WHY THERE IS PAIN

Just an Educated Guess

WHY. I just "figured out" why severe pain exists. Maybe.

LONELINESS & PAIN. Some people live in a lot of pain. I guess most only suffer pain occasionally. I suspect that the percentage of frequent pain sufferers is increasing, since I'm pretty sure depression has been increasing a lot and I think they would be connected. I think lonely people (and some lonely animals) suffer more pain than those who have loved ones. Jean Liedloff said in her book, The Continuum Concept, that the people, including kids, in a tribe she lived with for a few months, were very close and always seemed to be happy. Even the kids never cried when they got hurt and they never fought with each other and never tried to hurt each other.

BOREDOM ILLUSION. Depression is often due to feeling alone, I believe. I had that experience when I was 19. I became an atheist, because it seemed like it was silly to believe in a "God", when there seemed to be no evidence for Him and especially no need and no room for Him. Not long afterward I had a severe depression, because it seemed that life and learning and experience were pointless, because after we learn and experience everything there would seem to be nothing to look forward to, but eternal boredom. It took over a month for the depression to subside. That happened when I was with my family for holidays and I was unable to hide my depression. They showed their concern and that made me feel better pretty quick. I was then able to rethink what led to my depression. Believing in just material existence is what apparently led there. Then I realized that my consciousness is what I am, instead of physical substance. And I could see that a universal consciousness must be the source of everyone's individual consciousness. And later I realized caring is the most important aspect of consciousness. It's what religion calls Love. I could see that the universe is much friendlier than it previously seemed.

REASONABLE PAIN. Despite finding a more enjoyable philosophy, it still never made sense to me why there needs to be severe pain in the world. I could see the need for some brief mild pain to keep us all and most animals from living our lives recklessly, because, without hunger pains, we wouldn't have much reason to keep our bodies nourished, and without loneliness, we wouldn't seek company. If nothing hurt, we'd have no reason to avoid doing things that can damage or destroy our bodies. I figured mild pain is reasonable, but I could see no reason for severe pain.

BOSSY GOD & DECEPTION. Many folks think they never hear "God" talk to them, but I think any idea that comes to us, which helps us in any way, should or could be considered to be God's words to us. When I discovered that God is surely universal consciousness (and caring), I still had a block against wanting to get close to God. There was spiritual literature I had read several times before, which I always thought sounded good, but at one point when reading it, I didn't feel good about it at all. The passage said: "... we had to quit playing God. ... hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. ... When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of remarkable things followed. We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well." I thought to myself, Yeah, right. No matter how well I might perform "His" work, He could always say, you could have done better. Am I supposed to be an automaton who does whatever I'm told (by the right "person") instantly, without thinking? Am I not supposed to make any of my own decisions? Why do I have a brain? How can I respect myself if I'm just a slave who does a master's bidding? Then I noticed that I had fear of getting close to God, because I was afraid I'd never have a moment's rest and would always be bossed around and would never have self-respect. So I asked myself if there is deception in that thought. I realized there was, because God doesn't want to be my slave-driver. In fact God wants to be my friend, my best friend. He doesn't want to boss me around. He just wants to give me the best advice there is in any situation. So it makes sense to ask God for advice as often as reasonably possible. And I started doing that.

GUARDIANS. Later, I realized that I had gotten my impression of what God is like from my parents, especially my Dad. As a kid, I felt like I never got enough rest from work on the farm or at school. Dad always had numerous chores for me and my brother to do. He used physical punishment for any "goofing off", so I learned to obey promptly and thoroughly. We seldom got play time and there was little reward for all the hard work we did. So it looks like my childish mind subconsciously concluded that God is like that too. Probably many people grow up that way, getting their ideas about God from the behavior of their childhood guardians. Thank God, He cleared that up for me.

HAPPINESS & PLEASURE. I don't think God advises us to be Masochists, people who love pain. The Puritans who were early settlers of the northeastern U.S. colonies are said to have lived very austere lives, avoiding doing anything that was very pleasurable. That's my understanding of the Puritans, but I'm not an authority on them. It is also said that there were Christians in Europe in the Middle Ages who went around in groups flaying themselves and each other as penance for their sins. I suspect the experience was enjoyable to them because they were in close groups and thus were not lonely. I think God means for us to learn to be happy under all circumstances. Was Jesus secretly happy in his agony during crucifixion? I think we're meant to enjoy life and to enjoy helping others enjoy it. I had a conventional diet growing up, which included lots of sugar and starchy foods. In my 20s I started to learn about healthy lifestyle and I improved my diet over time, by substituting tasty healthful foods for less healthful foods. That still seems to be good advice.

ANSWER TO SEVERE PAIN. What I came to realize recently is that I care more about people who suffer and, since Love means caring, it seems that may be a reason for severe pain. I mean the reason for severe pain may be that it increases caring. At least it does so in people who aren't suffering too much. The people who committed the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968 or so, are said to have been in the jungle for quite a while fighting an enemy they could seldom see. Their men were getting picked off by snipers one by one for several weeks, I think. Their suffereing made them desensitized to other people's suffering. So when they got to a village and they thought the villagers were hiding some of the snipers, they went and murdered about 200 villagers of all ages and genders. But some people seem to be able to care deeply about others even if they suffer themselves. So they may be the people who have learned to be happy under all circumstances. Feeling like close friends with God probably makes them happy. Ask Jesus about that. Anyway, that may be a big part of the reason for severe pain in the world. Another thing about pain, no matter how severe, once it's over it's almost as if it never happened. So it may be that pain is largely an illusion. I have a neck ache right now in the back of my neck at the base of the skull. If I never had pain like that, it would be hard to realize how much pain other people have all around the world. Without having such pain, it would be hard to care about their pain.

THE CRITIC. It seems that Jesus went around criticizing the clerics a lot, calling them hypocrites, vipers etc. Those clerics must have lived easy, privileged lives and must have had superiority complexes, imagining themselves to be morally superior to the common people. Thus they put hardships on the people, causing them to suffer greatly. The same sort of privileged people exist today in abundance and seem to have perfected the art of putting hardships on the people, causing increasing poverty and sickness, war and famine. The Covid scam is probably the biggest scam in history, but the privileged class is so adept at brainwashing via the media and the education system that most people don't seem to have quite figured it out yet. The Bible says twice that Jesus is our example, in John and in Peter. So, if Jesus criticized the privileged class, that's a good excuse for us to do so too. But it may be that many in the privileged class suffer too. So it's okay to care about them too. But let's care about the innocent first and about the guilty later.

HELL. Tentmaker.org says Hell was actually not originally in the Bible. Jesus is said to have used the word hellfire, so maybe that word was used. I think the same website says fire is meant as a means of purification. So telling someone to go to hell means to go get purified. Hell and fire I think basically mean pain or suffering. So that seems to be a clue that pain purifies us. It removes selfishness from us (I should say it improves our selfishness). We learn to care for others, all others, like ourselves.

youtube.com/watch?v=0ZgIPmUptoU