BREATHARIANISM

“What do you think about breatharianism? There is an interview with a person who claims to live on nothing but air and distilled water!”

ANSWER: There are a lot of people claiming a lot of crazy things! Personally, my experience with these so-called breatharians has not proven me that living on nothing but air and water is a possibility.

I believe it's possible for a person to get to a state where they actually need to consume very little food, but I don't believe this is a healthy practice, nor that it is possible to actually “live on air”.

I meant my first “breatharian” in California about 7 years ago, and the person in question is probably the most famous “breatharian” at the moment.

She seemed frail and was actually fighting a cold when I met her. She got paid pretty decent money (over $5000) to give a one-day talk on “living on light”, with all expense paid. She had just bought a new house and seemed to be doing well being a breatharian “guru”.

I was pretty shocked when she said that this “lifestyle” was great for teenagers because with all the money they saved by not eating, they could spend more on clothes!

The whole thing seemed pretty ludicrous, especially when she revealed actually eating chocolate cookies, tea with soy milk, pasteurized orange juice and other non-foods just for the “taste” and not for the nutrition.

My belief is that these “breatharians” simply get by with eating very little, but eventually, all of them end up eating.

This famous breatharian has actually accepted in 1999 to be challenged by Australia's 60 Minutes. She was willing to not eat and drink for one week to prove her methods.

After just a few days, she became severely dehydrated, listless and gaunt, and lost a tremendous amount of weight. The “experiment” was aborted for health reasons.

The breatharian of course blamed it on “polluted air” that prevented her from getting the nutrients. What a joke.

I also met another famous breatharian, actually probably the most famous of all, Wiley Brooks. He greeted me like this, “Hi, I'm Wiley Brooks, the breatharian.”

From what I gathered from people who knew him personally, Wiley has no problem eating a hamburger once in a while, and was actually caught more than once entering a fast food joint.

He claims that this food is simply to fulfill his need for “pleasure” and “taste” and is not what keeps him alive.

To finish the topic, I know several people have died when trying to become breatharians. Closer to me, I have met several people who have gone to these extremes of “purity” in their diet, and one of them actually died.

In my opinion, breatharianism is a complete fraud and anyone promoting this idea should really look at the potential harm it's doing to its followers.