Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Mark
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Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Mark »

'Starving yogi' astounds Indian scientists

Indian holy man Prahlad Jani speaks at a press conference at a hospital in Ahmedbad on May 6. Jani, who says he has spent seven decades without food or water, has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period. AFP - An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period.

Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television.

During the period, he neither ate nor drank and did not go to the toilet.

"We still do not know how he survives," neurologist Sudhir Shah told reporters after the end of the experiment. "It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is."

The long-haired and bearded yogi was sealed in a hospital in the city of Ahmedabad in a study initiated by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the state defence and military research institute.

The DRDO hopes that the findings, set to be released in greater detail in several months, could help soldiers survive without food and drink, assist astronauts or even save the lives of people trapped in natural disasters.

"(Jani's) only contact with any kind of fluid was during gargling and bathing periodically during the period," G. Ilavazahagan, director of India's Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), said in a statement.

Jani has since returned to his village near Ambaji in northern Gujarat where he will resume his routine of yoga and meditation. He says that he was blessed by a goddess at a young age, which gave him special powers.

During the 15-day observation, which ended on Thursday, the doctors took scans of Jani's organs, brain, and blood vessels, as well as doing tests on his heart, lungs and memory capacity.

"The reports were all in the pre-determined safety range through the observation period," Shah told reporters at a press conference last week.

Other results from DNA analysis, molecular biological studies and tests on his hormones, enzymes, energy metabolism and genes will take months to come through.

"If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one," said Shah.

"As medical practitioners we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories."
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Mikey »

"There are more things in heaven and earth..." Anyway, astounding and extraordinary =/= supernatural.
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by stitch626 »

"If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one," said Shah.
So he's the male version of Poison Ivy?
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Foxbat »

Maybe he's connected in some way with the other Forum story about the 16 yr old 'baby'.
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Lighthawk »

I'd be interested in seeing the details of the observations.
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Vic »

Yogis have been doing things that have scientists scratching their heads for a long time.
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Sionnach Glic »

I call bullshit. Stick him in an enclosed room where he's monitored 24/7 and denied food and water for a week and then I'll start believing it.
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Nickswitz »

Sionnach Glic wrote:I call bullshit. Stick him in an enclosed room where he's monitored 24/7 and denied food and water for a week and then I'll start believing it.
Yeah, I was going to saw that, I'm not going to just take someones word for it.
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Sionnach Glic »

Jesus, I can't believe I missed this bit.
"(Jani's) only contact with any kind of fluid was during gargling and bathing periodically during the period," G. Ilavazahagan, director of India's Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), said in a statement.
He was allowed gargle water. Because surely he couldn't possibly just swallow some of it while doing so, right? :lol:
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Mikey »

Sionnach Glic wrote:I call bullshit. Stick him in an enclosed room where he's monitored 24/7 and denied food and water for a week and then I'll start believing it.
the article wrote:Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television.

During the period, he neither ate nor drank and did not go to the toilet.
Yeah, too bad they didn't think like you, SG. :P
Sionnach Glic wrote:He was allowed gargle water. Because surely he couldn't possibly just swallow some of it while doing so, right?
Is that amount of water really so much over a two-week period? Come on, you don't have to admit to the supernatural or paranormal to accept that what this guy did was pretty astounding. We've all heard about people who can lift a car or somesuch through adrenaline response in extremis, and we've all heard for years about amazing things like this that yogis have done. Is it so far-fetched to think that people like this - monastic, hermetic ascetics, no less - could develop these feats of somatic control consciously?
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by shran »

Would this solve famine problems if we found what makes him tick? Or at least help them on the way there?
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Tsukiyumi »

shran wrote:Would this solve famine problems if we found what makes him tick? Or at least help them on the way there?
Not if his secret is mental discipline.







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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Monroe »

Yeah I doubt this is something you could train to the masses... or even to us.
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Tyyr »

Test him by sticking him in a box with a dehumidifier for a week.
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Re: Figure this one out, oh ye skeptics

Post by Captain Seafort »

Mikey wrote:Is that amount of water really so much over a two-week period?
It depends how often he was doing it. Half a pint a day would be enough to sustain him, which I doubt would be difficult to sustain if he was also drinking the bathwater.
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