Seek Pleasure Through Pain?

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A great French Philosopher by the name of Marquis de Sade once said “It is always by way of pain, one arrives at pleasure.” The biological truth is “seek pleasure, avoid pain.” People love the feeling of pleasure. Some achieve pleasure through great pain such as extreme body modifications or body suspension. Body suspension is the hanging of the human body from high-gauged hooks (typically 14- 18 gauge) pierced through the flesh in various places around the body. It is an exhilarating, often ritualistic experience. If you're familiar with the sort of "high" you get from getting a piercing except this “high” they speak of can last for days at a time. The process of body suspension is quite painful, but yet people get extreme pleasure and after their first experience with it they become “addicted”. There are reasons why people do suspension, whether that is through trying to reach a level in spiritual consciousness, or to achieve a pure adrenaline or endorphin rush, or some just wanting to simply conquer a fear in which many find it as an impossible goal. Some people that do suspension for 10 minutes start to experience no pain. This is because the body begins to experience the “Fight or Flight” response. The term “Fight or Flight” describes a set of changes that all mammals undergo when threatened by a predator or subjected to extreme pain. When the “Fight or Flight” response happens, pupils dilate to sharpen vision, the heart increases pushing more blood to the muscle, and then the Body creates natural opiates called endorphins, which act as an anesthetic to the pain. It’s this that can create the euphoria produced by a biochemical transformation of turning pain into pleasure. Body suspension has been traced back thousands of years to the Thaipusam festival. During this festival where the devotees pray and fast for 48 days before Thaipusam while keeping their

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