My Search for Health and Freedom, and the Science

Good day to all Hip Forum members. Today I would like to share my view on a global phenomenon and then hopefully, if approved by the moderation team, share the science my own experiences.

I used to be a hardcore sceptic of breatharianism. I used to use all the arguments you can think of, including the need for energy, minerals, nutrients, the existence of the digestive system all the way up to your teeth, etc. However rather than being an armchair sceptic like most people sadly are I took the claims of those some 50 thousand people seriously enough to do some actual research, keeping always to facts and what science says, with initially surprising results, and ultimately life-changing consequences that are so far-reaching that it is a challenge just to put them into words, but it has gone so far that I have come to feel that it is my moral responsibility to try and articulate my story for the edification of my fellow-humans.


So I used to be a sceptic, however I decided that I will look into this with an open mind, but always keeping the scientific attitude. First I examined what the lifestyle of these so-called breatharians includes so I know what I should investigate exactly. When I had that all pinned down I was ready to understand the underlying mechanism. The first thing I discovered that one of the main "argument" against breatharians was fundamentally wrong. I am talking about the postulate that breatharians live without sustenance. Utterly wrong. You need to bear with me here. I quickly learned about the all-permeating energy they call Chi and Prana in the east that I used to consider a myth together with the so-called energy centres (or chakras) these energies are associated with in eastern philosophies:

Chi:
Seeds induced to germinate rapidly by mentally projected 'qi energy' are apparently genetically altered. - PubMed - NCBI
I believe this is just the abstract, you can find a more complete description here:
Seeds Induced to Germinate Rapidly by Mentally Projected `Qi Energy’ Are Apparently Genetically Altered - Healing Tao USA
And Prana:
Morphology of Cucumber Plants as Influenced by Pranic Agriculture

The next question was, how does this energy "become" nutrients. The revelations arrived on two fronts. Firstly we don't really need all the "nutrients" we are told we need. Inuit people have been living above the arctic circle on the ice in igloos for thousands of years and they mostly ever ate seal and a little fish. Fish takes a long time to catch and does not give a lot of meat. In any case they never consumed any fruits or vegetables in their entire lives. And they were and are among the healthiest people on the planet. Where did they get all their vitamins from? Live vitamin c? Wikipedia will try and convince you that they get it from the skin of beluga whale and it goes as far as calling it a staple, like every Eskimo family would kill whales all the time and eat it all year round, even though they had no clues about vitamins. Later when vegetarianism started becoming a new thing "scientists" were claiming that it is impossible because you need vitamins like B12 that you can only find in animal meat and therefore anyone that tries to become a vegetarian will inevitably die. Turns out, your own body can produce vitamin B12. So that's the first front. The second was that as I had been aware of one of the implications of E=mc2 being the transmutability of energy into matter and vice versa, I was still questioning myself: how does the body know what to do with the universal energy, Prana? I had to learn about the amazing innate intelligence of the human body. A whole new world opened up before me I had never been aware of, and had it not been for this journey I would still be oblivious of it. I learned a lot about quantum biology. I didn't know that was even a thing. That explained most of the mechanisms. I learned about cellular respiration. I was like WTF? Next I came across something that I had heard of somewhere before but thought was just a bunch of baloney. I am talking about the idea of human emotions affecting the crystal structure of water that it can then retain. The guy making that claim was Dr. Mararu Emoto. I never took any of that seriously until I was lead upon the following research:

Modulation of germination and growth of plants by meditation. - PubMed - NCBI

In this research paper on top of finding out about the reality of water retaining human emotions I had to learn about 2 additional things: firstly, the effects this water can have on living organisms, and secondly, the seemingly impossible (at least to me, at the time) powers of meditation. Jesus Christ, if meditation can do that in ANOTHER organism, no wonder it can have an even stronger effect in one's OWN BODY, which is made of 70% water, and the majority of these breatharians not only practise and talk about meditation as part of a spiritual lifestyle, I have also seen them "bless" the water they drink, which I obviously thought was pure codswallop. Well, that research paper opened my eyes about yet another thing (or should I say yet 3 more things) I did not think possible. So I had to wonder, how many more such things could there be waiting for me (and even humanity) to discover. At this point I tried to find a logical explanation, like they say you create your own reality and I literally think all these seeming miracles into being, or simply that the possibilities in the universe, regardless of what what we currently perceive as "all the laws in nature" allow, are in reality endless and anything is possible. I must admit I did not get far with such deep philosophical mind-games, it does not seem to be my thing. So I moved on in my research, to see what else I can find that relates to and possibly explains how a breatharian lifestyle is possible.

After I had blown my own mind with all this information about Chi, and meditation, and these influencing the germination of seeds and the growth of plants, and the magic of normal water, and quantum biology, I got interested in what else meditation can do, because this whole area was something I did not know anything about and I was wondering what I had been missing out on. Initially I found some interesting info about how it can lower blood pressure, and reduce pain, and such basic but still interesting things. But then things got wild and crazy. Again. First I read about how you can "body build" by replacing workout with "thinking about working out". While this was not meditation strictly speaking, it employed visualisation and mental concentration, techniques used by transcendental meditators. So that was pretty wild stuff. Here's the link for anyone interested:

From mental power to muscle power--gaining strength by using the mind. - PubMed - NCBI

And then came the turning point. I learned about Wim Hof, and how science found evidence for the first time that a human being can 1. control his own immune system, 2. control his own autonomic nervous system (body temperature, heart rate, etc.), his endocrine system, and then they went on about the limbic system and others I was not even sure what they were. And guess what methods he used to achieve all that. That's right, meditation, with a combination of yoga and cold showers and the right mindset. This was all back in 2011:

Research on 'Iceman' Wim Hof suggests it may be possible to influence autonomic nervous system and immune response

(youtube) watch?v=mxCGDFlH1_k

Then 3 years later they proved that this can be done by literally ANYONE. Now that was fucked up. There is no way out of this, no explaining away:

Modulating your own immune response

Without going into too much detail I just found out recently that they are now looking at how the human brain can do all that. Fascinating stuff to say the least, but this is all science now. You can research all this yourselves if you're interested:

Brain mechanisms that give The Iceman unusual resistance to cold: The findings suggest that his method could be relevant for management of some autoimmune and psychiatric disorders

(youtube) watch?v=YficBlvPwWQ

At this point I felt I had to put a stop to my research into the possible powers of the mind and meditation, I just felt overwhelmed and considered it a real possibility that I will end up in mental hospital or something as I felt the paradigm system I had lived in for a lifetime crumbling around me, or to be more precise, inside my head. I recall having that feeling that those lines I had heard in the matrix were actual reality in my life: where Morpheus tells Neo how he sees that he feels like Alice in Wonderland, tumbling down the rabbit hole. Except this wasn't a fucking movie. Yet I was determined to further investigate breatharianism itself as it was the original line of enquiry I had started out upon, so I simply abandoned this detour into meditation and returned to my research into breatharianism.

Right. So far I had learned how breatharians use chi, meditation, and charged water, and how these techniques can do their miracle which ultimately falls into the realm of quantum biology, which you must study to have some rudimentary understanding of the processes involved here. Okay, I had done all that. At that point I realised that as long as I keep looking I will just keep finding, which is fine up to a point, but ultimately the test of the pudding is in the eating. And although the Wim Hof method seemed like a more appealing "choice" for a new lifestyle if I were to adapt one, with all the scientific research behind it, I chose to remain faithful to my original choice. I had already become aware of Jasmuheen's so-called 21-day process. But I wanted to "know all there is to know" before I were to delve deep into an actual experiment. So I watched all the documentaries I could find:

No Way to Heaven (2008, Switzerland) - https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/54169/No-Way-To-Heaven
In the Beginning There Was Light (2010, Austria) - Watch the newly-released US version for 6 bucks on the official website
Living Off Energy We Are Energy (2015, Czech Republic) - https://www.cultureunplugged.com/do...e/play/54555/Living-off-Energy--We-are-Energy
The Light Generation (2018) - (youtube) watch?v=JxX9ODM49jM

Furthermore, a number of studies have been done numerous times by a number of breatharians, voluntarily, putting their own reputation on the line, with nothing to gain. The results of some of these studies have been published, others withheld, some have been made into documentaries. Just a few examples:

1965 - Angus Barbieri (Maryfield Hospital, Dundee, Scotland) (Technically not a breatharian, he "only" completed a 382-day fast under constant medical observation (meaning regular blood and urine tests which would have signalled instantly even the smallest amount of food consumption), with an average blood sugar concentration of 30 mg/dL (1.7 mmol/L) during the fast (compared to an average person's level of 80-140 mg/dL). He was able to go about his daily business and suffered no ill effects. Due to the well-documented nature of the "experiment" he was admitted into the Guinness Book of Records)

1998 - Jasmuheen (60 Minutes, Australia)
2003 - Jani yogi (Sterling Hospitals, Ahmedabad, India)
2004 - Michael Werner (Lindenhof Hospital, Bern, Switzerland) (results withheld)
2006 - Ram Bahadur Bomjon (Discovery Channel - The Boy with Divine Powers)
2007 - Michael Werner (University Clinic, Prague, Czech Republic) (results withheld, refused to comment)
2010 - Jani yogi (Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences of India)
2013 - Ray Maor (Israeli TV)

Most of these can be found on youtube. This is of course only a partial list of the more well-known studies - the point being that it is pointless to go out there to try and "prove" anything by undergoing more studies, the results of which may be withheld, distorted or simply explained away as being due to the tests not properly conducted after successful results.

I learned, among a lot of other interesting things, of the 8-day method, the 10-day method, basically I realised that whatever works for you. Anyway, I chose the 21-day method because its high reported success rate (I watched dozens of hour-long interviews with breatharians, I will not list them all here) and its more graduality.

Long story short, it did not work the first time (or at least it did not work for me, maybe wrong mindset, haven't figured it out) but second time I did a more stretched-out approach in phases of different diets, that I would approximate as vegetarian - vegan - raw vegan - fruitarian - juicing - waterian - solarian - pranarian - breatharian. Now that did the trick. It was a long process, and I had my doubts in spite of all my previous research, but I think it was ultimately this gradual approach that enabled my mind to let my body transition progressively.

While technically this marks the end of my breatharian story and it would seem that it should suffice to end the story here I must emphasise that drawing the line here would be equal to a lie, in that it would hide the truth. Everything I have written up to this point is the TECHNICAL side. It's like, follow this and this step and you get here and here. But the bigger question is this: WHERE IS HERE? That, my friends, is in itself FAR more amazing than a journey towards and including a transition to breatharianism. Again, I will be brief, so bear with me for a while longer, you'll see it's not only worth it, it's the whole point of, well, not only of this whole text, but the whole experience.

What I am talking about is the ramifications of a breatharian lifestyle, everything that is a result, either directly or indirectly of this lifestyle. I am trying to think of a format that would carry the immensity of the unfolding that follows the transition but I am left with no ideas. I will try some kind of logical sequence here I guess.

Okay. Got it. When you become breatharian there are 3 waves of ramifications.

The first: The obvious direct consequences: No more spending money on food. No more travelling to the shops. No more shopping lists, no more brainstorming of what to eat and where. No more cooking. No more washing dishes. No more need to store food, no more need to store bowls and dishes, plates and cutlery, or for that matter a dining table let alone a dining room. You have more money. You have more time. You have more space. You have more freedom. These are the obvious and immediate direct consequences.

The second: The slightly-less-obvious and slightly-less-direct consequences. No more hunger. No more upset stomach. No more indigestion. No more food-related diseases from pesticide, chemicals, GMO, E numbers, artificial additives, and so on. Basically better health. Which is further increased by consuming the afore-mentioned "blessed" water, meditation, chakra-cleansing, if you develop interest in all these and learn and practise, starting with my favourite, the Wim Hof method.

The third: All the indirect consequences. This is the biggest one, and NOTHING can prepare you for this, save reading it right here and right now. You don't find this in documentaries and you can't "work this out" in your mind in advance. And it beats everything in the previous two categories, simply because it is an endless unfolding of a NEW LIFE STORY. Let's stop for a second and sum up the previous steps.

Research. Find information. Gain knowledge. Horizons expanded. Mind blown. Personal experiment. Failure. Try again. Success. More money, time, space. Better health. Now let's see what can possibly beat all this.

Now that you have all this behind you, you are face-to-face with a new life. You can't deny it no more, you have put behind yourself an aspect of your previous life that could best be described as a limitation, or to quote The Matrix again, a prison for your mind. Something you have been depending upon, but have now gained freedom of. As an unavoidable side-effect of that will be a mind that has become free and opened up TO AN EXTENT and this mind will now look AND FIND ways of pushing this freedom beyond all limits. No, I'm not talking about, if I can live without food, can I live without drink (apparently we can) or breathing (let's not get into that conversation here). I am talking about deconstructing all the other limitations that living in a society has imposed on your mind. So now you have more money. Money is not part of nature, it is an artificial human construct. Now you have more left. How do you get rid of "the money trap" altogether? I instantly remembered the story of Mark Boyle who made headlines years ago by living without money in the UK. Now there is a new article out about him:

Living without money: what I learned

Except, for a breatharian, food is not an issue. While you can research ideas on how to save money, I will do a quick step-by-step that I worked out for myself. What to get rid of that costs money for all of us: food (sorted), housing (mortgage/rent), bills (gas, electricity, water, etc.). That idea got me interested in passive house design, living off the grid, minimalism, tiny houses, self sufficiency, all of which is much easier while being a breatharian because of more money you can save, more time, and less space needed in a house. My choice was to save money for a couple years and buy something like this:

(youtube) watch?v=fVw8RMuzFBc
Check out all the videos on that channel - you'll be amazed!

Stick a few solar panels on the roof. You have mobility. No more mortgage, no more rent. No more bills. (Electric heating, basically you don't need gas.) Most tiny houses collect rain water for drinking and cooking. Obviously at this stage you don't cook, and human beings have been drinking water from rain and streams for thousands of years before taps appeared a few decades / hundred years ago (depending where in the world you live).

What comes next is the biggest turning point yet. And this is where it gets dangerous. Not for your survival any more. For your mind. Didn't I just say this will free your mind? True, but you will have to face the devil before you become absolutely free of it. What do I mean? This is the most subtle point in the ENTIRE experience, one you can't really appreciate by reading about it even here. You have to ACTUALLY BE THERE. But let's try and entertain and savour in our imagination as best we can, futile as it may be. You have no more need for money. You have no more need for a job! You have complete physical freedom. You have your own house that moves, you have no bills, you need no food, you are free of money. You now face the biggest question of your life: What now? Now this question becomes really relevant: What do I want to do with my life? And this is no longer a career question. This is a question about who you truly are. What will you spend the rest of your life with? This is not like winning the lottery and you can just squander it all on women, booze, parties and drugs. You are a spiritually enlightened being. Otherwise you would not have made it this far, I guarantee you. Not because you must be special to make it. The above process transforms you, in the best ways possible. So what do you do? Who are you? What purpose will you choose? What will be worth your time, energy, effort, attention and devotion for the rest of your life? Travel? Maybe. Volunteering? Possibly. Help others? More likely. How? You'll have to figure that out. I am in no position to give you ideas, but you WILL be faced with this and you WILL have to figure this out for yourself, BY YOURSELF, and it WON'T be easy. But once you do, that's the first day of your real life. It's like a rebirth.

And to just finish off my own personal story, here are the latest developments in brief: I found a wonderful breatharian partner. We travelled a lot and met many other breatharians in workshops and we became close friends with some of them. We got really close with another couple and we all settled down together in an off-grid larger house. We do not live in "open" relationships and we don't cheat but we have our "couple" boundaries loosened up and form a small community of 4. We live near others similar to us who live off grid but are not breatharians, but more like minimalists, living simple eco-friendly lives. There is real community. There is security. We are all healthy. We are all free. As for the 4 of us, we need no jobs (but I personally volunteer in the Venus Project and occasionally in some charities, some local and some national.) We have all day every day free to choose what we want to do. We do not own or watch television or any other brainwashing machine that would aim to enslave our minds. We have free open minds, we have a lot of quality sex between us every day (girls are loving, uninhibited lovely humans with open minds), which gets better day by day, in every way (we sometimes experiment and push some remaining boundaries further and further bit by bit), the same as all other areas of our lives, we are all on a constant path of personal development undergirded by positive thinking and the utilisation of the powers of our mind, or more accurately, positive thinking, I would call it. We help each other become better persons.

At this point it is hard to imagine how our lives can become freer and better, but if anything we all have had our own journeys with their differences as their similarities, and we are all aware and open to the infinite possibilities of surprises, having learned the infinite nature of the mysteries of the universe. And although we have no idea where we go from here, we all know deep down that things can only get better, we are untouched by poverty, wars (we live far away from the nearest town in a war-free country), and not only that, we await with excitement to see how all of this can get even better and what our active roles will be in that. Every day feels like the journey has just begun and everything that has happened before just prepared us for today, and every "today" is a fecund gateway to the inconceivable magic of tomorrow.

 

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