‘Breatharianism’ Revisited

Kirby de Lanerolle of Sri Lanka appeared on National Geographic television in June to claim he’d lived without food for five years — on nourishment only from the sun, wind and the “vibrations of God.” But his story provoked the same skepticism faced by other breatharians — that who can know if he cheated? In May, Ms. Naveena Shine, a Seattle breatharian, attempted to head off that criticism by installing 24-hour cameras throughout her home for her upcoming four-to-six-month regimen consuming only air and sunlight. However, she called off her project after 47 allegedly pure days (and a 33-pound weight loss) because, she said, she was out of money and people seemed no less skeptical that she was somehow cheating. De Lanerolle, interrogated on the NatGeo TV show, actually confessed to minor cheating but insisted that science’s two-month maximum for surviving foodlessly is wrong. o