The burden of proof relating to conciousness, free choice and rationality

[downbeatplumb]

...your claim that pain is "real" requires qualification in what sense you mean real, for it on most accounts is not a material thing, simpliciter.

Agreed. Pain is not a material thing. Although objective observation of a brain's physical state may indicate its presence that does not prove that the physical state is itself the pain.

Pain is just information processed by the brain. As anyone who has ever dealt with an information system knows it can go horribly wrong.