Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 32
Weighing was a very serious business—particularly serious for us because if it
was considered that we were putting on too much weight we would have our
food rations cut down and that was a dreadful proposition, food being the
most important thing in our lives. We girls viewed the scales with hatred.
They made our miserable lives even worse. Some of the girls would even try
to induce vomiting on weighing mornings in an attempt to seem lighter
(Hamilton-Byrne, 1995: 22).
(Self-induced vomiting is a characteristic of bulimia, and although my model is concerned
primarily with anorexic-like behaviour, it is worth noting these instances of other disordered
eating habits.) Weighing oneself obsessively, sometimes multiple times daily, is a common
trait of anorexics. It is interesting that Anne was not weighing herself, but her surrogate
bodies were those of her adoptive children.
The children‘s caregivers, acting on behalf of Anne, gave them extremely restrictive diets to
the extent that some of the younger children developed swollen and bloated stomachs due
to malnutrition and protein deficiency (Hamilton-Byrne, 1995: 78). Anne, however, saw her
children‘s bloated stomachs as a sign of obesity and further restricted food for them. The
aunties almost starved to death one little girl named Cassandra. At the time that officials
intervened in the group and removed the children to state care, Cassandra was 12 years old
and weighed the same amount as a 5 year old should (under 20 kilograms [Hamilton-Byrne,
1995: 182]).
Anouree Crawford, who was raised in the group, has come forward recently with allegations
of cruel and inhumane practices against Anne Hamilton-Byrne. Crawford supports Sarah
Hamilton-Byrne‘s allegations of dietary restriction and deprivation. Crawford situates the
food restriction that she experienced as a child in the context of control issues within the
group, saying, ―Basically food deprivation was a daily event. The reason for the deprivation
was to control us, to make us weak and to feed us the most minimal amount of protein…..
We were always hungry []we stole food everyday‖ (Crawford quoted in The Age, 2004).
According to Australian media, Crawford‘s case will most likely be tried in 2005 (The Age,
2004).
Sarah Hamilton-Byrne hypothesizes that her adoptive mother cast her own unhealthy body
images onto her adoptive children (Hamilton-Byrne, 1995: 101). This hypothesis supports
my imposed anorexia model, since Anne Hamilton-Byrne struggled with her own weight and
her own negative self-image. Instead of limiting her own food intake and dealing with her
own weight issues, she instead made her adopted children the outlet of her own self-
regimentation. She made her children‘s under-nourished and anorexic-looking bodies
surrogates of her own body, apparently which she could not regulate. Restricted eating in
‗the Family,‘ therefore, almost certainly interconnected with Anne‘s own body image and
psychological mindset in relation to food control issues.
Doctrinal Accepted Anorexia
A leader or intermediary does not impose doctrinally imposed anorexia, but rather group
doctrine or publications demand dietary restrictions. Although usually ideological leaders
write group doctrines, doctrinal imposition differs from direct or mediated imposition. In
doctrinally imposed anorexia, the essence of the group‘s doctrine is food restriction and
diet, rather than just a subset or small part of its doctrines and or publications.
Breatharianism, for example, imposes anorexia on followers doctrinally. In Breatharianism
the ideological leader does not subject followers to his or her demands, but rather to the
extremely high demands of a strict diet supposedly set out by spiritual gurus. To be a
practicing Breatharian it is not necessary to live in a communal group or to even have
contact with other Breatharians, since one can follow a Breatharian lifestyle on one‘s own.

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 33
Breatharians are perhaps the most striking example of group members who fast for spiritual
reasons.
Breatharians hold as their basic belief that humans are capable of living without food. The
basis of Breatharian doctrine is the notion that humanity has progressed through five
stages. These stages are carnivorous, vegetarian, fruitarian, liquidarian, and breatharian
(Brooks and Foss, 1982: 9). According to Breatharian doctrine, God divinely commanded
vegetarianism and fruitarianism in Genesis 1:26. God said to love all creatures, and
therefore people should have ended the first stage of ‗carnivorous‘ eating and entered into
the next two stages of vegetarianism and fruitarianism (Brooks and Foss, 1982: 9).
Breatharians believe that God prescribed living on air in the book of Genesis 2:7: ―God
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living entity‖ (Brooks and
Foss, 1982: 50).
In addition to biblical justification, Breatharians also have developed a very elaborate
pseudo-scientific rational for living off air. Brooks and Foss claim that because our bodies
are composed of the same elements found in air— hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and
water— we should be able to live on air alone because our bodies can get all the building
blocks of life from it (Brooks and Foss, 1982: 27). Breatharianism questions the basis of
how the body breaks down food energy to regenerate cells and sustain life. Breatharian
doctrine states that if one does not eat, the body actually saves energy, because the body
does not expend energy to digest and break down food (Brooks and Foss, 1982: 25).
Although Breatharians claim that food is not necessary for building cells and sustaining life,
they do not offer any real scientific explanation to explain how breathing air can build cells.
Breatharianism does offer, however, a logic based on not eating: ― Electrons do not eat,
atoms do not eat, molecules do not eat, cells do not eat, and the body is built of and
sustained by the cells, and not by what man eats‖ (Breatharian website, 2004)
Breatharian doctrines continue to stress control over one‘s body. Wiley Brooks and Nancy
Foss founded Breatharianism in the late 1970s, and today the leader of the main
Breatharianism movement is Ellen Graves, who goes by the name Jasmuheen. Jasmuheen
believes that that she is ―a messenger of the ‗Ascended Masters,‘ with whom she
communicates through cosmic telepathy‖ (Dutter, 1999). Jasmuheen claims that she is
able to live without eating by tapping into a different source of pranic nourishment, or liquid
light (Dutter, 1999).
Jasmuheen recommends a twenty-one day initial fast before embarking on a Breatharian
lifestyle so that the body supposedly can adapt to living off alternative energy sources.
Brooks and Foss originally laid out the twenty-one day transitional diet and they drew
inspiration for it from Eastern traditions. In recent years, Jasmuheen‘s twenty-one day fast
has drawn media attention because at least three followers have died while attempting her
transition diet. One woman, Verity Linn, passed away in September 1999, and found with
Ms. Linn‘s body was a diary containing references to Jasmuheen (The Times, 2000: 9). The
twenty-one day fast is quite controversial because it advocates no food or drink for the first
seven days and then only small sips of water for the remaining fourteen days (Dutter,
1999).
The fact that the human body cannot survive without food or water does not seem to bother
Jasmuheen. All scientific knowledge points out that the body needs food. Without food the
body begins to eat itself in order to gain nutrients. This leads to tissue damage and
eventually death due to kidney or heart failure. Without liquid, however, death would occur
in a matter of days due to dehydration (Kibby, 1999). When confronted with the deaths of
those attempting her fast, Jasmuheen refused any responsibility for their fate. She said,
―[i]f people are not coming from a place of integrity and the right motivation, then [the
transition fast] doesn‘t work‖ (Dutter, 1999).