Is this a hoax??
An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period.
Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television.
During the period, he neither ate nor drank and did not go to the toilet.
"We still do not know how he survives," neurologist Sudhir Shah told reporters after the end of the experiment.
"It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is."
The long-haired and bearded yogi was sealed in a hospital in the city of Ahmedabad in a study initiated by India's Defence
Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the state defence and
military research institute.
The DRDO hopes that the findings, set to be released in greater detail in several months, could help soldiers survive without
food and drink, assist astronauts or even save the lives of people
trapped in natural disasters.
"(Jani's) only contact with any kind of fluid was during gargling and bathing periodically during the period," G. Ilavazahagan,
director of India's Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences
(DIPAS), said in a statement.
Jani has since returned to his village near Ambaji in northern Gujarat where he will resume his routine of yoga and
meditation. He says that he was blessed by a goddess at a young age,
which gave him special powers.
During the 15-day observation, which ended on Thursday, the doctors took scans of Jani's organs, brain, and blood vessels, as well as doing tests on his heart, lungs and memory capacity.
"The reports were all in the pre-determined safety range through the observation period," Shah told reporters at a press conference last week.
Other results from DNA analysis, molecular biological studies and tests on his hormones, enzymes, energy metabolism and genes will take months to come through.
"If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one," said Shah.
"As medical practitioners we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories."
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mario Rodgers on -
I don't care what you are, you can not stop the life process, which includes burning energy to sustain the cells and giving off waste. Even bacteria follow this. I smell a scam.
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Permalink Reply by Mario Rodgers on
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I smell the potential for trouble by a surge in a fascination with new age woo and superstition. I did a google search of "starving yogi" and came up with another news link and found this fascinating comment--"For example: doctors dismissed germ theory as bunk just a 150 years ago. "Wash my hands? What rubbish." Be open minded and humble you masters of medicine and the knife!!"
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Permalink Reply by Doug Reardon on -
"(Jani's) only contact with any kind of fluid was during gargling and bathing periodically during the period."
He drank the gargle and he ate the soap.
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Permalink Reply by Galen on -
This is either a scam, or we're evolving to include photosynthesis, which would be friggin' awesome! LOL!
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Permalink Reply by Aric on -
Or perhaps oysters have evolved to look like humans and live on land...
Of course, my bet is that it's a scam.
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Permalink Reply by Wesley on -
Don't let him gargle or bathe and try the experiment again. If gargling and bathing were his only contact with water than that is where he got it. Maybe he's learned to pull water in through his anus or something.
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Permalink Reply by Mario Rodgers on
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Strange techniques help you survive. There's a difference between that and claiming you can live for 70 years without food or water.
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Permalink Reply by Jim Scotti on -
About 5 minutes with Randi would solve this "mystery."
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Permalink Reply by QM on -
The Indian sub-continent is full of frauds like Prahlad Jani. I have no idea what agenda these researchers have to promote such bull. These guys are conducting scans of his organs and brain etc. A simple way would be to just lock him up inside an empty sealed room for say 3 months and lets see if he makes through that.
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Permalink Reply by Mario Rodgers on
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I find it weird that a lot of people are exhibiting skepticism of this man's claims and that we need studies upon studies to validate them or debunk them, but the same people doing this are the same who go "Ooh. Aah. Worship." over the supposed product of a virgin birth who is his own father and a god.
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Permalink Reply by Michel-san on -
Anything as crazy as this would require very, very strong evidence.
I'm sure if he gargled with a mixture of sugar, salt, water and swallowed a little he'd last a fair while before experiencing health problems (I guess scurvy would be the first problem with that diet, after 2-3months? He'd definitely last 14 days with little/no signs of weakening.)
He'd have to swap to that 'diet' hours before he went in for testing, to ensure he wouldn't need to excrete any solid matter while under observation. While on that diet he'd only need to excrete liquids which could be done during the bath.
Also this man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blaine survived for 44days on just 4.5litres of water per day during his "Above the Below" endurance stunt. So the body survives for quite a while without food.
Indian 'Holy Men' are just the same as western ones. The phrase "Same horse, different jockey" comes to mind. :P
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