I have experienced pains no more severe than a broken wrist, torn ankle ligaments, or an abscess in a tooth. These were pretty bad, but I have no doubt that a skilled torturer could make me experience pains many times as bad.

Alastair Norcross, Comparing harms: headaches and human lives, Philosophy & Public Affairs, vol. 26, no. 2, 1997, pp. 135–167, p. 146