Research has shown that there are no pain receptors in the body only receptors/nociceptors that detect unpleasant stimuli. The unpleasant impulses get sent to the brain areas for processing and it is the brain that determines if you will feel pain or if you do not. The amount of pain we feel is always real to us – I am NOT suggesting it is imagined in any way – but the intensity of pain experienced is NOT dependent upon the amount of damage or problems in the body’s structures. There are countless stories of people who have had no pain when they have suffered a severe injury or conversely people who have experienced horrendous pain with no known cause. There is the famous story of the man who shot a nail through his foot and was brought to hospital in agony only for the hospital staff to remove his boot to discover the nail had gone between his toes. Lorimer Moseley a leading pain researcher has written an interesting book about it called, ‘Painful Yarns: Metaphors & Stories to Help Understand the Biology of Pain.’

Pain has also shown to be influenced by the context it is viewed in