By Tim Binnall
An India yogi who found fame by way of his claims that he had lived nearly his entire life without consuming any food or water has reportedly passed away at the age of 90. The purported practitioner of what is known as breatharianism, Prahlad Jani insisted that he had been blessed by a goddess with the "elixir of life" when he was a child and this allowed him to derive sustenance from meditation alone. The mysterious nature of his alleged ability resulted in Jani garnering a small group of followers in India as well as considerable attention from the media and scientific community.
To that end, the breatharian participated in not one, but two studies in an attempt to discern if his skill was genuine and, if so, how the such a scenario might possibly be explained by science. A 2003 research project saw Jani survive for 10 days in a sealed room without any food or water. And, in 2010, the yogi participated in an even more extensive study, which can be seen detailed in the video below, wherein he was observed for two weeks by a team of medical doctors.
During that time, Jani did not consume any food nor water and medical tests indicated that he was perfectly fine for the duration of the study. "We still do not know how he survives," neurologist Sudhir Shah said at the time, "it is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is." The study was not without its critics as some skeptics have suggested that Jani could have secretly received food from his followers during brief moments when he was allowed to go outside unmonitored.
Be that as it may, puzzled scientists and doctors had hoped to conduct additional tests on the yogi's abilities for potential applications on the battlefield and in space travel, but those will not come to pass as Jani left this Earthly realm last week. While one might be tempted to make the unfortunate joke that perhaps the breatharian died of starvation, his neighbor indicated that, in fact, his passing was simply due to old age.