Pain Training

[Lilly My Sweet]

I definitely think that the tolerance of pain can be trained and even manipualted to bring pleasure to the receiver. Just think of the whole 'Pavlov's dogs' experiment. The dogs were trained to be fed after hearing the ring of a bell. After time, the dogs drooled simply upon hearing the sound of the bell as they knew that a meal would soon follow. Why wouldn't converting pain into pleasure work in the same way? If you inflict pain upon your partner and follow it with an act that you know will bring on a wave of pleasure for her, then over time, she ought to associate pain with pleasure and actually get off on the pain because of the anticipation of the pleasure to come...i think, hehe.

[Blue_Monday]

Ooh, I'd like to be Pavlov's little puppy in *that* experiment!

I think a tolerance for pain can be built up, and association is important. An inexperienced sub, unless he or she naturally likes pain, has only ever experienced pain in a negative sense, as something that should be minimized and avoided. To experience it and, rather than avoiding it, to *embrace* it, is something of a mental exercise. For me, it's been helpful to take small amounts of pain and remember that it's safe, it won't damage me, it won't go further than I can handle it; to just rethink it as something given in love rather than in anger or whatever.

I don't know if this answers the original question--sounds like maybe it's a moot point now--but this is definitely an interesting topic.