• Philosophy and Spirituality
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Threads of Note Socialize
  • P&S Moderators: Xorkoth | Madness

Is pain stronger than pleasure?

I've flirted with some aspects of anti natalism, as I am not having kids and generally believe people have them for the wrong reasons, but I still dont completely grasp Benatars theory fully. Saying that pain is a worse feeling than pleasure is a good feeling is completely subjective. And the crux of his argument seems to lie on the fact that non existence (absence of ANY feelings) is preferable to consciousness is wholly unknowable. Nobody knows what happens before you are bornor after you die. Just because you don't remember what happened before you were born does not equal coming to fruition from a meaningless void.
Pardon any grammar mistakes or misunderstandings of the position, a little sleep deprived atm.
 
To prefer death is sickness. Unfortunately for many it may be so hopeless that a preference for death is correct. Logically I find it hard to reason that death would not be preferable, but the will to live is so strong that the healthy option is to simply surrender to it and embrace life and not focus and think about dying. Life is twisted, we are beings intrinsically bound to moral imperfection, but we must choose our act and stand by it.

mp44god your post reminds me that memory is the basis of our identities. We have no recollection of a time before our birth and perhaps there is none, but also maybe we have simply forgotten, how could we know? Pain and pleasure are simply functions of being, and a preference is subjective certainly. We cannot let ourselves become to focused on obtaining pleasure in the future, sometimes great pain is what we need in a present moment. Anti Natalism sounds toxic to me quite honestly as the will to reproduce is such a strong innate drive that to try and resist it for most will simply cause congestion. However I am not disagreeing with you that people may have kids for the wrong reason, if your life is not healthy better to hold off and fix yourself first before you procreate and also not saying that you cannot be healthy and also not choose to have children, just that this is probably not the right option for most.
 
I'd rather get my teeth kicked out than get my heart broken.
And physical pain is always stronger than physical pleasure, in my opinion.
Maybe that's why combining them, under sexual consent, is such a fucking rush.
 
I agree strongly. Physical pain seems easy to decide. There are some sensations that have driven me near suicide before. Precipitated withdrawals, diverticulitis, nerve pain, etc. The strongest physical pleasure I have ever felt was shooting hydromorphone and MDMA. It paled in comparison, intensity wise, to nerve pain.


Emotional pain is harder to debate, because I think it is more diverse. I believe I've felt 90% of physical sensations out there, but I have no clue what percentage of emotions I've felt. My personal experience, there is no high, natural or not, that parallels the dysphoria of a complete panic attack. There is no joy that lasts as long as the sadness of mourning lasts.

Its imbalanced. Maybe it's supposed to be that way. Maybe it's up to us to mature our perceptions to make it otherwise. Pain is inevitable, suffering is not... and all that
 
It's hard to know. Personally I think when you break it down, pleasure is defined by an absence of pain. Pain or agony is a lower form of consciousness. A characteristic feature of pain is the inability to think clearly. I consider that I'm in pain if I can't meditate because meditation is natural and should come about naturally with little to no effort

Bliss would be a state of total absence of pain/anxiety. It's a place of utter contentment where the world makes sense. Unfortunately I haven't figured out a way to stay in that state. Eventually I have to face reality which seems harsher and less true to who I am
 
For sure, a Lot of addicts are generally hardwired for any kind of pain. What to do when it gets boring? You know it. Though not worth it tbh. Boredom over Stupid rushes is grown up mindset.
 
physical pain compares nothing to actual psychological pain on a bad trip where the only way out in the moment is a bullet straight through the brain to end everything. I get use to most constant physical pains or just able to meditate through them. But having your body deconstructed at the atomic level and put back together many times in the short span of never ending time where you feel each atom explode in pain that is worse than getting kicked in the balls a million fold then witness to every possible to die in a eternal hell while the devil laughs and tortures you. That mental pain is unbearable leading to a complete psychotic break from reality and that is what a true bad trip is PTSD ensures for a while after the drug fades off. Some people might never recover and snap forever. If you recover its going to be a traumatic memory that might pop up from time to time.

I would rather take a blowtorch to my feet than live through that again
 
Top