Breatharianism - Teri Callaghan

http://www.ucmeta.org/Pages/Articles/Breatharianism/Breatharianism-ArticlesX.php

Breatharianism (This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org , please feel free to visit the school website)

Breatharianism: Fed by Light

Written by Teri Callaghan, MS, MFT The following course does not provide medical advice. This course is for i nformation purposes only. The health related information in this course is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cures or treatment. Always seek advice from your medical doctor.

Introduction Review Of Literature Breatharians In Recorded History Modern Day Breatharians Jasmuheen's 21-Day Process My Experience With Breatharianism Techniques To Increase Our Body's Ability To Access Prana Sources Of Prana Fed By Love Addicted To Food A Global Perspective Concerns Regarding Breatharianism and Breatharians Who, What, Where, Why, When And How? Bibliography "The more you depend on forces outside yourself, the more you are dominated by them." - Harold Sherman "Behind every mystery, there is a science waiting to be discovered." - Rave Mehta

Introduction How do you determine your truth? Does someone else tell you what your truth is? Do you make your truth up? Do you try your truth on, live it and then decide? Is truth absolute? Are you afraid of the t he truth? Is truth relative? Does truth evolve, expand and change courses? Was the world really flat until we decided it was round? Did the low fat diets of the 90's really make us fatter? Are our bodies affected more by what we eat or by what we think about what we eat, or even more by what we feel about what we eat? Do we live because we eat food or do we live in spite of the fact that we eat food? Throughout the process of our traditional training we have been taught that we require intermediaries to know truth. It is implied, in the places where we are taught, that we are not strong enough, smart enough or worthy enough to go directly to the Source of

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Knowledge. We must rely on parents, priests, politicians, professors and purveyors of traditional medicine to access the truth that we need. Then they deliver it to us after it has been 'dumbed down' so that we can understand it. The prevalent belief seems to be that God, our health, and every e very other basic manner of living and taking care of ourselves is somehow too vast for us to be able to comprehend. Left on our own, we would not be capable of understanding. On our own, we would perish. Later in life we also learn that when we think for ourselves, we might be ostracized, the adult version of the childhood fear of perishing. Of course, the truth is that we are absolutely capable of understanding all this and much, much more. As the Master Jesus taught, "These things I do you will do, and greater things than these will you do." (John 14:12) Somewhere along the path of our evolution it was decided that humanity would be more easily controlled if the truth of our Divine Nature was hidden from us. We were taught the opposite of our souls. We were taught ta ught that we were unworthy, that we had to strive our whole lives to f ollow rules of impeccability that the makers of the rules don't themselves have to follow. We were taught that we would probably fail, but that we needed to strive anyway. For these efforts, sacrifices and sufferings we might be rewarded in another life. Maybe. We were taught that we have to eat food or we will die, that "everybody needs milk." Food is offered as a reward, a way to show love and a sign of success. Food is a party, a date, a business transaction, a way to t o compete. We must eat everything on our plates or we are wasteful and ungrateful. We were taught that to hunger is to suffer. I am not saying that the things that we were taught are not true. I am suggesting that the things that we were taught are not absolute, Universal truth. Under some circumstances, not eating food does lead to death. deat h. In other circumstances, not eating food leads to a fuller, richer way of living. Sometimes when we are hungry we suffer. Sometimes being with our hunger is a path t o the Divine. Maybe these truisms were truer in the Piscean Age of Duality that we are currently leaving, and less true in the Aquarian Age of Oneness that we are now beginning. This is a course about the philosophy and practice of breatharianism as one of many paths that can lead t o increased physical mastery and spiritual enlightenment. It is not intended to be an instructional manual to teach how to change to a breatharian lifestyle. Anyone who may be interested in this thi s path would require research and preparation far beyond the scope of this course. The information presented here is intended to answer basic questions on the topic and to provide possibilities for very initial preparatory thoughts, experiences and practices in the philosophy. According to Jasmuheen, in her book Living On Light (1998), "Breatharianism has been around since the dawn of time. The Akashic records reveal that there was a time where all beings were sustained from the pranic forces. Breatharianism is the ability to absorb all the nutrients, vitamins and nourishment one requires, to maintain a healthy physical vehicle, from the universal life force f orce or chi energy. A being who practices this does not need to eat food. In order to be a breatharian one must be a tuned instrument who practices mind mastery?that is, conscious reprogramming of cellular memory for the elimination of any limiting and non-honoring beliefs." Wiley Brooks on his website, www.breatharian.com www.breatharian.com,, says, "A breatharian is a person who is in alignment with the philosophy of Breatharianism, just as a Catholic is a

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Knowledge. We must rely on parents, priests, politicians, professors and purveyors of traditional medicine to access the truth that we need. Then they deliver it to us after it has been 'dumbed down' so that we can understand it. The prevalent belief seems to be that God, our health, and every e very other basic manner of living and taking care of ourselves is somehow too vast for us to be able to comprehend. Left on our own, we would not be capable of understanding. On our own, we would perish. Later in life we also learn that when we think for ourselves, we might be ostracized, the adult version of the childhood fear of perishing. Of course, the truth is that we are absolutely capable of understanding all this and much, much more. As the Master Jesus taught, "These things I do you will do, and greater things than these will you do." (John 14:12) Somewhere along the path of our evolution it was decided that humanity would be more easily controlled if the truth of our Divine Nature was hidden from us. We were taught the opposite of our souls. We were taught ta ught that we were unworthy, that we had to strive our whole lives to f ollow rules of impeccability that the makers of the rules don't themselves have to follow. We were taught that we would probably fail, but that we needed to strive anyway. For these efforts, sacrifices and sufferings we might be rewarded in another life. Maybe. We were taught that we have to eat food or we will die, that "everybody needs milk." Food is offered as a reward, a way to show love and a sign of success. Food is a party, a date, a business transaction, a way to t o compete. We must eat everything on our plates or we are wasteful and ungrateful. We were taught that to hunger is to suffer. I am not saying that the things that we were taught are not true. I am suggesting that the things that we were taught are not absolute, Universal truth. Under some circumstances, not eating food does lead to death. deat h. In other circumstances, not eating food leads to a fuller, richer way of living. Sometimes when we are hungry we suffer. Sometimes being with our hunger is a path t o the Divine. Maybe these truisms were truer in the Piscean Age of Duality that we are currently leaving, and less true in the Aquarian Age of Oneness that we are now beginning. This is a course about the philosophy and practice of breatharianism as one of many paths that can lead t o increased physical mastery and spiritual enlightenment. It is not intended to be an instructional manual to teach how to change to a breatharian lifestyle. Anyone who may be interested in this thi s path would require research and preparation far beyond the scope of this course. The information presented here is intended to answer basic questions on the topic and to provide possibilities for very initial preparatory thoughts, experiences and practices in the philosophy. According to Jasmuheen, in her book Living On Light (1998), "Breatharianism has been around since the dawn of time. The Akashic records reveal that there was a time where all beings were sustained from the pranic forces. Breatharianism is the ability to absorb all the nutrients, vitamins and nourishment one requires, to maintain a healthy physical vehicle, from the universal life force f orce or chi energy. A being who practices this does not need to eat food. In order to be a breatharian one must be a tuned instrument who practices mind mastery?that is, conscious reprogramming of cellular memory for the elimination of any limiting and non-honoring beliefs." Wiley Brooks on his website, www.breatharian.com www.breatharian.com,, says, "A breatharian is a person who is in alignment with the philosophy of Breatharianism, just as a Catholic is a

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person who is in alignment with Catholicism and a Mormon is a person who is in alignment with Mormonism. Whether a breatharian eats food or not is a choice, not a demand." He also says, "Breatharianism is spirituality. They are one and the same. The very essence of remembering yourself as a Breatharian goes hand in hand with the realization that we are Spiritual Beings sustained by the Breath of Life and that we are all one big family. f amily. Breatharianism is just one of the many processes or tools that can be used to aid anyone traveling on the road to Self and God realization."

In this course you will learn l earn about people who have in the past and still do in the present sustain their physical bodies by accessing prana as their nutritional source. Prana is the universal life force and it is known by many names. It can be called chi, cosmic life energy, liquid light, or the love l ove of God. Another way to describe breatharianism is to say a person is "living on light" or practicing "pranic nourishment." As you study this phenomenon it is initially important to distinguish the practice of breatharianism from the practice of fasting. The term "fasting" refers to the practice of going without food for certain set, finite times, in order for the body to rest and cleanse, and to facilitate a healing process. When one practices breatharianism one is not going without food, one is being fed by another source. One is receiving nutrition from a higher source and frequency. Living on light, then, is not a path of self-denial or ascetism. It is a path of richness and fullness of life, sensation and experience. The information in this course will be based on the work of several well-known people who have blazed the trail in this field, and also on my own personal experimentation and experience with these practices. In my definition, truth is not absolute. Truth is ever-evolving and unfolding. I will be presenting what is most currently available in the research and thinking. As stated in the quote above, "Behind every mystery there is a science waiting to be discovered." Perhaps you will be someone who will discover another piece of the wisdom and truth contained in these practices, and that discovery will bring breatharianism to a whole new level of understanding and accessibility. We are all here to share our particular piece of the pie, so that we can see what a magnificent whole is being created. That's how this current new energy of Oneness works. Back to Breatharianism Index

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Review Of Literature The experiences and teachings of a woman f rom Australia named Jasmuheen are referenced in two of her books here. One is titled Living On Light: The Source Of Nourishment For The New Millennium (1998), her first book on the subject and practice of breatharianism. Jasmuheen has been studying physical immortality and ascension for many years and some of her information on this topic came from her own channeled sources. She took this information and experimented with it herself. At the time of the writing of this book she had been living on light for five years. She combined the modalities of research, experimentation and teaching to evolve the material that led to her next book on the topic, Ambassadors Of Light (2000). This book expands on the dynamic of life changes for pe ople who follow a path of living on light. Her central point is that one of the powerful effects of living i n this manner is that people usually evolve into the primary life focus of giving service. Once a person has had the experience of living on light, the realization that we don't really need anything becomes crystal clear. Along with that realization comes the truth that we can create and have anything. Once in this place, breatharians find that their main interest in this l ife is how to create Heaven on Earth. There is a powerful desire for conditions on the planet to change in a way such that all humanity will be able to feel this same sense of empowerment and freedom. Ambassadors Of Light (2000) is a study of possibilities of how that might happen. In her work, Jasmuheen highly recommends Dr. Hilton Hotema's book Man's Higher Consciousness (1962). Hotema was a raw food/fruitarian metaphysician with many books and interests. In this book, considered his most celebrated work, he covers topics related to a higher consciousness regarding diet. In 31 lessons he leads people through the possibility of gradually lightening up the foods eaten a nd provides inspiration regarding the possibilities of leading a breatharian lifestyle. A book used for historical reference on breatharianism is Autobiography Of A Yogi (1946) by Parmahansa Yogananda. This book is a foundational source for many on the spiritual path as it was one of the first to bring the teachings and practices of Eastern religions to the West. Yogananda was able to make many mysteries and powerful truths available to spiritual seekers all over the world, and therefore was one of the first teachers to engender unification and oneness in a highly c ompartmentalized religious system. The group Self Realization Fellowship are the followers and practitioners of his teachings and are quite active worldwide. In it he describes a meeting with a noted breatharian in his own country of India. This breatharian will be discussed shortly in this course. David Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., has produced a body of work that explores levels of consciousness measured by the process of kinesiology. In Power vs. Force: An Anatomy Of Consciousness (2001), he introduces the concept of being able to determine the contributing elements of raising vibratory frequencies. Dr. Hawkins tells of retreating into the seclusion of the forest for a period of ten years while he released attachments to past forms of information and going into the space of "nothing-ness." He did this as a way of preparing to emerge ready to present this new paradigm to the world. This process of withdrawal and re-entry into the world is an important aspect of switching from being nourished by food to being nourished by prana. I appreciate that Dr. Hawkins has demonstrated this part of t he change-over in his own life, just as many

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important teachers and healers have done. He is currently teaching this information one day a month in Sedona, Arizona. I have found his way of demonstrating and measuring the evolution of consciousness to be very useful both in t he conceptualization and the practice of a breatharian lifestyle. A recent book by Wayne Dyer, Ph.D., The Power of Intention: Learning To Co-create Your World Your Way (2004), is a book I recommend to anyone interested in making profound changes in ways of living and being in the world. Dr. Dyer has written more than 20 books over the years on practical spiritual tools and techniques. I find him to be a person who continues to push himself to the edge of his understanding and then has the ability to share that understanding very effectively with the rest of the world. We know that all the work that we have been doing over the last twenty years to uplift consciousness has been somewhat effective. Dr. Dyer has written about using our intention in a new way that is effective in this higher frequency energy. His tools and techniques teach people how to plug in to this new energy as a way to ride the crest of changes using intention. To me it feels li ke the difference in being on a train going North and South, trying with all of my might to get that train to turn around and go East and West. The easier thing would be to jump off that train and get on another train already going the direction I want to go. If I were planning to go through the change to a breatharian lifestyle today, I would definitely find D r. Dyer's information very useful. Back to Breatharianism Index

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Breatharians In Recorded History In the tradition of the Catholic Church, a person who met certain criterion could be recognized and then officially canonized as a saint. Webster defines "saint" as "one officially recognized, especially through canonization as preeminent for holiness." Teresa Neuman is one so recognized. According to Paramhansa Yogananda in Autobiography Of A Yogi (1946), she was born on Good Friday in 1898 in Northern Bavaria. When she was 20 years old she was in an accident that left her paralyzed and blind. She was miraculously healed in 1923 through fervent prayers to St. Theresa of Lisieux. After that time, Teresa did not eat any foods or drink any liquids except one small, consecrated communion wafer per day. Stigmata, or sacred wounds of Christ, began to a ppear on her head, breast, hands and feet every Friday while she experienced the passion of Christ. Yogananda later said that in her past life she was Mary Magdalene and that she was here to show that it is possible to live on God's Light. Until the time of her death in 1962 thousands of tourists would file into her small cottage to witness the miracle. A "miracle," once again as defined by Webster, is "an extraordinary event manifesting through Divine Intervention in human affairs." In the same book, Yogananda also recounts his experience of meeting Giri Bali, an Indian saint who employed a certain yogic technique that enabled her to live without eating. When she was twelve years old she was married into a family of her parents' choosing. Her new mother-in-law ridiculed her continuously about her insatiable appetite. It was then that she proclaimed that she would live without food. Even though it was a decision born of rebellion, she later thanked this woman for arousing her dormant spiritual tendencies. She prayed for a guru who would teach her how to live without food. After she purified herself in the Ganges, a master materialized before her and proclaimed that from that day forward she would live by astral light, her bodily atoms fed from the infinite current. She was initiated into the kriya technique that includes the use of a certain mantra and a breathing exercise more difficult than the a verage person could perform. Giri Bali told Yogananda that she believed the benefit of her lifestyle was to prove that man is a Spirit and that Spirit sustains the physical. Back to Breatharianism Index

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Modern Day Breatharians According to his website, Wiley Brooks has been a breatharian for some 30 years and has been teaching his philosophy on the subject for over 20 years. In Wiley's definition, a breatharian is a person who, under correct conditions, can live without eating food. He gained notoriety in 1981 when he appeared on the national TV show "That's Incredible." To demonstrate his strength he lifted 1100 lbs. of weights, nearly 10 times his own body weight. Wiley is currently 66 years old and can still lift 600-900 lbs. of weight without working out. For a few years he stopped conducting seminars on Breatharianism so he could devote all his time to resolving the issue of why he himself needed to begin eating again in order to keep his physical body alive, even though his 5D body manifested completely. He found four major deterrents to being able to live totally without food in our present environment. Brooks lists these deterrents as: 1. 2. 3. 4.

People pollution Food pollution Air pollution Electro pollution

Wiley Brooks now invites people once again to his workshops so that he can share his newly researched insights into the phenomena of living on Light. Hira Ratan Manek (HRM) was born in India in 1937. The information on his website states that after retiring from a shipping and trading job at the age of 55, he began to study the practice of sun gazing. This ancient but forgotten method had fascinated him since childhood. After three years of studying Lord Mahavir of the Jains, who practiced this method 2,600 years ago, HRM was able to find the secrets of sun gazing. He also gained inspiration from the energy practices of ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Native Americans. Since June 18, 1995, HRM has lived and continues to live only on sun energy and water. He occasionally takes tea or coffee for hospitality's sake and to be sociable. An important part of HRM's path is his commitment to research. Because of this he has undergone three separate fasts under the observation of medical teams. In the excitement of these observations, where he has been found to be in excellent health even though doctors can't explain how, HRM was interviewed in newspapers and on television many times. He currently gives lectures and workshops all over the world within which he shares his philosophy and teaches his method. HRM teaches that sun gazing will increase the qualities of "light" within the gazer and that all conditions, mental and physical, can be healed through this practice. A woman living in Australia, Jasmuheen, claims to have been physically nourished by the Universal Life Force of Prana since 1993, according to her book, Living On Light (1998). She has been instrumental in bringing this once esoteric practice, reserved for saints and sages, into the realm of possibility for people who feel a heart c alling to experience such a lifestyle. Jasmuheen is one of the many teachers and channelers who believe that as our bodies move through a process of ascension to a higher vibration

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(from 3rd dimension to 5th dimension), they will become lighter, less dense, and there will be less requirement for physical food. Jasmuheen has done a lot of research and experimentation in this field, utilizing her own body as her laboratory. After undergoing a 21-day process, which she outlines in her book, she went into seclusion for six months, staying in meditation much of the time, with the intent of understanding how this information and practice could be of benefit to the world. She has been the subject of much controversy, which will be covered in more detail in a later section of this course. As a result of her research and experience, she very strongly recommends that people always follow their own inner guidance in this practice. She is clear in her teachings that this path is not for everyone and much physical, mental, emotional and spiritual preparation is essential for people who are considering the path. As an alternative that might appeal to a larger group, she offers what she calls a Luscious Living Lifestyle Program (LLLP). This is a program that combines components of conscious eating, meditation, exercise and other practices that bring joy and vitality. She teaches that when the body is healthy and vibrant, a person may naturally move to eating less and less food, and feeling more and more nourished by the prana of love, light and nature. Therefore, the LLLP could be seen a s a preparation for eventually leading a breatharian lifestyle, or it could be seen as a model for living in itself that brings many of the benefits of breatharianism and fewer of the challenges. Back to Breatharianism Index

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Jasmuheen's 21-Day Process There are many paths that could lead a person to a lifestyle of no longer using food as the source that nourishes the physical body. As reviewed from a bove, Therese Neuman experienced a healing through fervent prayer, and the result was that she lived the rest of her life only ingesting one communion wafer a day. It would seem that the breatharian lifestyle was then a by-product of the hea ling energy that was accessed in that process. Giri Bali, because of an emotionally painful scenario, actually asked to be relieved of her need for food and was answered in the form of a master who taught her the techniques required. Wiley Brooks developed his interest in breatharianism by experimenting with fasting and from the positive benefits he derived from going long periods of time without food. HRM was fortunate enough to live in a culture where the information regarding the benefits of sun energy was stored somewhere in ancient consciousness. His personal interest in health and vitality motivated him t o bring a forgotten practice back into the modern day. Jasmuheen's passion for understanding and experiencing ascension and physical immortality set the stage for her to become a receptive channel and receive a detailed process that rewires the body to accept prana as its main source of nutrition. The 21-Day Process, or more simply "the process," overview as described in Living On Light (1998) begins with a time of preparation during which the four body systems (mental, emotional, physical and spiritual) are cleansed. Following that, the process is: a) to not eat or drink anything for seven days; b) to sip water or very diluted juices and rest for another seven days while the body heals and adjusts to the previous seven days; c) to rest for another seven days to allow for the integration of the energies of the Higher Self. Jasmuheen clearly stresses that the process is "In essence a high level esoteric initiation. It is not about eating or not eating. It is primarily about the aligning of the energies of the I AM Presence. The fact that one no longer has to eat is simply a by-product of this initiation." She relies upon people's own sense of di scernment and mastery to assess if this process is right for them. She doesn't recommend the process to anyone, nor does she lead people through it. Her philosophy is: if you need coaching to do this process, then you are not ready for it. Since most people who practice this path choose to keep it private, it is hard to estimate how many have embraced a lifestyle of living on light, for how long and with what results. Through her informal contacts with people while she travels, and correspondence on her website, she guesses that the numbers may be in the thousands. One of the steps of preparation that I found helpful was the Self-Screening Questionnaire in her book. It reads as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Are you prepared for anything to happen? Are you willing to surrender to God's way? Are you prepared to explicitly follow a set of 'rules' for 21 days? Are you willing to put your entire life 'on hold' for 21 days? Are you able to give up the attachment to 'things' in 'your world' if it were asked of you? That may mean your family, your children, your relationships, your

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home, your car, your career, your money, your lifestyle and/or your possessions. This could be for 21 days and/or beyond. 6. Do you realize that the attachments you have to people, beliefs or things may hold you back from realizing your true potential, your greatness and a chieving Self-Mastery? 7. Are you aware of the difference between giving people and things up and giving up your attachment to people and things? 8. Do you fully appreciate how powerful the mind can be and that it creates your so-called reality 100% of the time and that would include the time you are in the 21-day process? 9. Do you also know that this means that whatever happens in the process has been created by your mind and is part of the process you created to surrender to for release and healing? 10. As an example, say that after 11 days into the process you haven't used your bowels. Shall we say you create a pain in that area and you become fearful that you have a bowel obstruction. Are you awa re that even though your mind created it, it may also tell you that this could be real? You could get more frightened and if you succumbed to this fear-based drama, you would be saying no to the wonder and greatness of your being and the ability to heal yourself with the God energy. Because you created it with the mind, you can heal it simply by your belief, going within and asking for assistance. This process was created by the mind and it can release you from the mind. Do you understand this? 11. Do you understand the 21-day process will change your life from t he very moment you hear about it and that you may never be the same again? 12. Do you know that you do not have to do this process? The challenges it can bring are yours and yours alone, so it is really important that you understand what it is you are committing yourself to. Have you spoken with someone who has done the 21 days? Do you feel absolutely positive that you know what it is about and what you are choosing? 13. Are you 100% sure you are choosing to do t his process for yourself and no other reason? Not for your family or friends, your leader, your teacher, nor because of any group pressure? 14. There are many benefits that can come with this process, like improved health and ideal weight. However, your desire for the se benefits alone is not enough for you to commence this process. Are you aware t hat your faith in God or a Higher Power is needed to get you through to achieving Self-Mastery or expansion of consciousness? 15. Are you aware of the possibility of the beauty, the clarity, the l ightness, the state of being, the connectedness and bliss, the gentleness, the love and peace, joy and freedom this process can bring you? Are you ready for that? 16. Do you truly desire God and to be in a state of Oneness? Back to Breatharianism Index

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My Experience With Breatharianism The first time I read the above list I threw the book across the room shouting, "I love my life!" Clearly this was a sign of lack of readiness. It was a while before I picked up the book again. I had met Jasmuheen two years earlier at a Wesak Celebration in Mt. Shasta. I remember seeing Light and Energy all around when I looked at her and saying to the person next to me, "Who is that?" My friend said, "That's Jasmuheen, she's a breatharian." I went up to her on the break and asked, "Why do you do it?" She answered, "Constant communion with the Divine." From that moment those words stayed with me like a subtle mantra. What would it be like to be in constant communion with the Divine? A year later, when I was visiting Mt. Shasta again, I saw her face staring at me from the cover of a book in the Golden Bough bookstore. After some discussion with the owner of the bookstore about how people were feel ing about this information and if anyone she knew had tried it, I bought the book. And now here I am. There are some people who absolutely resonate with this path. I am just one of those people. It feels normal to me. Eating has always been confusing for me. As a child, like many of us, my parents would have to force me to come in from playing (which was all I wanted to do) to eat my dinner. What a waste of time, I would think. Then all that time sleeping so my body could digest, all that time going to the bathroom, all that time planning and eating the next meal. It really interrupted my real job here, which I knew was to play. Now, as an adult who is free from the need to eat food, I often feel like a child again. I have so much time and energy to engage in my natural occupation, which I more and more come to understand as play. Many people, I have learned, find the idea of breatharianism to be totally foreign and often suspect. To those people I simply say, this path is not for you. Every person is an individual, sovereign being. Every path of personal mastery comes from finding what is right for the individual, and then finding the individual courage to follow that path. In my opinion, the master's path also involves at the least a tolerance for each other's individual journeys and at the most a curiosity about other journeys as an opportunity to learn and evolve. I am assuming it is the curiosity about the master in you that has led you to this course. I utilized a six-month time of preparation for undergoing the 21 day process, beginning December 26, 1999, with the plan to be free from my need for food on the turn of the millennium. During the six months, I fasted one day a week, read everything I could find on the subject, discussed it with experienced people, meditated, affirmed, visualized and prayed. I utilized the therapy techniques of EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) and EFT (emotional freedom technique) to help resolve my fears and strengthen my belief in myself. I also began preparing my family and friends. During my time of preparation, I spent one whole day with Wiley Brooks to learn as much as I could about his experience. I honor Wiley for his breakthrough in this field. He has experienced a lot of criticism and attempts to discredit his w ork. On that day we

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spent together, he was adamant that a person cannot live a breatharian lifestyle in a city environment. He learned through his own research that once a person stops eating food, the body becomes even more sensitive to t oxins. Since a city environment is replete with chemical, noise and emotional toxins, he said that there is not enough pure prana to sustain a breatharian in a healthy way. After considering his input, I decided that I wanted to try to continue to live in the city where my life, friends and work were, to see what would happen. My rationale was that people are always saying that things are not possible, until they do them. Wiley was able to accomplish all the "impossible" things that he accomplished, and I wanted to build upon that and to have my own experience. Even though I lived and worked in a city, I also had close access to beautiful, pranafilled natural environments. In terms of preparation, I wasn't ready t o give up my lifestyle, but knew I was willing to give up my attachment to that lifestyle. I had no idea how important question #5 in the preparation questionnaire would become in my own life. I set up a space in my meditation room and assigned several people to check on me daily, beginning December 27th. As a person who spent 12 years in Catholic school, I found early on in the process that I held a deep-seated belief in suffering. I had been taught that the only sure way to God and Heaven was the path of the martyr, and the more suffering the better. As I went through the 21 days, I experienced my fair share of agony, along with an ecstasy that remains to this day indescribable. During that period fears came to the forefront that I didn't even realize I was holding: "You are crazy, you will die, you will be alone, your God is a delusion," and more. Because I feared weight loss, for I was a not a person who needed to lose weight, I burned all my pictures of Gandhi in his post-fasting body. It was like dying to be born again. It is taught that in the first 7 days of the process, the spirit will leave the body in order for the physical vehicle to be rewired to accept prana as the primary nutritional source. On the 8th day of the process, I was laying on the floor, wondering why I was going through all this self-imposed suffering. I began to realize that I was listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "I Know My Redeemer Lives" and started to weep (it was playing on my CD player, I wasn't just hearing voices from Heaven). At that point I knew my spirit was starting to re-inhabit my body and I could begin to feel the depths and the heights of my emotions once again. I had many interesting and funny dreams over the 21-day period. In my dreams I kept "trading up" in cars (cars representing my physical body). As the days progressed, I moved from driving my old Ford Pinto until I was cruising in a new Subaru Legacy, sleek and shiny. On the 21st day I dreamed that I was running gracefully and effortlessly. I looked over and saw that Jesus was running along side of me. In my dream Jesus said to me, "Now you can run and never get tired." I woke up elated, energized and quite thin. I lost almost fifteen pounds in the 21 days and did not look like an advertisement that would promote anyone wanting to become a breatharian. As I had to go out into the world right away and resume my private practice as a therapist, I decided to consciously create the energy of health and beauty emanating from my physical form. The first week of being back with people, no one said or acted like they noticed anything different about my appearance. My appearance felt so accomplished, that the second week I

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didn't think to recreate that energy. The very first person that walked into my office the second week looked shocked! "Teri, are you ill? You have lost so much weight!" This person had already seen me the week before and had not said a word. From then on, I remembered to consciously emanate the appearance of health and vitality until my physical body was able to acclimatize to the change-over.

After about 3 months of daily yoga, meditation and integration, my body toned up and I began to look healthy, even though thinner. I only gained a few of the pounds back, but my body was adjusting to the change. What was most apparent to people when they saw me was that I appeared vibrant and energized. I had to get my driver's license renewed six months later and when I compared the pictures, to myself I looked like a completely different person. I began to require less and less sleep, often sleeping just 4 or 5 hours a night. One night per month, I stayed awake all night. When I laid down (Jasmuheen calls it "laying the body down"), I would be aware of cool vibrations of energy pulsating through my body. It was very pleasurable and enlivening. When I realized that I was going to be awake, I learned to embrace the time as more opportunity for connection to my Higher Self. My intuition in my work with people began to improve exponentially. I had more energy and alertness and found myself working more hours with no mental or physical fatigue. In that first year my business volume and income doubled. It was so fun to have all the extra time and energy previously committed to shopping for food, thinking about food, preparing food and cleaning up from food. There were also many challenges, especially in the beginning. Since I worked on my own and my children were grown, I didn't have to deal with regular daily expectations around food. The people closest to me got accustomed to finding more creative ways to connect, rather than eating out. My favorite way to interact with people became taking walks, instead of eating out. So my friends learned to call and say, "I would like to get together, where would you like to go for a walk?" Many people were worried and afraid for me. A cousin, who is a nurse, at one point called my sister, also a nurse, to suggest that she have me involuntarily committed for observation. Many people became defensive when they learned of my lifestyle, as if my living this way was a statement that they were doing something wrong. I found t his difficult and confusing emotionally. I have found many creative ways to respond to occasions that involve food and eating out. In many situations, it is not appropriate to share with people that I am living on light. Restaurants are tricky. I have tried everything, from sitting with people while they eat, often telling the wait person that I ate before I came, which is true, ordering soup and eating only a few bites and then having the server be c oncerned that there was something wrong with the food, or just ordering a drink. Unless the conversation is particularly invigorating it can be uncomfortable for people to have me just sit there when everyone else eats. I have cooked a number of large family meals since I became a breatharian and that is quite a surreal experience. I am cooking mostly from memory, as food no longer tastes or feels the same to me. I often just try to make sure that it

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looks good, think about how much I love the people I am cooking for, fill the food with that love, and then hope for the best. I was very naive in the beginning. I was so excited about what this demonstration of living without eating food meant to me and my consciousness, I thought that other people would be positively affected by seeing this apparent miracle in the life of a regular person. I finally had a better understanding of people's reactions when I saw the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" There is a scene that discusses the native people in the Caribbean and their reactions when Columbus' ships showed up in their world. The people literally could not see the ships because there was no reference point in their brains for the image. The shaman could see the ripples on the water and went out everyday to stare at them until he could see the ships. Once he saw them, the rest of the people could see them as well. Most of the people in my life literally could not see me or that I was not eating food. After four Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners with my family, they still a sked why I was not eating. When I tell them that I am living on light, they change the subject. In this last year, one of my nephews attending the Air Force academy heard a talk by a yogi from India. In that talk the practice of breatharianism was mentioned and he connected the dots. He came home and told my sister who then, after four years, looked it up on the internet. She then called me and said, "I have to hand it to you, Teri, I read that not that many people can do it." I guess she finally heard from the shaman. People always ask what I do eat. For the first several years I lived on tea, water, some smoothies and an occasional chocolate chip cookie for comfort. It is so amazing how people will jump on this information as evidence that I am not really living on light. I eventually stopped talking about it and kept it as my own private world of wonder. I was not and am not interested in proving anything to anyone. I know that my body does not receive the nutrition it needs to maintain the high level of health and energy I have from an occasional cookie or smoothie. After the first few years I began to experiment with some eating. What I have learned, is that once I stopped eating food my physical body had no real interest in it anymore. In fact, my physical body was extremely grateful and let me know in many various ways. What I did miss mostly was the emotional comfort that food would bring. When I was sad, I craved macaroni and cheese, the comfort food of my youth. And so I began again to eat some of the things that comforted me or entertained me, always coming from the knowingness that I was using the food for ot her purposes rather than nutrition. I can eat whatever I desire, free from the current rules of nutritional wisdom. Breatharianism is not about eating or not eating. I heard and read this so many times during my time of preparation. Breatharianism is about accessing nutrition from all the abundant sources in the Universe. It is about personal mastery, sovereignty and freedom. For me these were just words on a page and thoughts in mind until I had my own experience. Then, and only then, did t hese become wisdom by which to live my life. Techniques To Increase Our Body's Ability To A ccess Prana One of the most important preparations a person can do to move in the direction of being more and more fed by the light is to do exactly what you are doing with this course. The change must first begin in the mind, at the level of the belief system. The

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first question that has to be asked is "Is it possible?" Then a belief that it is possible must follow. From Wiley Brook's website: "The world is flooded with books on food and eating. No one seems to realize that eating is not natural, but an acquired habit, like smoking and drinking, and that FRESH CLEAN AIR is the Cosmic Reservoir of all things, including the substance that builds and sustains the human body. Science has shown that the body is built of cells, which are composed of molecules, which are composed of atoms, which are composed of electrons, which are nothing more t han whirling centers of force in the ether. Electrons do not eat, atoms do not eat, cells do not eat, and the body is built of and sustained by the cells, and not by what man eats." One of my favorite of Brooks' quotes is, "We don't live because we eat food, we live in spite of the fact that we eat food." That one stayed on my refrigerator for a long t ime. In order to live on light, there must be a belief in a Higher Power and also a belief in individual cocreative ability with this Source or Power. Also, for most of us, it will be necessary to reprogram existing cellular thoughts and belief systems. An example of this would be our mother's constant mantra, "You must eat!" along with, "You will catch your death of cold if you go outside with wet hair!" and, "You are going to break your neck!"(which was shouted upon any risk-taking behavior at all). In Ambassadors Of Light, written by Jasmuheen in 2000, there is a section written by Dr. Juergen Buche, a physician of natural medicine with 15 years of experience in alternative cancer therapies, fasting and nature cures. He says, "To begin with, I found that daily affirmations are an absolute necessity in order to reinforce the paradigm of self-sufficiency with the SELF being the almighty I AM resident within you. I use the following: 'I AM limitless Love. I AM the perfect manifestation of the omnipotent, loving, divine and infinitely benevolent power of the universe which sustains me, nourishes me and heals me on all levels regardless of whether I eat or not. I AM continually renewed on all levels and I AM spiritually, mentally and emotionally balanced. I AM the perfect expression of divine and limitless Love.'" He claims that this affirmation will sustain and tune a person. One must be prepared to change, have no fear and dare to be different. My mainstay mental program before, during and after the process was, "I command my body elemental that from this now moment you absorb all the vitamins, nutrients and nourishment required to maintain peak physical health from the pranic forces of the Universe." As you experiment with these affirmations, be aware of whatever thoughts come up to interfere with the new beliefs. For example, an interfering thought might be, "If I don't eat I will be too thin." Once awareness lights up a limiting thought, an antidote affirmation can then be created and practiced, such as, "My body is now attaining and maintaining it's perfect weight." With this affirmation, the body's own natural wisdom about what is its ideal, healthy weight is acknowledged and accessed. This is a way to practice the belief that there is consciousness and wisdom in every cell. (For more information on Affirmations, see the UMS course Affirmations and Reprogramming.) In the last year, I have felt that the energy in the world in which we live has definitely shifted into a higher frequency. If I were to begin this process today, I would consider the energetic difference between making something happen in consciousness and

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allowing something to happen consciously. In the past energy of duality, I found it was important to really focus on my creations to the exclusion of any old programming and limiting beliefs. That is why repeated a ffirmations have been so beneficial in that energy. Now that we are more and more living in the newly created energy of oneness, I believe our skills of "allowing" have become the mainstay of the creative process. In his recent book, The Power Of Intention (2004), Wayne Dyer talks about intention as "a force in the universe that allows creation to take place." Seen from this perspective, setting our intention is a way of plugging into this force in the universe and allowing it to carry us along. Dr. Dyer writes that the four steps of intention are: discipline, wisdom, love and surrender. In applying these to the creation of the breatharian lifestyle, we can view our first step as allowing ourselves to have the discipline to make the changes indicated. Through that discipline we are able to powerfully access wisdom that is born of experience. This wisdom then becomes our own truth, which acknowledges the information and experience of others but does not rely upon it. Once this is accomplished, the energy of love becomes our primary mode of interacting with the world, at which time we totally surrender into the experience of being fed by light. There is a point, in the journey of living on light, when a person begins to realize that there is no longer a need to focus on thinking about the process of accessing prana. At this stage a person is able to know and feel that pranic nourishment is happening automatically. This awareness engenders a sense of safety and trust. At t his point a clear and powerful statement of intention that is helpful and clarifying to me is "I intend that I am living my life as a free and sovereign being!" Back to Breatharianism Index

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Techniques To Increase Our Body's Ability To Access Prana One of the most important preparations a person can do to move in the direction of being more and more fed by the light is to do exactly what you are doing with this course. The change must first begin in the mind, at the level of the belief system. The first question that has to be asked is “Is it possible?” Then a belief that it is possible must follow. From Wiley’s website: “The world is flooded with books on food and eating. No one seems to realize that eating is not natural, but an acquired habit, like smoking and drinking, and that FRESH CLEAN AIR is the Cosmic Reservoir of all things, including the substance that builds and sustains the human body. Science has shown that the body is built of cells, which are composed of molecules, which are composed of atoms, which are composed of electrons, which are nothing more tha n whirling centers of force in the ether. Electrons do not eat, atoms, do not eat, cells do not eat and the body is built of and sustained by the cells, and not by what man eats.” One of my favorite of Wiley’s quotes is, “We don’t live because we eat food, we live in spite of the fact that we eat food.” That one stayed on my refrigerator for a long time. In order to live on light, there must be a belief in a Higher Power and also a belief in individual co-creative ability with this Source or Power. Also, for most of us, it will be necessary to reprogram existing cellular thoughts and belief systems. An example of this would be our mother’s constant mantra, “You must eat!” along with, “You will catch your death of cold if you go outside with wet hair!” and, “You are going to break your neck!”(which was shouted upon any risk taking behavior at all). In Ambassadors Of Light written by Jasmuheen in 2000, she has a section written by Dr. Juergen Buche, a physician of natural medicine with 15 years of experience in alternative cancer therapies, fasting and nature cures. He says, “To begin with, I found that daily affirmations are an absolute necessity in order to reinforce the paradigm of self-sufficiency with the SELF being the a lmighty I AM resident within you. I use the following: ‘I AM limitless Love. I am the perfect manifestation of the omnipotent, loving, divine and infinitely benevolent power of the universe which sustains me, nourishes me and heals me on all levels regardless of whether I eat or not. I AM continually renewed on all levels and I AM spiritually, mentally and emotionally balanced. I AM the perfect expression of divine and limitless Love.’” He claims that this affirmation will sustain and tune a person. One must be prepared to change, have no fear and dare to be different. My mainstay mental program before, during and after the process was, “I command my body elemental that from this now moment you absorb all the vitamins, nutrients and nourishment required to maintain peak physical health from the pranic forces of the Universe.” As you experiment with these affirmations, be aware of whatever thoughts come up to interfere with the new beliefs. For example, an interfering thought might be, “If I don’t eat I will be too thin.” Once awareness lights up a limiting thought, an antidote affirmation can then be created and practiced, such as, “My body is now attaining and maintaining it’s perfect weight.” With this a ffirmation, the body’s own natural wisdom

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about what is its ideal, healthy weight is acknowledged and accessed. This is a way to practice the belief that there is consciousness and wisdom in every cell. (For more information on Affirmations, see the UMS course Affirmations and Reprogramming.) In the last year I have felt that the energy in the world in which we live has definitely shifted into a higher frequency. If I were to begin this process today, I would consider the energetic difference between making something happen in consciousness and allowing something to happen consciously. In the past energy of duality, I found it was important to really focus on my creations to the exclusion of any old programming and limiting beliefs. That is why repeated a ffirmations have been so beneficial in that energy. Now that we are more and more living in the newly created energy of oneness, I believe our skills of “allowing” have become the mainstay of the creative process. In his recent book, The Power Of Intention (2004) Wayne Dyer talks about intention as “a force in the universe that allows creation to take place.” Used from this perspective, setting our intention is a way of plugging into this force in the universe and allowing it to carry us along. Dr. Dyer writes that the four steps of intention are: discipline, wisdom, love and surrender. In applying these to the creation of the breatharian lifestyle, we can view our first step as allowing ourselves to have the discipline to make the changes indicated. Through that discipline we are able to powerfully access wisdom that is born of experience. This wisdom then becomes our own truth, which acknowledges the information and experience of others but does not rely upon it. Once this is accomplished, the energy of love becomes our primary mode of interacting with the world, at which time we totally surrender into the experience of being fed by light. There is a point, in the journey of living on light, when a person begins to realize that there is no longer a need to focus on thinking about the process of accessing prana. At this stage a person is able to know and feel that pranic nourishment is happening automatically. This awareness engenders a sense of safety and trust. At t his point a clear and powerful statement of intention that is helpful and clarifying to me is “I intend that I am living my life a s a free and sovereign being!”

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Sources Of Prana There are three main sources of prana, and we will discuss each of them below: 1. sun gazing 2. walking barefoot 3. conscious breathing In order to begin to consciously access prana from other sources, it is helpful to understand that the three major sources of this energy a re solar prana, air prana, and earth prana. HRM's technique of sun gazing is a way to directly access prana from the sun. The basic premise is that what we eat is actually a secondary or tertiary form of sun energy, since all fruits and vegetables are dependent on sunlight for their life. Getting our nutrients directly from the sun is a way to practice HRM's philosophy of direct access to Source, no intermediary needed. In order to practice the technique of sun gazing, it is essential that people stand barefoot on the earth while looking at the sun. He says that the earth is what protects the eyes from harm. Gazing at the sun is only done in the time frames of one hour after sunrise or one hour before sunset. HRM says there are no ultraviolet or any other harmful rays during this period. Sun gazing is a one-time practice in a person's lifetime. The way to begin is to look at the sun directly (right after sunrise or before sunset) for ten seconds the first day. Then the time is increased by ten seconds each day. During this time you are free to pray, meditate, sing or engage in any other uplifting or spiritually fulfilling practice. After nine months the gazer will be at a level of 44 minutes a day. At that point, the practice is complete. The proclaimed benefits of sun gazing include complete mental a nd physical health. After three months of the practice any and all mental illness will be dissipated. At six months practice, all diseases will be healed, including cancer and AIDS. By the time you achieve nine months of practice, physical hunger has begun to totally disappear. At this point the sun gazing practice is complete. After completing this phase, HRM recommends that people walk barefoot on the sand (or earth) every day for 45 minutes and continue a daily practice by accessing earth prana. When I left sunny Sacramento I had completed three months of the sun gazing practice. Coming to Humboldt County, a place where fog is more prominent, brought a change of environment as far as my ability to access daily doses of the sun's energy. It has been substituted with frequent barefoot walks on the beach. As an exercise and experience in pranic nourishment, I highly recommend you try walking on the beach, without shoes, in the awareness of being fed by Mother Earth. Make a commitment to the whole 45 minutes, intending to practice a discipline that can lead to the expansion of your consciousness. When you start walking, become aware of how your body feels. Are you hungry or satisfied? Do you have cravings or do you feel complete? If you have cravings or feel incomplete, what is it you want or need? How might you feel after you have eaten this food? What would eating the food satisfy? Feel your feet on the sand. Ask Mother Earth to feed you. When you have finished your walking contemplation, take some time to j ournal your feelings.

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In my experience, gazing at the sun is a powerful, intense and energizing experience. While looking into the pulsating mass of e nergy, I can actually feel my body gain in life force capacity. When I again am living in a place with daily sun, I plan to complete the nine-month practice. If you feel drawn t o it, I recommend the website, www.solarhealing.com. You can try the ten-second practice, always remembering to stand barefoot on the earth, and only in the time frames of one hour after sunrise, and one hour before sunset. These ten seconds alone will give a wonderful experience of feeling fed by light. Be aware, you may become hooked on the sun! In the book Man's Higher Consciousness (1962), Professor Hilton Hotema says that the physical lungs, not the stomach, are the life organs of the body. The most vital function of the body is breathing. The term "Breatharian" is referring to the body's ability to access all sustaining energy from the air itself, or air prana. Pranayama, the yoga of breathing, is a helpful, complimentary practice for almost every discipline that has the goal of personal and spiritual growth and change. Conscious breathing brings our awareness right into our bodies in the present moment, which is where all change happens. Our habit of shallow breathing, or under breathing, is a way we have of energetically starving ourselves. It can create a feeling of low energy and lethargy, which in turn contributes to cravings for stimulating substances such as sugar and caffeine. These substances then become addictive, as our bodies come to rely on this source of false energy and forget how t o access true energy from Source. The following are instructions for a basic pranayama technique designed to help tune into the Universal Substance of prana and to be able to utilize the energy received to vitalize the physical, emotional and mental bodies. 1. Sit comfortably with your back straight and your feet flat on the floor. 2. Empty your lungs. 3. Start by inhaling completely to the count of four. 4. Hold your breath for the count of four. 5. Now exhale completely to the count of four. 6. Hold the air out of your lungs for the count of four. 7. Repeat this breath two to six times once or twice a day. 8. You may increase the count by one second each week. 9. When inhaling, try silently chanting Sooooooooooo. 10. When exhaling, chant Hummmmmmm. While you are breathing, have the intention that the breath is feeding you. After your meal of breathing the air around you, you can journal your feelings. How does this meal compare with Taco Bell or Burger King? Back to Breatharianism Index

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Fed By Love Another way to access prana in our daily lives is to maintain our focus on the energy of love. God is love. We are made in the image and likeness of God, from the substance that is God. We are literally made of love. What better way to feed, renew and restore our physical bodies than to fill ourselves up with the stuff out of which we are made. In David Hawkins's book Power vs. Force (2001), he describes a system of kinesiology he uses to calibrate levels of consciousness. In his scale, at a vibratory level of 400, a person is operating at the point of "reason" and at the level of 500 a person's point of reference is "unconditional love." While I was attending a workshop with him in Sedona, he calibrated the vibratory level of the group that was in attendance. Measuring the vibration at a level somewhere around 480, he then had the e ntire group go outside to experience a powerful electrical storm that was lighting up the surrounding mountains. After a half an hour of absorbing the power and the wonder of nature, he then recalibrated the group and found us to be at a level of 483! This was a substantial gain in a short period of time effected simply by the practice of focusing on an environment that stimulated a powerful spiritual feeling. That e xperience brought the group closer to a point in consciousness where our primary reference is unconditional love. When a person stops eating, the center of the energetic body moves from the solar plexus, where digestion takes place, and goes to the heart, the true "digestion" center for a spirit-focused being. Love is the Western name for prana or life force. Being made of love, our bodies are literally love machines. Since I have been learning to live on light, I have found it very helpful to fill my environment with objects that stimulate a feeling of love when I rest my gaze upon them. I have many pictures of loved ones, spiritual masters, natural environment scenes and beautiful art surrounding me in my home and office. When my eyes rest upon these pictures I am filled up. I hunger for fresh flowers and beautifully scented candles and aromatherapy. Having music playing in the background as I work fills me with a sense of love that leads to peace and harmony. Remember now those first three months after falling in love with the other, the one who we allow ourselves to believe will be the answer to all that we have been missing in our lives. Do you remember how you didn't need to eat or sleep? Do you remember how your senses felt heightened? We all know by now that it is not the other person that is causing these feelings in us. Truthfully, we do not yet really know the other person. What is causing this sense of completeness and fullness, such that we need and want nothing else but the other, is our own be lief in who this person is and what he or she will do for us. It is our belief in love and the potential of love that so absorbs us and fills us. We look for love to c omplete us, balance us, resolve us and restore the years the locusts have ea ten. The mistake we often make is to believe that this kind of love will happen only when we are finally accepted by the other for who we honestly are. The truth is that this experience of being completed by love is only possible when we are finally able to love and accept ourselves. Try this for yourself. The next time you feel mildly hungry (don't wait until you feel ready to rip off the refrigerator door), give your level of hunger a rating, from one to ten with one being the absence of any hunger and ten being ravenous. Go outside and breathe, think of someone you love, look at a picture of a master, look at and smell

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beautiful flowers, listen to beautiful music, or a ny combination of these activities. As you are practicing these experiences, have the intention that you are being fed by the energy of love. After a half an hour, check in again and give your hunger a number rating between one and ten. Notice the difference and then journal your findings and your feelings. Back to Breatharianism Index

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Addicted To Food In the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" JZ Knight, as Ramtha, is shown on camera saying, "You have addictions because you have nothing better. No one has taught you how to dream." Since learning to live on light, I have come to realize for myself that the biggest challenge has been the feeling that I need food to take care of my emotional states. I began to differentiate the emotions and the cravings. When I was down, I wanted chocolate, or caffeine. When I was happy, I wanted to celebrate with rich sauces and alcohol. When I was lonely, I wanted popcorn with my movie. When I was grieving, I wanted tuna casserole with potato chips on the top. Since I had spent four years of my career as a drug and alcohol counselor, I decided to use the addictions model to help me deal with these cravings. The model I use is an additive model. I recommend that we don't take things out of our lives that we consider "bad" for us, but that we add more and more healthy things to our li ves. Eventually the healthy things and activities will take up so much of us that there will no longer be room for the things that don't serve us. For example, I used to enjoy marijuana until I started meditating regularly. When I started to enjoy the effect of the meditation so much, I realized I was no longer interested in smoking pot, as it just got in the way of this other more satisfying experience. In this additive model for changing habits and behavior, there is less of a sense of deprivation and more of a sense of empowerment and choosing to move in a new direction. I never realized until I actually stopped eating food, how much space is taken up on so many levels with our normal preoccupation with what, when and how to eat. About ten months post-process, I went for a weekend getaway with f our women friends. Because of the dynamic of me being in the group and not eating, we were all acutely aware of the time and energy spent discussing where we would eat, what we would eat, what time we would eat and how much we wanted to pay to eat. Gaining consensus three times a day with that many people became quite an ordeal. At one point, one of the women turned to me and said, "Wow, Teri, how much easier your life must be now!" Decisions about eating also seem to get more complicated as we go along. With the continuous stream of new theories, new diets and new health focuses, the current thinking on the subject seems to be always changing and rearranging as far as what i s the best way to feed our bodies. I have seen people in the grocery store reading the ingredients on packages looking stunned and incapacitated. One friend who was worrying about her husband's list of physical difficulties ranging from gout to high cholesterol looked at me in frustration and said, "I just can't feed him anything anymore!" While I looked silently back at her with empathy, she seemed to remember my lifestyle and added, "Oh, never mind!" Why is it that when we are sick our bodies stop wanting food? I don't believe it is our physical bodies that crave food, but that it is our mental and emotional bodies that are in need. Once we know that our bodies can be healthier by eating less and less, it is then a matter of healing our addiction to the desired effect of eating the food. If we crave food for stimulation, we can add stimulating ac tivities to our lives, such as classes, travel or art (skydiving, if you are so inclined). If we crave food for comfort, we can add

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comforting activities to our lives, such as massages, beautiful music or t alking with supportive friends. If we crave food to alleviate boredom, then we need to challenge ourselves to explore. If we crave food to numb out, then our attention is being called to find healing for the emotions that we resist and repress. As we are learning in quantum physics, when we observe something, we change it. When we observe these patterns of addiction to the effects of certain foods with a non judgmental, curious approach, we are empowering ourselves to choose whatever reality most serves us at this point in our evolution. Back to Breatharianism Index

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A Global Perspective Consider this meditation/visualization. Find a comfortable position, close your eyes, start to focus on your breathing, and relax. Begin to imagine a world in which eating is a choice rather than a need. Breathe. Imagine living in a world where there are no starving children in any city or in any country. (Then where would your mother send that dinner that you don't want to finish?). See the faces of the children from all over our planet healthy, energized, beautiful, crystal clear and enthusiastic. Breathe and focus on the colors in your image. Picture a world without poverty as the billions of dollars we spend on food is diverted for social change and equality of living. See that this equality of living leads to the elimination of crime and war. Add emotion to this image. What do you notice about this world? Take your time and explore. How do we live? What do our homes look like? What do we do with our time? What is our "work? " What are our relationships like with each other? What do we do to socialize? How do we celebrate? How do we interact with other nations? What is the quality of our physical and mental health? Be aware of your breathing while you are focusing on these images. Know that your brain doesn't know the difference between what you see with your eyes open and what you imagine with your eyes closed. Feel your co-creative ability in this world. Which world would you choose? Right now, if you decide, breathe life into your creation. Make it real. Realize. Consider the effect on human consciousness when large numbers of people begin to incorporate the belief that everything that we currently accept as "law" regarding food and our physical bodies is up for reexamination. It is not necessary for more people to practice a breatharian lifestyle in order to change consciousness, just as it is not necessary for me to sail to the edge of the earth for me to believe that the earth is round. We can immediately begin to create the consciousness for conditions in the world to improve. We do this when more people begin to live in the world with the knowledge that it is possible to experience vibrant physical health by being fed by sources other than food. We begin to "observe" a different possibility and according to quantum physics, when we observe something, we change it. The energy of educating ourselves more fully about this truth, of observing this possibility, is right now making a difference in our world. Back to Breatharianism Index

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Concerns Regarding Breatharianism and Breatharians Any person that I have spoken with about this lifestyle expresses concerns about "going public" with what they are doing. In the world within which we currently live, it is common for people who are different and express different perspectives to be attac ked and ridiculed. It can sometimes be difficult to separate this type of reactive a ttack from the intelligent, evocative questioning that is a vital part of a thoughtful learning process. At the time I was preparing to experience the 21-day process at the turn of the millennium, there was a very tragic event that was publicized in the media. A 49 yearold woman who had read of the process in Jasmuheen's book, was found dead by a fisherman in November of 1999. According to Newswire (England), on Monday November 29, 1999, Verity Linn had been camping by he rself, and entries in her journal indicated that she was doing a "spiritual cleansing program." Friends provided the information that what she was doing was associated with Jasmuheen's work. Verity Linn was also a member of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. Her family didn't press any charges. The media used this and another death in 1998 that had been linked to the same teachings, to launch a personal attack on Jasmuheen and the practice of breatharianism as described in the 21-day process. For my friends and family who knew what I was planning, this information added extra energy to their fear f or me. For many people, these events were evidence of the belief, "If I don't eat, I will die." It meant that the people that love me had to struggle to find a way to believe in me regardless of what their heads were telling them. Some of my friends made this tra nsition, many of them didn't. For me, the events in the media gave me more motivation to be very honest about my own beliefs and to make sure that I was not in denial about the objective "reality" of the possibilities. They helped me to focus on the necessity of absolutely empowering my belief in myself and in my own intuition. Yes, it is possible that death will be the result in this 21 day process if the belief structure around food has not been completely addressed and resolved. One of the reasons that powerful, esoteric spiritual practices have been protected through the centuries, buried in secret rituals for the duly initiated, is the concern that they would be dangerous in the possession of the unprepared. It is a big leap to determine when it is the right time for humanity to assume our true individual sovereignty and responsibility for ourselves. It is a big step for us to be trusted to use our intuition and personal wisdom to determine what is right for us and when we are ready. We are used to being told what to do, when to do it, what is right and what is wrong. It's one of the ways we have been kept in a place of disempowerment and enslavement. I learned early on in my practice as a therapist the wisdom of not telling people what to do. If you do tell people what to do, and it works, they become dependent on you. If you tell them what to do, and it doesn't work, people will blame you or sue you. Perhaps this training has helped me to determine for myself that the people who offer powerful practices and techniques to the world are not responsible for every way in which those teachings might be used or misused. For myself, I have decided that I am ready for the truth of who I am and what my capabilities are. I believe that we are all as ready as we can be, and as more and more truth, tools and technology are made a vailable to us, we

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will grow into that space and mature. The transition into personal sovereignty may not always be smooth, but better to have difficult transitions than to remain in places we have outgrown. This is just my opinion. The media has called the teachings of breatharianism irresponsible in a culture where so many people suffer with anorexia. This is possibly a way for the media not to own their own accountability in the creation of the phenomenon of rampant eating disorders among our young people, especially young women, through the practice of glamorizing unhealthy thinness. People who practice and teach about breatharianism stress the vital importance of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and strength as the measures of preparation for this path. I have heard of people who have used the study of this practice as a means of identifying and healing dysfunctional relationships with food, usually grounded in painful childhood experiences. Family of origin therapy, education regarding media influence, and practicing a healthy diet are all ways to bring these issues to light for healing. Breatharianism is not a spiritual goal. It is a tool on the path of consciousness in the Divine. Another concern about this information is that it challenges traditional religious beliefs about God and our relationship to God. Most religions teach that God is a personality that lives in another place and is watching over us, rewarding us and punishing us according to our adherence to and breaking of t he rules. These rules can vary according to the rulebook that is followed. The philosophy of breatharianism teaches that any person can attain higher states of consciousness and physical mastery, and actually discover truth for themselves outside the guidelines of the "rules." Since this idea can be threatening to tradition and a church's ability to control it's members, it has been categorized as "metaphysical" and therefore, in some circles, of the devil. The followers of metaphysical practices have often been criticized and ostracized by family and friends because of differing beliefs. We have been made to feel evil and/or out of touch with reality, or crazy. These are all techniques and strategies used since humanity's beginnings to suppress personal power. People who think "outside the box" have many opportunities to strengthen and clarify truth in the face of harsh criticism from others. James Guilliland, a noted researcher in the field of human-initiated contact with extraterrestrial intelligences (the CE5 Initiative), is often the target of attacks and attempts to discredit his work. His usual response to his attackers is, "As you wish." The power in this practice of living a breatharian lifestyle, and all other personal, spiritual journeys, is in not convincing anyone of anything. The power is in living and having our lives become an observable demonstration of our truth. "By their fruits, shall ye know them." Let us strive to live our lives in a manner such that our fruits are attractive to those who seek nourishment. Back to Breatharianism Index

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Who, What, Where, Why, When And How? And so, what is a saint? Who are the "Saints of the Latter Days?" Why did my parents name me after a Catholic, breatharian Saint? I have heard it said that breatharianism is the kindergarten of physical mastery. Once a person goes there and experiences how normal it can be to not need to eat food, it is difficult to access the old consciousness of when it was believed to be impossible. What if we decided to see our own holiness, to "officially recognize and canonize each other?" What if the miracles of vibrational acceleration that we perform every day qualified us for sainthood? What if we are the ones we have been waiting for? What if we chose and it was so? When my son was two years old, his very first word was "hot," used to describe the feeling that he had when he put his finger close to a candle. What could be a more basic rule for the protective parent to teach the precious child than, "Fire Burns?" At age fifteen my precious child was struggling to overcome fears that he felt were holding him back from success on the football field as a member of his high school team. I invited him to go with me on a fire walk. As I was signing the release promising not to sue anyone if he (or I) burned up, I wondered about the job of the loving, protective parent. Does the parent teach the child that fire burns until he is of age to be able to say to him, "just kidding?" It made me wonder if that's how God works with us. "Fire burns," until your mind and spirit has matured enough to be able to decide that it doesn't. As my son and I walked across the red-hot coals without sustaining any burns, I wondered how this experience would affect his life. I wondered again as he went on to win a football scholarship and became the captain of the football team at Columbia University in his senior year. Fire burns, unless it doesn't. If you don't eat food, you will die. Or you won't. What other laws of nature are up for renegotiation from the perspective of the saints t hat we are? Can I dematerialize and rematerialize at will? Can I bi-locate? Can I walk through walls, travel by thought, or walk on water? Finite answers tend to make us feel safe. If am convinced that I know how things work, or at least trust the system that told me how things work, then I can live on autopilot, just plugging in the conditioned behaviors and responses to all life's eventualities. I am never surprised. I am often bored and looking for distraction. I create alternate realities within myself that I hide from the rest of the world. My shadow and my external self live in conflict with each other. This condition causes me to shudder when I think of humanity evolving into a state of pure telepathic communication. Our fear of "exposure" holds us all back. What if we acknowledged that all we have been taught might no longer be applicable to who we have evolved into today? What if God is something so much m ore than we learned in kindergarten? What if we all truly are God, not children of God, sons and daughters of God, or even co-creators with God? What if our names are God I AM? What if we are responsible for all that we see, live and feel?

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I suggest that we go back to the visualization of a world where people no longer need to eat. Imagine once again what you would do with all your time, energy, health, creativity and harmony. Let your imagination run, as if you are God, creating a new world in your image and likeness. See all the Gods getting together and combining the images in an even higher, more profound frequency. Allow your soul to fly free, at last living in the world of your imagination. Feel the passion and the peace of creation. See that you have created Heaven on Earth. Now call it good. Then drop me a line. We don't have to do lunch, we can just trip the Light Fantastic. "I can't believe that," said Alice. "Can't you?" said the Queen in a pitying tone. "Try again. Draw a long breath and shut your eyes."

Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said. "One can't believe impossible things." "I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Quote from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland Back to Breatharianism Index

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Breatharianism - Teri Callaghan

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