by Vinod Verma (Author)
It is a basic fact that Dementia is spreading like wild fire all over the world. At the moment, the higher percentage of dementia patients are found in the economically affluent societies of the world (see map in Wikipedia). However, in the developing countries, its spread is directly proportionate to affluence and adopting a mindset based on the mind-dominating philosophy. In brief, it is the lifestyle and the attitude, which is associated with the industrialisation and the Western philosophy of a mind's domination over body. Descartes' philosophy of attributing all the powers of a being to the mind and considering it as 'self' has done tremendous harm. That has lead to the misuse of mind and thus deformation of its capabilities. For preventing the horrors of dementia in future, along with the lifestyle, we need to change our attitude and learn to coordinate our mind with the five senses and the physiological body. We should stop being only a 'mind individual' but a whole being whose real self is not mind but an energy that puts life into a body of which mind is only a part.