Breatharianism. The ultimate shitty idea.

robakerson
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Breatharianism. The ultimate shitty idea.

So these people think that they can live with no food or water.
Indefinitely.

http://breatharian.info/

Here's the interesting part, their explanation(s):

(apparently they only hold true if you fit into a specific category, in which case three of their explanations are just false. Or there's a dual-dualism thing going on.)

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE ?

Explanations for the open-minded

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." No matter whether we believe in something or not, the phenomenon takes place irrespective of our knowledge or belief. Besides, no matter how we try to explain it, is the explanation arrived at really so important? The most important thing is that from the beginning of our civilization, there always were people who never ate. Such people existed, exist and will exist, which means that we too have this capability. We only need to find a way to adapt the body to a different kind of energy processing.

Explanation for an esoteric person

Ubiquitous energy, whether called prana, qi, ki, orgon, liquid light or by other names, maintains the organism of someone who doesn't eat. A human body can be powered by prana if the subconscious (which manages the body metabolism and shapes the physical body) acquires the skill of automatic transformation of ubiquitous prana to satisfy the needs of a human body.

Explanation for a scientifically-minded

Of all the other organisms, the human body is the most complicated, integrated and self-regulated energetic system. It is complicated and in many aspects unexplored computer-mechanic-chemical formation, controlled by the brain with the whole layout of magnetic, electric and gravity radiation. This complicated machine can be adapted to all possible living conditions on Earth, if given enough time and developed in right way.
We haven't fully explored the human organism energy system. One of the ways of powering human body is energy and substances created by the chemical and physical factory of the body (excretory and respiratory system). Apart from this powering system, there is another, a reserve one (or maybe major one but moved away to the reserve role), which is able to transform the available energy directly. This powering system transforms the energy directly into matter, so in this way all that the organism needs. The pineal gland is claimed to have a crucial role in this process. This hypothesis is confirmed by research undergone on some  people, where CAT scanning shows a significant enlargement of this gland. The pineal gland manages (like a central processing unit) the mechanism of direct energy exchange between the organism cell and the surroundings (it actually occurs at a sub-atom level).
One explanation, purely scientific, which comes from a nuclear physic says as follows: the organism consists of tissues, which are built of chemical molecules, and next these molecules are built of atoms. Atoms consist of electrons and protons, which are built of smaller elements. As the result of this way of looking for an origin element, we reach the point, where the matter does not exist. There, we have only something, which we can call vibrational whirls of energy. As long as history exists it has been known under different definitions, for example prana, orgon, light. Hence such definitions originated such as "living on light" or "prana nourishment". All the matter which exists in the Universe, including the human body, is comprised of whirls of vibrational energy. The human body is the best well-known sophisticated, programmable and simultaneously self-controlled electronic-physical-chemical machine with a central management system, called the brain. There are centers in the brain, which manage body energy and chemistry (mainly pineal gland and pituitary). In this way, the organism lives and builds itself using these whirls of energy.

Explanation for a deeply religious person

God is everything. There is nothing which exists without God, there is nothing which has not been created by God. The inconceivable and almighty God is the only One and the highest perfection. Since the Almighty God has created everything and He/She/It is the highest inconceivable perfection, He/She/It can bestow the ability to live without eating on people of His/Her/Its choice.
Since God is inconceivable and almighty, it is no use asking how God is able to do this. Important is the fact that God can and does select people to receive this grace. We can ask God for the grace of not eating, because God listens to sincere requests of the devoted children.


Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.
George Orwell.


deludedgod
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I recall that one of the

I recall that one of the founding sophists of this absurdity managed to die and win a Darwin Award when she went camping in the ice cold Scottish highlands for a month with no food or water and died due to overexposure and dehydration within days. She announced before her trip that she would sustain herself solely on air. Incredibly, the fool didn't even eat snow for water, even as her skin began to crinkle for the obvious reason that water was being leeched out of the cell cytoplasm of the expendable skin cells. Surely even this extraordinarily dim witted individual must have realized that as her cellular material was undergoing anhidrosis-induced apoptosis, her faith was not working. Yet the stupid bitch still persisted!

You know what they say: Evolution! The Lean, Mean, Gene Machine. This person carried a gene for unusual stupidity, one more carrier of which just eliminated themself from the pool. Natural selection in action.

I don't suspect this particular cult will last too long, as evolution paints a bulls-eye on those individuals and groups who choose such an extraordinary method of self-termination! Yet, we should be thanking them for contributing to natural selection via the elimination of genes encoding for rather poor mental facilities, hence contributing to the human race as a whole. 

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

-Me

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Nero
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Perhaps they are trying to

Perhaps they are trying to filterfeed like sponges and coral. 


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Nero wrote: Perhaps they

Nero wrote:
Perhaps they are trying to filterfeed like sponges and coral.

LOL...they don't have the right biological equipment. Smiling  Baleen...baleen for the Breatharians?  Please sir, can you spare some baleen?

Another reason to hunt whales? Smiling 

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Quote: Of all the other

Quote:
Of all the other organisms, the human body is the most complicated, integrated and self-regulated energetic system. It is complicated and in many aspects unexplored computer-mechanic-chemical formation, controlled by the brain with the whole layout of magnetic, electric and gravity radiation. This complicated machine can be adapted to all possible living conditions on Earth, if given enough time and developed in right way.


The argument from complexity is not a good argument to give "The scientifically minded".

I haven't closely followed them at all, but one of their members (leaders?) has claimed to be following this practice for years. However, she doesn't want to go through with the Randi paranormal test. I wonder why?

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.
George Orwell.


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Sounds painful!

demented fuckwits wrote:
...a nuclear physic says...

A nuclear physic - WTF? Would that be some sort of laxative that empties your guts with the force of an a-bomb?

Sounds like a whole bunch of shit to me! Tongue out

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ObnoxiousBroad

ObnoxiousBroad wrote:

demented fuckwits wrote:
...a nuclear physic says...

A nuclear physic - WTF? Would that be some sort of laxative that empties your guts with the force of an a-bomb?

Sounds like a whole bunch of shit to me! Tongue out

ROTF

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the breathanarians

the breathanarians wrote:

he most important thing is that from the beginning of our civilization, there always were people who never ate.

Yes...and those people all died horrible deaths as the vital organs began to leech fluid from expendable cells, which towards the end, would turn them into creatures vaguely resembling brillo pads. Then, as the blood coagulated in the veins, the heart starts to pound like a sledgehammer and cardiovascular BP shoots up to >200 SYS, after spending of lipid cells, the body is forced to burn muscle, and the skin turns blue and gray with broken blood vessels due to the weakened walls. The extremities start necroting, increased CV BP causes delusions and hallucinations at the very end (which, perhaps, is why they persisted), as blood is retracted to protect the vital organs, the body begins to rot from the outside in. At the very end, the total anhidrosis still is not enough to keep the blood circulating, so the body starts to harden in a gruesome pre-mortem rigor mortis, and then, the heart stops, too exhausted to continue.

So, yes. There have been people who have voluntarily not eating. Some do it due to eating disorders like anorexia, among whom the mortality rate is 30%. But these people completely shun food and water, and the mortality rate is...100%.

In other words, these people are the epitome example of stupidity being eliminated by natural selection, as already explained. 

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

-Me

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deludedgod wrote: the

deludedgod wrote:

the breathanarians wrote:

he most important thing is that from the beginning of our civilization, there always were people who never ate.

Yes...and those people all died horrible deaths as the vital organs began to leech fluid from expendable cells, which towards the end, would turn them into creatures vaguely resembling brillo pads. Then, as the blood coagulated in the veins, the heart starts to pound like a sledgehammer and cardiovascular BP shoots up to >200 SYS, after spending of lipid cells, the body is forced to burn muscle, and the skin turns blue and gray with broken blood vessels due to the weakened walls. The extremities start necroting, increased CV BP causes delusions and hallucinations at the very end (which, perhaps, is why they persisted), as blood is retracted to protect the vital organs, the body begins to rot from the outside in. At the very end, the total anhidrosis still is not enough to keep the blood circulating, so the body starts to harden in a gruesome pre-mortem rigor mortis, and then, the heart stops, too exhausted to continue.

So, yes. There have been people who have voluntarily not eating. Some do it due to eating disorders like anorexia, among whom the mortality rate is 30%. But these people completely shun food and water, and the mortality rate is...100%.

In other words, these people are the epitome example of stupidity being eliminated by natural selection, as already explained. 

Awww, Deluded, you just described one of my hangovers.  It isn't all bad.  No one asks you to help them move if you have necrotic limbs.  *Say no more, say no more, nod nod, wink wink*

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Your limbs turn black and

Your limbs turn black and die when you get drunk? Cool

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

-Me

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Nero
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No, they die several hours

No, they die several hours after I get drunk.  Geesh!  Don't you know what a hangover is? Eye-wink

If they died when I got drunk, it would be very hard to drive around!!!

"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer


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Well...at least it's a

Well...at least it's a falsifiable claim. 


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It's also a good way to get

It's also a good way to get rid of some wackos if they really believe it and try it.


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Haha, yeah.  Occam's razor

Haha, yeah.  Occam's razor slices that shit in a hurry. 


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In my opinion, anyone dumb

In my opinion, anyone dumb enough to believe this stuff deserves what they have coming. Call it natural selection.   Still, this cult is dangerous.  The ehad of it, Jasmuheen, has a particularly good way of dealing with skeptics and criticism.   Anyone who dies following her wacko ideas obviously "cannot have followed the 21-day process guidelines properly."  Some good links and quotes:

"In 1983, most of the leadership of the cult in California resigned when Wiley Brooks, its 47-year-old leader, who claimed not to have eaten for 19 years, was caught sneaking into a hotel and ordering a chicken pie."

"Several interviewers have found her[Jasmuheen's] house full of food, but she claims the food is for her husband"

http://www.rickross.com/groups/breat.html

http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1999-58.html 

This last link has the result of what happened to Jasmuheen when she allowed herself to be observed by a clinical phsycian who ordered the trial stopped after 4 days fearing for health.   Her response?   That the doctor was wrong to stop the test and she was fine. 

http://skepdic.com/inedia.html 

"The World is my country, science my religion" - Christiaan Huygens


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Geez, did they lift their

Geez, did they lift their beliefs from Monty Python or something?
I've never run into a breatharian (the practicioners are probably busy trying not to "go into the light&quotEye-wink, but I've run into a lot of people, here in Los Angeles, who have been seduced by the bad science and rapid weight loss of the "Master Cleanse" or "Lemonade Diet." No one seems to question where it came from.


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snafu wrote: "Several

snafu wrote:

"Several interviewers have found her[Jasmuheen's] house full of food, but she claims the food is for her husband"


Classic sign of seeping bullshit...

People have died trying to follow her "plan".
I guess the rest of her followers are just as much bullshitters as she is,
or they are all completely deluded into not realising it
when they actually do eat.

What a bunch of fuckers.

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.
George Orwell.


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I honestly don't see how

I honestly don't see how this could make anyone mad.  Anyone dumb enough to stop eating and drinking deserves to die.  I mean really, if they're that stupid, they're going to eventually kill themselves anyway.  It might as well be something completely absurd. 


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Well, I gave it a try. I

Well, I gave it a try. I lasted from 8AM to 11:30AM. Then, I drove by a BurgerKing.  Turns out that Whoppers float around in the air in that place.  Who knew?

"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer