[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for the ping to your excellent reply to marron's thought provoking post!

If this is the case, and mind or consciousness is merely the epiphenomenon of the brain, would mind be able to do anything other than confirm the brain’s false report?

Conversely is a psychosomatic illness, in which case the mind has created a false report of illness which is manifest in the body. Actual nerve ending may be involved in such an illness as well, but the sickness is in the mind.

In the missing limb scenario, if the mind is feeling an itch in a toe that is no longer there then the sensation is certainly false. The only physical means I could conjure to attribute such a phenomenon to the nerve endings at the point of the severed limb would be if those nerves (which is to say, all nerves) are holographic in mechanism. And I have never heard such a speculation.

[Doctor Stochastic]

People born without limbs do not seem to have the "missing limb" itch syndrome. (And those born with six fingers find it natural, too.) A simple hypothesis of the missing limb syndrome is just that one remembers the limb was there and what it felt like when the limb itched. It's like a dream in that the brain is activating circuits without necessarily having input.

[betty boop]

Conversely is a psychosomatic illness, in which case the mind has created a false report of illness which is manifest in the body. Actual nerve ending may be involved in such an illness as well, but the sickness is in the mind.

Excellent catch, A-G. I overlooked the problem of psychosomatic illness, though assuredly it does exist. Thank you so much for supplying important missing details!