Suspicion Regarding Prahlad Jani

You might remember the famous ascetic who went fifteen days without eating or drinking with no adverse health effects. The octogenarian from Gujarat makes the claim of not taking food or water since the age of eleven, 72 years. Jani appears in the documentary The Boy with Divine Powers about "Buddha Boy" Dharma Sanga (Palden Dorje), in which he is compared to the then explosively popular young Nepalese monk who had fasted for six months under a tree. Here is a clip from that program (runs 9:31):







He also appeared in a film In The Beginning there was Light about breatharianism, the supposed ability to subsist off of nothing but sunlight. One Swiss woman watched the film then starved herself to death in spite of the film's warnings not to give up eating. Here is a clip from that program (runs 8:30):







Well, here is a story from 2010 that I just discovered from ABC News. It comes with an accompanying video (runs 6:17):




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Now, the article does appear to be an assassination piece by skep-cock Sanal Edamaruku, head of the Indian Irrationalist Association. As I mentioned previously, the term "rationalist" means someone who believes true knowledge cannot
be attained through the senses, only through the rational mind. This is
in sharp contrast with people like Edamaruku who believes that the mind
doesn't exist, that everything is dead matter, and that knowledge can
only come from the senses. Fundamaterialist skep-dick debunkers like to
hijack the word "rationalist" and "rational" to mean its opposite, just
like they like to hijack the word "nothing" to mean "the quantum vacuum
that has existed forever into the past".



In the article lies are made about Sai Baba being "debunked" in youtube videos (the videos are of such poor quality that several professional magicians affirm it is impossible to draw any conclusions one way or the other). It also makes the totally bullshit assertion that belief in miracles is holding India back from "progress" (you know, "progressive"*, like a disease). "Progress" into what exactly I'm not sure. Red China under Mao's cultural revolution, the moral asshole of the universe that is Belgium where it is legal to murder ("euthanize") your children and parents when they become too much of a hassle for you, or maybe a Brave New World where everyone is drugged and brainwashed by the all powerful government? Because we all know that there has never been a single godless country that turned evil.



But I dye grass.



From the article: "On a tour of the "cave," as Jani called it -- actually a comfortable studio apartment -- "Nightline's" cameras caught sight of a working refrigerator. When asked about it, one of his minders immediately became defensive and said we could not look inside."



That is very suspicious. It is not proof of fraud, as the refrigerator could be there for any number of reasons (for the benefit of his handlers, who are mere mortals, who still need food or possibly medicine or insulin that requires refrigeration), but it is suspicious that a man who claims to have not eaten in seven decades has a refrigerator in his apartment. It's one piece of evidence against the two medical tests where Jani fasted for several days. Certainly I don't think it's possible to draw any conclusions. But it is interesting.











*You can't spell "progressive" without "SS"