Self-described white supremacist Craig Cobb was refusing food after being tossed in county jail, a major setback to his plans to mold a tiny North Dakota town into an Aryan enclave.

The Associated Press reported Monday that officials were monitoring Cobb after he refused to take food for four days.

Cobb told the AP in a phone interview that he was not protesting his imprisonment with a hunger strike. Instead, he said, he was practicing a form of spiritual enlightenment called mahasamadhi and planned to permanently leave his physical body behind.

The act was meant to raise awareness of how “any nascent white movement will be crushed,” Cobb told the AP. He also said he considered himself a martyr, although he wouldn’t say he planned to die.

Cobb was arrested after residents of Leith, N.D. called 911 to complain Cobb and one of his followers threatened them with guns. He was also targeted by a fellow white supremacist with graffiti after he submitted to a DNA test on daytime television that showed he was part-African.