Posted by Bill McC (198.64.206.92) on November 05, 1999 at 01:58:44:
The historical idea that pain was to be endured as a spiritual experience has been bothering me ever since I read the linked post. Now, don't get me wrong on this, I'm all for spiritual growth and all that, but I don't believe that God put pain into the world for that purpose.
In my book, the CH pain blocks my spiritual connection rather than enhances it. Being powerless over the CH pain, I have prayed that God would remove it. That desparate plea coincided with the end of my last cycle. I don't see the CH-pain as a test of my spiritual condition. I don't believe that the CH-pain is punishment (or reward?) for the way I have lived my life. I don't see a consequence connection in the CH-pain.
The best explainations have had to do with (1) the Peruvian butterfly farts, which make complete sense to me, and (2) with my brain attacking my mind. Both are complex enough to cover the entire CH-model.
Ok, here is a spiritual theory. Everyone knows that God and Satin kind of started off as friends, then divided up the universe. Satin got a pretty sizable part of the real estate. Neither God nor Satin have complete control over everthing. From time to time, a bit of hell escapes and gets into play. God, being a collector of lost souls, generally tries to capture them and put them in heaven. Satin doesn't like to lose those subjects, so he chases them down and puts them back in hell. So it has gone on forever and continues today. From time to time some of this hell escapes and finds its way into the "old-brain" hypothalmus. (Wired magazine just published an article in which Canadian researchers stimulate the brain in the area in which I experience CH-pain to produce a spiritual experience.) God and Satin have this game they play to see who wins the escaped hell-estate. The CH-pain is the result of the game which they play on the field, which just happens to be in our CH-fertile brains. Often times these games go into overtime and have to be extended. See God and Satin are pretty busy, but they have to rest too, so they schedule the games for those periods in which the brain is not so busy, like two hours after we go to sleep. Apparently, a busy brain makes a poor spot for the escaped hell to hide in the first place. The usual game is sort-of like American football, rather than baseball, in that a clock is required. The game is often violent, sort of like gladiators. The devil, of course, has this red hot pitch fork, which sometimes misses its mark and pokes the brain, hence the CH-pain.
The pain has nothing to do with me. It only happens to be inside my head. If only Satin could keep his demons in hell we wouldn't have CH.
OK, so now I have three theories to pick from. If there is anything I have missed, please advise.