'Fasting was never meant to punish the body. It was designed to refine it, so consciousness could expand.'

This slogan appears beside a vivid image of a man standing with his arms outstretched, gazing into sunlight streaming through the trees.

The man is Akahi Ricardo, a self-proclaimed 'Breatharian' who believes humans can survive on little more than sunlight and air.

Ricardo now sells workshops to curious followers eager to learn about Breatharianism, also known as Inedia, a practice rooted in ancient religious ascetic traditions from India and China.

But while fasting and extreme self-denial were once associated with monks and sadhus, many of Breatharianism's modern advocates are influencers and wellness gurus that some critics describe as dangerous pseudoscientists.

Ricardo and his wife, Camila Castello, claim they have been 'living off the universe's energy' since 2008. 

Castello even embraced what she called a 'Breatharian pregnancy', claiming she ate nothing throughout the nine months she carried her first child.

'I knew my son would be nourished enough by my love and this would allow him to grow healthily in my womb,' she said.

Akahi and Castello insist they occasionally consume fruits or vegetable broth a few times a week, but claim the rest of their nourishment comes from the earth's energy.

To gain insight into this unconventional practice, I spoke to Nicolas Pilartz, a Breatharian who explained why he believes food is a 'choice'.

Speaking from his olive grove in rural Italy, Pilartz told the Daily Mail that Breatharianism is defined by reaching a state of 'food freedom.'

'It means you are free from food. You can eat if you want, you can drink if you want, but it's no longer an obligation,' he said.

Pilartz explained that in today's world people suffer from 'food addiction', pointing to examples of countries such as the US where over half the population is classed as obese.

He added: 'People are realizing that the way they consume today is producing suffering, and we can see it in disease. People in their twenties and thirties now have tumors and illnesses.

'If you believe you must consume three times a day or you will miss nutrients and age badly, then you never question it. You only question it when someone introduces another possibility.'

Pilartz found Breatharianism in his early 40s. 'I was a smoker, my health was damaged. So I decided to give it a try.'

He initially tried complete fasting but after realising it made him feel worse he found a balance in consuming only liquids.

'There's gonna be a moment in your life where you're going to be done with food,' he says.

And 14 years later, there is no going back for the Frenchman, who credits his peak health to the practice and founded the Pranic World Festival in Italy - an annual 12-day event for Breatharians.

However, Pilartz advises against abruptly switching to a Breatharian lifestyle. 

His workshops teach students to transition to liquid foods such as broth, yogurt, milk and coffee and to avoid solid foods.

'My drink of choice is hot chocolate,' he tells me. 'I usually drink about one litre a day. In the evenings, I may have some broth. I have solid food once a month, but that's it.'

While present-day figures such as Pilartz take a more moderate approach to Inedia, Australian spiritual teacher Jasmuheen (Ellen Greve) remains the most famous modern face of Breatharianism and promotes total dry fasting to her followers. 

For decades, she has claimed humans can transcend physical nourishment and survive purely on 'prana', a supposed life force carried through air and sunlight.

Her teachings have repeatedly been condemned by scientists and nutrition experts as a lethal form of pseudoscience.

In 1999, an Australian television programme challenged Jasmuheen to prove her claims under medical supervision. 

However, the experiment was abandoned after just four days when doctors observed severe dehydration, rising blood pressure and rapid weight loss. 

Jasmuheen claimed this was due to pollution in the air.

Despite the failed test, she continued promoting Breatharianism around the world through books and seminars.

Critics have linked at least five deaths to followers who attempted to adopt her teachings, including a 49-year-old Scottish woman named Verity Linn and a 33-year-old Australian names Lani Morris. 

The two women died from dehydration midway through extended fasts in remote areas. Both owned copies of Jasmuheen's book Living On Light.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, a new leader rose within a different fringe scene, bringing a completely different take on the lifestyle.

Wiley Brooks, the founder of the Breatharian Institute of America, claimed he had survived for 19 consecutive years without food, sustaining himself entirely through air and sunlight.

Appearing on television with talk show host Tom Snyder in the 1980s, Brooks claimed hunger strikers did not die from starvation but rather from a 'death wish'.

But scandal soon engulfed the guru after he was repeatedly caught leaving fast-food restaurants carrying hot dogs, sugary drinks and snacks - despite insisting he no longer needed to eat.

After later being caught eating at McDonald's, Brooks weaved the fast food chain into his spiritual philosophy.

According to Brooks, McDonald's restaurants were supposedly built on sites protected by higher energies and even contained spiritual portals.

He went on to encourage followers to consume large amounts of Diet Coke and double quarter pounders with cheese before meditating.

'I highly recommend that you eat at McDonalds when ever possible. All McDonalds are constructed on properties that are protected by 5th Dimensional high energy/spiritual portals,' instructions on his website read.

Brandon Dey, who succeeded Brooks at the institute after his death in 2016, said he followed the diet for several years until reaching an enlightened state.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: 'It dissolves lifetimes of karma immediately. It takes you to a place of centeredness and oneness very, very quickly. 

'By the time you're done eating the burger and drinking the Diet Coke, you start feeling oneness with God.'

'The burger has a soul in it that's in harmony with my soul, and I utilise it to help with my process.'

Today, Dey has returned to fasting, consuming only about one meal a day or nothing at all. 

When he does eat, he prefers whole, plant-based foods and, ironically, avoids processed meat. 

The institute has also turned Breatharianism into a lucrative business venture.

It advertises programmes teaching followers how to overcome their addiction to food and reach 'ascension,' with prices ranging from $15,000 into the millions for 'immortality workshops'.

They also sell a drink called the 'elixir of the Gods', saying online that the liquid comes from the 'Fountain of Youth and Immortality in the "Garden Of Eden" in the land of "Milk and Honey", which is in the 5th Dimensional Earth/Worlds located at the end of the "Yellow Brick Road".'

'The elixir of Gods is a water I create. I take a blank template of perfect water and anchor the energies of the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail into that water,' Dey says.

'I never really sell them for under $200 a bottle. Some people like to pay $1,000 a bottle because they like the energy that comes from the higher-end bottles and they have the money to pay for it. The more you pay the more energy you receive from the bottle.' 

Dey says the difference between other Breatharians and him is that the institute views Inedia as a spiritual movement, rather than a lifestyle choice.

He added: 'We use foods to promote our higher self, our spiritual body. I eat foods, and I grow foods, and I drink drinks that are all in harmony with my higher self, and that helps my higher self to come into this physical body.

'Other people are saying, don't eat. I never say that to anybody. I like fasting, I enjoy fasting, but I like to know why I eat and we teach people how to eat to promote their spiritual body.'

Breatharianism has drawn heavy criticism, with some even characterizing the movement as a cult.

Hollywood actress Michelle Pfeiffer previously revealed that when she arrived in Los Angeles as a young woman she became entangled with a couple she later described as 'very controlling' Breatharians.

The three-time Academy Award nominee said the pair worked as 'kind of personal trainers'.

'They worked with weights and put people on diets,' Pfeiffer told The Sunday Telegraph. 'They were very controlling... They believed that people in their highest state were Breatharian.'

Pfeiffer recalled being placed on a diet 'nobody can adhere to', before eventually realising she had become caught up in something deeply manipulative.

After her husband landed a role in a film about Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon and his controversial religious movement, she said a light bulb went off in her head and she recognised the similarities between the group she was involved with and a cult.

And in a tragic case in Russia, an influencer was jailed after his newborn son starved to death.

Maxim Lyutyi was sentenced to eight years in a penal colony after attempting to prove the infant could survive solely on sunlight and berries. He also refused to allow the child's mother to breastfeed.

Baby Kosmos died from what authorities described as 'pneumonia and emaciation' and Lyutyi was initially found guilty of causing 'intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm'. 

His mother-in-law accused him of of running a 'sect', dragging his wife Oxana down with him.

'I was against my daughter being in this sect,' she said, 'I felt everything, and told her that Maxim was crazy, but she didn't listen to me. 'Oxana lived there like a guinea pig. She was his slave.'

There is very little scientific evidence that humans can gain energy from the sun and air, and scientists from the British Dietetic Association have called a Breatharian diet 'dangerous', stating that 'the basic fact is we all need food and liquid in our diet to live'.

Documented research into the physiological effects of severe food restriction shows that prolonged fasting ultimately leads to starvation, dehydration and death.

In the absence of food, the body typically begins consuming its own glycogen stores, fat reserves and muscle tissue for energy.

Early signs of this were seen in the case of Naveena Shine, a woman in her 60s who attempted to survive on light alone for 100 days.

During the experiment, the Birmingham native lost 30 pounds while consuming only water and tea.

After 47 days, Shine abandoned the attempt after suffering severe light-headedness and nausea, and said her hands and feet felt constantly cold.

She later admitted there was no evidence she was living on light, and said her symptoms may simply have been the result of gradual starvation.

Other Breatharians, however, claim that their bodies are able to avoid using bodily reserves while fasting.

During our interview, Pilartz said that at the beginning of his Breatharian journey, he dry fasted for seven days straight. Dry fasting means no liquid was consumed.

Scientists say that humans can generally survive three to four days without water, with a maximum limit rarely exceeding six days. 

And while Pilartz admits the experience was extremely difficult, he says he survived it and believes it is possible to reach what he calls 'level four' Breatharianism, in which a person consumes neither food nor liquids at all. 

He added: 'If you think you need food and do not have it, your body goes into stress mode and you feel desperate for it, even if it may not be true. 

'So a lot of this is about belief systems, placebo effect, and nocebo effect.

'You train gradually. It's like running a marathon. You do not run a marathon overnight.

'Everyone is already a Breatharian. They just do not have the awareness of it.'