Yesterday I had a another procedure on my eyes. One eye at a time, my fully dilated eyes were clamped open in order to have the new light adjustable lenses behind my cornea locked in place at the desired prescription using a very strong laser. This was the second lock-in so I knew it would be painful and I would be unable to move or close my eyes. I hadn't been prepared for the first lock-in since other laser treatments hadn't been painful. All the doctor had said was this will be a lot stronger than regular laser adjustments. The pain was weird and inescapable and pretty unbearable, but not long. After that first lock-in laser treatment I wished I hadn't even gotten the light adjustable lenses. But I was so far down the road with the eye surgeries and previous laser treatments I wanted to finish. And my eyesight was now really good. Before the new lenses I couldn't tell if at the end of the block there was person walking a dog or a person with a suitcase on wheels. It mattered because I was usually walking with my Labrador Retriever.
So for the second treatment I made a plan to cope with the pain. Because I know from my out of body experiences that my consciousness is not dependent on my physical body or even located in my body or brain, but exists as part of the infinite field of consciousness which we all share, I decided to focus my awareness, my consciousness, somewhere else far from my body and away from the pain. So I planned the thoughts I would think during the treatment and rehearsed them. I chose several pleasant memories to think about and enlarge upon, and focused my consciousness on them.
As the doctor clamped my fully dilated eyes open wide, I focused on the scene I chose and the thoughts I had planned. I took my conscious awareness was far from my head, eyes, or brain. When they turned on the laser machine I was already gone. Occasionally I strayed back but quickly refocused. I made it through the right eye. The left eye was harder. Still I repeatedly focused my consciousness on the thoughts I had planned. I made it through. At any moment we can choose a new thought that feels better.