Study of starving yogi bears few answers

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 Indian 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.

"We still do not know how he survives," neurologist Sudhir Shah said after 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 defence and military research institute.

The DRDO hopes the findings, set to be released in greater detail in several months, could help soldiers survive without food and drink, assist astronauts or even save the lives of people trapped in natural disasters.

"His only contact with any kind of fluid was during gargling and bathing periodically during the period," said a statement from G Ilavazahagan, the director of India's Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences.

The yogi has since returned to his village near Ambaji in northern Gujarat, where he will resume his routine of yoga and meditation.

He says that at a young age he was blessed by a goddess who gave him special powers.

During the 15-day observation which ended last week the doctors took scans of his organs, brain and blood vessels, as well as doing tests on his heart, lungs and memory capacity.

"The reports were all in the pre-determined safety range through the observation period," Dr Shah said.

Other results from DNA analysis, molecular biological studies and tests on his hormones, enzymes, energy metabolism and genes will take months to process.

"If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one," Dr Shah said.

"As medical practitioners we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories."