…A team of doctors in western India is carrying out a study on a hermit who claims to have survived without food and water for 70 years.
The holy man claims that he derives energy through meditation.
from BBC.
“Miracle man, or medical mystery?”
How about bullshit?
So this is connected to the cow anus mystery, is it?
I remember this the last time it came around. Don’t think there’s anything new. I could have sworn there was some discussion on it then, too, but I can’t find any posts.
Hell I can’t go 70 minutes.
The Breatharians will send you their philosophy on how to do this if you join them.
I suspect there’s an enormous number of backsliders, though.
Yeah right. Sounds like the gurus that can “levitate.”
Nothing like that, but one time I was lead to fast for IIRC 4 days, unlike other fasts that I have done, I was not hungry, and felt periods where my need for nutrition was being met supernaturally.
:rolleyes:
Bingo. The “team” that’s studying the guy needs to include a few professional magicians.
Or better yet, how about The Skeptic’s Dictionnary : inedia - breatharianism - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com ?
People who are getting hypothermia often feel a sense of warmth, leading to Parodoxical undressing
Just because they feel warm does not mean they are warm. They are cold, and die soon after.
The same sort of physiological response is likely true for your “feeling” that your need for nutrition was being met, while in fact your body was starving to death.
It makes perfect sense to me from a survival aspect. If you go without food for 3 days, do you want your body to basically shut down? Or do you want a feeling of temporary well-being, so you can get out there and I don’t know, find some food?
True, of course. That said, though, someone with normal reserves of body fat should not be in the least danger of starving to death in four days, by an order of magnitude or so. Admittedly, I doubt it would be considered medically advisable to subject yourself to such privations on a regular basis; and generalising from four days to seventy years would be… hasty. 
I say we withhold judgement until we see what the guy looked like 70 years ago. Maybe he was ten thousand pounds and has just been slimming down.
Should be a short study–put him under close observation for three days or so.
Thanks, I needed a good laugh.
Atypical answers:
He has multiple personalities, and one of the other parts is doing the eating and he doesn’t know it.
He takes Ambien-one of the reactions is sleep walking and some people have been known to eat (and even drive cars) after taking it.
Most likely: fake
Rarely can one use the term “an insult to the intelligence” with more feeling.
This wins the thread.