Most people at some periods in their lives long to escape from pain. In fact, the demand for relief from both chronic and acute physical discomfort is so great that thousands of dolorologists—specialists in the medical treatment of pain—all over the world are continually experimenting in the effort to find reliable remedies. Their methods range over a wide variety of treatment: from narcotics to surgery, and from acupuncture to hypnotism to electric nerve stimulation and placebos.
In an article covering the various types of treatment being practiced in the pain clinics now proliferating around the United States, the author says, "Individuals who lead exciting, interesting lives are seldom incapacitated by pain." And she continues further on: "The more a patient expects help and is motivated to be helped, and the greater the physician's interest in the patient and the treatment, the more pain will be relieved. The mind is a very powerful therapeutic agent." Psychology Today, July 1977, p. 82;
Perhaps these comments may be considered signs of the times, showing that the world is beginning to recognize the mental nature of human life, and the fact that thought controls all its conditions and experiences. Christian Science maintains that all physical sensation and, indeed, the entire material body and its functions and actions are the objectifications of mortal thought. Physical pain, as well as the discords and diseases that apparently cause it, is no exception.
