In 1999, 60 Minutes Australia confronted one of the more unsettling figures to emerge from the new age wellness world: a Brisbane woman named Ellen Grieve, who had reinvented herself as “Jasmuheen” and built a global following around the claim that human beings do not need food or water to survive.
Jasmuheen, a mother of two, told a reporter that she had undergone a spiritual transformation after receiving guidance from St. Germaine, a figure she described as a centuries-old spirit she communicated with through what she called a “cosmic telephone.” The revelation compelled her to go public.
“Most sane people would not like… how many people would dare to come out on the public stage with a revelation that, excuse me, I really don’t need to eat,” she told the reporter.
She referred to her sustenance as “the Dao, chi, or prana,” explaining, “It’s in the air. It’s everywhere. The body manufactures it as well.” Her book, ‘Living on Light,’ promoted a 21-day fasting regimen she described not as starvation but as a “spiritual initiation.”
Three people who followed the practices outlined in that book did not survive: a Melbourne housewife, a German school teacher, and an Australian living in Scotland, who was found on remote Scottish moorlands. There was a copy of the book beside her, her diary noting she was on the seventh day of the fast.
When pressed on her responsibility, Jasmuheen deflected. “I effectively promote in that book absolute self-responsibility, use of personal discernment and self-mastery,” she said.
To test her claims, 60 Minutes arranged for Jasmuheen to be monitored around the clock in a Brisbane hotel room with no food or water. By day two, she was already more than 5% dehydrated. By day four, she had lost approximately 13.2 lbs (6 kilos), her pulse had doubled, and her blood pressure had dropped sharply. Dr. Baris Wink, president of the Queensland branch of the Australian Medical Association, called a halt.
“The risks if she goes any further are kidney failure. She’s burning up her fat and her muscle,” he warned. Jasmuheen attributed her declining condition to city pollution blocking her ability to absorb nutrients from the air and maintained throughout that her lifestyle was legitimate.
Cult researcher Dr. David Milikin was direct in his assessment. “What she is teaching is a fraud because if she is saying that you can live in this world without eating and drinking, then that is a fraud, and people believe it, then they’re going to die.”
He noted that many cult leaders genuinely believe what they preach, but questioned whether Jasmuheen’s conviction held up the moment hunger set in.
