Episode 675: Breatharianism

Last Podcast On The Left

This episode of Last Podcast on the Left delves into the bizarre and dangerous world of Breatharianism, a belief that humans can survive without food or water by absorbing energy from the air. The podcast explores the

Key takeaways

• Wiley Brooks, a conman turned pseudo-spiritual leader, claimed to live on air and even taught classes on how to do so for $500 in 1980.
• Jasmine Hine, under the name 'Jasmine,' created the 'Living on Light' program, which led to the deaths of at least three people who followed her 21-day fasting regimen.

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) There's no place to escape to. This is the last podcast. On the left. That's when the cannibalism started. Are we going? Hope you guys haven't had lunch. It's hot. Because I need you skinny as fuck to listen to this episode. All right. I don't want any. I can't. This is not one of those eat. listen episodes, man. No. Because it defeats the whole purpose. You're fucking gunking up your pituitary glands with all your sugars. You're gunking up your spiritual channels with all of your gravy. And for that, I wish, honestly, you should die and be restarted. Wait, one of those eat and listen to episodes, which episodes do we have that are specifically for eating? I guess the dolls. Yeah, right? The haunted dolls. I can use a couple of chips stirring that one. Okay. Honestly, I could eat during Bathory. I can eat during certain spheres. You kind of have to. All the nutmeg? Yeah. I was good ready for. I wanted to cookie. I get it eaten during the Black Dahlia for a while for a lot of parts of it. Yeah. For a bit. Welcome to last podcast on the left, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Marcus Parks. I'm here with the man who's taking the helm today. It's Henry Zabrowski. I crack the whip today. I'm the cracker. I'm the cracker, motherfucker. You are the cracker. Yeah. And we have, of course, the honky, Ed Larson. What's up, everybody? How are you doing? Yeah, I'm just a honky. I love your honky voice. I'm having a great time being a honky. Every day is wonderful. And I've gotten certain successes in life just for being a honky. Congratulations. As we will see, so have some of the subjects of today's podcast. They have also, because I have found the ones that did get punished the least, Well, we're the skinny white women Okay. Oh, yeah. Always. Yeah, because I assumed Breatherianism, like, it would naturally be fat people. You think they breathe so heavy. See, the problem is, is that skinny people... People listen to the show, they hear me. Yeah. It is easier for skinny people to stay skinny. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As far as I'm concerned. And it's easier for them to breathe. It is. And it's essential. Yeah, it is quite easy for me to breathe. I breathe a lot. Yeah. I breathe every day. Oh, every day. Yeah. Yeah. I can't sleep on my back. I've been fasting on breathing recently by just... And just hoping I keep going. You don't want to be greedy. Obviously, I'm not spiritually pure enough to get it going. So today's episode is about a topic that I've always been very fascinated by. And I can't... I found out some very interesting things. Follow along with me. It's extremely stupid yet deadly topic. Thin is in. That's right. You heard it directly from the portly horse's mouth. The Epicurean arts. Once one of the pillars of human creative expression are now designated back to the world of the slovenly, the perverted, the morally weak, and the homosexual. Hey! Yep. I always thought Epicurean had to do with horses. No, no, it's only eating them. The extreme weight loss of Lizzo and John Popper to Jonah Hill to Ariana Grande and Kelly Osborne, all the way to the vice president himself who lost 20 pounds so he could fuck a hammock without it collapsing into the mud makes it clear the body positive movement has finally succumbed to heart disease in 2026. Wow, and it did not last long, did it? No. I want to say in 18 months, it lasted. But do any of these pussies I just mentioned have the strength to give up food altogether? Only time will tell. Aurena Grande was already skinny. She then got extra skinnier. I know, but that could have only been like 10 pounds. She looks like she's been being saved for a long trip in the Old West. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Many cult leaders, they have led their flock into dangerous uncharacteristic behavior before, whether it's to fight their local governments, molesting all the women and children they see or mass suicide. Is that suicide in a church? Yes. It's a particularly pernicious. ability, though, to convince a person that actively starving yourself of food and water is making you healthier, especially as you watch yourself waste away hour by hour day by day until you finally die a horrific death of your organs turning into fruit leather. In Edia, or the more commonly known term, Pratherianism, is the believed ability to live entirely without food or water. The concept is so debunked, I have no idea how it continues to exist, but it does. You know, what's crazy is I thought, for the longest time, I thought Breathearianism was a trans-metropolitan joke. Because they show up and when Spattered Jerusalem goes to the religion convention, there is a couple of panels where it shows like a Bretherian. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's so stupid. Like, wow, that's a really stupid religion. I had no idea it was real. And it's big. And it continues to grow weirdly enough. Like there's guy's offshoots. It's just every single person has sort of jumped off the platform. from the last one. As far as Colts go, on first glance, it seems like the cheapest. It is. You're correct. Right. Because all you've got to do is buy that little book. Yeah. See, there have been at least five deaths that can be traced directly back to the malicious yammerings of some woman named Ellen. And like many of the kooky ideas that find themselves covered here last podcast on the left, the term Breathearianism has an innocent beginning. The term itself was coined by comedian and human rights activist Dick Gregory. It is book Dick Gregory's Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat, Cooking with Mother Nature, where Pratherianism is used as a pretty good punchline. The book is considered a, it's a classic in the world of new age thinking and practitioners of a raw food diet, people with amazing skin who smell like turtle farts. Wow, Dick Gregory, huh? Yeah, right? Wow. In his book, Gregory says, shitty food is another. symptom of the systemic injustice of the United States. Poor people are given bad food to keep them malnourished, keeping them too weak to question their station in life. And if they can't stop the food access, they stop education on the subject altogether and leave people to be manipulated by the corporations. True. Absolutely true. Speak it. Speak it. Food deserts. Yes. Gregory believe part of the responsibility of being a human is to be cognizant of what goes in your body. He advocated for eating as close to a raw diet as possible. In his book, he provided a description of a spectrum of lifestyles. Omnivorism on one side, meaning you'll eat damn near anything. And on the other end, Breathearianism, which basically means being so uptight about what you're eating, you only suck on breath. Funny shit, but only the deeply stupid or diluted or maybe even evil would believe that that was a real concept. Yeah. So where did he stand on food? Did he like it? Did he hate it? Oh, yeah, of course. Just raw food. It was, well, he believed the idea is that you should eat as many what they call whole foods as you can. Like, eat, like, when you can, instead of, like, eating the juice, eat the fruit. Instead of having, like, cooked, like, instead of, like, eating cooked meat, try to have raw vegetables to your full and then have a little bit of meat. Yeah. My two healthiest friends, Carrie and Nicole, they're all nuts. Like, I mean, they're a little crazy. They only eat nuts. They always got nuts in their pockets. Yeah. And, like, yeah, they're just squirons. That's a skinny person's way of getting fat. But they are fucking healthy, hot, both of them. Those are people who count their nuts. Yeah, they do. But that's the thing. Normal people like us, I don't count nuts. I just eat nuts. Those people know exactly the number of nuts. Yeah, they're eating. They are a little crazy, but they're definitely, no question about it, the most healthy people in my life, they're going to live to 200. Yeah, they're counting nuts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They got a new couch because they're like, the fabric is plastic in it. I was like, all right, come on. Go away from me. Whatever we were fucking doing him. I get it. I get it. But yeah, but the son itself is going to kill us. California con. The daughter, too. Yeah. Honestly, I hope more girls do violence in 2027. California con man, Wiley Brooks, would be the first to take Brathearianism seriously, at least into a TV camera. He's got the look of a guy you'd go down on your grandmother while she's in a coma. Might be nice? Who knows? You know, they don't go to sleep. You got to wake her up. They stay awake. Well, Lee Brooks was determined to make himself famous. His fake biography begins in New York City where he was born. Little is known about his early childhood, but he claimed he was the sound engineer for Jimmy Hendrix and Led Zeppelin by his late teens. That was the same sort of claim that was made by the Montauk Project guy. Every time. They're like, nobody cares about the sound guy. I'm best friends with Mark Hamill. They all know me. shockingly, the Daily Mail that reported the story also came clean saying there is no evidence that proves that this man ever said foot in a sound studio. Wiley has stated his past lives include Adam, Zeus, Enoch, Yeshua, that's the Jewish, super Jewish Jesus. Okay. Joshua, Elijah, John the Baptist, St. Francis of Assisi, Kthumi, Balthazar, who is the king of Syria, Mughal, Emperor Shah Harjaran, builder of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, Joseph Smith. and William O'Holland. That was his previous life before his current one, was the guy who brought water to Los Angeles? Yep. Wow. Also, I will say, only two of those guys got last names. That's how you know they are lying to you. So he claims that he is the first man in history. No, all of them. All of us are the first man, if you believe in the Bible correctly. Sure. Yeah, we all are related to Adam. He's not saying anything really. Yeah, we're all cousins. But he's saying he's been reincarnated, so he has the same soul as Adam. No one's ever reincarnated as the ice cream man. You know, we've been talking about this. It's never like, yeah, I guess there was some guy named Mort Bumbleton. Someone's got to pick up the garbage. Yep. Yeah, somebody does, yes. Where are all the Chinese peasants? They're not around. They're not. Oh, yeah, there's so many of them. Yeah. I was definitely five of them. Yeah. In a group. America discovered Wiley. in 1980. When my man dead lifted 1,100 pounds on an ABC show called, That's Incredible! It was during this appearance that he first publicly claimed that he had eaten a thing for 17 years. Wiley Brooks looked apart. He was slick. He had a tight muscular body. He was 45 years old and he could lift over 1,000 pounds. He claimed he might have maybe had a couple of glasses of water here and there, maybe some juice. He only needed an hour of sleep. And not only that he claimed that he could help you get the same result take my money how I show you how you just don't eat anything hold on you say no nuts no not a single one when do you get to have the juice like on Christmas there's a whole process slowly spring I imagine I actually would be nice during the wintertime because then you need the sugars to stay warm unfortunately Wiley quickly faded out of the spotlight because who gives the shit about just some guy lying on television but his physical feats caught the eye of floppy-headed tiny train obsessive Tom Snyder who booked Wiley on his late-night talk show which effectively pulled him out of obscurity and gave him a massive platform to solidify his con on a trusted news program. Did you know that about Tom Snyder and its obsession with Tiny Trains? I didn't know he was a Tiny Train man. He actually quit his job hosting when they wanted to bring him back to he was going to replace I think Craig Ferguson they were going to do bring him all the way back. He said, no, unfortunately, I'm too busy with my little trains. Yes, living the dream. God, live in the dream. What age do you think he'll be only Lionel trains, Marcus? I see this happening to you. 63. Him with his little conductor hat on. When you get the hat, we'll have a talk. Okay. Not going to listen, but we can have a talk. Of course not. Because it's already been decided. I am God of this little world. Quiet, I'm painting my post office. All right, Tom. Don't worry, I'm just having sex with all the staff again. Now, according to Wiley, Ed, the human body, when it's in perfect harmony with itself and nature, is a perfect breatherian. This text, this information you receive when he was downloaded to Earth from the fifth dimension. I'm just telling you what I was told. The fifth dimension. There's a lot of fifth dimension talk from Wiley Brooks. Yeah, well, maybe. he dimensioned it anymore. Well, he's dead, and he doesn't. You're right. Isn't there a ban called the fifth dimension? Oh, yeah, yeah. I think they do an Aquarius, I believe. Yeah. And there's also a John Keel book called the fifth dimension. Sure. Yeah. Brooks argued that all the constituents that we need are taken from the air we breathe. And the fact that there is only one thing that keeps the human body alive and that is breathing. In other words, eating is an acquired habit. It's hard to shake. And it makes you go bold. Yep, that's my problem. Wiley invented this new food-free lifestyle as a way to turn back his biological clock and grow back the lustrous mane of his youth. He didn't understand why we got worse as we got older. We should only get better, wiser, sexier. Sure. I kind of agree. So he has no understanding of like cellular biology or anything of that nature. Wiley knows nothing for sure. Yeah. He did not go to school. Every single thing is Wiley shooting from the hip. Yeah, his science is off of vibes. Yeah, very much so. This is all vibes, and the vibes aren't yellow. Now, when Tom asked him, what about the babies, Wiley? Why do they need breast milk? Turns out if the mother is a brotharian and doesn't eat for two, the child is born without the need for food from the git. Because it would be dead. The dead babies don't need to be fed. They don't need to be fat. You're right. Intrepid journalist Tom Snyder here. didn't stop there. In reference to the troubles of Ireland and timely reports of IRA soldiers dying during hunger protests in jail, Tom asked the super appropriate question, what's the difference between Brotharianism and extreme political hunger strikes? And it's simple as heck. According to Wiley, there's a big difference in a man stopping to eat who's trying to kill himself and a person who's not eating because he's trying to improve his health. So the health So people who die during hunger strikes They're not breathing right It's not sure It's because they want to die Oh it's about intention Sad, sad Irish Have you ever talked to an Irishman Very sad Very emotional The hunger is all hell Right they need to die They gotta get past the first layer Of being irritated And okay that does explain the potato famine Oh yeah It was voluntary Yeah This is... Jerome in the ocean, we hate eating, we said. Now, all of this is great publicity for the movement. Sure. Because despite how deeply idiotic and harmful Breathearianism obviously is, after this appearance, he amassed a solid group of followers. He created the Breathearianism Institute, and at 500 bucks ahead, he began teaching classes on how not to eat. That's $500 in 1980 money. Oh, yeah. First of all, he said, you can't. quit food cold turkey. You have to start fasting for periods out of time, right? Second step is to clean your blood by eating foods with what Wiley called yellow vibrational energy. Oh yeah. This encompassed everything from grapefruit, papayas, and chicken to Hagen-Doss rum raisin ice cream. As long as it's yellow. Huh. Is rum raisin ice cream yellow? Yeah, I don't eat it that often. I very rarely use it as like a swatch. Chicken's not yellow. Yeah. So it's just yellow vibrational energy, so it's anything that he decides has yellow vibrational energy. Well, you know, chicken is sata. Chicken skin has yellow. Yeah. That has yellow. Yeah. Grapefruit's not yellow. Well, you know, the outside is. That's kind of like an orangey yellow. Let's say Wiley was just shooting from the hip again here. Rum raisin, looking pretty yellow. It's kind of yellow. It's made of beige. I would have a beige. I would have a bitters. You know what's yellow? Bananas. Bananas is yellow. Could have said that. Unless you open them inside. I've also... I also want to talk about the fact that they're trying to take bananas from us. They're calling them dessert. If bananas are dessert, I'm going to fucking blow my brains out. There's a lot of sugar in them. Yeah, well, it's a fruit. Vacating fruit, we're fucked. Oh, yeah. They also put the ass in potassium. You know what I'm saying? You should have to take your big old butt. It's quite good for you, actually. As the years past, Wiley grew in popularity, the techniques of Pratherianism would morph and change. Many came to believe Wiley just happened like yellow food, which is why he made it the key to health. In 1983, Wiley's sidepiece and co-founder of the institute, Lavelle Loughler, exposed Wiley's lies to the press. She told the San Bernardino County son that, quote, The man loves Colonel Sanders and could eat a dozen donuts in a single sitting. She told United Press International, the truth is, he sneaks into 7-Elevens and fast food places. He has to rely on places that are open late to the night. Because many students joked about seeing him exiting a 7-Eleven with chili and hot dogs. This is for my mother. Why are you making your mom eat? I thought you want to believe it that your mom would be healthy and not eat. I'm trying to kill her. Oh, I did I see. See, while he was unfazed, basically he said. So what if I eat? I don't have to. I just do it because I want to. This hurt Wiley's cause. What are you talking about? I know. I get it. He would basically disappear into the mist during the 80s. That did not end the Institute. So he basically... I'm disappearing in the mist. So for him, you treated eating like masturbation? Basically... I don't have to do it. I just want to do it. I got to do it every once in a while. Yeah, sure. It's fun. But then it's because the problem is that people got to eat. Yeah. And the more you do that, and he liked to eat. And so