Prahlad Jani
Prahlad "Mataji" Jani ( Jay Ambe Prahaladbhai Maganlal Jani, Chunriwala Mataji , * 13. August 1929 in Charada, India ; † 26. May 2020 ) was an Indian ascetic who claimed for no more than 70 years food and no drinking water to to have taken. Critics thought he was a charlatan .
Life
Prahlad Jani was born in Charada village near Ahmedabad . The family was poor, the father worked as a cook. He attended Gujarati School for three years.
Jani is said to have left his home at the age of 11 to live in the jungle and became a follower of the Hindu goddess Durga . He is convinced that the goddess is providing him with an invisible "nectar" so that he does not have to eat or drink. Jani is said to have lived as a hermit for a long time. Believers regularly made pilgrimages to Jani to be blessed.
According to statements from representatives of the Gujarat Mumbai Rationalist Association, there are allegedly eyewitnesses who had caught him drinking in the past.
He achieved international fame through reports in the media about his alleged lack of food and the examinations in an Indian hospital in 2003 and 2010. Prahlad Jani was also one of the protagonists of the Austrian film In the Beginning was the Light , a documentary on the subject of light food .
Investigations
Prahlad Jani was observed and examined for several days in an Indian hospital in 2003 and 2010. Both examinations took place in the "Sterling Hospital" in the west Indian city of Ahmedabad . Researchers who were skeptical about the phenomenon were not allowed to take part in the experiments. According to the doctors, Jani did not eat, drink or urinate during the study period. However, when examined in 2003, a weight loss was found. Concrete results of the 2010 study were not published.
The test results are not scientifically recognized. Neither the study from 2003 nor from 2010 was scientifically published, there is only incomplete information on private websites on the Internet. The research could neither confirm nor disprove Prahlad Jani's claim that he had lived without food and water for many years.
The Indian doctor Sudhir Vadilal Shah , who was involved in both investigations, interpreted the investigations as a confirmation of his private outsider hypothesis that humans are principally capable of autotrophy (actually photoautotrophy) and that, like a plant, can generate energy from sunlight. However, a hypothetical photoautotrophy in humans would not explain where vital vitamins, minerals, carbon or essential fats could come from.
Investigation 2003
During the investigation in 2003, Jani shouldn't eat or drink anything for 10 days according to the test criteria. During the examination, Jani was allowed to rinse her mouth with water, gargle and bathe in water after the 7th day. Jani lost 10% of his body weight during the examination. The concentration of urea in the blood of Janis, who was not supposed to urinate according to the conditions, rose until the day he was bathing in a tub of water. An ultrasound scan had previously found urine in his bladder that had later disappeared. In Jani's blood, an increased number of ketones was also detected in the blood, which signals a state of fasting - the energy was covered by the consumption of one's own body reserves.
Although the official investigation period was from November 13th to November 22nd, no blood values were published for the last day. As early as November 21, the day after Jani took a bath, no results are available for a large part of the blood values. The period of time for which Jani was in the hospital and for which measurements are available is therefore shortened from 10 days to 7 days. Only two values were published for the amount of uric acid in the blood: a value two days before the examination and the value for the fifth day of the examination. The value has more than doubled during this time, a sign of progressive dehydration. The exact course of the weight loss was also not published.
The investigation report concludes that Janis values were normal apart from slight fluctuations in kidney values.
Critics point out that a number of blood values have changed significantly and that there are no measurements, and they rate the study as dubious and unscientific.
Investigation 2010
Jani was examined from April 22 to May 6 and, according to the test criteria, should not eat or drink anything for 15 days. There are no concrete results.
criticism
Australian nutritionist Professor Peter Clifton explained in the Sydney Morning Herald that food and waterlessness can be survived for days, but not years. He considers Prahlad Jani's claims to be “not real”. There is a minimal energy consumption that cannot be undercut. In the case of a “shut down metabolism” (Clifton probably means hunger adaptation and mechanisms for water retention here), the end point would be foodlessness at 100–120 days and waterlessness at 24 days. How long a person can survive without food depends on the amount of body fat. The ability to bathe, Clifton considers cheating (cheating) . An opportunity to bathe should have been prevented in advance.
The Australian spokeswoman for Nutrition Australia, Aloysa Hourigan, and the nutrition expert Anne McMahon from the University of Wollongong also consider Jani's alleged continuous fasting to be untrustworthy.
The two studies were criticized by the Indian Rationalist Association as unscientific because it had not been sufficiently ensured that Jani did not have secret access to water and food. No independent experts were involved in the investigations. An official video shows that during the 2010 investigation, Jani had the opportunity to leave the monitored room. He is also said to have had contact with several followers during the investigation. When rinsing her mouth and bathing, it should not have been sufficiently ensured that Jani had not consumed any water. The Medical Council of India criticized the entire process of the investigation as inadequate.
According to statements by representatives of the "Gujarat Mumbai Rationalist Association", there are allegedly eyewitnesses who have caught him drinking in the past.
In India itself, the "Medical Council of India" (MCI), which is responsible for approving medical training institutions and those working in the health sector, is said to have described the 2010 study as a hoax . The investigation was "wrong". It is also impossible that a person can survive for years without water and food.
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/mystic-who-claimed-to-have-survived-without-food-water-for-76-years-dies-in-gujarat-2235337
- ↑ spiegel.de: 70 years without food - Doctors tackle alleged miracle yogi
- ↑ angelfire.com: Sri Mataji Prahlad Jani
- ↑ Der Spiegel: Master of Nothing , Issue 39/2010
- ↑ MailOnline: The man who says he hasn't eaten or drunk for 70 years: Why are eminent doctors taking him seriously ?, May 8, 2010
- ↑ Der Spiegel: Master of Nothing , Issue 39/2010
- ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1274779/The-man-says-eaten-drunk-70-years-Why-eminent-doctors-taking-seriously.html?ito=feeds -newsxml
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Press release "AN UPDATE ON MR PRAHLAD JANI'S CASE (2010)" (PDF; 26 kB)
- ↑ Summary of the test results by the test leader Sudhir (Powerpoint presentation; 7.4 MB)
- ↑ a b Investigation report by Sudhir Shah (PDF, 79 kB)
- ↑ a b ScienceBlogs: Review by Ulrich Berger , September 20, 2010
- ↑ Ulrich Berger: In the beginning there was light: The weight problems of light eaters , October 28, 2010
- ↑ http://www.smh.com.au/world/yogi-beaten-by-bear-necessities-of-life-without-food-20100514-v3fd.html
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://au.ibtimes.com/contents/20100514/prahlad-jani.htm
- ^ Guardian: India's man who lives on sunshine
- ^ Prahlad Jani is a hoax, claims MCI , May 9, 2010
- ↑ Der Spiegel: Master of Nothing , Issue 39/2010
- ^ Alleged "MCI - message": [...] the entire procedure followed has been wrong. The same team of doctors have been looking at Jani during his two stays with Sterling hospital. After 15 days of research the doctors should not have gone to the media. MCI has also said that it is scientifically not possible to survive without food and water for so many years. MCI
- ↑ http://www.reshap.com/2321-prahlad-janis-is-hoax-claims-mci.html
- ↑ http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/prahlad-janis-hoax-claims-mci
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jani, Prahlad |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jani, Jay Ambe Prahaladbhai Maganlal; Chunriwala Mataji (pseudonym); Chundivala Mataji (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Indian fakir and sadhu |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 13, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Charada, India |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 26, 2020 |
| Place of death | Ahmedabad, India |