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MARK P. JENSEN ET AL.
anesthesia spreading through that area. Notice how naturally, how easily,
the anesthesia can make those areas feel different and tingly. Notice how
easily you can feel those tingly sensations just wash over everything.
Notice how the tingly, numb sensations absorb and block out any cur-
rent or future discomfort. Such a pleasure to be able to imagine, to really
imagine, such a satisfying feeling of comfort. Any discomfort becoming
less and less. The powerful and long-lasting anesthetic is doing its job.
This anesthetic has only positive effects . . . greater comfort . . . a sense of
calmness and of confidence . . . and it can last for hours, even days. As
you gain more experience using it, it becomes more powerful and
effective . . . and can last for as long as you like.
Decreased unpleasantness.
The purpose of the decreased unpleasant-
ness suggestion was to help the participants better distinguish
between pain intensity (the magnitude of felt pain) and pain unpleas-
antness (how much the pain bothers the participant) and to decrease
the latter even if the participant is aware of the former at some level.
The entire script used for this suggestion is as follows:
As you sink deeper into comfort, you can be aware of just how comfort-
able you can be, with nothing to bother you and nothing to disturb you.
You may already be aware that the pain intensity and the distress that
pain can produce are two different things. They are processed in two dif-
ferent parts of your brain. It is possible to be aware of a painful sensation
but not be bothered by it. Sometimes, it is even possible to experience
significant pain . . . and still it does not seem to bother you. Maybe it
helps to remember that these sensations don’t really mean you need to
do anything. These sensations are not warnings, they’re almost like old
habits of your mind. You really don’t need to pay attention to them, and
you certainly don’t need to feel bothered by them. . . . As you focus on
this, you can experience yourself as being less and less bothered by any
sensations that you experience. If they are there at some level, you may
find yourself less and less concerned about them, knowing that they are
nothing to worry about, nothing to bother with. It’s just such a pleasure
to notice that, for some reason, all the sensations you can feel, all the feel-
ings you can notice, become more and more a part of your experience of
comfort and well-being, with nothing to bother you and nothing to dis-
turb you. . . . Your sense of comfort can grow, so that you can be aware of
how much better you can feel now . . . and in the future. . . . There are no
feelings, no sensations, to bother you or to disturb you.
Sensory substitution.
All participants also received suggestions to
replace any experience of pain with less troubling sensations, such as
numbness or warmth. A slightly shortened version of the script for
this suggestion that includes all of its primary components is as
follows.
As you probably know, one way that many people manage unpleasant
sensations, and feel more comfortable, is to substitute a different feeling,