Jasmuheen
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Jasmuheen (born 1957 as Ellen Greve) is the Australia based proponent of what she calls 'pranic nourishment' or breatharianism, elsewhere known as trying to live without food or fluid of any sort. She makes a living by appearing at New Age style conferences and selling self-penned internet writings that promote this idea. She claims to be a 'Breatharian' herself, but has never demonstrated this and refuses to do so.
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[edit] Biography
Jasmuheen was born Ellen Greve in New South Wales, the fifth and youngest child of Norwegian migrants who came to Australia after the Second World War. She dropped out of an art degree after less than a year, and became pregnant at 19 while waitressing in Sydney to save money "to do the hippy trail".
She married the father of her first daughter, but the marriage failed after seven years and she took a job in the finance industry, earning a salary substantial enough to pay for a nanny, private schooling for her daughters and an Alfa Romeo.
In 1992, she lost her job, and began to focus on her interest in meditation and mind-mastery. She held workshops and seminars, began writing and sold her home and car to make ends meet. It was around this time, during a meditation session, that a message "came through" to stop eating food.
[edit] Breatharianism
When the Australian television programme 60 Minutes challenged her to demonstrate how she can live without food and water, the supervising medical professional Dr Beres Wenck found that after just 48 hours, Greve displayed the physical symptoms of acute dehydration, stress and high blood pressure. Greve claimed that this was a result of 'polluted air'. On day 3, Greve was moved to a mountainside retreat about 15 miles from the city, where she was filmed enjoying the fresh air she said she could now live on happily. However, as the filming progressed, her speech slowed, her pupils dilated and she lost over a stone (6 kg) in weight. After 4 days Greve acknowledged that she had lost weight but stated that she felt fine, despite Dr. Wenck telling her, "You are now quite dehydrated, probably over 10%, getting up to 11%". The doctor also announced, "Her pulse is about double what it was when she started. The risks if she goes any further are kidney failure."[1]
Greve's condition continued to deteriorate rapidly in the clearly demonstrated context of acute dehydration, despite her insistence to the contrary, and the medical professionals involved concluded that continuing the experiment would ultimately prove fatal. The film crew subsequently concurred with Dr. Wencks' teams opinion and ceased filming, concluding that Greve was deluded. Greve has since stated on her website that the program's presenter Richard Carleton, together with Dr. Wenck and the program's producers, conspired to discredit her with fabricated evidence.
She is quoted by the Correx Archives as saying, regarding how much she eats:[2]
Generally not much at all. Maybe a few cups of tea and a glass of water, but now and then if I feel a bit bored and I want some flavour, then I will have a mouthful of whatever it is I'm wanting the flavour of. So it might be a piece of chocolate or it might be a mouthful of a cheesecake or something like that.
When given her brief moments of media attention, Greve has stated that she has lived on approximately 300 calories per day for the last twelve years, maintaining full health through supplementing a fluid intake with 'cosmic particles' or micro-food, for which she has appropriated the word prana. Greve has also stated that she has not yet mastered the ability to be fluid-free for more than short periods.
She was awarded the Bent Spoon Award by Australian Skeptics in 2000 ("presented to the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle").[3] She was also awarded the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize for Literature for her book Pranic Nourishment — Living on Light, "which explains that although some people do eat food, they don't ever really need to."[4]
Greve states that her beliefs are based on the writings and "more recent channelled material" of the Count of St Germain.[5] She claims that her DNA has expanded from 2 to 12 strands, to "absorb more hydrogen". The extra strands of DNA have not, of course, been demonstrated, and in fact when offered $30,000 to prove her claim with a blood test, she stated that "you cannot view spiritual energy under a microscope." She claims that such a challenge is a deliberate attack on her beliefs, and refuses to act as an example of her claimed paranormal attributes.[2]
[edit] Deaths
To date, three deaths have been directly linked to breatharianism and her publications. (See Breatharian for details.) Greve has denied any moral responsibility for this. In reference to the death of Lani Morris, for example, she said that perhaps Morris was "not coming from a place of integrity and did not have the right motivation."[6] After an investigation by the Australian and Scottish police, Greve was not charged in connection with these deaths. She was also fully investigated in 1999 by UK Cult Investigators who were unable and unwilling to label her a cult leader[citation needed], although the French government department 'Miluvides', which is responsible for investigating cults and sects in that country, stated in 2006 that her ideas were dangerous and expoitative.
Jasmuheen (on a superseded but still available website) refers to at least one death with a warning that breatharianism requires substituting light for food. In the article, she distinguishes "breatharianism" from "food deprivation". "If you haven't found the light that will nourish you, you may have the intention to become a breatharian, but in fact you may be putting yourself through food deprivation. There is one known case where a person died when trying to become a breatharian." [2]
[edit] Publications
Greve advertises her publications as e-books from her self-built website, the "C.I.A." ("Cosmic Internet Academy"). These have titles such as;
- The Prana Program — Eliminating Global Health & Hunger Challenges
- Harmonious Healing and the Immortal's Way
- The Law of Love & Its Fabulous Frequency Of Freedom
- The Food of Gods
- In Resonance
- Pranic Nourishment — Living on Light
- Ambassadors of Light — World Health & World Hunger Project
- Divine Radiance: On the Road With the Masters Of Magic
- Four Body Fitness: Biofields & Bliss
- Co-creating Paradise
- The Madonna Frequency Planetary Peace Program
Greve claims that her writings are published in 17 different languages. She called her last efforts The Prana Program, in which world statesmen have been assisting her directly to eliminate health and hunger problems among the people of the developing world. Unwilling to divulge the identities of those receiving the benefit of — or assisting in — this program on her forum, she writes instead; "the field of Grace will connect all those who need to be connected and that the pure of heart are always eventually supported as they work for a more enlightened and loving world". Greve has also claimed on her website that 1 billion people have heard her message, and that 64,000 people in 'the West' — as well as the population of a village in rural Brazil — no longer need food or water. Greve also invented what she calls "The Madonna Frequency: Planetary Peace Program", which she claims will healthily feed, clothe, comfortably shelter and provide Holistic Education for Earth's people by 2012. This is defined as constituting;
- All countries are to immediately cease/decrease the productions of weapons of war and military spending.
- The immediate forgiveness of all Third World debt by all countries.
- All countries to immediately begin the implementation of Holistic Education Programs and a lifestyle including meditation, prayer, programming, vegetarian diet, exercise, service, time in silence in nature and the use of chanting and devotional songs.
No information has been forthcoming from Greve regarding how this plan will be implemented.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Fresh-air dietician fails TV show's challenge", Yahoo News, October 25, 1999. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
- ^ a b Willis, Paul. "Jasmuheen - Can people live on nothing but air?", Interview with Jasmuheen (transcript), Correx Archives, 1997. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
- ^ Barry Williams (2000). Bent Spoon Winner 2000 - Jasmuheen. Bent Spoon winners. Australian Skeptics. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
- ^ The 2000 Ig Nobel Prize Winners[1]
- ^ "All they need is the air ...", BBC News, September 22, 1999. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
- ^ Walker, Tom; Judith O'Reilly. "Three deaths linked to 'living on air' cult", The Sunday Times (London), September 26, 1999. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
[edit] External links
- Jasmuheen's Cosmic Internet Academy
- Jasmuheen's research on Prana or Divine Nutrition — many free articles and research documents
- Jasmuheen's personal website
- [http://youtube.com/jasmuheen Jasmuheen on YouTube - including her interviews with Russian Breatharian Zinaida Baranova and the Western Breatharian and her background
- Jasmuheen's research
- Safety Model for Pranic Nourishment
- Interview with Jasmuheen for Kindred Spirit Magazine UK
- BBC: Scotland: "woman starved herself to death"
- BBC: Guru condemned as 'dangerous'
- Living on Light at Google Video - episode of 60 Minutes (the aborted experiment)
