Can YOU completely turn off Pain with your Mind ?

I was chatting with someone I met on an online chat room who told me she learned a mind trick when she was young to completely control pain and turn it into "strength" ( perhaps you can take this to mean adrenaline or physical energy/power) - yeah I know, take everything with a grain of salt but I found this interesting.

Here is the pertinent part of that conversation typos and all. I will remove the names and private bits and leave the body of the text for your consideration.

Her: i broke my wrist today rescuing my sister from 40 feet up a tree

Me: OMG ! Sorry to hear that and hope both you and your sister are alright..

Her: my sister is fine if a little...clingy about me now. and im fine aswell..was only a 20foot drop and i broke my wrist by it getting caught in a fork of the branches... though it was my sister in the tree so i reset the bones and used a Ace Bandage to timber knot my arm then go rigth back up to get her

Me: Your a tough cookie.

Her: damn fire truck got there 3 hours after she was already out. if i had let her sit up there she would have gotten hypothermia and possibly lost some toes or fingers to the cold. if not her life to hypothermia

Her: tough cookie is not the half of it. at 5 years old i learned a trick to turn pain into streangth and affectivly ignore any ailment to my body. i could break a leg reset it and wrap it up then go back to running... but this is my first broken bone and i dont wish to test runing on a broken leg, though i know for a fact i can get right back up after getting shot to defend my family...

Me: remind me to ask you about that trick sometime.

Her: sorry, im not teaching it. it has some...uncontrollable side affects.

Her: i taught it to one person 6 years ago. now he cant feel anything. cant be happy cant be sad. he could kill
you and walk away as if nothing happened.

Me: Oh my.. yeah.. better for me not to learn That.

This is a grown woman old enough to at least have a daughter in her 20's I assume she is telling the truth. What do you think? Is this possible in the way she described it.. Can one completely using only the power of the mind control pain in this manner?

Is there any good scientific research that shows this to be real?

I will add, that she uses a "dark" name and creates objects that are considered dark, such a family memorial with skulls and other occult images. Don't know if that has anything to do with what she learned or not.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


I have done it with my back. I have lumbar scoliosis, along with degenerative disc disease.

All they wanted to do was pump me full of steroids, and when I read about the side effects I made the decision to control it with my mind.

I know it sounds weird, but the only time it really hurts me anymore is if I think about it or I do something physically stupid to make it worse.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to get it to work with my damn toothache!

I believe it has been shown many times through hypnosis and meditation that the brain can indeed switch off pain. I've been trying since 1995 with very little result.

However you would need magic to run on a broken leg. The structural integrity of the leg has gone, the muscles can't keep the bone together right after the break if you try running on it. That is mechanical not electrical.

You, asked for opinions, so here's mine. Your friend is either lying, delusional, having a laugh, or a combination of all three.

Voodoo stuff. i like that.

Sorry but Voodoo was the first thing that came to mind when reading your post.

I personally suffer from chronic pain and i know for a fact that when I feel my pain coming (Cause it's not always there and i can feel it coming) I can control the pain simply by relaxing my muscles and my mind. You know like when you try to study for an exam but are unable to do so because you have too many things in your head. You try to focus on one thing, for example your pain and try to concentrate and force the pain out of you.

I got to say, i always feel tired after that. Very tired, feeling like i ran a couple of miles.

I can't find a better way to explain it.

I also tried to do the same when i broke my collarbone but the pain was just too strong so I asked for painkillers

I learned at a young age to ignore pain. At five years old, My hand was smashed in the jamb of a car door. While I was weeping, my Dad asked if the crying made my hand feel better. When I told him no, he told me to stop crying. It's been like that the rest of my life(I'm now 36)...

Is the pain still there? Yes, yes it is.... Do I react to it? Hell no.

I broke my leg two years ago and spent a week in the hospital and had four surgeries. The day I got out I was back to work. Pain does not phase me. I pretty much ignore it.

People always ask if something hurt when I do dumb *snip... I reply, yeah, but what ya gonna do about it? Work through the pain... That goes in all aspects of life!!

reply to post by seeker1963


I have the Same issues as you but unfortunately can't claim more than 5-8% reduction in pain by mentally willing it. I think I have improved my endurance as well, but that's even harde to quantify.

The best advice I ever had about pain was, pain is merely an electrical signal, it's not real. As an electrical signal you can choose/learn to ignore it.

It's like how Peter O'Toole says in Lawrence of Arabia:

"The trick, William Potter is not minding that it hurts."

It's not that hard actually .. you still feel the pain but you can ignore it easily But you have to feel a lot of pain first to learn how to ignore it

Originally posted by seeker1963


Unfortunately, I have not been able to get it to work with my damn toothache!

Thank you for the reply.. Toothache - I can help. Garlic. Chew a small piece of a clove and let the juice flow to the tooth causing the problem. Warning - It will sting like HELL for a minute or two but then - Blissful relief. Garlic works by releasing allicin www.garlic-central.com... en.wikipedia.org... - a compound with a powerful antibiotic effect.

I swear by this. I used to get really bad toothaches and eating Extra Strength Vicodin like candy did nothing. Garlic makes the pain go away like magic. Try it. You'll see.

Pain is a sensation, Just like being to hot or too cold.

30 years ago I watched a documentary filmed in Australia. They were following some Aborigines around and a small child had fallen and hit his head. The witch doctor sat him on a log, whipped out a scalpel from a piece of leather and proceeded to cut the kids scalp back in a two inch square. After that nifty piece of bush surgery, he whipped out a hammer and chisel and cut away a section of the kids skull. Afterwards, he mixed up some mud and leaves put the piece of skull back in folded the flap of skin over it and covered it with the concoction he made.

Two adults help the kid back to a hut to rest. The entire time despite tears running down his cheeks the kid never cried or whined, just sat silent. The film crew watched this in utter silence. They asked an Aborigine why the kid never cried to which they got the following response "He was never taught to cry".

I then decided that the best course of action would be to train myself to deal with pain better. I have since learned that while something may hurt quite badly it does not have to "own" my thought processes. I will not get into all of the injuries as the list is extensive. I have chronic pain, always will. It does not stop me from doing a single thing. I enjoy life to it's fullest and am an experienced whitewater kayaker, paraglider pilot etc etc.

Can't turn pain off but I can sure make it not matter.........

My career has been one of pain. Lots and lots of pain. Usually 5 incidents a day of one form or another. Dentists tell me i am their best patient because i don't jump around when they do nasty things to me. I cut my thumb off once. It didn't really hurt much. Everyone was freaking out but me actually. That said. I can't turn the pain off in a literal sense. I have built up a high threshold for pain over the years. Maybe i can and don't realize it. I can hurt myself pretty bad and within 2 minutes or so go back to what i was doing. I never really thought about it as turning off the pain though. I don't think you can. If you could i would be the man to do it since i have so much experience with pain.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Thanks for the garlic tip! That is the only one I haven't tried yet!

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by JohnPhoenix

 

Thanks for the garlic tip! That is the only one I haven't tried yet!

Let me know how that works out for you. Remember, chew a big enough piece about half the size of a pencil eraser. Must be chewed to release the allicin. Let juice cover the area and dont swallow until you let it sit there enough time to really sink in. Oh.. and did I mention it hurts like hell at first? LOL It's worth it.

A lot of you have said you learned to ignore the pain. I can understand that but it's not quite the same as using a mind trick to do it. I'm thinking she uses a form of self hypnosis perhaps which would involve some techniques.

Anyone use such a technique?

There are people out there born with the innate disability to not feel pain. These people often need to be protected since they can harm themselves even till the point of death. They do not fear fire since they can not feel the pain. They do not fear being cut because they can not feel the pain. They need to learn consciously what damage to the body is. I feel sorry for them.

I am capable to turn off pain till a high degree. Partly because of my yought and the skin decease I had and still have. Partly because of a mental reprogramming that pretty much overwrites most emotions due to some rather bad events. But I can still feel pain thou my barrier is higher then that of most humans. The only real weak spot is the central plexus which is stil able to feel pain till some degree.

However, my way is not the right way. Few people can run it and all of those who can are people that have more or less made really evil deals. If you want to learn to control pain then you have to steel body and mind in a better way. Certain meditation and martial arts can point you to that road. Knowledge of the body and mind can help you guide to that point. But most of all, inside knowledge and the responsibility to take pain when needed, to mend it when it getś to bad and only to turn it off when your physical and/or emotional feelings are less important then the people you want to help avoid pain. Think about yourself as well as others since your loved ones will just as well not want to see yourself hurt as you would not like to see them hurt.

If you are like me then those lessons came to late, but then again; if you are like me then the cold war of the inner mind is the peace between the waves of bloodlust.

One word .......NO

I used to be able to handle pain with the ability to ignoreit. I'd be able to put my limbs back together, bandage them up and continue on my mission. I was a machine. Then I took an arrow to the knee.



Seriously, shes old enough to have a 20 year old daughter, so she must be telling you the truth? Is there an age limit for liars and devious people?

I like how she says she can wrap up her broken leg and keep running, having never broken her leg.

Interesting that people find random people in chat rooms and believe what they say.

scary, actually.

I'm pretty good with pain. I gave birth three times with no drugs, no epidural, and was calm and quiet through it all.
I have had a lot of horseback riding accidents too.

In my case, I do have specific techniques. When I was very young, I was taught how to meditate, then my mother was doing some university research using bio-feedback machines. A few times I was put in them, in a dark room and learned to do things like slowing my heartbeat. It was just for fun. But this set a basic awareness of how to turn attention to my inner processes.

As a teen, I had really bad problems coping with high pressure situations- like if I had a test at school, I would go blank (like not even be able to talk or remember my name). I would be quick to sort of mentally checkout with stress.

Now, this I would point out as possibly what this woman was refering to. It is a way of disconnecting that people often learn as children when they are regularly physically abused. (that's how I did). It has some real drawbacks too- it that can cripple you in life. (though I get the feeling she is exaggerating here, it sounds sort of self contradictory in parts)

So... as a teen, I went to a therapist who used hypnotherapy with me, and taught me how to do self hypnosis.
This became a tool I used all the time, to prepare and give myself suggestions before stressful situations, or- to cope with pain.

With the pain, I do the opposite of the mental detachment now, I plunge myself into it. I embrace it, accept it. Be totally in the moment with it. It's funny to realize that a whole lot of the suffering you create is in thinking of the pain you had a moment ago (or the last hour) and thinking about the pain you will have in the next minute or hour to come!

But the actual process of self hypnosis is made up of a series of steps first, mainly focusing on relaxation of all muscles in the body. After years of doing this, I hav been able to train my body to slip into this state almost immediately by repeating key words in my mind (these are "tension down" for me). It can be any chosen words- they are cues, like you'd use in training an animal. Same concept!

I also have specific images I use to bring about certain states- like a tropical beach, and a prairie with flowers.
An elevator in which I can see floor numbers light up one by one, to go deeper into the mind and body is one of the steps I use.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix

Is there any good scientific research that shows this to be real?

Not directly. However, most serial killers, desensitize themselves from feeling empathic emotions such as love, care, fear, sadness, or anything else they think may 'affect' them.

You can do the same thing with pain via your brain, by learning to control your thoughts.

Some countries even train spies and special soldiers to be resistant or hardened to pain.

I cannot turn off pain but if i cut myself i tend to find i do not feel the pain until i see the blood.

I do not have a explanation as too why this happens but it just is the case with me even when i was out and got into a fight my face got slashed and i went to bed that night not knowing i was hurt it wasn't until i woke up and saw the injury i felt the pain.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
A lot of you have said you learned to ignore the pain. I can understand that but it's not quite the same as using a mind trick to do it. I'm thinking she uses a form of self hypnosis perhaps which would involve some techniques.

Anyone use such a technique?

Hypnosis for pain relief is extremely effective, but it takes time to learn how to do it for yourself, and not everyone seems to be able to. For some, fear overwhelms them. After that, there isn't much they can do but suffer it.

Her: i taught it to one person 6 years ago. now he cant feel anything. cant be happy cant be sad. he could kill you and walk away as if nothing happened.

I'm not buying this part. She's full of it. imho.