Research shows Catholics feel less pain

Devout Catholics can use their faith to feel less pain, according to new research from Oxford University.

As part of an experiment by scientists at the university, 12 believers and 12 non believers were given electric shocks while looking at an image of the Virgin Mary. The results concluded that Catholics felt 12 per cent less pain than non believers.

Pleased with the findings, the Anglican Bishop of Durham, Rt. Rev. Tom Wright said: “The practise of faith should and in many cases does alter the person you are. It can affect patterns of brains and emotions.”

The research was conducted by scientists from The Oxford Centre For Science Of The Mind, whose results will be published in the scientific journal, PAIN.

During the experiment, all participants spent half an hour inside an MRI scanner. In four separate sessions, they received a series of 20 electric shocks while being shown either a religious or secular image.

'The Virgin Mary', by seventeenth century Italian painter, Sassoferrato was used as the religious image, while the secular image was Leonardo Da Vinci’s fifteenth century painting, 'Lady with an Ermine' – chosen because it looks similar to Sassoferrato’s image and so should produce a calming effect.

When the participants saw the religious painting, an area of the brain associated with suppressing reactions to threatening situations lit up in the devout Catholics, while no change was noted in the non-believers.

Pain perception levels were similar when all participants saw the secular image.

Dr Katya Wiech, a neurologist and leader of this research explained the effect of engaging this area of the brain – the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.

“It helps people to reinterpret pain and make it less threatening. These people felt safe looking at the Virgin Mary—felt looked after—so the whole context of the test changed for them.”

The observations support the hypothesis that pain threshold is linked to religious belief, as the atheists preferred the secular painting, but this was not reflected in the scientific results of the experiment.

Dr Wiech does not, however, believe that this has proved the existence of medical miracles: “there's no suggestion that this effect is specific to religion and we've not found the God blob in the brain. This is about the state of mind you can achieve.”

Psychologist Dr Miguel Farias, who also was worked on this research, suggested that the experiment could be as successful with non believers: “we would need to find a picture of someone they feel very positive towards, such as a mother or father,” she suggested.