A 33 year-old woman seeking to live on water and air alone has been charged with endangering a child after allegedly starving her 11 month-old son by feeding him only nuts and berries.

KDKA is reporting on the case involving Elizabeth Hawk of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, who has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child after allegedly failing to give him sufficient food.

Brandy Hawk, who is Elizabeth’s sister-in-law, says she became concerned when the baby began to show signs of physical problems, most notably a severe rash and an inability to use his hands.

“It was his motor skills,” Brandy said. “He couldn’t use his hands at all.”

When she questioned Elizabeth about it, Brandy was told not to worry because it was just allergies.

However, she was not convinced, especially because she knew that Elizabeth had extreme ideas about nutrition.

“She was going to live on water and sunlight,” Brandy said.

Believe or not, people actually try to do this. Known as breatharianism, it is a religious movement associated with people who believe the only necessary sustenance for human life is “prana” (a universal life force) of which sunlight is believed to be a major source.

The fact that breatharianism has killed people is further evidence that there’s no such thing as “prana” – a putative form of energy that is popular among New Age “energy healers.” It’s only logical that life cannot be sustained by relying on something that is essentially nonexistent.

One of the big promoters of this deadly cult is Ellen Greeve, aka Jasmuheen, whose writings on the subject have led to four deaths. Greeve claims to be able to live on air and light even though she failed to prove the possibility of living this way during an on-camera episode of Australia’s 60 Minutes which aired in 1999. (During the filming, interviewers found her house stocked with food but she claimed it was for her husband.)

After just 48 hours of living on nothing, Jasmuheen’s doctor recorded symptoms of acute dehydration and high blood pressure. She claimed it was because she was staying in a hotel too close to the road where the air was not fresh enough for her to survive upon.

Producers moved her to a mountain-top retreat to continue the filming but she was soon suffering even more pronounced symptoms and was on the verge of kidney failure when the film crew decided to stop filming out of fear for her life.

She survived and is now running a New Age business dedicated to “the raising of consciousness to co-create a healthy, harmonious world that honors all life.” On her website, she claims that “since 1993 I have been personally nourished by prana and for over 20 years have lived without the need to take physical food.”

Sadly, there are too many people around the world who are being seduced into this cult, much like Elizabeth Hawk may have been with her innocent little son suffering the most from her strange nutritional ideas.

Thankfully, the boy is now at home with his father, along with the couples other two children, and is said to be doing very well.