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.