Hey freakish,

that's something that would be really interesting to explore - how occurences experienced by the mind may effect your physical body. I mean, obviously the only way to get a bruise physically is to actually have someone/thing hit you. However, if in your dream, you (your mind) experiences pain in a particular area of your physical body, wouldn't your mind still react to that pain. Usually our body reacts by pumping more blood to the effected area (isn't this why we swell up and get red marks and bruises?).

So, could it be that if the mind "thinks" it's body has been damaged, would it still send out the signal to pump blood and try to heal the effected area?

Hmmmmm......