 Hi, I'm James Randi and today I'd like to talk to you about yet another claim of a holy man who says he can survive without food or water. You heard me right, without food or water. Now as usual, but not always, this one's in India. Enthusiastic news reports of an 83-year-old man are currently making the rounds on various websites internationally. We're told that this miracle worker just spent two weeks under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medical authorities who were apparently equipped with cameras and closed circuit television. Wow. During that time, they say, he didn't eat or drink and did not use the toilet. Well, one of the authorities, a neurologist, is quoted as saying, and I quote, we still do not know how he survives. It is a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is. So much for the state of the science of neurology in India, I'd say. The Indian Defense Research and Development Organization, DRDO, put this holy man in a hospital for the study. The only time that he had any access to fluids, they say, was during periodical bathing over the 14-day period. Interesting. I have to wonder, of course, in my skeptical way, whether some water just might have accidentally splashed down the man's gullet while he was washing up. What we have here, folks, is yet another claim of the wonder that's become known by the term breatharianism. Now these claims, which come to the JRF every few weeks, are of two varieties. Some of the claimants say that they don't eat at all, but do sip a bit of water from time to time. Others say they don't eat anything ever at all, zilch, nada, rian, zero, as this current holy person does. It's just another example of how governments waste vast amounts of money on silly things. The Indian DRDO hopes that their research, which will be published in a few months, and I can't wait, will help soldiers survive without food or drink, or assist astronauts during their long stays in space. How many times are these agencies going to keep trying over and over again to find such miracles? There are certain facts that have been established beyond any doubt. All animals, our species is no different, require food and water on a regular basis to survive. There are no exceptions, none. This latest breatharian eats and drinks, folks. The fact that the Indian government is naive and stupid, and incapable of doing a simple supervised definitive test of his fatuous claim, is only superseded by the fact that they even considered the possibility that he lives on air. Folks get real. As always, I'm willing and prepared to go to India myself to test this claim, but strangely enough, I haven't received an invitation. I wonder why. And hey, as soon as the man proves his claim, he gets the JRF million dollar prize. But search as I may, I cannot seem to find that invitation. This holy man was apparently not subjected to any kind of detailed surveillance, of course. He was merely monitored from a distance by TV as he meditated and stayed inactive. His observers allowed him to be unobserved. They accepted his statement that he was, as I quote him, blessed by a goddess at a young age which gave me special powers. Really? Are they serious? Yes, folks, they are. They are deluded, dense, and dumb, and supported by their so-called experts. That brilliant neurologist on the medical team stated, as I quote again, if he does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one. Ooh, sunlight. Sunlight? Are you really trying to tell us that you believe, Professor, that this human might possibly be powered by the rays of the sun, like a palm tree? One hopes that not many citizens of India are this incompetent and insensitive to reality. But who's to really blame for this item becoming news? The media, that's who. They accept, embellish, hyperboleize, and rush to publish such foolishness simply because the public will snap it up, they'll sell newspapers and magazines and books, and will somberly declare that yet another miracle has taken place. And their sponsors will sell cars, cough medicine, mattresses, hamburgers, any sort of trash to those who would choose to accept that a liar in India lives on air. The mind boggles, doesn't it? Thank you. I'm James Randy. We thank you for watching this latest episode of James Randy Speaks. For more of James Randy and the Educational Foundation, make sure you visit randy.org.