Oh no, we can’t have a … BREATHARIAN gap! Quick, someone give this man a billion to train breatharian warriors!

Uh. The article is about a Hindu holy man, so I’m pretty sure that we’re talking about religion.

If someone puts an object on 100 different scales which all read 5g, but for whatever reasons, you just know that it weighs 4.9g, it’s easier just to keep it to yourself. You can’t go around telling people you know the truth; you can only wait for other people to realize there’s something happening, but then there’s little point in discussing with them what they already know – no need to preach to the choir, so to speak. No need to sell these beliefs. No cause for assembly. That’s why spirituality is real, and religion is fraudulent.

Uh, he claims he can live without food, which I’m pretty sure is a scientific claim.

OF course, that time around too, it was a project funded by an Indian defense research organization (possibly the same one as now). Of course, military researchers have a lot of money to burn, and they can be terribly credulous, as the Pentagon showed with their paranormal escapades, as portrayed in Jon Ronson’s Men Who Stare at Goats…

These things never seem to go away. And from this news, the Indian defense researchers haven’t yet caught the hole in their monitoring: don’t bother with MRI and EEG if you let the guy alone part of the time. They should take a leaf from the book of Tahir Shah, or from Sanal Edamaruku (the guy who made a big stir in India by having another holy man fail to kill him by magic on television), or the late Basava Premanand, debunker of many a would-be fakir…

Heck, the defense guys should let the Indian Rationalists Association or Indian CSICOP investigate first, that would save a lot of taxpayers’ money!

No, it is not possible. The laws of physics still exist.

Some people don’t understand the difference between curiosity and gullibility.

Does testing whether he can live without food and water now prove whether or not he’s done it for the last 70 years?

I’m quite sure that you’re being deliberately dense in order to poke fun at people. The point remains that the burden of proof always remains with the person making the claim. If I say to a scientist “ha! you can’t prove that my magical green unicorns DON’T exist” they will reply “so what?” and walk away.

Suggesting that there is some room for reasonable doubt that maybe the guy did survive for the previous 70 years without food simply because we can’t prove it false, even after the guy failed to live one week without food under observation, is akin to the Orbos guys saying “our perpetual motion machine really did run for the last decade! Just because it stopped running when the scientist looked at it doesn’t mean anything!” Whether or not he’s right that we can’t prove the machine hadn’t been running previously, if he can’t substantiate his claim it’s no more interesting than talking about green unicorns.

(And that’s aside from the fact that he’s getting all sorts of (bad) sciency tests to verify the claim anyways).

I also make a mean stone soup.

even after the guy failed to live one week without food under observation

So far all I’ve seen from the reports of the tests done in India is that he went at least 10 days without food or water. Doesn’t prove he went 70 years without eating or drinking anything but it’s still an impressive display of bodily control if everything checks out.

That attitude is profoundly unscientific and has been held by science pharisees throughout human history. You would have denied the existence of x-rays, microwaves or anything else that you didn’t have a way of proving at the time. And yet, they existed whether or not you had an experiment designed.

Not that I actually think that this guy lives without eating.

This is India’s Defence Research Development Organisation. I imagine all research have to get approval of some kind.

“Hey boss, there’s this holy man who says he hasn’t had any food or water for the past 70 years because a goddess pours an elixir through a hole in his palate”. “You’re crazy. Where was it that you said you got your degree. Are you sure you know what you’re doing”.

“Boss. There’s this man who can survive for a long time without food or water. But he’s still perfectly well and healthy after two weeks. Not half dead from starvation and dehydration. I’ll like to study him, confirm if it’s true, and find out how he’s doing it. It’ll be useful for soldiers out in the field who gets cut off from supplies. I’ll need one of the rooms on the 3rd floor for two weeks. It already has the security monitors and all the medical equipment.” “Sounds OK. Send in your proposal first. I’ll get it approved.”

Which is my point. Of course this guy is fake, but most people’s declarations of scientific principles are just biases and memes and have more to do with reinforcing beliefs than any real attempt at observation.