Thread: Cutting yourself

Hey,

Last night I tired floating by folding my legs up into a lotus position. I fell and it hurt, so i gave up trying and decided to save it for my next lucid dream.

Nick

Pain, if it exists at all, dissipates very quickly while I'm lucid.

I imagine that, if I cut myself while lucid, it would heal very quickly and probably just feel weird.

This relates very nicely to subjects brought up in the matrix, aswell as practices used in hypnosis, involving inducing imagined pain, and lack of any touch sense reception (numbness). Matrix-wise, you have Morpheus explaining the basics of the biology in the brain. Pain, sight, hearing etc. are all electrical impulse signals heading from receptors to the brain for final processing. Inbetween the two, they can be hijacked and altered, somwhat like internet hacking. If you think about it, as a sense, touch (which is the broader sense that pain belongs to) is probably the easiest to fake, compared to hallucinations or sounds. I personally cant wait to experience all the sensual experiences of an LD

I have not tried to feel pain. In my second LD I saw a bull and called him over so I could take a ride. Grabbed the hair on his neck and mounted. Took of like a bat out of hell. At first I was thrilled. Then I was scared to death because I though is might be real. The dream ended. My point is a dream can in every way seem real so why would you want to feel pain. Even if it did heal quickly it seems pointless. I don’t think you have to worry though.

Generally when I feel pain, it's dulled from what it would be in real life. For example, being run through with a knife feels like something on the level of a bad stomach cramp... Of course, there have been times when I was injured and didn't feel any pain at all.

Oh, I've tried cutting myself. It hurts. I didn't try it again.

Originally posted by Callista
Oh, I've tried cutting myself. It hurts. I didn't try it again.

Sounds reasonable. I'll try it anyway, the summoning technique I want to try requires you to cut your thumb, so that way I'll get two for the price of one. Efficient lucid dreaming, now there's a concept worth exploring.

Well, just to be comforting, it didn't hurt all that much. Not even as much as when I've cut myself in real life. And most people don't feel pain at all, or just pressure. So you're likely not to feel pain... and anyway it won't be a big deal if you do.

I've done the infamous finger-through-palm trick a few times in my lucid dreams, and it didn't hurt. Just felt really weird.

Oh and I got shot once and it didn't hurt either, but I wasn't lucid in that one.

Seems like I have been cut in dreams and it DID hurt but I just can't remember at the moment. As far as feeling pain in lucid dreams, I think you should be able to 'make' it hurt by concentrating. I also think you may even be able to stop pain via dream control. I don't see why not.

In a recent LD, I ran into a wall at a speed that probably would have hurt me in real life. I could feel the wall there, but I did not feel pain. I also know that I can feel temperature in dreams too. But I haven't tried to induce pain.

Originally posted by Jalexxi
Has anyone ever tried this in a lucid dream? I know a lot of things I did should hurt, but didn't. I wonder what would happen if one actually focussed on something like cutting your finger. I am going to try it next lucid (if only to try out the Naruto summoning technique * ), but I wonder if anyone already has had experiences with pain in lucid dreams.

Great idea! I' m so gonna try the summoning technique! *Adding to the tasklist*

Originally posted by Revero
I also know that I can feel temperature in dreams too.

Oh I hadn't thought about that. I can't recall one instance where I could feel temperature.

I'm gonna pay attention to that next time

Originally posted by Jalexxi
Has anyone ever tried this in a lucid dream? I know a lot of things I did should hurt, but didn't. I wonder what would happen if one actually focussed on something like cutting your finger. I am going to try it next lucid (if only to try out the Naruto summoning technique * ), but I wonder if anyone already has had experiences with pain in lucid dreams.

No! You want to send yourself Healing. NOT mutilate yourself.

These little experiments are all well and good, but some thought should go toward the consideration of possible benefits. Wht benefit is there is Self Mutilation? But what if there is a subtle subconscious influence whereupon the injury that one inflicted upon one's Astral and Subtle Self will eventually perculate up into the physical, perhaps giving one Arthritis of the Hand. That would have been a wonderful little experiment, huh? With the time spread so wide and so many variables and lack of controls that nothing would be proven, but you would have arthritis anyway.

I suggest you use some common sense before you really hurt yourself.

In my work experience I occassionaly meet teens that cut themselves. Their motivation is to prove to themself their self-existence through the experience of pain. I recommend that you find a good therapist.

Please practice great care in the weilding of negative energies in either the real world or the dream world.

Put yourself in a doctor's office, then, and have them check your blood sugar. That's not physically damaging and requires only a finger stick...

My point is to give a caution, the use of negative energy in any realm is extremely dangerous.

As a diabetic I do fingersticks at least 4x daily, in the real world.

I can't recall one instance where I could feel temperature. [/b]

The same goes for me! This morning when I woke up, I thought it might be good to use this given as a dream sign. I have the sense of it being sunny or cloudy etc. but not of temperatures that go with it, whereas I mostly constantly feel cold in real life. Does anybody here feel temperatures at all during dreams? (i.e. picking up a hot pan or feeling the sun's rays on you etc.?)

As for reasons why it would be good to induce pain in dreams; I'm not too sure it's a given that things that happen to you in dreams have their physical consequences on your body later. It might be true, yet again, it might not.
I can see one easy benifit for myself. During a certain time of the month..ahem..I get the strong urge to run into a wall or fall off a building (weird I know, but it's the truth) including to feel the pain that goes with it. I haven't so far, because I know I'm not going to like the result the next day. Yet maybe if I became lucid enough, I could fulfil this urge in dreams instead of real life and wouldn't have to think about it constantly during the day.

I dunno... once your dreams include pain, they may do so permanently. Mine started with this about a year ago, and haven't stopped since... some of them have been pretty annoying. Last night I got bit by a coyote, for example... that did NOT feel nice.

I never cut myself, but I did douse myself in gasoline and light myself on fire, it was cool, but somewhat disturbing that I was willing to do that, even in an LD.

I think there must be something positive in it, in that you can simulate accidents, so you may learn to experience what the pain is like, to some extent, before experiencing it in real life, ergo coping better with the pain!

Originally posted by Leo Volont

No! You want to send yourself Healing. NOT mutilate yourself.

These little experiments are all well and good, but some thought should go toward the consideration of possible benefits. Wht benefit is there is Self Mutilation? But what if there is a subtle subconscious influence whereupon the injury that one inflicted upon one's Astral and Subtle Self will eventually perculate up into the physical, perhaps giving one Arthritis of the Hand. That would have been a wonderful little experiment, huh? With the time spread so wide and so many variables and lack of controls that nothing would be proven, but you would have arthritis anyway.

I suggest you use some common sense before you really hurt yourself.

What if not cutting myself in my dream hurts my Astral Self, hm? I simply can't take into account anything that I lack knowledge of in any way, shape or form. As I don't know anything about an Astral or Subtle Self, and I have no way to gain that knowledge, I'm not changing my actions. With all due respect, that sounds a lot more like common sense to me.
And I'm not suicidal or a self-mutilator, for those who are worried. I'm simply interested whether an experience like pain would be accurately simulated in a dream. It's simple curiosity, really.

Same here, well said