I'm not hungry.

[J70]

Until someone explains how he is managing to survive without water and food, I think it is only sensible to be rather skeptical and suspicious. Such a fraud would hardly be unprecedented!

How can he be harnessing sunlight to source energy? Plants and algae are the only organisms that can do that. Other microorganisms can harness energy from chemical sources such as methane or hydrogen sulphide, but animals, and certainly not mammals or humans, are not among them! As for the water, yes that has precedent in other mammalian species, but they get their moisture from their food!

It is proven that he is surviving without water and food. The onus is on the medical scientists to explain the how. That is what they are trying to do.
The old sage is more than a curious phenomenon. He is not throwing any gauntlet to the scientific establishment. He lives the simplest of existance. He is not getting up on any platform selling his seminar to gawking folk. He is not selling a book. He is not a media whore. He has left his cave and subjected himself to surveillance and tests. The fact that he exists is a challenge to those to find out the how.

It is proven? To whose satisfaction? What was it PT Barnum said?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

J70, stop the tomfoolery -- you'll be questioning the existence of Santa Claus next!

[ONeill]

Looking forward to this weekend's get-together of banshees, leprechauns and pots of gold in Clontibret.

[Hardy]

Maybe we need some visual aids.

[Main Street]

You would swallow any old drivel.

Read a bit of inane skeptic ramblings and you are sold

You think that posting on a website constitutes a 'peer-review', and you tell me that I'll believe any old drivel 

Peer review is allowing your work to be read by your peers. His written work is available for peer review.

Just one excerpt from the Indian Rationalist Association:

Bunch of nutcases.

Just one excerpt?
How about they complained that the Indian Army scientists should not conduct the investigation, that it was a waste of money.

"The Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the NASA have obviously been taken in by the absurd claims of a village fraud," wrote Sanal Edamaruku, Secretary General of the Indian Rationalist Association, in a letter to the Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes. "It is shocking to see that government officials and scientists are so gullible to believe that a human being can survive 60 years without food and water! The claim does not only contradict experience and common sense, but also our well-established biological and medical knowledge about the functioning of the human body. It is absolutely impossible that it is true - if it was, it would disprove the laws of physiology and we would have to rewrite our scientific text books!"

Not very rational thought. A rational person would welcome a thorough investigation in a controlled environment.

Another reason for being suspicious of Dr. Shah is that he is not presenting his evidence (including his alleged round-the-clock film surveillance of Jani) to a scientific journal or committee.

There's a track record here, though none so blind...

Yes, if you believe verbatim, those bunch of  'flat earth' like nutters.

[Main Street]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If this doctor will not turn this over to or at least allow the participation of independent and properly qualified observers, there is no reason whatsoever to do anything except dismiss it as fraudulent.

What are you on about peer review ?
His work is available for peer review.
He has not breached any ethics.
The good doctor has been campaigning for independent research and investigation for years. A controlled investigation was carried out by an independent group under the guidance of a reputable government agency. Is it a good second step or is the conspiracy widening?
I asked you how should the matter proceed, what do you propose?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

MS has to be on the wind up. He's not an idiot. Only idiots wouldn't cop on to the con here.

Oh dear, I wanted to believe you on that one, alas I just can't.

[J70]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If this doctor will not turn this over to or at least allow the participation of independent and properly qualified observers, there is no reason whatsoever to do anything except dismiss it as fraudulent.

What are you on about peer review ?
His work is available for peer review.
He has not breached any ethics.
The good doctor has been campaigning for independent research and investigation for years. A controlled investigation was carried out by an independent group under the guidance of a reputable government agency. Is it a good second step or is the conspiracy widening?
I asked you how should the matter proceed, what do you propose?

I answered that in the post you quoted, where I was following up on FOSB's previous one where that Indian skeptic/rationalist society claimed he refused to allow their participation! I wasn't talking about peer review, although quite what they can publish on this apart from a descriptive case study they claim was carried out under strict controlled conditions I cannot see, unless they find the hole in the palate his goddess is feeding him through or the photosynthetic cells in his skin converting sunlight into carbohydrates!

This guy should be turned over to some other qualified scientists other than this doctor (i.e. totally independent bunch who have no involvement or connection with him and with him excluded, to rule out any malfeasance on his part) for study or, at the very least, the doctor should permit the participation of outside, independent observers who can check on each and every detail to make sure there is nothing fraudulent going on (you don't think the rationalists' claims about the alleged exclusion of their representatives at least raises doubts?). If the observational set-up is as above-board as they say, then an independent team should have no problem repeating the findings. This doctor is the one making very bold claims and he is the one who should be held to the highest standards of proof and verification. The burden of proof is on him and any sensible person should be extremely skeptical. But I see no reason to think this will turn out to be anything other than fraud and a waste of the Indian taxpayer's money and another tale to add to the long list of pseudoscientific claims that just didn't stand up to proper scrutiny.