Moving from dope to electroshock therapy the Ram Janaki way

I don't think this is a joke, but it should be a cautionary tale for those of you in search of better ways to get high. Today you may be smoking or snorting your drugs, tomorrow you could be running live current through your body. No, really.

Baba Mangal Das, the priest of Ram Janaki temple at Bamhorisar village in Lalitpur District of Uttar Pradesh is addicted to this weird habit for three years. And, he strangely claims to have never faced any adverse effect.

“At night, I plug this wire in and place a live wire either inside my mouth, ears or under my armpit to sleep well. Without having electric shocks, I turn restless. I have been doing it for the past three to four years," a priest Ram Janaki temple, Bamhorisar.

The 52-year-old priest is said to have been fond of opium, smack and marijuana. His craving for intoxication remained unquenched until he experienced electric shock on touching one end of an electrified iron rod in 2004.

Mangal Das loves getting his dose of thrills from a kitchen-heater's coils while it is switched on. Over it, he places one end of a rod and takes the other end to his tongue.

"I used to dope a lot. I used to have marijuana but slowly it stopped intoxicating me. I started getting electric shocks to satisfy my craving,” said Mangal Das.