Blessed Indian man survives for decades without food or water

[sgreger1]

Indian holy man Prahlad Jani speaks at a press conference at a hospital in ...



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."

[timholian]

I mean talk about weird. Something inside me says this is a scam or trick being preformed but I lack the medical understanding to be conclusive. If anything, I would assume he is just a lucky guy who has some really good genetics. I wonder if his parents could have done the same thing only never to try it out.

[danielan]

I've seen this movie - he's hiding a clover in his clothes.

[sgreger1]

I mean talk about weird. Something inside me says this is a scam or trick being preformed but I lack the medical understanding to be conclusive. If anything, I would assume he is just a lucky guy who has some really good genetics. I wonder if his parents could have done the same thing only never to try it out.

My question is what prompted him to stop eating or drinking? It is physically impossible for this to happen in a human. Even if he were a solar panel, that would solve the energy problem but our bodies rely heavily on water intake. We can go several weeks without food, but we can only go for a short time without water.

He says he was blessed at a young ago so I am guessing he started doing this young. But even if he were getting energy from somewhere else, his body is still hardwired to become hungry and thirsy, what caused him to choose to ignore these hungers?


Strange all around.

[timholian]

My question is what prompted him to stop eating or drinking? It is physically impossible for this to happen in a human. Even if he were a solar panel, that would solve the energy problem but our bodies rely heavily on water intake. We can go several weeks without food, but we can only go for a short time without water.

He says he was blessed at a young ago so I am guessing he started doing this young. But even if he were getting energy from somewhere else, his body is still hardwired to become hungry and thirsy, what caused him to choose to ignore these hungers?


Strange all around.

I am one of those people who only really feels thirsty, never really hungry. It is a imbalance in the hormone that tells my brain that my stomach it hungry, or at least I think thats the way the doctor explained it to me years ago. I do feel something like hunger but its more like I feel my blood sugar dropping. So, it could be something like that but as far as the water goes, your guess is as good as mine.

[Roo]

My question is what prompted him to stop eating or drinking? ... what caused him to choose to ignore these hungers?


Strange all around.

Asceticism. Hinduism recognizes 4 stages in life for a man. The student, the head of household (family man), retirement, and ascetic. The last stage is when a select few renounce the life they worked so long to build and devote the rest of their existance to spiritual pursuits. Some people stand on one leg for like 15 years where their guru died, some go on pilgramages where they prostrate all the way to the mouth of the Ganges and back alongside the other bank, some do shit way weirder and more strenuous than either of those, and this guy apparently doesn't eat or drink. He must have a trick to it, after all it's the level of devotion and depravity that counts, but who knows... my guess is that he has trained his body to abstain from sustanence for such 14-day periods or longer, then he eats and drinks just enough to stay alive and do it all over again. Anyway, google "sadhu" or "aghori" for more of this. These guys are rad. I like how these scirentists think we're going to gain some military advantage from this guy's extreme religious devotion lol. Maybe we can teach our troops to levitate as well.

[sgreger1]

Asceticism. Hinduism recognizes 4 stages in life for a man. The student, the head of household (family man), retirement, and ascetic. The last stage is when a select few renounce the life they worked so long to build and devote the rest of their existance to spiritual pursuits. Some people stand on one leg for like 15 years where their guru died, some go on pilgramages where they prostrate all the way to the mouth of the Ganges and back alongside the other bank, some do shit way weirder and more strenuous than either of those, and this guy apparently doesn't eat or drink. He must have a trick to it, after all it's the level of devotion and depravity that counts, but who knows... my guess is that he has trained his body to abstain from sustanence for such 14-day periods or longer, then he eats and drinks just enough to stay alive and do it all over again. Anyway, google "sadhu" or "aghori" for more of this. These guys are rad. I like how these scirentists think we're going to gain some military advantage from this guy's extreme religious devotion lol. Maybe we can teach our troops to levitate as well.

Lol, yah I am familiar with these eastern practices and have always been fascinated by it. Through things I have done in my life I have realized that the barriers that you think exist are only percieved, and that with enough focus and devotion the human body is capable of very extreme things (as long as your mind is right). I love watching the monks who can take crazy amounts of pain or eat molten hot metal without even changing their facial expression, absolutely amazing. This guy probably does have some routine that he has been on, but I HIGHLY doubt the military could benefit from it. I mean really, do they think he has some special DNA that makes hima superhero? Look at this guy, we can't have soldiers looking like that (all skinny and malnurished). Even if you didn't have to eat or drink, it's of no use if you can't man the 50 cal. Typical though.

EDIT: I was already familiar with Sadhu, but the aghori theme is very intiresting. This is one of the truest things I have ever seen written in regards to children(from wikipedia page on Ahhori):

"The gurus and disciples of Aghor believe their state to be primordial and universal. They believe that all human beings are natural-born Aghori. Hari Baba has said on several occasions that human babies of all societies are without discrimination, that they will play as much in their own filth as with the toys around them. Children become progressively discriminating as they grow older and learn the culturally specific attachments and aversions of their parents. Children become increasingly aware of their mortality as they bump their heads and fall to the ground. They come to fear their mortality and then palliate this fear by finding ways to deny it altogether."

[Roo]

Hari Baba has said on several occasions that human babies of all societies are without discrimination, that they will play as much in their own filth as with the toys around them.

That is cool. It really says a lot coming from a culture that is predicated on notions of ritual purity and stratified in castes based on their level of purity. The notion of "filth" is a big deal to Indians so it's especially interesting to note that all children, regardless of their place in the societal matrix, will get dirty and play with their shit.

[sgreger1]

That is cool. It really says a lot coming from a culture that is predicated on notions of ritual purity and stratified in castes based on their level of purity. The notion of "filth" is a big deal to Indians so it's especially interesting to note that all children, regardless of their place in the societal matrix, will get dirty and play with their shit.

All societies have some caste based system. In some countries it is peons, surfs, and noblemen etc, in America it's all judged by what kind of car you drive, and in other cultures it's based on how "pure you are". In my mind this is all just human nature, we are hardwired to self segregate ourselves, first by segregating "those that look different than you" (race) and then amongst a common race we segregate based on other things.

The only "caste" system that has any value is the one where a man is determined by his standing in his community based on his actions, based on his character, and shown in his deeds. I hate that we have a system where a man is based on his worth (money, spiritual etc) and not on his character, but it seems to be human nature.

In other news, I can attest to the fact that children will just as quickly play in their own excrement as they will with a toy I buy at Walmart. Children are without prejudice in every sense of the term, white and black children will play together, boys and girls will play with each other, and they will all happily put anything they can hold into their mouth without descrimination.

I truly enjoy the eastern outlook on the world. Christians, Jews, and Muslims get too much attention, the eastern religions that focus less on material things seem to have it right in my opinion.

[tom502]

I agree, I often wish I had remained a Hindu monk.