Bronze-level articleBreatharianism

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Revision as of 16:42, 30 November 2011

Dolphins and money

New Age

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Breatharianism is the idea that one can live without food and drink - all one needs is "pranic light" which is not made-up New Age cobblers, but is accurate, channelled information from a huge invisible spaceship hovering over North America. Or something.[1]

Contents

Breatharians

Notable proponents of Breatharianism (or Inedia) include the Californian Wiley Brooks. In 1983, most of the leadership of the movement in California resigned when Brooks was caught sneaking into a hotel and ordering a chicken pie.[2]

More recently the name most associated with the idea 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.

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. incidentally don't experiment! Staring at the sun is extremely dangerous and can cause blindness. 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 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.

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![citation NOT needed]

Disadvantages of breatharianism

  • People will think you're insane.
  • You will die.[5][6]

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. Breatharians on Livejournal
  2. Neohumanism on Breatharianism
  3. Fresh-air dietician fails TV show's challenge
  4. At least according to the raw-foodies
  5. Scotland Woman 'starved herself to death'
  6. Three deaths linked to 'living on air' cult
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