Stigma is a psychosomatic phenomenon, the nature of which is not fully understood. The appearance of stigmata, the most commonly observed in individuals depleted ascetic exercises and prone to bleeding, as well as in hysterical women. From a religious point of view, especially the Catholic Church, perceived stigma, and touted as a miracle.
Manifest stigmata may vary, the most frequent bleeding wounds on his hands and legs, similar to the wounds of the nails in the body of Jesus, the wound on his forehead, as from the crown of thorns, the wound on his side, under the ribs, similar to left on the body of Christ spear guard. Much less common signs of flagellation and the mark on his shoulder from carrying the cross.
It turned out that a number of stigmatized saints whose images of the crucifixion or survived to our times, were wounds on the body, do not reflect the true location of their body of Christ, and wounds equal depicted on their crucifix, than when inverted. That is, those wounds that depicts the Crucifixion on the left, at the wearer's stigmata were shown on the right. Which meant that all faith, all the desire to share the suffering of Jesus were directed to believers is not an objective Cross on which the Savior was crucified, and the material is quite Crucifix hanging in front of him.
The cause of the stigmata called religious ecstasy, ie quite rare nowadays complete identification of the man himself with Jesus undergoes the cross flour. From the point of view of science, this process is very interesting, as proves the existence of a deep connection between physical and mental processes in the human body, the ability of consciousness to affect directly the functioning of the body and cause profound physical changes.
In addition to the stigmata appearing on emotional grounds, there are also fake injuries that cause people specifically wanting a way to attract attention. You can find the identification and stigmatization with astral wounds allegedly struck by the astral bodies and manifest in reality.