This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankarvedantem. In the fourth century, a young man named Aurelius Augustinus found himself in a struggle with himself.

He was born in what is today Algeria but at that time was part of the Roman

Empire

Aurelius found himself torn between the dictates of his faith

and the impulses of his own body.

I was bound down by this disease of the flesh, he wrote.

Its deadly pleasures were a chain that I dragged along with me.

Aurelius was infatuated with his lover.

He felt his attraction to her was purely physical,

and this felt wrong to him.

Aurelius happened to be one of the most prolific writers of his time,

so we have a detailed picture of his mind from his various books and writings.

At one point he said, I was a prisoner of habit, suffering cruel torments through trying to satisfy a lust that could never be sated. Orelius, whom devout Catholics know today as St. Augustine, is said to have

prayed for divine assistance to battle his cravings. But his appeal to God

revealed his own divided self.

Lord, give me chastity and continents, he prayed.

Only, not yet. For thousands of years, human beings have tried different techniques to get control over

their desires and cravings. These battles have made their way into myths and legends.

In the Odyssey, the famous epic by the Greek poet Homer, the warrior Odysseus orders

his men to bind him to the mast of his own ship, so he cannot

succumb to the temptations of the beautiful human-like creatures known as the sirens.

In modern times, the diet industry has offered thousands of books and videos to help people

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