I have something very important to say: I know why pain exists...

To remind us that what we are experiencing is REAL. It is all the proof we need.

So, if someone asks "I wonder if any of this is even real?" just promptly give him a nice slap in the face, and ask him "do you feel that?"
Chances are he will say: Of coarse!
Then you say: Well, now you know it's real.

Why do we feel pain? Because having a pain pathway increases your chances of living long enough to mate. It's a bi-product of evolution. It's what keeps you from slamming your fingers in a door and breaking your bones or sticking your fingers in a fire and ruining your fine motor skills. It's what keeps you from damaging your brain, heart, liver, and other organs. It helps you take care of your meat-train. Pain teaches you what not to do. In your scenario the pain would teach said person not to question reality in front of you, lest they want to deal with a slap-in-the-face.

How did you come to your conclusion? By the way, it looks like you might have to rename this thread.

I came to the conclusion on the comedown of my first DMT trip. It was 50mg pure white DMT with 33mg Harmala infused onto 11x caapi. I also saw the akeshic records, within which I saw the two most important people in my life, and I realized my destiny is to become a nature photographer.

hmmmmmm...seems that it only proves that a slap in the face causes pain in your face & the other persons hand, not that it is necessarily "real".

All 5 senses, including touch are really only electrical impulses creating an image in the brain
Do you think the world would "feel" the same if you were in an octopus's body, or a snakes?
Those are not just a different shape but extremely different type's of "touch" sensors than ours.

(note: an octopus's 8 arms can be used as 8 independently operating nervous systems...OR...1 giant complex nervous system (like a big hand), depending on what they are doing & they can switch it back & forth instantly at will!!! The human body is a single, rather simple nervous system....for comparison.)


Another thought...
Ever had your "heart broken"?
That can be (& usually is) some serious pain!!!!

But were is it's location?
What is it's physical cause & effect that would prove it actually exists?


WS

I just watched a great documentary on BBC2 (UK) called Horizon: Is seeing believing. It is probably on the iplayer, or will be on youtube soon.

It was about how our senses can be (and regularly are) fooled, crossed with each other, or can be extended. One of the most intersting points was the use of technology to give us new senses. Surprisingly, people report that the brain responds to, and learns to use these new senses with ease.

I suggest checking it out if this kind of thing interests you.
Oh, and welcome to the Nexus Centre!

Check Out this talk!!!

The primacy o consciousness


warning: first 10-15 minutes can be a bit slow, but keep watching!



WS

Pain is there to remind us that what we are experiencing is real, not to remind us that it is the only reality out there. And having your "heart broken" is also a very real feeling. Emotional pain reminds us that our emotions are real too. Realities are quite different, but all connected and aspects of each other none the less.

How do you know the pain is real? how do you know the slap that triggered the pain is real? How do you know we aren't just a fleeting thought floating through space? When will it end?

LoL

Pain is physically an unpleasant sensation that is the result of chemical reactions in your body, meant to prolong life. But mentally, i personally think, its weakness transforming into wisdom... just part of the darkness we must endure to obtain enlightenment.

I think that rather than jumping to conclusions and using extremely loaded words like "real" you should just use the scientific method.
In this case darwinism would explain that, as other pointed out in this thread, living creatures which do not feel pain would get extinct
pretty quickly while those which can feel pain would have a MUCH higher chance at survival.

WSage posted an awesome talk -- check it out!!!

http://topdocumentaryfil...rimacy-of-consciousness/

Huxley, in agreement with someone else's ideas (i forget who), claimed the senses were eliminative and not productive. I favor this statement as it accounts for the senses as neccessary for survival as well as the anomalous sensory phenomena illicited by psychedelics and other 'door opening' states.