Random Facts About Breatharianism (14 items)

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  (#4) Jasmuheen Advocates A Six-Step Path To Breatharianism

  According to Jasmuheen, the first step to becoming a breatharian is to become a vegetarian. Next, you should eliminate dairy and eggs, becoming a vegan. Then, you should adopt a raw food diet, followed by a fruit-only diet, then a liquid-only diet, and finally, prana.
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  (#7) Prahlad Jani Claims To Be Proof Breatharianism Is Possible

  Supposedly, the best proof that breatharianism is possible is Prahlad Jani, who claims to have not eaten for most of his life. As a child, a Hindu goddess told him he did not have to eat food. Jani has undergone several rounds of hospital tests, during which he is monitored while abstaining from eating and drinking.

  After 10 days of fasting, Jani reportedly had not experienced any physiological changes. Doctors were astounded, but decided not to publish their findings in medical journals. However, the validity of these tests has been questioned; Jani may have gone to a quack doctor.
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  (#14) Not All Breatharians Identify With Jasmuheen

  Not all Breatharians identify with the radical leadership of Jasmuheen's, whose extreme work and fasting led to a mainstream breakthrough in understanding the practice. As one journalist noted after spending a weekend with Breatharians from various backgrounds and sectors, 

  “It’s a shame everyone focuses so much on the food,” they tell me, adding that spirituality doesn’t have to be so extreme. They confide they’re thinking of dropping the term “Breatharians,” since they don’t identify with people like Jasmuheen and they don’t like to encourage people to stop eating at their retreats. But on the other hand, they like the name “Breatharian” because they see breath as a type of food.
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  (#12) A Japanese Scientist Won The Nobel Prize In Medicine For His Research On Fasting

  In 2016, Breatharianism gained some credence when a Japanese scientist named Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research on fasting. According to Yoshinori, fasting catalysts regenerative cell recycling called “autophagy.” It literally means “self-eating” in Greek, and the premise, according to the Nobel Prize committee, is "....The cell could destroy its own contents by enclosing it in membranes, forming sack-like vesicles that were transported to a recycling compartment, called the lysosome, for degradation."

  Essentially, autophagy — fostered by extreme fasting — helps recycle and generate new cell growth, which researchers see as an important step to eliminate bacteria, foster protein growth, and fix genetic mutations linked to cancer, Parkinson's disease, ALS, and type 2 diabetes. Could there be a solid link between Breatharianism and better health?

  Autophagy controls important physiological functions where cellular components need to be degraded and recycled. Autophagy can rapidly provide fuel for energy and building blocks for renewal of cellular components, and is therefore essential for the cellular response to starvation and other types of stress. After infection, autophagy can eliminate invading intracellular bacteria and viruses.
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  (#6) Nikola Tesla Wrote In Support Of Breatharian Living

  Later in life, famed inventor and electrical wizard Nikola Tesla began believing in the possibility of survival without food. In a 1901 article entitled Talking With The Planets, he wrote, "Why should a living being not be able to obtain all the energy it needs for the performance of its life functions from the environment, instead of through consumption of food, and transforming, by a complicated process, the energy of chemical combinations into life-sustaining energy?"
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  (#9) Several Breatharians Have Died

  At least four of breatharian spokesperson Jasmuheen's followers have died, including a Swiss woman, a kindergarten teacher who fasted for three weeks before falling into a coma, and a Scottish woman who tried fasting on a camping trip.

  The fourth, Lani Morris, fasted under the supervision of two other followers. During her fast, she became incontinent, lost the use of her legs, and started to cough up black fluid. Morris eventually died, and her body showed symptoms of extreme dehydration, kidney failure, and pneumonia. The couple who had been with her claimed they didn't realize she was seriously sick, but were later convicted of manslaughter.

  Jasmuheen does not believe she is to blame for these deaths, saying, "If you haven’t found the light that will nourish you, you may have the intention to become a breatharian, but in fact you may be putting yourself through food deprivation."

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