what is love?

[poisoninthestain]

love...i'm fairly drunk right now...figured i'd start a thread....everyone i talk to anymore(especially women) seem to be all about love...but what is it?

More and more, I'm beginning to realize it's just a chemical addiction, and when the bad outweighs the good, love is no more...hence all the relationships problems out there...it's just an addiction like anything else: sex, power, money, drugs...all addiction...

...idk. i think i'm falling in love with a girl and the more i think about it it's not her...it's the chemicals in my brain...the fact that i associate them with someone is the problem...i'm really just in love with myself...and the feel-good high...

...i read somewhere once that falling in love and heartbreak are chemically related to peaking and crashing on mdma...maybe it's all serotonin, idk...

...what do you think?

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Ha, I was just contemplating love and heartbreak before I logged in. It's a complex issue though, and it's too early in the morning for me, so I'll respond more elaborately later.

 

[mysticwarrior]

I think your right, it's all about chemicals. But does it matter?

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

it's just an addiction like anything else: sex, power, money, drugs...all addiction...

"Love" is only addictive to co-dependent individuals. Those who are independent approach relationships in an interdependent way. It is in the interdependent relationship that love can flourish, generating fruits like committed sex, valuable lessons about communication and forgiveness, raising enlightened children, enjoyable holidays together, the ability to create a stable financial basis for both, be an example for other couples etc. True love transcends the chemical interaction involved in the mating behavior of teenagers.

It's best to enter each relationship as an independent individual, not out of addictive demands. Only allow yourself to fall in love when there is reason to, for example because you are both interested in more or less the same things and have a comparable sense of humor. As a psychonaut it would be most sensible to fall in love with someone already using cannabis and psychedelics. There must be some 'rational' reasons to fall in love, otherwise you indeed may just be blinded by addiction (it's never love that blinds, but codependency).

But that's just my view on the matter. Your situation may be quite different from mine. Currently I'm not in love with anyone, and I'm considering staying more or less celibate for a couple of years.

 

[restin]

poison, I think you relate love too much towards people. There is universal love that is but bound to the universe...

 

[Faust]

Just because the brain (and body) uses chemicals doesn't mean everything is an addiction.

Is breathing an addiction? or eating?
The whole concept of addiction just doesn't really apply to those kind of things.

 

[Meduzz]

As mentioned before, love is all about chemicals and can be perfectly explained through evolution, but that doesn't make it any less magical. As we psychonauts know, a molecule can contain lots of magic when in the right place and time.

About addiction, have you ever heard of the "addiction system" in bacterial DNA?

Plasmids are small circular chromosomes that replicate on their own and get randomly divided among daughter cells in cell fission. They have no separation system because their numbers are usually big enough to have a big chance of getting at least one copy in every cell.

There is a plasmid of which I forgot the name (because I'm very stoned) that encodes 2 proteins: one is a long acting poison for the cell and the other is a short lasting antidote for the poison. If a cell looses this plasmid (a cell divides and a daughter cell doesn't get copies of the plasmid) the poison and antidote are still in the cell, but the antidote is short lasting so the cell dies of the poison.

That way this little piece of DNA ensured it's survival.

 

[Forkbender]

What is Love?

 

[misfit]

Depends if it's true love or abstract love. Many people think they love, but is just a reverie of their part.

Yet, I believe true love can exist. That witch shakes youre whole body and blows your chest and awareness with wordless sensations.

 

[Mr.Smith]

Aspartame

 

[magickmumu]

What is love :?:
Baby don't hurt me.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Horrible disco music started playing in my head when I saw the title of this thread. And now you're providing the lyrics! :retard:

 

[poisoninthestain]

Haddaway had the right idea.

 

[Space-is-the-Place]

I think Love as a universal energy and being in love (chemicals in your head) are 2 very different things.
Being in love doesn't necissarily have anything to do with Love, it can come from being lonely, wich relates (usually) to not loving yourself, wich can create a lot of frustration and/or sadness and also very disfunctional relations.

 

[magickmumu]

I don't think love and being in love are two different things.
It's the same universal love, but when you are in love you focus these so called energy's on one single person.

That's how I feel about it.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

A while ago on this forum we discussed loneliness. There are quite a few nice quotes in that thread.

 

[poisoninthestain]

I read somewhere once that there are two flows to the universe: love and the absence of love. Fear being the absence. Both are equally extreme in pleasure or pain...so me thinks.

I've been contemplating the idea of "love" for the past 6 months more than any normal person should contemplate...just one of those phases of spiritual growth I guess.

 

[micro]

After reading some Sokrate's thoughts about love, only a couple days ago I ended up with this kind of conclusion; love is search of the beauty and the final information what beauty is.
And what saying comes into mind? "Beauty is in the eye of beholder"

So, chemicals

 

[IJesusChrist]

reality is just chemicals in your brain brother.
love is a special one, and one of the most powerful.

love is also more than that feeling of falling in love, its giving up the search, and its realizing you what you have. What you have is what you want = love.

Ohhhhhhhh love <3

 

[greenwizard]

on love, the possibilities and +points of view are limitless. there are many ways to feel it.


it can be understood as a sexual behavior or simply platonic.

But as a dependency , I think love doesn't apply , maybe sex but not certainly love. Note that I mentioned dependency and not addiction as previously mentioned.


the chemical reactions in the neuron-hormonal system are just a response to tributes relationed with the senses, the image and love you feel for someone doesn't depend one those reactions.