Yogi sans food gives medical fraternity food for thought

By Priya Adhyaru Majithia, Ahmedabad, Agency: DNA

The realms of faith and spirituality begin where science ends - at least that's what they say. However, today's medical experts want to turn this cliché upside down, it seems.


A team of 30 experts are to conduct a series of rigorous medical tests at Sterling Hospital to unearth the truth about the biological trans-formation that Prahlad Jani, a yogi claiming to have survived without food and water for the last 70 years, has undergone due to a spiritual experience.


Jani, who had been put under a similar 10-day medical 'trial' in 2003, has willingly accepted to co-operate again, for a 15-day analysis. A series of physical study tests, MRIs, EEG, ECG, aura study, blood studies and neuro-physiological studies will be conducted during these analyses. Dr. Sudhir Shah, an eminent neurologist, scientists from Defense Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS) and physician and diabetologist Dr. Urman Dhruv, are conducting this observational study in collaboration with Sristi and government of Gujarat.


Dr. Shah, who heads the team of 25 doctors from Sterling Hospital, said, "In 2003, we had authenticated Jani's claims and had also observed that his biological parameters mysteriously remained normal. This time, we have planned to go beyond a mere rectification. A detailed research which includes a strict protocol of various tests is to be conducted within 15 days to understand if there is a specific biological transformation that has occurred within Jani's system due to prolonged fasting."


According to Shah, for the past 108 hours Jani has neither passed urine nor stool, nor has he consumed water or food. "And still, at the age of 83, he is active enough to use the staircase," added Shah, who said that this itself is a unique phenomenon which does not have any medical explanation.


Dr G Ilavazahagan, director, DIPAS, said, "The exercise of taking this yogi under a medical scanner is to understand which energy supports his existence, if not food or water. And if at the end of three months by which we plan to come out with observations based on this 15-day check up, we are able to reach to an explanation of this hypothesis - it would tremendously benefit mankind. The observations derived from this case study can help many soldiers, victims of calamities and astronauts - who often have to survive without food or water for long spells."


The analysis of Jani's biological transformation can bridge the divide between science, biology and spirituality, say experts. Dr. Urman Dhruv, a physician, said, "We are collecting data on a person who has lived on an alternative pathway compared to an ordinary person. The comparative study of his reports of the tests conducted in 2003 and results of the recent and on-going tests would throw light on the process of aging in Jani's body - which seems to have undergone some type of genetic transformation."


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'Starving Yogi' Astounds Indian scientists

by Rajesh Joshi, May 10, 2010

Indian holy man Prahlad Jani speaks at a press conference at a hospital in Ahmedabad on 6ht of May 2010. Jani, who says he has spent 70 years without food or water, has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period.


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 Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), the state defense 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 Defense 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. As medical practitioners we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories." said Shah.

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