Understanding the Purpose of Pain
And what does all of this have to do with explaining why pain is sought out? Glucklich explains that there are two types of pain, disintegrative and integrative. Disintegrative pain is that which disrupts our lives, separates us from others, and generally makes us miserable.
Integrative pain, on the other hand, serves to strengthen our sense of identity, strengthen our bonds to our community, and ultimately improve our sense of well-being. The key here, then, is not the intensity of the pain but the psychological processes which interpret it.
Glucklich rejects most traditional attempts to explain why people seek out pain for religious reasons. In place of them, he argues that such experiences of sacred pain produce “states of consciousness that affect the identity of the individual subject and her sense of belonging to a larger community or to a more fundamental state of being.”
What is meant by that? According to Glucklich, the experience of pain and suffering creates an altered state of consciousness in which a person’s own sense of “self” becomes diminished. As a result, a new “presence” can enter, and this presence can create stronger bonds to a religious community or even “God.”
What we find is that the experience of pain shares a common religious goal among diverse traditions across the planet; nevertheless, the ways in which these experiences are interpreted are culturally bound. Glucklich provides a wide range of examples like Native American endurance trials and even the tortures of the Inquisition. The latter example is particular interesting, as Glucklich explains how they served as more than punishment:
- Pain inflicted as punishment or as penance not only prevented the torments of hell. That is a theoretical point. Subjectively the pain removed a greater source of mental suffering - shame and humiliation. The penitent who flailed his skin harshly and to the point of intense pain (under the order of the Inquisition) knew with every blow that his shame was removed, that the door to social reacceptance was opening more widely. The pain of penance thus became a solution to the problem of sin...that is, shame and isolation. From a model of juridicial punishment, pain came to be experienced as an instrument of readmission - initiation or passage.
Glucklich’s discussion of pain and religion is very complex, and I have only touched upon some of the arguments he presents. But the uses of pain in religion is a very difficult subject and not one usually addressed in books on religion or religious history. I do not think, however, that anyone can really understand religion without also having some understanding of the ways in which it makes use of pain and suffering.
« Back...
