To me this adage implies that someone in pain needs only use more will power to blot out the pain.This is false.If it were true it would be dangerous.Should we banish the pain of a broken leg and continues using it we would do more damage or possibly go unconscious and even die.Will power is affected by fatigue,it is not limitless
When Jesus said,Take up your bed and walk to the paralysed or crippled he said it we believe as the Son of God who could work miracles
Maybe some of the people’s problems were psychosomatic and faith in God might give them confidence to try to walk.These things have occurred under hypnosis.I don’t have any data
But pain is a neccessary warning signal and we cannot turn if off. entirely.People born unable to feel pain don’t live very long
If you suffer chronic pain you do use all your will power to keep going.However it is finite and you pay a heavy price.Like you go shopping get home and can’t walk for 3 hours.
The only sensible saying would be “mind interacting with matter” and even that assumes Descartes division of us into a body and a completely separate mind where we live and take decisions.I expect this is imagined to be in the brain.Since we still don’t know what mind and consciousness are Descartes supposition may have had bad consequences.
If we pay attention to our body in the places which hurt this when kept up for a good while can relax some muscles and tendons.I used to do it for migraine but it would take at least 2 hours lying down and gently focussing on the pain which would gradually ease.Keeping very still stops one vomiting too.Of course you need a quiet place to do this and work is no that place
I have not yet found it helps arthritis but maybe it takes 3 hours or 5 hours and would not someone have written articles about it? Relaxing is usually good but many people are strained at work and struggle to keep going.That’s why A and E is full of drunken people at the weekend… they have be injured in falling or brawling
We educated people may blame these workers but could you spend 50 years in the coal mines [ and bring up 6 children alone] which my grandad did? He didn’t drink much as in those days they were paid starvation wages and Mum had to go to Soup Kitchens sometimes.If he had drunk he would not had much money for his children to eat
You may say if men didn’t get blind drunk then, why do they now? Ask a sociologist.It seems also to be common among middle class youngish people.I feel it’s a release of tension and if you go back to your flat alone on Friday you might be judged a loser.I know of people who go out of London on a train,get home and have no idea about it the next day.So it can be dangerous even if it helps arthritis pain
People who say, mind over matter, also are asserting their superiority to us sufferers who are weak willed morons
I did an IQ test once and I am a moron which seems odd as I used to be a mathematician!Really it shows they are rubbish on the whole
Rubbish is the in word now
The other technique which does work is Distraction.Meet friends and talk, write poetry, paint and draw.Get a camera and play with it.Go out and get a whore.I am unsure where you get them from but maybe now we are all whores.
Go to a party and get utterly knackered.But when you go to bed you still feel the pain.So how about all those free books you can get? Anything out of copyright might be available as an e book.I know someone who has read the ancient Greeks this way and alsoNewton and Hook.He has few friends as most people don’t understand such things but if you do, read all night and then have a nervous breakdown
Going mad may stop pain.I can’t say as yet and if I do I probably won’t be able to write an article about it.But on the whole given mental health’s low status in the UK I will not advise anyone to even think about it.
How do you go mad? Does anyone know the ideal way? First have loads of money for carers and a nice home with space for them…. and no doubt you will end up seeing a CBT therapist who will train you to believe you are sane and have no pain.
That’s a different kind of madnness
How my heart sings 