Scientists have found that being distracted helps people deal with pain. The only surprising thing to me is that they’re only just discovering this fact. Masochists could have told them this long ago.
The fact that pain is only experienced in the brain is the kind of thing movie super villains like to purr while they’re heating up the red hot coals for the hero. Yet it happens to be true. I’m frequently astonished how non-absolute pain can be. What seems horrible early in a play session can be easily tolerated later. Similarly a steady strong stimulus (say from an electro-stim device) can quickly become unnoticeable when overwhelmed by a suddenly intense sensation (like nipple clamps being ripped off). Lots of things can act as a distraction. In the original article they tried stress balls. I’ve also found that my screaming, ladies in tight outfits and sticking needles in delicate body parts (by aforementioned ladies) works equally well.
The image below shows a great set-up for the converse situation. It’s really hard to tolerate pain when you’re very focused on it, and this bondage set-up will enforce that. He can’t relax, zone out or shift focus. He has to try and maintain his balance will anticipating the blows. That creates an interesting but really intense head space.
This is from the Divine Bitches site.
