Chết do thử sống bằng... ánh sáng mặt trời
- Một người phụ nữ ở Thụy Sĩ đã phải
trả giá bằng tính mạng khi thực hiện những bài tập quái dị với niềm tin
có thể sống nhờ ánh sáng mặt trời mà hoàn toàn không cần đến thức ăn.
Mặc dù những
thông tin cụ thể về người phụ nữ chưa được tiết lộ một cách chính xác,
nhưng theo các trang báo đưa tin thì người phụ nữ nói trên là Anna Gut
(khoảng 50 tuổi) ở Thụy Sĩ. Được biết, lý do mà Anna quyết định thực
hiện những bài tập như thế vì cô đã tình cờ nghe nói đến khái niệm "sống
nhờ ánh sáng mặt trời" trong bộ phim tư liệu có tên “In the Beginning
There was Light”.
Bộ phim tư liệu nói về chân dung hai người đàn ông kỳ lạ là Michael Werner, 62 tuổi (người theo thuyết Nhân trí học) và ông Prahlad Jani, 83 tuổi ở Ấn Độ (tập Yoga để sống, không cần thức ăn). Hai người này đã tuyên bố họ có thể duy trì sự sống bằng việc tập luyện thần trí và sống chỉ nhờ vào không khí và ánh sáng, họ xem đó là yếu tố quan trọng hơn cả thức ăn và nước uống.
(Ảnh minh họa)
Ngoài việc muốn làm theo hai nhân vật kể trên, Anna còn bị ảnh hưởng bởi thuyết ‘breatharianism’ (Thuyết
Arius – được xem là một tà thuyết) sau khi đọc một cuốn sách được viết
bởi tác giả Ellen Greve (người Úc). Từ đó cô Anna bắt đầu thực hiện và
làm theo những chỉ dẫn như trong cuốn sách đã viết.
(Ảnh minh họa)
Những người theo thuyết ‘breatharianism’ lại không đồng ý với ý kiến
trên của bác sĩ. Họ cho rằng con người chết là do tập luyện cẩu thả
không đúng cách như những gì thuyết ‘breatharianism’ nói. Trong khi khoa
học đã chứng minh, rõ ràng cơ thể con người cần năng lượng từ thức ăn,
nước uống để duy trì sự sống, thì họ vẫn tin đó chưa phải là yếu tố tất
yếu cần cho sự sống.
Last updated at 00:17 28 June 2007
Michael Werner looks normal enough. He's six foot tall, grey and bespectacled, weighs in at 12-and-a-half stone and enjoys playing tennis, socialising and jogging - three brisk miles before breakfast with his wife Angelica, a nice fry-up for her and a quick coffee for him.
All very ordinary. It's just that Michael doesn't eat. At all.
In fact, the last item of food that passed his lips was a huge helping of potato salad and a slice of cake on New Year's Eve 2001.
Scroll down for more...
Michael Werner claims he gets all the sustenance he needs from
the sun
Extraordinarily, the 58-year-old doctor of chemistry and father
of three from Brunswick, northern Germany, claims he gets all the
sustenance he needs from the sun. Oh, and the occasional coffee,
fruit juice or a glass of wine if he and Angelica are enjoying a
night out.
"I call it light nutrition," he explains. "But one can also talk of ethereal, Prana, Chi or cosmic energy ... it's all the same thing."
It's also known as Breatharianism, or the belief that the elements contained in air - nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen and hydrogen - can sustain a body.
So far, so daft. But Dr Werner isn't your average nutter. He's a bright, well spoken scientist who was so surprised at the consequences of his bizarre diet - just four coffees and two fruit juices every day for six-and-a-half years, plus that occasional glass of wine - that he's written a book about it called Life From Light.
"I'm actually a really normal person," he insists. "Not a freak, or someone with some amazing phenomenon - just a Joe Normal."
It all started in 2000 when the Werners had a friend over for supper. "It was a stroke of providence," he says.
"One evening an old acquaintance of my wife came round for dinner. We noticed she'd become very thin, even a bit haggard, and ate nothing.
"But when we asked what was up - whether she had a problem - she told us that she'd wasn't eating any more. She claimed she didn't need to because she'd gone through a very special conversion programme and was now living from light nourishment alone."
While some people might have suggested she saw a psychiatrist, post haste, Michael - who was overweight (15 stone), unhappy and unhealthy with a passion for pizza and all things spiritual - was intrigued.
And, finally, after nine months of build-up and the New Year's Eve potato salad blow-out, he gave it a whirl - starting with a strict acclimatisation programme to help his body adapt.
"It takes three weeks," he says. "The first week is really strict - eat nothing, drink nothing.
"Every doctor will tell you this is not possible, but it is. It sounds hard, but living without water for seven days is very possible - it's all about being in the right frame of mind.
"The crucial factor in this 21-day process is self-belief. If you believe you can do this then you won't give in to the hunger.
"On the eighth day you can have some watered down fruit juice - to cleanse your body with the antioxidants.
"In the third week, you can move on to stronger, more concentrated juices. And in the last seven days, your body stabilises and gets used to its new regime."
But what about the grindingly awful hunger?
"You won't feel the burning hunger if your mental attitude is right," he says crisply. "This isn't about dieting, but respecting your body."
But he does admit to losing more than two stone and looking "like a dried out tortoise" at the end of the three-week period.
Of course, fasting isn't new. It dates back to Biblical times, was rigorously practised in Judaism and recommended by Jesus both by example and teaching - to strengthen the spiritual life by weakening the attractions of sensible pleasures. But for a matter of days and weeks - not years. To be frank, it's a miracle Dr Werner hasn't died.
Experts differ as to the absolute maximum time that human life can continue without water, but the broad consensus rests at somewhere between seven and ten days, though severe dehydration and confusion (due to the build-up of sodium and potassium in the brain) would set in sooner. In the desert, of course, lack of water can kill in a matter of hours.
So if Dr Werner is telling the truth, then his body really is extraordinary. And at six foot and 12-and-a-half stone, he's not even particularly skinny. And he claims to feel wonderful.
"I feel healthier and more vital than ever. My powers of resistance and regeneration are stronger. I'm hardly ever ill any more. Psychologically, I feel stable and mentally enriched, have much better concentration and memory than I used to and now only need five or six hours' sleep, rather than the eight or nine I used to."
And what of his libido - has it been diminished by a diet of coffee, juice and air?
"The opposite!" he trills. "Every perception - whether it is sight, skin or other sense organ - is more intense. My potency has become even stronger."
But isn't what he's doing a form of anorexia?
"Oh no! I don't eat out of a love for my body - not because I hate it. Anorexics generally have a negative rejection of their own body and food. I feel very good in my body, even feel more closely bound to my body than before.
"I've always had a very positive relationship with food. I enjoy being present at mealtimes and often think I even enjoy them better than if I were to eat!'
So what does he do at mealtimes?
"I take part in them, of course. I always drink something - sometimes water, sometimes tea, sometimes coffee, depending on the situation and my mood."
There are an estimated 5,000 Breatharianists/light nutritionists worldwide, of whom Werner
claims to know about 30. The movement has a chequered past.
In 1983 Wiley Brooks, the founder of the Breatharian Institute of America and who claimed not to have eaten for 19 years, caused outrage when he was allegedly caught ordering a chicken pie. And several female followers have died after fasting and falling into comas.
Australian Ellen "Jasmuheen" Greves was a leading proponent of the movement in the late Nineties - lecturing all over the world on the benefits of a diet of light, air and one packet of biscuits in 10 years.
However, scepticism crept in after reporters visiting her Brisbane home found it crammed with food - which she insisted belonged to her second husband, Jess Ferguson, a convicted fraudster.
And a British journalist accompanying her to her check-in desk at Heathrow was astonished when the BA clerk asked her to confirm that she'd ordered an in-flight vegetarian meal. "No, no," she replied. "Well, yes, OK, I did. But I won't be eating it."
And an attempt in 1999 to test her skill ended in near disaster. The controlled experiment, under tight security, ended after four days amid fears for her rapidly deteriorating health. She blamed the failure on the stressful circumstances under which the experiment was conducted, rather than lack of food and water.
But where Jasmuheen failed, Dr Werner claims to have proved his capabilities.
"I have taken part in two ten-day studies where everything was monitored - my blood pressure, urine, heart rate. Much of my energy comes from light and the atmosphere. I absorb energy from light - like plants - and this allows me to function fully.
"It serves as proof that I am doing what I say I am, but we still can't pinpoint how exactly. There are many questions that can't be answered yet."
Including a rather obvious one. How can he lead a healthy life on a diet of nothing when thousands of people starve to death every day? After all, there's plenty of light in Africa - couldn't all the hungry people there adopt his principals?
"Fundamentally, I am convinced it would be possible," he says. "The problem is they are convinced they will starve if they don't eat," he adds. "But I do not in any way believe that light nourishment is a method of solving the world hunger problem."
Certainly, other medical experiments have found no evidence that there is any way for starving individuals to be kept alive.
During the closing years of World War II, 36 men took part in an experiment at the University of Minnesota in which they were subjected to semi-starvation and lost a quarter of their body weight. They suffered a variety of symptoms including anaemia, fatigue, apathy, extreme weakness, irritability and mental problems.
Medical experts are unanimous in their disapproval and scepticism. Even if you survived the initial fasting period, existing on a diet of light, air and coffee for an extended period is likely to be fatal. Even Dr Werner says he would not recommend it to others.
But he says he suffers no ill-effects even six-and-a-half years into his experiment. Is there any food he misses? "Occasionally, I'll bite into some chocolate or a slice of pizza - just to annoy my three children. But the enjoyment of eating stops as it hits the back of my throat.
"But I still love being with food, to see and smell it, particularly fried, in a cafe - that is something very fine. Now and again I get an appetite - when I might eat a couple of grapes or a nut. But these days I can take it or leave it."
Not surprisingly, he comes under constant pressure to eat.
"Dealing with the practicalities of light nourishment is not simple. I am often asked when are you going to eat again? I can only answer, I don't know.
2I can only say I would be stupid to eat again, as I am doing really well. Better than ever before."
Well, perhaps. But we have only his word for it and if ever there was an experiment which should not be tried at home, this is it.
Bộ phim tư liệu nói về chân dung hai người đàn ông kỳ lạ là Michael Werner, 62 tuổi (người theo thuyết Nhân trí học) và ông Prahlad Jani, 83 tuổi ở Ấn Độ (tập Yoga để sống, không cần thức ăn). Hai người này đã tuyên bố họ có thể duy trì sự sống bằng việc tập luyện thần trí và sống chỉ nhờ vào không khí và ánh sáng, họ xem đó là yếu tố quan trọng hơn cả thức ăn và nước uống.
(Ảnh minh họa)
Trong chương đầu tiên của cuốn sách, Anna đã thực hiện các bước một
cách nghiêm khắc, không ăn không uống bất cứ thứ gì trong 1 tuần. Thậm
chí cô còn khạc nhổ nước bọt liên hồi. Hai tuần tiếp sau đó, cô vẫn chỉ
uống một ít nước mà hoàn toàn không ăn một chút thức ăn nào. Lúc này các
con của Anna cùng nhiều người khác rất lo lắng cho tình trạng sức khỏe
của cô.
Tuy nhiên, Anna vẫn an ủi mọi người rằng cô sẽ từ bỏ việc làm này
nếu như kết quả thử nghiệm không như ý muốn. Cho đến một ngày, mọi người
phát hiện Anna đã chết trong phòng của mình do nhịn đói.
Được biết, Anna không phải là người đầu tiên trên thế giới chết
do tập luyện theo thuyết này. Nhiều bác sĩ đã khuyến cáo rằng tập luyện
theo thuyết ‘breatharianism’ là tự tìm đến con đường chết. Theo Giáo sư
- bác sĩ Dee Dawson, chuyên gia về chứng rối loạn ăn uống nói: “Những
người này chắc hẳn đang gặp phải những vấn đề về tâm lý. Họ thừa biết rõ
là con người sẽ chết nếu không ăn uống, thế nhưng họ vẫn làm điều ngớ
ngẩn này”. (Ảnh minh họa)
Trên thế giới cũng đã ghi nhận một số ít trường hợp "lạ". Cách đây 2 năm, ông Prahlad Jani ở
Ấn Độ cũng được báo chí trên thế giới đưa tin là người đàn ông có thể
sống chỉ nhờ vào không khí và không cần thức ăn. Ông Prahlad Jani đã
sống cách ly với thức ăn dưới sự giám sát của các bác sĩ.
Ông Prahlad Jani
Ngoài ông Prahlad Jani, cụ bà Narasamma
(92 tuổi) ở Bangalore miền Nam Ấn Độ cũng được biết đến là người 78 năm
không “khát nước”. Cụ Narasamma có thể sống được mà không cần đến nước.
Michael Werner
Professor claims to survive on just sunshine and fruit juice
By JANE FRYERLast updated at 00:17 28 June 2007
Michael Werner looks normal enough. He's six foot tall, grey and bespectacled, weighs in at 12-and-a-half stone and enjoys playing tennis, socialising and jogging - three brisk miles before breakfast with his wife Angelica, a nice fry-up for her and a quick coffee for him.
All very ordinary. It's just that Michael doesn't eat. At all.
In fact, the last item of food that passed his lips was a huge helping of potato salad and a slice of cake on New Year's Eve 2001.
Scroll down for more...
Michael Werner claims he gets all the sustenance he needs from
the sun"I call it light nutrition," he explains. "But one can also talk of ethereal, Prana, Chi or cosmic energy ... it's all the same thing."
It's also known as Breatharianism, or the belief that the elements contained in air - nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen and hydrogen - can sustain a body.
So far, so daft. But Dr Werner isn't your average nutter. He's a bright, well spoken scientist who was so surprised at the consequences of his bizarre diet - just four coffees and two fruit juices every day for six-and-a-half years, plus that occasional glass of wine - that he's written a book about it called Life From Light.
"I'm actually a really normal person," he insists. "Not a freak, or someone with some amazing phenomenon - just a Joe Normal."
It all started in 2000 when the Werners had a friend over for supper. "It was a stroke of providence," he says.
"One evening an old acquaintance of my wife came round for dinner. We noticed she'd become very thin, even a bit haggard, and ate nothing.
"But when we asked what was up - whether she had a problem - she told us that she'd wasn't eating any more. She claimed she didn't need to because she'd gone through a very special conversion programme and was now living from light nourishment alone."
While some people might have suggested she saw a psychiatrist, post haste, Michael - who was overweight (15 stone), unhappy and unhealthy with a passion for pizza and all things spiritual - was intrigued.
And, finally, after nine months of build-up and the New Year's Eve potato salad blow-out, he gave it a whirl - starting with a strict acclimatisation programme to help his body adapt.
"It takes three weeks," he says. "The first week is really strict - eat nothing, drink nothing.
"Every doctor will tell you this is not possible, but it is. It sounds hard, but living without water for seven days is very possible - it's all about being in the right frame of mind.
"The crucial factor in this 21-day process is self-belief. If you believe you can do this then you won't give in to the hunger.
"On the eighth day you can have some watered down fruit juice - to cleanse your body with the antioxidants.
"In the third week, you can move on to stronger, more concentrated juices. And in the last seven days, your body stabilises and gets used to its new regime."
But what about the grindingly awful hunger?
"You won't feel the burning hunger if your mental attitude is right," he says crisply. "This isn't about dieting, but respecting your body."
But he does admit to losing more than two stone and looking "like a dried out tortoise" at the end of the three-week period.
Of course, fasting isn't new. It dates back to Biblical times, was rigorously practised in Judaism and recommended by Jesus both by example and teaching - to strengthen the spiritual life by weakening the attractions of sensible pleasures. But for a matter of days and weeks - not years. To be frank, it's a miracle Dr Werner hasn't died.
Experts differ as to the absolute maximum time that human life can continue without water, but the broad consensus rests at somewhere between seven and ten days, though severe dehydration and confusion (due to the build-up of sodium and potassium in the brain) would set in sooner. In the desert, of course, lack of water can kill in a matter of hours.
So if Dr Werner is telling the truth, then his body really is extraordinary. And at six foot and 12-and-a-half stone, he's not even particularly skinny. And he claims to feel wonderful.
"I feel healthier and more vital than ever. My powers of resistance and regeneration are stronger. I'm hardly ever ill any more. Psychologically, I feel stable and mentally enriched, have much better concentration and memory than I used to and now only need five or six hours' sleep, rather than the eight or nine I used to."
And what of his libido - has it been diminished by a diet of coffee, juice and air?
"The opposite!" he trills. "Every perception - whether it is sight, skin or other sense organ - is more intense. My potency has become even stronger."
But isn't what he's doing a form of anorexia?
"Oh no! I don't eat out of a love for my body - not because I hate it. Anorexics generally have a negative rejection of their own body and food. I feel very good in my body, even feel more closely bound to my body than before.
"I've always had a very positive relationship with food. I enjoy being present at mealtimes and often think I even enjoy them better than if I were to eat!'
So what does he do at mealtimes?
"I take part in them, of course. I always drink something - sometimes water, sometimes tea, sometimes coffee, depending on the situation and my mood."
There are an estimated 5,000 Breatharianists/light nutritionists worldwide, of whom Werner
claims to know about 30. The movement has a chequered past.
In 1983 Wiley Brooks, the founder of the Breatharian Institute of America and who claimed not to have eaten for 19 years, caused outrage when he was allegedly caught ordering a chicken pie. And several female followers have died after fasting and falling into comas.
Australian Ellen "Jasmuheen" Greves was a leading proponent of the movement in the late Nineties - lecturing all over the world on the benefits of a diet of light, air and one packet of biscuits in 10 years.
However, scepticism crept in after reporters visiting her Brisbane home found it crammed with food - which she insisted belonged to her second husband, Jess Ferguson, a convicted fraudster.
And a British journalist accompanying her to her check-in desk at Heathrow was astonished when the BA clerk asked her to confirm that she'd ordered an in-flight vegetarian meal. "No, no," she replied. "Well, yes, OK, I did. But I won't be eating it."
And an attempt in 1999 to test her skill ended in near disaster. The controlled experiment, under tight security, ended after four days amid fears for her rapidly deteriorating health. She blamed the failure on the stressful circumstances under which the experiment was conducted, rather than lack of food and water.
But where Jasmuheen failed, Dr Werner claims to have proved his capabilities.
"I have taken part in two ten-day studies where everything was monitored - my blood pressure, urine, heart rate. Much of my energy comes from light and the atmosphere. I absorb energy from light - like plants - and this allows me to function fully.
"It serves as proof that I am doing what I say I am, but we still can't pinpoint how exactly. There are many questions that can't be answered yet."
Including a rather obvious one. How can he lead a healthy life on a diet of nothing when thousands of people starve to death every day? After all, there's plenty of light in Africa - couldn't all the hungry people there adopt his principals?
"Fundamentally, I am convinced it would be possible," he says. "The problem is they are convinced they will starve if they don't eat," he adds. "But I do not in any way believe that light nourishment is a method of solving the world hunger problem."
Certainly, other medical experiments have found no evidence that there is any way for starving individuals to be kept alive.
During the closing years of World War II, 36 men took part in an experiment at the University of Minnesota in which they were subjected to semi-starvation and lost a quarter of their body weight. They suffered a variety of symptoms including anaemia, fatigue, apathy, extreme weakness, irritability and mental problems.
Medical experts are unanimous in their disapproval and scepticism. Even if you survived the initial fasting period, existing on a diet of light, air and coffee for an extended period is likely to be fatal. Even Dr Werner says he would not recommend it to others.
But he says he suffers no ill-effects even six-and-a-half years into his experiment. Is there any food he misses? "Occasionally, I'll bite into some chocolate or a slice of pizza - just to annoy my three children. But the enjoyment of eating stops as it hits the back of my throat.
"But I still love being with food, to see and smell it, particularly fried, in a cafe - that is something very fine. Now and again I get an appetite - when I might eat a couple of grapes or a nut. But these days I can take it or leave it."
Not surprisingly, he comes under constant pressure to eat.
"Dealing with the practicalities of light nourishment is not simple. I am often asked when are you going to eat again? I can only answer, I don't know.
2I can only say I would be stupid to eat again, as I am doing really well. Better than ever before."
Well, perhaps. But we have only his word for it and if ever there was an experiment which should not be tried at home, this is it.
No comments:
Post a Comment