United States of Body

There are days when
I am completely in my mind.
Those days are many.
And then there days when I am totally outdoors,
Like now:

Once is Nonce: Time Perception, Pain, Mindfulness

Callender and Edney, in their book "Introducing Time," write: "In addition to the physical time measured by various clocks, there is also psychological time" (2004, p. 8).

The problem is: there is no "physical time" since time is not a physical stimulus . Physically speaking, there is nothing to measure. Clocks don't measure - they just tick.

A thermometer measures temperature. A tire gauge measures pressure. But what does a clock measure?! Clock is the only "device" that measures nothing. Nothing, except for self-imposed pressure...

All time is psychological. All time is information processing. Let me explain...

In my doctoral dissertation "Time Perception as a Measure of Pain Intensity and Pain Type" (Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, 14 (3), 2000, pp. 111-122), I presented the findings of my research into the interplay between pain intensity and pain type and time perception in terms of the perceived duration of an elapsed period of time.

"Elapsed period of time" - what's that?! Simple: you are in agony, in a waiting room, eager for pain relief. You stop a nurse: "When will I get to see the doctor?" Nurse: "Sir, it's been only a few minutes, have patience..." You (to self or outloud) estimate an elapsed period of time: "Only a few minutes?! It feels like it's been forever!" And it really has been - psychologically speaking!

In short, I was curious to see if pain intensity and pain type/pain quality would change the retrospective estimate of a waiting period .

You might think: okay, I see how pain intensity figures into this, but what about pain type? What does that have to do with anything?

Neuropathic and somatic pain - I reasoned - differ in terms of their "temporal" profile - i.e. in terms of how they are experienced across a period of time. Patients with neuropathic pain often depict their pain as burst-like. Meanwhile, patients experiencing somatic pain are more likely to describe their pain as "dull." In other words, neuropathic pain, in comparison to somatic pain, is dis-continuous and variable, while somatic pain is more constant in its quality, less variable.

Put simply, neuropathic pain changes a lot while somatic pain tends to stay the same over a given period of time (thus the distinction between "burst-like" vs. "dull").

The theoretical basis for my dissertation was grounded in the cognitive information processing theory. Guyau, a 19th century theorist, was one of the first people to relate the experience of time to the processing of cognitive information (R. E. Ornstein, On the Experience of Time, Penguin, 1969).

Guyau realized that time was not a physical stimulus, and that time perception was a mental construction. He speculated that the subjective perception of the speed of time passage depended on the extent of differences between events, their number and intensity, and the attention allocated to processing such events.

Given this understanding of time perception, I hypothesized that nocioceptive (pain) stimuli, which are more varied, complex, and more demanding of attention, would lead to an increase in information processing and, consequently, to an alteration of time perception.

In other words, if one were to assume that a rapidly throbbing pain sensation, due to its varied, rhythmical, dynamic, and intermittent nature, involved more information processing than a constant, "dull" pain, then one could expect that there would be differences in terms of time perception.

There weren't...

While my dissertation supported the relationship between time perception and pain intensity (greater degree of pain makes time "drag" more so than milder degree of pain), my findings did not provide any significant support for the relationship between pain type and time perception.

Bummer! I really liked that hypothesis of pain type and time perception... But not a problem for the purposes of this "blogging out loud."

My findings empirically confirmed the intuitive : while in pain, individuals tend to perceive a given time interval as being longer than it is. This phenomenon of overestimation of time fits with Leder's theory on the centrifugal or inward-focusing effects of pain experience (D. Leder, Toward Phenomenology of Pain, Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry, 19 (2-3), 1984, pp. 255-266). Such inward-focusing on the force (intensity) of pain leads to a greater attentional focus on the self and the "here-and-now," resulting in a subjective experience of time slowing down. This experience of "time slowing down" was supported by two thirds of the 81 participants (with cancer pain or cancer treatment related pain) in my study: they experienced time as "dragging" or "standing still" while in severe pain.

Now, let's pause for a second: time slowing down, if not standing still... Doesn't that sound like that proverbial "here-and-now" presence of "being in the Now?"

It sure does! You can see the similarity of pain experience and mindfulness in Leder's 1984 verbiage as to the possible differences in time perception as a function of pain type. Leder, like I, speculated that a pain sufferer's time perception might vary as a function of qualitatively and phenomenologically different pain sensations. He juxtaposed " the durational now of cramps, filled with retentions and protentions of internal periodicities" with "the homogeneous present of the dull ache" (p. 257).

The "durational now" of pain... Not a particularly romantic corollary of mindfulness - but it certainly reminds us of the fact that we all have already "tasted" the potentially painful Presence of Being.

Pain is mindfulness.

And... in some ways... mindfulness is pain .

A pain of witnessing the passing-on of our lives - time or no time... A pain of being present to the ever-fleeting, evanescence of our existential evaporation...

Or, borrowing from the Czech author, Milan Kundera, mindfulness is the pain of experiencing the " unbearable lightness of being ."

Here it is - this moment. And now it's not...

"Einmal ist keinmal" - Once is nonce *. "What happened once might have never happened at all" (M. Kundera).

This is the angst of mindfulness...

Time - this perception of passage - both heals and pains...

And so we escape this pain of existence into the anesthesia of our mindless rat's race , - in proportion to the intensity of our pain, and (I stand by my "type" hypothesis!) in accordance to the type of our pain. More often, when the angst is "burst-like" and less often when angst is just "dull."

Like today...

*Nonce -
Pronunciation: \ˈnän(t)s\
Function: noun

1 : the one, particular, or present occasion, purpose, or use
2 : the time being

References:

Somov, P.G. (2000)
TimePerception as a Measure of Pain Intensity and Pain Type. Journal of Back & Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, 14(3), 111-121.

Definition of Nonce: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=nonce&searchmode=none

Interrupt Patterns to Anchor Yourself in the Present

To increase presence into an otherwise mindless activity, interrupt the usual patterns.  For example, try eating with your non-dominant hand.  Notice how this minor manipulation suddenly anchors you in the present.  Incorporate pattern interruption into all kinds of otherwise mindless routines to leverage more mindfulness.  Do dishes with headphones on.  Vacuum with a sombrero on.  Do bills with a quill pen.  Switch up the routine, turn on the awareness to anchor yourself in the present moment.  Challenge yourself to do something wild, out of the ordinary, atypical.  Create a Kodak moment.  Mind is a pattern: interrupt it!

Playing Programmer In Lotus Land

Here’s a stanza from a Rush song, called Freewill, and my interpretive projections.

They are those who think they were dealt a losing hand,

The cards were stacked against them:

they weren’t born in lotus-land.

Mind is conditional, i.e. un-free.  Consciousness isn’t conditional, it is the conditioner, thus, free, or, in the parlance of the East, consciousness is un-born or a-causal (in the sense that it is not pre-determined, but pre-determines).  Consciousness is the source of freedom.  Override determinism via mindfulness. 

Once again: how’s mind different from consciousness?  Same way as form is different from essence and the programmer is different from the program.  Brain – hardware.  Mind – software.  Consciousness – programmer.  Mindfulness – toggle switch.  Sit down to witness the difference.  Sit down to play programmer.

We are what we identify with.  Which do you identify with: mind (form) or consciousness (essence)?

Resources:

Lotus Effect: Shedding Suffering and Rediscovering Your Essential Self (release: Fall 2010)

Reflections in the Lotus Pond

Standing on Lotus Land

Mindfulness is Ignorance (Bliss) on Demand

Ignorance, they say, is bliss.  As I see it, there are 2 kinds of ignorance:

1.  ignorance of un-awareness (mindlessness of something that can be known)

2. ignorance by choice (a conscious decision to ignore that which cannot be known)

Which type of ignorance is bliss and which is existential loss?

Let’s see if we can briefly sort this out.

You’ve heard this: the past has already happened, therefore it doesn’t exist; the future hasn’t happened, therefore it doesn’t yet exist; thus, here’s nothing but Now…

So, here we stand, sandwiched between the Past that’s already gone and doesn’t exist, and the Future that hasn’t yet happened and therefore doesn’t exist, in the proverbial and pre-verbal here-and-now.  This is all there is!

To ignore this “Now” (the only “thing” that exists) would be the ignorance of un-awareness.  This kind of mindlessness (lack of awareness of the present moment) is an existential loss.  How come?  Because here’s this moment: here it is, it can be known but, if untapped, it remains un-lived.

To ignore what’s outside of this “Now” (i.e. to ignore what cannot be known) would be the ignorance of bliss…  Can this kind of bliss be available on demand?  Sure.  How?  Through mindfulness.  

Mindfulness is a commitment to what is (i.e. to this Now), accompanied by a conscious choice to ignore whatever isn’t (i.e. what cannot be known such as the future or what no longer exists, such as the past).  Mindfulness is a form of ignorance on demand, i.e. a form of bliss on demand.

Pledge allegiance to the Present!  Ignore the rest.  

Not always, of course.  Can’t live in the now 100% (got to reminisce a bit, dwell a bit, plan a bit, worry a bit – that’s all natural mind-stuff).  But whenever you feel like it.  On demand, that is.

Keeping Cool When Mind is On Fire

There's thinking... and there's thinking about thinking as a stream of thoughts...

Think about it...

Here goes a thought... Here goes another... And so it goes... On and on and on...

Consciousness has been compared to a river: like a river, mind flows, from one thought to another, incessantly, irrevocably...

Here's one of the thoughts that Buddhism built its psychological salvation on: "there has never been a thought that didn't go away."

Hmm...

No need to try to not think about what I don't want to think about! No need to resist the thoughts that I am already having! No need to push the thoughts I don't like out! No need to do anything but stay and watch the thoughts go... After all, if it's true that there's never been a thought that didn't go away, why do the river's work? The river knows how to flow...

Wow...

"There's never been a thought that didn't go away..."

What if... what if I let go of every thought except this one? What if all I thought was "there's never been a thought that didn't go away?" What would that be like?!

So, here I'd sit, on the bank of this babbling brook of consciousness, watching thoughts pass, thinking "there's never been a thought that didn't go away." What would that be like?!

Swami Vivekananda, in writing about Dattatreya, the author of Advahuta Gita, a Vedanta text on Nonduality, wrote: "Men like the one who wrote this Song <...> they care for nothing, they feel nothing done to the body, care not for heat, cold, danger, or anything. They sit still <...> and though red-hot coals burn the body, they feel them not." (1)

Such people are sometimes called "non-returners" - having left the stream of consciousness, having found a place in the shade of the meta-cognitive distance, on the bank of this babbling brook of consciousness, they never re-enter the river of the experience. They think of thoughts as thoughts, and, thus, remain un-touched by the never-ceasing evanescence of their mind-states...

Is that possible?

Journalist Malcolm Brown witnessed one such "non-returner" in 1963 when a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk, Thich Quang Duc performed an act of self-immolation. The man sat down, poured gasoline over himself and lit himself up. What's amazing - to me - is not the cause, not even the decision, but what happened after... Nothing happened: the man sat, in a lotus position, while burning alive. The skin of his face coagulating in flames... Dying... Burning alive...

Thich - a real, historically-documented non-returner... He didn't return because he never left the place of his here-and-now presence.... even with a river of pain-lava flowing through his mind...

How's that possible?

It is.

Imagine you had a chance to ask Thich this very question: "How is this possible? How are you able to just sit while you are on fire?"

My guess, Thich would've asked in return: "What fire?"

"There's never been a thought that didn't go away..."

In this myriad of fleeting thoughts, perhaps, this one is the only one worth holding?

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time"(New Harbinger, 2008)

www.eatingthemoment.com