SEVENTH WAY OF WISDOM Arthur M. Jackson
Copyright 2001, 2003, 2006
.
SEVENTH WAY OF WISDOM: Develop and adopt a perceptual framework such that pain does not prevent the achievement of a Sustainable Belief that your Life Has Meaning.
Modern thinkers tend to talk about happiness and satisfaction when they discuss what life is all about. Pain is seldom mentioned except as something to avoid. They think pain interferes with happiness so can be ignored. I believe that a Science of Ethics cannot become a total worldview unless it is able to deal effectively with the issue of pain.
One thing that needs to come out of an analysis of pain is a better understanding of the term: sustainable belief that one's life has meaning. The study of pain makes clear why the "feeling that one's life has meaning" concept is more basic than happiness or even satisfaction.
The key to understanding why the "feeling that life has meaning" is more basic than happiness lies in psychological research popularized by Albert Ellis' Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT).[1] Barring gross upset of our brain's functioning due to biochemical malfunctioning [2] Ellis teaches us that our feelings come out of our beliefs [thoughts] rather than the stimuli we encounter. Since happiness and/or satisfaction are feelings they come out of some belief. The belief is more fundamental than the feeling. Therefore, with a Sustainable Belief that one's Life Has Meaning, the belief components are the key elements and they are what lead to satisfaction, happiness, joy, exhilaration, exuberance, depression, anger, suicide, etc.
Below is an article[3] that discusses serious spinal injuries. It is presented in order to focus on some important considerations in the issue of living with pain:
.
STUDIES SHOW REBOUND BY VICTIMS OF SERIOUS SPINAL INJURIES 20 June 1995
.
"I'd rather be dead."
That was the reaction of many, including medical professionals, when a riding accident three weeks ago transformed "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve into a quadriplegic who may be on a ventilator for the rest of his days.
[p. 2]
"Some of my colleagues say, 'If it ever happens to me, don't even put me in the ambulance,' said Dr. John Haughton, a physical medicine specialist who works with spinal cord injury patients at Whittier Hospital in Haverhill, Mass.
Other experts have repeatedly described Reeve's broken neck as just about the worst thing that can happen to someone.
But recent studies, as well as interviews with several Ventilator-dependent quadriplegics, paint a surprisingly positive picture of what most people instinctively regard as an unthinkable existence.
"The main theme, I think, is that persons with high quadriplegia (high-up spinal injuries) are active, involved people who are satisfied with their existence and happy to be alive," said Gale Whiteneck, director of research for Craig Hospital in Colorado.
Whiteneck and his colleagues surveyed 124 victims of spinal cord injuries, including 26 who were -- as Reeve may be -- permanently dependent on mechanical ventilators to breathe. Only 17 percent said their quality of life was poor, while 84 percent said it was average or above average. Overall, 93 percent said they were glad to be alive.
"I never wanted to die, not for a minute," said Gene Doran, the victim of a well-publicized accident in which a three-inch nail fired by a carpenter's stud gun pierced his neck while he was getting a haircut in Andover.
Since the 1986 accident, which led to a $15.35 million settlement, Doran has lived in a specially built house in Andover with nurses and aides around him 24 hours a day. [See VOLUME II, Chapter 24, "How Much Is a Human Life Worth?"{4}] They feed him, suction out secretions that would otherwise clog his lungs and perform the two or three hours of tasks needed to get him from bed to wheelchair every morning.
"I was very independent since I was a teen-ager, and it doesn't need to be said how difficult it is to become dependent on just about everybody you can think of," said Doran, who served with the First Air Cavalry in Vietnam and was a top salesperson for John Hancock Insurance Co. "But I like life. I have children who need my help, great family support, and I am at no loss for friends."
Spinal cord injury patients "are very unhappy in the beginning, and some of them have told me they don't want to be resuscitated if their heart stops beating," said Dr. Mehdi Sarkarati, chief of the spinal cord injury service at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Boston.
Sarkarati said he tries to ease patients out of that hopeless attitude, and in time their life becomes better and they look back and they say, "You were right."
The VA center follows more than 900 patients paralyzed from spinal cord injuries, and officials said they could not remember losing a patient to suicide in recent years.
[p. 3]
In the few scientific studies, a majority of these patients describe their lives in positive terms. Last year, researchers at the New Jersey Medical School reported on "life satisfaction" among 42 ventilator-dependent patients and 45 who had similar paralysis but could breathe on their own. A surprising 70 percent of those on breathing machines said they were generally satisfied -- a higher proportion, surprisingly, than among the quadriplegics able to breathe normally.
"There are several possible reasons for that finding," said Dr. John R. Bach, a physical medicine specialist who headed the study. "For one thing, people dramatically scale down their expectations and shift priorities in life."
"It may be that the ventilator serves as a daily reminder of the tenuousness of human existence," wrote Bach and co-author Dr. Margaret C. Tilton. In addition, they speculated, the psychological mechanism called cognitive dissonance may play a role: "They overcame the greatest of obstacles and challenges simply to be alive: Therefore life must be meaningful and satisfying."
The study also surveyed paraplegics' caretakers, and Bach said the patients in the study expressed greater optimism than their caretakers thought they would. Bach, who trained in a New York hospital on a unit that had about 50 ventilator-dependent patients, said he was not surprised.
"Every day I would go there and the nurses were always bitching and complaining and seemed so unhappy, but the patients were incredible -- they were happier than the people taking care of them," he said in an interview.
Reeve, 42, shattered the two vertebrae just below his skull when he fell on his head during a riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia, on May 27. Damage that high in the spinal cord is apt to destroy the connections between the brain and most nerves below that point, leaving the victim with no sensation or motor control in most of the body -- including the nerve pathways needed to regulate breathing.
It is still too soon to tell how bad Reeve's paralysis will be in the end. Doctors at the University of Virginia Medical Center, where Reeve is recovering, said he is now able to move both trapezium muscles, the large muscles on the right and left sides of the upper back that control the shoulders.
"That's a positive sign," said Dr. John A. Jane. "It means that impulses are getting through the area of injury and he is consciously moving this part of his body."
Reeve's accident made him one of the 7,500 to 10,000 people who suffer spinal cord injuries in the United States each year.
.
[p. 4]
The above report lays out well many of the issues that need to be considered when people experience debilitating injuries. Clarifying the primary factors causing each person's feeling that life even in this condition is worthwhile would be essential for our purposes. The article mentions several reasons that might explain these paraplegic's positive outlook. It seems to me that the most likely one involves the individual's beliefs about their children. The injured parent has a strong belief that their child/children have a need for them. In my mind this is one of the strongest motivations an individual can experience, and it is the one that has been generalized to parents, mate, clan, church, and nation. Reports from other sources regarding Reeve's circumstances may help put these findings in perspective. He is elsewhere reported to have originally expressed a desire to die. However, because of his wife's loving message that his life was important for her and similar expressions from his children he changed his mind. In the previous article Gene Doran is quoted as expressing a similar idea, "I have children who need my help..." I would expect to find something comparable in the other cases studied.
Another important factor involves nurturing. An additional quote is provided below that gives an interesting perspective on being disabled as well as on the relationship between nurturing and quality of life.
"I am proud to be disabled, really - it is a natural part of the human experience." [5]
The above words were spoken by athlete Scot Hollenbeck who includes among his accomplishments setting records in the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona. He earned the world records in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter wheelchair races. His time in the 800-meter race was the first time a wheelchair racer performed better than a regular racer in this event. His paternal twin brother has provided deep and on-going support for his efforts.
However, I take this in the context of author Nancy Segal's remark, "The successes of many of the injured twins may have been largely due to the love and encouragement of their twin brothers and sisters."[5]
In the spirit of the above point it appears that the persons mentioned in the previous article discussing Reeve are receiving a higher level of care and concern than the average person. Perhaps, as long as this continues they would feel their value and thereby maintain a Feeling that their Life Has Meaning. Remove that support and the situation might dramatically change. It seems likely to me that many of these persons are receiving more care and support than they ever did prior to their injury.
A different dimension of this issue is presented below [6] in a startling discussion of conjoined twins (twins who are physically joined together and therefore always at each other's side).
"According to Dr. Alice D. Dreger of Michigan State University, many people believe conjoined twins experience 'living hell,' but she finds this view to be narrowly conceived. The Schappell twins, Lori and Reba, tell a different story from the dismal world that is often envisioned."
"Thirty-six-year-old Lori and Reba (Dori) Schappell of Reading, Pennsylvania force hard looks at life quality and life satisfaction under conjoined twins' extraordinary circumstances. These twins are the only living adult conjoined pair in the United States joined at the head. They have individual brains, but their shared blood supply and brain tissue makes separating them impossible. Reba is much shorter in height, requiring her to sit in a special stool, steered by her sister. Reba is also paralyzed from the waist down and was born with some internal organs outside her body."
[p. 5]
"The words of the Schappell twins and other conjoined pairs have echoed in the popular press, confirming difficult challenges, but revealing astonishing achievements. I spoke with Lori and Reba by telephone on June 18, 1998. Their achievements are extraordinary irrespective of their physical situation, and some of their stories will sound familiar, as well as amusing, to twins everywhere."
"They were born in Reading Hospital, in Reading, Pennsylvania, on September 18, 1961. Their mother, who had delivered three previous children, found this pregnancy uneventful. Lori and Reba cannot pinpoint their first awareness of their unusual twinship, but they always knew they were 'different.' Their presence brought unkind comments and stares, but they were taught to ignore them."
"Lori was responsible for arranging the telephone interview with me. She is the 'open, extraverted twin' who fields questions about conjoined twinning. Reba is the 'shy, private twin' who will only discuss her budding musical career, but who will assert herself when the situation demands it. According to Lori, 'She [Reba] always encouraged me to pursue my career [as a ward clerk or nurse receptionist], and now I want to focus on hers.' Today Lori accepts occasional part-time positions, freeing her to concentrate on her sister's singing engagements. Reba received a 1997 L.A. Music Award for best new country artist, and is now producing a CD, Momma Taught Me."
"The twins' behavioral differences are extensive -- Lori likes to watch television, Reba does not; Lori loves to shop, Reba does not; Lori craves sweets, Reba does not. Perhaps their physical proximity fuels their psychological separation, over and beyond what ordinary twins experience; their behavioral differences recalled those revealed in many conjoined twins' biographies. The Schappells' physician, Dr. John M. Templeton, Jr., a former pediatric surgeon at Children's Hospital, also found the twins' differences striking. He mentioned Lori's earlier computer interests and Reba's former medical ambitions. Reba, once an aspiring physician, designed support equipment for physically disabled individuals."
"When I asked the twins to list some similarities, Lori replied, 'We have the same last name and we love each other.' They call their relationship a 'compromise,' a plan any couple must learn, 'only we learned it from the beginning.' What is the most important message the twins would like the world to hear? It is that they are handicapable, a term coined by Reba. Handicapable means that they are successful, but slower, at doing what other people do. We may wrongly think of these twins as impossibly doomed, rather than as people simply trying to live their lives."
"My conversation with Lori and Reba ended humorously. They recalled Reba's attempt to pay for a gift, an alcoholic beverage they wished to bring to a friend. The cashier requested proof of age, but when he saw Lori's face he decided that she looked old enough -- and allowed her to pay instead! I suspect that identical twins differing in dress or demeanor have similar stories to tell."[6]
The material on Reba and Lori forces me to totally re-examine my assumptions about the good life. I think their lives make clear that the human mind is capable of finding meaning in one's own life in ways far beyond our normal expectations. Obviously this is an area in need of far more thought and study.
To help provide a better basis for understanding what pain has to teach us, additional material from a seminal book about pain is examined. [7] "This book tells a...story. It describes how the experience of pain is decisively shaped or modified by individual human minds and by specific human cultures." Also, see VOLUME II, Chapter 12, "The Meaning of Pain," [8] for a more detailed analysis of pain utilizing this book. THE CULTURE OF PAIN deals with pain in ways that must be considered if one is to find out how to come to grips with issues relating to pain.
"It is the neglected encounter between pain and meaning that lies at the center of this book...."[p. 3] And this is the core issue I am attempting to deal with here.
[p. 6]
"Philoctetes [a Greek tragedy by Sophocles c. 409 BCE] makes us feel the power of pain to reduce a life to utter emptiness and misery."[p. 254] And, this is the challenge. What does pain have to say about a Sustainable Belief that one's Life Has Meaning? For me the evidence is overwhelming that an individual can experience a Feeling that their Life Has Meaning while experiencing great pain. But can a person in extreme pain experience a Sustainable Feeling/Belief that their Life Has Meaning? This issue and its ramifications seems to me to be one of the prime reasons for studying pain and attempting to understand it better. Of course when one examines a Belief that one's Life Has Meaning in connection with pain one sees Buddha smiling at them since the primary message of his teachings was to provide guidance in transcending pain. "The Buddha reduced his world view to four points: (1) life is suffering (dukha), (2) suffering arises from desire (tanha), (3) eliminate desire and you eliminate the suffering, and (4) live a decent life and meditate to help eliminate desire."[9] For more on this point see VOLUME II, Chapter 24-A, "What We Can Learn from the Study of Folk Religions, and Other World Views."[10]
Christians often preach that suffering is the lot of humanity and it is to be accepted with gratitude. They say that the greater our suffering on Earth the greater our rewards in Heaven. Buddha taught the opposite. Suffering is to be avoided by giving up desire. But a Science of Ethics teaches that suffering is neither to be gratefully accepted nor singlemindedly avoided. Suffering/pain it seems to me is an essential issue for a Sustainable Belief that one's Life Has Meaning just as is joy and pleasure.
We cannot live a full and rounded life by making our primary life goal the avoidance of suffering, nor by accepting it as a first order good [11] As we pursue the true goal of life, a Sustainable Belief that one's Life Has Meaning, pain and pleasure become signposts along the way. A Buddhist can no more achieve a Sustainable Belief that their Life Has Meaning than can a Christian. Each has a grossly inadequate model of the Universe in general, and human beings in particular. Therefore, they pursue goals and follow paths that guide one away from consciously working to maintain and develop the human species rather than toward it.
Desire is how we know we are alive. Healthy desires, like healthy diets enrich our lives and help us move toward a Sustainable Belief that our Life Has Meaning. Unhealthy desires come out of our ignorance and society's ignorance and they need to be avoided, or replaced.
Many individuals experience a Feeling that their Life Has Meaning in spite of (because of?) almost unendurable pain which they tie into supernatural concepts. It seems to me that whatever can be achieved through ignorance (the supernatural), must be able to be achieved through knowledge, else what kind of knowledge has been achieved? Morris provides the key to how knowledge can be used to focus pain so that a Sustainable Belief that one's Life Has Meaning is achieved/maintained: "Emmanual Levinas in his essay, USELESS SUFFERING (1982) proposes a way of understanding that begins from the premise that pain is utterly negative, absurd, and evil.... Suffering, he proposes, opens up an ethical dimension.... My own useless suffering... takes on a changed meaning if it becomes the occasion for your empathic, even suffering response. This is what Levinas calls a suffering for the suffering of someone else."[p. 287] In thinking about the foregoing it seems erroneous to say, "pain is utterly negative, absurd, and evil." Pain normally performs an essential role in life. Any effects of useless pain -- chronic pain which performs no currently understood biological function -- presumably comes out of a malfunction of an essential, healthy defense mechanism.
But putting the above aside I am excited by Levinas' idea of focusing on the pain that promotes community. Coming together with others because of one's compassion for their suffering seems real and important. The foregoing approach of sharing one's pain with others should be extended. If this approach can be properly developed, I think, humanity will be aided in making a critical step forward. It seems to me that this is one of the issues that are most important to explore as part of this WAY OF WISDOM.
[p. 7]
And, this solution applies not only in situations involving great pain, but in any situation where the individual is cut off from a normal way of life due to: accident, genetic condition, disease, deformity, or even criminal behavior and drug abuse in general. If this circumstance can be taken by some segment of society as an opportunity to learn from this individual's condition how to make the life of others better then this condition takes on a positive dimension, I may suffer. But my suffering will ease the suffering of others. And others are here with me now to demonstrate their appreciation, while supporting me in whatever ways they can.
"People continue to make self-destructive choices in pursuing goals that give their lives meaning."[p. 266] For me the purpose of a Science of Ethics is to help individuals avoid making self-destructive choices as they attempt to achieve a sustainable belief that their life has meaning. This is the primary goal of the Fifth Way of Wisdom, (Make the best choices possible.)
"Tragic choices and tragic events are by definition unhealthy. Yet tragedy would tell us that we might be much healthier as a culture if we did not turn away from suffering, if we stopped trying to cancel pain and to prolong life at all costs, and if we gave up trying to ban or to remove from sight everything that frightens us with the premonition of our own death."[p. 266]
The concept "tragedy" moves one out of reality into the realm of mythology. It seems clear to me that a more realistic way to look upon pain is needed. And as indicated above I believe using an approach along the lines suggested by Emmanual Levinas has great merit. This provides a way of conceptualizing pain that has nothing to do with tragedy. This useful approach would permit one to achieve a sustainable belief that their life has meaning even if they are experiencing intense pain. This approach would allow one to utilize pain without welcoming it.
An Enlightened Community would want to do everything possible to prevent useless pain and to eliminate it or at least limit when it exists. However, such a Community must also teach ways to accept pain with equanimity when it occurs. But, perhaps, more important the individual must learn how to avoid letting the threat of pain deter them from the greater good. One model for doing this might be dancers and athletes [p. 194]. And, one could add mountain climbers, fire fighters, explorers, or anyone on the frontiers where the body is actively used as a tool for work or exploration.
It seems to me that the beliefs that support a sustainable belief that one's life has meaning must include a willingness, when the circumstances require, that one give up one's life if it will accomplish something of sufficient importance to the development of humanity.
Life is not about being comfortable, though all persons need comfort in their lives. Life is about using the opportunity of one's existence to add to and utilize the store of human knowledge and experience to perpetuate the species so more individuals can do the same. There will always be times when individuals have to make the choice between sacrificing their life in order to actualize their beliefs, or not. One must be alive in order to become an Enlightened Person. However, one must recognize that one's death is part of their life. The sustainable in sustainable belief that one's life has meaning means congruency with the most worthy attributes of the human species -- and the universe of which death is a fundamental part -- helping humanity and oneself move toward the light at the end of the tunnel.
Needless suffering, unnecessary death, pointless joy and happiness based on ignorance, should not be promoted. The goal of a Science of Ethics would be to help persons distinguish between the foregoing things and choices that lead to a Sustainable Belief that their Life Has Meaning.
[p. 8]
Certainly a Science of Ethics must incorporate those individuals in pain, or those who are disfigured, diseased, disabled, immobile, overweight, etc. These persons must be included as active participants in society and as candidates for a Sustainable Belief that their Life Has Meaning. But before a society can successfully achieve the foregoing it must learn how to become a community where all persons are joined together by concern for each other. Ways must be developed to provide support to help each citizen be all that they can be.
"Civilization... not only insulates the upper classes from discomfort but is built upon the pain of the masses." [p. 271] To the degree that the foregoing is true, I think, civilization needs a new perspective. To me an Enlightened Community must be structured so that all individuals share fairly in the rewards of society as well as the pain of maintaining the society. To think that the many must suffer so that the few can maintain culture, sophistication, civilization strikes me as being wrong. The foregoing model of the upper classes comes out of humanity's "tribal" propensities. It is not congruent with the effort to rise to a higher level of existence -- a community of equals -- to achieve our "wisdom" potential.
"We need to acknowledge that pain can serve multiple purposes and hold multiple meanings beyond its basic function as a signal of tissue damage." [p. 279] Shared pain can be an intense bonding experience as long as all members take part in it. However, only persons kept in ignorance can feel bonded to others who would benefit from their suffering, but refuse to share in it.
"Nietzsche... in 1874.... managed his ailments in a manner both idiosyncratic and typically shrewd. 'I have given a name to my pain,' he wrote, 'and call it dog'.... the useful point to grasp... is that Nietzsche has in effect taken charge of his pain. He has assigned it a personal place and meaning. His crucial move, in fact, is to assign his pain a position of inferiority... Nietzsche decides, typically, that he will be the master rather than the slave." "Too many patients implicitly accept a definition of their illness that enslaves them and makes pain the master." [p. 284]
The foregoing seems like another seminal ingredient for developing a framework in which to experience and deal with pain. Nietzsche shows us a way to put pain in a perspective that does not leave one as the victim. This is easy to talk about, but how easy is it to do? How well did it work for Nietzsche?
"...[H]ow we experience pain has almost everything to do with how we understand it." [p. 289] For me the foregoing is a critical message that must be heard and appreciated. It becomes clear that a framework is necessary in which the individual can interpret pain. This framework needs to give pain a positive effect rather than a negative one. This interpretation should also inspire individuals to broaden the scope of their vision to give it more breadth and depth. Life is not just about joy, sunshine, flowers, and "living happily ever after." It is also about pain, suffering and death. But the foregoing are not oppressive if our pain, suffering, and death allows us to be drawn into community, shared fellowship, and our efforts utilized in the maintenance and development of humanity.
.
.
.
GO ON TO EIGHTH WAY OF WISDOM -- A .
.
1. A GUIDE TO RATIONAL LIVING, Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, Wilshire Book Co, No. Hollywood, CA, 1997.
2. AN UNQUIET MIND: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, Kay Redfield Jamison, Vintage Books, New York, 1995.
3. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, "Studies show rebound by victims of serious spinal injuries," p. 12E, San Jose, California, 20 June 1995.
4. VOLUME II, Chapter 24, "How Much Is a Human Life Worth?"
5. ENTWINED LIVES: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior, Nancy L. Segal, p. 225 ff., Dutton, New York, 1999.
6. Nancy L. Segal, p. 303, ibid.
7. THE CULTURE OF PAIN, David B. Morris, p. 1, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1991.
8. VOLUME II, Chapter 12, "The Meaning of Pain."
9. FUZZY THINKING, Bart Kosko, p. 77, Hyperion, New York, 1993.
.
.
.
.