Thinking away your pain, mind over matter Options

Brain scans help think away pain
It may really be a matter of mind over matter - scientists suggest it is possible to control brain activity to reduce the pain you feel.
Stanford University researchers found seeing brain scans and using mental exercises helped reduce pain.

A UK pain expert said the work backed other studies which suggested changing how people thought about pain could reduce its effects.

The research is in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Hope

Thirty-six volunteers took part in the study.


I'd think of little people on my back digging out the pain, or I'd think of snowflakes
Laura Tibbitt, who took part in the study 

Heat was applied to their palms, with the temperature for each person set depending on what they found painful.

One group was placed inside a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner where they were able to watch their brain activity on a moment-by-moment basis.

They were then shown "live" action images of their rostral anterior cingulate cortex, an area of the brain responsible for processing pain.

Nexy, they were given various mental strategies to try to train the brain to respond to pain differently, such as being asked to think of it as a relatively pleasant experience.

Over time, the eight people who went through this training procedure showed an increased ability to modulate their response to pain.

Other groups were either shown no scans at all - and just given behavioural techniques to help them cope with pain, or shown scans of different areas of the brain, or those showing other people's pain responses.

People in these groups showed no changes in how they responded to pain.

'Brain exercise'

Dr Sean Mackey, who led the research, said the study findings offered great hope for people who suffer chronic pain.

"We could change people's lives.

"However, significantly more science and testing must be done before this can be considered a treatment for chronic pain."

He said it was not clear how people had controlled their brain activity, but added: "We really don't know how anyone controls their brain to perform an action."

Laura Tibbitt, 31, who took part in the study, has chronic back pain caused by a horseback riding accident seven years ago, said she used different thoughts to decrease the pain while watching her brain scans.

She said: "I'd think of little people on my back digging out the pain, or I'd think of snowflakes.

"The goal was to exercise your brain, to retrain your brain. Sometimes I felt like I had made a change in my brain. The pain was never completely gone, but it was better."

Dr Beverley Collett, president of the British Pain Society, said: "In some ways, this supports some of what we are already doing in pain treatment, using cognitive therapy to change how people think about their pain.

"And we know psychological treatments do help people manage their pain."



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4524138.stm

Published: 2005/12/13 13:50:02 GMT

© BBC MMV

this astounds me, the general public is even dumber then it seems then.

This is a trick i have been using since i was 10 years old. and only now science realises it, fools.. truly fools they are.

It is possible with enough concetration to completely nullify the unpleasant sensation accompagnied by pain. the awarenes will remain, but it ceases to be disturbing.

It won't catch on. There is too much money in producing pain relief drugs for a simple, cheap, drug-free technique to be allowed to become used.

you are probably right. But not only cash is an issue, people are to afraid and to lazy to try anything alternative.

Let the sheep have their easy expensive drugs, i for one don't care.
They are all useless blind sheep anyway, trying to copy the herds every movement. they are good at moving in herds, succesful in the herd life, although without a mind of their own. As their mind opens up from time to time, they try to ignore it, escape it, with a little help from provac if need be. Becouse they fear the truth, it terrifies them.

It is rare to be able to talk to people that are able to think for themselves, thats why i always enjoy these forums.

Don't get me wrong, i have many non magical friends, and i enjoy their company, however they still are normal unenlightened people.

I like the companionship of kids though, at a young age they are still enlightened in a way.

Interesting study. Especially interesting coming out of Stanford. If I'm not mistaken Stanford recently played host to the Dalai Lama. The Dalai was there to talk in a forum to a large group of neurologists. The topic was the difference in brain waves, brain chem etc etc of the typical buddhist monk compared to that of the typical lazy, stupid, ugly american. Though the Dalai's speech wasn't the type that would cause a wildfire most agreed that there were interetsing possibilities.

Note that about a year ago a group of buddhist monks visited the state capital of California where they performed many incredible feets, including letting members of the state congress give them a full force kick right in the genitalia. The monks of course were unfazed by this since they've been able to attain a union of body and mind beyond the comprehension of joe average. Whose just barely aware that such a union is possible at all.

Let the sheep have their easy expensive drugs, i for one don't care.
They are all useless blind sheep anyway, trying to copy the herds every movement. they are good at moving in herds, succesful in the herd life, although without a mind of their own.

I take it from your reply you do not follow the Bodhisattva path (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

hehe, it seems like i don't. And you are probably right.
But perhaps my spirited response is becouse i care.

However, i would love for all the normal people to get a little more enlightened. It irritates me that they are so blind, not living up to their full potential.
The ones that open their eyes they see. And the ones that are still sheep cannot escape from their sheep lives, ..yet.

However that is far from my purpose here, so i definatly do not walk the bodisattva path. Although from time to time i may.

I do not care, becouse i am not attached, but...

I do not care, becouse i am not attached, but...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) To care is to follow the path of the Buddha. To become attached to caring so that it clouds the judegment, and makes one likely to drift to nihilism because one cannot care and help every single person, that is to stray from the path of the Buddha.

An enlightened person is still 'normal' imho. Those that have not awoken are still buddhas...just sleeping buddhas (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

However, i would love for all the normal people to get a little more enlightened. It irritates me that they are so blind, not living up to their full potential.
The ones that open their eyes they see. And the ones that are still sheep cannot escape from their sheep lives, ..yet.

The thing is Smoking Fox, you are STILL a sheep, just one who is perhaps a little more enlightened than the others. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) You're normal - you need to eat, sleep, work to live right? Are you at your full potential right now do you think? Just curious. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bob forbid - but for example if I contracted cancer, would I rely on spellcrafting, reiki, and my understanding of energy work and healing to survive? Obviously not - I'd be kicking down the doors of the chemotherapy room demanding they shoot some poison into my body, at £4,000 a shot to give myself the best chance.

hehe, i am perhaps not enlightened, but i am certainly not a sheep.
sheep are those material people, that do not have an intrest at all in learning and spirituality.
In the face of something that endangers from their system of life and their herd mentality, they become terrified. Spirituality and new beliefs are often a part of that. They are just herd people, they populate our cities and fuel the economy, and then they die. Withouth having truly lived.

I have never been a sheep, i have always hungered for spirituality. And i have always asked myself the questions about things that everyone else just took for granted.

Anu, I never said that someone that is "not a sheep" is enlightened, and i never said that "not being a sheep" equals not being required te eat food.
I also never said that "not being a sheep" equals living up to ones full potential.
You said those things Anu, please do not put words in my mouth...

But hey, at least i try to heighten myself everyday, those sheep don't.

Don't get me wrong, not everyone is a sheep, nobody on this forums is a sheep. Becouse the moment one starts researching spirituality, etc.. , one stops being a sheep. Many people that are not interested in spirituality are not sheep.

To care is to follow the path of the Buddha.

It depends in what context you use caring.

If i were to say that i care about those people, i want them to open their eyes and help them do it. I love them even if they are sheep. then you are right in your statement, caring is part of the path.

If you say that i need to care about the fact that many are sheep, to the extent that it troubles me. So that it haunts my mind. that i become emotionally unhappy becouse i care to much about everyone else. Then your statement would be wrong.

It is in this last form that i used the word.
There is the fact that they are sheep, and i do not care about that fact, it is just a fact.
I do, however, care about the sheep, and i will help them whenever i can.

On other occasions when it is not the time to help, i do not care and i try to keep an empty mind, no mind.

To summarize, i care about people, not about situations. sheep is the situation they are in, i do not care. buddhas is what they are, people is what they are, about them i care, them i love.

On the other hand, sheep are cute and cuddly. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

IMHO even just thinking about something other than the usual for a person (the bigger picture, spiritual enlightenment or whatever) evolves a person tremendously.

This goes in the line of what A fox was saying about someone on this forum not being a sheep.

I wouldn't mind being a sheep, i think sheep are way more evolved than humans in some ways. (the art of being for one thing. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif))

This post has been edited by animus: Dec 15 2005, 01:17 AM

I think the word sheep is a bit too general to categorize someone, it is certainly true as humans that we all have the same needs and therefore are likely to do the same kinds of things, I wouldn't say that most of us don't think about what we are doing, it all depends on what our highest priorities are at the time, we might be prepared to follow a few others whilst dealing with some other major issue until we have time to really give thought to it.

Anyway, as for thinking away pain, I have come across this technique of attending to our pain in meditation, I suppose that because pain is the brains way of pointing us in the direction of something that is not right, it does make sense that once our brains know we are attending to it, it will stop the signal or at least not put out such a strong one. One problem with this technique is that of sudden pain, pain that cannot be prepared for or comes and goes so quickly that there is not time to 'attend' to it.

I listen to people at work and when i'm out and about, and they know that life is not quite the way they want it to be. It is just that they lack the tools to deal with this, and so use the tools that they have to hand and have been told will work (TV, Drink, Drugs, Consumer goods, Fast Food etc). I think this is why people become attached to the latest fads, false spiritual teachers, fundamentalist religion... they are looking for the right tools to make sense of the world and their lives.

Take this drug, it will make the pain go away. This is just another way that people are taught that they cannot deal with this themselves, that one has to look for a pill to take away the pain. Soma comes in many forms.

Anu, I never said that someone that is "not a sheep" is enlightened, and i never said that "not being a sheep" equals not being required te eat food.
I also never said that "not being a sheep" equals living up to ones full potential.
You said those things Anu, please do not put words in my mouth...

*smiles* I didn't put words in your mouth Fox, there's no need to be defensive.

You refered to 'normal' people in a way that indicated that you were not in the same catagory as them, so I addressed that point, asking a simple question, and pointing out that regardless of whether or not a person is enlightened or not they still need the same basic things to survive - therefore are all still the same species ... sheep ... humans ... whatever.

You refered to these people as 'blind' and 'sheep'. Those were your words and that was what I was addressing.

Excellent, now thats all clear can we continue with the discussion - I am quite interested in this topic since I get what seem to be migraines.

Does anyone know a good way to deal with this type of headache?

Most people who suffer from migraines have triggers, such as foods--chocolate being a common trigger as well as caffiene--alcohol and for some odors. It's recommended to keep a log of migraines; foods and beverages consumed, medications, stress...

Though I've kept a log before, I don't seem to have triggers and my migraines have changed over the years in both symptoms and intensity. Their frequency have lessened over the last year or so which could be attributed to my age--change in body chemistry is a theory about them lessening with age--or meditation and stress-copying skills as often mine seemed due to stress, though certainly not always.

I take Imitrex for mine, which helps immensely. Some of my symptoms are loss of vision and feeling in arm. I have three little boys and need to be able to see. *grin*

This website has some good information about migraines and how to treat them with both conventional methods and alternative.

WebMD

i'm no expert on migraine. Since i never have them.

However, pain can be ignored. If you choose not to care about it, not to let the pain get to you. If you accept the pain as a sensation, and do not think it to be a bad or good feeling. If you just experience the pain without attachement to it, no bad attachement and no good attachement. Then you will be free of the burden of pain, it will no longer annoy you.

The feeling will never go away, but the sensation of pain is no longer experienced as a bad thing.

It becomes a neutral sensation.

This sounds simple, simpleminded even, but it is not that way. This is a very hard technique to master. But very rewarding if mastered.


an exercise:
Focus on your hand, feel your hand, feel how you can feel the hot or cold sensation of the air on its skin. Touch something with your hand, feel the sensation.
Feel that this sensation is neither pleasant nor unpleasant, neutral. Yet you are very much aware of it, you can feel it, yet you do not think anything of it.

Imagine how this can be the same with the sensation of pain.
The sensation of pain is the same, it can become a neutral sensation also.

I also apologise for going to far off topic in my previous posts. I was wrong to do so...

Yup, it's funny how science only now uncovers what many people have known for years. Espescially any fan of body-mods. I have several tattoos piercings, and some scarification - I've gotten pretty good at thinking away pain! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

LOL Oxigen, rather you than me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Thanks for the link and tips Skylyn.

I have not noticed any definite triggers but talking of feet, I have noticed that having cold feet doesn't help a lot of things like headaches, my main way of dealing with headaches in general is to get into a warm bath, relax and breathe in steamy air; they could be due to sinus problems I suppose.

If they are due to sinus problems, try the following old witch trick.

Cut an onion in 4, but it on a plate beside your bed. Sleep.
It will work well against any cold, and it will clear your sinuses.
The downside is that your room will smell like onion. Another side effect is that in the future you will be less prone to crying from cutting onions.



Also, if i am really sicks i get angered at my body/flesh, for being so weak. And i send energy to the place it hurts. to heal it. Basicly i get so angered that i refuse to be sick. I realise then that the spirit must be stronger than the flesh, since i walk a spiritual path.

It is one thing to think away pain due to injuries. But from disease, like the flu or a headache is different all togheter. In such a case it is best to try to heal, becouse it is not wise to ignore a real illness.

Would garlic work Fox?

I have a very keen sense of smell at times and I think I would just have to get out of bed and remove the offending odour (IMG:style_emoticons/default/yucky.gif)

Yup, it's funny how science only now uncovers what many people have known for years. Espescially any fan of body-mods. I have several tattoos piercings, and some scarification - I've gotten pretty good at thinking away pain! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Pain is part of the experience of getting a tattoo.

i don't know if garlic would work. But i think onion is more potent. The effect it has on the eyes and breathing when you cut it is probably the reason why it works well. Garlic does not do that i think.
When i have a cold i always cut a onion in pieces and put it in my room at night and sleep in it. It works fast, next morning your nose is completely open, a few days and you will be recovered completely.

normally if you cut it fresh when going to bed, the smell should come on slowly and by the time it gets strong you could already be asleep. And with a full nose from a cold, one cannot smell much anyways.

Diseases on the lungs themeselves are not so much healed by the onion technique.
I havent found a good holistic aproach for them. the only thing that works for me is time, when i get ill that way.
I'm sorry, but i do not know the proper english words for these diseases, i am not a native english speaker.

For pain in the troat one should take a spoon of tabasco mixed with cayenne pepper. It will ease the pain very fast and very long. 2 spoons a day wil work better than any drugg you can buy. unless you dope yourself on painkillers. the burning in the mouth will be a bit much for beginners, but i always prefered the quick pain. And i like spicy food.

this astounds me, the general public is even dumber then it seems then.

This is a trick i have been using since i was 10 years old. and only now science realises it, fools.. truly fools they are.

It is possible with enough concetration to completely nullify the unpleasant sensation accompagnied by pain. the awarenes will remain, but it ceases to be disturbing.

I've known about that for the past year too, simple common sense. But again, i think scientists did as well, only they want to make business by selling stupid shit when infact anyone can meditate and feel pain as even lust.

This is nothing new to me , i have heard this on many occasions , the mind is Pandora's box and can bring life and death.
Here are two examples.

1)Life
Back in the 70' a boy about 10 was diagnosed with brain cancer and at the time there was no theraphy.The boy loved Star Wars.So each night he visualised starfighters destroying cancer .One night he dreamed the ships couldn't find anything to fight.He went to the doctor - the cancer was gone.

PS There was a documentary on the Discovery Channel about this

2)Death
I don't know the date on this.In a prison there was an experiment made on an inmate.He told he would be executed.He was straped to a chair and blindfolded .His neck was scratched with a ruler and warm water was slowly poured on the cut.He was told his neck had been slashed.Three minutes later , he died.

I guess we can do anything with our minds , heal or wound ourselves , so my conclusion - yes we can remove pain but we can also amplify it a million times.

i have heard about that boy, each night he destroyed the deathstar wich was a representation of the cancer it was awsome, but i still have no idea why more people don't understand that this works. you think every doctor in the world would recemend this to cure a lot of things but no. to dam greedy.

and by the way i have been using my mind to stop the very bad pain i have in my left ankle and left wrist that i have had for a decade or so. all i have to do is grab it and focus on it, tell the pain to stop and it does, granted it doesn't last forever but it does last a few weeks.

This subject fascinates me. I do believe it is possible to conquer pain and to carry on existing in the face of terminal illness. I also believe it is possible to allow it to consume you - life is a state of mind.

Excellent, now thats all clear can we continue with the discussion - I am quite interested in this topic since I get what seem to be migraines.

Does anyone know a good way to deal with this type of headache?

Mine are triggered by changes in barometric pressure, so I get one whenever a storm comes in or leaves. I take 800 mg ibuprofen to kill the underlying inflammation and I'm usually fine in about 30 minutes or so.

Best thing to do is see your doc and see what they say.

As for concentrating to get the pain away, it doesn't work for migraines, at least for me. They destroy my ability to concentrate. Once they're gone, or at least under control, I'm fine, but if I don't abort one as soon as it appears I'm screwed for the next few days.

OK so i definately believe the mind over manner bit, but what of the dangers? Pain isnt always a curse. Sometimes its the best way your body can communicate with you. For those who have the self control to numb themselves, thats not necessarily psychologically healthy. Your body is TELLING you something. I'm not saying pander to your symptoms...but let me give you an example: Im a singer. A cardinal rule for all singers is not to use pain medication for your throat when you're singing. Why? Because pain tells you when you're straining. I shouldnt ignore my throat if it tells me im straining too hard. If i did...i could potentially destroy my voice and my career.
Here's another example: If your ankle hurts you...dont just VISUALIZE healing. Magic always follows the easiest route, correct? The appropriate thing to do is to go to a professional doctor or stretch your muscles or have surgery or get a cast or rest your leg for a while. Then visualize yourself getting better. Visualization is important. But magic is much more productive and powerful when backed up with physical action....

now if there is no physical treatment, that is when mind over matter is appropriate. I have made a pact with my body. It tells me when i am hungry...so i eat when i need to. But if i cant eat immediately ill put it out of my mind with the promise that ill eat when i can. In doing this...i have forgotten to eat all day and more than once...so I make sure i listen to my body most of the time, because it usually has something worth while to tell me.
I truly believe in this method...but it cant just be onesided, because then the body becomes ill and you dont realize it until you have more than just the 'annoying' symptoms. Concerning such methods of displacing pain, i have experimented some; i don't have to feel cold...it just becomes a numb sensation. And i can turn this off and on. But i choose to leave it on because there is ALWAYS something i can do about it.

Ok so i dont mean to change the subject or anything...but just as a sidenote: No one ever thinks of the body as a seperate entity...we all share this general assumption that the body is here for us, the egocentric mind. But if we begin to mentally sidestep the body's will...couldn't that possibly indicate there's more to it then just the thinking part of the brain? Perhaps that mind is SEPERATE from the body all together and they coexist because neither can last long without the other? And following this assumption, couldn't the mind simply appear to be the leader of a billion or more individual working and living cells? Thats a major responsibility we have over our bodies! I suppose one can also think of it as a bunch of chemical reactions in which case thinking is led by the body...and the body is majorly responsible for the thoughts. Whatever the case, its obviously a symbiotic relationship we have with our body...and those who believe in afterlife should hold such a vessel dear. Those who don't, here's another reason to love the fragile skin your in.

This post has been edited by valkyrie: Feb 5 2007, 07:24 PM

jeepers!

c'mon! its simple - you use magick to remove it (or heal the cause)!

for what else are we given the gift of magick, than to heal ourselves and others?

barometric migranes are the easiest - there are nerves up the nostrils on the back side of the bridge of the nose, put a little empowered dab of eucalyptus oil, or if youre at work, black pepper (or better yet, red pepper) there - eucalyptus oil is so much better than pepper, which burns like napalm, but the migrane will be gone in about 5 minutes either way, especially if you push

if you can go out-of-body for that five minutes, it works even better (and 'there is no pain on the sunder plane')

e.