The HRM Phenomenon or Sunlight Diet is the alleged ability of a human to exist solely on water and sunlight. It is named after a 65-year-old Indian man, Hira Ratan Manek who claims he made a pilgrimage to the Himalayas in 1995 and stopped eating completely when he returned. According to his wife, Manek gets sustenance by staring directly at the sun for an hour a day, and occasionally drinking tea or water. From 2000 to 2001, an international team of doctors and scientists observed the man as he went for 411 days without food, subsisting entirely upon his diet of sun-gazing. NASA scientists observed him at Thomas Jefferson university in Pennsylvania as he fasted for 130 days.
However, contact with Dr. Andrew Newberg has revealed that Hira only stayed at University of Pennsylvania for brain scans on studies of meditation, not his ability to fast indefinitely. Newberg had denied ever undertaking the 130 day study, and had forbidden his e-mail from being distributed.
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