Naively it makes sense, pain is just a sensation, but suffering is more complex. I doubt that we can truly shit off sensitivity to noxious stimuli, but meditation (and maybe some generic factors) seem like a way to manage reactions to that stimuli. Having said that, and skimming the links, I’d guess there’s a limit. A lot of what we’d naively expect to be excruciating is more upsetting and distressing than purely painful. Some things however, like inflammation of the trigemanal nerve, is really a source of intractable pain. I have my doubts that meditation would be of much use in that context, or extreme osteogenic pain.

> Performing a double blind test on whether meditation can help you avoid pain would probably be unethical

Um... how does one even perform such a test? It's not like you don't know you're meditating.