George that is a great truth, and this also extends to other pagan religions of the world ...
a casual review of online resources reveals that...

1. On the day of Ashura some devotees whip their own backs with bunched knives known as zanjirs; others beat their chests rhythmically with their hands. See link here (CAUTION this is graphic):
http://eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com...ation-and.html

2. Just last year a Shia Muslim was found guilty of child cruelty because he made two teenage boys take part in a self-flagellation ritual using a whip made of knife blades. Syed Mustafa Zaidi's defence was that this is a traditional ceremony commemorating the death of Hussein, Muhammad's grandson, at the massacre of Karbala in AD680.

3. In the Hindu festival of Thaipusam a ritual known as kavadi is performed. It ranges from carrying heavy weights uphill to piercing the body, face and tongue with skewers, or dangling from meat hooks passed through the back and legs. “The greater the pain,” one text says, “the greater the god-earned merit.”

4. In the festival for the goddess Draupathi believers walk on red-hot coals as an act of devotion or penance.

5. In Catholic circles, Saint Francis of Assisi, who is said to have received the stigmata, painful wounds like those of Jesus Christ, asked pardon to his body for the severe self-afflicted penances he had done: vigils, fasts, frequent flagellations and the use of a hairshirt (sackcloth).

6. In the second millennium, St. Dominic Loricatus is said to have performed 'One Hundred Years Penance' by chanting 20 psalters accompanied by 300,000 lashes over six days.

7. In the sixteenth century, Saint Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor of England, wore a hairshirt, deliberately mortifying his body. He also used the 'discipline.' Also, in the sixteenth century Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England wore a hairshirt.

8. Saint Ignatius of Loyola while in Manresa in 1522 is known to have practiced severe mortifications. In the Litany prayers to Saint Ignatius he is praised as being “constant in the practice of corporal penance.” He wore a hair shirt and heavy iron chain.... it goes on and on.

I am reminded of the great message from our King James Bible...

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." -- Psalm 51:17