About fifteen years ago, my friend told me about a talk he'd attended, given by a man who claimed to have entirely given up food and drink.

Although I pride myself in being fairly open minded, I am also by nature skeptical and rational - so I found the man's claim to be somewhat unbelievable. After all, no one can deny that there are many frauds and charlatans making the rounds in new-age circles, making a good living from the gullibility of others seeking a spiritual path. To me, this guy sounded like a prime contender - even quite a dangerous one. It doesn't take much imagination to realise the sort of damage that could be caused to vulnerable people by encouraging them to starve themselves.

More pressing for me was the question of rationality and the laws of physical reality. I am mostly of a scientific mind and it's hard for me to believe that the energy required to keep our bodies from functioning could come from anything but the food we eat. Also, the fact that we are composed mainly from water would require that we drink in order to prevent ourselves from drying up.

In short, to me the man's claim defied all logic and reason. If it was true, how was it that so many people actually die of hunger and thirst? My friend explained that the technique involves a deep state of meditation and a process of changing the metabolism from a food based one to one where energy is absorbed from light and from breathing the air. If you consider that we are essentially made of energy ourselves, then the possibilities become quite limitless.

On that point, I found I had to agree. It is scientifically quite well accepted that all matter is fundamentally energy vibrations at various frequencies. But I had to say that I'd believe it was possible to live without food or drink only if I saw it with my own eyes.

And so it was that I lived with the idea that there were people going around in this world who neither eat or drink - though I didn't really believe it was true - until about three years ago when a visitor came to our house.

There was nothing outwardly unusual about the visitor. He was a man of about sixty, dressed in the manner of a religious Jew. He was softly spoken and had a kind, thoughtful look about him - but really there was nothing exceptional about his appearance. The sort of person you might walk past in the street without even noticing.

He said he was looking for a quiet place to meditate for three weeks. He'd heard that we had a guest house and were also open minded, which is why he came to our door. The meditation process that he described would involve the transformation of his metabolism from food and drink to light and breath. Since it was a potentially dangerous undertaking, we would be required to keep an eye on him. After all, it's known and understood that though the body may survive for about a month without food, it will quickly shut down without water. After a few days one would expect him to be almost comatose from dehydration and half mad with thirst. Of course, I agreed immediately. As well as feeling honoured to be trusted with safeguarding this man's wellbeing, this was just the opportunity I'd been waiting many years for, to see for myself if the claims had been true.

We had several meetings prior to the guest's stay, including with his mentor who would guide him through the process. His mentor was a man in his early thirties who was jolly and round and surprisingly healthy looking for someone who had been living without food or drink for more than two years. In actual fact, he said, he occasionally ate a bit of ice cream, just because he liked the taste of it. And the odd avocado, when they're in season. And sometimes a cup of tea, to be polite, but he really didn't need any of those things. So he said.

He described the process to us, quite seriously, to make sure we understood what it would involve and what would be required of us. We would visit our guest once a day to make sure he was still alive, but to keep any conversation to an absolute minimum. For the first week, he would be allowed half a small cup of diluted fruit juice per day, which would be reduced to nothing by about the tenth day. We were warned that he may experience hallucinations and become incoherent, but this was quite normal. The most important part of the day was before sunset, when our guest would stare at the sun and absorb it's energy.

And so it was that the time came - our guest began his unusual process of transformation. It was late summer - hot and extremely dry. Dehydration is a serious risk here and people are recommended to drink at least two litres of water per day in order to remain healthy. A thimble full of diluted fruit juice just isn't enough, even for a kitten, let alone a fully grown man.

By the tenth day he could barely stand or even talk. It was all he could do to drag himself to the chair at sunset to absorb it's rays. But he didn't give up, even though he was looking pale and on the verge of collapse. It was really quite worrying. Nobody wants to have guests die in their guest house. It's bad for business for a start, and he was also a really kindly old gentleman.

At the two week mark, an amazing change began to take place. The colour returned to his cheeks, he became stronger and more talkative. In fact, I don’t know if I was imagining it, but I'd say he was actually positively glowing.

He began to take himself out for afternoon walks - short ones at first, but by the end of the third week he was going out for long walks in the hills and looking as fit, healthy and strong as a man half his age.

At the end of his stay, his wife arrived to collect him and take him home. She'd known that he was going on a meditation retreat, but I don’t think he'd told her exactly what it would involve - no doubt, not wanting to worry her and knowing that she'd never agree. After all, who could believe that someone could go without food or drink for three weeks or longer and survive? Either way, she remarked how amazingly well he looked and was glad the retreat had done him so much good.

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What do you think? Is this story true or is it all baloney?

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