What is the Purpose of Pain?

[Otis]

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Edited April 20, 2011 by Otis

[Otis]

Brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing something real. I know what you mean about the doorway: once you move through it, resistance is dissolved and what was 'pain' is now something else: a phenomenon. The stuck energy shifts instead of is resisted.

Great! Thanks, Cheya and Cat. This is what I'm trying to get at.

 

When we "find the doorway", then pain is no longer suffering. Instead, it is something necessary, a sense, and IME, a pathway to self-healing.

 

The most obvious example of this is a delicious stretch. In a delicious stretch, we sit right on the edge between pleasure and pain. If we find the doorway, then the more intense the stimulus (i.e. the pain), the more pleasurable the stretch.

 

This, I think is the true function of pain: it is one half of the loop of self-healing. Pain calls my attention to the trauma, and my attention completes the loop. The result is: the pain is transformed into something more like pleasurable heat, and my body heals itself much much faster.

 

If, however, I turn away from pain, if I tune out from it, or cover it up with pleasure, then I do not give my body what it wants, which is my attention. And so my body takes much longer to heal. Sometimes it does not heal at all.

 

But if I bring loving, fearless attention to the trauma (whether physical or emotional), activate the injury through gentle practice and kind movement, and really attend to the sensations that arise, no matter how initially unpleasant, then I experience transformation and healing.

[Otis]

Deep pressure anywhere on my leg muscles has always been very painful. A couple years ago my rolfer was roto-rooting my legs, and it was incredibly painful, when suddenly it changed. The sensation was that he was just pushing a wave of deep thick energy up my leg. It didn't hurt at all. It was just very interesting. I'd been doing a lot of chi gung, and I had somehow shifted into an energy state instead of my usual consciousness. In that state, the work was not at all painful. The same thing happened at our next session. Somehow I shifted into that other state, and the deep leg work was just energy being moved. No pain. I thought I was done with bodywork pain, but the following session, I couldn't find that doorway, and the work was again painful.

Hi Adeha,

 

Great experience, and observation of what was happening inside you.

 

I think that a good deal of the usefulness in massage and rolfing is precisely in forcing the muscles to relax. The pain comes in so intensely, that the only possible way (other than yelling 'stop!') is to surrender. Once resistance to the pain is given up, then the pain is transformed. And the tense muscles are no longer holding on.

[steve]

Anyone have any actual experience to share about pain and their actual response to it?

I injured my back when helping a neighbor to pull multiple, large tree stumps out of his yard in 1990.

There was a short period of terrible, acute back and leg pain. That subsided and then I was left with fluctuating levels of low grade, chronic pain. It seemed to get considerably worse over a period of several years. A few years ago, a close friend and training partner suggested that I investigate the work of John Sarno - a physiatrist out of New York. I listened to a set of his CD's. His insights and ideas about the root causes of many forms of chronic pain (especially, but not limited to back pain) made a lot of sense to me. After a few weeks of looking deeply into myself from the perspective he presents, my pain improved considerably - by perhaps 80%. Not only that, my anxiety and suffering associated with the pain improved to an even greater extent. I was able to discover some deeply repressed anger, frustration, and related emotions. For better or worse (better, I think), I then had to begin to address these repressed issues and I continue to work on myself to do this day.

 

Sarno's basic premise in a nutshell is this: the majority of chronic pain is the expression of repressed rage. Humans living in high tech society experience enormous anger, frustration, and rage. These emotions are socially unacceptable and undesirable, and are therefore repressed. Rather than facing the content that is so emotionally and psychologically infuriating and debilitating, our brains distract our attention by creating or magnifying physical symptoms which are infinitely easier to understand and express and are more socially and culturally approachable in terms of communication and receiving care. This can be very easily mediated by the autonomic nervous system through shunting of blood flow and so forth, thus creating all kinds of physical symptoms - pain, numbness, tingling, dizziness, weakness, and so on. One problem is that whatever treatment they are provided with simply reinforces the belief that they are ill, impaired, disabled, and so on. It doesn't matter whether that treatment is medicine, surgery, acupuncture, massage, qigong, etc... These folks need to understand that their body is reasonably healthy and normal and it is their emotional, psychological, and spiritually being that needs attention. Mind you, this is just a theory based in a single paradigm, but based on my personal experience and on my professional experience as a physician, I am completely convinced that it is very close to some part of the reality.

 

A related approach is to look at the consequences of pain, injury, or illness to a person. People are conditioned to come to a health care practitioner or other care giving persons for help with a physical symptom - ie pain. They tend to repress, deny, or ignore the profound effects the issue is having on them economically, emotionally, psychologically, sexually, socially, and so on. If they are able to gain insight into all of the other aspects of their life that are affected and how they are reacting to this emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically, they can achieve much more meaningful breakthroughs than if they simply have the physical problem treated. My personal experience with acupuncture helped show me the truth of this from the receiving end.

 

I've come to the point where I will often point some of these things out to my patients when they seem to be playing a significant role in what's going on. Although, I'm careful to get into it only with people that seem to be open to such considerations. Many people just get angrier when I tread into such territory then it becomes virtually impossible to help them. Those that are open enough or suffering enough to hear what I am saying invariably break down into tears which instantly confirms that I'm on the right track. This is the first step to meaningful healing for these folks. If I address only their physical problem and the other stuff persists, their problem will undoubtedly surface again, whether in a related or unrelated form.

 

I'm sure there are more complex and subtle processes at work and these observations can be looked at from a number of different paradigms, but this much is certain - pain is an indicator, not a disease. It should be looked at carefully, with an open mind - a beginner's mind. There are times when it can be a great teacher. There are times when it can be a life saver. It can be horrible and crippling. There are times when it is appropriately masked with drugs (acute trauma or illness, terminal illness). One thing that I cannot tolerate - that is when it is exploited for profit, amusement, or other inappropriate reasons. Sadly, that occurs not only in Western health care, but Eastern and alternative health care fields as well, not to mention the spiritual arena.

[Everything]

I also think that pain itself is not as mysterious as our perception of it. So I did an experiment on my self which prooves the fact that pain is the determined by the amount of focus you give it.

 

Some things in my life requires extreme focus. For example, playing a dificult piece of music on the piano or playing a race simulation. One thought away means loosing 5 seconds of lap time. Another thing is trying to make sense of Bach music, especially fugue´s. The idea is that each fugue is a technique, not a musical piece. The technique teaches how we can evolve music from its current notes to harmonious compositions of several other notes playing harmonies that harmonize. With great focus you can try and follow all the diffrent melodies inside the one big melody and detect new harmonies that you have not yet noticed before. I hope this gives you an idea of how much focus it requires for me personally to follow bach´s music, even though it is not even music to me.

 

The experiment itself: I had a swollen finger, put in hot water first. My limit temperature tolerance. then listening to bachs music, the initial shock distracted me, but having learned great concentration and focus, I was able to tolerate 2000% the usual time after removing my finger from the boiling water out of self pitty. Same experiments done with my small self surgery. The point where the knife cut the layer of the skin above the blood felt a short shock that distracted but afterwards I got my focus back. this time my focus was on my observings while doing the small surgery. So even though I'm looking at my finger being cut, the pain itself I did not feel that much because my focus was on the vision and not the feeling. Even when applying pressure to remove the pus. I did feel sick in the stomach, because I can not observe blood for too long, but the experiment was a succes and worth it. I was even able to control some points where I used to have a reflex, done this tiny surgery before.

 

This idea came from the practice of observing my perception and experiments done with my consciousness. One notable thing is that we might switch from vision to hearing for example, very quickly, but it is almost impossible to hear and see at the same time. Just try out for your self. When you focus on what you see, you no longer focus on what you hear consciously and the other way around. It seems like that anyway... Unconsciously, yes, we do have a focus on all of our senses, but consciously only 1 at a time. It happens really quick, switching from vision to hearing or between any of the 5 senses that most neglect this switch and perceive their senses as if unified during conscious observing. No one ever stops to think, hey wait a minute, now that I am looking, I'm no longer hearing! Because the moment they say "hearing" or even before that moment, their consciousness has already made the switch from vision to hearing. That is why it is so fun to try and focus on 2 senses at the same time. This may vary from gender, not sure. I'm male.

Edited April 22, 2011 by Everything

[ejr1069]

Of all the functions of the body, none is more mysterious and provocative than pain.

 

We often treat pain as if it is an outside invader, like a virus, that needs to be killed. But clearly, pain is not something that exists out there in the world, but is right here in my body, in my head.

 

Pain must serve a function (or many of them), or it would not exist. Compared to a sense as powerful and useful as vision, pain seems like a mistake, like a neurological dysfunction. But is it?

 

Is it possible that egoic man just has the wrong relationship to pain? Do we resent it, when we really should be thankful for it?

 

How do you view pain? What is its function? How does it fit into your Taoist/Buddhist/whatever cosmology? Do you think animals have the same relationship to pain as man, and if not, why not?

 

How do you relate to pain? Is it part of your cultivation? Do you see it as an enemy, or an ally? Do you embrace it, or turn away from it? Do you use it for self-healing? How does that relationship change as you age?

 

C'mon, Bums! Share your pain!

 

For me, pain is brought about to induce change. Remove your hand from the stove as it buirns you. Change the way you view your relationship if it is causing you pain or walk away from it. Pain is meant to be uncomfortable in my opinion in order to get you to do something differently. It is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because we often need the pain in order to make the right changes in our actions and lives. But a curse because it is so unpleasant.

[Ya Mu]

I injured my back when helping a neighbor to pull multiple, large tree stumps out of his yard in 1990.

There was a short period of terrible, acute back and leg pain. That subsided and then I was left with fluctuating levels of low grade, chronic pain. It seemed to get considerably worse over a period of several years. A few years ago, a close friend and training partner suggested that I investigate the work of John Sarno - a physiatrist out of New York. I listened to a set of his CD's. His insights and ideas about the root causes of many forms of chronic pain (especially, but not limited to back pain) made a lot of sense to me. After a few weeks of looking deeply into myself from the perspective he presents, my pain improved considerably - by perhaps 80%. Not only that, my anxiety and suffering associated with the pain improved to an even greater extent. I was able to discover some deeply repressed anger, frustration, and related emotions. For better or worse (better, I think), I then had to begin to address these repressed issues and I continue to work on myself to do this day.

 

Sarno's basic premise in a nutshell is this: the majority of chronic pain is the expression of repressed rage. Humans living in high tech society experience enormous anger, frustration, and rage. These emotions are socially unacceptable and undesirable, and are therefore repressed. Rather than facing the content that is so emotionally and psychologically infuriating and debilitating, our brains distract our attention by creating or magnifying physical symptoms which are infinitely easier to understand and express and are more socially and culturally approachable in terms of communication and receiving care. This can be very easily mediated by the autonomic nervous system through shunting of blood flow and so forth, thus creating all kinds of physical symptoms - pain, numbness, tingling, dizziness, weakness, and so on. One problem is that whatever treatment they are provided with simply reinforces the belief that they are ill, impaired, disabled, and so on. It doesn't matter whether that treatment is medicine, surgery, acupuncture, massage, qigong, etc... These folks need to understand that their body is reasonably healthy and normal and it is their emotional, psychological, and spiritually being that needs attention. Mind you, this is just a theory based in a single paradigm, but based on my personal experience and on my professional experience as a physician, I am completely convinced that it is very close to some part of the reality.

 

A related approach is to look at the consequences of pain, injury, or illness to a person. People are conditioned to come to a health care practitioner or other care giving persons for help with a physical symptom - ie pain. They tend to repress, deny, or ignore the profound effects the issue is having on them economically, emotionally, psychologically, sexually, socially, and so on. If they are able to gain insight into all of the other aspects of their life that are affected and how they are reacting to this emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically, they can achieve much more meaningful breakthroughs than if they simply have the physical problem treated. My personal experience with acupuncture helped show me the truth of this from the receiving end.

 

I've come to the point where I will often point some of these things out to my patients when they seem to be playing a significant role in what's going on. Although, I'm careful to get into it only with people that seem to be open to such considerations. Many people just get angrier when I tread into such territory then it becomes virtually impossible to help them. Those that are open enough or suffering enough to hear what I am saying invariably break down into tears which instantly confirms that I'm on the right track. This is the first step to meaningful healing for these folks. If I address only their physical problem and the other stuff persists, their problem will undoubtedly surface again, whether in a related or unrelated form.

 

I'm sure there are more complex and subtle processes at work and these observations can be looked at from a number of different paradigms, but this much is certain - pain is an indicator, not a disease. It should be looked at carefully, with an open mind - a beginner's mind. There are times when it can be a great teacher. There are times when it can be a life saver. It can be horrible and crippling. There are times when it is appropriately masked with drugs (acute trauma or illness, terminal illness). One thing that I cannot tolerate - that is when it is exploited for profit, amusement, or other inappropriate reasons. Sadly, that occurs not only in Western health care, but Eastern and alternative health care fields as well, not to mention the spiritual arena.

 

"...this much is certain - pain is an indicator, not a disease. It should be looked at carefully, with an open mind - a beginner's mind. There are times when it can be a great teacher. There are times when it can be a life saver. It can be horrible and crippling. There are times when it is appropriately masked with drugs (acute trauma or illness, terminal illness)..."

Very much agree with this.

 

"...Sarno's basic premise in a nutshell is this: the majority of chronic pain is the expression of repressed rage..."

Very much disagree with this, not in the fact that he is not correct in some cases but in the fact that it simply is not true in the majority of cases. I would say it is correct only in a small minority of cases.

[mYTHmAKER]

"...this much is certain - pain is an indicator, not a disease. It should be looked at carefully, with an open mind - a beginner's mind. There are times when it can be a great teacher. There are times when it can be a life saver. It can be horrible and crippling. There are times when it is appropriately masked with drugs (acute trauma or illness, terminal illness)..."

Very much agree with this.

 

"...Sarno's basic premise in a nutshell is this: the majority of chronic pain is the expression of repressed rage..."

Very much disagree with this, not in the fact that he is not correct in some cases but in the fact that it simply is not true in the majority of cases. I would say it is correct only in a small minority of cases.

 

I took Sarnos course many years ago. He stated that there is no such thing as back pain and to move and it will go away.

It was a too simplified approach. There is pain and it tells us there is something wrong.

I thought he charged a lot of money for nothing. Another new age flippant approach. He did have the backing of the Rusk institute. Although I will grant that with some part of the population it can be psychological.

[Ya Mu]

...

I thought he charged a lot of money for nothing. Another new age flippant approach. ...

This sounds about right.

 

It all boils down to palpation skills. I think only a few have these skills while most physicians and therapists don't. It is actually, once a person has put in the time&effort of learning those skills, very easy to determine if and where a person hurts. One can also usually pinpoint a range of when the injury occurred as well as a range of what happened to cause the injury. The majority of pain cases are physical induced trauma.

 

About 20 something years ago I subcontracted to a physical therapy clinic. We got a lot of workers' comp type of cases that hated me as I could easily tell when they were lying.

[Xienkula1]

"Pain and suffering is the crucible which nature thrusts a person into to make them evolve."

Edited April 23, 2011 by Xienkula1

[mYTHmAKER]

This sounds about right.

 

It all boils down to palpation skills. I think only a few have these skills while most physicians and therapists don't. It is actually, once a person has put in the time&effort of learning those skills, very easy to determine if and where a person hurts. One can also usually pinpoint a range of when the injury occurred as well as a range of what happened to cause the injury. The majority of pain cases are physical induced trauma.

 

About 20 something years ago I subcontracted to a physical therapy clinic. We got a lot of workers' comp type of cases that hated me as I could easily tell when they were lying.

 

If anyone needs a really skilled therapist connected with a good MD located in NYC let me know.