I agree. I'd do a heck of a lot more unsafe shit if I knew I could survive it without permanent damage. It's the permanent damage that keeps me from doing flagrantly unsafe stuff, not the pain. You wind up causing yourself pain in all sorts of avoidable but not terribly unsafe ways.
It's is amazing the pain and suffering a human can endure through shear force of will. In Ranger School in the US Army the primary thing you learn more then anything else is you mind can tell your body to shut up deal.
