apcampbell

A BBC news correspondent writes (link via Blogdex):

Doctors and experts are baffled by an Indian hermit who claims not to have eaten or drunk anything for several decades - but is still in perfect health.  

I am happy that Western medicine is starting to take notice of the power of prana, ki, chi, or lifeforce.  Our digestive system has evolved to extract it from food and water to sustain the body until it finally succumbs to decay.  However, prana is all around: in the air, in the sunlight, etc.  The 4000+ year-old science of yoga teaches us how to gather and retain prana from the air and sunlight via the breath in combination with specific physical and mental exercises.   The ability to live without food or water is one of the siddhis, or yogic powers, that arise with consistent and successful practice.  Although not the ultimate purpose of yoga, they are more like by-products of the practice.   This is recorded in the yoga sutras of Patanjali (the classical text of yoga philosophy), written more than 2200 years ago.  It is also discussed in the Hathapradipika, another classical yoga text from around 1500 A.D.   It’s nothing new and the man discussed in the article is not the only person living like this in India.  There are others.  I read where NASA is studying a man who lives off of sunlight and liquids.

Now….*why* anyone would choose to live that way is the real mystery.  I like food!

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