'Breatharian' Barbie Valeria Lukyanova Says She Wants To Live Off Light And Air Alone

Posted by GH at 18:50

A Ukrainian model who has cast herself as a real-life Barbie doll says she eventually hopes to live without eating or drinking.

Valeria Lukyanova, whose doll-like features and ultra-thin waist have stirred controversy in the past, has apparently made it her goal to survive "on air and light alone."

"In recent weeks I have not been hungry at all," Lukyanova said, according to the International Business Times. "I'm hoping it's the final stage before I can subsist on air and light alone."

The website linked that dietary desire to a New Age practice known as Breatharianism, in which followers neither neither eat nor drink, believing they can exist solely on "cosmic micro-food."

Lukyanova, who believes in reincarnation and claims to have been in contact with transdimensional beings, has said she uses her appearance to promote her "spiritual ideas."

Last year, a 65-year-old Seattle woman who went 47 days living only on water and tea, cited Breatharian yogis as her inspiration. Naveena Shine's goal was to maintain the extreme fast for 100 days, but she called it off after receiving what she called "a message from the universe that it is time to stop."

Commenting on Shine's case, Dr. Ronald Hoffman, medical director of the Hoffman Center and host of a weekly health talk podcast, told the Guardian that it is "delusional to think that you can escape the laws of biology."

At least one person has starved to death trying to adhere to a Breatharian regimen.