Peace of Mind comes when you no longer identify with the body, ie as a personal self. To gain this you really need to have had at least a fleeting enlightenment experience.

What is happiness? Suffering is a consequence of life just accept it.

Maybe the people you've mentioned managed to defeat the sense of pain by inducing a chemical change in their brains, similar to a self-induced dose of a sedative like those that promote calm, and the numbing of nerve cells that carry the electrical impulses that signal pain. They have taped into a potential that we all have, and they've somehow mastered it.

I think that it partly depends on the nature of the torture being experienced. Torture can be inflicted to mind, body, and/or Spirit.
Regarding the Spirit, you must know that your spirit is absolutely invincible unless you open it to damage. Know this. No matter what else is done to you, if you do not give up your spirit, you win.
Also, pull 'Goodness' to you. Look for it in simple things, like the way sunlight falls on a leaf or in the laughter of a small child. Pull healing energy towards you. Avoid, if possible, things that are potential vexations. Walk in Beauty. Walk through life doing as little harm and as much good as possible.

Regarding the mind, know your own mind. Feed your strengths, your virtues.

To more fully comment, I would need to know more about the nature of the 'torture'.

October 25, 2018

Dear chap9898,

Anyone, including a nominal 'sage', wanting or needing to volunteer to be physically tortured is a sign of either:

1) mental imbalance involving perversity; or

2) (if for money) a mercenary who enjoys impressing the suggestible with stunts of physical and mental endurance, like the fakir who lies on a bed of nails. This type is basically like a 'stunt person' in the movies, if that's all they do for a living. The Sufi Muslim fakirs claim to be spiritual people; some write books; I believe their spirituality is a pretense and that they are false prophets. Gurdjieff says the word fakir is used to denote the specifically physical path of development. A false prophet is one who makes false promises to his followers regarding unattainable benefits. I believe that only the perverse could dream about the benefits of physical torture. I hesitate to comment more. I expect you know this; I opine and interpret for the benefit of others; or

3) both 1) and 2), if false prophets have found a niche. If so, it would be secret.

Regarding 1), there are many people who delight in being tortured, finding sexual arousal and gratification through it. This perverse delight is connected with a proponderance of the 7 quality in a person's nature. The 'sevenish' are religious or spiritual types, attracted to depth, mystery and the dramatic emotionalism of people or in the arts.

No real sage, 'wise' one, true prophet or adept would get into physical torture; if they did, they wouldn't be a sage, 'wise' one etc. They have far better things to do with their life.

Maintaining peace of mind under adversity is another matter. One deals with 'adversity' by not seeing it as such, first of all, but just as a necessary part of one's life that one is primarily allowing oneself to enjoy by seeing the beauty and inspiration of Life and others, with any adversity -- equating with a bad thought in our heads like a figurative monster growling some doubt or complaint -- recognized but silently admonished and dismissed, till the next time it returns, with something like Christ's 'Get thee behind me, Satan', or 'Down, boy'. This is a matter of spiritual development, as only the Superconscious Spirit (above mind) can supersede and diminish or effectively replace the negativity of the Conscious mind below it with the positivity of Spirit.

Believe in Karma...