http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/11/26/offbeat.india.fast/index.html

Mystic's fast baffles doctors
Thursday, November 27, 2003 Posted: 0335 GMT (11:35 AM HKT)

Prahlad Jani says his fasting ability is divinely inspired. 

(CNN) -- David Blaine eat your heart out. 

The magician's recent stunt of going 44 days without food is child's
play compared with the alleged efforts of India's Prahlad Jani. 

This 76-year-old Indian mystic claims to have survived the past 68
years -- yes, years -- without eating, drinking or going to the
toilet. 

It's an astonishing claim, and one which is being investigated by a
team of doctors at the Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad in India's of
the state of Gujarat. 

So far, doctors have subjected Jani to a 10-day trial under 24 hour
surveillance and have been astonished by their findings. 

The reclusive Jani -- who normally lives in a cave about 120
kilometers north of Ahmedabad -- did not eat, drink or relieve himself
for 10 days. 

"Jani has not passed urine since he was brought here on November 12.
He has not taken anything by mouth or by any other route not even
water during this period," Dr Urman Dhruv of The Association of
Physicians of Ahmedabad, told The Times of India. 

"All his parameters are within the normal physiological range.
Initially, the project was to continue for seven days but his health
allowed us to extend it," said Dhruv. 

What's more, there was the baffling discovery that Jani's body
appeared to form urine, but that was then reabsorbed back into the
bladder wall. 

"He underwent all possible medical investigations -- from checking
blood pressure to MRI of brain and gut, which were normal," Dr Sudhir
Shah, a neurologist, told the Times of India. 

"Perhaps, he is more fit than other people of his age. This is an
attempt to understand a new dimension in medical science and help
mankind." 

Jani's explanation is simpler. He has been blessed by the gods after
hearing his calling when he was eight years old. 

"I get the elixir of life from the hole in my palate, which enables me
to go without food and water," news agencies quoted Jani as saying. 


--
http://www.danijel.org/