UPDATE: Holy Man's Two Weeks Without Food, Water
Monday, May 10, 2010
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AFP
Prahlad Jani, 83, says he has not had a bite to eat for 70 years.
An Indian holy man has amazed a team of doctors by not eating or drinking anything for two weeks.
Prahlad Jani, 83, who says he has not had a bite to eat for 70 years, was put under constant surveillance to test his astonishing claims by a team of 30 military medical staff.
During a 15 day stay in a hospital in the city of Ahmedabad, India — he astounded doctors by not eating, drinking or going to the bathroom.
"We still do not know how he survives,” neurologist Sudhir Shah said at the end of the experiment. "It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is."
The yogi was sealed in a ward for the study initiated by India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
The DRDO hopes that findings from the experiments could help soldiers survive without food and drink, assist astronauts or even save the lives of people trapped in natural disasters.
Jani returned to his village near Ambaji in northern Gujarat after leaving the hospital, where he will resume his routine of yoga and meditation.
He says he was blessed by a goddess at a young age, which gave him special powers.
During the observation, which ended last Thursday, the doctors took scans of Jani's organs, brain and blood vessels, and conducted tests on his heart, lungs and memory capacity.
"If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one,” Shah said. "As medical practitioners, we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories."
