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What are the chances of teaching your brain not to feel pain when it would normally? Pain seems to be a taught reaction to something bad happening. Is there a possibilty to control that reaction? People tend to not realize cuts or scrapes that they randomly acquire and do not feel the pain from them until they see them. Is it so that this same lack of acknowledgement be able to be harnassed and controlled with time and practice?

Just curious...

Hmm... do I need to reiterate my thoughts? I should just go cut and paste :p

Yes, I fully believe this. How many people have seen a child fall and as long as it is not traumatic, ignore it, and the child goes on playing like nothing happened. Yet if you were to acknowledge the fall, the child starts crying?

Same thing goes for people who walk across hot coals or broken glass. They BELIEVE they will not be harmed, and they arent. They come out the other side of the obstacle unscathed. It's all mind over matter.

Oh, I would never experiment this. Everytime I think of it a person getting shot comes to mind and I prefer not to hurt people just to test my ideas/theory. lol.

But I agree. If people believe in something enough then anything can become possible.

I believe that if they didn't know what happened or didn't see what happened to them, theres a chance a person might not feel pain of what happened to them.

When I was in boot camp training,
they had us do all kinds of terrible exercises.
All through them, they kept shouting at us::
"If it don't mind, it don't matter."

So I think that it's definately mind over matter.
And it really works too.

There plenty of reports of people doing unbeleavable things and never able to repeat it. I myself have witnessed fire walking and it is an very unsettling sight when done wrong. I my self wold have to say "mind over matter" exists no question

Maybe ill try the theory out when i get my first tattoo. lol. my lip peircing didnt hurt the second time around b.c i knew what to expect. it shocked me more than anything...

You can learn pain tolerance which lessens the effects. "taught in most good hospitals for those with cronic pain form illness or injury. Goes with the idea one person gets shot/ blown up and they survive all types of injuries and another gets a boo-boo and dies... WTF.

I would not try it, but I knwo it can be possible ot have your mind win over matter and to dominate your body ot prevent any harm done when doing somehting that would normaly cause harm

it is quite possible to train your mind not to acknoledgepain or to atleast push it aside after it is first expirienced. it is all mind over matter, look at shou-lin monks. they have trained for many years on how to control there minds and bodies to accomplish seemingly impossible feats of stength and endurance.

I believe mind over matter does exist. As children we aere trained to hurt only because if u would fall or cut yourself your parents would run right over to u. So the mind just preceives pain now

Well at least everyone is in unison on the matter. lol. anyone feel diffrently?

The mind is capable of amazing things and we haven't even scratched the surface of it's full potential.

There is nothing paranormal about mind over matter, to a certain degree. Your mind will not allow you to fly but it can actually control your reaction to pain. The mind is very powerful, but it is not all powerful.

I think the mind can do amazing things as well. However, I do think that there are things that happen to us that no amouont of brain power can fix. Such as...
the shot thru the brain, or being run over by a fast train....

What I do think, is if the body can actually fix it, then the mind has the ability to take the pain and put it elsewhere.

Just a 2 cent version.

You actually can teach your brain not to feel pain. I can't remember when but I watched a documentary on it once. There's a school where they teach self defense for men (why men need a self defense class is beyond me but whatever) and they went in and shot it all live.. they had one of the men undress and show that he had no protection whatsoever. no clothes except for whitey tighties. :D lol.. then they beat him with sticks and he just sat there and took it.. they even kicked him in the nuts over and over again and he didn't even flinch! It was pretty amazing stuff. Not to mention, I've tried stuff like that before just not on such a high level. I'm a very ticklish person but if I concentrate, I can make the feeling go away so my bf can't tickle me anymore. It's fun to watch him get frustrated over it. lol

Elemental you are exactly right. The mind is capable of amazing things. But there are some things it cannot overcome.

i would say you are born to recognize pain but it can be controlled by the brain to tolerate it. when my niece was born they broke her collar bone and di not relize it she was just hours old my sister went to change her shirt and she screamed such a horrid scream so there was no way that pain was taught to her being so young. me on the other hand went through a very abusive relationship and pain does not even make me flinch now it is more annoying then anything

Thanks Shadowfever:)

I have actually seen the mind do BAD things to the body as well. I saw a woman once who just KNEW she had cancer of the foot.and there were open sores on her foot even. The Drs could find NOTHING wrong with her physically.

If It can do good, it can do bad. What we program it to do......we need to be very careful in that.

True. As powerful as the mind can be, sometime the greatest damage one can experience is through the negative influence of their own mind.

indeed we can program it to do amazing or awful things, we can program it to simply wake us up in the morning at a certain hour or to block a pain like giving birth ( for woman) or getting a prince albert for man. (if you wonder what it is, just google it)

I somewhat believe this.
Whenever I get hurt or cut or if I accidentally hit some body part against something I can ignore it and push it into the back of my mind and the pain goes away most of the time.
I've never had a serious injury though so I'm not sure if it would work if you broke a limb or got shot. I think that pain would be too extreme to ignore it. But it depends on the person, if their mind is strong enough to handle it.
And I really don't like the idea of testing on people to see if it would work. That's just sadistic. x_x

Realistically speaking, I already knew that if you got ran over by a train or shot in the head that you can only push so much pain out of your mind. But if youd like to use those examples, you must also acknowledge the fact that theres a very good chance youll be dead from them as well.
My question was more relevant to getting shot in a limb perhaps. Or something of that nature. Not fatal in itself like the examples that were used previously.

I believe that we can convince our bodies that we are not in pain. Like you said if you do not notice a scrape do you feel the pain when you get it, just like if you watched when you got the scrape. I agree with you Prey on this post, I think that a lot of it does have to deal with the subconsiouse mind as well.

I believe that the "mind over matter" thing is possible for some types of trauma.

But not knowing or not seeing an injury be inflicted is enough.

We can test this by applying a hood and ear plugs to a person and then hitting their hand with a sledge hammer.

I believe that they will fell that pain of the impact. The might be able to "channel away" the pain using methods of the mind, but they will feel the pain of the impact.

Prey i know that is some martial arts the man or women doing these arts are taught that pain is not there. pain is only in the mind. these people can break a broad or a brick with there hands. there are even some monks that can focus on some so much that if they recive bodily harm they dont feel it. the only thing with that is. these men and women devoted most of there lives to this. it is something that u just dont get over night.

there are even other monks that can slow there heart rate down to the point where life saving technology is fooled. so yes mind over matter is a very much real part of life. it is just a matter of learning it or being able to do it.

I think that everyone handles pain differently. Some people handle pain well and others don't. I think it would be a great benefit to people if we could teach our minds not to feel pain at all. We are already lucky that our brains and bodies do have ways of dealing with pain like releasing endorphins to ease pain.

I personally have a high pain tolerance.. as I am able to focus away from it within my mind... even gave birth with absolutely no pain medicine what so ever. The mind is quite powerful if known how to use it properly.

I think that if you truly believe, you could do it. Same as with changing memories, we do it all the time. We can change what happens around in our own minds to the point where we come out looking or feeling better. I think it is the same with pain..a matter of training our own brains.

Exactly.. thank you for putting it so wonderfully.

As a martial artist, I learned to set pain aside and focus it into chi or manifested energy. The Shaolin do the same, it could take months of practice, or years for that matter, but it does work.

To block out pain is a bit of a hassle, as you feel the pain even though you block it out, I have learned to make the burning sensation feel cold. As it is cold, my body reacts differantly to it. Instead of the usual painful twitch or shaking it off, or saying ow...It feels more like an itch from a masquito.

There are various excersises to attain certain aspects of painlessness, but it is whether or not you would choose to suffer the greater agonies, to revel in no pain at all. You have to feel the greatest pains to block them out entirely.

This goes for emotions as well, which is way easier to block, or bottle up inside. Which would explain half of what is wrong with the cruel cruel world these days, lol.

what manner of pain are we talking ?It doesn't matter ,, I have a thing with pain , it get's easy over time .. So yes ..















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I belive human mind can achive anything, even flying.

It is all about restructuring the mental perception toward the things.

well i work with alot of pain all the time and it is mind over matter but some may be do to stress..

some people have headaches and my opinion is stress related and stress can kill..

stress in the brain leads to anurisums which is a blood vain that blows up in the brain..

headaches are some what controlled by the bloodvains that cant take a blood flow as fast as others in other parts of the body..


ive learned to controlle mine by relaxing, meditation and music and a pill my doctor gave me

It is possible, well at least for small measures, with greater concentration and training im sure it would be possible for larger scales though.

Many sportsstars compete with injuries that would leave others on crutches or bed ridden, purely through the setermination in their mind to succeed.

Yes, I believe so. It's something you see nearly on a daily basis, it's just not that noticeable.

There are conditions where the body literally does not feel pain, such as familial dysautonomia. However people who have this condition rarely live to adulthood, let alone old age. There is a reason why the body feels pain. It lets us know that's something's wrong. Not feeling pain is bad. That and, the sensory input from pain can be incredible in it's own right... but that's another thread I believe ;)

I watched a show on the Discovery Channel once where they had done some sort of study where they had discovered that people with injuries that knew that help was on the way felt the pain less than people with similar injuries that weren't getting help any time soon.
I think it is possible to a certain extent.

Its not really about taking the pain away, but learning to cope with it, to reflect on it...To use it against your opponent, or not let them use yours against yourself.

Ignoring said pain is differant than not feeling it at all. As you summon the pain away, but still feel it. Hard to explain, but once the rush goes away, a good pain killer does about the same.

I've had friends that were shot and never realized it until someone told them. I don't think you can be taught how to not feel pain though. I think if something happens fast and swift enough, you won't feel it for a while...even if you see it.


..Like swinging your leg up over your head in one motion. -walks away with my stick-

Pain is the bodies messenger that damage or harm is being done or has been done.
Yes you can ignore pain. It is considered a higher function to be able to continue with a chosen act regardless of the pain involved.
Consider many rights of passage, how the individual must complete the painful and or degrading rite with out crying out or showing signs of pain, to be considered an adult.

All I can say is that you have to watch Chris Angel sometime. He is great at mind over matter. I believe that anything is possible if you try hard enough.

well you can train your brain to do other things i dont see why not that, n the reason your body doesnt feel pain till you see it is because that section is still in shock so we dont feel it, when we see what we have done we feel phantom pain untill the shock wears off.

personal experience, pain can be controled after being in so much pain u get used to it, I have Muscular Dystrophy, for those who dont know its where some of my muscles are dying, I do take pain meds but the pain gets so bad that they dont work so I have to deal with it.

I suppose if its the same pain over and over again, you may be able to condition your mind against it. However, knowing several Multiple Sclerosis patients - I'd have to say that sudden, unexpected shocks of pain can't be prepared for regardless of repetition.

yeah its possible. Like you've said, sometimes you dont feel something until you see it. Or if your cold and relax and don't think about it, it seems to get better. Same effect.

Let's think about this.


Pain. What does it do to the body? It triggers something known as Endorphins.

What are Endorphins? Endorphins are the bodies natural pain killers. Endorphins are what takes the pain away.

As We grow up life brings to Us cuts and scrapes. Things that you look at at a later date and think, 'where'd that come from, I don't remember doing that?'

Why is this? It's because Our bodies adjust to pain. Certian things will trigger Our brain to say, ok, that's pain, it's not much I got it. and let you go on without even noticing.

I'm into Extreme S/m. I'm what's known as an Extreme Sadist. In order to do what I do, I have to know exactly how the body will react. My job is to inflict pain, and know how to do it correctly, without harming the sub/slave. ( Favorite saying of Mine: Subs should be scened and not hurt)

Endorphins are worked up slowly in a scene. The sub's body is given time to take in the pain, and let the endorphins take it away. In the process the Endorphins leave a Morphine like effect. Endorphins are like Morphine with out the nausia and other side effects.

In this lifestyle there are subs that like pain so much that lighter instruments do not work.

You've got to start off harder on them because their body has become adjusted to the more intense pain. Sure they feel it, and sure it hurts, but they don't feel it like they used to. It's not so sudden anymore and their body works harder and faster making the endorphins work faster than usual.

On a slave that is adjusted to the harsher scenes will become bored easily in the warm up stage because it's not enough.

In the end, I would say yes, but it would have to take a lot of time to work up the pain tolerance. The Mind and body are definatly an awesome work of art.

Is it getting hot in this thread or is it just me? Well put.

humankind uses only ten percent of there brain's people with extra sensory gifts use maybe 12 percent. and the other remain parts of the brain that we could use we dont. it is just there. the human mind is able to do things that seems impossible of really doing. being able to lift heavy objects with ur bear hands in the eyes of danger or lose of life of one of ur children the mind's power is that of the supernatural almost. with the power of our minds in times of dire stress we can do things that most of the time we could not.

I'd like to bring a fact over from another thread, and I hope I have it correct.

The only reason we use 10% of our brain for thought is because that's how much of the grey matter is specifically hardwired for thought itself. The rest of the "white" matter is basically neuro wiring (not specifically dedicated to thought).

like you said we do not realize things until we see them.
but it depends on how big the pain is.
our brain does what it wants to especially with emotions.

I completely think it's possible to train your brain to ignore, or not register pain...or in some cases (as with BDSM relationships) even make your brain translate pain into pleasure.

I appreciate everyones contributions to this thread. I am glad that this has been a thread that has encouraged thoughts. I hope that it continues to do that.

Yes the mind can be trained to ignore pain and do many amazing things.

The military taught me how to ignore pain, because they told me if you felt pain you were not dead and to finish your job!!

So yes it is very possible to do many things with the mind. Just depends on what you wish it to do and the training you put it through to gain it.

OK example time.

A seven year old child knocks a glass jar full of butcher knives off the counter while trying to get a glass of water. One of the knives - a huge hickory butcher knife - went straight through her right foot to the floor right at the second and third toes, not enough to cut them off, but it did pin the foot to the linoleum. She didn't feel a thing until she felt something wet trickling between her toe and looked down to see the knife pinning her foot to the floor and blood pouring everywhere.

My point is yes, we can probably train ourselves, but there is also something in the brain that if we cant see it...it hasnt happened.

By the way, that story...is true. I was the child. I was 7 years old and I still bear the scar and the scars from the stitches it took to sew my foot up, lol.

I believe it can be harnessed by displacing your mind from your body...

dont know i never thought about mind over matter. ive heard about but just never paid attention to it or know anything about it

Yes it can happen and dose happen. It's called dissociation.

Talking about the child with the blade in his foot...Think about this:

A man gets sent off to war. During that war he gets into a situation in combat where his arm is disconnected from his body. Oft times the man won't feel the pain from being shot. He won't feel the pain from his limb being removed. Until much much later. Then when He does begin feeling pain, it's what's known as "Phantom Pain". This is where the body still perceives that body part's there, and in so doing triggers the brain to give the signal of pain.

The pain the soldier feels doesn't go away easily and the man has to adjust to life without that limb. In doing so, will oft times still feel the pain months down the line.

How could someone lose something so huge as an arm and not feel a thing? How could someone have an arm removed in such a way, and not feel it? How can someone still feel pain in an extremity that is no longer there?

MistressEvil - your example of the soldier still feeling pain in that extremity is what is known as "phantom" pain, psychological but still painful. Many victims are woken in the middle of the night by it. So yes, by that example and the one above regarding the butcher knife and foot, I suppose you could demonstrate "mind over matter".

For further consideration, neandertals were often found to have multiple fractures throughout their entire bodies, evidence of a rough life (or perhaps a clumsy one). Our idea of the neandertals being hunched over nimwits is the result of an arthritic body found in France, but they all walked upright just as humans do. Yet for all of the remains of humans, not nearly as many have been found to exhibit that extent of fractures. Modern science is still up in the air about whether or not neandertals were a part of human heritage or just a branch on the homanid tree. If they are our ancestors, could this lack of pain in the soldier or child be connected to an inherent gene extending to us from this point in our evolutionary history?

Many people who practice an tradition of walking on hot coals seeem to have mastered this fate, I truly believe the mind is a very powerful tool and can manipulate the thought of pain. for pain is a reaction to the body for whats happining to it.

I am not going to get into the mehchanics of pain,but to answer your question,yes. I know a guy who does this all the time.Weather,injury,all kinds of times.Miles of walking in everykind of bad weather you can think of...Actually,he really amazes me.

I do believe in mind over matter. I think if you have to determination anything is possible.

With respect to pain control, I think given enough training or meditation or focus, then yes of course. As has been pointed out, there's many examples of that in yogis and piercing enthusiasts and pain management. I think there's likely limits and some of that has to do with preparation, although it seems that shock itself could be a form of that disconnection. When a person goes into shock from a great injury, their brain can apparently stop receiving pain signals or deaden our sense of awareness on the injury. So perhaps that's a version of this mind over matter.

I think its very possible to do it to an extent. Maybe not all pain, but most of it.

Beauty of it is,the guy is none of the before mentioned..Doesnt do martial arts,or any other kindof meditaion.He just says,no time to think about that.

i believe a person can just get used to pain after awhile , like short term or even long term

in a fight your body gets used to the blows after the first few so if you constantly recieve pain on a daily basis your eventually not even going to pay any attention to it....

I've proved this.
The mind can be tamed, though not easily. The trick is to make yourself think of pain and pleasure alike as "just a sensation..."
once you master that, you can turn pain to pleasure, and pleasure to pain. And both to nothing.

just keep in mind that pain letsyou know you are still alive.

with all things... there is an opposite... without pain, we would not know pleasure... the mind is capable of blocking out many things for self preservation...

Pain can be delayed, suppressed, and converted to pleasure. Delaying pain refers to the separation in time between feeling pain and actual injury, as was mentioned. Suppressing pain is very practical, especially in recuperation from injury. Conversion of pain to pleasure is something that us masochists have mastered to various degrees. When pain makes you smile, you know you have this ability. There is a cut-off point for tolerance, where pain cannot be converted to pleasure, only barely suppressed. Making it a point to have pain with pleasure is a good way to advance this cut-off point to tolerance of most pain that one experiences.

I belive in mind over matter to a point but burns in particular are VERY painful but with enough practise of controlled mind I think one could get pretty far..

I think your totally right Prey.

It's funny you mentioned cuts & bruises that dont hurt, but when you see them they get very painful.

I would say the body and mind can be made to become accustomed to pain, and that the responsis such as physical movement away from the pain, as well as verbal complaints in regards to the application of pain can be controlled up to a point.

Realise, the response to pain is pretty much preprogrammed into Our DNA. It's what alerts Us to the fact that Our body has been damaged, and is possibly in danger. These are instincts geared towards self preservation, not learned responses, so trying to preprogram that which is in Our DNA might prove to be a bit....difficult, at best.

People are taught from a very young age how to react to pain or how to view pain. It can be unlearned and is just mind over matter. There are people all over that do fire walking. They will lay out hot coals and walk across them to show their mastery over their own bodies. Many cultures have all sorts of rituals that involve the mind over riding the thought process that causes the body to feel pain.

Mind over matter works in many situations. Pain is one thing I know it works on. I have a high tolerance for pain where as some people faint if they get stuck with a pin. I agree with the above statement......we are taught at a very young age how to handle certain things with or without pain.

I know this to be soo true. As one that sufferes form horrible migraines, it can and does work, when I can focus.

i know some forms of martial arts do that

Mind over matter is possible for sure. If you believe anything enough you can make it happen. People have been known to cure their own illnesses just by using positive thought.

I think that mind over matter can only do so much.

If you put your hand in a fire, mind over matter can keep you from reacting to the urge to pull it out, but it won't stop your hand from burning in the process.

I think using mind over matter can prevent pain from overwhelming you, but it cannot prevent you from sustaining injury. It's just like how a person with a bullet in his leg can haul ass away from the situation and barely limp, and then collapse when he is out of danger. Intense emotions, such as fear, can surpress certain feelings, such as pain, to prevent them from inhibiting you.

It's pretty possible to feel scrapes, and bruises like I don't feel much because I've gotten pretty used to falling all the time, and I've spent some time in meditation on this subject trying to reduce the chemical's that control pain, and my pain receptors. Like if I'm getting hurt really bad it will hurt, but other that that nothing.

it is possible to kinda block pain from your mind I seem to do it all the time we all due it depends on how harsh the pain is that is why we try to keep busy when bad things happen

i believe we can override pain ect … I do … I watched this guy move a paper triangle on a stick my thinking it was moving … we all gave him jokes about his breath n what not…. so he gets a large glass bowl n after a min or two it started to move …. No air this time … we said his breath still stinks lol

you should try it

I'll pass on the stinky breath but I agree that things can be moved with the mind........ some people have more control over that than others.

A lot of people while reading this thread seem to have gotten the idea that I want to learn how to stop pain altogether. But thats not so, I am very much content with my life and am in no pain that I may need to delay or stop. I was just curious about the bodys abillity to not notice it at all when you cant see it.
Although the idea of teaching the body when to feel pain is quite intriguing to me, it is not necessary. I hope that this thread has been quite helpful to all that has also questioned the abilities of your own body. Thanks all of you for your input. I appreciate it greatly.

i am a strong believer in mind over matter because just the other day well a few weeks ago i got hit in the back of the head with a steel door but yet i have no marks no bumps no bleeding nothing i was like wtf when it happened and yet i had no marks and it hit me hard to it actuallt fell on the back of my head .

our minds ability is yet to be discovered... i believe we will achieve more than anyone can imagine and are currently doing exactly that...

Doru:
I believe all humans have great potential. Usually the only thing holding people back from coming even close to doing everything they might want is themselves. It is beyond our own imaginations what people can accomplish if they just try but people hold themselves back with their owns fear and self-doubts. I hope I manage to break this barrier for myself because of all the things I dream of doing.

of course it is possible. Haven't you ever cut yourself and not realized you were cut til you saw blood, or looked at it and then suddenly it hurt. Pain is a sign that we are hurt, but psychologically speaking, our reaction to pain is a learned response that we get from our parents, or whom ever raised us. THe same goes for laughing and burping, we might never learn to do these things if we didn't have gardians to mimic when we are babies.

Then there is the example of monks who cause themselves pain, but seem to remain in a trance and give no reaction. It is a learned response.

I didnt know that I learned to laugh from my mom but hey... anythings possible huh?

I think a lot of it does have to do with mind over matter so to speak.

In other cases though, it depends on the severity of the "wound" and also where on the body this wound has taken place.

There are parts of your body where nerves are very scarce compared to other parts of the body.

For example, you can pinch the hell out of your elbow with all your might and not feel any pain, yet try and do the same thing to the top of your hand, it'll hurt a hell of a lot more.

Yeah I think this is true. And like, it's the same if you have to go to the bathroom too! lol LIke if you don't think about it or you tell yourself you don't have to go, then the feeling goes away... haha
But yeah I think that if you don't think about the pain then you don't always feel it.

Interesting example RazzleDazzle. lol. Thanks for the input though.

I think we can train our selfs not to feel pain or if your mind is occpied by something else like if you are scared and you get shot sometimes you wont notice you've been hit until you feel the blood or see it. your brain will be on overload with the fear and the anixty to get away and pushes the pain to the backburner so to speak.

i've always loved mind over matter and then i though well if it could do so much why not increase muscle mas or increase your metabolic rate to burn fat better, i lost like 25lbs in less than a month just by meditation. i'm getting better with controling external pain.

I believe that every cut and scrape that is harsh enough to leave a mark is felt by the nerves in the body and thus brain picks up every nerve senation, With not noticing the cut or scrape is a matter of the human conscienceness, does the mind automatically discharge uneeded information? Yes it does.
Thus The person can 't controll anything but his own reaction to pain, he can tune it out focus on some other thing or place but the body stills goes though the senation of pain.

Well I thank you all for your input. Im going to close this thread now since no one else seems to have any thing else to contribute. And thanks again to all who have helped me answer my question.
Kimmie