This seems to be a version of a traditional spiritual belief from the East. If you're truly transcendent/enlightened/in general totally awesome, then you no longer need typical human food. You can survive on air, dew, and other environmental stuff. It's not clear to me whether this was some sort of symbolic/allegorical ideal, or whether people meant it literally. According to tradition, people who can do that are hermits or saints who shun society. They disappear to their caves in the mountains and meditate until the cows come home. I doubt they'd live in Boulder, Colorado.