Pain supression

[Tiny]

Dear folks,


It is easily observable how the mind requires the consciousness to engage into it in order to manifest a thought. When you simply ignore an incoming thought, you can feel it like an impulse 'bouncing' off and disappearing.

I believe the same principle applies for pain. The mind requires the consciousness to focus on the pain in order to make it believe, make it appear "real".
It's my theory that when you poke yourself with a needle whilst refusing to participate in the pain "programme" by de-focusing - letting go completly - then there can be no pain nor could you suffer from it, because it is not real, it exists only as long as one allows onself to be deluded by the mind. So when one does not participate in the pain programme, the only thing that is felt are the strong electrical impulses transmitted by the brain. However, one could always go physically unconscious in case the nerves are hit hard - enough to cause the brain to overstimulate itself. Pain doesn't exist, it's only a make-believe, a programme rooted and executed within the physical-mind that apparently has the amazing ability to make these programmes appear real - taste, smell, sex etc - distinct entities that don't actually exist as they are merely pure electrical stimulations only saturated in different frequencies and colors.
We already know that by consciously directing focus at something else, pain can be alleviated. I remember times when I had stomach aches that I wouldn't feel at all while playing video-games.

I believe this is how eastern monks are able to endure so much pain. They have been training themselves to de-focus (letting go). So I would assume that when they smash their hands into some 7 concrete blocks their brain is still sending pain signals but they have learned to completly ignore them.


What do you think? 



peace

[cpt. picard]

hmm no when it comes to monks, i think its more the actual physical conditioning they do on there hands and other body parts, that literally make there bone thicker and harder while numbing the nerves down over time. Not saying it still dosent take alot of mental endurance to do these feats but when it comes to pain i think they may quite literally not feel it as opposed to just ignoring it mentally.

[Zino]

Hm, this is a very interesting thought and from a personal stand point makes perfect sense. However, in my case...Just because I'm a wimp this is easier said than done, when I feel my pain my mind automatically jolts around thinking of worse things and how bad it is, if I actually thought it would most likely go away, but I don't really have that mind control yet .

[Tiny]

Would be handy to practice sufficiently before the unthinkable happens  .

[Xanth]

Well, there's that... then there's also the old "spear to the throat" thing.
No bone there, just skin and throat.

They apparently focus their energy on a specific point on their body and make it strong as steel.
I wonder how they do that.

[cpt. picard]

Good point, Im sure there is still conditioning of some kind they do on theyre throat though, but the concentration and "chi" isnt about pain suppression in my opinion, because no matter how much you resist the pain they must be using chi to srengthen the throat physically, otherwise the spear would still penetrate wouldnt it? Feeling pain and doing superhuman feats like monks seem unrelated to me. Chi usage and physical conditioning are both used by monks for similar purposes, look up "Iron Vest" conditioning for example. I believe these two things may be interlinked, and i dont think a person could perform such feats with energy work alone and no physical conditioning. I would also have to disagree with Tiny in saying the monks are letting go and "de-focussing", I would actually say its the opposite, the monks are in a state of extreme concentration and focus when they perform superhuman feats.

[Xanth]

Yeah, I was gonna edit that into my post above... but got side tracked.

Pain suppression, from my understanding, is more about accepting the pain you receive and taking it into yourself as a whole.
You accept the pain instead of fighting against it.  You make it apart of you.

[Stookie]

If you look at people who enjoy exercise, it's mostly because they've been able to change the way their gives feedback to the workout. When they jog, their body responds like it's a good thing, rather than someone who never gets any exercise and their body responds with "what are you doing to me? STOP IT!". The burn becomes a good thing.

I understand it's not the same as suppressing pain from a 3rd degree burn, but it should be possible. Pain is feedback that acts as a warning and if you can get your body to believe nothing bad is happening, the pain should stop. Theoretically. Good luck with that...

[Funereal]

I used to think about this. I am already extremely pain tolerant, and then on top of that I can just convince myself that it isn't really there, and I don't feel nearly as much pain as any other person would.