Szerző: ata » 2006. júl. 13., csüt. 15:18
Kérlek olvassátok el az alábbi cikket figyelmesen.
Nem állítom, hogy nem létezik, és ne hinnék a pránatáplálkozásban.
Én is olvastam a könyvet, fellelkesített, és óriási távlatok nyíltak meg előttem, az emberiség jövőjére gondolva.
Aztán utánnanéztem mi lelhető fel a világhállón.
A lenti cikknél részletesebb beszámolók is vannak, jelenleg csak ezt bírtam nagy gyorsan fellelni.
Mégegyszer, elképzelhetőnek tartom a dolgot, de ha már Jasmuheen több éve nem eszik, és nem iszik, adja magát a kérdés, hogyhogy nem bírta ezt ki néhány napi megfigyelés alatt? -hiszen neki már nem kellett mégegyszer átállnia... vagy de?
Szóval összezavarodtam
15 THE SKEPTIC Vol 19, No 4
The “breatharian” movement, based on the notion that
one can live without food or drink and survive on some
sort of postulated cosmic or “pranic” energy, has attracted
a deal of notoriety of late. Some recent
developments should ensure that it disappears without
trace and without regret.
Breatharianism, long regarded by Skeptics as one of
the more risible of all new age notions, most recently
came to serious attention around mid-year, when an
Australian devotee, living in Scotland, died of starvation
while trying to adhere to the practices of the
movement. She was not the first to suffer because of
this dangerous delusion, but her story did receive considerable
media notice and may have contributed to
what followed. Suddenly this notion seemed a lot less
funny.
The chief promoter of breatharianism in Australia is
a Brisbane based woman going under the name of
Jasmuheen. She had come to the attention of the British
media earlier this year, when, after her visit to that
country, a journalist accompanied her to Heathrow,
where it was revealed that she had ordered a vegetarian
meal for her flight. Her claim that she had ordered
it, but she didn’t intend to eat it, caused a great deal of
sceptical hilarity in the UK media. Jasmuheen sought
to counter this image by plastering her web site with
an extremely long-winded discourse, in which she
claimed (in abbreviated form) that breatharians never
claimed that they do not eat, merely that they could
live without food. Some ate food to enjoy the taste and
others liked to share a meal with family or friends, even
“a chocolate biscuit or a packet of chips once a week or
once a month”.
Back in Australia, she approached the Queensland
Skeptics seeking to be tested for our $100,000 challenge.
Our colleagues entered into discussions with her regarding
the methodology of any such test, but this soon
degenerated as Jasmuheen tried to take charge of the
testing procedure. She wanted to do it her way, but that
is not how the challenge operates. The claimant states
her claim and a test is devised that will either validate
that claim or refute it. The claimant is asked to agree or
disagree that it is a fair test and adjustments may be
made. It is never the case that the claimants design their
own tests (for obvious reasons). We have to be alert to
the fact that any such claimant might be so self-deluded
that they will agree to anything, and we are also constrained
to always use ethical testing procedures that
will cause no harm to a claimant’s health.
However, matters were taken out of our hands when
the 60 Minutes programme (Ch9) found Jasmuheen
willing to undergo testing in the full glare of publicity.
She was installed in a Brisbane hotel, with a 24-hour-aday
guard and not allowed to take any nourishment
apart from what came from the air or light (which is
the basis of her claims). Her health was monitored by a
medical practitioner (the President of the Qld AMA).
After two days, when signs of ill-effects were already
becoming apparent, she complained that the ambience
of the hotel was having a bad effect, and she was then
moved to another location, which she proclaimed as
being more appropriate. After a further two days, when
it was obvious that she was in bodily and mental distress,
the doctor advised the programme to halt the test,
at the risk of causing Jasmuheen serious physical damage
if it continued. So the myth of living on light was
exposed for the sham it is.
But if Jasmuheen suffered no more than temporary
discomfort from this test, one of the unfortunate folk
who followed her ridiculous teachings was not nearly
so lucky.
In June 1998, Lani Morris, a 53 year-old woman from
Victoria, became convinced that her problems could be
solved by her initiation into breatharian techniques and
placed herself in the hands of breatharians, Jim and
Eugenia Pesnak. She visited them in Brisbane and was
placed in a caravan in their back yard, where she was
given no food nor liquids and left to her own devices.
On July 1, she died in hospital, having been transferred
there suffering from a severe stroke, serious dehydration,
kidney failure and pneumonia. The Pesnaks were
charged and on November 19, 1999, they were found
guilty of manslaughter. Jim Pesnak received a sentence
of six years and his wife three.
In mitigation of their offence, the Pesnaks claimed
they “honestly and reasonably believed” that she was
not sick until 11 days into the process. As we have often
said, sincerity is an admirable personality trait, but
where your sincerely held beliefs put another person’s
life at peril, sincerity is not enough. In this context, we
can only question how sincerely anyone can hold a belief
that they are living on cosmic energy, when they
must actually be eating and drinking. How can anyone
be so self-deluded as to deny the evidence of their
own actions?
In her article elsewhere in this issue, Rosemary
Sceats, gives a history of the religious antecedents of
the “breatharian” beliefs.
Breatharians found guilty
News