Sensitivity
_I: I have one question left about empathy… Why the pathy? That is to say... The need for pain. Because?
_AM: As we said, Patía is the Greek word for suffering, and it comes from Indo-European concepts of pain. As we have said, subtle, emotional, conceptual concepts, at the beginning of languages and human communication, were strictly related to the description of objective things or situations, since the subjective was impossible to express without a comparison. As we described the concept of Being, which actually referred to “being in a place”, a verb of spatial positioning rather than of essential description, the concept of Patía also describes an objective reality of the sensation that occurs in the body before his reaction with the environment. Pain has different degrees, on its scales from dense to subtle. We could put Suffering at a negative extreme, and Pleasure at a positive extreme. However, the body interprets both as pain. A caress, a tickle, is torture for the nervous system, however, the brain collapses when feeling this sensation, generating a secretion of hormones, morphine, endorphin, which try to counteract the perceived pain, like a kind of anesthesia to reduce suffering, and this is what produces the pleasurable sensation that you describe when faced with a caress or tickling game. Sexual pleasure, the orgasm, is part of the pain scale, since it is related to a violent eruption of the physical body, converted into pleasure due to the will and intention of both people in living that experience. If there is no intention, it is called rape, sexual abuse. It is the mind that, by accepting it, finds ways to make that pain translate into placebo hormones, that is, those that produce calm, pleasure. The more conscious the pain, the more pleasure, ecstasy, orgasm. The more unconscious the pain, the more regret, suffering, suffering.
_I: So pain is a form of sensory measurement of the body?
_AM: And I'll explain why. Simple: the body was designed to survive. Do you remember the 5 senses? They are nervous manifestations that help the brain interpret the world around it. This facilitates the cells' mobility in the environment, recognizing spaces and possible dangers, as well as food and safety. The senses were developed by the body to receive signals from the outside world, to feed and protect itself from it. Thus, the senses were developed to defend themselves from a hostile environment, and to do so, they needed to receive signals from said environment as pulses of possible threats. Thus, each electrical pulse received from the outside was translated as an intense, sharp signal, which was perceived in the brain as an alert. And of course, an alert is not gentle. If you must be vigilant in defending yourself, it cannot be that the announcement of a possible death is as soft as a cloud. It must be fast. Thus they understood this signal as a blow, a call for attention, something that breaks, splits, and makes a scary noise. In the Indo-European language to cut, to split, it is said “dell”, which gives rise to “pain”, that is, pain. In English, in addition to “dolence”, we have “pain”, which comes from “penal”, which refers to the consequence of an act, from the Indo-European “kwei”, which means to compensate for something, respond to a call, pay for what done. The call for attention that the brain receives when faced with external impulses generates an immediate response, sending signals to secrete hormones that compensate for the pain signal, cushioning the weight and suffering. This response is electrical, that is, energy that passes between cells, what we call emotion. Thus, every emotion was related to pain caused by certain external things to different extents. “Anguish” with the emptiness due to the lack of food, “Love” with the tingling of the blood when we prepare to run, “Frustration” with the pain produced by the unnecessary expenditure of energy in a hunt without obtaining the prey. And so all emotions, to some extent, are related to different degrees of pain. The more aware one becomes, the pain is controllable. At first, reproduction was painful, as it was done by instinct, a fire that had to be put out, when hormones prepared the body for reproduction, something that was biological and not psychological. But when minds began to discern and choose about their actions, reproduction stopped being just a necessity, and began to become a will of their own, beyond the periods of reproduction. A relaxed mind causes the brain not to be alert, but rather to convert impulses of pain, of blows, into simple flows of energy, discharges in the cells, making pain become sensation... And sensation into sensitivity.
_I: So pain is the key to the sensitivity of the soul...
_AM: At least it is in the matter. To your question “why the pain”? The biological logic would be the other way around: Why Sensitivity?
_I: Sure... Because pain has a practical function in biological survival, but sensitivity has no practical use in earthly life.
_AM: Until he had it.
_I: When?
_AM: At the moment when the cells realized that sensitivity strengthened the bonds in individuals, kept the pack together, ensured the survival of groups, the transcendence of systems and cultures. Sensitivity became key in many animals to maintain the subsistence of the species. The human began to develop it as his greatest strength. Sensitivity became more important than pain, even though it was born from it, which is why we can still understand that a sensitive person suffers more from everything than an insensitive person. The insensitive have no subtle response from the outside world, they cannot perceive love or hate, pain or pleasure as others do, they cannot relate emotionally to the world. They only manage to do it with themselves, which is why they are devoid of sensitivity, which turns them into hermits, solitary, sullen, negative beings. But a sensitive being, despite his empathy, has more possibilities of transcending, of being accepted, loved, protected, and therefore of surviving.
_I: But in societies it is frowned upon in many cases for people to be very sensitive, especially men...
_AM: Because they interpret sensitivity with weakness, since sensitivity was an attribute more worked on by women. This is related to the fact that for thousands of years, women had to keep the herd together, while men went out hunting. This made men solitary hunters who provide through suffering and effort, and women were the ones who contained and kept the family together. And to do so they had to spend time with everyone, understand them, be empathetic, and therefore sensitive, understand the pain of the other. This idea made men, culturally, construct the idea that being sensitive prevented them from hunting, and worsened the pain of loneliness, of the cold, of travel, of moving away, of killing, of fighting for their lives. Pain translated for them into Strength, as opposed to sensitivity: However, what allowed human unity to be sustained with true strength was feminine sensitivity. These last 100 years of history after millions of years of survival, with the exception of some periods during the Mesopotamian, Atlantean, Egyptian, Greek and Roman era, as well as in matriarchal societies, were the first moments in which man globally stopped hunt and work, while women were able to take their place. Thus, male sensitivity was finally able to emerge after millennia of repression, with the sole objective of surviving. It is no longer necessary, society evolved to the point where there are no longer gender roles, and sensitivity became something androgynous (from the Greek andrós = man, and giné = woman). The pain finally begins to turn into pleasure, as the taboos dissipate and liberate. Thus, people's sensory capacity stops being a tool of social unity and survival of the clan, and becomes a transcendental characteristic of the soul, of the interconnection of the beings of the world, beyond a clan, but of the entire humanity, in relation to the animal, vegetable and mineral worlds, understanding them as brothers, feeling them as part of oneself. Sensitivity takes on a global, universal and cosmic role, which transcends the limits of pain.
_I: This is how we interpret the awakening of consciousness as the pain of the soul, or a pain that leads to spiritual crisis. The pain became subtle, but we continued to associate it with earthly pains.
_AM: Pain is useful for interpreting the environment. People who suffer, who live in constant pain and depression, are open to receiving the stimuli of the world without consciousness, living it from the pulses of unconsciousness.
_I: But what about those who suffer even though they know from consciousness?
_AM: Nobody suffers from consciousness. Suffering and believing that you are aware of suffering does nothing more than make you unconscious of your own psyche. If you suffer, if it hurts, it is because there are aspects not yet worked on, it is because there is a lot to clean up and still understand. Don't judge yourself when you feel pain, just keep investigating to bring light and sensitivity. Nobody conscious suffers, because in consciousness there is no suffering, only options, pleasure, joy. Don't judge your pain, just know it, and become aware of it, step by step. And to achieve this, you must open yourself to feeling, to be sensitive, to put aside what you believe, what you know, and understand what you feel and perceive.
_I: Sensitivity opens my internal world to the external. It interprets reality, and through the pain barometer it shows me what state of consciousness I am in.
_AM: That's right. Therefore, tell me what hurts you, and I will tell you who you are.
_I: My eyes hurt today, my back hurts, and I know very well that an internal void still hurts that I can't complete...
_AM: Your sensitivity is open to recognizing that your pain is falling in love, which you cover with people, ideas, images that you consider love when it is not. Your eyes are tired of seeing what you can no longer hold in the axis of your spine, that void that weighs more than a whole, and that no one is capable of filling. Well, that void is too full with your expectations of what should be, and you don't leave room for what is.
_I: Pf… Thank you…
_AM: Why?
_I: For making me see this…
_AM: It is always nice to share what we feel. Releases weight, expands the soul, sensitizes the body, and strengthens the spirit.
_I: I express my intention to awaken sensitivity in me.
_AM: And this is how sensitivity will complete the empty space, manifesting a coherent and consistent reality.