Article: ‘Starving yogi’ astounds Indian scientists
Copyright © 2010 AFP
From Yahoo! News UK
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.”
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Jennifer Lancey
13 May 10 at 10:45 AM
u can check him out in youtube documentary Ram Bahadur Bamjan (“Buddha Boy”).he was kept in a room with 24 hour surveillance,cctv as well.not incredible but absolutely possible
Tee Heng Giap
13 May 10 at 11:57 AM
Not possible, this is a hoax. Either this man is a wax sculpture (only way to explain not having to eat or drink) or someone is lying, end of story. Humans are not magical beings with untapped superpowers.
froli
4 Jul 10 at 4:01 AM
Obviously you have never tried yoga or meditation before
.
The only times we make the impossibe – possible & just stay still with our eyes closed without realizing hours passed.
Ninie
4 Jul 10 at 9:41 AM
Wonder if it’s just that one sidhi that he has or if he really has mastery over all Natural Laws.
Wonder if he is usefully making use of his abilities.
Is he sharing his knowledge? Must take a lot of practice to develop these powers, don’t think any run of the mill person caught in a natural disaster could turn these powers on to order. Someone with real mastery over Natural Law wouldn’t get in such a predicament.
Wonder if he is happy.
FitRosie
7 Jul 10 at 10:33 AM