'Starving yogi' astounds Indian scientists

[Xylo]

hahahaha.... did you honestly just cite an article from the onion to support your point? WOW. Thats too damn funny. Do you know what the onion is?

I did, and only 2 people acknowledged it. Funny stuff. And yes I do know the onion. It was one of my favorite sites since 2000 or so.

 

[trainedobserver]

I must admit that when I read the articles I found the first one absurd but rushed through so quickly it didn't register that it was the Onion until you first mentioned it. This whole thread is an Onion piece IMHO.

 

[Kieran]

It seems unlikely that these officials are knowingly promoting a hoaxer but there are a couple of likely scenarios that could explain the apparent situation.

1. The news story is a complete fake or portions of it may be incorrect or exaggerated.
2. Practiced hucksters have fooled "experts" in the past. Any sufficiency rigorous scientific investigation will reveal the hoax eventually however.This may be similar to Uri Gellers's hoodwinking of numerous investigators.
3. Some combination of 1 & 2.

It is highly unlikely that there is any validity to this story for several reasons:

1. The history of religious chicanery in India.
2. The history of the failure of "breathairians" to prove their claims in the past.
2. No real scientific data has accompanied the story.
3. Medical Science has proven that the human body cannot survive any longer than a few days without water and only for a few weeks without food. This man claims to have gone for over 70 years without food.

Given these facts what is the most likely the truth about this story? The most likely truth is that this is far from a "holy man" but rather a "confidence man" in a well established Indian tradition of god-men, holy men, swamis, and other religious hucksters.

Breatharians have submitted themselves for testing in the past and everyone of them was proven, to have either lied or cheated. I accept that. And yes, i agree with you; After Three day's or more, if there was no intake of any water by then, a human, would become ill and eventually would die. I agree again here.

I never had any reason to ever question those findings till now and I'm still (50/50) on this to be honest, but like Ron, it still, is in my Grey basket.

Also If wasn't for the calibre of people involved, also, i wouldn't even remotely find any of this interesting. But you have to admit this at least, the one Doctor that i mentioned before, has an impressive CV to say the least, he is also, the Director of the "Defence Research and Development Organisation" that has ties to the Ministry of defence of India.

You've posted an interesting Video, But, Randi never dismissed the people involved here or that they had good reputation here or that the Government of India was involved in this study. Randi doesn't believe the Yogi man could of done this, no possible way, and Randi, claimed he must have cheated while he bathed periodically over the two weeks?

But Randi forgets what the Doctors claimed also.. The Yogi man never went to the bathroom in two weeks, I no for a fact, if i drink even a small of water i would go to the bathroom. So How come he never went if he cheated by gargling water?

Look the Burden of prove is with the people doing the testing. There could be something sinister behind all this, but i see no reason to have those thoughts yet. Let us wait for the results to get published here and then we can further debate this. I personally hope these doctors will not end up being a laugh stock among there peers, since after all, they are solely responsible for making the claims in the first place.

 

[trainedobserver]

Also If wasn't for the calibre of people involved, also, i wouldn't even remotely find any of this interesting. But you have to admit this at least, the one Doctor that i mentioned before, has an impressive CV to say the least, he is also, the Director of the "Defence Research and Development Organisation" that has ties to the Ministry of defence of India.

I will only say, "On the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog."

Randi doesn't believe the Yogi man could of done this, no possible way, and Randi, claimed he must have cheated while he bathed periodically over the two weeks?

Randi is pointing out the absurdity of the entire "study" (hack, cough, spit) by this statement.

But Randi forgets what the Doctors claimed also.. The Yogi man never went to the bathroom in two weeks, I no for a fact, if i drink even a small of water i would go to the bathroom. So How come he never went if he cheated by gargling water?

You are assuming a lot of things there, the chief of which is that the report contains correct statements. There is no reason to assume that it is and every reason to assume that it isn't, all of which I have beat to death already. I would not trust my broken down bicycle with a "Yogi man."

 

[Kieran]

I will only say, "On the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog."



Randi is pointing out the absurdity of the entire "study" (hack, cough, spit) by this statement.



You are assuming a lot of things there, the chief of which is that the report contains correct statements. There is no reason to assume that it is and every reason to assume that it isn't, all of which I have beat to death already. I would not trust my broken down bicycle with a "Yogi man."

Well i researched in depth before i posted and before i posted the doctor's name. The story has been on the net for a week or so. There has been no rebuttal anywhere of who they are and where they work, so far mate. I would say; Within two days this would have spread like wildfire, being that the case.

Randi is a scientist here is he?

I not assuming anything, i said i was 50/50 on this, and i stated my reasons for why. I Listened to the interview that the doctors done, they spoke English. This language is native to your country, so you should understand fairly easy.

 

[Angel of Ioren]

Sure do, I even mentioned it in the following post. Apparently I was the only one that thought it was funny.

Sorry about that - I checked to see if you were joking and I didn't notice. It was quite funny by the way, the Onion often is.

---------- Post added at 08:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:42 AM ----------

Randi is a scientist here is he?

Randi has always maintained that he is not a scientist, but he's being level headed about this outlandish claim. He has also come across claims like this before, so he is a good judge in this case.

 

[trainedobserver]

Randi is a scientist here is he

Of a sort. He is certainly an expert at the science of illusion. He is a magician, an illusionist, a professional huckster if you will and he has been exposing this kind of hokum for quite some time now.

So I'm having a little problem understanding your viewpoint here. You admit that you do not believe that he has not eaten for 70 years as he claims correct? Yet, you put some credence to his claim of not eating or drinking for 15 days or so?

It seems that you have already established that the man is a liar, a huge liar in fact, why would you believe anything he says?

IMHO, this seems to be a matter of common sense. The man has proven himself to be a liar perpetuating a scam when he claims to have only lived on woo-woo energy for 70 years. Given the fact that he has apparently hoodwinked doctors in India I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people whose only knowledge of this is what they read on the Internet fall for it (or even just entertain the notion that it even 'might' be true) as well. I find the reaction to this story and perpetuation of it absolutely ridiculous and fascinating at the same time. It a study in credulity.

 

[Kieran]

Of a sort. He is certainly an expert at the science of illusion. He is a magician, an illusionist, a professional huckster if you will and he has been exposing this kind of hokum for quite some time now.

So I'm having a little problem understanding your viewpoint here. You admit that you do not believe that he has not eaten for 70 years as he claims correct? Yet, you put some credence to his claim of not eating or drinking for 15 days or so?

It seems that you have already established that the man is a liar, a huge liar in fact, why would you believe anything he says?

IMHO, this seems to be a matter of common sense. The man has proven himself to be a liar perpetuating a scam when he claims to have only lived on woo-woo energy for 70 years. Given the fact that he has apparently hoodwinked doctors in India I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people whose only knowledge of this is what they read on the Internet fall for it (or even just entertain the notion that it even 'might' be true) as well. I find the reaction to this story and perpetuation of it absolutely ridiculous and fascinating at the same time. It a study in credulity.

I never accepted the claims of him not eating or drinking for seventy years, that is, because nobody can confirm those claims, so i don't understand what your getting at with this. The only thing that was alleged and confirmed according to the doctors was the 15 day study. Therefore that is what the discussion here is about, so stay on course please. You seem to know this Yogi man personally, have you met him before? Your just forming your opinions based on previous examples of Breatharians who have been tested and failed, ok well at least wait for the results and see what it confirms before jumping to conclusions. But honestly i can't see how western medicine would ever accept this even if it was true, unless, the Yogi man put himself forward for testiing in a modern western country.

 

[trainedobserver]

so stay on course please

Yogi man ... liar or "holy man?" Seems like a valid line of questioning to me.

Yes, I am forming my opinions based on previous examples of Bratharian failures, the history of Indian religious hucksterism, as well as my life experience which tells me human beings have to eat to live.

I'm going to go out on a limb on this one and jump to the conclusion that this man cannot sustain himself on some mystical power and is in fact misrepresenting himself and his 'abilities' which makes him something a bit less than 'holy'.

Should any real evidence surface in the form of a controlled scientific study that is published and peer reviewed that shows this fellow's body is sustained by other than the normal means I'll reconsider my viewpoint.

 

[Kieran]

Yogi man ... liar or "holy man?" Seems like a valid line of questioning to me.

Yes, I am forming my opinions based on previous examples of Bratharian failures, the history of Indian religious hucksterism, as well as my life experience which tells me human beings have to eat to live.

I'm going to go out on a limb on this one and jump to the conclusion that this man cannot sustain himself on some mystical power and is in fact misrepresenting himself and his 'abilities' which makes him something a bit less than 'holy'.

Should any real evidence surface in the form of a controlled scientific study that is published and peer reviewed that shows this fellow's body is sustained by other than the normal means I'll reconsider my viewpoint.

I fully accept this claims do require further testing before we can take them seriously. But the study in India was a well-funded and serious study, i still believe that too.

 

[trainedobserver]

But the study in India was a well-funded and serious study, i still believe that too.

I do not. I think that is our major point of contention. It appears to me that you accept that this was truly a well run scientific study where I do not.

 

[Kieran]

I do not. I think that is our major point of contention. It appears to me that you accept that this was truly a well run scientific study where I do not.

The hospital was a private hospital which costs money also new equipment was brought in specially for this testing. You might not be aware of this, but he had a mobile camera planned on his person watching him as well as 24 camera's watching his every move. Doctors were brought in from other hospitals to observe, test and do a study on this Yogi man. There was security brought in to guard the room from outsiders also. It was well-run study, they way you go on, you swear it was a back end hospital and the doctors who done the testing were some how unqualified or fools, but with the minimal of research you would none better.

 

[trainedobserver]

Is it not correct that all you know about this affair is what you have learned through the news media, Internet, print, television? If you're impressed by what you've learned then so be it. I am not. Your assumption that if I had only read what you have read I wouldn't dismiss these outlandish claims so quickly is pretty absurd. You don't know what I've read and what I haven't for one thing and as I think I've already demonstrated, my readiness to "believe" outlandish claims isn't anywhere near yours.