# I am evil for laughing at subjecting monks to voluntary but painful electrical shocks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609 "2016-07-22T17:48:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/1 "2016-07-22T17:48:48Z")
I took a passenger home [from work](http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/index.html) the other day, and he told me some about one of their ongoing studies. They are brain scanning Buddhist monks in a meditative state to compare the scans to “normal” (non-meditative) brains, and apparently the differences are very clear and visible. But then we went on about a potion of the study, which puts a shock collar around their necks and subjects them to painful electrical shocks while meditating. “They feel the pain just as much as anyone else. They self-rate the pain on a scale of 1-10 just the same as non-monks do, even when we give them a good jolt at level 8. But their brains _immediately_ return to their meditative state, once the shock is stopped.” Normal brains, he said, don’t do that, they will remain in an abnormal and agitated state for considerably longer periods of time. I’m not sure why, but both he and I found amusement in the idea of “jolting” Buddhist monks. And I’ve told the story to a few friends and co-workers since, and we always end up giggling over it. I did ask what they hoped to learn by electrocuting Buddhist monks, and he said they hoped to demonstrated that calmness, perhaps even “happiness”, can be learned and trained, and is not a state that just “happens” due to outside circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/2 "2016-07-22T18:00:58Z")
It’s never evil to have a sense of humor, and many scenarios (maybe all of them) contain potential for irony. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/3 "2016-07-22T18:56:31Z")
Don’t you know, [del]you’re[/del] they’re going to shock the monk[del]ey[/del]?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/4 "2016-07-22T19:01:22Z")
Funny negates evil. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/5 "2016-07-22T19:06:50Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I did ask what they hoped to learn by electrocuting Buddhist monks, and he said they hoped to demonstrated that calmness, perhaps even “happiness”, can be learned and trained, and is not a state that just “happens” due to outside circumstances. _totally misses point_ So I can train myself to be happy by electrocuting monks? That is so 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/6 "2016-07-22T19:52:19Z")
First step on the way to realizing Douglas Adams’s dream… ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/7 "2016-07-22T21:42:25Z")
Just to be fair, they should also be shocking priests, rabbis and ministers, plus the pope and the dalai lama, and of course some nuns. Especially nuns. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/8 "2016-07-22T22:20:02Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Just to be fair, they should also be shocking priests, rabbis and ministers, plus the pope and the dalai lama, and of course some nuns. Especially nuns. Nuns, you smack their hands with a ruler. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/9 "2016-07-23T00:12:20Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Funny negates evil. Springtime for Hitler and Germanyyyyy… ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/10 "2016-07-23T00:40:35Z")
Did any of the subjects just burst out laughing during the Milgram experiment? ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/11 "2016-07-23T16:45:03Z")
Might want to search for S&M, bondage, and medieval torture. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-evil-for-laughing-at-subjecting-monks-to-voluntary-but-painful-electrical-shocks/760609/12 "2016-07-23T21:46:16Z")
Not only is it not evil, but it’s probably the perfect pain to laugh at. It happens, but then it goes away completely. There is absolutely no harm at all to these guys. So the one reason to feel guilty isn’t there.