AHMEDABAD: All that fuss about magician David Blaine caged in a glass booth for

44 days in London surviving only on water seems to have been over nothing.
Consider this: Prahlad Jani (76) popularly known as Mataji says he has not had a si
ngle drop of water for the past 65 years.
Neither has he put a morsel of food in his mouth. His body also does not perform
vital functions like passing urine and stool.
Jani, who lives in recluse in the caves at Ambaji, about 120 km north of here, c
laims that he was blessed by a Goddess when he was eight. So is he for real? And
how is this man alive? These are the questions perplexing the medical fraternit
y here.
The Association of Physicians of Ahmedabad, a body with over 400 members, in ass
ociation with Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Science (DIPAS), New De
lhi, has been examining Jani for the past 10 days in a specially prepared room a
t Sterling Hospital.
A panel of doctors including physicians, cardiologists, neurologists, a neurosurg
eon, a gastroenterologist, an endocrinologist, a diabetologist, a nephrologist,
a urosurgeon, an ENT surgeon, a psychiatrist, an opthalmologist, a genetic couns
ellor, a radiologist, sonologists and many more have examined him. In fact, near
ly 100 doctors of the association have examined Jani during these 10 days, said s
ecretary of the association, Dr Urman Dhruv. Surveillance cameras have been plac
ed in Jani s room.
We have also deputed a team of doctors and security personnel on round-the-clock
duty, said Dr VN Shah of Sterling Hospital.
Jani agreed to avoid bathing during the examination period but was given 100 ml
water to wash his mouth which was collected back and measured.
Jani has not passed urine since he was brought here on November 12. He has not ta
ken anything by mouth or by any other route not even water during this period. A
ll his parameters are within the normal physiological range. Initially, the proj
ect was to continue for seven days but his health allowed us to extend it, said D
hruv.
Tests have showed that Jani s body has shown evidence of formation of urine, which
seems to be reabsorbed from his bladder wall.
He underwent all possible medical investigations from checking blood pressure to
MRI of brain and gut, which were normal. Perhaps, he is more fit than other peop
le of his age. This is an attempt to understand a new dimension in medical scien
ce and help mankind, said Dr Sudhir Shah, a neurologist, who was a part of the te
am who examined a similar case of Hira Ratan Manek, a person who fasted for 411
days.
But this one is different. Not passing urine and stool is a very striking phenome
non. This is a one-of-a-kind case, he said.
At present, the committee does not have any scientific explanation for the pheno
menon. All we can say is that we are taking help of senior scientists.

People all around the world were storming supermarkets and grocery stores on Chr
istmas and New Year's Eve. There was a small group of people, though, who did no
t even think about eating anything for Christmas. In fact, they do not think abo
ut food at all. Such people call themselves autothrophs - they do not eat at all
. The term designates an organism that makes its own food. Autotrophs can go on
hunger strikes for years and even decades. ?
Irina Novozhilova, the president of the center for protection of animals' rights
, expressed her opinion about phenomenal individuals, who can live without food
and water.
"The idea to turn down food as it is appeared long ago. Russian philosophers, pa
rticularly Vernadsky, were thinking about a possibility for a human being to liv
e on something non-material. Vernadsky was certain that man is an energetic crea
ture that can nourish himself from the energy of space. Some people can prove it
today that it is possible to live a normal life without physical food.
"All living beings on our planet can be divided into two categories - autotrophs
and heterotrophs. The majority of plants constitute the first category - they r
eceive energy from non-organic substances - sunshine or air - and process it dur
ing the photosynthesis. Humans and animals make the second category: they nouris
h themselves with other living beings. Therefore, the people, who can live on th
e solar and space power, are closer to plants than to other humans. There is a g
roup of autotrophs in Moscow. They gather in the Konstantin Vasiliev Museum, whe
re they share experience with others. If a woman breastfeeds her child until it
turns seven years old, for example, a child will be able to become an autotroph
already by eight - simply and painlessly. A mother neither drinks nor eats, but
she has enough milk to feed the baby. There are such women in Moscow. I often in
teract with people, who reject food completely. At first they become vegans - th
ey exclude all products of animalistic origin from their menu in other words. Af
ter that they gradually turn down the vegetal food too. When people stop eating
physical food, they also stop consuming any kind of liquid. They drink nothing.
"I would not say that scanty nourishment exerts a negative influence on their st
ate of health. They are rather vigorous and cheerful people. However, I would li
ke to warn everyone that it is impossible to quit drinking water and eating food
in a moment. It should be done slowly, step by step, with short-term temporary
starvation. A lethal outcome would be inevitable otherwise. A person will be kil
led either with starvation or their own wastes. The 70-year-old Indian yogi Pral
ad Djani is one of the most renowned contemporary autotrophs. This man has not b
een eating or drinking anything for 62 years, since the age of six. Indian docto
rs examined and tested him: they placed the man in a special room, outfitted the
room with surveillance cameras and sealed the bathroom. As it turned out, Prala
d Djani's body was functioning absolutely normally. The body was producing urine
, although it was being absorbed into the urinary bladder. The yogi said that he
was receiving water from air. He also said that there was a tiny hole in the pa
late, from which drops of "heavenly" water penetrated into his mouth.
"Russia's most famous autotroph's name is Zinaida Baranova. The old lady from th
e city of Krasnodar is 67 years old. She was approaching her new existence very
slowly. At first she gave up meat, then she turned vegetables down. She has been
living without food and water for 4.5 years already. Scientists of the Bauman I
nstitute examined her organism and were very surprised to find out that the woma
n's biological age corresponded to 20 years. Professor Spiridonov came to conclu
sion that the pensioner was a perfectly healthy lady; all her systems and organs
, except for the stomach, were functioning normally. Indeed, she is a very energ
etic and bubbly person. She got rid of all diseases, even chronic ones. She said
, however, that it was rather hard for her to get used to the new lifestyle. She
was suffering from cramps, exhaustion, dry mouth, etc. There were moments, when
she thought she was dying. The woman's health improved in 1.5 months.
"Doctors say that autotrophs make a fundamentally new type of self-sufficient hu
man beings. It is not ruled out that they will replace us at a new evolution sta
ge. Modern science has already confirmed the ability of a human being to maintai
n itself. Dietitians were recently saying that the B12 vitamin was naturally con
tained only in animal foods. Vegans, therefore, were supposed to die, since they
could not receive the vitamin. However, doctors found out that the concentratio
n of the B12 vitamin was fine with vegans. The situation became clear, when scie
ntists discovered the synthesis process in the intestines. It became known that
human beings could live on their own microflora. Medics have already discovered
that the human intestines produce microorganisms that can synthesize amino acids
."