When actress Michelle Pfeiffer was just starting out in Hollywood, long before her hit movies
Batman Returns and Hairspray hit theatres, she admits to being roped into the cult of
“breatharianism.”
Breatharians, for those unfamiliar, is literally a group of people who believe that humans
can survive without food or water—they get all the nutrients they need from air and sunlight.
Obviously as even plants can't survive with only air and sunlight, there is no way that
humans can live on just this, so how did she get wrapped up in it?
In 1978, Pfeiffer participated in the Miss Orange County beauty pageant.
She won and went on to participate in Miss California, where she came in sixth place.
During that time, she was able to sign on with an acting agent and started auditioning
for films and TV shows.
Obviously, she would later become quite successful, but as with many acting careers, she was off
to a slow start.
It’s possible that breatharianism was pitched to her as a diet that could make her look
good and perform her best for those auditions.
Whatever prompted her, she fell into line with a couple who acted as “personal trainers”
and encouraged her to get on this diet.
Of the couple, Pfeiffer recalled that “They were very controlling.
I wasn’t living with them but I was there a lot and they were always telling me I needed
to come more.
I had to pay for all the time I was there, so it was financially very draining.”
Today’s breatharian movement was started by Ellen Greve, known as Jasmuheen, though
she didn’t come up with the idea.
Living off of a “life force” has been around in many different cultures throughout
history.
Greve took the idea of “prana,” the Sanskrit word for life-force, and believed she had
found a way to cure world hunger- just stop eating... genius!
Now, fasting, of course, has long been an important part of many different religions.
The difference between fasting and breatharianism is that you typically end your fasting period
and eat some food.
Breatharianism, on the other hand, is for life (however long or short that life may
be).
You’re probably wondering how anyone could possibly get roped into thinking living off
air and sunlight is a good idea, let alone pay for it, but the methods used are more
or less the same as with most cults (and used in politics, marketing, etc.).
They simply exploit human psychology to very subtly get one's mindset in such a state that
they can convince the person of some small inconsequential thing, then rinse and repeat
until in the end they've managed to convince you of some big thing which had they presented
to you at the very beginning you'd have instantly known was ridiculous.
While it's common to scoff and shake our heads at people who get roped into such things,
the reality is that these sorts of methods work on pretty much all humans if presented
in the right way and if the shift in thinking is gradual enough- among numerous other examples
throughout history, we need look no further than the Nazi party to observe this effect
on a mass-scale.
Small moves over a large span of time is one of the major keys to this.
And, indeed, this is how they do it with breatharianism.
Progressing to real breatharianism is a slow, step-by-step process; so for new members it
probably doesn’t seem so crazy at first, particularly if you're ignorant of the end
goal to start with.
Newly inducted breatharians start by making the switch to vegetarianism.
From there, they become vegans, eat only raw foods, cut out everything but fruit, and finally
consume only liquids before stopping food and liquid intake altogether.
Let’s say someone reaches that last step and stops eating entirely.
Without any food, the body starts to break down glycogen, proteins, and fats for energy,
until it runs out of what it needs.
Dehydration from lack of water is the bigger worry, though.
Without any liquids, among other problems, the organs will begin to shut down, seizures
are common, and it can result in permanent brain damage.
Normally people can survive just a few days without water, though people have been known
(rarely) to survive for a few weeks.
Even Greve recognizes the danger, though she blames it on members’ unpreparedness rather
than the lack of consumption of food and water: “If a person is unprepared and not listening
to their inner voice there can be many problems... from extreme weight loss to even loss of their
life.”
And, indeed, people have lost their lives attempting Breatharianism: Verity Linn, a
49-year-old, was found dead in Scotland following her Breatharian conversion; Temo Degan slipped
into a coma after converting to Breatharianism and died shortly after being revived with
IV drips; and Lani Morris, mother of nine, was in the care of a Breatharian couple when
she developed pneumonia and had a stroke before passing.
They claimed not to know that anything was wrong until it was too late.
Yet there are a number of supposed “success” stories to counteract the deaths.
Greve herself claims to have lived the Breatharian lifestyle for years, only sometimes eating
mouthfuls of food “for taste.”
However, given the time-frame for survival without water, let's just say that it's unlikely
that Greve actually sticks to her own diet.
On that note, she once went on Australia’s “60 Minutes” and did a fasting test to
prove that she could live on light and air.
At the end of 48 hours, her blood pressure rose and she showed signs of severe dehydration.
She blamed the symptoms on “polluted air,” so the show moved her away from the city.
After that, a supervising doctor said Greve experienced dilated pupils, slowed speech,
and weight loss.
The program cut off the test before Greve required hospitalization, but she said they
only did it because they feared she would be successful.
Another “success” story is Wiley Brooks, who claims to have been a Breatharian for
over 30 years.
He even founded the Breatharian Institute of America.
If you’re interested in joining, it will cost you.
Weirdly, Brooks is all for McDonald’s hamburgers and Diet Coke (which is of course made from
sun and air...
Right?).
Brooks has a long explanation as to why this is good, starting with
“One of the most exciting things about coming to Earth [after descending from our natural
plane] was eating 3d food.
Food was not eaten for nutrition but for the exquisite taste and sensations you would get.”
And get this: “The 5d qualities in the diet coke acts as a type of binding agent which
binds all other sugars and toxins (after-effects) in the meal being digested at that time to
the beef in the burger.
The beef acts as a catalyst that draws these toxins to digestive tract and escorts them
out of the body as waste.”
We think that means, translated- McDonald’s is delicious.
Couldn’t agree more Wiley.
That said, don’t even get him started on chicken burgers.
Apparently beef is the way to go because: “The cow consciousness is a group of fully
consciousness, very high dimensional beings who don’t experience death the way you think
about it.
They know there is no such thing as death.
Only transition from one reality to another, and there are many realities to visit.
So stop worrying about them, you are the ones in hot soup.”
Ah, the unparalleled wisdom and nobility of our bovine friends.
How much we could learn from them if we only listened...
So wise…
At any rate, while it seems that the “air and sunlight” diet isn’t strictly followed
by many Breatharians, and certainly not by the surviving ones, it’s lucky for those
of us who are fans of her work that Michelle Pfeiffer- ya, we didn’t forget about her,
she’s in the title after all- escaped while she still could.
She says that the moment of revelation came after she met her first husband, Peter Horton,
at an acting class.
Horton was working on a film about the “Moonies,” the followers of Reverend Moon Sun-myung’s
cult-like Unification Church.
He brought her along to interview ex-cult followers to do some research.
Pfeiffer said, “We were talking with an ex-Moonie and he
was describing the psychological manipulation and [it] just clicked...
I was in one.”
Obviously, acceptance was the first stage to getting out, and Pfeiffer was able to quit
the cult.
She does still eat a vegan diet, which she started while with the Breatharians, but she
says that’s about health rather than clinging on to the vestiges of the cult.
Bonus Fact: Being a vegan and raw-foodist, Woody Harrelson
did not actually eat any real Twinkies in the movie Zombieland.
Rather, the “Twinkies” he was shown eating were made from cornmeal and were vegan-safe.
It should also be noted that Twinkies only have a shelf life of about 25 days, contrary
to what many a film would have you believe.
When Twinkies first came out, they had even less of a shelf life.
This was due primarily to the dairy products contained in Twinkies giving them only a two
day shelf life on average.
This obviously cut into the profit margins.
With the need for longer shelf life, they started substituting ingredients in the original
recipe with artificial ones.
Among those artificial ingredients are cellulose gum, which gives Twinkie cream its smooth
feel.
Another place you can find this cellulose gum is in rocket fuel.
But that’s not the only fuel based ingredient in a Twinkie.
The chemicals that make up the artificial butter flavor are themselves derived from
petroleum.
Another interesting ingredient is corn dextrin.
This gives Twinkies their sticky crust.
Another place you can find this wonderful ingredient is in various glues; for instance,
the glue that you find on the back of envelopes.
Interestingly though, of the 39 ingredients that make up a Twinkie, only one of them is
strictly a preservative, or rather, its only purpose in being included is because it’s
a preservative.
Some of the other chemicals in Twinkies have preserving side effects, but their use is
primarily as substitutes for the dairy ingredients.
The lack of these dairy ingredients and the air tight plastic wrap are the primary reason
that the Twinkie can last the 25 days on the shelves and can out last so many of its other
baked brethren in that respect.