Pope John Paul II whipped himself, considered retirement

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100128/w ... 9195707900

It never ceases to surprise me the perversity of behaviour that some people show in the name of religion.

For centuries Catholics have inflicted suffering upon themselves to attune themselves more closely with Jesus. Opus Dei members used to use barbed metal whips, as depicted semi-accurately in Brown's novels, although they rarely whipped themselves until blood gushed, as Brown alleges. One time that people DID whip themselves bloody is during the Black Death, when desperate Europeans thought that the plague was divine retribution, and that by whipping themselves in public they could satisfy Him. Some people actually whipped themselves to death when their symptoms failed to disappear. This isn't confined to Christianity, either-Shi'a Muslims frequently use whips and daggers to inflict serious physical harm on themselves. During Iranian religious festivals footage is shot of men caked in blood. And then there's the Stoics of ancient Rome, who would stab and whip themselves to show others that they'd overcome earthly desires. Inflicting pain upon oneself is very common. It is our soft existence as pampered, fat Americans that is abnormal.

Sure... Have fun flogging yourself to a bloody pulp tonight! And remember: no pain, no gain!

Seriously though, citing a few historic examples (which in my view are aberrations) doesn't exactly prove that these were common practices.

Perverse? I find nothing wrong with trying to be the best person you can. If whipping helps grind in what you forget too much, then..

Sounds more like a ploy to sell a book to me, like when Barbara Walters announced she had an affair with a Senator at around the time her book was coming out.

Sounds like the sort of comment one of those parents would make who thrash their kid to death because they thought she was possessed by a demon. They did it for the good of the kid. Gotta get rid of that demon. Sick minds, sick actions.

I heard that if you pull a thorn out of the Pope's butt, he'll grant you three wishes.

To the Vatican!

This reminds me of the news, I guess one or two years ago, of the publication of Mother Theresa's memoirs. She suffered a deep crisis of faith and was devastated by God's persistent silence. Our idols are never what we would make of them.

I think this is why there is so much sadism in religion. People who live in a repressed community or society have this tendency to vent their frustrations in violent ways.

I remember hearing the story about a former priest who talked about his feeling of guilt that involved sex and how he would whip himself every time he had those thoughts. Then he went onto describe how he started developing an addiction to it was gratifying. I'll have it up again but it was pretty interesting.

The pain center of the brain is right next to the pleasure center hence S&M. So more than likely when he thought of sexual things then hit himself he basically trained his brain to associate the two so that they became one... I think.

That makes a lot of sense.

I think the body will do a lot to cope and sex seems to be a very strong biological drive in most of us.

It's a strong drive in nearly everyone, it's main end is procreation which is why animals and people the world over work their hardest when sex is on the line. There are few exceptions and humans are mainly the only ones who can honestly have no interest in it at all b/c we think and choose so sometimes we can fight it off. I think for priests it's mostly trying not to give in to the urge... But from what I've read and heard from many sources and documentaries they give in often and just keep it secret. For instance I saw a documentary on a former nun who was kicked out of the church for getting pregnant from a priest and then they moved the priest and she has no way to get child support from him. Basically the story goes that priests often use nuns as a kind of harem in private so they don't have to soil their names in public.

I don't see anything kinky in the act, native cultures have used pain to induce altered states of conciseness, for example the
Sun Dance some native american and first nations tribes use, which involved the piercing of the skin on the chest with bone
hooks then suspending the person till the hooks are torn out of the skin. I have more respect for the pope for what he has
done, it certainly bought him closer to his personal god.