I posted a while back about the amazing work of Dr. VS Ramachandran, the neuroscientist who invented the mirror box to help his patient with pain in an amputated limb ( see the video for a quick explanation ) I just read this quote from the Good Doctor and it makes so much sense from an understanding of The Three Principles. "Pain is an opinion".
We all live in a thought created world therefore there isn't anything that isn't thought, even pain. And no matter how brilliant the pain science gets we can only ever experience it with the gift of thought. This isn't always a welcome insight to someone who is experiencing chronic, debilitating pain but slow down a little and listen for a feeling, yes that's right, listen for a feeling as you read this.
Pain is an 'Unreliable Indicator' of what is actually happening in your body. This is what Ramachandran is teaching us, that pain is made of thought and so are opinions. So depending on our level consciousness pain can be unhelpful and distressing or useful and informative. There are plenty of studies about horrific pain when there was no tissue damage and no pain when there was horrific damage, see? Quite unreliable! This is good news because if it's only happening in your thoughts and thought is fluid, always moving then those thoughts have moved on, no need to control, analyze, or manage them. In fact, all that busy work actually messes with the system as many of my clients tell me when they arrive frustrated and broke. As you step back and watch, becoming an observer of thought, seeing what is and not what isn't, you don't have to listen to its unreliable opinions and so your nervous system can relax and you feel calmer. The deeper you understand this the calmer you can be and the more your body can stabilize and heal. Now, isn't that some feel-good news?
With love, Chana
"Pain is an opinion on the organism’s state of health rather than a mere reflective response to an injury. There is no direct hotline from pain receptors to ‘pain centers’ in the brain. There is so much interaction between different brain centers, like those concerned with vision and touch, that even the mere visual appearance of an opening fist can actually feed all the way back into the patient’s motor and touch pathways, allowing him to feel the fist opening, thereby killing an illusory pain in a nonexistent hand." Dr. VS Ramachandran.