Love, what is it?

[Bolth mannn]

Love is where your heart is.

[Reach]

We can play the semantics game all day long, but I'll go ahead and define it.

It's the summation of various feelings/senses, and definitely has a neurochemical basis probably centralized in the limbic system. At the most basic level, I would characterize it by strong affection, attachment and lust all rolled into one, though I suppose it can be broken up into any of those alone in certain circumstances.

From there, you could break those 3 feelings down by neurotransmitter and cortical area. Some of the culprits should be obvious. Testosterone and estrogen are definitely the driving factor in sexual attraction. Attachment is largely controlled by posterior pituitary hormones, and affection by dopamine, serotonin, epi/norepi and probably NGF.

You could consider love as a larger phenomenon, i.e. a social and cultural one as well. This starts to become complex, as social and cultural factors can bend and shape the manifestation of the neurochemical basis of love.

As such, it's not hard to see that this complexity makes it hard to talk about and define love, as it is can't be described by only the chemical level, the individual level or the population level. You would need to integrate all of these factors into a coherent model before you could adequately describe love, but I don't think it's necessary in order to understand what it is.

It's an affectionate emotion that bonds people, stemming from processes and natural drives inside of your brain that branches off and is molded by social and cultural factors.

More specifically, wiki defines it well: "love is a type of interpersonal relationship where mutual assumption of good faith results in a state of emergence, i.e. constituents individually perceive the group's social evolution as both beneficial and greater than what could be achieved by the sum of the relationship's parts."

[Cavernio]

Love is an emotion.

When responding to another poster, Zythus said that religion doesn't come into play here, but I disagree. Religion is so widespread and popular because it elicits strong, positive emotions, like love.

I think that the most 'pure' form of love, ie: a love which exists with the least amount of, apparently, negative things like possesiveness, is love one feels for God.
I'm guessing you've never been religious Zythus, or if you have, it's been more of a practice than a feeling, but even then, you should be able to ponder at some of the actions people who worship god do. People at christian rallies act like buffoons. They look absolutely ecstatic about it too. They worship God. Worship is a form of love which does not carry negativity in it. It's just hard to worship a real person, because everyone has flaws. God, by definition, doesn't. As to possessiveness, there's enough God to go around, and people who are in love with God want to spread the news about God because it feels so ****ing awesome and it's good to share love.

Love where someone does not see the other person's flaws does happen, I've seen it, but after spending so much time with a person, this view eventually dissipates. Worship of a person is also rather stupid, because it allows for things Hitler's reign of terror. God in actuality is neither evil or good, it's just a concept, but most religions have centered around them that you are to be nice to other people.

[Bolth mannn]

Love is the first stage of Cannibalism.

[ShAiOnEi]

Love is stupid I'd rather just get to the point of it all if you know what I mean. 8)

[dean_machine]

Originally Posted by ShAiOnEi

Love is stupid I'd rather just get to the point of it all if you know what I mean. 8)

Then you don't understand that the point of love is love itself.

[Nyokou]

Originally Posted by ShAiOnEi

Love is stupid I'd rather just get to the point of it all if you know what I mean. 8)

To love, you need to be loved. An emotion that is supposed to be a parents' job of passing on to his/her child. Unfortunately, certain circumstances have kept you, Shai, and many other people, from having that parental love. It's very difficult for someone in that situation to understand what it means to love another person. And it's quite obvious with you since you simply stated that "love is stupid", yet I would like for you to further expand on that claim. Why is it stupid to you?

[danthemano]

I believe that love is the longing to find something that completes you, and shows who you are. The things you love are what defines you. I believe that patience is also important when it comes to love, thats why so many people get divorced in modern times: their longing for love blinds them to the facts that point away from that particular relationship working out.

Originally Posted by Bolth mannn

Love is the first stage of Cannibalism.

OMFG ROFL

Originally Posted by ShAiOnEi

Love is stupid I'd rather just get to the point of it all if you know what I mean. 8)

ignorance is bliss, as they say.

[GG_Guru]

Love is patient, love is kind. It has no envy, nor it boasts itself and it is never proud. It rejoices over the evil and is the truth seeker. Love protects; preserves and hopes for the positive aspect of life. Always stand steadfast in love, not fall into it. It is like the dream of your matter of affection coming true. Love can occur between two or more individuals. It bonds them and connects them in a unified link of trust, intimacy and interdependence. It enhances the relationship and comforts the soul. Love should be experienced and not just felt. The depth of love can not be measured. Look at the relationship between a mother and a child. The mother loves the child unconditionally and it can not be measured at all. A different dimension can be attained between any relationships with the magic of love. Love can be created. You just need to focus on the goodness of the other person. If this can be done easily, then you can also love easily. And remember we all have some positive aspect in us, no matter how bad our deeds maybe. And as God said "Love all".

From http://www.love-sessions.com/whatislove.htm

[Frozen Beat]

Nyokou, you don't need to be loved to love -_____-
You could love someone and they might not love you back. It's called "not getting someone you love" lol.

Love is a the strong pleasant emotion to another person, whether it is one way or not.

At the same time, love could simply be a burning illusion, and sometimes you should turn the page in your life before it gets f*cking scortched =].

[ShAiOnEi]

Originally Posted by Frozen Beat

Nyokou, you don't need to be loved to love -_____-
You could love someone and they might not love you back. It's called "not getting someone you love" lol.

Love is a the strong pleasant emotion to another person, whether it is one way or not.

At the same time, love could simply be a burning illusion, and sometimes you should turn the page in your life before it gets f*cking scortched =].

Exactly I love alot of women but sadly I don't get any love back so why give it all up for just one person that may never come along? Relationship wise love is just a chemical reaction most women I loved were because I was extremely attracted to them. Love for my family and friends is totally different because although I don't show much affection towards them I have a strong bond to them and care deeply.

[devonin]

Let's all just close our eyes, think really hard, and pretend all those horrible off-topic, silly, trolly, flamey posts never happened.

Everyone should go review the rules for posting in this forum before posting again.

[Necros140606]

reach's post is too long to quote but i completely agree with it

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

"love is a type of interpersonal relationship where mutual assumption of good faith results in a state of emergence, i.e. constituents individually perceive the group's social evolution as both beneficial and greater than what could be achieved by the sum of the relationship's parts."

a little question for everyone: if love is between more than two people, would you still consider it love? or love has to be confined in the social boundaries of the era? or its sole purpose is marriage?

[devonin]

Originally Posted by devonin

Let's all just close our eyes, think really hard, and pretend all those horrible off-topic, silly, trolly, flamey posts never happened.

Everyone should go review the rules for posting in this forum before posting again.

Well, I've been sharply criticized for apparantly failing to apply my moderation powers "properly" in the case of GG_Guru having posted text he took from another website into this thread.

While it certainly would have been -more correct- to properly attribute his quotation to its source; since this is just a discussion forum, and not any sort of academic circle where he is submitting these works as necessarily his own, I don't feel that there's anything actually -rulebreaking- about posting from somewhere else as long as you don't actually claim that you came up with it on your own.

In the interests of clearing up the confusion, I'm editting Guru's post to reflect that he is quoting from somewhere else.

Also, and you can thank Afrobean for showing me that I really do need to apply my moderator powers properly in all cases, I'll also be retroactively banning the users who took part in the postwhoring, the trolling, and the flaming in response to Guru's post.

Please ensure that you've both read -and- understood the rules of this forum before you post here. The onus is on you to follow the rules when you post here, and you won't be getting additional warnings since the rules are clearly located, and direct you to read them before posting.

[kirjautunut]

Love is something what you like, just next step from it.

It's really nice feeling, which warms up your body. ^^

[j0shumz]

I think love is an emotional reaction to people who really understand you and your situation. Those people who you feel understand you, you can ask for advice, say anything that you want to them, etc, etc. You like, you love, to be around them because of these reasons.

[BEN.(SPEIRS) 7.5]

I am constantly trying to work this out. At school I made a huge presentation on the fact that none of us (us as in, 16 year olds) don't know what love is yet, so it's impossible to comment on.

I know I've been through two stages though - liking someone and just being completely obsessed with someone to the point of thinking about them almost all the time, but I'm absolutely sure that's not love.

[Dr Tran]

**** love yo ;_;





i miss you baby D:

[xxx169]

Originally Posted by DoctorSerpentine

Oh baby don't hurt me.

Don't hurt me
no more.

[xealix]

Woooooo!! Im in love
Yes i sure am. I met her on FFR haha pretty awesome.