In the beginning there was light

Movie
Original title	In the beginning there was light
Country of production	Austria
original language	German
Publishing year	2010
length	95 minutes
Age rating	FSK 0 ; JMK 0
Rod
Director	Peter-Arthur Straubinger
script	Peter-Arthur Straubinger
production	Helmut Grasser , ; Allegro Film
music	Michael Hudecek
camera	Dani Purer , ; Birgit Gudjonsdottir , ; Peter-Arthur Straubinger
cut	Michael Hudecek
occupation
	Dieter Hochegger; Wolfgang Marktl; Anton Luger; Ingrid Kiefer; Ruediger Dahlke; Jasmuheen; Walter "Omsa" Rohrmoser; Michael Werner; Mataji Prahlad Jani; Sudhir Shah; VN Shah; Urmann Ohruv; Sanjay Metha; Ratan Manek; Yuan Linin; You Xuande; TCM Qi Duan Li; Gernot Pauser; Zinaida Baranova; Gerhard Hacker; Fritz-Albert Popp; Dean Radin; Brian D. Josephson; Amit Goswani; Rupert Sheldrake; Jakob Boesch; Robert Jahn;

In the beginning was the light is a controversial documentary by the Austrian director Peter-Arthur Straubinger on the subject of light nutrition . Straubinger visits several people who say they only eat light and looks for possible explanations as to whether and how light food could work.

In the film, the protagonists claim that it is possible to feed on “ subtle energy ”. Scientifically unrecognized hypotheses are presented that are supposed to explain the alleged phenomenon “light nutrition”. The film also deals with topics such as quantum physics and consciousness and questions the classically materialistic worldview.

With over 101,000 admissions, the film was the most successful documentary of 2010 in Austria and the most successful Austrian cinema production in 2010.

action

Straubinger states that he first encountered the subject of "light food" in a television documentary about Niklaus von Flüe . But only later, when he meets a meditation teacher who claims to be feeding on “light food”, does Straubinger begin to do further research. At first he did research on the Internet, but soon the desire arose in him to personally get to know more people who claim to live only from light. As a result, Straubinger travels through different countries and interviews people who say they eat light food (light, life energy, Prana or Qì ), among them Jasmuheen , Michael Werner and the Indian yogi “Mataji” Prahlad Jani .

Straubinger also questions different people from esotericism, medicine and science and subsequently looks for explanatory models of how light nutrition could work. His position is that of a benevolent questioner who shows that for him the materialistic worldview of modern science falls short.

The last part of the film deals with quantum physics, consciousness and telekinesis , among other things .

backgrounds

Lack of food

A healthy adult who only abstains from solid food while fasting for a few days would not suffer any damage to health. During normal fasting, fruit juices with a high sugar content and therefore a high physiological calorific value are often drunk. Survival with water alone is only possible for a few weeks. In 2003 the American action and magician David Blaine spent 44 days in a glass cube and only consumed water. He lost about 25 kg in this hunger experiment and then had to be taken to the hospital. If you completely avoid solid and liquid food, the risk of fatal dehydration increases from the third day onwards . How many days you can survive completely without water also depends on the basal metabolic rate and the ambient temperature. Coma patients who were interrupted their food intake (eating and drinking) usually survived between 10 and 14 days.

There is no evidence that a person can survive permanently without any food. The claim of people that they can go without food permanently contradicts scientific knowledge. Possible explanations are deliberate deception or error (overestimation of the amount of food energy necessary for survival , incorrect assessment of the amount of food actually consumed, neglect of the energy supplied in liquids, unconscious food intake, for example when sleepwalking).

In 2008 a scientific study on the subject of light nutrition was published. The Swiss Michael Werner was examined by the University of Bern for ten days. Werner's claim to have fed on light food during the study period was considered to be refuted by the executive bodies of the study, since, according to their investigations and analyzes, Werner concluded that there was a normal fasting process during the study period.

Niklaus von Flüe

In the film, Straubinger refers to Niklaus von Flüe , a Swiss hermit who lived in the 15th century and, according to legend, was said to have not fed on material food (with the exception of water and a total of 233 wafers) for about 19 years. According to the sources, Niklaus von Flüe himself neither denied nor confirmed this when asked whether he had actually not consumed anything (further).

PA Straubinger

P. A. Straubinger accepts the negative award “Das Goldene Brett ” 2011 for his film In the Beginning the Light was received personally.

Straubinger works as a film critic for the Austrian radio station Ö3 . According to his own statements, he dealt with the subject of light nutrition for ten years. This resulted in the film that took five years to produce and is Straubinger's first full-length feature film.

According to Straubinger, he is convinced of an “authentic phenomenon of non-caloric nutrition” that occurs to a certain extent in every person. He sees himself confirmed in scientific studies that have found a delta of “non-measurable energy” between the calories consumed and the energy consumed in the human energy balance. To what degree and for how long this “non-caloric nutrition” or light nutrition works, Straubinger considers an open question. In any case, Straubinger warned several times against carrying out the so-called light nutrition process, and also mentioned in several interviews and the website for the film that it is not his concern to propagate the topic of light nutrition.

He advocates that the subject should be scientifically researched more intensively, and sees in the investigations and studies carried out so far on light nutrition at least indications for the possibility that survival without conventional food intake is possible.

Reception and impact

media

The film received different ratings in the media. Cinema.de sees an “enlightening documentary that questions our materialistic worldview”, the Kleine Zeitung sees a “ gripping documentary by film critic PA Straubinger, which takes a closer look at the phenomenon of light food .” The standard , on the other hand, describes the film as a “predicate anti-scientific : PA Straubinger's documentary about the pseudo-phenomenon of light nutrition ”. The world notes: "If gurus are allowed to sell their doctrine of total renunciation as facts without headwind, then it becomes dangerous."

The film was also the subject of the ZDF program Johannes B. Kerner and the ORF program Konkret: Das Servicemagazin , in which the film and the topic of light food were controversially discussed.

On March 6, 2013, the film was broadcast in the main evening program of ORF Eins and triggered a wave of protests on Twitter. Following the film, the subject of light nutrition was controversially discussed under the direction of Christoph Feurstein . Participants in the discussion were the director PA Straubinger, the critic and skeptic Ulrich Berger , the esoteric and fasting expert Ruediger Dahlke and Ulrike Schiesser, psychologist and expert on esotericism in the Federal Office for Sect Issues. The ORF general director Alexander Wrabetz distanced himself from the film and described it as “nonsense in terms of content”.

Content criticism

Critics of the film complain that the reporting method is manipulative, in particular through one-sided interviewing of proponents of light nutrition and the attempt to use pseudoscientists and erroneous theses about quantum physics to make the topic seem scientific.

Concrete points of criticism of the film are, above all, the failure to address facts that speak against light food, such as the possibility of feeding on liquid food, for example fruit juices, for a long period of time. Furthermore, the failed test by Jasmuheen and deficiencies in the study design, publication and general circumstances in the review by Prahlad Jani - in particular the incomplete presentation, which does not take into account that some of Jani's blood values have changed significantly during the duration of the study, which proves an adaptation to hunger and the beginning of dehydration ; also that according to the study protocol he was allowed to bathe in water from the 8th day and that no natural explanations were considered for the documented fluctuations in the amount of urine in his bladder. Furthermore, the film does not mention that the study was not scientifically published and that obvious measurement parameters such as weight history are not given.

Ulrich Berger , chairman of the Vienna regional group of the GWUP , assessed the study on Jani as dubious and derived from the data published in the investigation report that there must have been a decrease in body weight of four kilograms, which is ten for the yogi who weighs around forty kilograms Percent of his body weight. The yogi, like the alleged light eaters Jasmuheen, Hira Ratan Manek and Michael Werner, lost weight under controlled conditions, which speaks against the reality of the light food phenomenon. In addition, as the first author of the study, Shah was a doctor, but not a scientist, and was subject to a conflict of interest.

It is also criticized that the supposed experts who propose explanations in the film are mostly representatives of para- scientific ideas, have no scientific reputation and no understanding of the fundamentals of quantum theory. Scientific perspectives are largely absent in the film. Some of the hypotheses mentioned in the film are considered refuted. The Austrian experimental physicist Werner Gruber said of the film: “As soon as you ask more questions and take a closer look at the studies that have been made, the cases turn out to be fraudulent. The film is a masterpiece of manipulation. "

The clinical psychologist Beate Wimmer-Puchinger rated the film topic in relation to people with eating disorders as "extremely problematic and dangerous". On the occasion of the film's release, the government agency MIVILUDES in France warned against extreme fasting methods that go back to Ellen Greve, alias Jasmuheen. This sectarian movement could lead to psychological dependence and pose a serious threat to health. Several deaths in the world are already due to this practice.

In the press material a statement by the quantum physicist David Z. Albert was used from a completely different context and with a completely different reference, so that the false impression arose that Albert considered claims about “light food” to be interesting or even true. The quote was later removed from the movie's homepage.

Straubinger's reaction to criticism

PA Straubinger disagreed with the assessment that the film was manipulative and uncritical, and repeatedly referred to the first third of the film, in which he not only saw a warning, but also a very opposite point of view. Nevertheless, the aim of the documentary is to openly question the possibility of feeding light and thus to leave the decision to the viewer.

Straubinger stated that the film was not an invitation to try out light food and warns the curious about trying on themselves.

He also stated that quantum physics was not presented as a possible explanatory model for the phenomenon of light nutrition in the film.

Straubinger sees the seriousness of the Jani study as given, as the doctors were monitored by independent control bodies of the Medical Association of Ahmedabad and the DIPAS (research department of the Indian Ministry of Defense). He also refers to statements by Shah, according to which the yogi has lost weight, but is said to have gained weight in between. Straubinger sees the real sensation in the Jani examination in the fact that urine has formed in the bladder, but has also disappeared again, although Jani did not urinate according to the study protocol.

Award

Rating: Particularly valuable from the Austrian Film Evaluation Commission

The golden board in front of the head of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences

Austrian Ticket 2010 from the Austrian Chamber of Commerce

consequences

The Tages-Anzeiger reported on the case of a Swiss woman who, after watching the film, decided to feed on light and as a result died of starvation. In a letter from the responsible public prosecutor to him published by Straubinger, however, it is confirmed that there was no investigation into whether the woman actually saw the film. The relatives had pointed out that the woman had lived according to the "light feeding method". An “adequate causality” between the film and the death of the woman could be ruled out “under criminal law”. In November 2017, the 22-year-old German Finn Bogumil died on the Caribbean island of Dominica . The man was fascinated by the concept of light nutrition, and he was also familiar with the film In the Beginning was Light . According to an agent for the ambassador and some witnesses, the cause of death was apparently his fasting.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Release certificate for In the beginning was light . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2010 (PDF; test number: 125 016 K).
↑ Age rating for In the beginning was light . Youth Media Commission .
↑ APA press release of March 6, 2013
↑ ^a ^b Description of the film from the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture (Youth Commission) ( Memento from October 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed on August 13, 2012.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ScienceBlogs: Review by Ulrich Berger , September 20, 2010.
↑ ^a ^b In the case of Faith versus Science , The Gap
↑ Attendance numbers of the films funded by the Austrian Film Institute since 1981, starting with the theatrical releases in 1982 ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
↑ Documentary about "light food" sparked protests on Twitter , Kleine Zeitung March 7, 2013
↑ Getting full without eating Film review Kino Zeit
↑ M. Korbonits, D. Blaine, M. Elia, J. Powell-Tuck: Refeeding David Blaine . Studies after a 44-day fast, In: N. Engl. J. Med. 353/21 (2005), pp. 2306-2307, doi: 10.1056 / NEJM200511243532124 ; PMID 16306536 . Performance: Blaine after a starvation marathon in the hospital. In: stern.de. October 20, 2003, accessed March 1, 2019 . stern.de, October 20, 2003.
^ Alan D. Lieberson: How long can a person survive without food? , Scientific America November 8, 2004.
↑ See Berit Uhlmann: Darben without scars? They were well suffered during Lent: legends of ascetics who live only on air and faith. But how long can a person actually go hungry? sueddeutsche.de of February 4, 2008.
↑ P. Heusser, U. Wolf, HM Vonwiller, N. Messerli, K. Laederach-Hofmann: Nutrition with 'light and water'? In strict isolation for 10 days without food - a critical case study. In: Researching complementary medicine (2006). Volume 15, Number 4, August 2008, pp. 203-209, doi: 10.1159 / 000148650 , PMID 18787329 .
↑ See e.g. B. Ernst Ludwig Rochholz : The Swiss legend from brother Klaus von Flüe based on its historical sources and political consequences , Aarau 1875, p. 69ff.

^ Cf. Robert Durrer : Brother Klaus . The oldest sources about the blessed Nikolaus von Flüe, his life and influence, 2 volumes, Sarnen 1917–1921 (reprint 1981), Vol. I, p. 64 (to Hans von Waldheim ): "God knows" and I, 347 ( to Trithemius ): "Ego nunquam dixi, nec dico me nihil comedere" and I, 512 ( Koelhoffische Chronik ): "[...] whether he received and eat bodily food, to which he replied: it were im allit zoweder".

^ Vita Straubinger on the homepage of the radio station Ö3 ( Memento from July 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

↑ http://pastraubinger.com/light/

↑ http://www.lightdocumentary.com/the-calorie-myth.html

↑ http://www.lightdocumentary.com/scientific-proof.html

↑ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v242/n5397/abs/242418a0.html

↑ ^a ^b Replica of the TOP 10 allegations against the film ( Memento from November 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

↑ In the beginning there was light - About this film on cinema.de

↑ Story In the beginning there was light in the Kleine Zeitung ( Memento from October 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d As valuable as a little fake , Der Standard, Klaus Taschwer, September 22, 2010

↑ "In the beginning was the light" advises not to eat anything , October 28, 2010.

^ ZDF broadcast: Johannes B Kerner: A life only from light? from January 20, 2011 ( clip of the broadcast )

↑ ^a ^b ORF broadcast Konkret from September 24, 2010