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).

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 34
In a doctrinal publication Brooks and Foss state that, ―We must begin to stop eating poisons
in order to stop the ageing process and to begin to take control of our own bodies instead of
letting our bodies control us‖ (Brooks and Foss, 1982: 142, emphasis added). Furthermore,
Breatharianism stresses the need for domination of our bodies in order to free ourselves
from the restraints of humanity (Brooks and Foss, 1982: 18).
It is interesting to note that both Wiley Brooks and Ellen Graves (a.k.a. Jasmuheen) have
used the same excuse when they have been caught eating. When followers caught Wiley
Brooks eating in the 1970s he claimed that he was not able to properly gain nutrients from
the air due to air pollution (Lagasse, 2002: 72). Jasmuheen used an identical excuse when
she had to back out of a surveillance challenge issued by Australia‘s 60 Minutes TV show.
Jasmuheen claimed that pollution from a roadway nearby was polluting the air and therefore
she could not garner the nutrients she needed through her breath (Lagasse, 2002: 72).
Notions of food and eating guide and regiment the whole life of a Breatharian, which is
parallel to the anorexic‘s manipulation of her life in the same manner. Breatharianism
teaches that he or she should concentrate on not eating and not feeling hunger, just like the
anorexic that might think obsessively about not eating all day. This desire to fast and not
feel hunger invades all aspects of one‘s life it becomes all-encompassing. Breatharianism
is a comprehensive ideology that, like anorexia, controls its members.
Breatharianism is an audience cult whereby membership primarily involves consumer
activities (Stark and Bainbridge, 1985: 26). Members consume cult doctrine through mass
media, in particular via the Internet. Due to the non-communal nature of Breatharianism,
members most likely do not interact with Jasmuheen on an interpersonal level. Therefore,
followers learn to control themselves via the guise of group doctrine. By extension, the
leader (Jasmuheen in the case of Breatharianism) indirectly gains control over surrogate
bodies, those of her followers.
In her ―bounded choice‖ model of NRM involvement, Janja Lalich discusses internal
mechanisms of control (Lalich, 2004). She refers specifically to Heaven‘s Gate and the
Democratic Workers Party, which were both total institutions:
But the harshest sanction of all was internal— the devoted member‘s inner
capacity to control urges, desires, actions, thoughts, and beliefs that were
contrary to the group‘s teaching. Self-condemnation was everyday fare.
These internalized sanctions were among the most powerful mechanisms of
control. Ultimately, the individual cult member‘s ability to enact freedom of
action was not restricted by lurking external forces or even by the confines of
the system. Rather, at this point of the fusion of personal freedom and self-
renunciation, at this point of personal closure the individual may well become
his own source of constraint (Lalich, 2004: 254 emphasis added).
I extend Lalich‘s internal mechanism of control to apply to Breatharianism, even though
Breatharianism is an audience cult and not a total institution. Within Breatharianism, the
individual becomes his or her own harshest critic, despite the lack of ―. ..lurking external
forces‖ (Lalich, 2004: 254).
Conclusion
I adapt the social psychological control theory of anorexia to relate to what I call imposed
anorexia. Imposed anorexia is a form of dietary restriction that one does not originate with
oneself but with a high demand ideological leader. In some instances, that leader imposes
the heavily restricted diet directly (in the case of Elizabeth Clare Prophet and Rama Behera).
In other instances, mediators enforce the restriction on others (as in the case of Anne
Hamilton-Byrne). In still other instances (as with Breatharians), seekers follow doctrines
and essentially implement the restrictions on (or against) themselves. The evidence from