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(Paolini and Paolini, 2000: 73). The average member of the group subsisted on rice and
vegetables while expending a significant amount of energy working at church-run
businesses or on communal projects. Ironically, Prophet could afford her own delicacies,
but she forbade the same luxuries for her followers.
Prophet epitomizes the over-bearing ideological group leader likened to the anorexic. She
desired her followers‘ complete obedience so fervently that she used dietary restrictions in
an attempt to control her followers pervasively. In this case, as in other ideological groups,
Prophet‘s followers were her body and she was the anorectic who used dietary restrictions
to control it.
Rama Behera appears to be a striking example of another ideological leader who directly
imposes dietary measures and restrictions upon his followers. Behera leads a small Bible-
based congregation called the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ in the town of Shawano,
Minnesota (Blum, 1982). In recent years, several members have left the group, and they
have reported very intense food restrictions as well as mass enforced binges.8 According to
former member Eugene Baugh, most group members fasted for the majority of the working
week. Baugh recounts the difficulty that he experienced during one particularly severe fast:
This [instruction from Behera] meant no food whatsoever during the term of
the fast. Initially fruit juices were allowed. Some of the brethren then took
to drinking large amounts of fruit juices. When Rama learned of this he
proscribed juices too. Being that we had no money to buy juice in the first
place we went without nourishment of any kind for three days. I would often
keel over and black out. This was ascribed to a demonic attack (Baugh,
2000: 41, emphasis added).
It is interesting to note that Baugh‘s physiological reaction, most likely brought on by
fasting and lack of adequate nutrition, was misattributed to a spiritual cause.
On weekends Behera held large feasts where he required every member to consume large
quantities of East Indian cuisine. Behera allegedly insisted that members consume every
morsel of food that he provided to them. After fasting all week, however, some members
were physically unable to eat the mass quantity of food that Behera forced upon them on
the weekends (Elina Lane, 2001: 3 Elliot Lane, 2001: 5). Former member Elina Lane
recounted her diet during her childhood in Behera‘s group:
Another deprivation I went through was food. Or rather lack of control of [food]. Rama
would make us fast all weekend, and then stuff us with more than we could handle in one
meal. We would work all day, then go to another meeting, and then work some more.
Finally Rama would feed us breakfast, lunch, and supper all at one meal. He would give us
these quart size bowls of soup to shove down our throats. At first, it was great. But soon
we became stuffed. Yet, we still had to keep eating whatever was left in our bowls. Not
only that, but we also had to finish off a loaf of bread along with that (Elina Lane, 2001: 3).
Reportedly, many group members vomited in reaction to consuming large quantities of food
in a short time, after which Behera reputedly forced them to eat their own vomit (Giese,
2001: 1). At first one may think that these ‗binge eating‘ events on weekends are analogous
to the activities of bulimics. Typically, however, bulimics purge themselves (Buckroyd,
1996: 20), while Behera‘s followers purged involuntarily. If, however, one were to conceive
of Behera‘s adherents as his ‗body‘ of followers, then the analogy with bulimia becomes
stronger.
On some occasions, Behera supposedly enforced a diet of bread and chili hot sauce, where
he required members to consume only bread and extremely hot chili sauce or chili sauce
and raw eggs (Giese, 2001: 2-3 Thorpe, 2001: 4). On others, Behera apparently obligated
members to eat huge quantities of food in one seating, sometimes feeding them large

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quantities of rotten food (Giese, 2001: 3). Typically, Behera cooked up large Indian meals
on the weekends for everyone, but if the followers did not finish the food, he apparently left
it un-refrigerated until the following weekend (Giese, 2001: 3). According to some
accounts, Behera subsequently heated the rotten food and forced members to consume it.
Often mass diarrhea episodes followed the weekend meals, most likely due to the fact that
the food had spoiled during the week (Giese, 2001: 3).
Former member Eugene Baugh writes that he shed critical amounts of weight while a
member in the Disciples of Jesus Christ group:
I was gradually literally starving. In a year I shed 60 pounds. At 6‘5‖ tall I
weighed 150 pounds. I had a 32‖ waist. My arms and legs were no more than
skin stretched tight over bone. I could count my ribs. Beyond this precipitous
loss of weight I also experienced the other physical effects of starvation. I
was disorientated, clinically depressed and overcame lethargy only by
expending large measures of psychic energy (Baugh, 2000: 39).
According to the Body Mass Index, a male who is 6‘5‖ and weighs 150 lbs has a BMI of
17.8, which is in the second percentile for body weight.9 Consequently, ninety-eight percent
of 6‘5‖ American males weigh more than Eugene Baugh did at the time.
Much like other ideological leaders who impose diet restrictions, Behera apparently did not
practice what he preached. In fact, Behera reputedly often ate extremely expensive
gourmet foods, which group members paid for. Behera demanded the best quality food at
all times, cooked to meet his particular specifications (Elliott Lane, 2001: 5). Behera
enforced dietary restrictions for his followers, but did not adhere to those nutritional
limitations himself. When he was fasting, however, he expected followers to also fast,
regardless of whether they needed to eat, or whether it was on weekends, when he usually
allowed them to eat (Baugh, 2000: 62).
Mediated Anorexia
Mediated anorexia is a situation in which a subordinate, acting on behalf of the leader,
restricts members‘ food intake. For example, Anne Hamilton-Byrne is an ideological group
leader who by-and-large used intermediaries to enforce food restrictions on group children,
since she spent extended periods away from her immediate followers. Anne Hamilton-
Byrne was the leader of a group in Australia called The Family or the Great White
Brotherhood. Anne adopted several children and attempted to groom them as future
‗inheritors of the earth‘ who would continue with her prophetic visions after the earth was
consumed by a holocaust (Hamilton-Byrne, 1995: 1). Anne was almost entirely physically
absent from raising her adopted children. She, however, directed adult members of the
group (aunties) to care for them. Anne spent about half of the year in Australia and even
then only saw ‗her‘ children on weekends. For all intents and purposes the aunties were
surrogate mothers to the children, because ―[t]he aunties taught us, fed us, supervised our
lives and enforced Anne‘s rules and the punishments she outlined‖ (Hamilton-Byrne, 1995:
14).
For the most part, Anne did not directly impose anorexia, but rather directed others to
implement her restrictive orders. In her book, Anne Hamilton-Byrne‘s adopted daughter,
Sarah Hamilton-Byrne,10 recounts her childhood growing up in a very controlled
environment. Sarah lived with other children from the group, who all believed that they
were Anne‘s flesh and blood children. They lived in a highly regulated and monitored home,
especially concerning food issues. According to Sarah, Anne Hamilton-Byrne was obsessed
with body image and weight. Once a week, sometimes more frequently, the aunties who
looked after the children would weigh them and pass on the information to Anne (Hamilton-
Byrne, 1995: 22). Sarah Hamilton-Byrne said of this experience: