An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period.
Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television.
During the period, he neither ate nor drank and did not go to the toilet, say the scientists.
“We still do not know how he survives,” neurologist Sudhir Shah told reporters after the end of the experiment. “It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is.”
The long-haired and bearded yogi was sealed in a hospital in the city of Ahmedabad in a study initiated by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the state defense and military research institute.
“(Jani’s) only contact with any kind of fluid was during gargling and bathing periodically during the period,” G. Ilavazahagan, director of India’s Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), said in a statement.
Jani has since returned to his village near Ambaji in northern Gujarat where he will resume his routine of yoga and meditation. He says that he was blessed by a goddess at a young age, which gave him special powers.
“If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one,” said Shah.
“As medical practitioners we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories.”
(AFP)
印度一名八十三歲的苦行僧自稱已七十年不吃不喝，這令人震驚的說法引來軍醫小組對他展開兩週的觀察。
普拉拉德．雅尼在印度西部古賈拉特邦一家醫院待了兩週，三十名醫師組成的研究團隊利用攝影機與閉路電視持續監看他的一舉一動。
研究人員表示，雅尼在院期間不但滴水未進，也都沒有上廁所。
神經科醫師蘇德爾•席亞實驗結束後向記者表示：「我們不知道他如何存活下來，也搞不清這是什麼狀況。」
在這項由印度國防軍研機構「國防研發組織」發起的研究中，這名長髮蓄鬍的瑜珈苦行者被隔離在阿默達巴德市醫院裡。
印度國防生理科學研究所主任伊拉瓦札哈根在一份聲明中表示：「（雅尼）在院期間，偶爾會漱口、洗澡，那是他接觸流體的唯一機會。」
住在古賈拉特邦北部安巴基附近某村落的雅尼已離院返家，準備重新開始瑜珈和冥想的例行修鍊。他表示，年幼時曾接受某女神祝福，賜予特殊力量。
席亞說：「如果雅尼的能量來源不是食物和水，就一定是身邊其他東西，日光便是其一。」
「身為醫生，我們對除了食物以外的任何能量來源，都抱持開放接受的態度。」（法新社�翻譯：林倩如）
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