Pain

I am completely and utterly fascinated by the theories about pain gates. I definitely believe that pain can be extinguished by the mind there is lots of evidence to support this such as the monks who can train themselves to walk over hot coals.

There is also a Hindu festival called thaipusam during which some pilgrims are pierced with skewers but feel no pain because they believe that they have passed wholly under the protection of the deity who will not allow him/her to shed blood or suffer pain.

I also have reason to believe in paingates because I can turn pain off when I am hurt or cut myself. I haven't pushed this to a limit however so it may just be that I have a very high pain threshold. But then perhaps a pain threshold connects to paingates. Higher pain intenstity is needed to push them open.

CIPA is a condition in which the sufferer cannot feel pain. They can still feel touch however. Perhaps this is caused by an innate closure of the paingates. As good as it may seem not to feel pain this is a crippling condition as the sufferers often cause a lot of damage to themselves in particularly their joints. In one case a child with CIPA stuck his head in a fireplace because he thought the fire was pretty. He survived but was crippled for the rest of his life.

I think instead of psychology I want to study neuro science so that I can begin to understand more about this.