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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lightningeidolon2.png]]]]

->''"Owwww...my ''soul!'' No, seriously, this is actually making my soul hurt. I don't know ''how'' it's possible, but apparently, it is."''
-->-- '''WebVideo/TheNecroCritic''', ''Christmas Shoes review''

When a character feels horrid pain in an... abstract way. It can be their soul, heart, spirit, [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries hair]], consciousness, or the nervous system itself, but it never leaves a physical mark and involves no gore despite it being unimaginably painful.

This trope is most frequently found in "kid-friendly" fantasy and science fiction works in an effort to heighten drama [[CouldHaveBeenMessy without the use of blood]]. Most likely, the hero is experiencing a psychological, supernatural, or magical attack that gives them ambiguous chest pains or a mind-splitting headache. You can bet that the hero will be doubled over in pain, unable to move.

Scenes with this trope can be pretty [[NightmareFuel frightening]] anyway if used well, like with trippy spirit monsters chanting and hovering over the hero, or surreal montages of the hero's fears playing before their eyes. (See one of the possible causes, MindRape.)

Soul Pains usually [[OnlyMostlyDead can't kill a character by themselves]]. Sometimes Having Soul Pains ''could'' bring about the character's death, although it's never obvious exactly when the pain would get bad enough to actually kill him/her. DarkerAndEdgier works will use this trope to [[DrivenToSuicide drive characters to suicide]], just to make it all stop.

Sometimes used to bring the battle between good and evil to a personal level. In those cases, the true battle between cosmic forces is inside the characters, not out on a physical battlefield.

A character who has a SoulJar will likely experience this if said jar is damaged or (especially) destroyed since in this case their soul is ''physically'' being damaged.

Possible symptoms include abstract clenching or burning sensations, splitting headache, or the feeling something on the inside will [[YourHeadASplode a splode]]. Causes include MindRape, an AgonyBeam, a SoulCuttingBlade, the presence of evil, DemonicPossession, InvoluntaryShapeshifting, or using abilities that qualify as being BlessedWithSuck. It may or [[WoundThatWillNotHeal may not]] be possible to heal a soul pain/injury/wound, depending on the work and case. In some settings, it may be overcome through {{Determinator}}-style HeroicWillpower. If you suffer from Soul Pains, ask your doctor if treatment through the PowerOfFriendship is right for you.

AcheyScars is when Soul Pains are connected to a physical scar.

Not to be confused with [[BloodlessCarnage deaths that are only bloodless due to censorship]].

----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Ichigo in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', after defeating the Menos Grande, sets off his HeroicRROD, after Urahara cuts his soul chain during TrainingFromHell, and again during the soul chain's encroachment. He says something along the lines of, "What's going on? I - I can't breathe!"
** Also during [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Shirosaki's]] takeover. Ripping half his face off can't have been a bed of roses.
* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'': {{Downplayed|Trope}} with mana sickness, a temporary condition that spellcasters suffer when they overdraw their {{Mana}} reserves, like when Laios uses magic for the first time. Symptoms include [[PowerStrainBlackout extreme exhaustion]], [[PsychicNosebleed nosebleeds]], [[MushroomSamba hallucinations]], and the sense of something crawling under their skin.
* Once in ''Manga/DragonBall'' Bulma felt a pang in her heart when [[spoiler:Vegeta blew himself up in an effort to kill Majin Buu.]]
* Rath from ''Manga/DragonKnights'' is in constant pain due to needing to wear a light dragon amulet in order to stay in the castle and being [[spoiler:a demon]].
* In the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' manga, Riku is shown gasping for breath, growing pale, and having difficulty walking after using the power of darkness so much. At such times, he says he "feels like his heart is about to explode." (It's not referring to his physical heart.)
* Hayate of ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' when she was bound to the [[ArtifactOfDeath Book of Darkness]].
* The eponymous Negi of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' starts experiencing these once [[spoiler:the "encroachment" of his [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Magia Erebia]]]] starts kicking in. It's later clarified as being "similar to acute magical poisoning", and even later revealed to be merely a symptom of [[spoiler:''turning into a demon'']].
* In ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'', this happens to several characters: Kaito during his imprisonment, Sara when she gets hit by Gaito's attack, and... Michel. Just... Michel.
* Possible variant: The Gentle Fist technique used by the Hyuga clan in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' can leave its targets crippled, chakra-wise, without leaving a mark on them.
** Genjutsu in general can be this. Notably Itachi's Tsukuyomi, which he once used against Kakashi to create painful hallucinations of the latter being stabbed over and over again for 72 hours. Suffice to say, Kakashi passes out and slips into a coma shortly afterwards, despite having no visible injuries. In the English dub, Kisame comments about how surprised he is that Itachi's genjutsu didn't break Kakashi's spirit. Whether he means this in a literal or metaphorical way is unclear.
* In ''Anime/PrincessTutu'', Mytho has fits of this whenever a [[SoulJar heartshard]] is returned to him, and later gets it worse when [[spoiler:[[BloodMagic the raven's blood]]]] is spreading in his heart.
* ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' has Mamimi who reacts to pain when she says that she's going to [[UnusualEuphemism "overflow"]].
* ''Manga/SoulEater'' has this. Black☆Star experiences this when he attempts to use the Nakatsukasa Purpose before getting some sense beaten into him. It's stated that it's killing him, to which he typically pays no attention.
** Of course, in Soul Eater souls are actual, tangible objects, and at one point we even get to see an X-ray of Black☆Star's damaged soul.
* Ash, Brock, and Dawn in ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl'' get spikes of pain when the Lake Trio are kidnapped, because they had [[{{Synchronization}} been linked to them previously]].
* Early in ''[[VideoGame/HarukanaruTokiNoNakaDe Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou]]'', Akane briefly falls ill, presumably due to her newly-acquired Dragon-God powers that she is still trying to reject. Even though she is in pain and has a fever, it is confirmed that the symptoms don't have any physical cause -- it's more of a consequence of her spirit being in disorder. She also has a similar reaction when she meets Ran, her EvilCounterpart, for the first time.
** In the manga, Yasuaki [[PsychicLink "reflects"]] Akane's negative emotions (mainly because he [[ArtificialHuman lacks his own ones]]); at one point this is said to manifest as chest pains that don't have any potential cause. And tears. This eventually leads to some [[CannotTellALie interesting]] CharacterDevelopment on his part.
** Yasuaki's angst-induced chest pains in ''Hachiyou Shou'' episode 23 might also count.[[note]]If he wasn't already TheWoobie before that, well...[[/note]]
* This happens a few times in ''Anime/DigimonTamers''. When facing the tiger Deva, Takato passes out from feeling Guilmon's pain. Later, when facing the D-Reaper, each of the [[PowerTrio trio]] slides back in pain after their Digimon get hit by attacks. Calumon has this when his SentientPhlebotinum powers result in him powering up Guilmon's SuperPoweredEvilSide.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' has this at low-level synch. Or, to be exact, the pilots feel everything felt by their Evas but at higher synch levels, it hurts progressively more until [[{{Synchronisation}} they even get physically injured by it]]; some residual phantom pain might be present for a while. For example, Unit 01 getting its arm broken in the first battle was rather painful for Shinji; Unit 02 getting speared in the head at 300% synch and then being torn apart and partially eaten by the Mass-Produced Evas had Asuka screaming at the top of her lungs. It then got worse for her when she attempted to go Berserk with her Eva-02 to kill her attackers, as they [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice viciously speared Unit 02 with their glaives]]. Asuka's right arm is seen splitting in two to the elbow with the first strike...fortunately, we don't see what happens with the rest.
** In the second Rebuild movie, Mari forces Unit-02 into a berserk state with the 'Beast mode'. Control rods literally burst from the Eva's back, and it's heavily implied that Mari herself feels the pain. The only reason she really keeps going is that she is a bit of a masochist and claims that it is 'so much fun'.
** A literal version is how the EVAs destroy the Angels. The Angels are invulnerable to all damage typically, and if they aren't, they'll eventually regenerate the damage they take. An Angel's soul also resides in an organ referred to in series as a "Core". NERV's solution? AttackItsWeakPoint.
* In ''Manga/DNAngel'', Satoshi falls to his knees and clutches at his chest when [[spoiler: Krad is trying to take over his body]].
* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Alphonse gets this when [[spoiler:his [[OurSoulsAreDifferent soul]] starts tearing away from his AnimatedArmor to rejoin its body which is waiting at the GateOfTruth]].
** A more horrifying version of this trope occurs for people whose [[spoiler:souls are trapped inside philosopher's stones]]. They are compressed into what seems to be a tiny pocket dimension and subjected to excruciating agony that will only end when their particular soul is used up as energy. Yes, that's right, each [[spoiler:philosopher's stone]] is a self-contained ''hell''. More disturbingly, they're fairly common; at one point we see a room filled with ''tanks'' of the objects.
* Another less-than-kid-friendly variant occurs with the Brand of Sacrifice in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', which inflicts this upon those who bear it in the presence of demons. The more powerful demons can inflict even worse pain on someone with the Brand, with the Godhand being the worst of them all, and intense enough pain inflicted this way can even kill them. [[spoiler:Guts could only get within about Dragon Slayer distance from Femto before being almost completely overwhelmed by the pain, and the fact that Casca was even closer than that when she got raped by Femto (and was thus in ''utterly excruciating agony'') was probably a big contributing factor to her [[GoMadFromTheRevelation loss of sanity following the Eclipse]]]].
** Much later, Slan of the Godhand slashed Guts across the chest, cutting into his soul as well as his flesh. While the wound on his body eventually healed, the wound in his soul will never go away. The cursed Berserker armor Guts wears is the only thing that is keeping the damage to his soul in check.
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[spoiler:Kyubey causes these in Sayaka by pressing on her Soul Gem, demonstrating to her what "real" pain is while commenting on how fortunate she is that her physical body can no longer feel it.]]
* In ''AudioPlay/SaintBeast'', the last episode of the prequel series has Judas and Luca in critical condition due not to physical wounds but being polluted by the miasma of the evil spirits.
* Whenever Manga/{{Inuyasha}} is forced to transform into his full demon form, it looks extremely painful; it is implied some of the pain results from his demon blood eating through his human soul.
* This happens to both [[SerialKiller Light]] and [[MadLove Misa]] in ''Manga/DeathNote'', when the titular Death Note returns their memories at the conclusion of Light's MemoryGambit, but Light gets bonus points for an absolutely bloodcurdling ''scream''. Though, his pain seems to be a combination of this and realizing [[BreakTheCutie who exactly]] [[AxCrazy he is.]]
-->'''Light''': [[DontTouchItYouIdiot Ryuzaki, let me see it!]]
* In the ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' [[TheMovie sequel movie]], Okarin's time travel blitzing leads to some unexpected side effects - all his memories of different timelines overload his RippleEffectProofMemory, giving him episodes where he can't control which timeline he's in as well as splitting headaches that get worse over time.
* Happens to Quatre in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' due to a form of [[TheEmpath empath power]] called "The Space Heart."
** Indeed, it's quite common for Newtypes in the other ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' series. (Which ''may'' indicate that Quatre is a Newtype, but it's never confirmed in-series.)
* Happens to all the Priestesses in ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'', as the Beast Gods they summon devour them from the inside out.
* The dragons from ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn'' after meeting Yona, their "master". Upon first contact with her, they feel a nebulous, searing internal pain that compels them to obey her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''ComicBook/NewXMenAcademyX'', Pixie had a piece of her soul ripped out during a trip to Limbo. The void left behind is filled with dark magic that acts up specifically around demons and beings with darkness in them.
* In ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'', ''every living thing in existence'' suffers Soul Pains [[spoiler: when [[BigBad Nekron]] attacks the Life Entity]]. Unlike most cases, this would have been fatal if it had gone any further.
* {{Hellfire}} -- which is exactly what it sounds like -- is used by some Franchise/MarvelUniverse characters such as ComicBook/GhostRider; it causes damage to the soul rather than the body. If used long enough, it can actually render a target literally soulless.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfiction ''[[Fanfic/BlackQueenRedKing Black Queen, Red King]],'' John has his soul crushed to the point where it implodes. He's screaming the whole time, but as his current body[[note]] an emerald[[/note]] has no way to perceive pain, this is the only kind of pain he can feel.
* In ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', when George has his [[RingOfPower shapeshifting ring]] taken from his finger, he screams and pleads for it back. Later, when he calms down somewhat, he explains that it was like having his soul's arm ripped off.
** The same thing happens again in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'' during the ambush at Hermit's Rock.
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': When [[{{Necromancer}} Gravemoss]] casts what is essentially [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Familicide]] in order to kill and zombify ''an entire species of dragons'', every magic user and psychic on the planet feels it. The results vary, depending on the power range and relative distance to Gravemoss himself, but most suffer nightmares, feelings of dread, or are knocked unconscious. Some notable examples from the more powerful -- [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]], standing practically at ground zero in Paris, has a seizure; Loki, the literal God of Magic, relatively nearby in London, is left violently ill; and Professor Xavier, plugged into Cerebro at the time, is rendered catatonic.
** Voldemort's spirit suffers this when [[spoiler: Betsy severs his PsychicLink to Harry]], having what is described as a full-body migraine.
** In ''Ghosts of the Past'', Harry's psychic duel with [[spoiler: Rachael Grey/Maddie Pryor]] in the Red Room's Nevernever base is so intense that the shockwaves from it echo all the way back to Earth, affecting ''everyone on the planet''. While most are mostly hit with feelings of unease or headaches, the more psychically and magically inclined are hit with pain, the level of it varying depending on the scale of their power.
* Rei suffers this constantly in ''Fanfic/AdviceAndTrust'' due to only having a piece of Lilith's soul. It's part of the reason why she started off as a DeathSeeker. Although she eventually finds something that can counteract the pain... [[CuddleBug hugs]]!
* In ''Fanfic/TalesOfAResetMind'', [[spoiler: Mania tortures Nico this way, for ''hours'']]
* In ''FanFic/QueenOfShadows'', when [[spoiler: the Gani are [[SealedEvilInACan sealed]] in a mask]], all the other Shadowkhan are overcome with a feeling of unease, but it's especially hard on Jade. As [[GodEmperor the Queen]], she can physically feel the agony of [[spoiler: the entire tribe being ripped away]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9227752/1/Two-Halves-Make-A-Whole Two Halves Make A Whole]]'', Phineas and Isabella get their souls intermixed, as do Perry and Vanessa, making it hurt to be more than 5 feet away.
* In the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "The Other Smurfette", Polaris Psyche feels physical torment when his friend and psychic lifemate Empath has been raped by Hogatha posing as the female Smurf Wonderette, experiencing the entire rape all in his head until he wakes up with [[JizzedInMyPants his clothes wet and stained]].
* In ''[[Fanfic/{{Daemorphing}} Prometheus in Chains]]'', Temrash kicks [[BondCreatures Merlyse]] ten feet away from Jake while he's in control of them in order to torture them. Just like in ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' canon, humans and daemons feel immense psychic pain when they're separated from each other.
* In ''Fanfic/TowardABrightFuture'', this is a major drawback of Y/N's Quirk; if she manages to change the future and butterfly away injuries she [[{{Seers}} foresees]] someone taking in her important visions, all the pain from those injuries are instead inflicted onto her at the time of their occurrence (though no actual damage). The combined pain from broken limbs, injured spines, and even [[spoiler: the pain of having one's Quirk removed]] has laid her out multiple times.
* In ''Fanfic/WhatTomorrowBrings'', [[PuppeteerParasite Temrash]] punishes Tom by setting off his pain receptors.
* ''[[Fanfic/TheZeroContextSeries Zero Context: Taking Out the Trash]]'': At some point in her past, the part-time dragon Bahija experienced a CurbStompBattle at the hands of [[BeastMan Callista]]. Her recollection of the battle is so strong that while watching one of Callista's fights across town years later, her entire body becomes engulfed by all the pain she experienced down to the tiniest detail. Bahija shortly thereafter recovers when she realizes that Callista's opponent made the same mistake of infuriating her that ''she'' did, though.
* At least two examples in ''Fanfic/TheAwakeningOfAMagus'':
** The presence of death, especially one caused by him, is very unpleasant for Harry, to put it mildly.
** Apparently, [[spoiler:Percy has some]] emotional problems because [[spoiler:he was born as one of a pair of twins with a very strong bond, and when the other twin died]], no proper Healer was around to notice the resulting trauma, much less treat it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', the pain that Mei experiences while going through the red moon ritual is very severe because her red panda spirit has bonded very strongly to her soul. In contrast, when her relatives separate from their red panda spirits for the second time they experience no pain at all since their spirits were very weakly bonded to their souls at that point.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
%%* Freder in the Fritz Lang film ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' clutches his chest for half the movie.
* In ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', Westley is tortured to [[OnlyMostlyDead (only mostly)]] death with a machine that drains years of life out of his body.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** [[Film/ANewHope I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.]]
** Happens again in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' during [[ThePurge Order 66]]. [[TearJerker Yoda clutches his chest with a pained expression on his face as he feels the deaths of countless Jedi across the galaxy.]]
** The ExpandedUniverse makes it clear that Force lightning is this as well. (Carbonite is AndIMustScream, by the way.)
*** Of course, since in the [=EU=] Leia is (depending on the timeline) actually aware of her Force-sensitivity and thus is connected enough to it to feel the [[BlessedWithSuck crushing pain that a 'disturbance in the Force' can cause]], she doesn't get off easy for long.
** In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', when [[spoiler:Kylo murders Han]], the movie cuts to Leia looking like she's just been hit very hard by something and needing to sit down.
* In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', when [[spoiler:Erik kills Shaw by slowly pushing a coin through his head]] Charles is in [[spoiler:Shaw]]'s head, keeping him from [[spoiler:moving or using his powers]]. He shares all the physical pain of the entry wound as well as [[spoiler: [[FridgeHorror FEELING a mind die]]]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/TheHollows'', certain Inderlanders can cause this type of damage to one’s aura. Undead vampires and Banshies literally feed on them, though the more civilized ones only take a few nibbles from each creature they feed off for a net harm of zero. Also, familiars experience excruciating agony if too much ley line energy is pulled through them at once.
* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', Oreg suffers terrible pain whenever he disobeys an order (even if he really tried to obey, but couldn't do it for some reason), and if he gets separated both from his owner and castle Hurog. [[AWizardDidIt His father]] [[PoweredByAForsakenChild turned him into the]] GeniusLoci of castle Hurog, or something like that, and permanently [[MadeASlave bound him]] to obey the owner of a certain ring, that goes from father to son in the Hurog family line. Oh, and he's immortal. Ward, his current "owner", treats him more like a brother than a slave but doesn't know exactly how the magic works, so that this still happens ... once.
* Various entities in Madeleine L'Engle's work are so terrible that simply being in their presence can be quite frightening and very painful to the mind and/or soul.
** ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime'': IT is a control freak and veritable mind rape machine.
** ''Literature/AWindInTheDoor'': The Ecthroi are beings of nothingness that want to extinguish everything and everyone from existence.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' introduces "soultraps" late in the series. Once they're set with your blood, just having someone touch them is a queasy thing (although it's possible this is either a full-blown empathic effect and could be used for pleasurable purposes, or just a psychological reaction to danger). [[FateWorseThanDeath If they get ''broken''...]]
* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'': Eragon throughout most of ''Eldest'' suffers pain due to a shade's dying blow against him. It's not the wound that does it, but rather a type of curse.
* ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'': "Soul-clenching" perfectly describes Lyra's feeling upon having her [[OurSoulsAreDifferent daemon]] seized. It gets worse in the third book when the two of them are [[spoiler:separated by Lyra's choice]]. Even people without visible daemons can feel that.
* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' universe
** The Cruciatus Curse, which lets a witch/wizard use hatred to [[AgonyBeam cause extreme pain in a victim without causing physical wounds]].
** The literal soul pain (as the soul is a real and specifically defined part of a person in the Potterverse) brought on by Horcruxes. Odd in that the destruction of the soul is not what kills, but the putting it back together again. As paraphrased, the pain of remorse is enough to kill a man.
*** Harry and Dumbledore discuss if Voldemort would feel anything when one of his Horcruxes is destroyed. Dumbledore speculates that it may be possible, but that Voldemort's soul is so fractured by that point in the series that he likely wouldn't.
** The dementors. More of the MindRape, worst-experiences-montage variety and generally not lethal, but given time and a free rein, they can drive a victim insane, rob them of their will to live, and, in extreme cases, [[FateWorseThanDeath literally eat their soul.]]
** Whenever Harry and Voldemort come into physical contact, they both experience indescribable pain. Once, Voldemort attempts to use this to his advantage by [[spoiler:taking possession of Harry and hoping he commits suicide from the pain.]]
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Frodo had a Burning Scar that was inflicted upon him by a Morgul blade during his second encounter with the Nazgûl, but also suffered from the evil presence of Sauron himself, especially after he entered Mordor. The book described him to be waving his hand feebly as if trying to ward off a blow. He often collapsed and eventually had to have Sam carry him up to Mount Doom. It might be a case of Giving In To Spirit Pain or Evil Induced Adrenaline when Frodo's actually at Mount Doom and all his energy returns ten-fold in a frenzied attempt to save the ring. It also could be that the One Ring was sapping him as it did to Gollum, and was trying harder and harder to sap his strength away to keep itself away from Mount Doom. Then, being there, it decided "Hey, this STR-sapping thing just isn't working, let's try full-on Dominate Creature effect..." After the adventure was over, he continued to feel the effects of the wound once a year, on the anniversary of the day he received it, even after the Ring was destroyed. The Ring itself apparently left its mark too, since he left Middle-Earth for Valinor in hope of healing his Soul Pain.
* ''Literature/TheLostFleet'': One of the side effects of spending a long time in [[HumanPopsicle survival sleep]] is [[ImColdSoCold constantly feeling cold]] for hours afterwards, and the story opens with Captain Geary experiencing these symptoms ''and'' the adverse psychological effects of learning about [[ColdSleepColdFuture the world he's woken up to.]] [[DownplayedTrope It's probably psychosomatic]], but for weeks afterwards, he's described as feeling an echo of that lingering chill every time stress and anxiety start to wear him down.
* The ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'' has a character use a superweapon to annihilate an inhabited world. (ooh, this sounds familiar ...) There's a note in the text about this making a "disturbance in the Force" which Jedi and semiJedi feel, and then things got back to the character with the superweapon feeling [[AMillionIsAStatistic bad because he just killed his brother]]. ''I, Jedi'' has a very long and horrifying passage about what this felt like to the protagonist, as he experienced a little of the fear and pain and grief of twenty million people all dying at once. It makes the protagonist run outside and vomit, and later think that 'disturbance in the Force' is too mild a term.
* Aubry Fitzwillliam in the ''Laws of Magic'' series is in a constant struggle to keep his soul attached to his body. It is his fault that the link got severed, though.
* In ''Literature/OfFearAndFaith'', August feels like his soul is being choked whenever [[TheDreaded Fear]] is around.
* ''Literature/KindlingAshes'': A human body was not meant to host two souls, thus, humans suffer side effects of hosting a dragon soul inside them: IncurableCoughOfDeath is the first one and SpontaneousCombustion is the final one.
* In ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'' We have (half) WildChild Renée Fritzhaber who suffers from deep and horrible psychological trauma from a life spent alone in a padded cell and being experimented on by first American military, and then German military. Micro-brain surgeries and a swiss-cheese brain were an attempt at containing her Dissociative Identity Disorder and creating a more stable personality, but also causing memory loss resulting in several TomatoInTheMirror moments. "I DON'T DO ANYTHING! I NEVER DO ANYTHING! NEVAR!"
* [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragons]] in ''Literature/{{Elcenia}}'' experience "esu" if they go long enough without flying under their own power. This starts off as mere lethargy, but eventually develops into pain, and gradually gets worse with no apparent limit the longer the dragon goes without flight. Shrens are hatched with a disability that prevents them from flying in their natural forms, forcing them to endure steadily worsening esu for the first ''twenty-odd years'' of their life, until they develop VoluntaryShapeshifting and can fly that way.
* In the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series, wizards with untrained magical gift get intense headaches, ultimately lethal in a few months to years. With very powerful ones, it takes under a month for them to start fainting from pain. For the protagonist, less than two days.
* In ''Literature/WhiteTrashWarlock'', a character experiences ''literal'' soul pains after performing a magic ritual to wound their soul and create an artifact powerful enough to destroy an Eldritch Abomination that's terrorizing Denver. The wound causes them frequent pain and corrupts their magic enough that any supernatural creature they run into knows immediately that done some kind of dark magic and assume the worst.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* The eponymous character of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' experiences something like this when he's about to lose his soul or has just had it returned. It's at least partly an emotional effect due to extreme guilt; whether real physical pain is involved is difficult to tell. On one occasion, the show fakes viewers out after he has sex with his sire Darla.
** A variation of this, in the seventh season of ''[[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]]'', the character Spike has a variation of [[HeroicBSOD Heroic BSOD]] that comes from being re-ensouled at the end of the sixth season. He tries clawing it out with his fingernails, to no avail.
--->'''Spike:''' They put the spark in me, and all it does, is burn.
* Examples abound in ''Series/DoctorWho''.
** Take the opening sequences of [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]]: the Doctor's [[TheNthDoctor fifth incarnation]] experiences this trope at length, complete with ambiguous chest pains. He puts this down to "a twinge of cosmic angst", chunks of his past "detaching themselves like melting icebergs", "being diminished — whittled away piece by piece", and "being sucked into a time vortex". Staggering around, repeatedly fainting, and eighties special effects ensue.
** Similarly, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor "The Name of the Doctor"]], the Doctor also suffers this when [[spoiler:The Great Intelligence]] starts interfering with his timeline, turning every one of his victories into a defeat, and "feeling all of his past selves dying all at once".
** Actually, all the post-regeneration periods (so far in the new series) probably count as well.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod "Planet of the Ood"]] pulls this with the Doctor hearing the Ood singing in his head (the pain there was more from the fact that the Ood song of captivity is just ''that'' frakking depressing — he lets Donna hear it for a few moments and she almost begs him to take it away again. It's pretty depressing in RealLife too, actually).
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Typically, Frasier's ex-wife [[IceQueen Lilith Sternin]] is harmless aside from her [[DeadpanSnarker acid tongue]]. But Frasier's [[PsychicPowers psychic]] friend Daphne Moon gets skull-splitting headaches whenever Lilith is nearby. And by "nearby", we mean ''in the city''.
* Occurs every so often on ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' when someone's powers are on the fritz. Sometimes the source is running out (Tommy as Green in ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers''), sometimes its deharmonizing with their body (Jason as Gold in ''Series/PowerRangersZeo''), sometimes it's the powers being taken away...
** Plus one non-power-related incident in ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'', when Ryan was cursed with a snake tattoo. Every time he morphed the tattoo would come closer to killing him, making each morphing painful.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekS2E18TheImmunitySyndrome "The Immunity Syndrome"]], Spock experiences this when the [[spoiler:USS Intrepid]], an all-Vulcan starship, is destroyed with all hands, feeling their deaths from light-years away.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Suits}}'' when Louis tries to get Donna to fill in for his vacationing secretary. She turns his wording into objectifying her and her work, invoking this with "That just makes my soul hurt." Of course, she is kidding and just feels like messing with Louis and making sure he won't ask again or try to convince her.
* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Sam coughs up blood, suffers horrible pain and dizziness, and develops life-threatening fevers, after he starts transforming to complete the trials which will close the gates to hell.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* In ''Literature/TheBible'', Peter the apostle in [[Literature/EpistlesOfPeter his second epistle]] speaks of Lot having his soul tormented by seeing and hearing the lawless deeds of the people in Sodom.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues'':
** If [[BarrierWarrior Ciro]] doesn't mentally prepare himself then forces that act on his forcefield can have a negative effect on his mind. For example, he suffered mental heatstroke when he quickly tried to cover a naked flame with a forcefield.
** Luna experiences severe pain when her electrical power starts to go into overload, only stopped when she unleashes it all in a single blast.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' has several examples of these, either in the form of magical attacks that leave few or no marks, or spiritual attacks that leave the target an eventual vegetable. Perhaps the most straightforward example would be the pornomancy spell Psychotrauma, which causes incredible and searing pain with no physical cause. It doesn't do as much damage unless the target is having sex with the pornomancer at the time, but because it has no physical cause it also ''can't be healed by normal means''.
* ''TabletopGame/DemonTheFallen'' has this with Thralls: By entering into a [[DealWithTheDevil Pact]] with a mortal, a [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Demon]] is able to strip Faith (the mana of the game line) from the soul of the mortal, giving her horrific nightmares and hallucinations as well as excruciating pains with no source. It stops being this trope when the Demon sucks more Faith than the mortal can spare, leading to stigmata or vomiting blood, etc.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' has this as a spell, Agony, which adds damage to a character's track that is removed as soon as the spell is no longer sustained. In addition, blood and toxic magic are believed to cause this in the user.
* ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'' has a ring that allows you to attack an enemy using your Sanity stat rather than Strength and cause Mental damage rather than Physical if successful.
* The Psychic damage type in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th Edition is basically this.
* ''TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness'': If a character's soul is [[YourSoulIsMine separated from their body]] and subsequently damaged, such as if a powerful [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent Spirit]] begins to [[SoulEating eat it]], they need to succeed on a Stamina dice roll or fall unconscious from pain.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'': Cloud's Geostigma seemed to be I'm Having Soul Pains as a tic. He would suddenly cringe, run short of breath and flinch as if an invisible force were causing him pain.
*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'': has Cloud suffering this. [[spoiler:In Hojo's lab, just after meeting Red XIII, getting too close to Jenova triggers something in Cloud, causing him to [[ControllableHelplessness stumble forward slowly]] towards the elevator before collapsing. During this time, Cloud is HearingVoices of Sephiroth, telling him that "they have come again."]]
---->'''Cloud:''' Je... No... Oh... Ah... Mo... ther... ''[collapses]''
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'': Pictured above is Lightning, experiencing some intense pain caused by her Eidolon's first summoning. Other Eidolon hosts appear to feel some discomfort with their initial summonings as well, with Hope outright losing consciousness. Later summonings do not seem to cause any discomfort at all, however.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': In the Shadowbringers expansion, the Warrior of Light absorbs all of the primordial light of the defeated Lightwardens in order to bring the night back to an otherwise endless day in Norvrandt. They're fine after the first couple victories, but they soon begin to suffer from pangs due to the stress this is causing their soul, to the point that it's on the verge of shattering by the last one.
* The Shadow Priests in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' run on causing this trope. Virtually all of their attack spells -- Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Shadow Word: Pain, Shadow Word: Death, Vampiric Touch, even the Holy spell Chastise -- operate by attacking the soul directly.
** Also the Warlock's Curse of Agony. There's an implication that the "shadow" school of magic is [[ElementalPowers elemental pain]].
** After his death, Uther Lightbringer was taken to Bastion where he could not abandon his memories of life because he could still feel the pain of Arthas killing him. To his tutor's horror, he was ''literally'' feeling the pain still as Frostmourne had left a wound on Uther's soul due to it being forged in the Maw.
* Missing a guess while trying to break psyche-locks in ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' causes your health bar to go down. When it's empty you're forced to stop, lest your 'soul shatter'. The same 'health bar' is used in court trials (and for logic in ''Investigations''), and the protagonist lawyer reacts as if they've been physically struck when they are penalized. So apparently getting penalties from the judge directly attacks your very soul.
* In Hisui's route in ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} SHIKI'' notices that Shiki is watching him while he dreams and it totally freaks him out. Since he has a pretty high HealingFactor and they're connected, he starts ''stabbing himself'' so that Shiki will feel it too. It leaves no physical damage, only pain. Although he bled a lot the first time, he still had no wounds.
* The fire at Fuyuki burned far more than just Emiya Shirou's body. His emotions, sense of self, and the simple ability to function as a normal human being were completely erased, to be filled with the ideals of someone else.
* In the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' universe, a soul can feel pain if someone or something it relies utterly upon or loves deeply is killed and/or destroyed, but since this permanently cripples the soul, it can only be done once. The pain-worshiping cult, the Order of Blessed Agonies, have their potential new members causing this pain to themselves as final test before they are fully accepted into the cult.
* A few times in ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire''- the vengeful spirit of a drowned orphan enjoys hitting them with ghost-mojo to cause pain, and the reaction of the Water Dragon to [[spoiler:Master Li]] sucking her power out is similar.
* In a similar vein to the Manga entry above, ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix]]'' includes a scene [[spoiler: after Riku loses his body/heart over to Ansem]] where Riku is walking along a dim pathway and almost collapses, clutching at his chest and repeating that ''he won't disappear'', at least not until [[spoiler: he's seen Sora and Kairi again]].
** Earlier in the game, Sora went through this when [[spoiler: Ansem!]]Riku pointed the evil Keyblade at his heart, falling to his knees because [[spoiler: Kairi's heart was responding within him]]. He got better through a combo of [[{{Determinator}} Determination]] and ThePowerOfFriendship.
** And once again to [[spoiler: Sora]] during the final fight of [=KH2=], where the BigBad catches him with {{Agony Beam}}s.
** This happens to [[spoiler:Ven]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' ''twice''. The first being [[spoiler:meeting Master Xehanort in the Keyblade Graveyard.]] He falls to his knees and clutches his head in pain when [[spoiler:he starts to recall what he is]] before screaming in pain and lying facefirst on the ground. The second being [[spoiler:coming across [[EvilCounterpart Vanitas]] on the Islands]], where we're given a ''nice'' flashback of [[spoiler:Vanitas' creation]].
* All of the Entropy spells in ''Franchise/DragonAge'', and most of the offensive Spirit ones. Spirit Bolt is actually pretty much punching someone in the soul long distance.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In early parts of ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', Gwynn toys with a voodoo doll of Riff. This gives Riff various uncomfortable symptoms, including "it feels like someone is stuffing [=M&Ms=] in my ear!" and Riff mysteriously jumping into a desk drawer and going all the way to "I think I'm coming down with a fever... I'm hot all over and my head feels ready to explode!" (The doll was in the microwave.)
* Something to this effect is used in ''Webcomic/HannaIsNotABoysName''. Although it's hard to determine the nature of Hanna's condition, he gets very weak and appears to be in pain when a ghost passes through him.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Dirk's powers as Prince of Heart let him inflict these -- say, as a side effect of [[spoiler:[[YourSoulIsMine tearing someone's soul out of their body]]]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Megatokyo}}'' Meimi drops a tray of dishes when Miho is killed.
-->Meimi: Just something... very sad, dear.
* In ''Pungirls,'' (Jackson Ferrell's first comic, years before ''Webcomic/SketchComedy)'' Karen's catchphrase, at least in the early strips, was "The puns! They hurt my soul!"
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'', after Chris-Chan curses Jerkhief with permanent bad luck, Jerkhief comments that his soul hurts.
* In ''Webcomic/ChampionsOfFaraus'', when Daryl accidentally comes into contact with one of the spheres inside [[PocketDimension Leilusa’s avatar]], his body more or less starts warping like a glitched-out character model in a video game, while he screams in agony. After Leilusa dispels it, Daryl is physically no worse for wear than he was before. Leilusa describes it as “Unimaginable pain and suffering”.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* During the ''WebVideo/MidnightScreenings'' of ''Film/EndlessLove'', Brad was so broken by how awful of an adaptation it was that when asked by Jillian if it "made [his] brain melty", he responded by saying "it made my ''soul'' melty".
* WebVideo/TheNecroCritic's catchphrase when a particularly awful movie offends his sensibilities most definitely qualifies.
-->'''The Necro Critic:''' Owwwww, my SOUL!
* ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'': When roused to anger, Spoony often threatens to inflict this upon others.
-->'''Spoony:''' I WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE '''SOUL'''!
* ''WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay'': Pat compares Matt to "Mind Cancer" in the ''VideoGame/Portal2'' video.
-->'''Pat:''' Not a brain tumor. You're hurting my ideas.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Zuko in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' falls under this trope. Up until the episode ''Lake Laogai'', he was sure that his destiny was to capture the Avatar. His uncle, however, confronted him and convinced him his destiny was his to decide. Soon after, Zuko fell dreadfully sick and lost consciousness. After waking up the first time, his uncle told him that he was suffering from a spiritual illness, that he was so conflicted within that he was physically ill.
** It showed up earlier than that. During the first season finale, when Zhao [[spoiler: threatens the Moon Spirit]], Yue, [[spoiler: who was originally stillborn but given life by the Moon Spirit]], says that she feels faint. Aang, being the bridge between the human and spirit worlds, says he feels it too.
* Megatron's preferred method of controlling the AxCrazy [[PsychoPrototype Rampage]] in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' was to jam pure energon into half of his [[OurSoulsAreDifferent spark]]. As Rampage is all but immortal, he can survive it, but it inflicts him with indescribable pain until he agrees to follow orders.
* Several times in WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower, mostly caused by Shadow Weaver.
** The magic restraints that Shadow Weaver places on Glimmer cause her great pain if she attempts to teleport out of them.
** And then when Glimmer eventually pushes past it and teleports out anyway, her powers later start to intermittently "glitch". She tells Bow it doesn't hurt much, but her wincing, and Bow himself, say otherwise.
--->'''Glimmer:''' ''[hugging Bow]'' ''Nrgh'', I'm glitching again aren't I?
--->'''Bow:''' It hurts so much...!
** And then again when Shadow Weaver uses Glimmer as a source of magic. It was with consent this time, but that doesn't stop Shadow Weaver's draining Glimmer from being painful.
** Finally, a non-Shadow Weaver example when [[spoiler: The Heart of Etheria is activated. And this time it's not just Glimmer affected but ''all'' the princesses, though as the conduit for the massive amounts of magic Adora's Soul Pains seem the most intense.]]
* Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/UglyAmericans'' when Mark Lilly gets checked up for some persistent abdominal pain and learns that his soul is engorged from all his virtuous behavior.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Pain with no physical source can be a symptom of Clinical Depression or a host of other psychosomatic disorders.
** Precordial Catch Syndrome can cause harmless but really excruciating chest pains via nerve crimps at more or less random times. [[BlatantLies It's fun]].
** Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is also known as broken heart syndrome. It happens mainly in older women and has a tendency to occur during extreme emotional stress, such as the death of a loved one. The heart basically loses strength suddenly, as if it can't go on.
** Can also be caused by zillions of things that are physically real, but hard to diagnose, for example, autoimmune diseases.
** It's theorized that the abstract chest/abdominal pain many people feel in conjunction with sudden or intense negative emotions is the result of your brain desperately trying to find a physical reason you're not feeling well, because physical pain is easier to rationalize than emotional pain.
* Oh my god, psychotic episodes. So... many... times... over...
** It's no surprise then that the Malay term for such episodes is literally ''soul pain'' (''sakit jiwa'')
* Panic attacks. It's a little like having a nonlocalized heart attack.
* Under stress, the muscles in your chest expand and contract, creating the feeling of a pain over your heart/soul area. Commonly known as Heartache.
* Pain with no known cause is just [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin pain with no known cause.]] Heart attacks must have seemed like this many years ago.
* People with high levels of empathy can experience sudden pains and even difficulty breathing when watching/interacting with people who are going through trauma, mental breakdowns/anxiety/panic attacks, or getting injured. They themselves may not be feeling the pain first hand but it sure can seem like it...
[[/folder]]
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