PLEASURE AND PAIN

Almost all memorable human perceptions can be classified as either pleasant or unpleasant. When unpleasantness reaches a certain degree, we call it pain, and then of course there are degrees of pain itself. This work does not aim at discussing the mechanism of generation of particular impulses by the sensory organs in the nervous system which are identified by the brain as pleasure or pain. Nor shall we delve into the physiological aspects of the storage of this information in the brain cells. It suffices for our purposes that a feeling of pleasure is registered in the brain when sensory perceptions indicate things to be going right, whereas pain is identified when the sequence or nature or intensity of perceptions shows that something is going wrong. In this way pain is also related to fear which also has a series of consequential features, such as increase in the rate of heartbeat, seizure of digestive functions, sweating, dilation of pupils, redirection of blood supply etc. However, similar reactions are also observed in the case of anger or excitement as well as fear caused by reading or hearing an alarming statement involving complex analytical functions.

It seems that whenever a situation associated with a feeling of pleasure or pain is recalled in the brain, a brief investigative nervous impulse is sent to the concerned organ to verify the contents of the memory. This causes a temporary recurrence of the feeling, sometimes quite perceptible, and may result in other physiological reactions. We know that some individuals are capable of manipulating their memory in such a manner as to create a sort of closed loop of memory-induced feelings and corresponding reactions resulting in the development of ecstasy or rage. Sometimes these mental exercises may be accompanied by physical actions or expressions.

The inevitable relationship between feelings and memory is quite dramatically illustrated by the phantom pain or ticklishness experienced in a nonexistent part of the body by people who have lost a limb by accident or surgery etc. Sometimes the hallucination of pain in an amputated limb may be quite severe and patients have been found to behave quite hysterically. It can, thus, be inferred that apart from the initiation of a process by anatomical stimuli, the feeling of pleasure or pain is substantially a phenomenon of the memory which is often referred to in classical literature as soul or mind or even heart.

Whereas the feelings of a normal adult are believed to be comprised of internal states and stimuli along with a full complement of environmental perceptions stored in factual memory and cross-linked simultaneously or eventually with generalized definitions in reasoned memory, the feelings of an infant who is still unable to focus its eyes or an individual in sleep may become part of the memory without the accompanying qualifications. We shall term such feelings as unidentified or unassociated pleasures and pains. It also seems likely that at every opportune moment the brain must try to sort these unassociated pleasures and pains along with other pieces of incomplete information to form probable complete sets of information. This may result in unpredictable behavioral contingencies incompatible with all complete experiences of the individual and is commonly termed as abnormal behavior in wakefulness or nightmare in sleep. The act of masturbation seems to be one common way of developing partially associated pleasure experience. Entertainers, demagogues and other similar professionals use suggestion to arouse common unassociated pleasures and pains of their audiences and associate them with the current environment or whatever other ideas that suit their purposes. We also notice that pleasure and pain in such circumstances is often of quite an infantile complexion. Urdu and Persian poetry is full of similitudes involving disparate sources of inspiration or initiation of abstract thought leading to stimulation of pleasure centers of the brain, such as wine server and spiritual leader or wine and philosophical idea.

There are a few corollaries that can be drawn from the above analysis. The first is that people born in different parts of the year must experience typically different types of pleasures and pains during their initial days in this world, thus leaving a common set of unidentified pleasures and pains among people born in a given part of the year. Obviously such people are likely to have common behavioral or character traits. In the past this phenomenon has been confused by many with the coincidences of certain stars appearing at certain locations in the sky during certain times of the year leading to the well-known subject of astrology. The probability of celestial bodies having some sort of a role in the events of the world, and the lives of people will be discussed later. It is also noticed that certain individuals undergo considerable change in behavior after marriage. Commonly this is assigned to sexual satisfaction, release of tensions etc. But it is also possible that sleeping together could cause the induction of many instances of unidentified pleasure in the memory of the spouses which prepare them better to respond positively to situations associated with an incomplete set of stimuli.

In most tradition bound cultures, the pursuit of nonproductive pleasure merely to waste surplus time or money or energy that could be spent in a constructive activity is regarded as vulgar and is looked down upon due to the inability of the individual to find a constructive pastime. In fact, the best forms of pleasure are those that are compatible and coordinated with the physical and logical environment and overall sequence of events in one's life. Indulging in apparently pleasurable activities simply because others seem to enjoy them is hardly a prudent approach to life. In fact, such a train of thoughts can lead to such aberrations as transvestism or gender confusion.

It is interesting to note that from time to time, in almost all communities of the world, people seem to have tried to develop customs, festivals or entertainment events that would saturate the entire community with pleasure thus, at least temporarily, eliminating anger and crime. Perhaps, if all the people of the world could be kept saturated with pleasure all the time, there would be no disputes and no wars -- only if all nations of the world would agree to divert all their military budgets for this purpose. The attempt by print and screen media in some communities to keep everyone in a constant state of sexual arousal by frequent displays of erotic material may have been motivated by the same noble considerations; but the problem is that eroticism also provokes certain desires which, if unfulfilled, give way to anger and crime. It is also possible that in view of constant growth in environmental hazards and nuclear threat since the second world war resulting in a state of universal anxiety in those communities, it may have been felt that life may become intolerable unless a greater degree of abstraction could be maintained with the help of alcohol, hallucinatory agents and a state of sexual arousal produced by pornography as well as changes in clothing patterns. It is certainly possible to trace the origins of psychedelism to such renowned scholars as Aldous Huxley of England and Richard Ward and Timothy Leary, University professors of USA which culminated in the worldwide drug problem and its attendant ramifications.