Originally posted by: hiten mitsurugi
So the question is if mange produces pain by erroneously deceiving the brain, then why can't you snap out of it because of the pain? Just like how Shika broke his finger to produce enough pain to snap out of it.

Do you see how it contradicts itself?

********NOTE********* This crap is extrapolating real-world stuff into a manga. By the end of this whole thing, I said to myself, "who the f' cares?!" Hopefully, so will you. *********NOTE*********


It doesn't contradict itself at all. Think of genjutsu as (externally-)enforced dreaming.

Have you ever had a dream that was extremely realistic, and had someone or some sound wake you up? Or really, have you ever been brought out of a dream for any external (real world) reason, be it sound, heat, or the feeling of someone being close by? Well, that's because your brain segregates information when it's in a dream state and is capable of this because dreaming is performed in one portion of the brain (stimulating our optic and aural centers to allow us to be able to see w/ our eyes closed and hear when there is no sound) and real world occurrences happen in another.

The more real a dream is, the less aware you become of what's happening in the outside world (i.e. deep sleep).

The whole "pain thing" Kishimoto repeatedly toys with is the last vestige of the outside world forcing its way past the dream to your consciousness. The same way you would be awoken from a dream if someone broke your pinky is the same reason Shika beat the genjutsu. The same reason dreams can be scary and painfulled is the reasons Mangekyo can induce pain.

-I'm a juicy lamer, out.