How Pain can be Sacred

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I first read the title for Glucklich's Sacred Pain and the Phenomenal Self, I was immediately reminded of the movie, The Campaign (2012). There's an especially humorous scene where in order to appeal to more voters, Will Ferrell attends a snake-handling ritual at a church. On top of making me laugh, I did question why some christians would want to handle a snake. It turns out that those particular Christians see snake handling as a rite of passage and that they believe God will protect them from the likely event of being bitten. What I read is similar to that she describes pain as being "unique among human experiences in being entirely objectess; the instruments are metaphorical inventions, an effort to conceptualize a subjective experience that has no external objective features"(391). I was already somewhat aware of how many religions view the concept of pain, but I did enjoy the oppurtunity to learn more. Pain is what distinquishes our world from the world beyond and many people believe a form of transcendance is achieveable through giving into a certain type of pain... like handling a snake.

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