Pain Management

SAT., NOV. 5, 1983, 6:20 AM
FARM, FRONT OF FIRE

It has been some time since you have come for morning lessons, and I do know your feelings. There is a kind of “rebound” after a commitment that is a bit difficult to keep, and you had stayed away too long, so I had to wake you and bring you here for this first “in front of the fire” mediations of the Fall season. There is no vital message that you must have this day; it just is important that you be here and listen to Me as the sun comes up on a bright cold day. (You will have to deal with the wood… because you didn’t prepare well enough last evening.)

The talk last evening was of sufficient value to urge Me to comment upon it and upon this important subject for those who would think in terms of spirit. Most basically, from My perspective, pain is induced by lack of spirit, and pain is diminished by a fullness of spirit. Also, importantly, pain can diminish and obscure pain, spirit (pay attention) or it can increase the power of spirit. The individual has some control over these processes… some will in the matter… but in any incident of pain you must, of course, face it and deal with it with the spiritual power you have at that moment, whatever that may be.

Pain is a part of earth life, and though pharmaceutical management of pain is a feature of the culture in which you live (and that is an advantage), that same culture has caused pain through its environmental encouragement of cancer and it has exacerbated pain through its insistence that medical practice be scientific and naturalistic… with little regard for spirit.

The Sister last evening hinted at this spiritual dimension to pain, and she certainly knows of it, but she did not identify it as such while you listened. It is, certainly, an holistic phenomenon… much more than just a physical experience. She noted how emotions can increase pain (even be a basic cause, at times), and I shall add that positive emotions such as love and compassion, when they have a spiritual dimension, can surely diminish pain. The presence of certain others can upstage pain and reduce the sensation of it; the presence of some others may make pain worse.

She emphasized the importance of the environment in pain management, but, again, it is the hurting person’s response, in spirit, to the environment that is critical, rather than the environment itself. Having said that I’ll also repeat that some environments have a positive quality of spirit inherent, while others are rather neutral, and still a few others may be actually negative in relation to spirit. Unfortunately, some hospital settings, in which the most severe physical pain is experienced, have such negative qualities, and it takes more evident spirit in the helping persons to overcome this disadvantage.

What I want to emphasize this morning, however, is that pain is an interesting interplay among body, mind, and spirit. Most pain basically originates in the physical body, a marvelous indicator that something is wrong with the body, calling for change in activity and in what is taken into the body. The mind and emotions contribute, sometimes together and sometimes in opposition, to a greater or lesser experience of pain. Spirit is the key to management, however, and an important reason why different individuals require different levels of pain medication is the relative strength or weakness of spirit.