The Daily Mail tells the story of a British professor who claims to have ingested no solid food since January 1, 2002.
He says he survives on air and sunshine, with an occasional glass of fruit juice, water, or coffee.
The human body, he says, doesn't need food. We only believe we need to eat. It's our belief system that makes us vulnerable to starvation. Change our beliefs, and we can survive - and thrive - indefinitely without eating.
It's all part of a movement of people calling themselves Breatharians. The prof says he's been medically tested and has proven he can live without nourishment.
And yet, as the Daily Mail goes on to report, there are a few monkeys in the wrench.
In 1983 Wiley Brooks, the founder of the Breatharian Institute of America and who claimed not to have eaten for 19 years, caused outrage when he was allegedly caught ordering a chicken pie. And several female followers have died after fasting and falling into comas.
Australian Ellen "Jasmuheen" Greves was a leading proponent of the movement in the late Nineties - lecturing all over the world on the benefits of a diet of light, air and one packet of biscuits in 10 years.
However, scepticism crept in after reporters visiting her Brisbane home found it crammed with food - which she insisted belonged to her second husband, Jess Ferguson, a convicted fraudster.
And a British journalist accompanying her to her check-in desk at Heathrow was astonished when the BA clerk asked her to confirm that she'd ordered an in-flight vegetarian meal. "No, no," she replied. "Well, yes, OK, I did. But I won't be eating it."
And an attempt in 1999 to test her skill ended in near disaster. The controlled experiment, under tight security, ended after four days amid fears for her rapidly deteriorating health. She blamed the failure on the stressful circumstances under which the experiment was conducted, rather than lack of food and water.
And then there's the knotty problem of mass starvation around the world.
How can he lead a healthy life on a diet of nothing when thousands of people starve to death every day? After all, there's plenty of light in Africa - couldn't all the hungry people there adopt his principals?
"Fundamentally, I am convinced it would be possible," he says. "The problem is they are convinced they will starve if they don't eat," he adds. "But I do not in any way believe that light nourishment is a method of solving the world hunger problem."
Something fails to compute. If this guy claims he can survive on light and air, why wouldn't "light nourishment [be] a method of solving the world hunger problem"? Presumably if he can do it, others can do it, too.
Unless, of course, he can't do it. Which is my very strong suspicion.
The Daily Mail article ends on an appropriate note of caution:
[The professor says, ] "I can only say I would be stupid to eat again, as I am doing really well. Better than ever before."
Well, perhaps. But we have only his word for it and if ever there was an experiment which should not be tried at home, this is it.
Amen. And pass the catsup, will you?
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