Michelle Pfeiffer Was In A Breatharian Cult As A Young Actress

Michelle Pfeiffer recently revealed that she was once part of a breatharian cult that forced her to follow a strict and dangerous diet.

The 55-year-old actress told The Sunday Telegraph‘s Stella magazine that she became involved with a “very controlling” couple when she first started out in Hollywood. The couple believed in breatharianism, the ability to survive without food or water, and put her on a diet “nobody can adhere to.”

Pfeiffer described the couple as “kind of personal trainers” whom she met after she left home and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 20. Although they helped her stopped drinking and smoking, they controlled every other aspect of her life.

“They worked with weights and put people on diets. Their thing was vegetarianism,” Pfeiffer said. “They were very controlling. I wasn’t living with them but I was there a lot and they were always telling me I needed to come more. I had to pay for all the time I was there, so it was financially very draining.”

Pfeiffer added, “They believed that people in their highest state were breatharian.”

Pfeiffer said she was “saved” when she was introduced to her first husband, actor Peter Horton. At the time, Horton was working on Split Image, a 1982 film about a youth-oriented cult. Horton’s character, Jacob, joins Neil Kirklander’s (Peter Fonda) “Homeland” commune, and is later de-programmed by bounty hunter Charles Pratt (James Woods).

While they were researching the film, Horton took Pfeiffer to meet real-life cult de-programmers, which helped the actress realize that she was in a cult herself.

“We were talking with an ex-Moonie and he was describing the psychological manipulation and I just clicked,” she said. It was due to this experience that Pfeiffer was finally able to leave the couple. She and Horton married shortly afterward.

Last April, a Swedish woman starved to death while following breatharianism. The woman completely gave up eating and drinking for a week. She started drinking again in the second week, but not eating. She was found dead in her apartment a few weeks later. Swiss media reported that she died of starvation.

In June, a Sri Lankan man claimed that he hadn’t eaten in five years, and insisted he survived on light, wind, and “the vibrations of God.” He also said eating real food made him feel ill and extremely tired.

At least four people have died attempting to live on light alone. Since leaving the breatharian couple, Michelle Pfeiffer has adopted a vegan lifestyle.

[Photo credit: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com]