatharianism in 2008, claiming to have undergone   Jasmuheen's 21 day process and haven't required  food since, Akahi and Camila are currently   spearheading the movement with their retreats,  online consultations, books, and other materials.   Their eight-day pranic living retreats are about  as successful as any breatharian instructor could   hope to achieve, packing out secluded meeting  locations around the globe, with attendants each   paying upwards of one thousand dollars. According  to journalist Breena Kerr, who attended one of   their retreats in 2017, their students undergo an  abridged version of the 21 day process where they   are instructed to complete three days without food  or water, and only juice for the remainder of their   stay. "72 hours dry fast, and in this day we are  fully experiencing absolute prana, just living on   air." Like nearly all breatharian retreats, no doctors  are present to assess the participants' well-being.   Instead, Akahi and Camila use a product called  the BioWell, a small white box meant to measure   one's vital force energy and chakra alignment. Akahi apparently first encountered the BioWell in 2013,   was impressed by his own readings, and began  using it to evaluate his students' progress.   Declarations on their website of their breatharian  method being "scientifically proven" seem to   be referring to their BioWell readings and  nothing else. But where Akahi and Camila have   become truly controversial is the subject of their  children; specifically, when Camila alleged to have   practiced breatharian pregnancy. "I have lived two  pregnancies now also in this state. Four times in   my pregnancy with him I ate something, and this was  like in social settings." "I knew my son would be   nourished enough by my love and this would allow  him to grow healthily and my womb," Camila stated.   Despite assurances that their two kids are  happy and healthy and are fed three meals a day,   there's lingering concern for the well-being  of the children--born and unborn--of Camila's many devout followers. Akahi and Camila's mentor,  Jasmuheen, is still regularly referenced as the   authority on breatharianism. Since her 60 Minutes  appearance, an experience she cites is humbling...    "The gift that 60 Minutes gave me was great humility." ...she claims to eat roughly 300 calories per day,   about 15% of the generally recommended daily intake. She continues to publish books on the subject of   prana but no longer advocates the 21 day process;  instead, recommending a lifestyle of 50% food   50% pranic nourishment. "We can test our pranic nourishment percentage, it's easy to do, and if   you're running a pranic management percentage of  fifty percent, that means you're getting it from   your lifestyle, from other forces, other energy  currents, then you can immediately unhook from   your dependence on the world's food resources by  50 percent. So that's fantastic." Wiley Brooks never   fully recovered from being exposed, although rather  than continue to deny his penchant for fast food   his strategy in recent years has been to write  it into his doctrine. According to his website, the   gateway to the breatharian lifestyle now includes  the type of food he was caught eating decades ago.   "Don't eat anything but the McDonald's double  quarter pounder with cheese and a diet coke,"   Wiley warns. "No water of any kind, no fruits or  vegetables of any kind." "McDonald's restaurants   are living, breathing, vibrating consciousness  buildings of love, abundance, creativity   immortality, and well-being. When you walk into  McDonald's, just know you were in a vortex of   unconditional love." "That's what a powerful  breatharian who wants to get in the fifth dimension--"   "If you want to get in the first dimension through me you will have to take that. Mhm." Like Wiley's yellow foods diet, reasoning   behind this food choice is apparently too obvious  to explain, but there seem to be only about   five members currently in his organization, and  operations are likely slow-going as it's doubtful   any are attending his one million dollar workshops  or ordering his ten thousand dollar immortality   drink. Prahlad Jani continued to face scrutiny for  his claims until his death at the age of 90.   "What's in the fridge? What's inside? Can I  see?" "No, only water to wash the mouth." "Ah."   Independent observers such as Edumaraku and James Randi, who had asked to sit in on his observation   studies were denied, leaving Dr. Sudhir Shah's  questionable experiments the sole testimony   of his claims. Similar to Jasmuheen, PA Straubinger  also received a parody award for his contribution   to breatharianism--a German prize called the Golden  Blockhead for the category of "most astonishing   pseudo-scientific nuisance." He continues to  promote his film at public speaking events   where he's quick to acknowledge the dangers of  breatharianism while also rejecting personal   responsibility for giving credence to it. "My film  of course is not dangerous at all, it's just doing   research, because I said from the beginning please  don't try this out. Just because you see a film   about somebody climbing the Mount Everest it  doesn't mean you should do it the next day in   sneakers and shorts. So, this can be, of course, very  dangerous." Naveena's online presence seems to have   disappeared following the end of Living on Light.  In her final video, she alluded to starting a new   channel called "Shining a Light," dedicated to other  esoteric ideas. Although, no such channel matching   that description seems to exist. She returned  to her channel a month later to check in with a   portion of her audience who was worried about her.  "I'm doing really well, I just wanted to update you,   for those who were concerned that I was not doing  so well towards the end of it. I'm eating. I think   on July 4th was the first day I had a normal meal,  which was quite delicious." She wasn't comfortable   conceding that breatharianism wasn't possible,  but admitted that she would never be the one to   prove it. As it stands Naveena's Shine's channel isn't  the testament of our ability to live without food   as she originally intended, nor did it succeed  in saving humanity from self-destruction. Instead,   Living on Light chronicles something rarer for  breatharianism. In a movement so often filled with   deception, injury, and death, Naveena Shine provided a much needed example of the awareness of danger and   irresponsibility before following such an idea  to its tragic conclusion. "The universe is saying   'this is what I want,' because this is what's  occurring. I have no argument with that."   "Her name is Naveena Shine. I'm not a doctor but  she didn't seem at all crazy to me, but she does   have some ideas that are, shall we say, out there  a little bit. I'm not sure if Naveena is starving   for attention or not but she's definitely  starving." Naveena Shine is a delightful   English lady, 65 years old, and she's aiming  big. "This will literally save the earth."
Info
Channel: Atrocity Guide
Views: 1,407,264
Rating: 4.9115491 out of 5
Keywords: Breatharianism, Documentary, Youtube Documentary, James Randi, Atrocity Guide, Naveena Shine, Living on light, Jashmuheen, Wiley Brooks, Breatharians
Id: WWRniMqhr00
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 51min 17sec (3077 seconds)
Published: Sat Oct 24 2020
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