Traditionally we’ve been taught that pain is a sign that the body is damaged and needs to be protected. And there is some truth in this. 

When we stub our toe it hurts instantly and we hop around cursing, or fall to the floor. When we bang our head getting into the car our eyes water and the head begins to throb. So pain and bodily harm go hand in hand –– right?

Well, have you ever cut yourself gardening and someone else say’s “hey, you’re bleeding”. You look down and there’s the blood, but where is it coming from? You trace the path to it’s source and only then does it start to hurt!

Why didn’t it hurt before that? Why is it hurting now!?

And here’s another weird pain story…

The Story of A Carpenter’s Foot!

There was a famous report in the British Medical Journal of a carpenter that managed to fire a nail gun nail right through his boot and into the floor below, pining him in place. 

Understandably he was in screaming agony. So his colleagues cut the floorboard and drove him to the hospital (still attached!), with their friend screaming in pain with every bump in the road. 

The hospital staff carefully cut open his boot only to find the nail had passed perfectly between his toes, not even leaving a scratch! The guy had been in agonising pain –– without tissue damage!

This real world story illustrates that you can have excruciating pain, yet no bodily harm whatsoever.

So what the heck is going on!

Pain Is An Illusion 100% Of The Time.

Remember the video in Chapter 1, where Professor Moseley gave evidence as to why pain is an illusion –– like the Rubber Hand Experiment, or feeling pain outside your body with virtual reality goggles. He said, “pain is an illusion 100% of the time”. But it’s also true to say that pain is entirely real 100% of the time too, because you did truly feel that pain.

But wait a second, how could anything be 100% an illusion and also be 100% real? Well, solving that paradox comes down to the true nature of pain.

The True Nature of Pain.

Think of pain like a conversation (because that’s exactly what it is!)

A conversation between you and me is absolutely real. We both witness it. Maybe other people overheard it too. We can all attest to it having happened. 

But if an alien were to dissect our brains and bodies it would not find that conversation anywhere. It would say “they remember the conversation, but where is it now!?”

And it’s the same for pain. 

Pain is a conversation within the brain –– not between brain and body part.

This is why we can look for the source of pain and sometimes we find one (like the cut hand from gardening or the stubbed toe) or we can look for the source of pain and find nothing (like the carpenter’s foot). 

So try to think of pain as a conversation between two parts of your brain –– the Unconscious and the Conscious.

Hopefully this next bit will help…

The Cave Person Inside.

Imagine the unconscious brain, which receives all the signals from the body, is a cave person inside your head, and they can only communicate in grunts and groans. This cave person just so happens to be in charge of communicating danger to you.

So when they have a concern about your body, they respond by saying, “urgh, ugh, ahhh!”

And your conscious mind, which is use to modern language, replies, “Umm, pardon?”

I joke, but this is actually what’s happening. Well, almost. 

Instead of saying “urgh, ugh, ahhh!” the cave person actually uses a sophisticated language that we call ‘Sensations of Pain’, like –– Irritability, Aching, Burning, Soreness, Dull, Sharp, Hot, Stabbing, Electrical, Shooting, Searing, Agonising etc. 

Each word telling someone who understands the cave person’s language a lot about what is going on (we’ll talk more about this in later chapters). 

Can you also see, in the list above, that the intensity is rising with the words we’re giving to the sensation? –– going from Irritability or Aching in the beginning, to Searing and Agonising to really get your attention when you need to taking action. 

That’s because the Cave Person has a tone of voice, like we do.

If it’s a general conversation, then the tone of voice is gentler and quieter. If you’re in danger of serious damage, the tone of voice is sharp and loud. And, like a parent getting slowly frustrated with a child refusing to get ready for school, the Cave Person’s tone of voice will slowly increase. Starting with a gentle nudge and moving up the volume scale until the full force of the urgency is communicated!

In persistent pain, the tone of voice is like that person you know who just can’t stop complaining. It just drones on and on at about the same level. The issue here is more how tolerant your Conscious mind is towards the constant whining –– Some days you can put it in the background and others it drives you totally insane!

This is why pain is 100% real –– because it’s a real conversation. But it’s also why it’s an illusion, because it’s just a conversation, not a direct message from the tissues of your body (remember, you can have pain without tissue damage too).

Okay, I Think It’s Time For A Recap of The Story So Far.

So in our story far we’ve been introduced to the weirdness of pain. We’ve also met the Messenger –– The Cave Person inside you that’s responsible to getting your attention but only talks in grunts and groans.

In learning about this messenger, we’ve begun to established that pain is actually a conversation, which has its own language.

We’ve also established that this conversation is not actually about “Tissue Damage”, because pain may sometimes be coming from tissue injury (the stubbed toe or gardening cut), but other times it comes without tissue injury (the carpenter’s foot).

It’s no wonder we all find pain––especially chronic pain–– to be so confusing!

So how do we make more sense of this conversation? How do we know when the conversation will start and possibly even how to bring it to a close?

Well let’s begin to answer these questions in our next chapter – “Pain Occurs When…”

Come join my there by clicking “Next” below.