Page 57 - Biblical Counseling II

Understanding pain
“Pain experiences vary widely from person to person. The pain we feel is in part a property of our senses, of
the region where we feel it. But our pain system differs from some of our other senses. We don’t have a
simple neural cord running from a sensing device on our skin to a specific area in our brain. No one type of
stimulus triggers pain (as light triggers vision). And we have no special receptors for pain. In fact, at low
intensities, the stimuli that produce pain also cause other sensations, including warmth or coolness,
smoothness or roughness” (Myers, p. 143, 2012).

“Pain is a physical event, but it is also a product of our attention, our expectations, and our culture. The
brain-pain connection is clear in the clever rubber hand experiment, in which a participant’s own hand is out
of sight beneath a visible fake hand. Even just “stroking” the fake hand with a laser light produces, for most
people, an illusory sensation of warmth or touch in their unseen real hand. Touch is not only a bottom-up
property of your senses but also a top-down product of your brain and your expectations” (Myers, p. 143,
2012).

55