Beyond Fasting: Can Humans Survive On Air & Breath? An Introduction To Biohacking The Body With Breatharianism By Pranic Breatharian Ray Maor.

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OK, OK…I realize that I completely punked, hoaxed, hoodwinked and, well, fooled you with my Kion giant horse pill joke last week, in which I presented an awkwardly difficult-to-swallow “Horse Pill” packed with every health-boosting compound known to humankind. I claimed this single pill complete with every nutrient known to humankind – so complete that you don’t even need to eat real food when consuming the pill. Instead, you can prepare to achieve all of your fasting, wellness, strength, shredding, bulking, mind, body and spiritual goals with the host of ingredients that include…

…Organic Turmeric, Vitamin D (3000IU), Vitamin A, Vitamin K-2, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Zinc, Magnesium, Melatonin, CBD, THC, Cardarine GW 501516, Ostarine, Cordyceps, Reishi, ALA, Phytoplankton, Psilocybin, Valine, Leucine, Iso-Leucine, Phenylalanine, CLA, Omega-3 Krill Oil, Borage Seed Oil, ECGC, Rhodiola, Chlorella, Spirulina, Colostrum, Anti-Gluten Aliens, Lectin-Digesting Helminthic Parasites, Magical Structured Water, Unicorn Tears & Ben Greenfield’s Fermented Sweat, BPC-157, TB-500, Amniotic Fluid, Umbilical Stem Cells, Platypus Brown Adipose Tissue, Oxytocin, Canola Oil (Soaked/Sprouted).

What can I say? It was an April Fool's joke. Sheesh.

But what you are about to read is not a joke.

See, I've been fascinated with this concept of “breatharianism.” My friend Chris Stoikos told me about “medical dry fasting”, and claimed that it may be possible for a person to live without consuming food. After talking with Chris, I skimmed through a few books on breatharianism and realized it's actually a relatively hot topic amongst the (prepare for extreme stereotyping) the skinny-yogi-pushing-giant-shopping-carts-full-of-kale-through-Whole-Foods-crowd. Breatharians claim that food, and in some cases water, are not necessary for survival and that humans can be sustained solely by prana, the vital life force. Some of these folks go on to claim that sunlight is one of the main sources of prana, and that it is possible for a person to survive on sunlight alone (which may have some shreds of truth to it, based on research done on “plant blood” and sunlight you can read about here).

So when I was introduced to a living, breathing (obviously) breatharian named Ray Maor, I immediately became intrigued. Ray just wrote a book called “A Year Without Food“, in which he details how he volunteered to be tested in a television medical experiment done on an investigative reporting show. During the show, he went eight days without food or water and was blood and medically tested daily to “prove” that as a breatharian, his blood work would not change and his physical state would not be altered.

Here's more of Ray:

Interesting guy, huh?

Anyways, after Ray was introduced to me, I asked him if he could share a few of his personal thoughts with my audience, and he agreed. So without further ado, I present to you an article custom-tailored for you and me by Pranic breatharian Ray Maor.


How Breatharianism Works

The next leap in human evolution has been around for decades.

In the current era of rapid spiritual and consciousness expansion, one of the recurrent topics of study is the human energy body and its true potential. One of the ways in which I am called to provide a contribution to this greater expansion is by supporting the shift of our physical bodies to a higher vibration with the elimination or significant reduction of the need for physical nutrition.

As I am a guide to this lifestyle also called “Pranic Living” or “Breatharianism”, I would like to provide the reader with both my personal experience and the scientific knowledge that supports my students in their Pranic initiations.

To explain it shortly – “living on Prana” (or Chi or Universal Energy) means that a person teaches his or her body to take energy from other means than food or water to such a degree that the definitions of all current scientific knowledge doesn't support it. In other words – according to science, this is impossible and the person should have already starved or at least display symptoms of starvation or dehydration – and yet these people flourish, prosper and show out of the ordinary abilities when tested scientifically.

First – let us put aside a lot of misconceptions about this lifestyle.

The first misconception is that breatharians don't eat or drink.

From my own experience, those that live in the West and have a “standard” Western lifestyle don't usually take their Pranic living experience to its extreme – unlike many documented practitioners in the East. This is mostly a matter of personal choice and responds to a need to still coexist within family and work environments and be socially accepted. Most of all, maintaining some form of nourishment will convey a message that the average western individual will be able to at least take into consideration, if not to fully accept.

You have probably heard that the only proven scientific for longevity is to engage in caloric restriction. This goes to prove the connection between food quantities and health. In addition, when thinking about “nourishment” most will think it is only about food. However, a body can live without food for several weeks (or several hundred days) but without water only a few days and without air just a few minutes. So what nourishes us more? Seems like air [=breath] does the trick, huh?

The western Breatharian is likely to enjoy the benefits of the lifestyle combined with having a normal job, personal and social relationships, and a series of additional interests in life. For example, when I started my Pranic living path, well over five years ago, I went without eating for a whole year. I was just drinking tea, water and juice and went down from an intake of about 3,000 calories a day, to around 400 in those days in which I wasn't fasting.

Think about it this way…

…our body is really created from 70% water, which for me will be around 50 liters or 13 gallons of water – why would the body dehydrate and die within 4 days without water? The rate at which the body will lose liquids is about 1.2 liters a day. Which is ~2% of the body weight. Does this make sense for a very efficient well-adjusted machine that has taken hundreds of thousands of years to develop and upgrade its mechanisms?

The answer is simply NO. The body of a Pranic living person remembers its ancient mechanisms and uses the reserved water to extend the life of the organism. Not to mention its ability to make its systems more efficient when it notices that water or external nourishment is provided.

So the question that comes to mind is – why doesn't this work for everyone else?

And the answer is – we haven't been using this mechanism for a long time. In the last 200 years, we overrode it with stress, bad nourishment, pollution and many other things that are new to it.

Another point that science supports is that once any animal on the planet gets sick the first thing it wants to do is go into a fast and stop eating for a while.  This allows the body to regenerate and shift resources from the heavy digestion system to different healing mechanisms. In the human being, which is a far more complex being, for the better or worse, this system is overridden by a belief that the sick body will require external energy in the form of nourishment to assist in the healing process. This is why everyone says “you have to eat if you want to get better” and then you get your grandma pushing chicken soup down your throat. This goes against the body's natural responses and this is why most people will not have any appetite when they are sick.

Another idea to ponder is energetic and emotional nourishment. Can you remember times in your life that you were so much living in the present moment that you “forgot” to eat? Think about times that you were in love, working on a project that you really enjoy, being a little kid that is playing out all day or any other circumstances that brought you to a “higher vibration”. Those are times that you were energetically nourished. This is not different than being in a meditative state. Enjoying life is another method of nourishing the body. It is less familiar than food. Other external sources of nourishment can be breathing correctly, spending time outdoors, yoga, sexual energy and many others.

Pranic living has taken many criticisms as well, especially because of the “black or white” phenomenon, specifically people claiming that they don't need to eat or drink. This is feasible, but this is not what I teach as to reach that level one needs to be without any stress and go through a longer and more difficult process. There have been several documented experiments on Pranic living people – some have failed and some have succeeded. In the year 2013, I volunteered to go on TV for eight consecutive days without food or water. I had blood tests taken daily and had two medical doctors overseeing the experiment.

In this experiment, I received a sum of one hundred thousand dollars to prove that science doesn't know everything. For those intrigued – the entire experiment can be watched online at my website. My point in volunteering was to prove that after biohacking my body with breatharianism I have shifted my primary nourishment engine to an energetic one that I can access at any time and this allows me to be free of many new dependencies, sleep less, be disease free and receive many gifts that don't have to do with the physical body but more on the spiritual and personal development levels. This means that I still eat or drink, but require it at levels that are ridiculous compared to what I needed before (plus the annoying sensation of hunger completely disappeared).

Even though I was tested on multiple machines in the hospital during the experiment, the doctors could not come up with any well-formed explanation that relies on up to date scientific research explaining why I didn't dehydrate or suffer any expected symptoms.  There were, however, several off the shelf alternative explanations that arose that you can review my writings and videos here.

The ability to become a person that lives of the energy of Prana is defined by multiple personal variables such as: spiritual awareness, vibrational frequency, body shape, metabolism, intention, genetics and DNA variables, and many other factors. The way I think about it is that the Pranic living process can be envisaged and separated into three distinct phases.


The Three Phases Of Breatharianism

The first phase is the initiation, which has the objective of opening of the Pranic centers. The duration and complexity of this process has evolved over time, but at present, the initiation itself is taught by a few different guides around the world. These guides have taken upon themselves the task of transmitting this more “advanced” spiritual awakening knowledge to those that have the true intention of making the best of it for their own personal and spiritual growth and for the assistance of Gaia's ascension. The various current forms of initiation differ usually in duration and content, but most will last between one to three weeks. Alone or in a group, having a more difficult system or a more subtle one.

In the initiation phase the body of the participants goes through a complete reset, including a deep body detox. As this is a mind body spirit retreat, the change occurs on multiple levels. The initiation process is split into practices of balancing of the four bodies: physical, emotional, spiritual and mental. A minimum of three days of dry fasting is required for the physical body to reset itself. The mental body (logic) will be aware of what is happening to it and start to alter its belief system more profoundly towards the inner knowing that it doesn't require food to survive and can be open to chi nourishment. The spiritual body is always there with full intent for maturity and growth supporting guidance.

Over time we have come to appreciate that the spiritual body is stronger in groups and we have witnessed that when groups come together with a common intention, this helps virtually everyone to cope with the stress/fears of the initiation (three day long dry fast) and results in a relative ease for everyone to achieve full compliance. The last of the bodies is the emotional body. During the initiation and as a result of dry fasting, the deep water that holds on to trauma and unresolved emotions in our bodies is eliminated, which equates to powerful physical and emotional cleansing. This is further supported by the fact that participants go through a series of karmic cleansing exercises with the instructor.

The second phase is the so-called “adaptation period”. Usually the first few months right after the initiation. The initiation would change the person's vibration bringing him or her closer to their higher self. This is a blissful state but can also carry lots of resistance to change and failure to readapt into one's previous lives. At this phase the need for physical nutrition is almost completely gone and most of the difficulties are from social and personal (emotional) reasons. This phase can also bring weight loss or weight gain until stabilization. Those that make it through this phase have allowed their body and mind to complete the transition and go onto phase 3.

The final third phase is “living this way”. The body has found its perfect ideal weight and the person begins enjoying the multiple advantages of this lifestyle: savings in terms of time and money, better sleep, reduced Inflammation, boundless energy levels, mood improvement, faster recovery, toxin-free lifestyle, higher alignment with one's true potential, reduction in illness incidents, and more.


My Final Thoughts On Breatharianism

As individuals, we are all different and we must appreciate that everyone's journey is unique. My experience with teaching the Pranic living process is that most participants will become closer to their true self. This can also mean that there are certain things in their lives that they must change in order to continually be in the present moment and follow their own path of least resistance.

For example, a person that comes back from a Breatharian initiation might suddenly become aware of a need to change one's profession or relationship, which – for different reasons – had been suppressed over time. The new awareness gained with the rising of the individual's vibration will empower the person to deal with necessary life changes.

After undergoing the Pranic process, the new, transformed self will meet the old self and deal with memories of food and any other addiction. This will mean recognizing them for what they truly are – an emotional issue that requires attention and needs to be addressed with self-love.

That is the true beauty of this lifestyle. It is a gift that keeps on giving. After five years of full engagement into Pranic living, I still marvel at the profound ways in which the higher vibration I have attained has been changing me.  I came into it because of a need to know more, learn more and to expand my own consciousness as a researcher.

It was my logic that was looking to break scientific paradigms and my spiritual ego that wanted to be “special” when I took this journey. Yet, I came out the other end transformed: having more connection with my feminine side, more connection to nature, to my guiding spirit and with a strong will to serve humanity by serving others, teaching and supporting their unique forms of advancement in their lives.


Summary

Wow. Ben Greenfield here again. So there you have it.

The carnivore diet this is not.

So what do you think?

Have you tried breatharianism?

Do you have skeptic thoughts about this concept?

I'd love to hear your feedback. Pipe in below and either Ray or I will reply! In the meantime, you can click here read Ray's book “A Year Without Food“…

…and you can also check out this intriguing documentary Ray recommended to me entitled “The Light Generation“, in which a group of Americans do a breatharian-esque transformation process together in Seattle. Enjoy, and in the meantime, I'm off to grill a ribeye.

Ask Ben a Podcast Question

17 thoughts on “Beyond Fasting: Can Humans Survive On Air & Breath? An Introduction To Biohacking The Body With Breatharianism By Pranic Breatharian Ray Maor.

  1. John Smith Jr says:

    Oh my goodness. You are so educated! You’ve clearly done lots of study in the philosophy of science and pseudoscience! This is so encouraging that even if modern medicine cannot keep up with this amazing ancient practice, there are some people who know the truth! It is ridiculous that people would need water and food to live. It’s not like biology shows we need those fuels to survive! the energy from the universe provides everything we need, and I’m so glad people are starting to realise this!

  2. JM says:

    You are so full of shit. You are a modern day snake oil salesmen.

    1. Tiffany says:

      No, it is real. You don’t have to pay and go to the retreat. Just stop eating for 5 days.

  3. Caleb says:

    If one considers the life cycle of planets like this one, along with the evolution of her land-based organisms- from cells, to plants, to mammals- then it correlates that respiration for life energy would be the most fundamental form of sustenance, followed by water and food. Life is pretty damn clever, and it doesn’t surprise even my emperical side, that it probably evolved to utilize the most abundant form of energy: the air/light all around us. Also, considering the historically recent introduction of agriculture, the resulting abundance of food, and the indoctrination of the belief that corporate-produced foodstuff is an absolute necessity (it certainly is for their profit margin growth), it would make sense that those ancient biological circuits take a bit of priming to turn back on. So it’s awesome to see that people like Ray have discovered and elaborated a method for turning it back on. Perhaps the resistance to, even the possibility, of this idea comes from the deep psychological dependencies and cultural associations of emotions with food. Intriguing to consider the implications if the civilizational scales are someday tipped to this form of self reliance and harmony. Thanks Ray and Ben for the awesome share!

  4. Watching those videos I couldn’t help but lol at some points and some of these individuals and how they’re willing to go so far to prove a point maybe not to the world, but to themselves. I love discomfort and I believe you need it to appreciate things in life so I couldn’t agree more with fasting, etc and I definitely agree less is more in far as consumption goes as we age especially, but man some of these people just do not seem very healthy by my standards as an extreme athlete, take it with a grain of salt as this is all just my opinion on the topic, but I couldn’t imagine doing some of these enduring activities I participate in without more fuel than just your breathe and oxygen. That being said I did take a lot from Ray and his videos without attending his 10 day course, which I don’t think is quite necessary if your just trying to focus and be more conscious of your breathe work. Like he said, breathe comes first, then water, then food.

    Either way if you believe in his philosophy or not, Ray is a powerful dude for sharing his practice with the public, putting himself out there, knowing that he would face scrutiny on the subject matter and then going down the proper channels to document his discoveries with scientific data is one legit thing you can’t knock him on. Snake oil has no scientific evidence that it works, at least with this method you see the testaments online from others that have practiced and succeeded in doing the same as Ray even if I don’t quite necessarily agree with all he says or practice it myself, if it works for you then really that’s all that matters.

    Stay curious and persistent, Cheers!

    1. BTW you killed the JRE show. It was super awesome of you to open up to his demographic as now I’m a huge fan and stoked to be apart of this tribe!

  5. Marc says:

    Ben, I really appreciate your willingness to sincerely look at anything that comes in front of you. This pranic living is the future of human evolution unquestionably. Thank you so much for sharing it. Truly this is just the tip of the iceberg for human evolution. I really appreciate your incredible work ethic and output. Keep up the good work but don’t burn out. I love your company and your podcasts.

  6. Chad Mikkelsen says:

    So are you basically admitting everything you promote is bullshit?

  7. SS says:

    Would love to hear a podcast on this! 😊👍 the fundamental underpinnings of this/CR are very interesting.

  8. John Smith says:

    “However, a body can live without food for several weeks (or several hundred days) but without water only a few days and without air just a few minutes. So what nourishes us more? Seems like air [=breath] does the trick, huh?”

    Either that or our bodies simply have more effective mechanisms for storing energy than oxygen. It has nothing to do with what nourishes us more. Air, food and water meet different needs and if you go too long without any of them you die. What the amount of time it takes us to die without air, food or water does suggest is that we evolved in an environment where air was plentiful while food and water weren’t always immediately available.

    The other thing that argument suggests is that breatharianism leads to faulty thinking – possibly due to impaired brain activity from a lack of glucose. :P

    1. Stefan says:

      That’s not nice, John — since you’re a reader of Ben Greenfield, surely you know that the ketones and autophagy involved in this type of acute fasting might actually improve brain function (with the right metabolic machinery).

  9. Zach says:

    I’ve lost a lot of respect for Ben Greebfield with this article. Should not be giving this type of snake oil salesman the time of day.

    1. John Smith says:

      Yeah…me too. Anyone who promotes dangerous woo like this immediately takes a huge hit to their credibility as far as I’m concerned.

  10. Lisa says:

    I enjoyed reading this article. I am on day 38 of a juice fast as well as including 16-24 hour dry fasts each day. Definitely dealing with the emotional addictions to food. I have not been physically hungry at all. In fact, I have continued doing crossfit 3-4 times a week along with working and doing life. I am building up to the 3 day dry fast. Would love to attend one of Ray’ s retreats in the future. Thanks for sharing this article. Look forward to more.

  11. Jill says:

    I’ve been a huge Ben Greenfield fan for years and went through Ray’s “10-Day Process” for breatharian initiation in 2017. It was awesome!! A breatharian I am not, but I consume a fraction of the food I used to, need way less sleep, and generally feel less dependent on anything external for energy. And I’m not a skinny-kale-filled-shopping-cart-pusher! Definitely check him out, he’s the real deal.

  12. Marty says:

    Thank you for posting this article!! Very well explained, helpful, and hopeful. Especially the piece about the emotional body and the deep water that holds on to trauma and unresolved emotions.

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