This program discusses the possibility of breatharianism, or living without eating food, and is not a full instruction. For your safety, please do not attempt to cease eating without proper expert guidance. For your safety, please do not attempt to cease eating without proper expert guidance.

In scriptures, the human body is often referred to as the temple of God. Yet, it is quite an uncommon privilege for any soul to attain this sacred abode that houses the Divine, as it is truly a blessing to be reborn as a human being. On several occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai has spoken about the rarity of this phenomenon:

To be reincarnated in the human world is hard. You have to have enough Human Quality. You have to have affinity with the parents and with the society, with the people around which you are born. Very difficult. To be a human, you need some merit. You have done something good in the past in order to be able to pick a human birth.

As a living temple of God, the human body is fully equipped with miraculous wonders that can be awakened in those who are spiritually conscious and have complete faith in the Creator of all life. Inedia, Latin for “fasting,” is the human ability to live without food. Since time immemorial, there have always been individuals who can sustain themselves on prana, or the vital life force. Through the grace of the Providence, inediates, people who follow a food-free lifestyle, can draw the energy from nature to nourish themselves:

They live on the chi from the ground, or from the forest, and from the sun and from the air. They make use of all that. Or they live on love, on faith alone.

These individuals are known as breatharians(pranarians or inediates), solarians, or waterians, and they come from all walks of life, from different cultures, and all corners of the world.

Indeed, the possibilities and miracles in this life as our benevolent Creator has designed for us are endless; we only need to connect within to recognize our abounding largess as God’s children. Supreme Master Ching Hai has lovingly recommended a weekly series on Supreme Master Television to introduce those individuals of the past and present who have chosen to live food-free on Earth. May their spiritual stories enthrall you; may hearts be opened, and horizons be expanded. We now invite you to join us for part 1 of our two-part program, “Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good: Breatharians through Noble Ideals,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Welcome, enlightened viewers. Today’s feature examines the conditions under which two devoted worshippers of God received the gift of inedia. People who are inediates possess the extraordinary ability to abstain from eating food and drinking liquids. Some inediate practitioners consider overcoming the desire to consume food and liquids as a natural progression of their spiritual growth. Many view inediates as visible examples of persons who received God’s blessings. According to the Catholic Church,

Inedia is the abstinence from all nourishment for great lengths of time. Among the saints, this gift is usually manifested as the ability to exist for months or years with no food but Holy Communion.

Documentation of food-free individuals began since the Middle Ages, and most of them were usually about women inediates. In “Holy Feast and Holy Fast,” Caroline Walker Bynum cited some examples of inediates who survived on the Eucharist alone. For example, in the year 1225, Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris reported:

“In that same year in the city of Leicester a certain recluse died who, for seven years before her death, had never tasted food except that she received the body and blood of the Lord in communion on Sundays. When the bishop of Lincoln, Hugh of Lincoln, heard of this miracle, he did not believe it. Completely incredulous, he therefore had her strictly guarded for fifteen days by priests and clerics until it was found that she really took no nutriment for her body in all that time. And she always had a face whiter than lily but with a rosy tint, as a sign of her virginal purity and modesty.”

Similarly, another writer, Roger Bacon, gave a description about a woman in Norwich “who did not eat for twenty years; and she was fat and good stature, emitting no excretion from her body, as the bishop proved by careful examination.” The general belief is that the human body requires food to survive, so how is it possible that some people can survive without consuming nutrients to maintain their bodies’ health? Joachim M. Werdin, a former Polish breatharian, noted in his ebook, “Lifestyle without Food,” that when a spiritually-minded person reaches a certain level of devotion with God, he knows intuitively that he no longer relies on food and liquids in order to have a “perfectly working body.”

The intuition is the best adviser. If you can hear it well, you need no advices. If you cannot yet, then judgment is your best adviser. When Between Master and Disciples return in just a moment, we will look at the lives of two women who chose to give up physical food for spiritual nourishment. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Let’s continue with our feature on “Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good: Breatharians through Noble Ideals.”

We now examine the lives of two women who followed their intuition and became food-free, but not before their spiritual growth warranted a natural transition to the lifestyle of an inediate. Both happened to practice under the Catholic traditions, however, not all inediates practice the same faith, nor is it necessary to practice a certain religion in order to become food-free. First, we will look at the life of Blessed Helen Enselmini of Arcella and then we will consider the life of Elizabeth the Good. On October 29, 1695, Blessed Helen Enselmini of Arcella was beatified by the Catholic Pope Innocent XII because living as an inediate, she exemplified a selfless sacrifice for the benefit of her community.

The word inedia was first used to describe a fast-based lifestyle within Catholic tradition, which holds that certain saints were able to survive for extended periods of time without food or drink other than the Eucharist.

Blessed Helen Enselmini was born in Padua, Italy in the year 1200. At the age of 12, she attended the church of Saint George during Lent. The preacher, Saint Francis of Assisi, spoke of absolute poverty and zealous acts of charity with such clarity that he inspired her to dedicate her life to God. Blessed Helen Enselmini wanted to follow his example of living without worldly comforts for the betterment of humankind. Saint Francis believed it was godly for man to live in poverty based on a sermon with the following biblical message:

The disciples of Christ were to possess neither gold nor silver, nor scrip for their journey, nor two coats, nor shoes, nor a staff… and announce the Kingdom of God.

Such a lifestyle included living in hand-made huts next to churches and wearing the coarse woolen tunics of the poorest peasants. As she learned more about Saint Francis’ noble ideals, Helen yearned to follow his practice of penance, brotherly love, and peace. Also moved by Saint Francis’ sermon was Clare, an 18-year-old heiress in Assisi and a friend of Blessed Helen Enselmini. Clare begged Saint Francis to allow her to become a student of his teachings. With his consent, Clare, Blessed Helen Enselmini and a third female friend left their homes and embarked on a life-path in dedication to God and selfless service to humanity.

A procession of friars carrying lighted torches met the three girls and led them to the church of San Nicola Arcella where Saint Francis waited. Saint Francis cut off their hair, clothed them in Minorite habits worn by nuns and received them as his spiritual daughters into the life of poverty, penance, and seclusion. Blessed Helen Enselmini received a veil from Saint Francis and became Sister Elena Elsimi. Saint Francis provided a domicile for the pious maidens in a chapel adjoining Saint Damian’s that he had rebuilt. This became the first monastery of the Second Franciscan Order of Poor Ladies, which later became known as Poor Clares, Poor Ladies, or the Sisters of Saint Clare. As did all Poor Clares, Blessed Helen Enselmini exercised contemplation through mortification, prayer, and meditation.

At Saint Clare’s request, Pope Innocent III granted an order for the Poor Clares to lead a life of absolute poverty, for the community as well as for individuals, based on the principles established by Saint Benedict who believed it was right to live in poverty and, as a vegetarian, eating no more than necessary for the strength needed to serve others. Like many Catholic nuns, Blessed Helen Enselmini chose to take her devotion a step farther by resisting the urge to consume food and drinks. Carolyn Walker Bynum explained:

“To holy people themselves, fasting, meditation, and Eucharistic devotion were often merely steps toward God, part of the preparation for contemplation.”

Highly developed spiritual practitioners sometimes live food-free for the benefit of others. It was inner contentment and personal spiritual growth that Blessed Helen Enselmini sought during her lifetime. She and other Poor Clares believed that this spiritual growth could be achieved by following the Rules of Saint Francis. According to the First and Second Orders of Saint Francis, she took three vows of obedience, absolute poverty, and chastity. Saint Francis considered a life of poverty to be the most important characteristic of his students. Blessed Helen Enselmini also adhered to his Third Order of Penance, whereby she respected all religious faiths. Eventually, her life of purity and dedication to aid others resulted in her giving up food to live as a breatharian, sustaining herself on the divine love and devotion to God.

How is it possible that fasting for short periods of time encourages the body to live without food and liquids in the state of inedia? According to Joachim M. Werdin, not only does the body become cleansed during a fast, or food-free state, but the mind also clears. The clarity of the body and mind raises the practitioners’ spiritual awareness for several reasons:

“… toxins come to the surface and blockages get released… this mind cleansing makes the person to perceive things as they truly are. That's why the person can realize the true sense of life…”

Blessed Helen Enselmini did not give up food instantly. It was a gradual process. Join us again next Sunday when we continue with our feature on Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good, the early Catholic breatharian nuns.

We appreciate your company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Good People, Good Works, coming up after Noteworthy News. We wish you much love and kindness in your everyday life. God bless and farewell for now.

Through their noble ideals and sacrifice in the service of others, Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good achieved an inner tranquility that only comes to those whose lives and thoughts are immersed in their love for God. Their complete and unquestionable faith in God had given them the ability to live food-free, relying on the grace of God as their only source of sustenance. Tune in to Supreme Master Television on Sunday, September 12, for our program, “Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good: Breatharians through Noble Ideals,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good: Breatharians through Noble Ideals,” on Between Master and Disciples.

This program discusses the possibility of breatharianism, or living without eating food, and is not a full instruction. For your safety, please do not attempt to cease eating without proper expert guidance.

In scriptures, the human body is often referred to as the temple of God. Yet, it is quite an uncommon privilege for any soul to attain this sacred abode that houses the Divine, as it is truly a blessing to be reborn as a human being. On several occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai has spoken about the rarity of this phenomenon:

SM: To be reincarnated in the human world is hard. You have to have enough Human Quality. You have to have affinity with the parents and with the society, with the people around which you are born. Very difficult. To be a human, you need some merit. You have done something good in the past in order to be able to pick a human birth.

HOST: As a living temple of God, the human body is fully equipped with miraculous wonders that can be awakened in those who are spiritually conscious and have complete faith in the Creator of all life. Inedia, Latin for “fasting,” is the human ability to live without food. Since time immemorial, there have always been individuals who can sustain themselves on prana, or the vital life force. Through the grace of the Providence, inediates, people who follow a food-free lifestyle, can draw the energy from nature to nourish themselves:

SM: They live on the chi from the ground, or from the forest, and from the sun and from the air. They make use of all that. Or they live on love, on faith alone. HOST: These individuals are known as breatharians (pranarians or inediates), solarians, or waterians, and they come from all walks of life, from different cultures, and all corners of the world.

Indeed, the possibilities and miracles in this life as our benevolent Creator has designed for us are endless; we only need to connect within to recognize our abounding largess as God’s children. Supreme Master Ching Hai has lovingly recommended a weekly series on Supreme Master Television to introduce those individuals of the past and present who have chosen to live food-free on Earth. May their spiritual stories enthrall you; may hearts be opened, and horizons be expanded. We now invite you to join us for part 2 of our two-part program, “Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good: Breatharians through Noble Ideals,” on Between Master and Disciples.

HOST: In the history of Catholicism, there existed quite a few saints and well-known individuals who, as a result of their pure love for Jesus or complete devotion to God, were able to dispense with the need for physical food, sustaining themselves solely on the grace of God. According to the Catholic Church, [NOTE: Use a different voice for this part] “Inedia is the abstinence from all nourishment for great lengths of time. Among the saints, this gift is usually manifested as the ability to exist for months or years with no food but the Holy Communion.”

HOST: Blessed Helen Enselmini of Arcella, Italy, led such a life as an inediate. In part 1, we learned that she was greatly influenced by the selfless ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi. Together with her friend Clare of Assisi and another female companion, they became the first members of the Second Franciscan Order of Poor Ladies, which later became known as Poor Clares, Poor Ladies, or the Sisters of Saint Clare. As a Poor Clare, Blessed Helen Enselmini practiced daily mortification, prayer, and meditation with the belief that they would lead her closer to God.

Unlike others in the monastery, she took a step further in her devotion to God by giving up food and drink as a personal sacrifice on behalf of humankind. Blessed Helen Enselmini’s path to becoming food-free was gradual. She started out by fasting for several months at a time, surviving on the grace of God with just the wafer-thin Holy Communion. She deeply believed that her asceticism and material sacrifice would minimize or alleviate the sufferings and burdens of others. Supreme Master Ching Hai has often discussed the significance of developing our wisdom and achieving spiritual growth through our selfless actions of serving others.

Take care of our moral responsibilities, help our neighbors as much as we can, sacrifice some of our wealth, our palate’s desires in order to help in developing the world, and help the other needy brothers and sisters. In this way, we contribute our effort to build a better nation in the future generation to come. It is not a loss.

But We can try it now, we can try it tomorrow, and see how things go, see how much better we feel, how beneficial it is to our nation and to the world at large. But this should be done, the precepts should accompany wisdom,; the goodness should, the good deeds, thoughts and speech should be accompanied by meditation on God's quality, by knowing how to tune in with the God storehouse, the Godness, the God qualities, with the storehouse of God-quality.

HOST: When Between Master and Disciples returns in just a moment, we will examine the benevolent life of Elizabeth the Good who had also chosen to live food-free as a selfless service to others. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

HOST: Welcome back to today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Let’s continue with our feature, “Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good: Breatharians through Noble Ideals.”

HOST: Blessed Helen Enselmini continued her life abstaining from food and liquids for almost 20 additional years. In 1242, while in her early forties, she peacefully passed away due to natural causes. The Catholic Church recognized her selfless acts by placing her remains in a glass coffin within the church of San Nicola Arcella. Just as Blessed Helen Enselmini grew into an example of the amazing blessings that God bestows upon those who dedicated their time with understanding the Holy Spirit, Blessed Elizabeth Achler, also known as Betha the Good, received the gift of inedia. Both happened to follow the order of Saint Francis and both sacrificed their comforts with the intention to help others.

On November 25, 1386, a baby girl was born at Waldee, Wurttemberg, in the town of Swabia, Germany. Her parents, John and Anne Achler, named their daughter, Elizabeth, which means “worshipper of God.” Elizabeth the Good grew up in a poor household that did not support her desire to follow a religious path. Despite the obstacles, her heart remained pure and focused on God. She studied under the guidance of her confessor, Conrad Kugelin, provost of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in St. Peter’s Catholic Church.

In her early teens, Elizabeth the Good perfected her spiritual awareness. She became a Franciscan tertiary by the time she was 14 years old. She begged for permission from her parents to leave the family home and live with other women of the Third Order of St. Francis. Elizabeth the Good’s parents finally consented. and thus, A pious tertiary house took her in and Elizabeth the Good earned her keep by weaving fabrics alongside the owner and other Sisters.

The little money they earned was not enough to provide a comfortable lifestyle. For three years, the tertiary Sisters lived a humble existence in poverty without adequate food and provisions. Elizabeth the Good’s confessor and mentor, Conrad Kugelin, opened a convent for tertiaries in Reute, which was located outside Waldee. Elizabeth the Good and four fellow tertiaries moved to Reute, where they deepened their spiritual growth by living in seclusion.

Each member of the convent contributed to the maintenance of running the home, with Elizabeth the Good working in the kitchen. She soon gained the nickname, “The Recluse.” Extending her devotion beyond the daily lessons and practices, Elizabeth the Good spent long hours in the garden prostrating on a hard stone in deep prayer and contemplation. She experienced ecstasies where her physical body remained in place yet her inner consciousness received visions of Heaven and purgatory.

Her confessor at the Franciscan tertiary respected Elizabeth the Good’s purity and considered her above absolution. Her devotion to God revealed itself in the signs of the stigmata, whereby the marks of the Passion with open wounds like those suffered by Jesus Christ while on the Cross appeared on Elizabeth the Good’s body. Cuts materialized around her head as though she wore a crown of thorns. Painful wounds experienced by Jesus Christ during the Scourging opened on her body. Although Elizabeth the Good suffered from the agony of crucifixion at all times, the wounds opened and bled only on Fridays and during Lent. Just as Blessed Helen Enselmini experienced miracles in her life as a result of her selfless sufferings, Elizabeth the Good also fasted with such devotion that she acquired the gift of inedia.

Living without food and liquids through God’s grace is considered to be a gift because without the desire and need for food, Elizabeth the Good purified her body and mind to such a high level of consciousness that her spiritual awareness expanded. Heavens rewarded Elizabeth the Good’s purification and piousness by revealing to her the peace and joy of those who were blessed by God. She had also gained much knowledge through her visions of souls recovering in purgatory.

After a period of time, Elizabeth was also given the gift of prophecy – she could accurately predict events in the future and could see through people’s hearts. Elizabeth the Good remained humble throughout her life, never proud with regard to her gifts from the Divine Providence. Her confessor recorded her life and the Bishop of Constance acknowledged her prophecies. On November 25, 1420, Elizabeth the Good died of natural causes in Reute, Germany, and there she was buried at the local Catholic Church.

In 1623, a provost of Waldee opened her tomb and the citizens of Swabia venerated her for having a miraculous lifestyle. Thereafter, accounts of miracles from worshipers of God were attributed to her. The Holy See ratified her ability to bring about miracles and she was beatified on July 19, 1766, as Elizabeth the Good by Pope Clement XIII. The 25th day of November marked her Memorial or feast day for Franciscans. Through their noble ideals and sacrifice in the service of others, Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good achieved an inner tranquility that only comes to those whose lives and thoughts are immersed in their love for God.

Indeed, their complete and unquestionable faith in God had given them the ability to live food-free, relying on the grace of God as their only source of sustenance. Though they never sought the honor, living modestly by sacrificing all physical needs and comfort as a pledge to bear the suffering of their fellow beings, breatharians Blessed Helen Enselmini and Elizabeth the Good were honored by the Catholic Church.

We appreciate your wise company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Good People, Good Works, coming up after Noteworthy News. In God’s boundless blessings, may you continue on your path of higher consciousness. Farewell until next time.

Isabelle Hercelin has been living without the need for physical food. [Insert interview excerpt (in French): Short-Q&A] Isabelle: It’s not easy to express, but it fills you up 100,000 times more and 100,000 times better, and it is 100 times more satisfying and 100 times better than real food, even though I truly thank the Earth for everything that she has given me until now.

C'est pas facile à exprimer. Mais ça rempli cent mille fois plus et cent mille fois mieux et ça satisfait pour moi cent mille fois plus et mille fois mieux que la nourriture terrestre même si je la remercie profondément pour tout ce qu'elle m'a apporté jusqu'à aujourd'hui.

VOICE: Tune in to Supreme Master Television on Sunday, September 19, for our program, “Isabelle Hercelin: Breatharianism as a Way of Life,” on Between Master and Disciples. TODAY (Sunday EP 1466) Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Isabelle Hercelin: Breatharianism as a Way of Life,” on Between Master and Disciples.