Breatharianism

[Urederra]

Good news for some people, I guess, it is possible to live without eating.

http://www.cygnus-books.co.uk/mind_body_spirit_books/life-light.htm

Here is the story of a man who hasn't eaten since 2001, or so he claims, and he is alive and kicking.

LIFE FROM LIGHT
Michael Werner, & Thomas Stockli
Michael Werner is a fit family man in his 50s, with a doctorate in Chemistry, and is the managing director of a research institute in Switzerland. However, there is something quite unusual about him: In 2001 he stopped eating and has survived perfectly well without food ever since. In fact, he claims never to have felt better. Unlike the rare individuals who have achieved this feat in the past - usually monks, nuns or other people devoted to the spiritual life - he is an ordinary man who lives a full and active life. In this book, he tells his story, not as a way to encourage other people to stop eating, but as a way of inviting us to reconsider the way we think about eating and drinking, and how we absorb nourishment. Werner has issued an open challenge to all scientists: ‘Test me using all the scientific monitoring and data you wish!’ In fact, he describes one such test here in which he was kept without food in a strictly monitored environment for ten days. Werner also describes how and why he came to give up food, and what his life is like without it. The book also includes other reports from people who have attempted to follow this way of life, as well as a thoughtful consideration of possible scientific and spiritual explanations of how one could ‘live on light’.

more links about the news, more skeptical about Werner's book:
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/newscripts/85/8530newscripts.html

Chemistry of Breatharianism

Mouthwatering: How could anyone turn this down?
If I were to have a last meal choice, it would probably consist of sushi, cheese fries (with Ranch dressing), and soft-shell crabs. For Ph.D. chemist Michael Werner, however, it was potato salad and a slice of cake on New Year's Eve 2001.
Werner, 58, is a former chemistry professor and father of three from Brunswick, Germany, who NO LONGER EATS—at all. But before you go and label Werner anorexic, chew on this; he claims to practice breatharianism, a diet based on the belief that a person can be sustained largely on air—carbon dioxide, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen—alone.
For more than six years, Werner has only consumed coffee, water, fruit juice, and the occasional glass of wine, along with his daily helping of sunlight and air. He has written a book on his controversial practice called "Life from Light," in which he documents his journey.
Werner might believe in this program, but science sure doesn't. Over the years, several other self-pronounced breatharians have failed to reproduce their foodless lifestyle for the cameras or scientists.
According to London's Daily Mail, Ellen (Jasmuheen) Greve, a proponent of the breatharian movement in the '90s, was caught by journalists with a house full of food and ordering an in-flight vegetarian meal. She also faced a health crisis while undergoing a controlled experiment in which she tried to prove her claims. Wiley Brooks, founder of the Breatharian Institute of America, claimed not to have eaten for 19 years, only to be allegedly caught ordering a chicken pot pie in 1983.
Ask any doctor, and you are sure to be told that a diet of light, air, and juice will probably cause anemia, fatigue, dehydration, reduction in muscle mass, immune deficiency, and possibly death. But despite the criticism from the scientific community, Werner maintains his legitimacy.
"I have taken part in two 10-day studies where everything was monitored—my blood pressure, urine, heart rate," Werner said in a Daily Mail article last month. "Much of my energy comes from light and the atmosphere. I absorb energy from light—like plants—and this allows me to function fully."
Regardless of how Werner functions, this talk about food—or lack thereof—has made Newscripts quite hungry for a sandwich.

Well, he does dring juice, though.

So, what do you guys think?
Is this for real, or is a scam?

 

[Fifty]

It's a complete scam. I mean perhaps this guy is living off juice but there is no way one could live off just air and water. I remember one case in which a breatharian was caught stuffing his face with cheeseburgers.

It's just more new-age one-upism. The less stuff you eat the more cool you are in the hippy world. It goes something like:

regular eater < vegetarian < vegan < raw vegan < raw fruitarian < breatharian

 

[Masquerouge]

If it worked, why did we start eating in the first place?

 

[Fifty]

If it worked, why did we start eating in the first place?

Perhaps eating is an invention of the capitalist industrialist fast food industry? I bet tribal societies don't eat at all.

 

[IglooDame]

Scam. Plants use sunlight energy via photosynthesis, so unless this guy has some chlorophyll replacement running through his skin, sunlight isn't doing him any more good than it is me.

 

[Urederra]

Spoiler huge pic :

Lovely guys, and gals.

 

[Masquerouge]

Perhaps eating is an invention of the capitalist industrialist fast food industry? I bet tribal societies don't eat at all.

That's definitely it.

Last supper? SCAM!

 

[Fifty]

That's definitely it.

Last supper? SCAM!

If you look very closely at Da Vinci's last supper you can make out a McDonalds logo on Jesus' forehead.

 

[IglooDame]

It's a complete scam. I mean perhaps this guy is living off juice but there is no way one could live off just air and water. I remember one case in which a breatharian was caught stuffing his face with cheeseburgers.

It's just more new-age one-upism. The less stuff you eat the more cool you are in the hippy world. It goes something like:

regular eater < vegetarian < vegan < raw vegan < raw fruitarian < breatharian

You forgot breatharian < carnivore.

 

[The Yankee]

Perhaps eating is an invention of the capitalist industrialist fast food industry? I bet tribal societies don't eat at all.

Damn those capitalists! Forcing us to eat when we clearly don't have to!

I'll continue my rant later, it's time for lunch......darn capitalist lunch.....


This has to be a scan, btw.

 

[MobBoss]

Speaking as a person who has fasted for long periods of time, I think you can sustain yourself via juice and dairy for quite a long period. One of the methods I used in fasting was supplementing with vegatable and fruit juice with vitamins. Does it take all the hunger away? Nope. But it does knock the edge off.

 

[The Yankee]

You forgot breatharian < carnivore.

Carnivore < Omnivore

I eat everything and I'm proud of it. I'll take this guy's fridge also.

 

[AngryPinkMoose]

I really doubt its true.

 

[GVBN]

So why is Africa starving then?

 

[Fifty]

You forgot breatharian < carnivore.

Oh no! Anything that involves meat of any sort they refer to as the S.A.D. (standard american diet). In the mind of a hippy, there is no difference whatsoever between eating fast food for every meal and eating a balanced diet including meats.

 

[Masquerouge]

If you look very closely at Da Vinci's last supper you can make out a McDonalds logo on Jesus' forehead.

Very closely? The thing is in freakin'plain sight!

 

[Fifty]

So why is Africa starving then?

Because they aren't in touch with the cosmic new age energy vibes required, duh!

 

[IglooDame]

Oh no! Anything that involves meat of any sort they refer to as the S.A.D. (standard american diet). In the mind of a hippy, there is no difference whatsoever between eating fast food for every meal and eating a balanced diet including meats.

No, I meant that the carnivore can literally eat the breatharian. Hopefully breatharians still taste like chicken.

 

[The Yankee]

Because they aren't in touch with the cosmic new age energy vibes required, duh!

Our next aid shipment to Africa should be cases from Starmegabuck$.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

So, he says that he has undergone studies . . . but when, and where, and by whom?