This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
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Our new column in Scientific American Mind is out today and it's about the illusory nature of pain, and how pain perception and severity varies with mood and circumstances. The story centers around an unlikely subject, Dennis Rogers, "The World's Strongest Man". Can Rogers achieve his feats of strength through mutant abilities, or due to the ability to ignore pain and push through it, instead? As Seneca said, "“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”