Whether performance pain is real hinges on unknowable private experience

Evidence

We can’t know whether the various members of Athey’s audience respond primarily to the icon of Christ’s last passion, or to the painful construction of that icon on the stage—or to both. Nor can we tell what difference it would make to those who would like to ban this performance if they were to be told that Athey suffers from a malfunctioning of the nervous system so that he actually feels no pain. Or—more tellingly—that like a religious virtuoso he has learnt to experience it positively. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 599

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the claim that a religious virtuoso can learn to experience pain positively — what does training actually do to nociception?