Breatharianism
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'''Breatharianism''' is the idea that one can live without food and drink, and subsist only off of "pranic light." According to practitioners, pranic light is accurate, [[Channeling|channelled]] information from a [[UFO|huge invisible spaceship]] hovering over North America. Or something.<ref>[http://community.livejournal.com/breatharians/ Breatharians on Livejournal]</ref> | '''Breatharianism''' is the idea that one can live without food and drink, and subsist only off of "pranic light." According to practitioners, pranic light is accurate, [[Channeling|channelled]] information from a [[UFO|huge invisible spaceship]] hovering over North America. Or something.<ref>[http://community.livejournal.com/breatharians/ Breatharians on Livejournal]</ref> | ||
| − | == | + | ==Relationship to sungazing== |
| − | + | Breatharianism frequently involves [[sungazing]] in the dubious belief that nourishment can be gained directly from the sun's energy through the eye, even though it is not a [[photosynthesis]]ing organ. This is likely to be just a [[woo]]-based explanation of "energy", which has little or nothing to do with real definitions of energy as a state-function of what can perform work. As with most supposed techniques of its type, proponents claim that the arts of breatharianism take years to master - usually this sort of excuse allows proponents to ignore evidence based on people trying and failing at the technique. It clearly requires a great deal of courage and self-disciple to be able to keep a straight face while talking about staring at the sun as a viable solution to the world's starvation problems. | |
| − | + | Incidentally don't experiment! Staring at the [[sun]] [http://hubpages.com/hub/Will-Staring-at-the-Sun-Make-You-Go-Blind is extremely dangerous] and can cause blindness. | |
| − | + | ==How do they survive?== | |
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| + | There are people who practice breatharianism or sungazing who to seem to live quite normal (well, normal-''ish'') lives. So how to they survive? | ||
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| + | In the first instance, anyone claiming to live on light and/or air alone is most certainly lying. In 1983, most of the leadership of the movement in California resigned when [[Wiley Brooks]], a notable proponent of breatharianism, was caught sneaking into a hotel and ordering a chicken pie.<ref>[http://neohumanism.org/b/br/breatharian.html Neohumanism on Breatharianism]</ref> Under controlled conditions where people are actually watched to see if they can do it without sneaking some real food, they almost certainly fail. The name most commonly associated with breatharianism is [[Australia]]'s Jasmuheen (born Ellen Greve), who claims to live only on a cup of [[Fun:tea|tea]] and a biscuit every few days. However, the only supervised test of this claim (by the Australian edition of ''60 Minutes'' in 1999) left her suffering from severe dehydration<ref>[http://www.rickross.com/reference/breat/breat13.html Fresh-air dietician fails TV show's challenge]</ref> and the trial was halted after four days, despite Greve's insistence she was happy to continue. | ||
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| + | The second possible answer to "how do they survive" is "they don't". Most of the time whenever breatharianism hits the news, it isn't because one of the leaders and proponents have been caught cheating, but because one of the followers has died of extreme malnutrition. | ||
==Pro-ana== | ==Pro-ana== | ||
Revision as of 14:43, 11 May 2012
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Breatharianism is the idea that one can live without food and drink, and subsist only off of "pranic light." According to practitioners, pranic light is accurate, channelled information from a huge invisible spaceship hovering over North America. Or something.[1]
Contents |
Relationship to sungazing
Breatharianism frequently involves sungazing in the dubious belief that nourishment can be gained directly from the sun's energy through the eye, even though it is not a photosynthesising organ. This is likely to be just a woo-based explanation of "energy", which has little or nothing to do with real definitions of energy as a state-function of what can perform work. As with most supposed techniques of its type, proponents claim that the arts of breatharianism take years to master - usually this sort of excuse allows proponents to ignore evidence based on people trying and failing at the technique. It clearly requires a great deal of courage and self-disciple to be able to keep a straight face while talking about staring at the sun as a viable solution to the world's starvation problems.
Incidentally don't experiment! Staring at the sun is extremely dangerous and can cause blindness.
How do they survive?
There are people who practice breatharianism or sungazing who to seem to live quite normal (well, normal-ish) lives. So how to they survive?
In the first instance, anyone claiming to live on light and/or air alone is most certainly lying. In 1983, most of the leadership of the movement in California resigned when Wiley Brooks, a notable proponent of breatharianism, was caught sneaking into a hotel and ordering a chicken pie.[2] Under controlled conditions where people are actually watched to see if they can do it without sneaking some real food, they almost certainly fail. The name most commonly associated with breatharianism is Australia's Jasmuheen (born Ellen Greve), who claims to live only on a cup of tea and a biscuit every few days. However, the only supervised test of this claim (by the Australian edition of 60 Minutes in 1999) left her suffering from severe dehydration[3] and the trial was halted after four days, despite Greve's insistence she was happy to continue.
The second possible answer to "how do they survive" is "they don't". Most of the time whenever breatharianism hits the news, it isn't because one of the leaders and proponents have been caught cheating, but because one of the followers has died of extreme malnutrition.
Pro-ana
Breatharianism of late has been crossing over with pro-ana, or anorexia advocacy.[4]
Advantages of breatharianism
- You will save 100% on food bills!
- You will become an ascended being of light and the space people will transport you to a golden paradise!
Disadvantages of breatharianism
Caveat
Practitioners of Jainism, in advanced age, sometimes renounce food and offer justifications for doing so that sound like breatharians' twaddle on a superficial level. There the similarity ends, and the two practises should not be confused. This is an extremely advanced religious practise, appropriate to the end of life. Jainists do not usually delude themselves that complete renunciation of food will bring long or eternal life in the flesh.
See also
External links
- Apologetics Index
- Wiley Brooks is still going strong!
- Oh and he needs billions of dollars, what a surprise.