In fact, I conducted research on mindfulness and pain. I also worked with hundreds of patients with chronic pain.

If I had a nickel for every time someone said, "No, my pain is real, it's not psychological" - well....

In fact, both the American and international pain associations have in the past 10 years defined "pain" as psychological ("nociception is the technical term for the pure sensations associated with the experience of pain)

I have no doubt that 95% of individuals on the planet experience cravings, desires, etc as irresistible. If that wasn't implicitly clear from my initial comment, I'm sorry.

The Buddha over 2000 years ago acknowledged, for most human beings, we are slaves to our desires.

And, he demonstrated (and it's been shown neurologically to be the case) that it is possible to learn to attend to ANY sensation, desire, craving, in such a way that the PHYSIOLOGY is completely changed.

But it's hard. As a psychologist who has conducted research, administered thousands of psych evaluations and worked with thousands of people (including several substance abuse units) I'm fully aware of the researhc.

I gave up a well paid and very very much fun career as a composer/pianist to be a psychologist - mainly in terms of research, until I realized how limited psychological research is - for this very reason:

To help us learn that we are not machines, not robots, and if we truly are motivated to, we can learn to radically change the way we attend to our bodies, emotions, thoughts, and the world.

I'm particularly interested in myths regarding neuroscience, free will, determinism, etc. I know most clinicians don't think philosophy is important or even relevant, but every person who says we're slaves to our desires and cravings because they're somehow engraved in our genetics, our neurological makeup, is engaging in philosophy, and either consciously or subconsciously adhering to a philosophy which has virtually no scientific evidence for it.