There's only been a few times when pain was so intense that I almost blacked-out.
One was falling a good distance and landing on my back. I couldn't breathe for what seemed like eternity and I ruptured my spleen a little bit.
The second was a urethra "rape" (who came up with the idea that this is more humane then wet beds???).
Peanut Gallery: The Sheet Changers!! 
And the third was a root canal.
In all those cases, I'm glad I felt the pain, but it would be nice to be able to zone it out.
While studying wilderness survival many moons ago, I read a Tom Brown Jr. book in which he described cold as something that needs to be embraced.
I've noticed that if I'm really cold and shivering, I can step back mentally and embrace the cold (invite it in for tea if you will). It works as long as I maintain my complete focus on that idea of embracing. As soon as I drop my attention, I become cold once again.
It can be a deadly practice considering hypothermia.
I'm always curious about people who are into pain. Are they numb-er than most, and thus seek relatively macabre avenues of sensation?
From my armchair, I've noticed that people who have repressed feelings and self-forgotten tragedies tend to have a higher tolerance for pain on either a physical or emotional level. It seems as if physical/emotional pains are linked in eternally inexplicable manners. How can one truly say that they can "correctly" empathize with another?
Do you feel me?
