Relieving Pain Through the Power of Immobility

When we are injured or affected by a disease condition that can cause pain, we find that the nerves attached to the injured area capture a vibration and transmit it to the brain as a signal we associate with pain. This signal is intended to spur us to some form of action to relieve the causative factor. In some circumstances, however, we are not in a position to solve the cause, for instance, in the case of an acute injury, or a chronic disease condition, and the pain becomes unrelenting, constant and intense, to the point that it impacts our ability to concentrate or function virtually at all. In such instances, we obviously know there is an ‘issue’ and thus, the signal has done its job. We then seek to relieve the pain so that it is not interfering with what we need to do.

For most people, pain relief comes in the form of a drug of some sort, an herb, a relatively mild pain killer or a powerful narcotic, or even a sleep-inducing anaesthetic, such as is used to perform surgery. Yet there are other ways one can achieve pain relief, either by shifting the concentration away from the area that is under pressure, or through a mechanism that stills the vibration of the nerves carrying the signal.

Many people have found relief through non-drug methods including the use of hypnotism, acupuncture or, if possible, deep meditation that leads to a trance-like state. In some instances, the application of a cold pack or a topical anaesthetic or counter-irritant can deaden the nerve vibration at the site of an injury and provide thereby pain relief. Some people systematically habituate themselves to bear what would ordinarily be extremely painful. The Mother provides yet another method through the practice and perfection of the static power of immobility.

The Mother writes: “… some people are more or less what I call ‘coddled’, that is, unable to resist any pain, to bear it; they immediately say, ‘I can’t! It is unbearable. I can’t bear any more!’ Ah, this indeed changes nothing in the circumstances; it does not stop the suffering, because it is not by telling it that you don’t want it that you make it go away. But if one can do two things: either bring into oneself — for all nervous suffering, for example — bring into oneself a kind of immobility, as total as possible, at the place of pain, this has the effect of an anaesthetic. If one succeeds in bringing an inner immobility, an immobility of the inner vibration, at the spot where one is suffering, it has exactly the safe effect as an anaesthetic. It cuts off the contact between the place of pain and the brain, and once you have cut the contact, if you can keep this state long enough, the pain will disappear. You must form the habit of doing this. But you have the occasion, all the time, the opportunity to do it: you get a cut, get a knock, you see, one always gets a little hurt somewhere — especially when doing athletics, gymnastics and all that — well, these are opportunities given to us. Instead of sitting there observing the pain, trying to analyse it, concentrating upon it, which makes it increase indefinitely… There are people who think of something else but it does not last; they think of something else and then suddenly are drawn back to the place that hurts. But if one can do this… You see, since the pain is there, it proves that you are in contact with the nerve that’s transmitting the pain, otherwise you wouldn’t feel it. Well, once you know that you are in contact, you try to accumulate at that point as much immobility as you can, to stop the vibration of the pain; you will perceive then that it has the effect of a limb which goes to sleep when you are in an awkward position and that all of a sudden… you know, don’t you?… and then, when it stops, it begins to vibrate again terribly. Well, you deliberately try this kind of concentration of immobility in the painful nerve; at the painful point you bring as total an immobility as you can. Well, you will see that it works, as I told you, like an anaesthetic: it puts the thing to sleep. And then, if you can add to that a kind of inner peace and a trust that the pain will go away, well, I tell you that it will go.”

“Of all things, that which is considered the most difficult from the yogic point of view is toothache, because it is very close to the brain. Well, I know that this can be done truly to the extent of not feeling the pain at all; and this does not cure the bad tooth, but there are cases in which one can succeed in killing the painful nerve. Usually in a tooth it is the nerve which has been attacked by the caries, the disease, and which begins to protest with all its strength. So, if you succeed in establishing this immobility, you prevent it from vibrating, you prevent it from protesting. And what is remarkable is that if you do it fairly constantly, with sufficient perseverance, the sick nerve will die and you will not suffer at all any more. Because it was that which was suffering and when it is dead it does not suffer any longer. Try.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter XII Power of Immobility, pp. 102-103