liquid

Really just keeping my account active but believe I can have some useful input here;

It's a simple psychological/hypnotic effect. Go to any hypnotist's show and you will see them pulling off the same stunt. Of course, like hypnotism, we don't have much idea of what is actually happening in the brain, but we do know that it's a fairly normal response.

Effectively, the technique is to produce a sudden shift in perceptions for the subject while their conscious attention is highly focused. For example, hypnosis can be suddenly induced on suitable candidates simply by tilting them back a few degrees whilst they focus on a point. This is pretty amazing, and they do require priming (singing hymns and focusing on a cross are pretty good starts!), but it's commonly used on shows to save time.

Tapping someone sharply on the forehead can have the same effect. It always amuses me that people find this so mysterious, when you can do similar things by tickling a trout's belly, standing a lobster on its head or drawing a chalk line straight out in front of a chicken.

Vibr8gKiwi

Last night my wife was in leather restraints, and was spanked violently on the ass. She felt no pain at all, even though it was some violent spanking!

Even more interesting, another similar action in a different situation would've likely ended up hurting her. However pain threshold goes way up during sexual arousal as well as certain other emotional altered states.

Now my question is, do you have a boner for your god?

[ August 19, 2002: Message edited by: Vibr8gKiwi ]</p>

doubtingt

I'll get to the "power of mind" issue in a second, but firts let me clarify that the vast majority of so called "miracles" you have heard about or witnessed are not the slightest bit amazing and require no real explanation.

Unexpected medical recoveries are not amazing, they happen all the time whether you are in a trance or not. There is no evidence that anyone has ever "defied the logic of science" or "defied the laws of physics." Doctors make wrong diagnoses all the time. Often their negligence results in harm or death. Sometimes they make a worse diagnosis than warranted or claim to be more certain than the current medical knowledge would allow. When this happens, people will do far better than the doctor predicted, and may recover rather than die as the doctors expected.
The fact the our medical knowledge is imperfect or that doctors make bad decisions is not amazing
and is not a "miracle".

There is no evidence that anyone has walked on water, or every violated physical laws.
There is no evidence that people can use their mind to overcome physical laws.
What people can do is use their minds to affect their psychological response to something.
In your example, you physically fell, hit the wall, and got a physical bump on your head, just like the laws of physics predict you would.

Your failure to feel pain is purely psychological.
Our "state of mind" influences our psychological response to events all the time. If your mind is distracted, you will feel less pain from a needle than if you are paying close attention to it, etc.
Trances, prayer, meditation, etc. can all act as
kind of hyper-distraction that will subdue your response to external stimulus. Also, if you generate high positive emotion, you may release endorphins in your brain that will reduce the sensitivity of pain receptors.
This is not "mind over matter". The mind is matter (the brain) so its simply matter affecting matter.