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salesman, evidently wanting to sell him a vacuum cleaner. The deprogrammer told his friend he would call him back in a few minutes, aer he had goen rid of the salesman. He didn’t need a vacuum cleaner and besides, he didn’t like salesmen to bother him at home. An hour later the deprogrammer called his friend and told him about the wonderful vacuum cleaner he had just bought. The deprogrammer laughed while telling me this story and ended by saying, “And you know what? I
still don’t need that vacuum cleaner! That’s how unsteady, suggestible, and fickle the mind
is even to someone who knows beer.”
Psychiatric Disorders
The mind is susceptible to mental illness, such as mood and thought disorders (what Swami calls “weaknesses” of the mind). Here is a short list of the approximate prevalence (number of cases at a given time) of certain psychiatric disorders in the world population.
• Depressive disorders, 8 %
• Anxiety disorders, 8 %
• Attention deficit disorder, 3 to 7 % of
school age children and 4 % of adults7
• Schizophrenia, 1 %
• Alcohol dependency, 8 %
• Posraumatic stress disorder, 1 to 14 %
• Obsessive compulsive disorder, 2.5 %
• Personality disorders, 12 %
• Mental retardation, 1 %
• Alzheimer’s dementia, 2 to 4 % over
age 65 and 20 % over age 858
Treating mental illness requires physical, emotional, and spiritual approaches.
Stupa at Prasanthi Nilayam signifying the unity of religions
 















































































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