Suggest A Challenge: Living Without Food

[GranCanaria]

Hi Steve,

You know how much we loved reading about your challenges and checking on your progress. Health and food seems to play a big role in those challenges.

I was shocked to find out today that there are actually people who go without food for long periods, thanks to meditation and lots of self-love. All they need is sunlight, lots of water and sea salt. Apparently this guy has been going without food for 4 years now. It's called breatharianism or inedia.

Wouldn't this be a great personal challenge for you, Steve?

I'm no expert on this and I invite other forum readers to share what they might know about this so as to give you a headstart.

GranCanaria

[24evita]

This sounds like a great idea and yes I too have heard about the ones who live with no food simply by sun gazing.

However, I am not sure how Steve could pull this one off as it requires almost a seclusion from everyday life...parenting, speaking engagements, and much more.

It is a great challenge, but a tough one nonetheless (I guess that is why they call it a challenge)

[StacyT]

Are there benefits to living without food?

[GranCanaria]

Originally Posted by StacyT

Are there benefits to living without food?

Good question. I guess the only benefit is you'll realise your body doesn't need any food at all, whether meats or greens, cooked or raw.

[emialcashdotcom]

That would be quite a challenge, i could probably go a week without food, but living with no food? Is that honestly possible... ? :S

[MasterD]

Come on people.

We live in a physical reality.

If you find someone living on sunlight, water and seasalt and you hang out with that person for a few weeks, let us know.

[-B-]

Well, unfortunately, in all recorded instances (that is, not 'self reported'), the most common result is death. And if you are seriously considering something like this, I'd strongly advise you to look at your own self and life, and talk to friends, because you may be harboring suidicial feelings or tendancies you weren't aware of.

[The David]

It's a great idea. . .provided you don't actually do it.

[Still Growing]

Fasting for a day or even several days is very healthy. Anything more than that is damaging to the body. Your body will start to consume itself breaking down muscles and burning that.

You can live for 3 or 4 weeks quite easily without food. I know someone very well who went 21 days without eating. He said that after a week or so he no longer felt hungry.

By fasting your body will clear out toxics.

But remember, anything more than 4 days is really a detriment to your body.

[pavs]

Why would anyone with a right mind do such thing? Not to mention this is not even physially possible. What basic physical laws applies to you also apply to every human being in this world.

What he is doing is nothing more than what illusionists does for living. Read magic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28illusion%29

[Still Growing]

Pavs,

Are you meaning 21 days is impossible? Humans can easily live for two months without food as long as they have water and some fat reserves.

Its not good for you and can do perminent damage. It doesn't mean that it will do perminent damage but that it could. Studies show that fast 2 or 3 days is actually very healthy and your body will expel bad chemicals that are being stored up in your tissues and so forth. Many religions have fasting and it makes one wonder if it didn't start as a health thing and then morph into a spiritual practice....

On a different point, most over weight people who wish to loose weight simply don't have discipline.

In our modern culture if someone misses a meal all hell breaks loose. Its hilarious.

[pavs]

Originally Posted by Still Growing

Pavs,

Are you meaning 21 days is impossible?

Yes this is impossible (without doing serious-permanent harm to yourself). But I was specifically referring to this:

Apparently this guy has been going without food for 4 years now. It's called breatharianism or inedia.

Scams are obvious on the eyes of people who do not believe in pseudo-science.

Can you stay without food for couple of days? Yes maybe you can, but not without doing some serious physical harm to your body in the process. Of course that is if you are trying to prove a point.

The magic word here is moderation, not to go to either extreme of food consumption.

[PurePhoenix]

I'm actually struggling with this now. To clarify, struggling to AVOID it.
I like my food and i enjoy eating. Yet i am simply not hungry.

The cause of this appears to be a big increase in my spiritual flow over the last 5 years, along with a strengthened link between body and soul.

It's definately possible to go without food in totality for over a week, but i wouldn't recommend it. I feel agitated, edgy, extremely high strung, i need copious amounts of energy raising done to sustain myself, it's basically more effort than it's worth. It's something you'd realistically only do if you REAAAALLLLYYY needed the money or you just wanted the "Wank Factor" of being able to go without food. It solves no practical purpose.

Well trust me, between the feelings of hunger, insomnia, mood changes and etc it's not worth it -.-;;

For anyone wondering, i've been seeing a doctor for the previous 2 years. I even recently had a blood test and the results indicated i'm perfectly healthy. Not lacking in a single vitamin, mineral or sustainance. That is how the technique works, it doesn't make you "Able" to go without these things, it replaces them and re-stocks your supply of them.

According to my diet, i should be dead by now, litterally. Even a strong / lucky person would at least be malnutritioned considering i've been on the same diet for the last 5 years.

[Still Growing]

Originally Posted by pavs

Yes this is impossible (without doing serious-permanent harm to yourself). But I was specifically referring to this:

Impossible?
Not in my personal experience.

Recommended?
Definitely not.

[Brutha]

It's called breatharianism or inedia.

Wouldn't this be a great personal challenge for you, Steve?

Steve wrote a couple of times before about breatharianism.
site - Google-Suche

[Sam988]

This is a scam, of course. I hope no one tries this..

There's a clear line between an open mind and an empty mind. An open mind considers all possibilities but never abandons critical reasoning, while the empty mind is prone to blindly accept all sorts of frauds and scams because it has lost common sense.

Unfortunately, these sorts of scams flourish because there are far too many people out there with empty minds.

[Juki Schor]

I heard about this during a phase where I lived on complete raw food for about 1,5 years. Among raw fooder it is quite common that the intake of food is reduced over time, so some of them eat only every second day or so. On the other side, I got really skinny, which was nice, for a change, but my breasts got skinny, too, so my husband wasn't very happy.

I never felt as light and happy as during these times, but I was also lucky to live in an area where I had like minded people and didn't have to do heavy physical work. And I think one cannot just stop eating from now to the next day. It is a huge transition where the body has to slowly dispose of all the "garbage" in the cells through continuous raw food (renovating takes energy!) and then it seems to happen over time that eating becomes less and less because the body becomes more effective. A lot of digesting work with normal food is actually "composting" or "depositing" non-digestible components of civilized food, according to the raw fooder's philosophy.

One thing is for sure, you need a lot of sun, clear water and it is hard to stand cold weather, so most of these guys move to Asia or other warm areas where you get tropical fruit easily. Scandinavia in the winter, where I live now, is not the best place for that and I am back to rye bread and hot stews (and somewhat larger pant sizes also).
When I look at it today I would ask myself: why do I want to become a tree (or a solar energy plant)? They also live on light and water and don't really move a lot. May be when I get old and death comes closer, makes it easier on those who carry the coffin

[Dreamline]

You wouldn't be referring to that famous breatharian that lives completely on air*


(*except for that really big cup of yak's milk he drinks everyday?)


Sometimes it's not what they tell you that is significant, it's what they leave out....

We evolved a complex digestive tract for a reason. We are not amoebas.

Life is full of exciting and fulfilling promise. It makes me wonder how bored people must be to entertain concepts of this nature. I can find you something to do, if you fit that description.

Jennifer

[Dharma]

Originally Posted by GranCanaria

I'm no expert on this and I invite other forum readers to share what they might know about this so as to give you a headstart.

GranCanaria

As above, so below.

The human body and all of it's functions are reflections of yourself in the moment. So what is eating to you? Nourishment? Fuel? Health? Energy? Nurturance?

See in the mirror (the physical experience), that we are getting these things from outside of ourselves, when we actually already are these things. Hmmm, me thinks there might be a split there that could use some pondering.

If one could truly be the creator of these things within self (nourishment, energy, health, and nurturance) would eating still be necessary for survival?

[Dreamline]

Jesus was allegedly one of the most advanced of avatars and even he ate.

Jennifer

[YourHumbleNarrator]

Originally Posted by Dreamline

Jesus was allegedly one of the most advanced of avatars and even he ate.

Jennifer

But did he have to or was it by choice? We'll never know; he never said and it was never recorded. It would be utterly insignificant. If he could have gone without food he probably didn't because it would be unsettling to those around him. He was odd enough as it is. If he were less relatable from a human perspective it would've watered down his message.

With that bit of conjecture aside, I'll move onto more conjecture. I don't take sungazing seriously because many of its proponents present it as a spiritually and morally superior alternative to eating. It doesn't make any bloody sense. Our natural drives are to be embraced, not suppressed and ignored. No "spiritual" philosophy that embraces that kind of nonsense is worth a damn. Maybe it's possible to live without food, and maybe it does lead to a fuller spiritual life for some, but if somebody is going to claim the moral highground because of it I'm gonna call bs. It sounds cultish to me.

[MidasGirl]

Originally Posted by Dreamline

Life is full of exciting and fulfilling promise. It makes me wonder how bored people must be to entertain concepts of this nature. I can find you something to do, if you fit that description.

Jennifer

True, they can come clean my house and that will still leave them quite a few hours in the day to eat air and meditate.

[garentee]

With me it would not be a good idea... eating can be a religious experience if you are near me......I am a farmer and a recovering chef.... food is everything... some days I have 6 meals(mostly in the summer time when I cannot possibly eat enough to make me full)

[Manomanman]

New Age cultists clogging up the forum with their mental refuse. Their minds need to fast so they won't be spewing so much diarrhea around here.

[Annya]

I read that person's entire bio and there is nothing to suggest that he did not eat apart from a few instaces where "witnesses" saw him not eating and then there are gaps of months where he "just disappeared", its all so suspicious and unnecessary. Also I recall from a course I took in Buddhism that the Bodhisatva, after starving and depriving himself of food and nearly dying, he reconsidered his path and condoned a path of moderation and balance.

But apart from all that, there are so many things wrong with the notion just...no.

[alainplus]

This isn't congruent with the vision of abudance and quality. It's like people who say money doesn't matter. Of course it does. If you have enough of it, you can focus on other things beyond acquiring money. The same thing with food. If you deprive yourself of food, you'll never grow and move on to other projects.

This really is insulting I think to a lot of the starving people in all parts of the world, and it really does show a lack of respect to general physiology and science. Your body is composed of what you take in. Food is essentially medicine if you're eating the right kind.

But hey, I could be wrong. Maybe people can dodge bullets with enough belief.